Mass Effect: DLC and final thoughts.

Not too much DLC, for this game. Just 2 really. One brought in a Pinnacle Station with 'combat training'. This station was just an arcade to shoot for points. I tried it once, and it was fairly lame. Supposedly, if I had used it early on, it would have given me good weapons and such, but whatever. The 2nd was a mission on an asteroid. Not just any asteroid, it was careening towards a the Terra Nova colony with only a few hours until impact. It was an ordinary mining asteroid that was hijacked by Batarian bastards. Shepard is tasked to turn off 3 Fusion Torches. A torch, sounds easy right? NOPE THESES THINGS ARE MASSIVE.

This is where I learn that Batarians can be real asshats. They brutally killed the humans working there and left the bodies out to dry. The only torch that proved to be a problem was one with mines all around its' front. Our radar wasn't as accurate as one might hope. After dealing with the torches, I made my way to the main facility to face Balak, the pirate's leader. He presents Shepard with a choice, fight him and hostages die, or let him go and save the hostages. I thought about letting him go, but then he lamented on all the havoc he WOULD cause, so I initiated the fight to put him down. As soon as Shepard drew her pistol, BOOM, an explosive went off and the captives died. So much for being a quick-draw. A quick fight later, he was on the floor surrendering. I decided death was too quick, and gave him to the Alliance military.

Before I close the book on ME1 I want to mention a few side quest that stuck with me.

First was just a Prothean sphere I stumbled upon after driving the Mako around Eletania. Shepard touches it and relives the memories of a neanderthal logged by an implanted Prothean data recorder. The neanderthal notices a silver shuttle hanging in the sky with the sense it is studying him. Shepard wakes up from what seems like hours, yet only a few seconds later, with her companions making sure she was ok. "I'm fine" you reply. This whole scene was delivered by text.

After finding the body of Alliance admiral Kahoku in a containment facility, Shepard deduces it was the work of Cerberus and discovers they have a secret base located on Nepheron. Shepard storms the base, killing all the Cerberus forces. She then finds the Cerberus database, copies what files she can onto her suit's internal computer, wipes the database and shuts down the systems.The Shadow Broker contacted Shepard wanting the files, and I complied, with the promise of help in the future.

While exploring a distress signal, Shepard finds a soldier holding a scientists at gunpoint. Astonished, Shepard recognizes the soldier as Corporal Toombs, one of her squad thought dead on Akuze in the Thresher Maw attack. While indeed Toombs was in the attack and left for dead, he was 'rescued' by scientists working for Cerberus. They used him as a guinea ping in their experiments. He now happened to be in the middle of killing them to as revenge. The reason of his escape was because of the previous mission we completed. After talking to him, I decide it's his right to get revenge on the scientist. He thanks me and heads off.

While exploring the Ming system I found a lost freighter ship. Boarding it I found an odd sense of calm. Further in I found a single brain-dead man living on life support. Suddenly his girlfriend attack us in a misguided attempt to the now dead crew, and now us, from shutting off the man's machine. Killing her, Shepard finds a terminal where the man wishes to be unplugged if he ever was in such a sate. I honor his request.

Some fanatical biotics have kidnapped the chairman Burns and are holed up in a derelict freighter. Upon landing we have only 3 minutes to get to the chairman before he is executed. After busting in the door at 2 minutes we find one of the extremists holding Burns at gunpoint. The biotics are angry because of how those with L2 implants are suffering and the chairman is doing nothing to help them. Shepard, being the charmer she is, explains that the boitics need Burns' political connections, and also convinces Burns to fight the good fight for the boitics.

And lastly, the moon mission. A rouge VI has taken over the Alliance facility on the moon. Shepard has to fight thru 3 bunkers, disabling the cores at each point. Now the mission in itself wasn't very unique, killing drones and stuff. But the ending hit me. The VI displays a final message on the terminal repeated over and over.

01001000010001010100110001010000 It reads 'HELP'

And with that I come to the end of the First of four Mass effect games. Mechanics-wise, I'd say ME1 was great. Story was top-notch. It was engaging and game play was fun. The actual shooting was sloppy and messy as hell, but kind of made up for it with biotics and tech. For a 2007 game, it has aged surprisingly well, earning it an 8/10.

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Writing this journal after the fact was harder than I thought. And I have 3 more games to go. Not just was it hard to remember details (Thanks ME wiki) but it made me remember the good times I had with the game. I found myself typing and then suddenly lost in thought remembering sequences in the game. If someone else is reading this, neat. If not, this effort has proven, yet again, that putting thoughts to paper (pc) is a cathartic process that not only helps the memory, but gives a sense of closure to such a wonderful experience.