Mass Effect

I seem to recall saying that I wouldn't play Mass Effect again. Well, the sequel has been getting ridiculously good reviews, and I am aching to play it. But! I know that the moment I buy it, it'll get a crazy Steam sale, because that's just how things work. So I decided to try a fresh start in the first game. And I'm glad I did - but a few hours into it, I think I've had enough.

Last time, I played as an Infiltrator class: a tech/weapons hybrid, which I really just chose for the sniper rifle specialization. This time I tried the Vanguard, a biotic/weapons hybrid, and really the biggest difference is that I miss my sniper rifle. Biotic skills are neat, but I'd much rather order my party members to use them, and stick to shooting for myself. I'm pretty sure my ideal ME1 class would have been the Soldier. I've read that the classes in ME2 are much more diverse and interesting, and frankly, that doesn't sound like a very tall order.

Another thing I changed this time, knowing the limitations of the game's decision-making aspects, was to force my character to be as obnoxious and risky as possible - that is, just selecting the bottom-right conversation option all the time. Basically, I made Space Bitch Shepard. And in contrast to the let-down of trying a new class, I was actually quite pleased with the results of this, both for the item rewards and for the hilarious dialog that ensued.

There were a few other things I did differently by accident. For instance, I talked to the C-Sec drunk in Chora's Den before shooting the place up - and found out that Captain Anderson was going to be the first human Spectre. Whoa! Doing some Citadel bullshit in a different order resulted in content I'd completely missed last time.

That last part - knowing that there's so much of the game lore that I happened to miss (not to mention all the side-quests I never did) - is the reason I'd really consider playing the game again. But, most of the game is still no different, and I'm not very excited by the prospect of trudging through all of it again. I'd like to just load up my old save and go do some side-quests, but of course, I can't do that because I'm saved way past a point of no return. Nuts.

Anyway, I learned a lot about the depth and breadth of the Mass Effect mythos, and I'm more excited than ever to play Mass Effect 2. And as for the sequel's consequences to decisions I made in the first game? Well, thank Gunpei for downloadable save files.

Progress: "Space Bitch" didn't make it off the Citadel