Mass Effect

So... this game. To be honest, I personally didn't have the best of expectations upon picking this one back up despite liking it initially, due to my interest in AAA bullshit being on a vast decline in the past couple of years, but this is actually pretty great stuff.

One thing that I need to bring up is that I'm surprised about how short this actually was. Granted, I personally only did about a bit more than a dozen of the game's side missions, but even with those dozen added on, a playthrough of this lasted less than 12 hours for me. By no means is this a complaint, as it's an incredibly pleasant surprise to see a WRPG, and an acclaimed one at that, that isn't pointlessly padded out (to some extent. The main missions are fine, but some of the side missions are kind of repetitive, what with running around identical underground bases, which contributed to me not doing much of them). It's short, sweet, and to the point.

Time for the apparently obligatory talk about the mechanics: Honestly, they're not that bad. Yes, it's not a true third-person shooter, but it's absolutely serviceable for this game. Sure, I admittedly forgot that commands and abilities existed for the vast majority of the game, but any complaints that I'd have are more nitpicks than anything else. Oh, and the Mako? It's not that bad at all, and I don't get the hate for it.

The real reason as to why this game succeeds for me is more due to it's worldbuilding and characters than anything else (I'd say "story", but let's face it: The plot itself is basically "you're a spess mehrine. Go stop the bad aliens.").