I first played the Mass Effect trilogy when I was 14 years old and it changed my little life. It was the first time I got to witness gay romance on an epic scale. It was responsible for a lot of the early friendships I made as a kid and in a lot of ways, it helped me survive an abusive household.

I’ve revisited the trilogy many times since first completing it, designing all kinds of Shepards tailor made for certain decisions. The last time I properly revisited it and played through the entire trilogy was the summer of 2015; I was fresh out of my abusive home and going into my senior year. Appropriate that the remaster would release the year I’m moving into my first apartment under my own name and living alone for the first time. Major life changes and this series always seem to come hand in hand.

Despite all the bitterness I still feel for the ending and the bungling of Andromeda, my love for this series remains. There’s a magic to it, a magic that’s propelled me to pour thousands of hours into it and shed countless of tears. Nothing I’ve ever played has come close to capturing the love this series has running through it’s veins. Even now, as an adult, and after 6 weeks and 135 hours, I’m still just as in love with it as I was when I first finished it all those years ago.

There’s nothing I can even say, really, that hasn’t already been said. Mass Effect is just an impecable series and one that will follow me all my life. I’m so grateful to get to experience every bit of it again, to discover parts of the game I somehow hadn’t seen, and to share it with people who otherwise would’ve have been able to experience it.

It’s been a great ride.