Mass Effect 2: Everyone Remembers Their First

This article originally posted at The Gamer Effect on April 17th, 2013.

Hi, my name is Jonathan, and I … I am a BioWareAHolic.
     Gods, it feels good to get that off my chest. Whew!

My first taste of the BioWare formula came when I was still fairly young in the form of Neverwinter Nights. The first BioWare game I actually finished and replayed was Knights of the Old Republic. I ground my way through Jade Empire in a mere two days. I loved all of these games in their own way, but the one constant remained: BioWare set the standard for a supporting cast that I could actually care about and get invested in, NPCs that felt like people I could love or hate and generally want the best for. And ever since those first few hits I just kept craving a stronger and stronger fix until DEAR GOD JUST LET ME GAME ALREADY AHSJOSLIAOINDOIJS—

Ahem. Right. Sorry about that.

Then I met a series called Mass Effect, and everything changed.

Let me tell you about my first time…

How to Hook Me on a Story in Ten Minutes or Less

Like … surprisingly few other people I’ve talked to, my first experience with the Mass Effect saga or trilogy or what-have-you came during the second act, Mass Effect 2. Believe it or not, I have no regrets on this point. More on that later.

The opening to Mass Effect 2 looks, at first, like pretty standard sci-fi fare. First we meet two exposition characters who tell us basically that this is just another routine mission: the SSV Normandy is hunting for something called ‘geth’ but these two are convinced that it’s a wild goose chase. The politicians are apparently using the geth as a scapegoat for the real threat, something Shepard calls The Reapers. At this point I had only the vaguest sense of what any of these words meant, but it didn’t matter— this was how I’d been introduced to nearly every sci-fi series I’d ever loved, and I was more than happy to learn as I went.

Then everything went to hell and I was on the edge of my seat.

Suddenly, the Normandy was attacked by a mysterious ship, a massive cruiser of unknown origin carrying weapons of unparalleled destruction. Crewmen were dying in explosions; people were running to escape pods; fires everywhere; a woman running through the halls, and then…

Then I got my first glimpse of the Commander they seemed to treat with such reverence. My proxy. Commander Shepard. And my first dialog wheel. And my first RPG with a voiced protagonist who I still controlled fully.

I didn’t realize yet that I could never go back.

So the ship is coming apart, I order this woman, Ashley Williams, to get the crew to the escape pods — our pilot has refused to leave his post, and it’s up to me to get him out. Shepard is a marine, you see. He doesn’t believe in leaving anyone behind. Nobody says this of course, but I’m already starting to get a sense of who this commander is and isn’t — actions speak louder than words. So to the cockpit I go.

I make my way through the devastated remains of the ship to the command center (the CIC) and find that it’s been torn apart. At least one hit from the enemy ship has torn straight through the hull and opened us up to the vacuum of space. Further, the artificial gravity is offline, but apparently Shepard has some kind of magnetic boots built into his armor, so none of this is a problem.

What it is, for me, is the moment I remember most vividly from that entire first playthrough.

I’m standing here in the shattered remains of my ship, a ship I’ve only just been introduced to, looking up into space. A planet hangs over my head, massive, reminding me of my insignificance. And somehow despite the threat, despite the urgency of this moment, I find it incredibly beautiful. It takes my breath away. For the first time, I really feel like I’m part of one of the sci-fi worlds I’ve loved for so long, since Star Trek and Star Wars and StarGate and all the rest.

In that moment, perhaps more than any other, I am Commander Shepard.

Oh-Right-Someone-is-Trying-to-Kill-Me-I-Should-Probably-do-Something

Right, so Joker (the pilot is called Joker) is in the cockpit still and I need to get him out, soon. So I head the rest of the way there, trying not to think about how amazingly cool it is that the chairs float away when I bump into them (SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!) and make it though the mass effect field that’s keeping air in the cockpit. I assume.

Joker has a helmet on but that’s not really the point right now.

So I convince him that the Normandy is done for, and the only thing left to do is make sure we aren’t dead with her. He reluctantly concedes and GREAT SCOTT REALLY THE ALIENS ARE COMING AROUND FOR ANOTHER ATTACK. Talk about kicking a man while he’s down. Whoever these guys are they don’t mess around.

Next thing I know another beam is hitting the ship, and Joker is watching helplessly as Shepard floats off into the vacuum of space. Aaaaaaand well, crap, my helmet is leaking air. That can’t be good.

Cue Title Card, Opening Theme Music, and Character Creation (No Seriously That Just Happened)

Next thing I know Shepard is waking up on a table somewhere, two years later (!), in the middle of ANOTHER attack, surrounded by people who are as unknown to Shepard as they are to me. Only this time I get to fight for my life.

And it only gets better from there.

I’ll likely be writing more on the series as time goes on— what I loved, what I didn’t, key moments from throughout the saga, how the experience has impacted me, “what does all this mean anyway”— but suffice it to say that I remain deeply in love with the series, and the entire trilogy sits firmly near the top of my (actually unordered) list of Games Everyone Should Play At Least Once.

…Which will probably be the subject of a future article.

Click here to see Mass Effect games at AMAZON.