A week and a half ago, I finally got round to start completing Mass Effect — a game which before now I had trouble liking — after leaving the disc in its box since Christmas 2007.

I finally finished it, and I am now looking forward to Mass Effect 2.

Turns out Mass Effect is actually pretty good. Abandoning my original Infiltrator Commander Shepard and creating a new Soldier character really helped, since I can play the game more like a shooter than some sort of crippled FPS. It didn’t make the annoying, heavily Mako–reliant planet explorations any better, but — as with but to a lesser extent in this game than the Halo games — most of my enjoyment came from the story, the visuals, and the soundtrack. The problem though is that most of the memorable and juicy bits of cinematography, environment, music, and story — i.e. the epic stuff in general — happen during the finale of the game, which explains why I didn’t really enjoy Mass Effect previously: I never managed to play pass the mundane and the repetitive in the middle to reach the goodies at the end. The ease of the game on Normal and Veteran difficulties don’t help either.

Although I have to say, the shotguns in this game are probably the most satisfying guns I’ve ever played with.