As I mentioned in this post, I recently played both Mass Effect and its sequel back-to-back. Having now finished both games, I present the Short Script of the first entry in the series, which is currently the longest one on the blog by a wide margin. This is a testament to the amount of content in the game, especially when considering all the things I cut or didn’t put in. Casually talking to Wrex about saving his species after destroying the cure to the genophage on Virmire, some flying turrets looking like three sticks glued together, Matriarch Benezia’s overacted melancholy… all aspects that were initially included but ultimately removed for pacing reasons.

Mass Effect had a decent story with interesting RPG elements, but its combat felt somewhat strained and weak, which threw off many players approaching it as a shooter. Bioware took this into consideration and finetuned the combat mechanics for Mass Effect 2 — at the expense of its RPG elements, which, depending on one’s point of view, were either streamlined or watered down. This makes the game more accessible to mainstream gamers, but also robs it of its predecessor’s depth (at least in terms of gameplay). While the inventory management was something of a hassle in Mass Effect, it allowed players to mold their entire team to their exact specifications. Mass Effect 2 largely eliminates that aspect in favour of a simpler, less cumbersome approach.

The Mass Effect 2 Short Script is well underway, and I’m currently replaying the game to expand on what’s currently there. I’ll give my full thoughts on the game in its accompanying post.