History VideoGame / MassEffect1

* ActionFilmQuietDramaScene: Several. One example is when Shepard has to decide whether or not [[spoiler:to let the Rachni Queen live.]]

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler:Benezia and Saren]] are under "[[MoreThanMindControl indoctrination]]", a subtle form of mind control, and depending on your choices, [[spoiler:the latter may kill himself if you make him see it]].

* AlwaysABiggerFish: One uncharted world has an area with a number of corpses and wrecked vehicles bearing signs of [[MechaMooks geth]] weapons fire. Unfortunately for the geth, this happened in a [[SandWorm thresher maw]] nest. For another layer, you'll likely find this after killing said thresher maw.

** When you defeat an enemy, their loot (credits and/or items) is automatically deposited in your inventory, when most other [=RPGs=] would make you search their corpse manually. Given the high bodycount in this game, that saves a lot of tedium.
** On Noveria, to reactivate Mira, the Peak 15 VI, you can either fiddle around with a Tower of Hanoi puzzle or you can just spend 100 omnigel. It's a good idea to convert the crap gear that drops at low levels so you can have the omnigel required.
** Also on Noveria, once you deal with Benezia and the rachni, the game automatically fast travels you from the hot labs back to the ''Normandy'', sparing you a long, boring return trip.

** In Bring Down the Sky, there are three missing miners you have to find as part of an assignment, one of which leaves an ApocalypticLog prior to her death:

** The Predator X armors sold after getting the Armax Arsenal license has lower damage reduction than the Colossus, but makes up for it by having much higher shields, making them an alternative for any squadmate that has the "Electronics" skill.

** The Codex entry on the human military points out that the rest of the galaxy sees the Systems Alliance as a sleeping giant. The Systems Alliance has only 3% of the total human population in uniform, a far smaller number than any of the established (and more numerous) Council races. The entry uses the actual "sleeping giant" term, and explains why the rest of the galaxy tends to treat humans with kid gloves: they're terrified of what the Systems Alliance might be capable of if sufficiently motivated by fear, anger, or desperation. And then along comes Shepard, who ''shows'' them what they're capable of. Note that this is twenty-some years ''after'' what the turians refer to as the "Relay 314 incident" and humans call the "First Contact war", where a turian force initially forced the surrender and occupation of a human colony, then had their asses handed to them when the Alliance sent the bulk of their fleet against the relatively few number of turian ships holding said colony.

** The ''SSV Normandy'' [=SR1=] is considered to be this InUniverse (with an emphasis on 'impractical') by a human Alliance admiral. Basically he considers the ''Normandy'''s stealth system to be useless and would have preferred that the funds and resources had been used to create a more conventional warship instead. He is very wrong.

* BoomHeadshot: Can be done on most enemies you face off against (without any difference in damage from shooting any other part). [[spoiler:Saren may do this to himself as well, if you can convince him that he's been indoctrinated by Sovereign.]]

* BrokenRecord: Some:

** "ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!" "GO, GO, GO!" "ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!" "I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!"
** Shepard: "I've lost shields!"
** Also, everyone at Zhu's Hope evades questions by telling Shepard to "talk to Fai Dan", or some variation thereupon. And should you talk to Fai Dan, he's just as evasive. [[spoiler: This is because they're under the control of the [[BotanicalAbomination Thorian]]]].

* TheCavalry: Joker, Admiral Hackett, and the entirety of the Alliance Fifth Fleet [[spoiler:when Sovereign attacks the Citadel]]. Crosses over into BigDamnHeroes territory [[spoiler:if you choose to save the ''Destiny Ascension'']].

* CollectionSidequest: Several, including many in space and one on the Citadel. Most of them have to do mainly with space exploration, though a couple involve Shepard investigating lost remnants of battles and explorers who came before them, which given the general theme of the game, is very appropriate, if somewhat sidetracking.

** Snipers can [[OneHitKill kill you in one shot]]. Sure, you can do this as well, but they aim ''much'' faster than you (once their laser sights are visible, you have about a second to get out of its way). Oh, and they have infinite ammo.

* CopKiller: {{Discussed|Trope}}. One of the missions on Noveria has you fight through a seemingly closed off part of Port Hanshan's security force to retrieve incriminating evidence on the corrupt boss of the place. On the way out, you run into the irate sergeant, herself going [[DirtyCop behind her captain's back]], who points out that her superior, Anoleis, would just toss you offworld for your actions and says, "You know what we did to cop killers on my world?" If Wrex is present, he retorts that she's taking a bribe for doing a dirty deed for Anoleis and adds "You know what we do to dirty cops on my world?"

* CurbStompBattle:
** In a non-combat example, during the first Citadel trial against Saren, he proceeds to utterly dismiss and annihilate every piece of evidence Anderson and Udina try to raise. However, the second trial doesn't go as well for him.
** The squad vs. Dr. Saleon. If you convince Garrus not to kill him, or if you leave Garrus behind, Saleon will try to kill you, but goes down in ''one shot''.
** Until downing Saren causes a nasty feedback loop that disables its shields, the battle against Sovereign was going this way in the Reaper's favor. Despite two entire fleets attacking it and Sovereign barely putting up an effort to fight back, it {{No Sell}}s virtually everything thrown at it and convinces some in the Alliance fleet that it is unbeatable until the crucial moment.

* CutAndPasteEnvironments: Almost every assignment in the game takes place in (1) a mine that's a big room with two smaller ones branching off the back, (2) a building with an exterior overhang that's just one big room and a balcony, (3) a boxy bunker with a "T" junction in back leading to two small rooms. Or, (4) a freighter (or sometimes space station) that has a short entryway, a large main hold and a crew/cockpit area with three small rooms. About the only variation is the crates/computers/boxes/whatever placed inside and how they're positioned. If the designers were feeling particularly [[SarcasmMode creative]], you might get some combination of the three. It doesn't help that in a few of these assignments you're fighting geth and husks, i.e. the same enemies you fight for most of the main storyline. Types 2, 3, and 4 are justified if they are considered mass-produced prefabricated structures. As for the mine layout, it's quite a stretch to assume that miners cut the exact same passages on a dozen different planets at different times.
* CutLexLuthorACheck:
** A pettier example than usual. In Flux, a salarian needs your help testing out a device he built to cheat at Quasar. If you foil his plans, he'll be crestfallen that the years of work he put into making the device have gone to waste, wondering what he will do now. Your squad members suggest that he could use his skills to get a real job.
** Dr. Saleon grew cloned organs ([[BadBoss inside his employees]]) which he sold on the black market (if the organs [[BodyHorror didn't develop properly he just left them inside]]). While he probably made more money this way than if he went legit, his [[PlayingWithSyringes antics]] ended with him [[HoistByHisOwnPetard trapped in a ship]] overrun by [[BodyHorror hostile mutated monsters]] and catching a bullet in the head courtesy of Garrus or Shepard.

* DoorToBefore: Most places just have one door and aren't that complex. However, there is a force field in the [=ExoGeni=] building on Feros you have to deactivate before using the door, and on Ilos you have an elevator which will not work before you plug it in again (after a long walk around it, of course).
* DoubleTap: If [[spoiler:Wrex]] dies, his killer puts three more bullets in him when he's on the ground. Shepard will also tell the squad to do this to [[spoiler:Saren]] in the endgame.

** Bring Down the Sky is a full-on expansion to the story where Shepard and company must stop the batarians from destroying the colony planet Terra Nova with an asteroid.

* HundredPercentCompletion: The main storyline can be completed in roughly 10 hours, but there are dozens of assignments as well, and there is an achievement for players who complete 75% of the game. There are also achievements for completing a majority of the game with each squadmates.[[note]]As part of the game's major overhaul in the ''Legendary Edition'', this was changed to completing five missions with each squadmate to make it easier to get the achievements in few as one or two playthroughs.[[/note]]
* AbandonedMine: Some assignments take place in these from recovering missing Alliance intelligence to killing [[OurZombiesAreDifferent husks]] of a mining team that DugTooDeep.

The plot revolves around one Commander Shepard, a military officer who becomes the first human Spectre, a member of [[SpacePolice an elite interplanetary peacekeeping force]]. They are tasked with tracking down a rogue Spectre named Saren Arterius, who has apparently allied himself with the geth, a race of [[MechaMooks murderous robots]]. As the storyline progresses, Shepard explores a variety of worlds, encounters a wide range of sapient species, and uncovers an ancient plot involving the [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom coming doom]] [[ApocalypseHow of every sapient organic being in the entire galaxy]].

There is a selection of plot-relevant missions and, if you focus exclusively on those, the game would be in the realm of 9-10 hours, but being an RPG, there is an entire galaxy for you to explore as you engage in [[{{Sidequest}} assignments]], expanding the game to upwards of 25 hours or more. The game lacks a traditional good/evil KarmaMeter, and instead gives you options on how to proceed with each encounter based on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism; you are a hero either way, but your heroism can range from KnightInShiningArmor to UnscrupulousHero. You can choose whether to recruit all of the characters optioned to be part of your crew or ignore them and do it all yourself. You even have the option of different characters to [[RomanceSidequest pursue a romantic relationship with if you so desire]], including a possible LoveTriangle.

*** When pressed on her distrust of aliens, Ashley tries to clarify that it isn't that she ''hates'' them per se, but she knows that, if the chips came down to it, any specie (humans included) would sacrifices others to ensure their own survival, which is why she dislikes you placing so much trust into aliens crewmembers. [[spoiler:Comes the third game, and that reasoning is thrown back at Shepard almost word-for-word by the Council as to why they don't want to take huge risks defending Earth and prefer to focus on their respective defenses]].

* CryonicsFailure: [[spoiler:The fate of most of the Protheans on Ilos who went into stasis to escape the Reapers' purge of the galaxy. Admittedly, they realized this might happen and specifically programmed Vigil to cull non-essential personnel first, leading Wrex to snark that he doubts said non-essential personnel were told about ''that'' probability]].

* HitchhikerHeroes: Apart from Kaidan, who is actually part of your squad at the beginning of the game, and Liara, who you are specifically sent out to pick up, every squadmate joins either of their own free will or because Anderson thought they might be useful.