Mass Effect 1 Review
I really like this first game in the trilogy. It's not perfect; there were a few things that I didn't really like about it, but I enjoyed a lot more things about it than I hated about it. For one, I didn't like that there wasn't much characterization when it came to squadmates. At least for my playthrough, I only really got maybe three unique conversations with each of the squad (Except for Liara, which I romanced). I would've liked to see more from Kaiden, Garrus, and (especially) Wrex. I got Wrex's loyalty assignment fairly early in my playthrough after maybe two conversations with him, but after I completed it, I just felt that he didn't have much to offer in terms of character and development until that choice (iykyk). Ashley didn't really at all seem like an interesting character to me, or a necessity in my squad so that choice was fairly easy between her and Kaiden. One other nitpick I had with the game is that I felt some of the assignments got to be a little repetitive. It was mainly go to this distress call, kill these enemies and I was finished. One of my favorite parts of this game, however, is this beautifully crafted story. Saren was an amazing antagonist and the twist that it wasn't entirely Saren all along was pretty surprising. I loved that. Another thing I really liked was the combat. I played on insanity, which got easy after a while, but the combat kept me coming back to the game and I love it. I would probably give this game in the series a 4/5.

There's a lot that I adore about this game and then there's a few criticisms I have. Namely, the endings. I didn't really like any of the endings to the base game. I love the Brotherhood of Steel and all, but I feel like they should've been a bigger presence in one of the DLCs or something. I wish they spent more time fleshing out the Minutemen and the Railroad factions because they just weren't that interesting in the game. I like the idea of their factions, but there's just something missing from both of them. For the Minutemen, it's the first faction you become acquainted to in the game. But after that first mission, they just don't feel like as big a presence in the Commonwealth as they should. Even when you do start gaining more followers in the faction. Their quests boil down to just saving "x" settlement and develop it. The Railroad just feels too one dimensional. I feel like if they just cut the Brotherhood out, or gave them a smaller role, they could've allocated more resources to fleshing out these two new factions. There are amazing things too about this game, I wouldn't give it a 3 if not. I love the combat. My favorite in any Fallout game and the settlement creator is really fun. The side quests are also great. It's just hard to overlook some glaring story issues.