History YMMV / MassEffect1

** The way corpses frozen by your Cryo Rounds explode won't look out of place on the UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum.

* TooCoolToLive: Nihlus is a hardboiled Spectre built up as a badass as well a potential mentor, and he [[SacrificialLamb dies very quickly to establish Saren as a threat]]. He gets a decent back-story in ''Mass Effect 2'' if you talk to Samara. Apparently, Nihlus was so badass that he was able to stop her from killing him simply by using her own justicar code against her and allowing him to escape.

** Many feel that Nihlus was way underused and could've served as a cool mentor-figure/party member. From what little is given about him, he seems to be a generally heroic Spectre, and he has some kind of past with Saren that suggests a former friendship or comradery. Instead he is killed after about three scenes.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "M4 Part II" by Faunts, which plays over the credits.

** It is very easy to unwittingly end up in a relationship with Ashley or Kaidan (for male or female Shepards respectively). You basically have to be a complete asshole, not talk to them at all outside of missions, [[spoiler:[[DieForOurShip blow them up on Virmire]]]], or [[https://bsn.boards.net/thread/1677/looking-romance-mass-effect-pacifen pick a very specific]] and [[GuideDangIt non-intuitive dialogue choice in an early conversation]] to avoid it.

** Also with the Council is their choice not send the Council fleet after Saren in the finale upon learning where he is. The story treats this as them being cowards who are too afraid of the Terminus System, and like the other instances of this, end up admitting to it being a mistake if they survive. However, the Council rightfully point out that since Ilos is located in the Terminus System, launching a massive fleet against Saren would give the Terminus System justification for mobilizing a counter fleet and could potentially spark a war with them, so parking the fleet at strategic locations with the limited information they have is the best they can do. While they are wrong for grounding the Normandy crew out of fear for the Normandy being detected in the Terminus System, sparking a potential war with the Terminus System just to get Saren makes sense even if they went overboard with preventing it.

** A bug on Noveria allows you to farm infinite Paragon and Renegade points. After raiding the Synthetic Insights office, gathering evidence of Anoleis’s kickback scheme and agreeing to work with Gianna, you have to talk to Lorik Qui'in to convince him to testify against Anoleis. Initially, he resists, forcing you to use Charm or Intimidate. Convincing him gets you 24 Paragon or 25 Renegade points. However, as long as you don’t speak to Gianna to inform her, Qui'in can be spoken to and convinced to testify again and again.

** The sex scene controversy became this with the release of the Legendary Edition which, due to larger computer monitors coming out since the game's initial 2007 release, showed that the women come [[NippleAndDimed without nipples]].

** The Council are treated by characters and the story as a bunch of ObstructiveBureaucrat idiots who don't listen to Shepard about Saren being behind the attack on Eden Prime, and Sovereign being a Reaper. However, in both cases nobody has hard proof at first; Shepard's testimony about Eden Prime relies on one clearly traumatized witness and a vision from a destroyed Prothean beacon, which Shepard themselves can note is rather flimsy evidence when they wake up after Eden Prime. Saren even points out the absurdity of a vision being used as legit evidence, and it's only after proper evidence is given that they have reason to think he is behind it. Meanwhile, only Shepard and the crew know that Sovereign is a Reaper, but have no proof, and to the rest of the galaxy's knowledge, Reapers don't even exist and are just made up. Also, most of Shepard's attempts to convince the Council boil down to "Trust me, I saw it". While they certainly are dumb in the later games for not taking Shepard's warnings, and for making investigating Saren harder for C-Sec seemingly to avoid the backlash doing so could bring, at least in this game, the Council come across as fairly justified in their skepticism of Shepard's claims, and yet are treated as wrong by most of the story relevant cast for not blindly accepting Shepard's words.
** Also with the Council is their choice not send the Council fleet after Seren in the finale upon learning where he is. The story treats this as them being cowards who are too afraid of the Terminus System, and like the other instances of this, end up admitting to it being a mistake if they survive. However, the Council rightfully point out that since Ilos is located in the Terminus System, launching a massive fleet against Saren would give the Terminus System justification for mobilizing a counter fleet and could potentially spark a war with them, so parking the fleet at strategic locations with the limited information they have is the best they can do. While they are wrong for grounding the Normandy crew out of fear for the Normandy being detected in the Terminus System, sparking a potential war with the Terminus System just to get Saren makes sense even if they went overboard with preventing it.

* InformedWrongness: The Council are treated by characters and the story as a bunch of ObstructiveBureaucrat idiots who don't listen to Shepard about Saren being behind the attack on Eden Prime, and Sovereign being a Reaper. However, in both cases nobody has hard proof at first; Shepard's testimony about Eden Prime relies on one clearly traumatized witness and a vision from a destroyed Prothean beacon, which Shepard themselves can note is rather flimsy evidence when they wake up after Eden Prime. Saren even points out the absurdity of a vision being used as legit evidence, and it's only after proper evidence is given that they have reason to think he is behind it. Meanwhile, only Shepard and the crew know that Sovereign is a Reaper, but have no proof, and to the rest of the galaxy's knowledge, Reapers don't even exist and are just made up. Also, most of Shepard's attempts to convince the Council boil down to "Trust me, I saw it". While they certainly are dumb in the later games for not taking Shepard's warnings, and for making investigating Saren harder for C-Sec seemingly to avoid the backlash doing so could bring, at least in this game, the Council come across as fairly justified in their skepticism of Shepard's claims, and yet are treated as wrong by most of the story relevant cast for not blindly accepting Shepard's words.

* InformedWrongness: The Council are treated by characters and the story as a bunch of ObstructiveBureaucrat idiots who don't listen to Shepard about Saren being behind the attack on Eden Prime, and Sovereign being a Reaper. However, in both cases nobody has hard proof at first; Shepard's testimony about Eden Prime relies on one clearly traumatized witness and a vision from a destroyed Prothean beacon (which Shepard themselves can note is rather flimsy evidence when they wake up after Eden Prime). Saren even points out the absurdity of a vision being used as legit evidence, and it's only after proper evidence is given that they have reason to think he is behind it. Meanwhile, only Shepard and the crew know that Sovereign is a Reaper, but have no proof, and to the rest of the galaxy's knowledge, Reapers don't even exist and are just made up. Also, most of Shepard's attempts to convince the Council boil down to "Trust me, I saw it". While they certainly are dumb in the later games for not taking Shepard's warnings, and for making investigating Saren harder for C-Sec seemingly to avoid the backlash doing so could bring, at least in this game, the Council come across as fairly justified in their skepticism of Shepard's claims, and yet are treated as wrong by most of the story relevant cast for not blindly accepting Shepard's words.

* InformedWrongness: The Council are treated by characters and the story as a bunch of ObstructiveBureaucrat idiots who don't listen to Shepard about Saren being behind the attack on Eden Prime, and Sovereign being a Reaper. However, in both cases nobody has hard proof at first; Shepard's testimony about Eden Prime relies on one clearly traumatized witness and a vision from a destroyed Prothean beacon. Saren even points out the absurdity of a vision being used as legit evidence, and it's only after proper evidence is given that they have reason to think he is behind it. Meanwhile, only Shepard and the crew know that Sovereign is a Reaper, but have no proof, and to the rest of the galaxy's knowledge, Reapers don't even exist and are just made up. Also, most of Shepard's attempts to convince the Council boil down to "Trust me, I saw it". While they certainly are dumb in the later games for not taking Shepard's warnings, and for making investigating Saren harder for C-Sec seemingly to avoid the backlash doing so could bring, at least in this game, the Council come across as fairly justified in their skepticism of Shepard's claims, and yet are treated as wrong by most of the story relevant cast for not blindly accepting Shepard's words.

** At one point, you're tapped by Admiral Hackett to destroy a rogue [=VI=] on Earth's moon. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', you learn that Cerberus answered the [=VI=]'s distress call and rebuilt it into [=EDI=], who still remembers Shepard shooting at her in this mission. Thankfully, she accepts Shepard's apology with no hard feelings.

* InformedWrongness: The Council are treated by characters and the story as a bunch of ObstructiveBureaucrat idiots who don't listen to Shepard about Saren being behind the attack on Eden Prime, and Sovereign being a Reaper. However, in both cases nobody has hard proof at first; Shepard's testimony about Eden Prime relies on one clearly traumatized witness and a vision from a destroyed Prothean beacon. Saren even points out the absurdity of a vision being used as legit evidence, and its only after proper evidence is given that they have reason to think he is behind it. Meanwhile: Only Shepard and the crew know that Sovereign is a Reaper, but have no proof, and to the rest of the galaxy's knowledge, Reapers don't even exist and are just made up. Also, most of Shepard's attempts to convince the Council boil down to "Trust me, I saw it". While they certainly are dumb in the later games for not taking Shepard's warnings, and for making investigating Saren harder for C-Sec seemingly to avoid the backlash doing so could bring, at least in this game, the Council come across as fairly justified in their skepticism of Shepard's claims, and yet are treated as wrong by most of the story relevant cast for not blindly accepting Shepard's words.

** Your squadmates potentially dying on Virmire are quite well-known going into the franchise, whether it's the SadisticChoice between Kaidan and Ashley, or failing to calm down Wrex.

** The SadisticChoice on Virmire where one of your teammates must die.

** The Reapers are TheManBehindTheMan for Saren and the true main villains of the original trilogy, due to them being a LateArrivalSpoiler in said trilogy.

* ItWasHisSled: The Reapers are TheManBehindTheMan for Saren and the true main villains of the original trilogy, due to them being a LateArrivalSpoiler in said trilogy.

* ItWasHisSled: The Reapers are TheManBehindTheMan for Saren and the true main villains of the series, due to being a LateArrivalSpoiler for all subsequent works.

* MemeticBadass: Ethan Jeong, Feros' resident CorruptCorporateExecutive. The speech check to resolve the situation peacefully is the ''hardest'' speech check in the entire game, requiring a level of either 10 in Intimidate or 12 in Charm. To put this into perspective : it's easier to ''talk Saren down'', leading to fans joking that Jeong is the single most determined NPC in the entire franchise.
--> '''Youtube comment:''' "It's easier to convince Saren to resist indoctrination from a powerful sentient A.I. than it is to convince Ethan Jeong to not be a corporate shill."

* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler:There's a SadisticChoice on Virmire where one of your teammates must die.]] Also, [[spoiler:the Reapers are TheManBehindTheMan for Saren and the overall main villains of the series]].

* InformedWrongness: The Council are treated as idiotic and wrong for not believing Shepard about both Saren being behind the attack on Eden Prime, and Sovereign being a Reaper. However, in both cases nobody has hard proof at first; Shepard's testimony about Eden Prime relies on one clearly traumatized witness and a vision. Saren even points out the absurdity of a vision being used as legit evidence. Meanwhile for Sovereign: Only Shepard and the crew know that it's a Reaper, but have no proof, and to the rest of the galaxy's knowledge, Reapers don't even exist. Also, most of Shepard's attempts to convince the Council boil down to "Trust me, I saw it". While they certainly are dumb in the later games for not taking Shepard's warnings, and for making investigating Saren harder for C-Sec, at least in this game, the Council come across as fairly justified in their skepticism of Shepard's claims, and yet are treated as wrong by literally every character for not blindly accepting Shepard's words.

* FourthWallMyopia: The Citadel Council attracts a lot of hate for being {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s who refuse to acknowledge the existence of the Reapers until it's too late. While undeniably true in the second game (which may have retroactively poisoned some players' perspective of them), their actions in this game are more defensible. They refused to take Shepard's word over Saren in the absence of any physical evidence (Shepard's Prothean vision being, understandably, barely more credible to them than divine revelation), and once that evidence did appear, they acted on it immediately and decisively. It's only in the wake of Sovereign's attack on the Citadel that the Council's reasonable skepticism turns into bare-faced denial.

* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler: There's a SadisticChoice on Virmire where one of your teammates must die]]. Also, [[spoiler: the Reapers are TheManBehindTheMan for Saren and the overall main villains of the series]].
* MagnificentBastard: See [[MagnificentBastard/MassEffect here]].

%%* OneSceneWonder: Vigil. Players actually felt sorry for the VI.

* TooCoolToLive: Nihlus is a hardboiled Spectre built up as a badass as well a potential mentor, and he [[SacrificialLamb dies very quickly to establish Saren as a threat]]. He gets a decent back-story in ''Mass Effect 2'' if you talk to Samara. Apparently, Nihlus was so badass that he was able to stop her from killing him simply by using
her own justicar code against her and allowing him to escape.

* HoYay: Since much of the dialogue Shepard had was originally meant to be potentially romantic before it was cut, there's a lot of this with Kaidan. It's made canon in ''Mass Effect 3''.

* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler: There's a SadisticChoice on Virmire where one of your teammates must die]]. Also, [[spoiler: the Reapers are the GreaterScopeVillain]].

** It is very easy to unwittingly end up in a relationship with Ashley or Kaidan. You basically have to be a complete asshole, not talk to them at all, [[spoiler:[[DieForOurShip blow them up on Virmire]]]], or [[https://bsn.boards.net/thread/1677/looking-romance-mass-effect-pacifen pick a very specific]] and [[GuideDangIt non-intuitive dialogue choice in an early conversation]] to avoid it.

* TooCoolToLive: Nihlus is a hardboiled Spectre built up as a badass as well a potential mentor, and he [[SacrificialLamb dies very quickly to establish Saren as a threat]]. He gets a decent back-story in ''Mass Effect 2'', if you talk to Samara. Apparently, Nihlus was so badass that he was able to stop her from killing him simply by using her own justicar code against her and allowing him to escape.

** While not a bad or critically panned game, the original ''Mass Effect'' was sort of lost in the shuffle when its two sequels were released, with ''2'' and ''3'' being more similar to each other in terms of gameplay, tone, writing, and art style than either one is to this game. As a result, the original could feel antiquated and unfamiliar to play for fans who entered the franchise with one of the sequels. The upgraded graphics and the overhauled combat system in the ''Legendary Edition'' did a lot to make the game more accessible and prompted many reevaluations of the game as being underrated or even the best in the trilogy.

* TooCoolToLive: Nihlus is a hardboiled Spectre built up as a badass as well a potential mentor, and he [[SacrificalLamb dies very quickly to establish Saren as a threat]]. He gets a decent back-story in ''Mass Effect 2'', if you talk to Samara. Apparently, Nihlus was so badass that he was able to stop her from killing him simply by using her own justicar code against her and allowing him to escape.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: On Eletania, Shepard is tasked with recovering a downed recon drone, but if you explore with the Mako, you can find a Prothean relic. If you helped Sha'ira, you'll find that the trinket she gave you is the key to unlocking it, and Shepard experiences the memories of a Cro-Magnon man who had once been under observation by the Protheans. There's no payoff in future games, and it's even completely ignored by Shepard, when one would think that Prothean tech like that would be ''kind of a big deal''.

** [[MagikarpPower The Sentinel class]]. When properly leveled up, it goes from looking like a wall-hugging joke at the start of the game to being able to [[CurbStompBattle curbstomp the final boss without taking a single hit using a spamming combo of]] [[MindOverMatter Lift]] to make him a piñata, [[PowerNullifier Overload to strip his shields, and Sabotage to neuter his weapons]], which is not even factoring in squadmates with more exotic powers like Damping in addition to [[JustShootHim just unloading on the poor bastard]].

* GoddamnedBoss: The Thorian is not difficult to kill; just move through the ruins shooting at the nodes keeping it anchored in place, and it will fall and die. The asari clones it spawns are also surprisingly manageable for a biotic enemy; you only fight one of her at a time, and it's not hard to predict where and when she'll appear. What makes this fight a nuisance, though, is it's designed so there's no way to speed up the fight. The nodes are positioned such that you can't get a good enough angle to snipe at them; you have actually wade through dozens of Thorian Creepers to approach each one before you can start shooting it. The Thorian Creepers all start their unkillable dormant state, and then activate at random as you proceed through the structure and damage the Thorian nodes. You have to pace yourself so you only activate a few Creepers at a time, and then stop and kill the Creepers you've just activated before continuing. Otherwise, you'll trigger a Thorian Creeper ZergRush, and very likely get overwhelmed and die.

* HoYay: Since much of the dialogue Shepard had was originally meant to be potentially romantic before it was cut, there's a lot of this with Kaidan. It is made canon in ''Mass Effect 3''.
* InformedWrongness: The Council are treated as idiotic and wrong for not believing Shepard about both Saren being behind the Geth attack on Eden Prime, and Sovereign being a Reaper. However, in both cases nobody has hard proof at first of these claims; Shepard's testimony about Eden Prime relies on a witness that only saw Saren kill Nihlus because he was slacking on his job, making his testimony suspect, and a vision. Saren even points out the absurdity of a vision being used as legit evidence. Meanwhile for Sovereign: Only Shepard and the crew know that it's a Reaper, but have no proof, and to any person not there, would seem too farfetched to expect is true, especially when a lot of Shepard's attempts to convince them boil down to "Trust me, I saw it". While they certainly are dumb in the later games for not taking Shepard's warnings, and for making investigating Saren harder for C-Sec, at least in this game, the Council come across as fairly justified in their skepticism of Shepard's claims, and yet are treated as wrong by literally every character for not blindly accepting Shepard's words.
* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler: There's a SadisticChoice on Virmire where SomeoneHasToDie]]. Also, [[spoiler: the Reapers are the GreaterScopeVillain]].

** Shiala is one of TheDreaded [[MagicKnight asari commandos]] who even the turians consider the finest warriors in the galaxy, she [[TheAtoner wants to make amends]] for what she did while she was indoctrinated, and she has the Prothean cipher. Plus she has a few centuries worth of not just life experience but combat experience too. She could have made for an interesting and compelling squadmate.

* TooCoolToLive: Nihlus is a hardboiled Spectre built up as a badass as well a potential mentor, and he dies very quickly to establish what kind of guy Saren is. He gets a decent back-story in ''Mass Effect 2'', if you talk to Samara. Apparently, Nihlus was so badass that he was able to stop her from killing him simply by using her own justicar code against her and allowing him to escape.
* VindicatedByHistory:

* VocalMinority: Declarations of this game being a player's favorite aren't uncommon, but a rare thing to see is when someone reports that they actually like the gameplay mechanics compared to the sequels.

* ItWasHisSled: The SadisticChoice on Virmire and the Reapers.

* MoralEventHorizon: Saren, even long before discovering Sovereign to Anderson, but for the rest of the galaxy, the attack on Eden Prime.

** The Citadel: Scan the Keepers assignment can be done before leaving the Citadel for the first time; you just have to run around the entire station finding them. Your reward for doing this is Chorban sending you an email in ''Mass Effect 2'' to tell you nothing you didn't already know from talking to Vigil. The XP you get from scanning each keeper does add up to a nice XP boost if you scan them all, though.

** Private Jenkins is given very little in the way of characterization despite being apparently an established member of the crew. He gets only a few lines of dialogue, maybe two scenes, then dies to Geth scout enemies. Worse, later games try to make his death seem like it was a major loss for the characters, yet he barely has anything to show for it.

* VocalMinority: Declarations of this game being a player's favorite aren't uncommon, but a rare thing to see is when someone reports that they actually like the gameplay mechanics.