I’d like to try looking at the Story Enneagram of another game, and the grandaddy awaits, Mass Effect. Can I do it? I bought myself the Legendary Edition, all three games, and I haven’t played in years, so I have a tiny feeling of freshness and a large feeling of nostalgia. The minute that menu music started playing, I teared up. This and Dragon Age were my first RPGs. Let’s try!
Backstory begins. We’re told that humans in the year 2148 discovered alien ruins on Mars that jumped our space-faring civilization forward. We now have the plans — I think? — to build a relay machine, the Mass Effect. Yet, the universe and many alien races already use this technology, so Mass Effect relays are spread about the cosmos.
I create a FemShep, a female Commander Shepard. Of my three origin story choices, I choose Spacer — she comes from a military family — and War Hero for her battle accomplishment. I’ve also gone with Infiltrator, a science and sniper mix, as her weapons specialty. Much of this, including my girl’s name, Athena, is based on my original playthrough about 20 years ago. Like I said, nostalgia is a huge part of this process.
(Or, based on experience, I start a different FemShep, Tag, who’s a Colonist and Sole Survivor running as a Vanguard. Guess what? I created two toons. It’s embarrassing.)
We seem to be flying a routine mission when I learn that, first, I’m to be inspected and tested for an elite battle unit known as the Spectres. If accepted, I would be the first human granted that honor. Second, the sweet little planet we’re to visit is actually the site of an archeological surprise, a Beacon. It, like the Mass Effect relays, is an example of Prothean technology. Apparently, none of the races that inhabit civilized space invented anything. We’re all just sucking off our finds of a long-vanished species.
As we come close to Eden Prime, a transmission shows that the planet is under attack. We see a grainy feed that includes a giant spaceship that looks like a metal claw reaching down to the colony, lightning and power zapping around it. This was supposed to be an easy retrieval mission of the Beacon. Now it’s war. I take a quick response team of two others and follow the Turian Spectre down to the planet.