Mass Effect. I love this game....a lot. For those of you who don't know what this game is about, it's a science fiction game set in the year 2148. Here is a bit of information about the back story. Also, if you don't feel like reading the text below, here's a brief explanation of what happens in the game.
You are Commander Shepard, an Alliance soldier aboard the Normandy SR-1 (and later Normandy SR-2 in Mass Effect 2 and 3). Alien beings once believed to be extinct known as Reapers are preparing to wipe out all of civilization -- humans and aliens; your job is to unite the entire galaxy and stop the Reapers from destroying the universe.
Discovery of Mass Effect Physics
In 2148, human explorers on Mars uncovered a long-ruined Prothean observation post, with a surviving data cache that proved Protheans had studied Cro-Magnon humans millennia ago. While religions tried to assimilate this discovery into their doctrine, a global rush began to decipher the petabytes of data from the outpost. Discovering information on a mass relay orbiting Pluto, explorers managed to open the Charon Relay and discovered it led to Arcturus. With the help of the fledgling Systems Alliance, humans expanded to other systems, opening any mass relays they could find.
The First Contact War and Expansion
Humans first came to the attention of the galactic community after a brief but intense conflict with the turians, known by humans as the First Contact War, begun in 2157. The conflict began when the turians attacked a human fleet attempting to activate a dormant mass relay (illegal under Council law) and then occupied the human colony of Shanxi.
Led by Admiral Kastanie Drescher, the Second Fleet then launched a massive counter-attack, which caught the turians by surprise and expelled them from Shanxi. The conflict caught the attention of the Citadel Council, which wasted no time brokering a peace, thus introducing humans to the galactic community. As a consequence of the Alliance's swift and decisive action during the First Contact War, the Alliance became the representative and supranational governing body of humanity. Since then, humans have rapidly risen in prominence.
In 2165, humanity was granted an embassy on the Citadel in recognition of their growing power and influence in the galactic community. The timing of this achievement, less than a decade after first contact, caused some friction with other Citadel races who had waited decades for such recognition.
Humanity continued to expand to unclaimed star systems on the edge of Citadel space, which eventually led to competition with the batarians. When the batarians tried and failed to convince the Council to declare the Skyllian Verge "a zone of batarian interest", they closed their embassy and withdrew from Citadel space. Viewing humans as the cause of their fall from grace, batarians frequently came into conflict with human colonies, especially batarian slavers. Tensions between humans and batarians persist for decades.
The Eden Prime War
“This mission just got a lot more complicated.” — Spoilers for Mass Effect follow.
Humans were caught off-guard by the geth attack on Eden Prime, humanity's most prosperous colony, in 2183. Systems Alliance forces and the legendary Commander Shepard were involved in several operations against geth incursions into Alliance territory. The conflict between the Systems Alliance and geth later became known as the Eden Prime War, and culminated in the Battle of the Citadel, where a massive invasion fleet led by the flagship Sovereign tore through Citadel defenses. With the timely aid of the Alliance's Fifth Fleet, the geth were defeated. Depending on Commander Shepard's actions, the Council is saved and the Systems Alliance granted a Council seat, or the Council perishes and the Alliance forms a new Council. Thanks to their efforts in the Battle of the Citadel, humanity rises to a new level of prominence in the galaxy. -- back story taken from the Mass Effect Wiki
When I first got this game, I couldn't get into it. I didn't have enough sci-fi interest like I used to; but a friend of mine said that it was only $10 on Steam and that I had no reason not to get it since it was so cheap at the time during the Steam sale. So, I went ahead and bought it; at that time, I had just bought a brand new graphics card and power supply to put in my computer so that I could play another awesome game -- Jade Empire. I created a custom female Shepard who has the following characteristics: Spacer, War Hero, and Soldier. Anyways, one of the more interesting subplots in the game (for me) was the romance option. As femShep, I could romance either Kaidan Alenko (human male biotic) or Dr. Liara T'Soni (monogendered - female - alien scientist). I decided to pursue Kaidan; I love how this character shares the same voice actor (Raphael Sbarge) with Carth Onassi in "Knights of the Old Republic."
Unfortunately, there comes a point in the game where you are on a planet (Virmire) and you have to decide which team member you are going to save during a heavy battle -- which means you have to choose who lives or dies. I had to make the decision between my soon-to-be boyfriend (Kaidan) and human soldier Ashley Williams; that's right folks, Ashley Williams is dead in my Mass Effect games. Sorry Ash! I wish there was some special option where I could save both her and Kaidan, but there wasn't. Anyways, I beat Mass Effect 3 earlier this year, and the original ending(s) made no since; thank God that Bioware replaced those endings with the Extended Cut DLC. I'm looking forward to more single player DLC and hopefully new full games; also, I'm buying some of the games that I like on Steam Summer Sale 2012. I bought "Prince of Persia: the Forgotten Sands" and "Sam and Max: the Complete Pack."
Anyways, I'll be back later. I'm sleepy. Goodnight.
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