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Warning- this article  may contain spoilers

I can’t believe I didn’t play this game sooner. The Mass Effect Trilogy is my all time favorite game. A friend of mine introduced me to Mass Effect, and for some reason or another I put off playing it. I was most likely enthralled in a different game. I looked at the case everyday for almost two months, and never picked it up. Finally, I decided to give it back to my friend.  That’s when he told me to play it because I would be missing out on an epic game.

So he gave it back to me, and I finally decided to turn off what ever I was playing at the time and turn on Mass Effect. I was immediately taken with the story of this game, being so involved as far as customizing Commander Shepard’s looks, history and class. You also recruit squad members of all different classes and races, and can choose to be either friend or foe.  The story begins, and you literally become Commander Shepard, making decisions that will make you a Paragon or a Renegade, keeping in mind the choices you make impact the two other games and the outcome of it all.

Mass Effect 1 takes place in the year 2183. Commander Shepard is sent on a mission with a Turian Spector Nihlus and Kaiden Alenko. They are sent to Eden Prime to locate a Prothean beacon. There they meet up with Ashley Williams and discover Eden Prime is under attack by the Geth. The Geth are being led by a rogue Turian Spector named Saren Arterius who ends up killing Nihlus. After Shepard and the team fight their way through to where the beacon is, it activates drawing Shepard in and implants visions of destruction and war into Shepard’s mind. This sets the game in motion. Now you as Commander Shepard are in a race to find Saren, and try to stop him from working with the reapers (an ancient highly advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships) from destroying humanity and all synthetic life. This game from start to finish is so fulfilling with its exciting story, interesting character development and personalization.

Due to circumstance in Mass Effect 2, Commander Shepard now works with Cerberus. Cerberus is a pro-human organization run by ‘The Illusive Man’. Cerberus has taken many dangerous and illegal steps to try and advance humanity. Some even deem it a terrorist group. Now as Commander Shepard you must once again build a new squad, and this squad is full of unique personalities and pleasing them can be difficult. If you want a successful outcome in this game gaining their loyalty is key. The new threat are the Collectors (an insect like alien race) who are working for the reapers.  They are going colony to colony abducting humans. In order to stop them Commander Shepard must travel to the Omega-4 Relay, a place where no ship has ever gone and returned. This is where gathering resources comes in handy as it helps you upgrade your ship for the final battle against the Collectors.

Mass Effect 3 marks the final chapter to Commander Shepard’s Story. If you have completed the first two games you most likely carried over your custom story to the third. Depending on the final outcome of Mass Effect 2 you may or may not have some crew members. The games begins on Earth. Commander Shepard was detained due to working with Cerberus in Mass Effect 2.  Earth is now being invaded by Reapers due to no one taking heed to Shepard’s warnings of their arrival in the previous games. Shepard escapes with the help of Admiral Anderson and is reinstated. Anderson urges Shepard to build alliances with the various species as unity is the only way to defeat the Reapers.

Once off Earth Shepard is immediately sent by Admiral Hackett to Mars where researchers have discovered a Prothean weapon in which they believe is the key to destroying the Reapers. Their mission quickly becomes more difficult due to Cerberus troops being there. After fighting your way to the main computer, the ‘Illusive Man’ appears on a virtual platform. He tells Shepard his plans of acquiring the weapon, and using it to control the Reapers. Now Shepard is not only racing against the Reapers, but also Cerberus in hopes of destroying evil and saving all organic life.

However, fans were highly disappointed with the outcome of this game. At first, so was I.  After a long conversation with the friend that had introduced this epic trilogy to me, I changed my mind, realizing that there could really only be one type of outcome that made sense. However, BioWare is very good at listening to what the fans have to say: they released a free extended cut DLC that went into a little more detail as to what happened using alternate endings.

Mass Effect 3 had four award nominations and three wins. One of the wins was for Best Role Playing Game, of which I couldn’t agree more.

With this Trilogy having such a large fan base it comes to no surprise that they would be thinking of making it a motion picture. However would that really be what is best for this game? I appreciate games and books I love being turned into movies, but in order to do that they would have to cut out a lot of very important parts. I don’t think the story would be as rich, and they definitely wouldn’t be able to build relationships with the characters like in the games. In fact, they would probably eliminate some of our favorite characters all together. If anything I think it would be a better option to make it a television series.  As a TV series they would be able to fit more of the story in. Or they should just leave this great game alone, and let the player live it out as Commander Shepard. With the vivid planets you visit, the attention to detail, the compelling story and the beautiful and intense music, it is already almost like a movie anyway. Why take away from that?