A Story Analysis of Mass Effect 1

[@GoodFoodN64]

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.

[@thanevakarian9762]

Same story as me except I thought the art specifically the back cover art looked corny and I almost put it down but my little brother said “my friend has that game and said it’s amazing” good thing I listened to him.

[@brandondanforth8342]

See, for me it was the first digital game I bought on a console For a little context, I was 14 in late 2009-early 2010, which I know is when I got a 360 because I had gotten it for Christmas along with Modern Warfare 2. At that point every game I'd ever owned were physical copies of games since I had only ever owned an NES, SNES, N64, PS1, PS2 and original Xbox (at that point i had never even played a game with online capabilities except for stuff like RuneScape on a pc that was 100% not built for gaming). Around spring break of that year (2010) I happened to have a few bucks to blow on a game (a relatively rare thing for me growing up) and came across Mass Effect on the Microsoft Store (can't remember if that's even what they called it over 12 years ago lol), saw that it was by the same people who created two of my favorite games of all time, those being Knights of the Old Republic I (didn't get to experience KotOR II until years later on pc with the Restored Content mod which is imo the single best Star Wars game of all time) and Jade Empire (still can't believe that BioWare hasn't done anything more with the I.P...). That was all it took for me to give it a shot and the game blew my mind at the time. So, yeah. That's my story of how Mass Effect became the first non-physical copy of game I ever bought. I kinda feel old now...

[@aclaymushroomwithaberet7084]

same fo me, except at like 8 years old, that and dragon age origins, god I love those games

[@whatshisface04]

A friend of mine let me borrow his copy back in ‘11 after I got a 360. I knew nothing about it, and was expecting to not like it. I ended up loving it, and playing through 1 & 2 before the release of 3. It’s easily my favorite game trilogy out there.

[@two2truths]

Very similar situation for me! I was in a Gamestop and asked the clerk, "anything you recommend? I just want something new to play" and they suggested MA 1 and boy was I happy with the recommendation.

[@jsross33]

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.

[@VaporeonEnjoyer1]

Yeah but "hurr durr spayce waycist!". One line of dialogue on the Citadel about not being able to tell the difference between the animals and the aliens and people just latch on to that single line and never think past that. By the time ME1 wraps up, she has completely changed her stance on aliens and even stands up to Terra Firma. God forbid a character have a story arc. Miranda never got the vitriol that Ashley did, and she was a card carrying member of a human-supremist terrorist organization. I'm glad Bioware basically all but said that saving Ashley was the canon ending by featuring her in not only the ME2 launch trailers, but in both versions of the ME3 trailer. And also giving her a Play Arts Kai figure.

[@MyGamer125]

@@VaporeonEnjoyer1 As a matter of fact, Ashley admits that she disagrees with Terra Firma's bigotry early on. Unlike others, I wouldn't say Ashley is a racist or human supremacist, she's an isolationist. She thinks Humanity shouldn't work to becoming part of the Council, or shouldn't be a part of Citadel Space. She thinks Humanity should stand alone, because she believes that (and is proven right in ME3) when crap hits the fan, the Council will gladly feed Humanity to the Bear to save themselves. And I can't blame her for feeling that way; there are certain treaties you have to be a part of to have a place on the Citadel, and one of them restricts how big of a fleet you can build, including restricting the number of power Dreadnoughts you can have. I think on Council Members can have Dreadnoughts, and you can only ever build a fraction of what Turian Military builds. Maybe I'm missing something, but that just sounds stupid to me. Sorry, went on a bit of tangent. Basically, I'm not saying I agree with Ash on every point, but some of her arguments are valid. They're just worded poorly. Not sure if that's intentional, or not though

[@VaporeonEnjoyer1]

@@MyGamer125 Yeah I actually think she's one of the better written characters in the entire series, and the discourse around her was so damn frustrating when ME1 came out. If I had a dollar for every time I read "space racist" when it came to Ashley I'd have, like, $200. I swear people just seemed to bench her the second they could and never even talked to her in the Normandy.

[@MikeP828]

Harboring that resentment towards aliens 100 years removed from the First Contact War doesn’t really help her case tho.

[@feco91]

@@MikeP828 It's been only 26 years.

[@oblivionfan345Tony]

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

[@nelsonaraujo86]

Chills the first time like no other

[@c-secofficer123]

Sovereign paid the price for not having the proper Citadel docking authorization papers.

[@crimsoncherry3525]

"You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."

[@jerkopatrik]

It was such a brilliant plot twist! Up until that point, you were thinking that Saren was the biggest threat, and that Sovereign was just an incredibly effective tool at getting what he wants, but then all of a sudden it becomes the complete opposite, you’re full of questions, you legit have no idea how to even approach the whole situation… like… “the ship is alive?!” Amazing, still unmatched to this day. Drew Karpyshyn is one hell of a writer.

[@Vincent_Rabbit]

Sovereign not only revealing to not be just some geth ship but also an actual Reaper was such a genius and unmatched reveal, easily in my top 3 scenes of the entire trilogy

[@seccias]

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

[@benjaminfast5496]

Awe, you missed out on the painfully long loading screens and the sparsity of auto-saves forcing you to replay the entirely of Noveria if you died and forgot to manually save... Such an experience must be shared by ALL!!!!

[@packadayhabit]

@@benjaminfast5496 or spending 30 minutes driving the mako to get everything on a planet before going into the one base there and dying then realizing you last saved on the Normandy. It's the game that taught me to save often and save twice to make sure you saved lol

[@benjaminfast5496]

@@packadayhabit It's very much a "fool me once, shame on you, fool me ten times, it's time to take a break." And those random planets were awful to navigate, so I dreaded having to repeat them!

[@george-cherian]

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

[@serox1026]

Dorrito chetah

[@sarahj7507]

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.

[@Smarod]

Very passing of the torch or inherited will for sure. Love that as a one piece fan

[@TheAngryXenite]

One wonders how long Sovereign has been trying to usher in the Harvest. Given how quickly the Council buckled even without the decapitation strike on the Citadel, I doubt total victory would have taken more than maybe 50 years. Depending on when it was supposed to happen, the Alliance might not have stumbled into an unwinnable war, but a fresh graveyard. Can you imagine how intimidating it would be, learning that the threat that wiped out this massive galaxy spanning civilization was active within a human lifetime or two, and they might feasibly still be watching and waiting? There would have been none of the ambiguity of the collapse of the Protheans, they would have to know that this was a targeted extermination (and their own Prothean archives would definitely make new sense in that light).

[@Docnomania]

Facts my dude. Kne of the greatest immersive subversions in all of storytelling from my perspective. Truely a superb story, through and through, and just trying to explain the mastercraft in it, is in and of itself an injustice to how good it really is to come to all of these realizations in a matter of seconds, and how just 1 or 2 peices of the puzzle just gobsmacks you in the brain. You almost feel like shepherd does after he gets ancient memories shoved into his cranial cavity, the way you shove 20 terabytes into a 2gig thumb drive.

[@Chloenorton7269]

The reason Liara uses gendered pronouns is likely because of everyone having translators rather than having a common language like Star Wars

[@mad_incognito]

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

[@reaver11122]

For me it's "You exist because we allow it, you will end because we demand it."

[@Xpwnxage]

My favorite is what happens if you sabotage the genophage in ME3. There's a particular character that you must cinematically kill. It's heavy. It's the hardest choice I've ever made in a video game but I stand by it.

[@sparkyboy4142]

@@Xpwnxage You... you monster....

[@galamaboane]

“Reaper? A label created by the Protheans to give voice to their destruction.”-Sovereign

[@moonshinershonor202]

​@@Xpwnxagefuck them salarians

[@michaelbuell3711]

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.

[@elvangulley3210]

2 didn't improve on gameplay. It dumbed it down to chase casuals.

[@es9221]

@@elvangulley3210yeah it was more premium but less rpg

[@anteplibela]

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.

[@DavidTretheweydtreth]

YES! The Virmire reveal was the best thing I have ever experienced.

[@iangator]

The 2nd one is pretty fantastic too 😎

[@NostalgicGamerRickOShay]

The first one was the most realistic when it came to how your health AND your melee damage increase at the same time when you upgrade your fitness level. And the strength of your shields depends on your armor suit, NOT your fitness.

[@elvangulley3210]

​@@iangatornot if you like rpgs. 2 was just a dumbed down action game with a good story.

[@PhillipChalabi]

I usually crash though all 4 every year or so. Great storytelling, and generally fun (outside of trying to get all the planetary stuff in ME1).

[@luke1723]

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

[@combinestrider117]

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.

[@justhaku9240]

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

[@OrbitalHUB]

My favorite as well. Mass Effect and Final Fantasy 7 are tied for Greatest ;)

[@justhaku9240]

@@OrbitalHUB dude hell yeah! Speaking of I can't wait for FF16, rebirth and reunion im so excited. Too bad the next mass effect isn't gonna be out for another 5 years though I bet

[@percrunner1433]

I hope we get Mass Effect 3. I feel like I’m one of about 2.5 people in the universe that actually loved ME3 (and the endings).

[@justhaku9240]

@percrunner1433 he did say in the ME2 video he was going to take a break and come back so it should be coming On the topic of ME3 it's tied with ME2 for me being the best game, it's the combination of everything they learned combat, gameplay, characters, mission/level design, setpieces and even story its fucking amazing and in top form, what I think it is is the ending made people equate their feelings about that to the rest of the game, and I think a lot of people believe this its just not talked about since the conversation is so old. For me personally on the ending specifically, I don't hate it but I dont exactly love it, I definitely think they could've done better but I'm not mad what we got it was fine

[@italianspiderman5012]

@@percrunner1433I’m the other person that loves ME3, there’s so, so many amazing moments, one of my favourites is liara making the device with records on our galaxy for the next cycle in case we lose, information on reaper’s, our cultures etc, then she asks what to write about shep…my god, is ME3 my favourite in the series? Maybe.

[@johnathanmaturino1208]

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.

[@EmpressSectonia]

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.

[@slammydunk9787]

Thats kinda whole point. Turians are militaristic dicks and they couldn’t wage war for centuries and here are humans came along violating council space rules, they needed an excuse and they got it.

[@dethberri]

the charon relay was heavily protected due to its history in the previous galactic war. I bet seeing humans trying to activate the relay was like seeing some random dude wandering over to a secure area you’ve had sectioned off for years and immediately step on a landmine lol the council even set up patrols there, solely to keep others from getting close with that context in mind, it’s kinda hard to blame the turians for instinctively shooting first. i mean, i agree it was totally an act of war and not cool overall, but i highly doubt humans wouldn’t have acted similarly and freaked out. after all, turians and humans are pretty comparable in the that they’re both wary as heck with the unknown and ultra prideful to boot

[@urmominc904]

Knowing us, I'm sure we'd find a way to completely ignore their advice.

[@dethberri]

@@urmominc904 humans can be pretty unreasonable, but the human military portrayed in the mass effect universe is a far cry from our current society. in mass effect, humans actually managed to do the impossible; the largest nations in the world came together as a united force and formed the systems alliance. I think such a feat would require objective leaders and a pretty decent measure of basic cooperation. I don't think humans would poke a bear, so to speak, unless they knew for certain it was a bear and if they had the firepower necessary to subdue it. and that's on top of getting warned - by the first alien species they've ever encountered - that they don't know the dangers of what they're messing with

[@Jay-zk7uw]

How could they have even understood each other if it was first contact?

[@jmfowler9062]

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

[@KravMagoo]

Glad to have read this comment...I was 5 minutes in and wondering if it was just going to be a rehash of the plot. I'll go ahead and give it a few more minutes to see if the analysis drops.

[@lacanm1554]

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

[@rowboatcop4451]

Aw hell yea, Mass Effect is my favorite series, so glad youre doing it!

[@The13thKnight]

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.

[@cantdestroyher7245]

Their reproduction always seemed a little too far fetched to be natural for me, but it all makes perfect sense when you find out in 3 that they were heavily altered by the protheans

[@CrusadiaIX]

The Asari are effectively a pet race of the DM but the DM is revealed to have been the ancient aliens all along

[@badrequest5596]

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.

[@gamerraito2153]

This is a year late but gotta say, this is a great comment that improved my opinion on Saren! I recently beat Mass Effect 1 for the first time and the whole indoctrination aspect of Sovereign brings up a damning question: How much of Saren was actually him or was all the horrible things he did just because of brainwashing? The conversation between Shepard and Saren on Virmire implied that Saren was already being indoctrinated, he just hasn't realized it. And because it wasn't clear WHEN he was indoctrinated in the game from what I remember, it made me wonder if his actions during the mission with Anderson was actually due to his own free will. Mind control can sometimes muddy a character too much for me, to the point that they just feel like a blank slate or have me think "Should I even care about this 'character'? At the end of the day, I didn't really know them." Knowing that there's a story out there that actually goes deeper into Saren's character is a sigh of relief. I came out having a mixed opinion of him but thx to your explanation, he seems a lot more compelling! Wish the game could have somehow incorporated this exploration into his character tho. 👍

[@kahn9980]

Mass Effect 1 is a great game and worth playing

[@DavidWoods255]

I've had a nice week off from work and thankfully YT served me up your channel and I obliged - watched and thoroughly enjoyed almost everything you've done in the past couple of years. It's just so nice when someone is articulate with their thoughts while writing and speaking properly. Shame I didn't find this channel before, but I'm all in for the ride now. Really wonderful work Gingy.

[@BarelloSmith]

Saren is dead after he commits suicide. You're not fighting Saren at the end, you're fighting Sovereign who took control over Saren's body. That's why his shields are deactivated, once you defeat him.

[@paytonkraft7564]

Trust me Gingy, I hate the council with a vengeance. I'd like to think that's universal for ME fans.

[@-justforyoutube]

Definitely!

[@TheFreddy136]

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

[@Hellion73]

Same...except for the ME3 "dry and empty experience", cos the replaying value of that one mess, comes by the hand of the mods community.

[@ha-kh7ef]

@@Hellion73 even with the issue of ME3 i still thoroughly enjoyed it. If ME 3 is consider the worse of the 3 then i want every game to be mass effect.

[@Ntmoffi]

Lol ME3 is not that bad at all. Andromeda is definitely the most lifeless.

[@Omgacow1000]

I truly wonder if we will ever get another game like Mass Effect 1. A completely new world with an insane amount of world building and lore seems so unlikely to happen in the current video game world with budgets constantly increasing and sequels becoming all the more common

[@stmgamesftw]

Holy crap, someone on KZbin that actually understands Ashley's character. You sir, are a unicorn.

[@MFenix206]

is it bad that i opened this specifically to see if the poster understood Ashley's character or was a "hurr durr, space wacism!" heathen?

[@stmgamesftw]

@@MFenix206 Not at all. It's so common on KZbin that that is a perfectly valid action.

[@mal3nko]

Or someone reducing Kaidan’s character to “boring guy who has headaches”. Jesus, the way people treat the human characters in this game simply because their not “cool aliens” is so fucking infuriating.

[@autobotskyflame6287]

@@mal3nko That's how people are with any franchise with non-human characters. Bugs the heck out of me when genuinely good characters are treated like bland trash for not being wacky alien or super cool dark elf (because even regular elf is starting to get the treatment)

[@KeytarArgonian]

I think it’s the ‘aliens from the animals’ comment. Of all the things Ashley says in the game this is the most ‘space racist’ damning one of them all, to the point it almost stands out too much. I kind of wish Bioware had left the line out, it would clear up so much of the misunderstanding of Ash’s character. She’s Xenophobic, yes. But it’s not about race, as it doesn’t come from any kind of place of Racial Superiority. That’s why she’s able to call out Terra Firma. She dislikes aliens, but not for racial reasons.

[@Olenhylkio]

You might be my favorite gem of the year. Keep your quality. Oh first watch was back in February.

[@ramrodbldm9876]

Gey

[@OctopudIV]

Great start to the series, can't wait for your retrospectives on the other games.

[@cjvaye99]

I completely agree with you about Saren. I love how he is a shades of grey type antagonist (I don't even want to say villain) and not just another generic pantomime bad guy that you always see in games. He definitely is a bad guy but his intentions were good. He wanted to save organic life but went about it the wrong way. Because no submission and slavery isn't preferable to extinction and I think most people regardless of race would agree with that.

[@Laenthor]

I played the remastered trilogy all in one go and while me 2 improved on basically everything and me3 was a good... enough conclusion to all of it, me1 set the lore in such a cool way that my first trip to the citadel is still my most memorable part of the whole adventure. I spent hours talking to every NPC, doing quests and gathering allies before moving on the story. It was amazing and I hope more games develop their optional lore as much as the ME games.

[@AsleepAura]

Wow what timing, i'm working my way through the trilogy right now as well!

[@visionhawk4403]

I know this is old, but I just found your channel the other day and I love your videos. You've got a new subscriber today! Keep up the great work!

[@Knight1029]

I have to say is that the dialogue wheel itself isn't bad. They can just show what the full line says or make it clearer what it is saying. I don't think that the wheel itself is the problem nor that Shepard is voiced. As for the Renegade, Paragon system I think it is better to describe it as the method Shepard uses to get things done and how they are perceived throughout the galaxy.

[@cirrbagel430]

Love your videos man. Keep it up!

[@Docnomania]

The coolest part about this story is thinking that Saren is the badguy, when in actuality, hes a pawn we chase basically the entire game. The realization that theres this race of mechanical beings known as reapers, that are so old, and so powerful, that they wipe out every civilization every 100,000 years, and never leave anything behind. We though the sith coming back after 1000 years was cool? We thought the white walkers coming back after 1000 years was cool, and they were still telling stories about the walkers when everyone thought they were a complete myth? How about a race older than the oldest civilization that you know of, that you consider to be ancient beings, and finding out they were wiped out by something far older and deadlier? That conversation with Sovereign was definitely a pinnacle part of an incredible story that just made it incredible to me. Maybe its my fascination with old and lost civilizations, but the idea that one you never knew existed, coming and wiping out the galaxy, and theres basically nothing that can stop them, was always something that really inspired a sort of primal fear. If youve done enough of your homework on past civilizations and species of our planet IRL, youd understand what i mean. Just a great story overall.

[@ramrodbldm9876]

You aren't to bright are ya little stew?

[@Docnomania]

@ramrodbldm9876 says a guy named ramrod 😂🤦‍♂️👌

[@TheWorldMemeDatabase]

Main mission order: Liara, Feros, Noveria, Virmire. Not going to Virmire as soon as it’s available hurts immersion a little since it’s supposed to be urgent, but you can’t beat finding out about the reapers and then immediately being plunged into the climax of the game.

[@PierreBrandominiBrandomini]

Noveria before Feros cause of the Paragon hard test on Feros.

[@shawnwarner8204]

Always choose Kaiden and romance Liara... MS1 has the best, tightest story. By far my favorite story of the 3, I remember the reaper revelation hit me like a truck my 1st playthrough on 360. I never saw it coming and it was awesome.

[@BlazerManiacNumber96]

-Rescue Liara first: just so you can have a full party -Do one of the Feros/Noveria missions: I start with Feros because I don't like that mission and prefer to get it out of the way early -Do Virmire: I think the climax works better if there is a decent amount of time between Shepard and Saren interactions. Saren is pretty far gone by the end so it's kind of weird if you fight him at Virmire then see him again like 5 minutes later and he's all techno-d out -Do other Feros/Noveria mission

[@jbear3478]

Rescue Liara first or she goes insane

[@MistahJay7]

Not a fan of Noveria. To many damn Elevators and the mission just drags on forever

[@Com2ME]

Your channel finna blow up especially since people watching longer content keep these videos coming bro.

[@adrianscorch]

Honestly, I don’t know what it is, but Mass Effect’s music puts me in one of my most calm states. Not even weed can get me as far away from stress and anxiety as the main menu’s music.

[@Madarauchia98]

your reviews, doesnt matter which one, are so good! love watching your channel

[@MatthiasPowerbomb]

Mass Effect was (is) truly special. They caught lightning in a bottle, and the series really has become legendary. It means more to me on a personal level than just about any other.

[@boopgenorth1244]

Thank you for putting all of the time to put (all 3) these of these games and videos. You did a great job. I just booted up the legendary edition after 5 years of not playing the trilogy, as I used to at least once or twice a year, for years. Anyway, this was all very well put together. And probably was no small task. You've definitely earned a sub. And I plan in watching all 3 of these multiple times.👍

[@charlierhodes7271]

I just finished a completely blind playthrough of ME1 and I sorta rushed it because I knew I had 2 and 3 to get to. Still had a super fun time with it and loved the story, my only real regret was that in my run, Ashley killed Wrex. I kinda loved that it just happened and I couldn't really control it, but I was so sad. I then saved Kaiden over her as I really liked Wrex and was hoping he'd stick around for the whole trilogy

[@KravMagoo]

I kept Wrex, but still got an unnatural satisfaction in sending Assley to a well-deserved early demise.

[@bartisreallykewl]

Ashley’s character is one of the greater tragedies of mass effect. Ashley’s supposed to be the head strong marine type but often misses that mark. But in ME3 muscles dude guy or whatever his name is rules I love that guy. Same arch type but different execution. He isn’t super deep or interesting but just kinda fun to hang out with. You gotta admire a guy confident enough to give his boss a bad nick name but then insecure enough to need a pep talk to apply for special forces training despite actively serving in a serving in a special forces unit. That’s king stuff right there.

[@lazyyoutuber1237]

Finished this trilogy last night and it was absolutely amazing. Probably my favourite trilogy of all time. Mass effect 3 is my favourite from the trilogy, I am so glad to enjoy the complete version

[@nunuonroad9969]

Awesome video! Can't wait for the next 2 games to be covered

[@shirtstillithurts2814]

I was 19 when I picked up this game at launch in November 2007. I've since logged countless hours and playthroughs, exhausted ostensibly every possible dialog option, and leveled dozens of characters to the cap. It's my favorite game of all time, no contest. At the time of writing this, I'm 35 now, and I still fire this up every November for another playthrough. I think every gamer has that one game that's their thing, and the original Mass Effect is absolutely my thing. Somehow every time I play it I'm just comfortable in a way no other game makes me feel.

[@fatihackyuz3799]

One of my all time favourite game trilogy getting a retrospective. I can't wait for it. Keep up the good work.

[@publicsectordirect982]

Brilliant analysis of the story and lore of me1. As somebody who passed on the trilogy on the x360 due to finding the performance and gameplay prohibitive, I'm giving it another go through the Legendary trilogy.. only thing is i have far less time now I'm a lot older with work family etc, so find myself dipping in and out of me1 sometimes with weeks between playing, so having this video to recap on the story characters lore is helping me follow and enjoy the legendary edition. Great video. Thanks!

[@EJD339]

This video makes mass effect even better because there is so much lore and it’s hard to keep track of.

[@ruijikisu]

35:00 i actually interpreted this as the turian council member not actually caring what happened, but just trying to make us and by extension humans, look bad

[@staciwhite1256]

Since the LE came out, the first has become by far my favorite. Doing a New game plus right now!

[@FrankieCini779]

Surprisingly enjoyed this. A video game critique without agenda or narcissism. Most video game critiques (even from some of the biggest you tubers) don’t go into neutral at all and use it as an excuse to pick apart game, 90% of critiques are purely negative, I’m glad that this one managed to stay positive whilst point out flaws whilst also remaking neutral.

[@christopherhartford5066]

I like doing Ferros last. It's the Cypher so it is the key that makes all the pieces make sense. Plus I like to romance Liara, so it's funny tou build a relationship with her and then meld with another Asari right in front of her. Lol Saren is also a very good villain. I also kinda feel bad for him too. I definitely agree he is well written.

[@NatalieP-j1g]

My brother and I played this on Christmas night....as soon as the character creation screen came up we just started geeking our asses off...we were blown away by the graphics, and stoned lol...great times, great games...FO3, Oblivion, Mass Effect, L4D, Orange box..everything on Arcade

[@RandyNgelale]

10:01. What's interesting is that there's a conversation at a batchelor party you can eavesdrop on that confirms that the asari, as an evolutionary trait to encourage interspecies mating, somehow are able to unconsciously project a version of themselves that is most attractive to the person they are facing. There Turian guy at the party describes then as having Turian features and the salarian the same 😅.

[@lsq7833]

That coomer theory has been debunked years ago as nonsense for one simple reason: photos, videos, statues. It's nonsense.

[@RandyNgelale]

@@lsq7833 sorry for not keeping up with the discourse.

[@rmeddy]

What's brilliant about Mass Effect, it does a great job of squaring generally otherwise outlandish conceits and silly tropes within scifi within the world very plausibly and with good verisimilittude. They do satisfying in universe (watsonian) explanations for pretty much anything Virmire and the conversation with Sovereign and then Ilos and the Conversation with Vigil are such master strokes of story telling, that contextualizes everything so brilliantly Karpyshyn provides such excellent forethought with the world building and story and allows us to have our cakes and eat them too.

[@pupely]

Mass Effect 1 was probably one of the closest experience to galactic exploration I imagined when reading dozens of sci-fi books in my childhood and I was hooked from the moment I first saw the Citadel. Despite having so many gameplay limitations the world, characters and story are simply amazing.

[@just_oliN7]

I just love multi-hour-essays about videogames/movies I adore.

[@Chessheromusic]

Asari also use other species to diversify their genes This is for evolutionary purposes as well As liara says “pure bloods” is an very bad insult The genetics are not diversified as much Like if a human, had a child with a sister or first cousin. Pure blood is though to be alot like inbreeding

[@field-armada]

Thank you for this incredible and hard work. Mass Effect is a very good and complex game, and it is very fun to play it.

[@darthman4]

Can’t wait for ur takes on the next 2 games!

[@folausson2916]

This video is just pure gold. Pure. Gold.

[@Zafarnama111]

I love Mass Effect and am very glad I have found this channel.

[@CrackFoxtrot24]

38:20 The artefacts are not completely useless. If you find all of the asari matriarch writings and prothean disks, then you can help Conrad Verner in Mass Effect 3 and get the most war asset value out of him. So yeah, not completely useless, but not very useful either lol EDIT: Also Wrex's motivation for joining the hunt against Saren is more than just for combat. Wrex at the beginning states how the krogan who follow Saren are shills and not true krogan. Also, if you calm him down on Virmire, Wrex's motivation evolves into one of revenge against Saren for providing false hope for the krogan and for using his 'cure' to the genophage as a bargaining chip, essentially holding the krogan hostage against their own hopes

[@johnmilton2242]

This is the best mass effect analysis I've seen in the years. One point, saving the Council SHOULD be a hard choice because you don't KNOW that your fleet can take out Sovereign after it's taken losses saving the Council. This really is biowares fault. I think it should have been: A, you save the council but you must destroy the reincarnated Saren and reactive the Citadel defences or you lose Hackett, B you let the Council die but the fleet can take out Sovereign, however if you don't take out Saren quickly you lose Hackett.

[@EliteKnight97]

My only problem with the Asari is that they look way too human, I get it’s hinted at that they’re masking their true appearances via some sort of memetic physic manipulation or something but it still feels like a waste to have them look exactly like us facially. The Quarian’s have a slightly similar issue for me as well though it is nullified by their suits so you never actually see their faces

[@jbear3478]

The Asari resemble the species that is looking at them, I think

[@EliteKnight97]

@@jbear3478 yeah that’s what I was thinking with the memetic shit, but in terms of design from a creation perspective it still feels kinda lazy when compared to the Turians or Krogan

[@KravMagoo]

@@jbear3478 That is ridiculous...if it's canon, it's tragic. That one detail takes my eval from 10 to 6. What an absurd load of nonsense. That's GoT style magic.

[@gehteuchnixan3016]

​@@KravMagoo it's not really canon. In the second game you can see a salarian, a turian and a human at a "bachelor party". All three of them insist how asari look like them because feature x is similar. That's where that theory comes from.

[@thr04w4y]

​@@KravMagoo It's not canon, just a few drunk people from different species arguing that the asari look more like them, you literally see giant asari statues on their homeworld.

[@grasander]

I quite like ME 1 sidequests. They evoke a sense of exploration, desolation, solitude and the scale of the universe that later games don't even come close to replicating; everything has to be densely filled with "content". If the whole game was like that it'd be bland and boring, sure. But having the ability to just drive on some desolate planet with the creepy background music, find an ancient relic that shows (in text) a memory of a neanderthal's first contact with an interstellar civilisation in between important missions makes the galaxy feel much bigger than other games.

[@eyzmin]

and then you get to 2 and its the most basic early 2000s cookie cutter hallway level design, EA truly murdered Mass Effect

[@Docnomania]

33:23 youre correct, that fight was A LOT harder on the original release. That bint got me killed by her minions with her constant interference and the lack of cover options. Wasnt that the point though? Shes a glass canon so she needs to force us into a handicapped fight. The limited cover options not only meant you had to keep moving, but it also meant you couldnt post your followers behind a corner to give you cover fire. It was a pain for my playthrough. I tried doing a 2nd playthrough, but the way you actually have to drive around aimlessly to find stuff on the planets you explore was very arduous and boring, especially considering just about every planet had a huge map with like 3 or 4 things to discover.

[@iRexxye]

It’s such a peaceful and yet heartbreaking trilogy

[@cruznix4741]

I feel how the quarian story unfolds over the trilogy is one of the best of all the species

[@SithisXVII]

14:27 Leaving the peak 15 facility on Insanity was a pain in the ass.

[@pariskumar5605]

35:20 i feel like maybe the turian always disagrees to emphasize the racism between humans and turians in me1 since that seemed to be a decently large theme in the game. Amazing vid btw!!!

[@MistahKurtz1979]

I like your point about choice vs the story surrounding the choices. While player choice can be great, I feel like sometimes it can hinder telling the best possible story. Some of the Life is Strange games suffer from this where they offer a lot of different endings that are moderately satisfying, but lack the power of a more singular ending.

[@LostFoundling]

Was watching this casually on my phone while replaying ME1 Legendary and I went back to the council to give the evidence about Saren and Benezia and it just so happened to be be like 30 seconds off of it happening in the video so I had their incrimination in surround sound

[@GriffRunning]

The Taliltha mission on the citadel may be one of the most tense missions I’ve ever played in a video game. It’s perfection.

[@McCallaFilms]

This was really great! I'll be looking forward to your "story retrospective"-vids on ME:2 and ME:3.

[@ha-kh7ef]

I think the craziest part of the entire mass effect story and other games like Halo, is that they all happen in one galaxy

[@gunnarschlichting9886]

Because space is large, and even a single galaxy is unimaginably massive. I remember reading in a codec that, even with FTL travel, only like 1-2% of the galaxy has been explored, because things are just that far apart out and if there isn't a Mass Relay nearby it takes waaaaaay too much time and fuel to get anywhere.

[@TigoODonnell]

@@gunnarschlichting9886 it’s even less believe it or not, lower than 1%

[@seasonalgoblin1708]

I almost didn't watch this video because I've played through this so many times 😅 glad I did, I'm 20 minutes in and you've spotted like 6 pieces of lore that I completely missed across so many playthroughs lol. Tldr: dang nice vid

[@zoesequeira5388]

I love that the random VI on the Moon that you can totally miss helps save the galaxy

[@QueenGrezelda]

I love the game so much and I was so very surprised to hear marina sirtis voicing benezia too and if you didn’t know marina is also Deanna Troi in Star Trek: next generation.

[@CJAkume]

been waiting for a Mass Effect retrospective, lemme get comfortable

[@josephpedro5379]

Just started my mass effect journey and I’m addicted

[@jamesraposa942]

We'll see you in about a month for part 2 :)

[@c-secofficer123]

Mass Effect 1 is on a list of games that I wish I could experience for the first time again. I remember I was in college, had a day off. Was having one of those.. “I got nothing to play” moods. Looked on what games were new on my phone… and saw Mass Effect.. never heard of it, but the article said it was just released and if you liked Star Trek, Star Wars and Babylon 5 then this game was for you. No idea what it was about. But I drove straight to EB Games and bought it. Came home, popped it in… and spent the entire day playing it.

[@Fiddlethediddle]

Renegade isn’t a “bad” or “evil” option. It’s more of a cutthroat approach.

[@thatcreativepotato]

Never played mass effect but I love this video!

[@antmananderson01]

43:54 I think for a game that’s like what? 12 years old? It’s still pretty fun to play. And I wish they hey developed the exploration way more in the first game. It could have the same model that Elden ring has and you could just explore to explore, find side quest, find unique weapons, gear, resources.

[@Darksector88]

15 years old and yes, you have to look at the game through 2007 eyes instead of 2022 / 2023 eyes. It was fantastically built for it's time.

[@Donovarkhallum]

I love how quickly you speak. I can watch your videos at normal speed

[@PoorBritishBoy]

As someone who has never played the Mass Effect games, you did an amazing job of presenting the game’s world, premise, and mechanics. I look forward to watching the rest of the series!! Great work!!

[@Tobi-bc8fx]

Gingy take your time but please I need more these retrospectives are really well made and I enjoy them a lot

[@johnmecca9008]

Ur videos are legendary bro. Please, please do 2 and 3. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️!! I’ve subscribed.

[@metalrob6713]

Mass Effect trilogy (and later, Andromeda) gave me one of the best gaming experiences that I still remember, companions for example, Bioware simply NAILED every companion in ME and Dragon Age games, so did back in Baldur's Gate games.

[@Billyboy22ish]

A note on the Taurian council members comments at 35:00, he may just dislike the decision because it was made by a human even if he agreed with the consequences of the decision itself.

[@TreeFolkDruid]

Andromeda is about 2.5 million light years away.

[@Whiteythereaper]

In defense of the resused assets for buildings it's very much a case of using Pre-fabricated buildings as they're much easier and cheaper to transport and set up, which would be more accurate to how we would make colonies and bases in the future. The side missions are also worth doing for interactions in the future games as with further knowledge of Cerberus Shepard and crew will further question the Illusive Man's motives and are more accepting of the organisation in Mass Effect 3

[@jbear3478]

I never even noticed

[@Emarq31]

My first play through was on the legendary edition. Too young when it first came out so I never got to ride the hype. Although I enjoyed it and I just can't get over the amazing story it tells and the characters. Maybe it's due to my lack of gaming experience but I liked the charm the first one had with the text pop ups after finishing missions and tasks. I know that to understand something I don't always have to see it. And leaving some imagination up to the player I think is a good thing. Keeping things vague due to the limitations they may have had at the time as well. One of my favorites was that Prothean orb you find on one of the explorable planets that describes you living a life as an early human beings studied by Protheans.

[@rhoetusochten4211]

1:04:00 on my first playthrough (a week or so ago) I chose to focus on Sovereign. The information I was given was that it was going to be very difficult to take Sovereign out, and every bit of energy had to be focused on that task. As important as the Council thought themselves to be, three lives weren't more important than the entire galaxy. As to the ship they were on, it was being used as a shuttle. What a waste. Yesterday, on my second playthrough, I chose to save them. This time I'm using the info I gleaned from my "clean" playthrough to do better in anticipation of what *might* be in Mass Effect 4. Although, I would love if it were concurrent with ME Andromeda... Liara could easily still be alive 600 years later.