Mass Effect: The Great Unknown

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How could I not have played any Mass Effect games. I wen't into this series knowing nothing and leaving with emotions all around the map. This game sucked me in, and I forgot to adequately capture what happened. My images are sparse, but I will recap my main decisions and thoughts.

ME1 was so lacking in screenshots, that I have almost none. This was partly because my computer crashed, and partly due to me not knowing how to back up properly. It's sad, but I will put in a few key images mostly found from google. Now with that out of the way, let us begin.

My character is Silvia Shepard, femshep. I didn't realize till after I created my Shepard that it looked like one of my friends. I believe this was because my head-canon for Shepard was subliminally of my good friend that cosplays her. I played her as a /mostly/ paragon character... One could say 'chaotic good'. Helping people when they needed it, but really putting the smack-down on shitheads. She is an Infiltrator, best with sniper rifles, and deadly with a pistol. The lone survivor of a Thresher Maw attack on Akuze, Shepard is one to have know loss, as well as the endurance to live on.

I really liked the scar over her eye, but unfortunately it didn't carry over to ME2.

The game begins in the year 2183. I am commander Shepard, on-board the SSV Normandy ship commanded by Captain Anderson. We are on a 'routine' mission to Eden Prime to recover an ancient, unearthed Prothean beacon. We are accompanied by the Turian Spectre Nihlus, along with Kaiden and a quickly-killed Jenkins.

We land finding Eden Prime overrun by an synthetic life form known as Geth. As we plow our way through the robot army, we find Ashley, a lone survivor of a squad killed by Geth. Our (most handsome) spectre friend Nihlus gets literally back-stabbed by another Spectre, Saren. This came a a sudden shock, 2 allies dead within the first bit of the game. It really set the tone. Shepard triumphantly secures the beacon, only to touch it and be flooded with visions of the Protheans.

We fly back to the Citadel, the headquarters of all alien life, to be summoned by Earth ambassador Udina. He debriefs us best he can and calls a summit of the Citadel Council. Us earthlings accuse Saren of treason, but cannot convince or prove that he did this.

I huff off in anger to explore the citadel. I found the Asari consort very appealing, yet I don't think she liked Shepard that much. The Hannar are dumber than they look, and I start a quest to scan the mysterious 'Keepers' of the Citadel.

I meet Garrus Vakarian, a Turian security guard on the citadel, who leads me to Urdnot Wrex, a Krogan mercenary who has info on the shadow broker. This shadow broker information then leads us to the quarian mechanic Tali'Zora vas Rayya, who is in a pickle with some of the brokers agents. Shepard, Garrus and Wrex save Tali along with the information she is carrying. At first take I didn't really like Wrex. He was loud and big and just too headstrong. Garrus and Tali were an immediate pick for my main party. Oh, and the humans...who wants humans when you can have aliens?!

Armed with Tali's information we trudge back to the Counsel and prove that Saren has ties with the Asari Matriarch Benezia, and him talking about his attack on Eden Prime. He also mentions the return of the Reapers and a 'Conduit' which the Council takes no heed. However, being dumb to Saren and his intentions, they strip him of his Spectre status and make Shepard the first Human Spectre. Huzzah!

Anderson has semi retired as an Admiral and turned the Normandy over to Shepard. Now the game opens up into the exploration of spaaaaace. Now, this is where I sunk many hours. You can scan planets and drop the Mako, a 6-wheeled TANK down to the surface that can climb almost vertical surfaces to explore and gather materials credits, and other loot.

Anderson provided Shepard with leads on a few planets on where to look for clues about Saren and the Reapers. My first stop was Feros. I am greeted by an outpost of settlers established by the ExoGeni Corporation who was studying a type of plant life. They needed immediate help from a Geth attack. So I take my trusty alien friends and blast thru a few hundred Geth, while making my way to the ExoGeni HQ to save the daughter of a colonist. In the HQ I find out that the plant study, was more an experiment on a mind-controlling plant called the Thorian, who has subsequently the entire colony already under it's control. So I haul ass back to the colony, trying not to kill any colonists make it into the Thorian's lair. After fighting thralls, and dying way too many times. I destroyed the Thorian plant and saved the Asari that was held there. She had an odd green to her skin instead of the normal blue. I thought she was going to be my next companion, but sadly I was mistaken. As a consequence of fighting a mind-controlling plant, Shepard learns of Soren's flagship 'Sovereign' also has similar mind-controlling capabilities. Yaaaaay.

Next I land on Therum to explore a Prothean ruin, that unfortunately has already been under Geth control. In my exploration, I find a feisty Asari locked in a Prothean cell. Unable to break her out the conventional way, I wrestle a mining laser from the Geth and blow a giant hole in the cell. Upon release, the Asari introduces herself as Dr. Liara T'soni. She seems aloof, but I soon fall into her Asari charms. I've caught the blue fever. As we proceed back to the surface, we are met by a Krogan mercenary commanding some Geth. Weird. But we make short work of them with Liara's biotic powers.

With Liara at my back our crew was complete. We head to the frozen planet of Noveria, where some irregular activities have been taking place. The port guard is wary of me, but I wave my Spectre status dick in their face, and I'm let in. After uncovering a bit of political corruption, I am allowed to drive up the slope to Peak 15, a lab that has reported, (or actually a lack of reports) trouble brewing. On my way to the lab a new creature POPPED OUT OF THE CEILING. The Rachni. and holycrapthat first one scared me a gooood bit. But Shepard, the unwavering, along with Garrus and Tali made quick work of them and made it to the AI's core (named Mira). After helping the AI restore some systems, it powered up the tram to get me to the Hot Labs, where all the trouble was coming from.

Upon arriving at the Hot Labs, I'm immediately taken aback. The people seem a bit too calm for a rachni invasion. Even the guards seem a little placated. Well, turns out they are all in on the scheme, and protecting the inner chamber. They turn on me when I learn too much and I have to put down much of the lab's population. Upon entering the main experiment chamber I find no other than Matriarch Benezia herself. Now, since then we have learned that Benezia is Liara's mother, and since I didn't have Liara with me, I trekked all the way back down to the Normandy docks, grabbed Liara and then, trudged back up the mountain to confront her again. This was important. Benezia was a pretty tough opponent, but Liara put her down, despite her love for her mother. In her dying words she snaps out of a mind control dream and reveals that it is not Saren controlling her, but the ship, Sovereign... it is controlling both her AND Saren. She claims she thought she was doing the right thing by joining Saren, but Sovereign corrupted them both. While she is still lucid, she gives us some much needed information: The location to the lost Mu Relay. Then, she snaps back under Sovereign's control and Shepard is forced to put her down. Liara sheds a single tear.

No time for mourning though, because BEHOLD the last Rachni queen is being held in a cage behind us. I decide to let her go, because her talk about a song not only is beautiful, but reminds me of the bugs from 'Ender's Game'. There are many parallels. Both are misunderstood creatures that the galaxy fought off in a war. Both were confused and just wanted peace. In fact, the Rachni moved the Mu Relay in order to protect their territory from invaders. Both were under the mercy of a hero, and both our heroes showed compassion.

We leave Noveria now in search of Saren.