Well as most of you know, I accidentally deleted all of my save games at the beginning of November, which means I had no Mass Effect save games to import into Mass Effect 2 when it launches in under a month. So, I took the time to playthrough the game for a 4th time, wracking up a few Achievements I still needed along the way.
It's been about a year and a half since I properly touched Mass Effect, and I must say that replaying it now has really refreshed my memory on what it did so well and not so well. Without question, Mass Effect has an exceptional story, presentation, characters, and exploration. It really is the closest I've come to playing an interactive movie, and it's because of all these strengths rivaled by few other titles that the game's shortcomings are so much more apparent.
Extremely clunky combat, the horrendously designed Mako vehicle (and I stand by my review stating that whoever designed that piece of junk shouldn't be allowed to touch game design ever again), bland and repetitive Assignments (Side Quests), and an awkward inventory system. These flaws were brought to the forefront yet further because I originally tried playing through on the Insanity difficulty, but after the 11 hour-ish mark, I dropped it down to Normal as combat was far too frustrating and I'm sure my excessive swearing was pissing off my neighbours.
This character, a male John Shepard, was an Engineer who reached Level 50 and my playthrough took me 40 H 56 M with a Paragon completion, saving the Council. Despite Mass Effect's shortcomings I still had an excellent time overall, and the game was definitely a huge leap forward back in November 2007. That being said, I'm looking forward to any improvements the sequel will bring our way to streamline and strengthen the franchise overall. Oh, and Tali's still the hottest one.
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