A Story Analysis of Mass Effect 1

You kinda left out a big detail about Ash's backstory. Her grandfather was the only Human admiral to ever surrender to an alien force. Its a stain that has followed her family ever since. It limited her fathers advancement in the ranks, making her child hood more difficult as well as limiting her own advancement. While she loves serving in the family tradition, she does harbor resentment at how she is being held back and that resentment is directed at aliens.

I remember picking this game up at the store used. I can't remember what I went in looking for, but I found this - and I had no idea what mass effect was at all - and thought the cover art looked cool so picked it up. Never did I think it would end up being one of my favourite games, and series, ever. After what, 15 years? The planet select music is still seared into my brain.

The conversation with Sovereign is easily one of my all time favorite moments in a game.

Love mass effect so much, but the first one is something special. One of the few things that makes me want to erase my memory of it and experience for the first time again.

Marathoned the legendary edition earlier this year after not knowing anything about the series. Really an awesome experience, thanks for covering it.

Mass effect 1 had a rough task to introduce a believable world and all it's fiction while getting people immersed in it all and it did a pretty great job of it all, I'm thrilled you're doing a retrospective on it and the series as a whole

I get chills when Sovereign says ‘I am the vanguard of your desctruction’ - every time - that said the biggest chill I got when I gave the renegade order against the Quarians in ME3 with Legion

I love how you used the analogy of an archaeological dig site that is slowly uncovered across generations, and the Reapers' greatest advantage is that they take that teamwork away across time and space, by erasing histories and by shutting down the mass relays. I had rarely felt as truly intimidated in a game as I felt not even when meeting Sovereign but when meeting Vigil and realizing that Sovereign had already tried to start the mass extinction and had been stopped by the last act of a species that died 50,000 years ago, that Shepard could have already been living in the time of extinction but for the grace of god, as they say. This was only compounded when I realized that the Protheans had flung a light forward against all odds and my Shepard was the one who picked it up without realizing it at first. I was just in awe of the storytelling in that moment with Vigil, how all those pieces of plot and character and worldbuilding came together so beautifully. It was one of the most memorable moments in fiction for me. Just masterful. I'll always love the first Mass Effect. What a journey it is.

There are so many things in Mass Effect 1 that absolutely shocked me, it's world building is unmatched, its story takes twists and turns that kept me coming back for more, I think the game is by far the most ambitious in the entire series and while I was playing it I had to keep reminding myself it came out in 2007. The only thing I think the sequels improve upon is the gameplay, everything else ME1 dominates in, my favorite 2007 game and my favorite ME game period.

YOOO LETS GOOO! I assume this means you're tackling the whole trilogy? If so I cant wait, genuinely one of my favorite game series of all times

ME2 might be the favorite of the series but ME1 holds a special place in my heart. Never had there been a game that had me as intrigued by the world and characters as the first time I played this way back in '07.

He shot Nylus for a very good reason. No one was supposed to know Saren was on Eden Prime and if a trained spectre went back to the council and was like "yea btw I ran into Saren while I was there" It would have blown Saren's plan apart.

I was so sad when I realized this came out today and wasn't already a 3 part series. Your channel is fantastic and I can't WAIT to hear more

The First Contact War was completely unnecessary, the Turians could have at least made contact with humans and explain why they can't activate a mass relay. We might be confused and cautious but we listen and are introduced to the Galactic Community. Humans would have been greatly respected much earlier if the First Contact War never happened.

Mass effect 1 still has one of the coolest worlds ever in gaming, it became so easy to become immersed in the universe and i spent hours in the codexes

Mass effect 2 was my personal favorite but these trilogy of games I could play over and over again 😎

there's a prequel novel focused on saren and anderson when they were working together and anderson was in line to becoming the first human specter. saren definitely dislikes humans in general because of the first contact war, doesn't see them as worthy of joining and he sets anderson up so that he's no longer viable for a specter candidate (dont remember what he does though). this was before saren found sovereign and even then he was very much a renegade character, often sacrificing innocent people just to accomplish his objective as a specter. but still there was some empathy to him. at one point he comes across a batarian (i think) who was basically enslaving human women for trafficking and abusing them. although he despises humans, he despises abusing innocent people more. even humans. dont remember the details, but he doesn't do anything nice to the batarian and lets the humans go. it was an interesting chapter where you get to see more depth about saren and to some extent begin to like him.

You've already done 2, and this was two months ago, but it's worth noting- Asari reproduction uses two copies of the Asari's gene, one unedited and the second is sort of subconsciously selectively randomized based on the desirable traits of their partner. The Ardat-Yakshi thing seems to be a recessive trait that is only selected for when copying another Asari.

Significantly better retrospective of mass effect than another channels that just recently dropped. You actually share perspective as you go instead of just telling us what happened moment to moment for 45 minutes

Mass Effect 1 is a great game and worth playing