On the Mass Effect trilogy

My latest and greatest accomplishment was completing the Mass Effect trilogy. Or should I say saving the flippin universe? As a video game, Mass Effect was good. However, as an interactive story, universe, and work of science fiction, Mass Effect was amazing. I have always been a fan of the interactive storytelling and role playing games that BioWare creates, and Mass Effect was the pinnacle of this experience for me thus far. I cant even imagine what they are going to be capable of making in the future.

Mass Effect as a stand alone story, didn't really add anything to the world of science fiction, in fact, it drew heavily off of MANY other works nearly all of the time. It is not original in anyway other than its execution. This is the real genius behind Mass Effect. It combines the themes of nearly all popular sci-fi stories into one world. Additionally, the story of Shepard is timeless regardless of where it is placed. Both the rich and open universe and the Shepard archetype is what sucked me into truly feeling a sense of importance, that I truly was THE Commander Shepard and only I am capable of saving the galaxy. Mass Effect was never about shooting aliens or robots, often I would play on casual in order to devour more of the truly addicting plot and themes. By the end of the final game I began to feel real emotional connections to the characters, at a level I had almost never felt before in any form of media (let alone a video game) except for Firefly and Ender's game to a degree. Wrex and Garrus were truly my bros, Tali and Liara my girls. It seems absurd to "real people" but BioWare painted these fictional beings in a medium that allows them to transcend into being more dynamic than many of the real people I meet.

There is Order, and there is Chaos. Synthetic and Organic. Then there is you, Commander Shepard, set to satisfy the demands of both. As a clearer than day Christ figure (He even breaks the chains of death in the second game, under something called the "Lazarus Project" no less.) Shepard leads his loyal band of apostles to hell and back. He isn't a typical christ figure however. He is still perfect, but he isn't necessarily "good". You make choices of either Paragon or Renegade, linked to the concepts of order and chaos. I like the distinction from Good and Evil. Especially on a philosophical level, as well as the scope of the galaxy, evil and good are undefinable. Instead it is almost like the concept of entropy. Are you a renegade that increases the disorder of the universe? Or a paragon that does what he can to slow it? Neither is objectively right, we choose where to fit within a spectrum that doesn't cancel out, but instead builds as a function of time.

Conclusion: 9/10, I wasn't unhappy with the extended cut ending like most others, and the hours of good gameplay far outweighs any minute of weakness. I recommend to those who love a good story as well as a game. It is literature in game form, not simply a well written game.