Why Mass Effect is awesome

Hello everyone, I’m Arcane Aristocrat, here to rant about the latest game I just played. Firstly, a confession : I only played the last two games in the series. I know, ridiculous! But, dear reader, as soon as I return to my beloved PC once term ends in December, I will rectify this great wrong. Nonetheless, I feel entitled to spew out my overwhelming love for the game and the series.

A brief introduction: Mass Effect has more exhilarating action than most action games, places you more firmly in the main character’s shoes than most books, masters characterization far more than most tv series, builds a more incredible world than most fiction, and has an absolutely fantastic plot. Mass Effect made my heart race, peaked my curiosity, swallowed my nights, made me laugh and cry and spend every waking moment playing it.

Now I don’t want to write a massively long blog post, so I will instead split up my adoration for this game into several posts. Firstly, in keeping in tone with the rest of this blog, I will do a list: my favorite 5 characters in Mass Effect – excluding commander Shepard (don’t worry, he/she will have a dedicated blog post).

Top 5 Mass Effect characters

Runner Up: Grunt

Grunt didn’t make the top 5 due to the depth he lacked in compare to most of the characters. Nonetheless, his crude and violent style is both awe-inspiring and hilarious, and few things inspire confidence in combat as a loud roar of “I am Krogan” as Grunt rushes into the fray.

5. Miranda 

Miranda is a product of genetic modification, technological improvement, and first class education – engineered to be the mentally and physically perfect  being. Despite all these efforts, or more accurately, because of them, Miranda is racked by the possibility she can’t truly claim any of her achievements for herself, having been given all the right circumstances in advance - the struggle that brings her character to life. 

4. Jack

Jack’s type of character is no hallmark of innovation in fictional creations, though she is hardly your typical anti-hero. Pissed off at a world unfair, often falling into uncontrollable rage, and literally bred to be a vicious killing machine, Jack offers the player a broken and unwelcoming character to get closer to. But where her character lacks originality, it is both believable and open to growth. Also, unlike anti-heroes à la Lisbeth Sallander, Jack has the pure physical force to fight her way through those that piss he off. What Jack lacks in stature, she makes up in the pervasive sense anger, power and hurt she emits, that are as real as they are intense.

3. Legion

Simultaneously a part of the Geth consensus and an individual of his own, Legion is perhaps the most original character in the game. Legion, and the Geth, are perhaps surprisingly the most selfless and peacefully-minded inhabitants of the Mass Effect universe. Living in isolation from the other races, desiring nothing but self-determination of not only themselves, but all species, and surprisingly understanding of their vengeful creators, the Quarians, the Geth - and Legion especially - are almost paragons in a chaotic universe, struggling but to live in harmony.

2. Mordin Solus

Dr Mordin Solus is incredibly intelligent by even Salarian standards, and moreover a deadly operative. High-functioning and observant, Mordin always clearly analyses any problem he faces, and carefully - but not coldly - calculates the best course of action. Being part of a team that strengthened the Genophage, rendering more Krogan females infertile, has racked him with guilt, and his struggle to either accept or atone for his actions are some of the most ethically interesting parts of the game. He is also the only important character who has a singing performance – must not be missed!

1. Liara

At the young Asari age of 109, Liara combines the powerful curiosity of a child with the soulful wisdom of an ancient. Where Shepard struggles in a world full of chaos and hate, Liara offers a sense of wonder and courage when neither are apparent. Liara, more than any other character I’ve encountered, shows how vulnerability and softness become a strength and comfort in times of struggle. Perhaps the thing that excites me most about replaying the series starting from ME1, is to play another game with Liara at my side.