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Submit Your Comment On Mass Effect 1 For The Deepest Dive (Patreon)

Published:
2021-05-17 15:15:41
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

We're creating the best, most thorough discussion about Mass Effect 1 on the internet and we need your help! This time the panelists are Ben Hanson, voice actor Sarah Elmaleh, former Game Informer Joe Juba, and Leo Vader! 

For this week's discussion, we're covering the first third of Mass Effect 1. Roughly the first five hours or so, everything until you leave the Citadel. Please do not spoil anything beyond that point.

Submit a comment below and please get specific. Don't write a long review, please keep your one comment to around the length of a tweet. We want to get to as many comments as possible. Let's get specific, submit a comment about your favorite Codex entry, line of dialogue, alien design, thoughts on Din Korlack. The more specific you are, the higher the odds of us reading your comment during the discussion. We'll finish collecting comments on Tuesday morning.

For your own reference, here's the schedule for the rest of The Deepest Dive...

May 31st - Stop when you've wrapped up Artemis Tau, Noveria, and Feros

June 7th - Virmire/Finale

You can watch us record The Deepest Dive live on Tuesday evening at 5pm Central if you're at the $10 Backstage Pass tier on Patreon. The link will be in the Backstage Pass tier on the Discord. Thanks for your support.

Files

Comments

Interrotta

Could you imagine a game where Kaiden had seen the vision from the prothean beacon, and took over Shepard’s role?

Sandshrewd

While not confirmed by Bioware, the Mass Effect community seems to agree that Richard L. Jenkins (the soldier who dies on Eden Prime) is probably a nod to the infamous Leeroy Jenkins WOW video which came out during the development of Mass Effect. Both get a little too ambitious and trigger the enemy, while at least Mass Effect Leeroy didn't end up getting his entire party killed, unlike his WOW counterpart.

Patrick H.

Anyone else enjoy some of the RPG elements in ME1 that got dumped or simplified in the sequels? I enjoy getting new armor, weapons, and upgrades on a frequent basis, and trying out the different combinations to fit my playstyle. I know I'm in the minority, but ME1 is still my favorite.

Miguel Medjai

Love the Mass Effect series but what is catching me with the legendary series is some of the old jank in the trank. The animations for the character models when they turn attention to the speaking character seems so robotic now. I remember being impressed with how the change focus depending on who is talking. Also the close up on your possible romantic interest when you get something right (after the beacon) brought a chuckle to me. Anything else that you guys are noticing that seems dated?

Fielding

I’m eager to hear what the crew thinks of the timer that pops up when you need to go save Tali after dealing with Fist. Is it necessary? It does give a sense of urgency which gets the blood pumping. Even after 10+ playthroughs it still stresses me out even though I’ve never once had the timer hit zero. Would you keep it or throw it out?

The_Smak

Greetings fellow earth clan, Although the shooting isn’t very fun in Mass Effect 1, the science behind its weapons is fascinating. Inside every gun is a device known as a mass accelerator that combines electromagnetism with element zero. Element zero is a scientific element that can affect space-time. When element zero is subjected to a positive or negative electrical current the mass of an object can be increased or decreased. Every gun contains a small block of metal that is subjected to element zero in the mass accelerator. The gun’s computer determines how much of an electrical current to send to the element zero creating a mass effect field. Then a small piece of metal is shaved off and its mass volume is lowered. The “bullet” is accelerated at high volume essentially creating a rail gun. That’s not all, the “bullet” has a reverse mass effect field so when it hits its target it flattens and doesn’t go straight through the target. This effect can be increased infinitely which is described in the codex as “a simple paint chip can impact with the same destructive force as a nuclear weapon.” The recoil matches the impact energy of the round though, so you better hold on tight. It’s amazing that Bioware created such a deep lore for an entirely new IP. I love it so much. Thank you for doing this Deepest Dive!

Mack Dack

Signs! There are signs everywhere in the Citadel and I found it easy to get navigate because of this. However, throughout my play I found the in game map to be dated and confusing. It reminded me of Control. That game had great signs and the in game map had complaints.

Mack Dack

The music, cutscenes and voice acting feel really top notch. It’s like BioWare “knew they were on to something” and invested big in this new IP. Was their plan always to have a trilogy?

Jordan Holmdahl

Has anyone on the panel been confusing the tweaked controls in the remaster versus the original game? Swapping grenades to the X button on Xbox One has really thrown me off, it was originally on the 360's Back button, to occasionally hilarious results. After the introduction to Udina on the Citadel I wandered over to the Elcor embassy next door. After chatting with everyone there I accidentally drew my weapons and instinctually hit X to holster my weapon. Instead I frisbeed a grenade at one of the Eclor diplomats, panicked, shouted "Oh no!" sprinted for the door and barely made it out before the bomb exploded. I can't bring myself to return to that place, so in my head canon my bumbling Commander Shepard accidentally bombed the Elcor embassy. Good luck explaining that one, Udina!

Chase Klein

So far I have about 2 favorite scenes - 1 - the part where saren throws his big baby fit in his cyber goth ship while sipping what I guess is space vampire wine? 2 - Talking to the Elcor(?) diplomat, namely the 'chastising rebuke' line. I think I'll just start working that into my vocabulary. Having said all that I decided to go the renogade path since I never do in these games, so prepare to get dunked on constantly space!

Chase Klein

one other thing I wanted to share - if you are playing on pc and having frame rate issues, disable the origin overlay. If you bought it through steam, it'll force the overlay to run even if you disable it in origin. The only solution that worked for me was to delete or rename the file 'igo64.dll' in the origin directory (credit to u/dtjbfh on reddit in the me3 sub).

Mai Sinclair

A fact that really stood out to me this time and is affecting how I play my Shepherd is Shepherd's age: they're 29. My first time playing that may have not stood out to me because of my age but I turned 42 while playing this time. It blows me away to think of how young Shep is. For those that 29 is a reality and roleplay their actions/choices, would this knowledge affect how you play your Shep?

Alex Morgan

What’s the best quest on the Citadel? Finding all the keepers, right? I still haven’t found them all yet

Yarrow

The opening hours of this game are some of the best in gaming history! One of the best parts is the twist at the beginning over the Nihlus. People are leery of Nihlus and his demeanor and wonder why the missions needs his firepower if it is a simple mission. You're then given the valid reason of Prothean tech, and a reason to trust him with him recommending Shepherd to the Spectres. But then you meet the crazy Dr. Manuel, who says he sees a Turian "prophet, leader of the enemies" and you're right back to thinking it's Nihlus. After you leave that area, you see the cutscene where you meet Saren and he kills Nihlus and the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together. Saren is who Dr. Manuel saw, and this whole time we have been worried about Nihlus. This exceptional opening does such a magnificent job of getting you invested and seeing where the story will go. Many RPGs take much longer to get going, but Mass Effect is one of the quickest and best!

Gabe Brandolino

The part that has stuck out to me the most so far is the cutscene when you first pull up on the Citadel. This is my first time playing the first Mass Effect, and that shot with the massive Citadel engulfing the screen with the music swelling got me choked up.

Jalopy Slow

Did anyone else get a Star Wars: The Phantom Menace vibe with how the Citadel Counsel conducted themselves in this chunk? I think there may be more influences from the prequels here than some would like to admit.

Clemens Zobel

So happy to be back in this world! Playing LE, paragon FemShep, adept (love space magic)! Talk to your companions in the field constantly, they have tons of cool unique dialogue based on the location you are in, and it often changes between rooms. They also have dialogue based on various landmarks, like the Krogan statue or the mass effect relay statue. And it's great hearing the background conversations between different squad mates when you're running around. Definitely helps liven things up while you're mopping up side quests round the Citadel!

Shawn Mills

I really like how there is no right or wrong path for a lot of the sidequests in the citadel, a big change from the light side and dark side decisions in Kotor. The most interesting sidequest for me was the Hanar who is preaching in the presidium without a permit. He isn't hurting anyone but he is breaking the law and you can decide to either buy him a permit or convince him or the C-Sec guards to leave using persuasion. The game doesn't give you paragon or renegade points for your decision just if you use charm or intimidate. Also, I really like that there is a quest where you can just choose to give your autograph to someone or not. Farewell humans.

Crayter

So...... what is the citadel rapid transit? Is it like a little solar pod car/ship thingy that all three of you are supposed to fit in? Or...... also why are some of them just terminals? What am I not getting here?

Neill Smith

Back again with another comment about printing *money.* After you become a specter if you complete a side quest for the Doctor in the Med Clinic in the Wards she will offer you a discount. This discount is applied when you sell items as well as an increased sale price. However the 'buyback' tab is universal so you can sell up to 20 items, the size limit of the buyback tab, travel to another vendor, and buyback all the items turning a profit. I left the Citadel with over a million credits and all 4 of the super expensive Specter Weapons from the C-Sec store :D.

Taylor Owens

Jenkins death is totally Shepherd’s fault right? Shepherd motions for him to move up like he’s being tactical but makes no attempt to give covering fire when Jenkins moves out in the open and gets shot. And then the middle dialogue option is basically “Soldiers die. Let’s move on.” It’s a very strange way to open a game about being a leader.

Miguel Medjai

Did anyone else get Kyle Ren vibes when Saren got mad? All he needed was a lightsaber

Miguel Medjai

Also has anyone messed with the creator creator? I forgot how frustring it got sometimes to get my look right. Must have restarted like 6 times when I saw the lighting did not hit my Shepard right.

Barney

I'm spending more time in the codex for this playthrough. It was fun to finally learn what Mass Effect means. Overall, I started to really appreciate the art of making up science in a SciFi world. I think it's a true testament to a writers talent if they can get you to think, "yeah, that makes sense," when talking about stealth technology on the Normandy.

Ronny B

(You better read this with the right inflection, Hanson). Delighted Greeting, hello Cohorts. Thoughtful Inquiry, if you were an elcore, what would most of your sentences start with?

Mitchy

I probably won't be the only person to mention this here, but easily the biggest issue with the game's dialogue wheel is when it says one thing and Shepard says another. Do you guys think that they should have gone back and rewritten some of the dialogue prompts (ignoring the inevitable time crunch) or left it how it is?

Scott H

I came to Mass Effect 1 about a year after 2 came out because a co worker recommended it. I bounced off it because I found the combat dreadful in the first game. My co-worker told me to play it on easy because the combat sucked and the story is what was important. I played it on easy and only engaged with probably a quarter of the side content. With the LE making the combat better, still not amazing, I am actually seeing content I skipped all those years ago because the combat was not fun at all and just trying to understand the story before playing 2.

Raven

I didn't realize how much I missed this universe, and how much I enjoyed playing as Shepard. Quick PSA, the Flawless Widescreen program on PC fixed the shoddy job Bioware did on their Ultrawide Monitor support. Absolutely loving it.

Gorgir

I have done many a play through on both Xbox 360 and PC, so I am really interested to hear from people who are getting into the game or franchise for the first time. I got the Legendary Edition (PC) as I was interested to see how the steps they took to modernize the game, but I feel like I set my expectations too high and am disappointed. The new coat of paint is nice, but the systems that feel the most dated to me are still present (inventory simplification and improved power targeting would have been my big asks). Just feel like if we were going to get a new version of Mass Effect, I would have preferred to just have it rebuilt from the ground up (which is probably way more work than the company could have justified for a 14 year old game). Otherwise I am enjoying this play through so far. Have opted to try out a Fem Shep run after hearing so much about Jennifer Hale's performance. I am going to try and mix up the squad make up this time around rather than just fall back into the old favorites. I had forgotten how much running around the Citadel you have to do until you get the fast travel points. And it never fails that I forget where one of the keepers for the scan side quest is, got it eventually though. Am I crazy for always doing every side quest in every play through?

Joshua Duperoy

Hey gang, first time playing any Mass Effect game or Bioware game for that matter and I've got to say I'm really digging it so far. The main driving force that's kept me intrigued so far is without a doubt the complex and in depth lore surrounding each alien species in regards to their position in the hierarchy and how they are viewed among the wider alien community. An example that stands out prominently is the backstory surrounding the Krogan who despite ridding the galaxy of the dreaded Rachni and bringing the end to that war seem to be typically looked down upon in society due to their contentious history. One of the Avina guides in the Citadel explains how an honorary statue of a Krogan located in the Presidium was petitioned to be taken down after the rebellions. This attitude of uneasiness towards the Krogans is also evident after Wrex chastises you aboard the Normandy for having the temerity to compare the Turian's assault on the Krogans as being similar in scope to their war against the humans as Wrex reminds you how the Turian's employed a biological weapon known as the Genophage which left the Krogan race with a severely diminished probability of viable pregnancies. Wrex seems to lament the fact that most alien races don't seem to care much for the latter fact despite the Krogan's contributions during the Rachni wars and even seems resigned to whatever fate may befall his people.

infinitesoup

Hello! Did any one else feel that the layout of the citadel was kind of confusing? Some areas do a good job showing off how expansive it really is from a distance, but a lot of the area you interact with is restricted to tight alleyways and corridors.

Colton Westbrooks

Hey everyone, excited to get back to Mass Effect! One of my observations playing through the game again is something I have always loved about this game. Once you arrive at the Citadel the world opens up so much. The lore keeps coming at a breakneck pace as the Mass Effect universe is introduced to players. Even though some may consider this section of the game to be a massive exposition dump, I have always really enjoyed how BioWare pulled it off. I like this opening Citadel section a lot, even after numerous play throughs. It really gets you up to speed quick on this new universe and for the most part it is not too confusing, at least on a surface level. How do you all feel about how BioWare introduces this world and all of the lore about the various species and politics, etc.? Looking forward to the conversation. I should go.

Jeffrey Ramspacher

This is my first time replaying ME 1 so I never put two and two together before now. At the start of the game, there's a minor interaction with an Elcor trying to evangelize its religion and a C-Sec officer chastizing him for not having a license to do so in a public space on the Citadel. If you buy him the license, he starts giving you more insight into what his religion is based around and it seems an awful lot like the Elcor may have known about the Protheans and Reapers well before the other species. Anyone else notice this?

Charlie Hunter

This is my first time playing a Mass Effect game. When I made my character, I wanted to look like the default Jane Shepard, so that's what I picked. I didn't realize that this also auto-selected my character's backstory and class (as a newcomer it was very unclear). During my first couple of hours, I couldn't figure out why I didn't have any skills like hacking to invest in. Then I read a tips guide the next morning and immediately saw things about class selection and realized I had missed something big. I restarted and found everything in the "create a character" option. I had to replay the first few hours. Did any other newcomers have this problem?

Taylor Owens

I know people are always leery when a game’s visuals are changed, but I think it looks great so far. Except my favorite area of the game, the skybox in the Citadel Wards. Originally it was dark blue and very Blade Runner. It was the seedy nighttime to the Presidium’s sunny daytime. But now they brightened it to look more like the citadel in Mass Effect 3. It seems a little odd when people are dancing in the club in broad daylight.

Erin T.

Salutations, Normanndy (two N’s!) crew! Is anyone else loving the novelty of the dialogue wheel? From the selection pointer being mapped to the analog stick, to the way the perspective makes the top part of the wheel seem farther away, it feels novel and interesting. It got me wondering why more games don’t have a dynamic dialogue wheel like this. Turns out, BioWare actually *patented* the Mass Effect dialogue wheel in 2006, and the patent is still active today. It’s shown up in Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition, but it belongs solely to BioWare. On top of that, the patent is sneakily written to not specify shape, so other developers can’t use a similar system with a square, or a triangle/etc. Here’s the patent if you want to take a look - https://patents.google.com/patent/US20070226648A1/en Loving the game and can’t wait for part two of the Deepest Dive! - Erin

Ozwaldo el Ruso

I forgot how much I missed/love the Mass Effect codex. I literally read every entry cause the lore and world building is so dang good. And Neil Ross killin it on them narrated primary entries!

Dakota Salmeron

This is my first time playing Mass Effect and as soon as I landed in the Citadel I was obsessed with the Keepers. I kept walking all around them and crouching to inspect them, only to learn a few minutes later it was highly looked down upon. You can imagine how excited I was after learning there was a mission to scan them all and say screw the rules! This made me realize how large the game was in a sense of individual races. Even though everyone is aware there are so many other species, you still don't know much about customs or cultural manners. This is one of the most interesting parts to me so far.

Luke Strain

The ME1 Citadel is great if you walk everywhere FIRST, then use fast travel. This gives you an opportunity to scan keepers, puts all the locations in place in your head and unlocks all the fast travel points. Unfortunately the game doesn't tell you that you don't have to fast travel to get around. Did y'all enjoy exploring the Citadel?

Luke Strain

What are y'all's thoughts on the keepers? I liked finding them back in the day as it gave me an opportunity to see the whole Citadel. When I played the remaster I instinctively found them all with ease. The trickiest one IMO is the one on the docks, because if you don't want to leave until you find them all you won't think to go back to your ship. Which was the hardest for you to find? PS, I THINK there is an end-game lore pay off if you scan them all? Like you learn something important earlier? I don't remember for sure though.

Griffin Hughes

After taking a few years off of the ME series, it was nice to have an excuse to jump back in. Its really interesting that characters and environments I have seen and experienced dozens of times seem to have new life, and I really have a new appreciation for the core designs of the characters specifically. The world design is still as wonky as it has ever been. The textures and materials look great, but I remember thinking the Citadel Presidium was confusing to navigate and easy to get lost. Thankfully I do remember where most of the story beats take place, so I just use some of that memory to navigate. On a small side note, "sprinting" is awful for me. The camera shake is terrible, and Shepard has the endurance of.... someone who isnt in an intergalactic special forces agency. Also, as someone who went "Adept" because I love the biotic abilities it was nice to use the sniper rifle, and assault rifle in combat. Previous playthroughs of Adept class would restrict you to basically just a pistol. Oh, small edit: Im also paying way more attention to the codex entries, and reading all of the planetary information as I go. Something I havent done for a long time. Overall, I am having a great time.

RiskyChrisP

Hi, gang! What’s your opinion on save scumming for this series? I ran into some dialogue where I couldn’t choose my preferred response because I didn’t have enough paragon at the time. After I finished the conversation I reloaded an old save, did some more side quests, then came back and the dialogue choice was available to me. It felt dirty, but I’m still haunted from an incident in my original play through years ago where I didn’t have enough paragon to make a very important decision later in the game. Just curious if you all are super for or against this sort of thing.

Carter Hanson

Exploring uncharted worlds is something else. Even though there’s not much to do besides finding artifacts/materials and clearing out enemy bases for side quests, no other game I can think of really gives you that deep sense of isolation and exploration in a sci fi universe. No Mans Sky certainly tries, but always felt too unrealistic and cartoony to me. The improved Mako controls really do make doing these side quests more enjoyable as well.

Austin Taylor

The narrator of the main Codex entries is Neil Ross, a long-time voice actor and announcer who was the voice of Green Goblin in the 1981 animated Spider-man TV series, multiple Transformers (Bonecrusher, Sixshot, Slag), Honest John in An American Tail, the Biff museum narrator in Back to the Future Part 2, and many other voice and narrator roles. You should interview this man!

Isaac Cynova

I can’t wait to plow through all 3 games. For a 2007 game, the bones of the first are so strong. The dialogue is choice, and the voice actors are all putting in their best. My favorite is Seth Green, of course, but I really don’t hear anyone not pulling their weight.

Isaac Cynova

Did any of you have a hard time with the character setup knowing it would stay with you all three games for sure this time? I love how they brought the default models back to the first game so that there’s a real sense of continuity.

TommenDotGif

My god this inventory system. That's it, that's my whole comment.

Isaac Cynova

I love the horror and hard sci-fi aspects of this first game. Having the Geth be such a sinister first enemy, impailing colonists and then turning them into husks made these first mission and the conversations after so intense. It was one of the things about revisiting this game that most excited me, besides the upgrades and graphic improvements.

Cath

As a casual player that is so not good at shooter games I LOVE the mini map with the red dots showing me where I’d danger. Makes the game more playable for me! What about you? I know mini mais aren’t so loved anymore but as a casual gamer if made me miss them in newer games !