LogFAQs > #940069348

pezzicle posted...

If the average game is 30 hours it comes out to about 4000 hours lol

Sounds about right. I think the median would be below 30 but the mean might be above that due to some of those Persona 5s and Witcher 3s bringing it up. That puts me at about 0.1% of the way there so far!

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Since Bioware's games are so heavily character-focused, let's go over some of the major characters in Mass Effect 1:

- Commander Shepard: An RPG-style player-insert character, at least in theory. Many parts of her identity and broad personality are up to the player, but most of her actions are essentially set in stone by the game. In a lot of WRPGs the ultimate course of the narrative and main character's journey can be decided by the player, but Mass Effect is an exception. Shepard always hunts down Saren and wages war upon the reapers, and she's always a strong-willed commanding war veteran. Bear in mind that this isn't necessarily a fault of the game's. Bioware had a more linear story that they wanted to tell and chose to make an RPG with more restrictive player choice in service of that goal. Whether that is good or bad is a matter of perspective.

- Saren: Probably the main antagonist with the most presence out of any in this trilogy. Like Darth Malak in KotOR, we don't learn much about him early on, except that he's menacing and temperamental, which kind of feel like standard bad guy traits. He apparently has a hate-on for humans. If this character reveals more dimensions later on, I certainly can't remember them. More on this guy later.

- Kaidan Alenko: Shepard's first party member, and a potential love interest for our female Commander. Most people find this guy bland. Most of his backstory involves being a '2nd generation' biotic who gets migraines as a side-effect of his implants, as well as his general mistreatment as a child by a biotics company called Conatix Industries. I don't mind that backstory itself - it ties into some interesting-enough lore for the rest of the series - but I think the problem with Kaidan is that his moment-to-moment dialog doesn't convey much personality. It's never very compelling to bring Kaidan along on a mission and find out what he'll think of the things you see along the way, because his commentary is just kind of dull.

- Ashley Willaims: Our second human companion, who helps us narrow down this game's general rule for character classes: girls are specialized, boys are multi-talented. Her main thing is that she's racist against aliens - for this reason, she's one of the most hated Mass Effect characters. To both her credit and the game's, she isn't some ranting, uncontrollable xenophobe. She distrusts your alien allies because she thinks they will always place their species' interests above any alliance with humanity. That idea is in contradiction to the series' main themes, and Shepard can argue about it with her in most of their dialog.

This game gives you the "Sophie's Choice," of whether to save Kaidan or Ashley near the end. I picked Ashley the first time around, after which she had almost no impact on the rest of the series. You briefly meet her at one point in Mass Effect 2 and talk for a minute, and then she rejoins as a squad member in the third game. At some point she asks to transfer to a completely different unit, which I allowed, and then I never saw her again and didn't care.

- Garrus Vakarian: A Turian, and our first alien friend. Garrus is easily the squad member I feel the most attached to from my previous playthrough of the trilogy, and I like to include him on every mission. It felt kind of strange running into him again for the first time and having him react to Shepard as a stranger. He's a party member in all three games, so you really build a relationship with him by the end.

At this point in his life Garrus is just a high-ranking C-Sec (essentially the Citadel's police force) officer who is fed up with the red tape. He has a sense of liberation - almost of fun - when he's working with Shepard for this reason, and generally his situational dialog is more enjoyable than that of someone like Kaidan. When I first found out about the monkey quest, for example, he sarcastically said "This will be fun," which neatly mirrored my own thoughts. Then when I accidentally ran one of the monkeys over in the Mako he remarked "Guess the little beast had it coming."

Urdnot Wrex: A member of the dying Krogan race. He has a major role in the overarching story, but only actually accompanies Shepard in the first game. The whole narrative of the Krogan being uplifted by the Salarians, used to fight in the Rachni wars, rebelling, and then being crippled with the Genophage might be the most interesting part of Mass Effect's lore, so it's nice that Wrex gives us his perspective on it. As a character, though, I'm not in love with him. He's okay, don't get me wrong, but his brand of honor-focused militarism is just kind of overdone in sci-fi.

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya: Quarian and dedicated tech caster, and only character besides Garrus who comes along on the ride for all three games. Tali is probably my second-favorite member of the ME1 squad, but there's a significant gap between her and Garrus. I admit I have a hard time remembering what I like about her. I remember her loyalty mission in ME2 pretty well and found it interesting, and I guess I like the sort of youthful enthusiasm that she brings to the crew in this game. She's the techie type and spends most of her time hanging around in the engine room studying the Normandy. She's also our introduction to the Quarian/Geth dispute, which is another of the cooler storylines in the series.

Liara T'Soni: Asari, biotic caster counterpart to Tali as well as scientist in a different field - mostly a historian and archeologist. Liara has a personal investment in the plot of the first game because her mum is one of the primary antagonists, which gives a narrative incentive to bring her along on certain missions. She's also a love interest for both male and female Shepard due Asari being a mono-sex species. In fact, I romanced her the first time around, mostly because my only other option was Ashley.

Like Tali, I remember feeling pretty attached to Liara by the end of the third game but I can't remember what I liked about her character very clearly. I know that she's important to one of the more popular DLCs in the second game, which I played and remember thinking was alright. Maybe it's just that she was one of my first romantic partners in a video game, and you don't forget that kind of young love.


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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 3/129
Currently Playing: Mass Effect