Mass Effect: in every time and every place, the deeds of men remain the same. And redshirts will always die.

Mass Effect is proving to be be a real time sink. It's caught and held my attention so strongly I'm deciding to do a little blog rant much like I did with Fallout 3. It must be the mixture of RPG/shooter type gameplay, immersive environment and some sweet voice acting that's made me stay up into the late evening hours.

The characters are well written, so you actually want to engage them in dialogue. Even the Normandy's arrogant pilot Joker is worth talking to, even if he does grate on the nerves at times. It's a bit like Wash from Firefly, funny and annoying but in a good way. Most of the time.

"I prefer gold to silver. You know, for my medal. I figured you'd recommend me for one since I pulled, uh, your boots out of the fire." Is there an option to punch him?

What about Shepard, the main character?  Well, Shepard is what you make him. Or her. Yeah, my Shepard is female and voiced by Jennifer Hale, who really makes the character come to life. It's one the reasons I switch my laptop on these days. Male Shepard, I was told, sounds stiff and cardboard like. This is one of those games where you decide what kind of person the protagonist will be. Will my Shepard be one to uphold truth and justice, an asshole or something in between? We'll see. 

So the maiden voyage of the Normandy takes us to Eden Prime, a frontier human colony. It sounds like a lovely place.

 It was. 

Shepard and team arrive to find the place trashed and overrun with the robotic Geth. Oh, and Jenkins goes the way of the redshirt. Who is Jenkins you ask? He was a young soldier eager for some action. Then he went the way redshirts do. Do I have to repeat myself? Who will fill the void left by poor Jenkins? Why, Ashley of course.

 She's good with a gun. I approve. She wears a pink jumpsuit. I don't approve.

Shepard's brain gets a bit messed up by a piece of ancient alien technology and she receives a plethora of strange visions. It's really quite disturbing and I won't try to describe it using words. Let's just say it's like the type of dream that leaves you in a cold sweat or a pool of your own urine. Maybe both. Oh, and there's a big flash and bang.

Skip forward and the Normandy arrives at the Citadel. The Council is dismissive, refusing to believe in Shepard's jumbled visions and claiming the attack on Eden Prime was nothing more than an isolated incident.

Soon we will have our revenge on the Jedi - My third sci fi reference so far.

They refuse to believe that Saren, their top agent in the Spectres (the Council's special police force) was involved. He'll become pretty important to the story. More to come.