Mass Effect series review

I thought my one line review for the whole series was going to be 'predictable but satisfying', but at the close I have to change it to 'good series with moments of greatness, undercut by the ending of third game'.

It starts like a combination of Star Trek and Star Wars, with some roots down into classic sci-fi. As soon as I saw the art for the Citadel, I knew somebody had read Rendezvous with Rama; there are hints of Asimov and Clarke all over this universe.

One of the first things that really got me into this game is the large volume of text to read about almost everything. I had a lot of fun just reading the text blurbs for each planet, which give little windows into a whole galaxy full of civilizations. It was good whether it was being read to you by the voice of the Codex, or when you had to read it for yourself (though I can still hear that voice actor reading it aloud in my mind).

Though this mostly feels like an action game, you spend a lot of time conversing. This is a good thing in a game which pushes hard the values of understanding and cooperation. And its not just making peace for the sake of of unity against a common enemy, but the story actively wants you to understand and sympathize with almost everyone.

Understanding your enemy to defeat them, or make peace with them, is best exemplified in the Geth versus Quarian conflict which runs through all three games. Early in the first game there is a moment where a dying Geth sends a signal back to home that their position was overrun (by you), and they use a sad Quarian song as the signal. It got my hopes up early that this is not just a case of evil AI that must be destroyed, but that maybe they are misunderstood. Not only was this thread greatly explored, it becomes my favorite part of the game.

If you're looking for something unique about this game, that is not just a fun callback to space opera, it is the constant exploration of what is synthetic life and how can we co-exist. From early in the series you are constantly beset by homicidal AIs, and the big bad of the series, the Reapers, are the ultimate in synthetic life that seeks to destroy organic life. As the counter example the Geth are slowly built up as new form of life, and the cooperation between synthetic and organic seems not only possible, but necessary.

And just in case you're not getting the point from that angle, they give you another long running example in the person of the human-made synthetic, EDI, and her developing relationship with the Normandy and Joker. Interesting bit of exposition near the end, where you find out her origins as the crazy AI from the first game.

Its almost as if the whole series is carefully building up to some grand conclusion, that organic and synthetic life can not only get along, but that both sides will be greater for it. I was really hoping that this would be the key to unlock the problem of the ultimate homicidal crazy synthetic race, the Reapers.

Ultimately, you do end up talking to the big bad at the end, and you do get to decide what happens next, but only if you choose from a very short list of options, none of which has been built towards at all in the series.

I've been planning for months to play through the whole series again, but it is like an excellent meal that finishes with you finding something so awful at the bottom of your dish that the whole restaurant should be shut down. This series was all set up to be an instant classic, a memorable contribution to science fiction and gaming, and at the last moment they chose mediocrity.

Anyway, its time for a post consumption ritual: spoiler free exploration of the topic. I check out concept art, and I find I miss the first game in the series more than I thought. A lot of the concept art looks like the covers of sci-fi books from my childhood.

I go to deviantart, my favorite place to see fan art. Wow, there's so much. And so much of it is so weird. This could take a while, and then its off to tvtropes to examine every element of the story in detail. I also need to go back and check the DLC for Mass Effect 3, but I'll go back to that game's post to do so. Despite Mass Effect 4 in the works, I think I'm done with this series for the foreseeable future. Maybe I should revisit some of that classic sci-fi I haven't read in so many years.