On this day 7 years ago, Mass Effect 2 was released with critical acclaim and commercial success. Today is also the day I finally completed ME2. I know a lot of you will shake your head in disgust. If you think that’s bad, I can only imagine your reaction if I said this month I also finished ME1. Here is my nerd card. Let me get my hat and I will see myself out. There is a reason for this slack in gaming achievement but damned if I don’t fault you if you think it’s inexcusable. In my defense, I’ll say that time often gets away from me. A shame since we have so little of it.
Anyway, back to Mass Effect. I remember when I first heard about the game. Everyone was singing its praises from the epic storytelling to cool graphics. Even better it was an RPG set in space. Not since I was a kid swinging a stick and pretending it was a lightsaber had I been that stoked to try something out.
As soon as I could, I went to the local GameStop and asked for a copy of the game. The clerks face lit up when I told him what I wanted. Words poured out of his mouth as he went on and on about how great the game was. I could only smile and twirl my finger hoping he would notice to hurry up. Grabbing the game from him, I muttered a thanks and ran out the door. He was still talking when I drove away.
I wasted no time popping the disc into the X-Box when I got home. As soon as the homescreen loaded, I knew I was about to take a ride to Nirvana. Grinning from ear to ear, I pressed start, sitting back, letting the awesomeness that was Mass Effect sweep me off my feet and take me on a tour of the galaxy. After a night of playing, I saved the game and headed to bed. It would be a longtime before I played it again.
Life at the time was insane. I had recently been promoted at work and my marriage had hit a rough patch. My mother-in-law was also sick with cancer. Did I mention insane? Yes, so I never made it back to the Normandy and its badass crew. Sure, I was still a loyal fan. I bought an N7 hoodie, supported all the hype by posting on the Bioware forums and sung with the praise choir. But never fired up the game. Then came along Dragon Age: Origins.
Dragon Age was everything I love about fantasy games. It had an amazing setting, a robust and at the time, unheard of character creation process and lore that was both interesting and relevant to the game. I was hooked. I recall thinking I should finish Mass Effect but Dragon Age snatched me in its jaws and dragged me away until Mass Effect was lost to the dreams of the Fade.
Flash forward to January 19th, 2010. Mass Effect 2 Day. Like its predecessor, I was set to pick it up from Gamestop. Then something happened. I can’t remember. Too much time has passed. What I do recall is that I was still deep in the Fields of Ferelden, slaying Darkspawn and trying not to die at work. This was also the same year that my marriage was in a tailspin and I was doing everything I could not to recover.
At the same time, I was losing interest with work. I wasn’t being challenged and I didn’t have passion for anything. I spent the days looking forward to the night so I could run home, take a shower, kiss my kids and head to the bar. This would begin my slow decline at my job that would end with me giving everything away to move to the Northwest. Then Halo Reach launched. The love letter to Halo fans by Bungie. I went to Wal-Mart, grabbed a copy, took the day off and didn’t stop playing until I beat the game. I never even thought about Mass Effect.
A couple of years went by with me limping along with work, my marriage had somehow pulled itself out of the nose dive and was on the mend. Work was not. I noted the passing of Mass Effect 3 like a wistful cheater who thought about the one that got away because he was too stupid to change his ways. Then the news that the ending was shit. I remember thinking how great it would be to play again. To see what had happened to the beloved crew of the Normandy and help them save the galaxy. It was not to be.
Like in 2010, another Halo game arrived. This was Halo 4 and the return of the Master Chief. People got hype. I was there on day one to buy my copy, to spend another weekend playing until I beat the campaign. Which is odd. In the past this wouldn’t have happened as I was only a casual fan of the series. Well that’s not true. I played Halo 1 all the time with my kid brother but I wasn’t hardcore. Still Reach had hooked me and that’s been the case to this day. Things would change.
It was 2013 and before I knew it, I picked ME back up. I played and played, falling in love again with the misfits of the Normandy. Only for it to all come to a crashing stop as I left my job. The Normandy never made it to Ilos. My dad moved in, we packed our things and moved to Portland OR. And there the save would languish until January 2017, tenth year of ME1 and 7th year of ME2.
My friend Jon has been harassing me for years now about how I would never finish the game and I would argue that it wasn’t my fault, offering up various excuses to ignore the crew of my beloved Normandy. I have no idea why we neglect the things we love but there it is.
I am not sure want finally galvanized me to fire up my dusty 360 and join Shepard and the crew one last time to try to save the galaxy. Perhaps It’s my addiction with time as I was in my 20’s when this started and I am now in my 30’s. Regardless of the reason I am now firing up a brand new copy of ME3 to save the galaxy or die trying. Whatever the outcome, thank you Shepard for bringing me joy whenever I see you in action and for putting up with my neglect. FOREVER NORMANDY!!
