Mass Reflections

If I'm not writing, I'm usually playing games. It's come to my attention I have way too many games I haven't conquered/completed. And so I've decided to buckle down and tear through some of the games to make room for the new ones that catch my interest. So with being said, what games do I play? As mentioned I have a treasure trove of games to choose from. It then came to my attention that I own all 3 parts to Mass effect and haven't even beaten the first. With that in mind I've decided upon Bioware's space shooter. Herein I've decided to post my progress through the game as I battle to save the galaxies. It's a fun way for me to share my adventures and stay active at the same time. So join me now as begin the journey of Commander Shepard. *Might have some spoilers*

Day 1: Choices are given at the very start. Male of course. Now a name is needed. Alex will do, nothing fancy, not enough names with "X" in them. Gotta pick an origin story. Bah. Not much in the way of options. No way I'd be a orphan from Earth, and the whole colonist thing isn't much better. Living as a military brat being a Spacer suits me. Sole survivor, War Hero, or Ruthless. Never a hero, but not that ruthless. Guess I'll have to go with survivor. Seems lame, but better than the other two. Now for the class. Tough choices, I'm not a Soldier to be sure. Running and gunning is fun, but not what I do. Infiltrator is the sniper. Good idea, but not my thing as well. Let's face it I'm tech head so let's got with the Engineer. Use pistols and omintool to heal as well as hurt enemies. Perfect match. Welcome Alex Shepard, to the Normandy.

Flying through space no one can hear you scream, nor can you skip the long into sequence. I like how they change the comments depending on the choices you made for your origin. Finally in control of Alex I get to walk and talk to people. Make good impressions. Back when I was always messed around I played the "bad guy". So I'll try to remain on the straight and narrow this time. First planet is Eden Prime. Seems something has gone wrong on the surface. Pistol in hand it's time to search the surface. Our three man team lands and we get to look around abit before the first guy dies. Damn, guess he was wearing a red shirt under that suit. I almost join him on the ground. It's not fair how they're right on top of you as the battle starts. Thankfully the other guy, Kaden, isn't a complete moron. We put down the robot gnats and move forward. That is until we run into the next group. Gnats is the apt word for them; they fly, they are annoying, and fun to swat. Didn't die again, but now we get some better foes. Geth, humanoid robots armed with guns. One rescue later we get a new third member Ashley. So now our merry group works it's way to a place of interest. The fire fights are easy, and we learn the geth came after the same thing we did. Couldn't be any more cliche. When talking with some people that were hiding we come upon the first of the persuasive points. You can talk the NPCs into giving you some free items. I knew it was coming so I always have points in charm. Seems our other buddy, Saren the Spectre, dies. For an elite soldier he went down rather easy. Now we're left to save the colony from destruction. And there's death #1. Not me, it's Ashley. I told her to move forward not catch all the bullets. Kaden was smart enough to stay down. Funny thing is after we kill of everyone she gets back up like nothing happened. Why can't I do that too? The last few shoot outs go well, but I have to hurry or the bombs will go off. Timed fight, yay. Easy win, and didn't die. Low health is fixed and I get some kind of seizure from the beacon. Not a bad so far, picking up the rest later.

Day 2: Ah the Turian that died was called Nihilius (sp?) Saren was the one that killed. I can change it, but why? Not like I'm being graded here. Saren is a Turian too and also a Spectre. After some cut-scenes we arrive at the citadel . It's a huge ass space ship where all the races gather and there council meets. This place is very big. If not for the quick travel locations moving around here is damn right annoying. Thing that I hate is the fact the the sprint button doesn't work. Sure you move at a decent clip, but when in a fire fight you can move much faster. While the Citadel is heavy populated there's a limit to the number of people you can talk to. And unlike conventional RPGs the NPCs don't give too much info. Rather than that you get more detail from random screens and examining items in the game. There's plenty of story and facts that help flesh out the story. Speaking of story you're not starting to see the plot unfold. Seems Nihilus was meant to evaluate Shepard to be a Spectre. Shame he died before giving him a passing grade. Now with him dead and the beacon lost Humans aren't very happy, and council think it was a random attack. No believes that Saren did it, being a Spectre is like diplomatic immunity. So with senator being pissed it's up to us to find out what Saren is doing and proving it.

I mentioned the Citadel being big and sure enough there's plenty of quests to do while you're searching for proof. I won't bore you with the details, not because it's boring. Merely since going over the fetching and running around, is hardly a good read. Some interesting points is some flirty conversations with Ashley. Place is like a maze. Again thank the gods for the quick travel sections. Makes things easier. There are more persuasive moments. Not enough charm so I save before I talk and make a note to come back later. Things are too expensive to buy in the stores. Still I try to purchase the simple upgrades and sell the excessive things. It's rare, but you'll get drops from enemies you kill. Better off cracking open safes and chests. There are some fights. Shoot-outs in narrow hallways can be intense where there's little cover.

Never thought i'd see an LP on TBW...

but it's awesome! lmao!

Day 3: I should have you note I'm just counting the days I play not actual days. That would be silly. So the last we saw our heroes we were doing quests. Grinding if you would. I had the pleasure of being ambushed on the way to a strip club. And that my friends is the oddest sentence ever. Someone trying to kill you outside a club is shocking. But it's all part of the plot of something wrong going on at the Citadel. Rather than focus on the quests let's take a look at the new characters we meet.

Last time we mentioned proving that Saren was a bad guy. There was a cop that was investigating the matter called Garrus. He's a turian that's not too happy with the system. If anything one would call him a good cop that's being restricted by the red tape. The rules and order he's trying to protect are the very things letting the bad guys get away with things. He wants to be able to do anything that's needed to get the job done. Odd that's exactly what the Spectres do. After a shootout in a medical clinic he joins up with the group. He's a good alien to have your back.

Next we have Wrex the Krogan. This guy looks like a giant lizard with a hunched back. There's nothing more intimidating when he growls and grunts his replies. He's hired muscle going after Fist, a criminal. Fun times. About the Krogan there's an interesting story. It would seem long ago there were these big bugs coming and killing people. Right when the council was at their wit's end the Krogan came out and helped beat the bad bugs down. The bugs retreated and the lizards went after them and hunted them down. As a reward the council gave the Krogan a planet to colonize. And colonize they did. They started to breed like rabbits and before you know it they were starting to invade other colonies to expand. So the heroes now became a threat. A war started against these beasts which ended when the biowarefare unleashed a virus that prevented the growth of the Krogan species. 1:1000 chance of success or something like that. Sheesh. After that their people started to drift away. A slow genocide on the Krogan race. Wow. Bioware did a good job on that one.

Then we come to Tali. She's a quirian. Remember those geth I told you about in the first mission? Robots that were trying to kill us and impaling humans on giant spikes? Yeah well guess who created them? Yup the quirians. And guess who's race was overthrown by those very same robots? You guessed it; the quirians. These people went into exile afterwards as the geth weren't very nice to other races. They live on spaceship communities. When they come of age they journey into space looking for something to bring back to their community. You don't get to see her face. They have body suits on that protect them from the environment. Gives her the air of mystery. Shame you can't date her in the game. (BOOOOO)