Mass Effect is arguably the greatest series to hit games... ever. I'm not oblivious to games like Mario, and Zelda, I'm simply not that into cartoony b.s. the story offered by the Mass Effect team is rich, and involving to say the least. I could go on for pages about all the great aspects each individual game brings to the gaming community, but in the interest of time I'll sum it up for you. Please indulge me for a few minutes here, as I'm speaking entirely from the heart. I loved Mass Effect (as is evident from my first sentence) but unlike most people who just look at one aspect of a game, and never really get into it (i.e. CoD). The first Mass Effect game (ME1) was an Xbox exclusive, therefore I was never able to go through the steps of Commander Shepard's story from the beginning until I bought an Xbox later on. So for that reason I'll describe my favorite game of all time: Mass Effect 2 (ME2): Right off the bat, you get a taste as to the depth and severity of the game, as you encounter a star ship getting blasted by an unknown vessel. Inside we see a man put a helmet on his head as the ship around him crumbles, this man is clearly the leader of the ship. After a brief dialogue with you second in command at the time, you take control and walk your way up to the bridge where upon you open the blast doors to the ice cold vacuum of space. Never have I felt more alone, or more astonished when playing a game, then that first time I opened the door to see a snow-white planet above and hearing nothing but the silence of space. It was almost as if you became Commander Shepard in that moment, you could hear every deliberate breath he took, as each one seemed more labored then the last, you can tell somethings bit's about to happen. Eventually you make your way to the helm, and save your helmsman from certain death, at the cost of your own life-ejecting his escape pod seconds before the Commander is engulfed in the flames of his dying vessel. Shepard is thrown back into a wall, whereupon a second later we see him cling to the back of his neck to discover a punctured air-tube, Shepard is going to die. Just before the credits begin, we see Shepard struggle to fix his oxygen, but in vain, as his body is pulled to the icy planet I mentioned early, we hear a lone piano play slowly as Commander Shepard enters the atmosphere. That is story telling in a game at its finest. That is what pulled me into the universe of Mass Effect. That is why Mass Effect is regarded by many as the best RPG franchise of all time. I don' mean to waste your time, so I'll say this as my final word: ME1 was great, but wasn't quite polished enough to be perfect, ME2 was perfect, from the romances (believe me there are marriages that don't come close to the emotional attachment you'll get from Mass Effect's romances), to the story, to the story-telling (see the above description), ME2 really was the perfect game. Mass Effect 3 (ME3), the elephant in the room as it were, has a terrible ending-IF you've played ME2/ME1/both, but up until the ending, ME3 truly had ME2 beat. You could feel the urgency of the game as you raced towards your final mission, and even from the beginning you could tell the stakes had never been as high. If you have any questions or would like to know more about Mass Effect, please shoot me a message (I'd love to talk about it), or go to any review of the franchise (they'll almost certainly agree with what I've said).
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