#thinking of tags kinda hard rn just wanna go back to playing cyberpunk ngl

[sol-consort]

HAIII HELLO i had to just fist fight tumblr and win cus i forgot ur name but im excited cus ur blog got me into ME and i just bought mass effect legendary edition on sale n im so happy abt the fact that i will get my heart broken and maybe fuck few aliens here n there BAIII

I hope you fuck many aliens to your heart's content. I'm really happy more people are giving ME a chance because that game is hands down really, really fun. Like at its core, it's genuinely just having a good time, entertaining, funny, engaging, badass, a soap opera of action at times, but oh, so beautifully done.

Like I would've never given this game a chance because:

it's super older gen (relative to my age)

Fandom is basically dead

The og fans can get... gatekeepy and obnoxious to newcomers

But I tried the first one, not expecting shit, thinking it's another COD or boring ass fps game where. But I literally couldn't put it down even when I tried. It's so fucking fun? Interesting and loveable characters? Cool aliens and worldbuilding? Being a kickass commander? Having choices in how you approch things?

NOT TO MENTION HOW BEAUTIFUL IT IS! ALL OF THOSE PICTURES I TOOK INGAME.

I do mean ingame, as in "in the open world" and not in a cinematic cutscene. The game has an inbuilt photography mode for a reason! They know the galaxy and planets are breathtaking! The know space is beautiful! They know you'd want to stare at the cosmos in between gunshootings!

And because it's old gen, it runs perfectly even on our present low-end pcs. Hell, it runs like butter on high graphics on my steamdeck, while I can't get Veilguard beyond low textures without the game having a seizure.

I was so worried when playing it, prepared to be treated horribly ingame because I picked the femshep, I was fully convinced that I'd be forced into a typical hetro romance and accepted that grim fate. Because oh what can you do? It's an old game. It's just how things were back then.

BUT NO! IT DOESN'T DO ANY OF THAT! It's so easy to forget that someone has had to lay the first stone in this long path of progress, and Mass Effect was one of those games that pushed the boundaries of its time! Not only is femshep equally strong, stoic, and badass. But you're completely free to pursue a gay relationship from the start. Even the straight romance choice doesn't follow the cookie cutter of hurr durr men strong, women submissive. Ashley is direct and upfront about her feelings for maleshep, she is strong headed and confident, she weilds a shotgun and dashes to the frontlines.

While Kaidan is softer, more coy and elusive with his feelings for femshep. He stammers and lags in speech with "uhh" a lot. Not to mention a good representation of a character with chronic illness! I saw myself in him whenever he spoke of his chronic migraines, how it felt like a geniune part of him and not simply crossing a checklist of character traits to meet the quota of "good writing"

The game is beautiful, interesting, and vaired, but also silly and it owns that. it doesn't attempt to be genre changing deep, it's embodies the spirit of superhero comics. It's just really fun. You don't have to pay attention, you don't have to look for clues, you don't have to do anything or collect anything! Shoot things, things die, get money, talk to crewmates, spend money on pet fish, rinse and repeat. And somehow that cycle never gets stale because there is never a repeat of a mission type, stages are set in different planets with different characters, you pick the companions you take and each of them sprinkles flavour text on your merry adventure.

YOU'LL HAVE A BALL ANON! Playing it feels like what going to the amusement park felt as a kid, except this time around your parents give in and buy you that overpriced animal-shaped balloon the guy is selling next to the exit gate.

As great as the romance was, I was simply having too much fun with the interactive world to really focus on it. Oh and your past choices actually shape the world a ton! You start a fresh save in ME1, make choices, game ends, now time for ME2, and you get to directly import your ME1 Shepard into the new game and the world you created! So if someone died in ME1? They stay dead. If you romance a character, then you're still dating. If you spare some criminals or make deals with certian people, they will remember it!

The same goes for ME3, you import you ME2 savefile and it follows the story branches you chose. Every side quest, every detail of your Shepard. You leave your mark upon the world and on every person you interact with, and they remember you in return.