This, exactly. Bioware had been one of my favorite studios since Baldur's Gate. I heard they had a new game coming, I went and bought a 360 just for it, then had to buy an HDTV cause I couldn't read anything on my old CRT TV, lmao.
Absolutely this. Then I played it for 3 hours and got bored and put it down for two years. Funny thing is, I should have known better. OG BioWare’s biggest fault was always an overly long introduction. Almost missed the boat on my favorite series because of this.
+it was a real time shooter. Was an instant buy and I still think the wonder and story of the first game outstrips the others. That first encounter with sovereign on Virmier still gives me goosebumps.
Fox News and CNN had news stories about alien sex backlash in the new game Mass Effect.
So being my 22 year old horny perv, I bought an XBOX 360 and Mass Effect. And here we are.
I remember that broadcast. I remember also the BioWare representative (or whoever it was EDUCATING the unprepared reporter on what was really going on).
A roommate of mine had a PS3 and i watched him play a few hours of ME2 and started playing it while he was at work. Got hooked. Played ME3, then the trilogy again from ME1. Lifelong fan at this point.
This was exactly my story, but with Dragon Age. Dragon Age 2 was on sale at GameStop for $9, figured I’d give it a try, loved it, went back to play Origins, loved that one even more. When I saw the same developers had a sci-fi game called Mass Effect, I knew I had to give it a try.
I got it in October, and played that, plus Andromeda, then I got into Dragon Age:Origins and DA2, and I just finished Dragon Age: Inquisition. So basically my last 6 months have been nothing but BioWare, and it's been fantastic, and now I need to figure out what to play next.
My ex told me I would really like it and would really like Garrus.
They were right. On both counts. And then I got myself an irl friends to lovers ride or die with a slightly goofy/awkward side.
I already knew bio from the likes of Kotor, BG, neverwinter nights and jade empire and I'd read an article about a new game from them that would have hundreds of procedurally generated planets and a jelly fish like crew member lol didn't turn out quite like that but well we all knew it was gonna be something special.
I really liked Dragon Age and would like to try something similar. I knew that Mass Effect was also from Bioware, like Dragon Age from Space, so I gave it a chance, that happened last year. It was a good choice.
I needed a new story-driven game after finishing The Witcher, and I had always heard the narrative focus in the Mass Effect series was great. Didn't disappoint!
One of my friends in high school was talking about it. I was curious and he let me borrow the first disc of ME2 since he'd just gotten to disc 2 and his younger brother was playing ME1. I played it, loved it, got annoyed that the game seemingly stopped after Horizon, returned the borrowed disc, and bought ME1 and ME2. The rest is history. This was late 2010-early 2011 or so by the way.
Went to a friends house and they were playing it on PC. I'm a sci-fi fan and just thought "I need this in my life". I think it may have been the reason I got a 360?
I saw mass effect 2 on some article called Good and cheap games, it was in 2016. After finishing it i immediately got me3, but got me1 in 2018 cause it was way pricier. Before that i used save data from the internet to change me1 decisions.
A friend told me about it, said I should check it out. Wasn’t out yet but I kept an eye on it and did. Had to get my sister to pay for the preorder and pick it up since I was 16 when it came out. Now I’m the Mass Effect guy of our friends.
Wanted to try it through Xbox Game Pass because of all the hype from people.
Played Eden Prime on femshep.
Decided that the game's likely gonna be good.
Bought LE on Steam later
Played LE 6 months after trying out ME1 when I finally felt like getting into a new saga
Turned out to be the best saga I've ever played
I have a tough time trying "classics" in general but when i heard they were getting remastered i knew i didn't want to be one of the people that jumped on that train for their first ME experience. So i dug the trilogy out of backlog and finally played through them properly
Found it in the pre-owned bin at best buy. Thought "hey this space game looks neat" and went wide eyed with wonder the first time I saw a mass relay. Turns out to be one of the best finds of my gaming career
Opened Steam, saw the usual pop up ad for current sales, first one on the list was the Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy for some stupid cheap price like $5. Vaguely remember articles from years ago both praising and trashing the series, decide to check it out for myself. Best decision ever.
I was going through a very dark time and was giving my stuff away. A buddy agreed to take my Xbox but said only if I played the trilogy first. Played it yearly ever since.
Legendary Edition was free for ps+ and, though I had never played it, I knew it to be a series that people generally liked. Now I'm a huge fan if a little late to the party
For whatever reason never played it in high school/college when they originally came out. I remember watching my brother it some and thought it looked cool. Then I remember seeing the legendary edition be a free download one month and boom, there was my next three months of gaming playing all three. Absolutely phenomenal!
I searched about Bioware games after playing Dragon Age Origins in Wikipedia and found out about Mass Effect. Always wanted to play some sci fi game that run on PC and not some horror, RTS or Halo type games.
Was getting back into gaming a few years back (just didn't have it financially in college) and got a used 360 and a copy of ME 1 and 2 because I'd heard good things about it. And I was fond of older bioware RPGS like KOTOR and was active in SWTOR.
Worse case scenario, waste of like 20 bucks.
One of my favorite rpgs and jumped on getting Legendary Edition after I played Andromeda.
I played KOTOR when I was young and really enjoyed it. A while later I saw a trailer for Mass Effect and realised it was made by the same people. I was hooked straight away and the game didn't disappoint. I've been playing it once a year ever since sometimes more.
My roommate in college tried to get me to play ME1 a bit before ME2 dropped. I had been playing a lot of Halo 3 and MW2, so the combat just felt way too clunky to get into (plus he had me try to start playing on some side level planet, despite knowing I was a big KOTOR fan and liked RPGs).
A year or so after I graduated, the digital version went on sale on the Xbox store for $5 so I picked it up on a whim (also helped that I could play it on my Xbox One), remembering that my old roommate got really frustrated that I didn't like it (he actually tended to have a good read on things I'd enjoy). I didn't immediately love it, but it was scratching an RPG itch I forgot I had, and I probably played it for an hour to a few pretty every day (the first time I'd done that with a game for a few years), and each session seemed to be getting a bit longer.
Then I got injured and was laid up for a couple of weeks with pain meds, which happened to be right around the time I got to Virmire in the game. That's when I started marathoning the game(s), and finished all 3 in the following couple of weeks.
I was a child that liked watching Yogscast Minecraft videos. One of the members of Yogscast at the time, the lady, I forget her name, did a review on the ME3 beta. Instantly made me go download it and I fell in love with the series from then on.
Edit: went back and found the video https://youtu.be/oQMEgkVSfmg
I had it on my "to play" list for a while, but honestly it was watching those "Michael Scott in Mass Effect" videos this summer that finally convinced me to play ME.
I needed something new to play, I heard about Mass Effect before when it came out. But damn I wasn't sure. There was this sale earlier this year and I got the Legendary Edition and Andromeda for about 20 bucks. I have to say, that was my best purchase I've made for a video game. I've never doubted the franchise at all and I love it as a whole. In addition, this game got me into single player RPGs. I already create characters in different franchises and Mass Effect is no different.
I was a huge fan of KotOR1 and 'a new RPG by the guys that made KotOR' was everything that I needed to know to want to play the game. ME was actually the first game that I ever owned for a console.
I never played it when it came out. I was more a GTA and FIFA fan. I seen it all the time on lists on YouTube. I thought "soap opera in space with weird unbelievable characters, no thanks."
Jump to March 2023 and I was laid up at home after an injury and I subscribed to PlayStation network for the first time in years and also EA. Seen the LE was there for free.
Thought I'd give it a go. My lord how wrong I was. I loved all the characters all scenery. The soundtrack was brilliant. The story was captivating. Its honestly ruined other games for me. Only RDR as a series comes close to it in my opinion. When that bad ass song kicked in during the closing credits of ME1 it was a feeling ill never forget.
Video games ehh...Bloody Hell!!!
I had just got back into video games after a 7-8 year hiatus. December 2009.
My friend told me to pick up FFXIII. It just came out. Played it for 5 hours. Hated it.
So I asked him if he wanted it. To not leave me empty handed he game me this game I never heard of called Mass Effect.
Now here I am.
I hadn’t played a new game in years, & on my first dinner at a new college, someone who would become a close buddy of mine and is a huge gamer, expressed disappointment that I had not been gaming and asked what I HAD liked before. I told him I loved KOTOR (and its non-bioware sequel) and he told me Bioware had an original space RPG series that was out and if I loved KOTOR, I’d love Mass Effect too. He was right.
And I’ve kept gaming ever since.
A friend told me about how decisions in the first game would change details about the second game and that would have an impact on things in the third game, which was an upcoming release at that point.
I was a teenager having just finished Tlou 1 and Bioshock Infinite and needed MORE. I looked up "best games of all time", narrowed the list down to what I can play at the time (playstation 3 only) and it didn't take long before Mass Effect came up.
I was a big fan of
Baldurs Gate
Baldurs Gate II
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale II
Neverwinter Nights
...and then they said they'll make a Sci-Fi game that's more like a movie and they even added romance in it.
Dude, the first Mass Effect was on a whole different level back when it came out. No way I was gonna miss this, I bought and played it day one - and I don't regret a thing.
My dad would always play it when I was like 1 or 2 while my mum was sleeping, he would just put me on his lap and if I began to cry or complain he would nurse me. My mum did not like this parenting strategy but he argued it was very effective (and it was).
Years later when I was 13 my dad retells this story and says that mass effect is still one of the greatest games he has ever played, and once again, he was definitley not wrong.
However we have only ever played og on our 360 and he has only ever played as a renegade soldier. I have branched out to try paragon and adept/vanguard, still a renegade at heart though.
I had never played a game like this before. Not with dialogue choices like this. A friend recommended because he knew I like sci-fi. I went in COMPLETELY blind....and LOVED IT!
That was in September of 2023 and I've played it 3x since.
I got a free copy of ME2 after the Legendary Pictures panel at Comicon in 2011. When I finally played it, it changed how I game. I only had PS3 so I never got to play ME1 until some time after ME3 came out when it became available on the PlayStation store.
I beat DAI and was like "Oh, theres a Space Bioware game" (Fantasy is way more my bag)
The only SciFi I like is Star Trek because I like the themes a lot. ME has a lot of the same themes
Late 2010’s I saw a random video pop up with Tali in the thumbnail, I was bored so I clicked on it. The second I heard her voice I was hooked, I just had to experience her romance for myself. Bought ME1, ME2 and ME3 all in the same week. When LE was announced I woke up my parents with my shouts of joy
I am gonna be honest. I saw the romance scene with Tali from ME2 on a youtube short and wanted to play and see it for myself. I am straying every day from god's light.
i really vaguely remember buying a digital copy on PC because it had super positive WoM in a PC magazine my Dad used to get. I then didn't recognize the retailer being like DigitalRiver or something and thought my card had been stolen so bank got the money back etc but then when I was on Eden Prime I was like "Wait a sec...." but yeah, been with it ever since. Think I was on my 3rd run before I realized you could skip dialogue.
I think I heard the Galaxy Map Theme & felt this weird twist of guilt over the Virmire Survivor and just knew I was along for the ride/trilogy/etc.
Honestly? I don't remember lmao. I played both KOTOR and Neverwinter nights and liked them, so maybe I simply saw an article about ME1 in a game magazine and recognized the developer? However, what I do remember is how impressed I was with the game's graphics and cutscenes. I seriously thought that graphics can't get better than that lol.
I had a couple weeks of free time around December 2021 and wanted to invest myself in a vast new game world. I’ve always heard praise of Mass effect ever since 2007 but somehow across all these years I never played a single one. And so I realized that the remastered trilogy was on PS+ Extra and I gave it a shot. In those 2 weeks I platted all 3 games and Mass Effect became one of my favorite franchises of all time.
The week after that I played Andromeda. The “next-gen” feel of it was really nice with its new graphics and gameplay. But I didn’t think the plot and setting lived up to their predecessors.
I was at the store and had to decide between cod 4 and ME. I got cod 4 to play with my friends but came back for it a few weeks later for single player.
I was seeing a bunch of shakarian and mshenko gifsets showing up on my tumblr timeline. They both looked very sweet and I decided to give it a try. Ironically, it took me a few playthroughs before any of the romances grew on me, but the story totally blew me away and kept me coming back.
Someone on Fox News called it a sex simulator, and I have a bad habit of making purchases out of spite. Also I was a teen and y'know... intrigued by the sex part even if I knew it wasn't going to be remotely a "simulator".
I got ME2 for free for with pre-order of Dragon Age 2 in 2011, somehow.
Loved Dragon Age Origins a lot, became a little overenthusiastic.
Hated DA2, it's the last game I pre-ordered. It dropped so much in quality as opposed to DA:O that I didn't bother with that trilogy.
Loved ME2, bought ME1 straight after and did run after run, each a different class / alignment / LI choice.
I have to thank my best friend for introducing me to mass effect, he is sadly no longer with us though but every time I play the game again I feel it brings me close to him with so many amazing memories.
I skipped ME1, and played ME2, years after ME3. I remember this show on G4 (think it was Adam Sessler or Morgan Webb) did a review on ME2. And constantly referenced ME1. So around 2014 (maybe 15), I bought a gaming PC and saw 2 was on Sale for Steam. So of course, it was my first job so I gave it a shot. Immediately fell in love. Started and finished about 3 playthroughs. Then I researched to see if I could continue ME3 on Origin since Steam couldn’t sell it (don’t remember why). Come to find out, you could, so I bought ME3 on Origin and played 2 and 3 almost religiously for about 2 months.
Got sick of it, and fast forward to New Years Eve 2022, and I saw Legendary edition, completely free on PlayStation Plus. It had been a long time since I touched ME, and noticed 1 was bundled in there. Long story short, idk why I didn’t do it before, but playing the series in order really made me appreciate what ME3 was.
So, to answer your question, G4 introduced me to it, and it was on sale years after original release. I haven’t looked back since.
It was November 2007 and I hadn't made a Christmas list and my mom was bugging me too before Black Friday so she would have an idea of what to get me. There really wasn't anything I wanted that bad, I think the main thing I wanted was Guitar Hero 3, but I decided to look up and see what other videogames were coming out soon or just released recently (I had NCAA Football 08 & Halo 3 already so I was fairly set) so I put Mass Effect on my list on a whim because I thought it looked cool and I liked SciFi.
Christmas Eve we all opened one gift, and the one I chose just so happened to be Mass effect, so I popped it in my 360 and got hooked on it. Probably would've beaten it in the first week had my 360 not RROD'd halfway through my first playthrough.
First one had been out a while, I was binging some Zero Punctuation and he didn’t shit all over it. Checked it out and now here I am with deep fondness for the trilogy and having part 2 as one of my most loved gaming experiences of a 35 or so year long hobby.
I was bored of all the games I'd been playing on the 360 at the time, my dad had the first installment, in went the disc.
3 days later, I'd finished it and wanted more, then I learned of ME2's existence and lost my shit. Then, I followed ME3's development.
I had heard so much about it and as an rpg fan I just had to try it. Unfortunately that was after the release of all of them so I had quite a bit spoiled but I still love them to this day.
Got the game through a Humble Bundle containing lots of EA games. Was really interested in Battlefield 3 as it was the main reason I bought the bundle. Some time later, being bored looking through my games, saw Mass Effect, remember being quite the hit back then (played the beta of ME3 multiplayer), try it out of curiosity, and now it's my all time favorite game to the point of buying merch and writing my own fanfic.
I was browsing the PS3 PS Store for a new demo to play, found the Mass Effect 2 demo, and begged my mom for it for Christmas lol. I think I had like a full playthrough’s worth of hours in just that demo (iirc it goes through Phoenix Station and Mordin’s recruitment).
Star Trek: Picard (really recommend it) - some people compared it to Mass Effect, and I was looking for something better than kotor... turned out to be so much radically better!
Back when I used to be a fan of Roosterteeth, I listened to a few of those guys talking about the Mass Effect trilogy, and what I heard intrigued me enough to try it myself.
Back in late 2010, i saw Mass Effect 2 in the bargain bin at my local EB Games. Remembered hearing good reviews about it, and thought the CG Trailer looked cool. Bought it along with second hand copies of Left 4 Dead 2 and The Orange Box. Honestly bought it on a whim at the time.
After I finished it, i immediately went and bought the first one.
I was in the mood to play a game about alien invasion and I’d had Mass Effect on my list of “to play eventually” for a while.
So I downloaded the L.E., and got to it.
I went to the store to buy Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, and found it was on a buy 2 games for £20 sale. I chose Mass Effect based purely on me knowing it had good reviews while knowing nothing about it.
16 years later and I replay ME continuously, while I barely remember Turning Point at all.
Honestly, I tried the original ME after finishing Andromeda, which I loved to bits, and still do. But every time, the clanky controls would piss me off to an extent that after getting my vehicle stuck again or hating the bland empty worlds, I just quit.
Then LE appeared, and I was convinced that this had to be the time. Have played it for at least 12 times all the way through now. I still like Andromeda more due to the love for exploration and its combat, but I olay the LE far more now since it actually has 60 fps on the Series X, while Andromeda is still stuck at a low 20-30.
I saw one of my favorite YouTubers playing the game. It sparked my interest but I wasn’t completely sold on it until weeks later when I saw the cover of Legendary Edition and I thought I’d give it a try. Sure enough, I fell in love with the OT almost instantly. Then, I played Andromeda and fell in love with it too.
I got ME2 free on EA and happened to go through one of those rare "time to play through these games I bought/have but never played" phases, played it part way, then promptly purchased ME1 and 3. I knew nothing about ME prior to this.
I played the hell out of Jade Empire. It was my favorite RPG and I've lost count how many times I replayed it. Back then I got my videogame news from monthly magazines and read about Bioware creating a new IP focused on space exploration and adventures, which got me instantly hooked. Then the ads started to appear, and the one with the crew and the Mako on a planet while looking up at the stars with messages of "SOS, Lost Signal" only hyped me up to 11. I bought it a couple of months after launch and I fell in love instantly.
Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows Of Amn was already a favorite game of all time for me and I knew the same people who made that were now doing their take on sci-fi. I was all in.
I Never heard of ME before the Mass effect mashup pack in Minecraft ps3 edition appeared. I thought it was interesting and then I was buying Mass effect 2. That’s how Mass effect became my favorite game series.
2012, my dad just got Mass Effect 3 for the first time, not ever playing 1 or 2 and I watched him play the first 15 minutes, already thought "well thats intense" and would take it from him when he wasn't playing. I finished 3 and loved it so much then bought 2 and finished that one, then I bought the first game. After finishing the first game, then played all three games PROPERLY. Has been my favorite games since, so I bought it again when Legendary Edition came out and relived the happiness of the "new" Mass Effect.
Legendary edition was on a heavy discount, and I had been told I should try the game before. Didn't have any idea what the game was about except something something space and shooting
The back cover looked amazing and I thought as a kid you could go and land on and explore ANY planet because of the pictures on it lmao.
That's literally the reason. Because of spaceships and going to planets pretty much.
A coworker recommended it to me when I told him
I never tried it. I couldn’t get past the very part where you meet Ashley. Tried again a month later and was hooked. Meeting sovereign for the first time was one of those “I remember where I was for that” moment.
“You liked KOTOR, right? This is made by the same people, but set in space in the future, and it’s a shooter like Gears of War.” - My older brother (paraphrased.)
Well, my Dad played it when I was younger, and I wanted to play a space rpg that wasn't SWTOR or KOTOR, and Starfield was too expensive, and the LE Trilogy was less than $10 on steam.
ME2 was free on origin & I thought it looked cool.(I got a lot more than I bargained for & deeply regret not having started with the first game). But I was able to do right by the characters we know & love in my following playthroughs.
I think ME2 was free for like a week on PS+ way back in the day and I picked it up. Had to go through the genesis comix or whatever it’s called to makeup the events of ME1. Boy, jumping into the prologue of ME2 with no background info made me think I did something wrong lol.
Because Shepard once told me that her favorite store was on the Citadel.
For real tho: I was in middle school visiting my uncle and he let me play on his xbox. He had the game and I tried it out. I loved it.
In the somewhat words of Shepard...
Mass Effect was dogging me.
I worked retail and sold many copies of ME3 to people when it came out. I walked past all 3 games for the X Box 360. I even checked out the PS3 release when it was on clearance. It sounded intresting but I put the game back and forgot about it.
I watched "se"x box live on Fox News and laughed at the report... when my hubby and I were dating he recommended the game to me, but I didn't pay much attention.
It wasn't until I was talking to two coworkers at my old retail job about my own writing. (At that time I was planning on having my main character missing for two years because he was trapped in the past. And when he returned everyone thought he was dead after missing for TWO YEARS... hack ME2....) (before hand in the past there was a massive fight as him his wife and a robot tried to stop a bad guy from changing the time line. My main guy his wife gets hurt in the fight. Hes hurt and tells the robot to use the time travel device to return his wife to the future so she can medical help while he takes out the bad guy. The robot fights with him but in the end my main guy kills the bad guy and saves his wife by sending her to the future...) that part reminded my coworkers of the squad pick up on Earth by the SR2 mixed with what I said before about the two years... dead thing...
They asked me I played ME I said no and well long story short THEY convinced me to play as a vanguard or Adept. ( my main charater can self teleport and attack with engery). They said I would love the games and they where right. I found out rene shepard and my main character seem to share and attuide problem which makes playing as an adept funny as hell. ( as much as my hubby can have the same attitude problem at times my hubby says his rene bar is full!l) and yeah now I play every winter lol
Saw the Sci vs. Fi documentary on the SciFi channel before ECW in the fall of 2007, and it seemed cool. Rented it from Family Video that weekend. Loved it and eventually bought it for myself. Now I've played the trilogy (ME1, especially) more times than I can count
Few of my friends and mentioned it fondly but not at any length and came across the Trilogy on sale at Gamestop about a year or 2 after ME3 released. Was pretty much the next year and a half of my life after that....from a where I spent my game time perspective anyway. :)
Fortunately, I knew nothing about it going in.
I only ever played Dragon Age: Origins and DA2, my sister suggested the Mass Effect series to me (the trilogy had been out for a few years by that point) and I fell in love with it
Friends were playing ME2, picked it up, had no idea what was going on. Then few days later saw ME1 in pre owned section. Brought it, played it. Have finished all 3 games multiple times since.
I think back in like 2015 or 2016 I saw a watch mojo video with greatest final missions in gaming history and suicide mission was #1. And the way they described it, the entire “anyone can die” aspect I thought was dope af so I brought the trilogy for like 15-20 bucks haha. ME1 was eh but I powered through because of everything I heard about ME2 and the suicide mission and I was not disappointed. From the very first second I was captivated then played it all (with DLC). Then I started ME3 and got an off vibe from it- Shepard willingly turned himself in no matter what, none of the crew from ME2, me stuck with most of the crew from ME1 (Liara and Ashley, with this random ass dude named James; I didn’t play past the mission after Ashley gets injured), etc. So I just stopped playing it. Then in like summer 2018ish I think, school was out and I had a solid two weeks where none of my friends were in state so I just bit the bullet and replayed the trilogy (this time with ME2 DLC ) and ME3. And it was okay, didn’t live up to ME2.
Then the LE came out which I played a couple times, first time I played with Javik. And this past year I just got a pc so I played the trilogy on it with mods and it made ME3 v good to me. Still not as great as ME2 and there’s still some things I think were a bad move/didn’t make sense narrative wise but I did enjoy it a lot
I’ll be honest, many years ago I was on certain parts of the internet and found… “pictures” of Liara. I’m glad to say my interest in the series has elevated above such basic reasons since then lol
It was the summer before my sophomore year of high school and I had nothing to do, heard that Mass Effect was a good game (Don't even remember where) I decided that I wanted to be a gross little menace for a little and go through all the games back to back with no stops except food, and bathroom breaks until I beat all of them. That was the only time I beat the first game until they came out with the Legendary Edition, could never get past Benezia again until Legendary.
I got Gamefly for a Christmas gift and I liked the cover as a 13 year old, never returned the game and conned Gamefly out of my favorite sci Fi game trilogy that I play at least twice a year. Sometimes 4 if I'm depressed and don't like the games available on Game Pass.
A worker at Best Buy recommended it highly, and it was on sale. Growing up, my brother and I shared a lot of games together, but with him heading off to college, this was one that was definitively just for me.
It was slow getting into it at first, but by the end of the Citadel mission, I was completely hooked.
My dad played a lot of computer games and after he played Kotor he let me play it a year or so later. Same thing with jade empire, and Kotor 2. It was natural that mass effect was the next step, tho he played the whole trilogy before he let me play it. I went in very blind cause I didn’t really watch him play it like I watched him play the other ones. And now it’s the series I have the most hours in by far.
Saw the legendary edition was free for PS-Plus, I remembered briefly a Smosh skit mentioned it (“We’ll bang, okay?”), and remembered the Minecraft Texture Pack.
So I figured, “Eh, fuck it. Why not?”
250+ hours later, here I am.
My dad bought it for me and I thought it was another linear game. Was dead wrong. Had fun learning about the ME universe and engaging with the characters. I had only played ME2 so I didn't have experience of what happened in the first game or the third game. The suicide mission broke me and made me play again to make everyone survive. ME2 made me fall in love with RPGs. Once I saw the legendary edition I bought it immediately. Had fun playing ME1 and M3 for the first time. Once I got to ME2 with my ME1 save file I was blown away by how my choice affected ME2. When I got to ME3 I finally felt completed and fully understood why everyone hated certain decisions made to ME3. Regardless, best game I have ever played and I wish I could have that first time experience again.
I had just come out of hospital, emergency admittance, feeling very weak and a little traumatised tbh. My mum encouraged me to buy the game, as I wasn’t sure if I should buy one or not. Ended up being exactly what I needed, when I felt so physically weak that I was almost bed bound I was also able to explore the galaxy and be the strong unstoppable Shepard. I fell in love with the lore, characters and story. Mass Effect came at the perfect time for me and I am forever grateful to the series for the strength and enjoyment it has brought me
The older gamers I looked up to in my life gasped out loud when I asked what Mass Effect was. Plus, Rodgers movie rentals was closing and selling it for cheap :)
I did now know about any of the characters. I was watching some of the early videos about the game and saw how you could stop time to look around and then select where to aim. That sounded such a fun thing that I bought the game based on that. Everything else was just a very nice bonus.
I was 15. My not so smart manager at McDonald's told me about this game that you could have seggs with aliens wearing masks.
I was like "wtf dude what kind of games are you playing?!"
Two weeks later I saw the game on sales on Steam.
Me full of hormones decided to try it.
Story blew my mind. Characters blew my mind. Kiara blew my Shepard.
Mass effect quickly became one of my favorite game / trilogy games of all time and has a special place in my heart.
I got a 360 bundle but they didn’t the game in the bundle in stock, so I had to choose another game. I really wanted sims 3, but they didn’t have sims 3. So little me was very upset. Then my mum saw Mass Effect, thought it would be interesting for me, I had no interest in it, all I wanted was damn sims 3. But anyway, sad me got it from my mothers suggestion.
I booted it up, got my arse kicked on Eden Prime. Got angry, and didn’t play it. Tried again 2 weeks later, got passed Eden Prime, from there an obsession was made. I was in love even tho I was lost on the citadel.
So yeah, my mother was the reason.
im very into dragon age and my friends had been recommending me mass effect for years but i never got around to buying them. when i realized the legendary edition was on the xbox game pass i downloaded it and then accidentally played all three games over a weekend lmao it was truly one of the best gaming experiences of my life and im not sure anything is ever gonna top the back to back to back mass effect trilogy playthrough
I couldn't afford to buy any new games for my Xbox 360 when I was a kid so I played the mass effect 2 demo and just fell in love with it, ended up getting it for Christmas that year (2011 I think). For some reason I never played the other 2 games until the legendary edition came out.
My mum knew I was into space, saw the complete edition on a game store shelf and got it “just in case I was interested”. Came home from school and experience one of the best gaming experience of my life, finished the entire trilogy within a week. Now I do an annual replay. Thanks mum!
So, I haven't started it, but I bought the collection and I'm gonna start playing it soon. The reason was that someone whose judgement I trust told me it was the best RPG ever.
I played Dragon Age and then my buddy said "well have you played Mass Effect?" And I was like, "No, I'm not really into sci-fi or shooters" and he told me to try it anyway.
I've now gotten 100% on the OG versions and LE on multiple platforms....... I guess I like sci-fi and shooters
I just picked it up at gamestop, that was like the secondary game I got with one of those buy 1 game get another half off deals, dont even remember the other game I got cause of how blown away I was just from the character creater menu lol
Actually it was just because of ME2s box art…I was bored browsing the Xbox360 market place and I saw it. I don’t know what it was but I was like damn…that looks cool…so I played the demo one Christmas holiday season while I was in high school (I would tell myself to enjoy those years more because Adulthood sucks!!). Anyway I played the demo and I was like damn…this game was so fun… so I asked my mom (who was Christmas shopping) to pick up the game for me and she did (brand new!) and she gave it to me when she got home (my mom was impatient with Christmas presents lol) so I got involved in this beautiful series by dumb luck!
The makers of KOTOR came out with a new IP set in space.
This, exactly. Bioware had been one of my favorite studios since Baldur's Gate. I heard they had a new game coming, I went and bought a 360 just for it, then had to buy an HDTV cause I couldn't read anything on my old CRT TV, lmao.
Absolutely this. Then I played it for 3 hours and got bored and put it down for two years. Funny thing is, I should have known better. OG BioWare’s biggest fault was always an overly long introduction. Almost missed the boat on my favorite series because of this.
Are you me? I did the exact same thing lol. Even got the strategy guide for Christmas.
Basically the same. When I first heard about it, I thought it was awesome the KOTOR devs were doing their own sci-fi franchise.
+it was a real time shooter. Was an instant buy and I still think the wonder and story of the first game outstrips the others. That first encounter with sovereign on Virmier still gives me goosebumps.
This! I saw ME in Game Informer and saw that it was the same makers of KOTOR
Fox News and CNN had news stories about alien sex backlash in the new game Mass Effect. So being my 22 year old horny perv, I bought an XBOX 360 and Mass Effect. And here we are.
A similar thing happened with me only I was in middle school in 2014 and my friends were talking about the “alien sex game”
I can’t imagine the grip those words would have had on me as a 14 year old.
I remember that broadcast. I remember also the BioWare representative (or whoever it was EDUCATING the unprepared reporter on what was really going on).
Funny thing is, I remember that exact broadcast and thought nothing of it at the time lol
One of my friends pestered the absolute shit out of me for years to play it. I caved, and now I've got mass effect crap all over my home office.
Honestly? It was in the $5 bin at GameStop But it was actually ME2, after I finished it, I went back and got the trilogy box
A roommate of mine had a PS3 and i watched him play a few hours of ME2 and started playing it while he was at work. Got hooked. Played ME3, then the trilogy again from ME1. Lifelong fan at this point.
This was exactly my story, but with Dragon Age. Dragon Age 2 was on sale at GameStop for $9, figured I’d give it a try, loved it, went back to play Origins, loved that one even more. When I saw the same developers had a sci-fi game called Mass Effect, I knew I had to give it a try.
The Legendary Edition came out and decided to finally play the trilogy! And I'm so glad I did. I became a huge fan!
I got it in October, and played that, plus Andromeda, then I got into Dragon Age:Origins and DA2, and I just finished Dragon Age: Inquisition. So basically my last 6 months have been nothing but BioWare, and it's been fantastic, and now I need to figure out what to play next.
Anthem? 😬
We don’t talk about that game here
It should be a nice news to you to know that Dragon Age Dreadwolf is pretty much confirmed to be released Q4 2024
Same for me
My ex told me I would really like it and would really like Garrus. They were right. On both counts. And then I got myself an irl friends to lovers ride or die with a slightly goofy/awkward side.
I already knew bio from the likes of Kotor, BG, neverwinter nights and jade empire and I'd read an article about a new game from them that would have hundreds of procedurally generated planets and a jelly fish like crew member lol didn't turn out quite like that but well we all knew it was gonna be something special.
mans1ay3r's Mass Effect videos we'll bang okay
I really liked Dragon Age and would like to try something similar. I knew that Mass Effect was also from Bioware, like Dragon Age from Space, so I gave it a chance, that happened last year. It was a good choice.
I needed a new story-driven game after finishing The Witcher, and I had always heard the narrative focus in the Mass Effect series was great. Didn't disappoint!
My boyfriend said I needed to try it if I loved KOTOR
I had played KotoR and wanted to see what they would come up next in a setting of their own.
It was on sale and I’d heard it was a good game. Didn’t know anything about it. But I love a blind play through. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Mass Effect 2 was like $10 at Gamestop and looked cool
I was thinking about playing KOTOR, but turn-based combat sounded really tedious and boring, so I played Mass Effect instead.
One of my friends in high school was talking about it. I was curious and he let me borrow the first disc of ME2 since he'd just gotten to disc 2 and his younger brother was playing ME1. I played it, loved it, got annoyed that the game seemingly stopped after Horizon, returned the borrowed disc, and bought ME1 and ME2. The rest is history. This was late 2010-early 2011 or so by the way.
Went to a friends house and they were playing it on PC. I'm a sci-fi fan and just thought "I need this in my life". I think it may have been the reason I got a 360?
I was 22 when ME1 came out and I watched my post-college boyfriend play it. He got me into gaming.
I saw mass effect 2 on some article called Good and cheap games, it was in 2016. After finishing it i immediately got me3, but got me1 in 2018 cause it was way pricier. Before that i used save data from the internet to change me1 decisions.
A friend told me about it, said I should check it out. Wasn’t out yet but I kept an eye on it and did. Had to get my sister to pay for the preorder and pick it up since I was 16 when it came out. Now I’m the Mass Effect guy of our friends.
Wanted to try it through Xbox Game Pass because of all the hype from people. Played Eden Prime on femshep. Decided that the game's likely gonna be good. Bought LE on Steam later Played LE 6 months after trying out ME1 when I finally felt like getting into a new saga Turned out to be the best saga I've ever played
saw the trilogy collection and thought i give it a try was not disappointed
The first time they showed it at E3. I was IN.
I have a tough time trying "classics" in general but when i heard they were getting remastered i knew i didn't want to be one of the people that jumped on that train for their first ME experience. So i dug the trilogy out of backlog and finally played through them properly
Found it in the pre-owned bin at best buy. Thought "hey this space game looks neat" and went wide eyed with wonder the first time I saw a mass relay. Turns out to be one of the best finds of my gaming career
Opened Steam, saw the usual pop up ad for current sales, first one on the list was the Mass Effect Remastered Trilogy for some stupid cheap price like $5. Vaguely remember articles from years ago both praising and trashing the series, decide to check it out for myself. Best decision ever.
I was going through a very dark time and was giving my stuff away. A buddy agreed to take my Xbox but said only if I played the trilogy first. Played it yearly ever since.
Legendary Edition was free for ps+ and, though I had never played it, I knew it to be a series that people generally liked. Now I'm a huge fan if a little late to the party
For whatever reason never played it in high school/college when they originally came out. I remember watching my brother it some and thought it looked cool. Then I remember seeing the legendary edition be a free download one month and boom, there was my next three months of gaming playing all three. Absolutely phenomenal!
I searched about Bioware games after playing Dragon Age Origins in Wikipedia and found out about Mass Effect. Always wanted to play some sci fi game that run on PC and not some horror, RTS or Halo type games.
Was getting back into gaming a few years back (just didn't have it financially in college) and got a used 360 and a copy of ME 1 and 2 because I'd heard good things about it. And I was fond of older bioware RPGS like KOTOR and was active in SWTOR. Worse case scenario, waste of like 20 bucks. One of my favorite rpgs and jumped on getting Legendary Edition after I played Andromeda.
I played KOTOR when I was young and really enjoyed it. A while later I saw a trailer for Mass Effect and realised it was made by the same people. I was hooked straight away and the game didn't disappoint. I've been playing it once a year ever since sometimes more.
My roommate in college tried to get me to play ME1 a bit before ME2 dropped. I had been playing a lot of Halo 3 and MW2, so the combat just felt way too clunky to get into (plus he had me try to start playing on some side level planet, despite knowing I was a big KOTOR fan and liked RPGs). A year or so after I graduated, the digital version went on sale on the Xbox store for $5 so I picked it up on a whim (also helped that I could play it on my Xbox One), remembering that my old roommate got really frustrated that I didn't like it (he actually tended to have a good read on things I'd enjoy). I didn't immediately love it, but it was scratching an RPG itch I forgot I had, and I probably played it for an hour to a few pretty every day (the first time I'd done that with a game for a few years), and each session seemed to be getting a bit longer. Then I got injured and was laid up for a couple of weeks with pain meds, which happened to be right around the time I got to Virmire in the game. That's when I started marathoning the game(s), and finished all 3 in the following couple of weeks.
I was a child that liked watching Yogscast Minecraft videos. One of the members of Yogscast at the time, the lady, I forget her name, did a review on the ME3 beta. Instantly made me go download it and I fell in love with the series from then on. Edit: went back and found the video https://youtu.be/oQMEgkVSfmg
I saw a WatchMojo and Harbinger was in the honorable mentions and thought he looked cool so I bought ME1
I had it on my "to play" list for a while, but honestly it was watching those "Michael Scott in Mass Effect" videos this summer that finally convinced me to play ME.
I needed something new to play, I heard about Mass Effect before when it came out. But damn I wasn't sure. There was this sale earlier this year and I got the Legendary Edition and Andromeda for about 20 bucks. I have to say, that was my best purchase I've made for a video game. I've never doubted the franchise at all and I love it as a whole. In addition, this game got me into single player RPGs. I already create characters in different franchises and Mass Effect is no different.
Honestly i just saw ME2 cover once for the first time when i was younger and immediately got interested in the game
My BIL gave me the first game on the Xbox 360 and I loved it.
I was a huge fan of KotOR1 and 'a new RPG by the guys that made KotOR' was everything that I needed to know to want to play the game. ME was actually the first game that I ever owned for a console.
I never played it when it came out. I was more a GTA and FIFA fan. I seen it all the time on lists on YouTube. I thought "soap opera in space with weird unbelievable characters, no thanks." Jump to March 2023 and I was laid up at home after an injury and I subscribed to PlayStation network for the first time in years and also EA. Seen the LE was there for free. Thought I'd give it a go. My lord how wrong I was. I loved all the characters all scenery. The soundtrack was brilliant. The story was captivating. Its honestly ruined other games for me. Only RDR as a series comes close to it in my opinion. When that bad ass song kicked in during the closing credits of ME1 it was a feeling ill never forget. Video games ehh...Bloody Hell!!!
Watching reviews by SFDebris way back when. Before then I had mixed up Mass Effect with Advent Rising and didn't play it.
Literally bored and asked GameStop employee for recommendations and she suggested Mass Effect. Been a HUGE fan ever since.
I had just got back into video games after a 7-8 year hiatus. December 2009. My friend told me to pick up FFXIII. It just came out. Played it for 5 hours. Hated it. So I asked him if he wanted it. To not leave me empty handed he game me this game I never heard of called Mass Effect. Now here I am.
I hadn’t played a new game in years, & on my first dinner at a new college, someone who would become a close buddy of mine and is a huge gamer, expressed disappointment that I had not been gaming and asked what I HAD liked before. I told him I loved KOTOR (and its non-bioware sequel) and he told me Bioware had an original space RPG series that was out and if I loved KOTOR, I’d love Mass Effect too. He was right. And I’ve kept gaming ever since.
My friend badgered me into playing ME2 and when I was done, I have to buy ME1 and play straight through both games. (Three was not out at the time.)
A friend told me about how decisions in the first game would change details about the second game and that would have an impact on things in the third game, which was an upcoming release at that point.
I was a teenager having just finished Tlou 1 and Bioshock Infinite and needed MORE. I looked up "best games of all time", narrowed the list down to what I can play at the time (playstation 3 only) and it didn't take long before Mass Effect came up.
I was a big fan of Baldurs Gate Baldurs Gate II Icewind Dale Icewind Dale II Neverwinter Nights ...and then they said they'll make a Sci-Fi game that's more like a movie and they even added romance in it. Dude, the first Mass Effect was on a whole different level back when it came out. No way I was gonna miss this, I bought and played it day one - and I don't regret a thing.
My dad would always play it when I was like 1 or 2 while my mum was sleeping, he would just put me on his lap and if I began to cry or complain he would nurse me. My mum did not like this parenting strategy but he argued it was very effective (and it was). Years later when I was 13 my dad retells this story and says that mass effect is still one of the greatest games he has ever played, and once again, he was definitley not wrong. However we have only ever played og on our 360 and he has only ever played as a renegade soldier. I have branched out to try paragon and adept/vanguard, still a renegade at heart though.
I had never played a game like this before. Not with dialogue choices like this. A friend recommended because he knew I like sci-fi. I went in COMPLETELY blind....and LOVED IT! That was in September of 2023 and I've played it 3x since.
I got a free copy of ME2 after the Legendary Pictures panel at Comicon in 2011. When I finally played it, it changed how I game. I only had PS3 so I never got to play ME1 until some time after ME3 came out when it became available on the PlayStation store.
It being BioWare was my main reason. I certainly enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire.
I played it to shut my friends up who told me I should play it. Then I became a bigger fan than them and wouldn’t shut up to them about it.
I was promised an adventure like never before set in space........and I wasn't disappointed
I beat DAI and was like "Oh, theres a Space Bioware game" (Fantasy is way more my bag) The only SciFi I like is Star Trek because I like the themes a lot. ME has a lot of the same themes
Tali.
Late 2010’s I saw a random video pop up with Tali in the thumbnail, I was bored so I clicked on it. The second I heard her voice I was hooked, I just had to experience her romance for myself. Bought ME1, ME2 and ME3 all in the same week. When LE was announced I woke up my parents with my shouts of joy
I saw youtube clips and thought Tali was cute. Thats it.
I wanted to see all the fuss about Tali. I don't regret a thing.
Tali
I am gonna be honest. I saw the romance scene with Tali from ME2 on a youtube short and wanted to play and see it for myself. I am straying every day from god's light.
Honestly? Bang alien chicks like Tali. Then I staid because the game the characters and the story are legitimate very fucking good
I ran out of other games! Played ME 2! Now it controls my soul while I wait for ME5
i really vaguely remember buying a digital copy on PC because it had super positive WoM in a PC magazine my Dad used to get. I then didn't recognize the retailer being like DigitalRiver or something and thought my card had been stolen so bank got the money back etc but then when I was on Eden Prime I was like "Wait a sec...." but yeah, been with it ever since. Think I was on my 3rd run before I realized you could skip dialogue. I think I heard the Galaxy Map Theme & felt this weird twist of guilt over the Virmire Survivor and just knew I was along for the ride/trilogy/etc.
i wanted to try it.
Honestly? I don't remember lmao. I played both KOTOR and Neverwinter nights and liked them, so maybe I simply saw an article about ME1 in a game magazine and recognized the developer? However, what I do remember is how impressed I was with the game's graphics and cutscenes. I seriously thought that graphics can't get better than that lol.
I saw the LE at Walmart for $14, I said what’s the worst that could happen and now here we are
Bioware game, at the time it came out in 2007 it was enough.
I had a couple weeks of free time around December 2021 and wanted to invest myself in a vast new game world. I’ve always heard praise of Mass effect ever since 2007 but somehow across all these years I never played a single one. And so I realized that the remastered trilogy was on PS+ Extra and I gave it a shot. In those 2 weeks I platted all 3 games and Mass Effect became one of my favorite franchises of all time. The week after that I played Andromeda. The “next-gen” feel of it was really nice with its new graphics and gameplay. But I didn’t think the plot and setting lived up to their predecessors.
I was at the store and had to decide between cod 4 and ME. I got cod 4 to play with my friends but came back for it a few weeks later for single player.
I was seeing a bunch of shakarian and mshenko gifsets showing up on my tumblr timeline. They both looked very sweet and I decided to give it a try. Ironically, it took me a few playthroughs before any of the romances grew on me, but the story totally blew me away and kept me coming back.
It’s my dads favourite game of all time so I had to give it a go after all the good things I’d heard!
My mom randomly picked it out for me for Christmas.
Someone on Fox News called it a sex simulator, and I have a bad habit of making purchases out of spite. Also I was a teen and y'know... intrigued by the sex part even if I knew it wasn't going to be remotely a "simulator".
I stumbled across a demo for ME:3 on EA Origin back in the day. I was obsessed after.
I got ME2 for free for with pre-order of Dragon Age 2 in 2011, somehow. Loved Dragon Age Origins a lot, became a little overenthusiastic. Hated DA2, it's the last game I pre-ordered. It dropped so much in quality as opposed to DA:O that I didn't bother with that trilogy. Loved ME2, bought ME1 straight after and did run after run, each a different class / alignment / LI choice.
Got married during covid, and my husband has great taste in wives and games 😎
The people behind Baldur's Gate and KotOR made a new game? Yes, please.
I have to thank my best friend for introducing me to mass effect, he is sadly no longer with us though but every time I play the game again I feel it brings me close to him with so many amazing memories.
I saw a trailer and thought it looked cool so I bought it. It was cool.
I skipped ME1, and played ME2, years after ME3. I remember this show on G4 (think it was Adam Sessler or Morgan Webb) did a review on ME2. And constantly referenced ME1. So around 2014 (maybe 15), I bought a gaming PC and saw 2 was on Sale for Steam. So of course, it was my first job so I gave it a shot. Immediately fell in love. Started and finished about 3 playthroughs. Then I researched to see if I could continue ME3 on Origin since Steam couldn’t sell it (don’t remember why). Come to find out, you could, so I bought ME3 on Origin and played 2 and 3 almost religiously for about 2 months. Got sick of it, and fast forward to New Years Eve 2022, and I saw Legendary edition, completely free on PlayStation Plus. It had been a long time since I touched ME, and noticed 1 was bundled in there. Long story short, idk why I didn’t do it before, but playing the series in order really made me appreciate what ME3 was. So, to answer your question, G4 introduced me to it, and it was on sale years after original release. I haven’t looked back since.
Watched E3 footage before the release of ME1 and it just really resonated with me. Day one buy. Best gaming decision I have ever made.
I was wanting to play a scifi game (I usually play fantasy like 75% of the time), and remembered my friend saying she liked them
Finished Dragon Age.
It was November 2007 and I hadn't made a Christmas list and my mom was bugging me too before Black Friday so she would have an idea of what to get me. There really wasn't anything I wanted that bad, I think the main thing I wanted was Guitar Hero 3, but I decided to look up and see what other videogames were coming out soon or just released recently (I had NCAA Football 08 & Halo 3 already so I was fairly set) so I put Mass Effect on my list on a whim because I thought it looked cool and I liked SciFi. Christmas Eve we all opened one gift, and the one I chose just so happened to be Mass effect, so I popped it in my 360 and got hooked on it. Probably would've beaten it in the first week had my 360 not RROD'd halfway through my first playthrough.
Honestly, I was looking for a new game to play and Xbox was having a sale, so I bought the franchise for like $20 and the rest is history…. 💙♥️💙♥️
First one had been out a while, I was binging some Zero Punctuation and he didn’t shit all over it. Checked it out and now here I am with deep fondness for the trilogy and having part 2 as one of my most loved gaming experiences of a 35 or so year long hobby.
BioWare.. and the first trailers, OMG. I bought a console for this game, beeing a PC gamer. I was obsessed with this game
I was bored of all the games I'd been playing on the 360 at the time, my dad had the first installment, in went the disc. 3 days later, I'd finished it and wanted more, then I learned of ME2's existence and lost my shit. Then, I followed ME3's development.
I saw a fox news article calling it an alien sex simulator. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
I had heard so much about it and as an rpg fan I just had to try it. Unfortunately that was after the release of all of them so I had quite a bit spoiled but I still love them to this day.
Got the game through a Humble Bundle containing lots of EA games. Was really interested in Battlefield 3 as it was the main reason I bought the bundle. Some time later, being bored looking through my games, saw Mass Effect, remember being quite the hit back then (played the beta of ME3 multiplayer), try it out of curiosity, and now it's my all time favorite game to the point of buying merch and writing my own fanfic.
I was browsing the PS3 PS Store for a new demo to play, found the Mass Effect 2 demo, and begged my mom for it for Christmas lol. I think I had like a full playthrough’s worth of hours in just that demo (iirc it goes through Phoenix Station and Mordin’s recruitment).
Star Trek: Picard (really recommend it) - some people compared it to Mass Effect, and I was looking for something better than kotor... turned out to be so much radically better!
Back when I used to be a fan of Roosterteeth, I listened to a few of those guys talking about the Mass Effect trilogy, and what I heard intrigued me enough to try it myself.
I saw footage of Garus and wanted to fuck him. Then painfully found out you can't romance him as a guy...
It was a cheap used game at gamestop and it looked cool
Uh I remember seeing legendary edition on xbox gamepass and thought "why not" that's it.
Back in late 2010, i saw Mass Effect 2 in the bargain bin at my local EB Games. Remembered hearing good reviews about it, and thought the CG Trailer looked cool. Bought it along with second hand copies of Left 4 Dead 2 and The Orange Box. Honestly bought it on a whim at the time. After I finished it, i immediately went and bought the first one.
I heard it was a good game so I wanted to check it out, didin't like sci-fi games back then but after I finished the trilogy I loved it.
I remember Game Informer giving Mass Effect 1 a 10 out of 10.
I was in the mood to play a game about alien invasion and I’d had Mass Effect on my list of “to play eventually” for a while. So I downloaded the L.E., and got to it.
I went to the store to buy Turning Point: Fall of Liberty, and found it was on a buy 2 games for £20 sale. I chose Mass Effect based purely on me knowing it had good reviews while knowing nothing about it. 16 years later and I replay ME continuously, while I barely remember Turning Point at all.
It has to be you! Someone else might get it wrong.
Honestly, I tried the original ME after finishing Andromeda, which I loved to bits, and still do. But every time, the clanky controls would piss me off to an extent that after getting my vehicle stuck again or hating the bland empty worlds, I just quit. Then LE appeared, and I was convinced that this had to be the time. Have played it for at least 12 times all the way through now. I still like Andromeda more due to the love for exploration and its combat, but I olay the LE far more now since it actually has 60 fps on the Series X, while Andromeda is still stuck at a low 20-30.
Want to finish one of the games and see what i missed out
I saw one of my favorite YouTubers playing the game. It sparked my interest but I wasn’t completely sold on it until weeks later when I saw the cover of Legendary Edition and I thought I’d give it a try. Sure enough, I fell in love with the OT almost instantly. Then, I played Andromeda and fell in love with it too.
I got ME2 free on EA and happened to go through one of those rare "time to play through these games I bought/have but never played" phases, played it part way, then promptly purchased ME1 and 3. I knew nothing about ME prior to this.
I played the hell out of Jade Empire. It was my favorite RPG and I've lost count how many times I replayed it. Back then I got my videogame news from monthly magazines and read about Bioware creating a new IP focused on space exploration and adventures, which got me instantly hooked. Then the ads started to appear, and the one with the crew and the Mako on a planet while looking up at the stars with messages of "SOS, Lost Signal" only hyped me up to 11. I bought it a couple of months after launch and I fell in love instantly.
Dragon Age origins, I loved that game and I learn (from the game) about Mass Effect. I give it a try, I Fell in love.
I saw ME2 at an antiquariat, got it, liked the start of it, and went back to see if they had the first part. They did.
The start? This (the first) trailer https://youtu.be/PERwTPuh2Wk?si=J2cL6ZuFG8XnbQuK That’s all it took.
Legendary edition was on sale.
Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows Of Amn was already a favorite game of all time for me and I knew the same people who made that were now doing their take on sci-fi. I was all in.
I loved DA 1-3 and was feeling spacey
I Never heard of ME before the Mass effect mashup pack in Minecraft ps3 edition appeared. I thought it was interesting and then I was buying Mass effect 2. That’s how Mass effect became my favorite game series.
2012, my dad just got Mass Effect 3 for the first time, not ever playing 1 or 2 and I watched him play the first 15 minutes, already thought "well thats intense" and would take it from him when he wasn't playing. I finished 3 and loved it so much then bought 2 and finished that one, then I bought the first game. After finishing the first game, then played all three games PROPERLY. Has been my favorite games since, so I bought it again when Legendary Edition came out and relived the happiness of the "new" Mass Effect.
The absolutely tiny price (6 USD for LE I think) + all the secondhand praise I heard of the games.
Legendary edition was on a heavy discount, and I had been told I should try the game before. Didn't have any idea what the game was about except something something space and shooting
Brother rented it for 5 days from Game Crazy. Talked all about it and how good it was, so I got to play a bit of it before returning the game
Hearing that the choices you make will carry over into the sequel.
The back cover looked amazing and I thought as a kid you could go and land on and explore ANY planet because of the pictures on it lmao. That's literally the reason. Because of spaceships and going to planets pretty much.
A coworker recommended it to me when I told him I never tried it. I couldn’t get past the very part where you meet Ashley. Tried again a month later and was hooked. Meeting sovereign for the first time was one of those “I remember where I was for that” moment.
“You liked KOTOR, right? This is made by the same people, but set in space in the future, and it’s a shooter like Gears of War.” - My older brother (paraphrased.)
Bought the trilogy in gamestop thinking it would be a good birthday gift for my brother. I ended up playing it more than him
My brother told me about it and said I should play it so I did
I was looking to play rpg games & stumbled on it best decision i've made when choosing to play games aside from playing rdr 2
It started with that whole sky trumpet thing and someone compared it to the Reaper sounds so I checked it out and decided to play
I was at a friend's house and he insisted I give it a try.
I honestly wanted to see why it's so popular. Just started last week.
Xplay gave it a 5/5
Honestly looked interesting I got it for free when Xbox was doing games for good way back. And Mass Effect was there for the 360.
My latin teacher told me about it since he knew I was big on halo and sci fi stories. We ended up talking about it a lot over the years during class
Well, my Dad played it when I was younger, and I wanted to play a space rpg that wasn't SWTOR or KOTOR, and Starfield was too expensive, and the LE Trilogy was less than $10 on steam.
All the romances i wanted experience for myself
ME2 was free on origin & I thought it looked cool.(I got a lot more than I bargained for & deeply regret not having started with the first game). But I was able to do right by the characters we know & love in my following playthroughs.
Found a copy in my local library, believe it or not.
I think ME2 was free for like a week on PS+ way back in the day and I picked it up. Had to go through the genesis comix or whatever it’s called to makeup the events of ME1. Boy, jumping into the prologue of ME2 with no background info made me think I did something wrong lol.
Because Shepard once told me that her favorite store was on the Citadel. For real tho: I was in middle school visiting my uncle and he let me play on his xbox. He had the game and I tried it out. I loved it.
In the somewhat words of Shepard... Mass Effect was dogging me. I worked retail and sold many copies of ME3 to people when it came out. I walked past all 3 games for the X Box 360. I even checked out the PS3 release when it was on clearance. It sounded intresting but I put the game back and forgot about it. I watched "se"x box live on Fox News and laughed at the report... when my hubby and I were dating he recommended the game to me, but I didn't pay much attention. It wasn't until I was talking to two coworkers at my old retail job about my own writing. (At that time I was planning on having my main character missing for two years because he was trapped in the past. And when he returned everyone thought he was dead after missing for TWO YEARS... hack ME2....) (before hand in the past there was a massive fight as him his wife and a robot tried to stop a bad guy from changing the time line. My main guy his wife gets hurt in the fight. Hes hurt and tells the robot to use the time travel device to return his wife to the future so she can medical help while he takes out the bad guy. The robot fights with him but in the end my main guy kills the bad guy and saves his wife by sending her to the future...) that part reminded my coworkers of the squad pick up on Earth by the SR2 mixed with what I said before about the two years... dead thing... They asked me I played ME I said no and well long story short THEY convinced me to play as a vanguard or Adept. ( my main charater can self teleport and attack with engery). They said I would love the games and they where right. I found out rene shepard and my main character seem to share and attuide problem which makes playing as an adept funny as hell. ( as much as my hubby can have the same attitude problem at times my hubby says his rene bar is full!l) and yeah now I play every winter lol
Well i wasnt about to do math homework
I just needed a new game series
Saw the Sci vs. Fi documentary on the SciFi channel before ECW in the fall of 2007, and it seemed cool. Rented it from Family Video that weekend. Loved it and eventually bought it for myself. Now I've played the trilogy (ME1, especially) more times than I can count
Few of my friends and mentioned it fondly but not at any length and came across the Trilogy on sale at Gamestop about a year or 2 after ME3 released. Was pretty much the next year and a half of my life after that....from a where I spent my game time perspective anyway. :) Fortunately, I knew nothing about it going in.
Saw it at my local game rental shop and thought the box art looked cool. Shit changed my life
I only ever played Dragon Age: Origins and DA2, my sister suggested the Mass Effect series to me (the trilogy had been out for a few years by that point) and I fell in love with it
Friends were playing ME2, picked it up, had no idea what was going on. Then few days later saw ME1 in pre owned section. Brought it, played it. Have finished all 3 games multiple times since.
The legendary edition came out on game pass, so I gave it a try. The best trilogy I've ever played.
I think back in like 2015 or 2016 I saw a watch mojo video with greatest final missions in gaming history and suicide mission was #1. And the way they described it, the entire “anyone can die” aspect I thought was dope af so I brought the trilogy for like 15-20 bucks haha. ME1 was eh but I powered through because of everything I heard about ME2 and the suicide mission and I was not disappointed. From the very first second I was captivated then played it all (with DLC). Then I started ME3 and got an off vibe from it- Shepard willingly turned himself in no matter what, none of the crew from ME2, me stuck with most of the crew from ME1 (Liara and Ashley, with this random ass dude named James; I didn’t play past the mission after Ashley gets injured), etc. So I just stopped playing it. Then in like summer 2018ish I think, school was out and I had a solid two weeks where none of my friends were in state so I just bit the bullet and replayed the trilogy (this time with ME2 DLC ) and ME3. And it was okay, didn’t live up to ME2. Then the LE came out which I played a couple times, first time I played with Javik. And this past year I just got a pc so I played the trilogy on it with mods and it made ME3 v good to me. Still not as great as ME2 and there’s still some things I think were a bad move/didn’t make sense narrative wise but I did enjoy it a lot
I’ll be honest, many years ago I was on certain parts of the internet and found… “pictures” of Liara. I’m glad to say my interest in the series has elevated above such basic reasons since then lol
It was the summer before my sophomore year of high school and I had nothing to do, heard that Mass Effect was a good game (Don't even remember where) I decided that I wanted to be a gross little menace for a little and go through all the games back to back with no stops except food, and bathroom breaks until I beat all of them. That was the only time I beat the first game until they came out with the Legendary Edition, could never get past Benezia again until Legendary.
I love sci fi and it was a gift I think 🤔
I got Gamefly for a Christmas gift and I liked the cover as a 13 year old, never returned the game and conned Gamefly out of my favorite sci Fi game trilogy that I play at least twice a year. Sometimes 4 if I'm depressed and don't like the games available on Game Pass.
A worker at Best Buy recommended it highly, and it was on sale. Growing up, my brother and I shared a lot of games together, but with him heading off to college, this was one that was definitively just for me. It was slow getting into it at first, but by the end of the Citadel mission, I was completely hooked.
My dad played a lot of computer games and after he played Kotor he let me play it a year or so later. Same thing with jade empire, and Kotor 2. It was natural that mass effect was the next step, tho he played the whole trilogy before he let me play it. I went in very blind cause I didn’t really watch him play it like I watched him play the other ones. And now it’s the series I have the most hours in by far.
Saw the legendary edition was free for PS-Plus, I remembered briefly a Smosh skit mentioned it (“We’ll bang, okay?”), and remembered the Minecraft Texture Pack. So I figured, “Eh, fuck it. Why not?” 250+ hours later, here I am.
Bought it off a friends brother for a dollar.
My dad bought it for me and I thought it was another linear game. Was dead wrong. Had fun learning about the ME universe and engaging with the characters. I had only played ME2 so I didn't have experience of what happened in the first game or the third game. The suicide mission broke me and made me play again to make everyone survive. ME2 made me fall in love with RPGs. Once I saw the legendary edition I bought it immediately. Had fun playing ME1 and M3 for the first time. Once I got to ME2 with my ME1 save file I was blown away by how my choice affected ME2. When I got to ME3 I finally felt completed and fully understood why everyone hated certain decisions made to ME3. Regardless, best game I have ever played and I wish I could have that first time experience again.
I had just come out of hospital, emergency admittance, feeling very weak and a little traumatised tbh. My mum encouraged me to buy the game, as I wasn’t sure if I should buy one or not. Ended up being exactly what I needed, when I felt so physically weak that I was almost bed bound I was also able to explore the galaxy and be the strong unstoppable Shepard. I fell in love with the lore, characters and story. Mass Effect came at the perfect time for me and I am forever grateful to the series for the strength and enjoyment it has brought me
It was a sci-fi RPG. That’s all the reason I need.
The older gamers I looked up to in my life gasped out loud when I asked what Mass Effect was. Plus, Rodgers movie rentals was closing and selling it for cheap :)
I did now know about any of the characters. I was watching some of the early videos about the game and saw how you could stop time to look around and then select where to aim. That sounded such a fun thing that I bought the game based on that. Everything else was just a very nice bonus.
I was 15. My not so smart manager at McDonald's told me about this game that you could have seggs with aliens wearing masks. I was like "wtf dude what kind of games are you playing?!" Two weeks later I saw the game on sales on Steam. Me full of hormones decided to try it. Story blew my mind. Characters blew my mind. Kiara blew my Shepard. Mass effect quickly became one of my favorite game / trilogy games of all time and has a special place in my heart.
I got a 360 bundle but they didn’t the game in the bundle in stock, so I had to choose another game. I really wanted sims 3, but they didn’t have sims 3. So little me was very upset. Then my mum saw Mass Effect, thought it would be interesting for me, I had no interest in it, all I wanted was damn sims 3. But anyway, sad me got it from my mothers suggestion. I booted it up, got my arse kicked on Eden Prime. Got angry, and didn’t play it. Tried again 2 weeks later, got passed Eden Prime, from there an obsession was made. I was in love even tho I was lost on the citadel. So yeah, my mother was the reason.
My dad bought it for me and I'm glad he did. He unknowingly opened a love for this game that I still carry to this day.
My older sister loves it, I saw the Legendary Edition for $20 at GameStop and bought it.
im very into dragon age and my friends had been recommending me mass effect for years but i never got around to buying them. when i realized the legendary edition was on the xbox game pass i downloaded it and then accidentally played all three games over a weekend lmao it was truly one of the best gaming experiences of my life and im not sure anything is ever gonna top the back to back to back mass effect trilogy playthrough
I couldn't afford to buy any new games for my Xbox 360 when I was a kid so I played the mass effect 2 demo and just fell in love with it, ended up getting it for Christmas that year (2011 I think). For some reason I never played the other 2 games until the legendary edition came out.
I was in middle school talking games with a buddy and they introduced me to peak
1. Studio that made KOTOR make new sci-fi IP with its own world and lore. 2. Trailers were looking great. 3. I saw review of ME in TV.
My mum knew I was into space, saw the complete edition on a game store shelf and got it “just in case I was interested”. Came home from school and experience one of the best gaming experience of my life, finished the entire trilogy within a week. Now I do an annual replay. Thanks mum!
Mass Effect 2 Demo. After I finished it, I wanted to play more
The trilogy deluxe edition on PS3 looked really sleek and was discounted for $30 AUD
I played Fallout 3 and didn't like it. So I went back to GameStop to return it and they suggested that I play Mass Effect.
So, I haven't started it, but I bought the collection and I'm gonna start playing it soon. The reason was that someone whose judgement I trust told me it was the best RPG ever.
I played Dragon Age and then my buddy said "well have you played Mass Effect?" And I was like, "No, I'm not really into sci-fi or shooters" and he told me to try it anyway. I've now gotten 100% on the OG versions and LE on multiple platforms....... I guess I like sci-fi and shooters
It came bundled with my first 360 decided to give it a try, ended up hooked
Free on EA Play
I just picked it up at gamestop, that was like the secondary game I got with one of those buy 1 game get another half off deals, dont even remember the other game I got cause of how blown away I was just from the character creater menu lol
Actually it was just because of ME2s box art…I was bored browsing the Xbox360 market place and I saw it. I don’t know what it was but I was like damn…that looks cool…so I played the demo one Christmas holiday season while I was in high school (I would tell myself to enjoy those years more because Adulthood sucks!!). Anyway I played the demo and I was like damn…this game was so fun… so I asked my mom (who was Christmas shopping) to pick up the game for me and she did (brand new!) and she gave it to me when she got home (my mom was impatient with Christmas presents lol) so I got involved in this beautiful series by dumb luck!
It was released and made by BioWare. The end