Good article. This honestly makes me feel for those who pick up the series at this point. Aside from the lack of weight to major plot points, you'll also be missing hundreds of little in-game references. Many of which are heard by evesdroppoing on conversations you can't interact in. Or seeing the results of a a dozen minor choices that you would never have thought twice about before (Conrad Verner anyone?) Sorry....I may be gushing now... I love Mass Effect......

I'm in the same boat here, and had similar feelings about the comic. Some choices made sense to be there, I think. Killing the arachnid queen, choosing which council will survive; these were cool scenarios I felt interested in making a judgement call about, albeit casually. The character-specific choices, though, I agree were almost meaningless and I too wondered if I was changing my whole gaming experience without realizing it. It would almost be better if you could choose a "renegade" or "paragon" backstory and see the comic play out that way.

I also was disappointed at what the comic didn't explain. No backstory on Cerberus, for example. Also all the in-game references that Matthew talks about; not just the random nonreciprocal convos, but all the interactive ones too where NPCs name-drop, ask about past people or situations...but what can you do? It just makes me realize and appreciate how deep and well thought the universe is. I guess I'm really, really, glad I get to play it at all.  

I know exactly how you feel Leyton. While I enjoyed how the comic helped me grasp the first game's story, making some of those choices had very little weight for me to truely choose. Killing the arachnid queen was easy for me because I loathe spiders. I chose to save Ashley because of discussions I've had with friends that told me she's a possible love interest in the game to which I  also chose for my Shepard to fall in love with (which again, I don't know the details, was it love? If it was, he doesn't seem to be that interested in finding her from the 8 hours I've played so far. Was it a 1 nighter? I have no damn clue about how deep thier relationship is/was). I chose to save the council becuase I figured if I saved them, I could get on thier good side. 

I had trouble when deciding  who I wanted to appoint as a council representative. I immediately found myself picking up the phone and calling about 5 different people I knew who both played and beat the first game to find out what they have done and have them hint at the reprecussions of my choices in this game. I even called Bitmob's own Mike Minotti who probably gave me the best advice haha. In the spirit of the hit HBO show "Boardwalk Empire", I told him I wanted a friend on the council to which he laughed and confirmed that no matter who I chose, they both have thier strengths and are just different experiences. So, to conclude this...  I just Nucky Thompson'ed the milky way galaxy.

Very informative. I feel you on the seriousness of creating a character. I spend crazy time building their facial features and I think way too much about the pros and cons of the various personas you can choose from, but that is what a game is about- being able to interact with a fantasy.

But it sounds like the comic book intro will need some supplemental research via message boards. I figured something like that would not be able to sufficiently convey the intimates of Mass Effect 1, but at least they put some effort into it. I guess in the end you just have to take the initiative to find alternative sources that will help give those storyline choices more weight. Can't wait till the price drops on this so I can scoop it off of Ebay. Games are so expensive, its hard to balance a family budget combined with a love of gaming. 

At the base of it, if you reduce all the story points into ME1 into bullet points you'll find that the story is very cliche. However, the game got around this problem because the story telling was unique and it never rushed you to the next point. I've watched the youtube of the comic, and I felt it to be a very cold experience that totally missed the point of what made ME1 unique to many people.

The comic book does sound disappointing but I don't think any of the decisions impact ME2 very much. I played through Mass Effect three times and the sequel twice. However, I think both characters that I imported made similar choices in part one so I really didn't see much difference between them in part two. This may be a spoiler to some so I'll warn you now :) The characters that can live or die in part one never actually join your party in part two, you just run into them and chat. You hardly even deal with the council in part two; if I recall correctly they just show up in the human council member's office as holograms. In part one you could even let them die so then they probably aren't in part two unless they formed a new council. There are a lot of little things that may change based on your choices but none should have a major affect on your party or the game's outcome. The worst thing is missing all of the references to events in part one during your conversations.

I am interested in what you would suggest they do instead to help with the interactivity or to help you care more...should it have been longer? I don't mean to be a jerk or anything I am just interested in your opinion since you played through it with a critical eye. Regardless of how much you cared about your choices it must be cool to see them affect your game.

If you really cared about making "good" choices then you probably would have read the wiki for ME1 or just asked a friend - maybe you will go back and do that now you are more familiar with the fiction(im kind of glad you didn't cause you probably wouldn't have written this with a unique perspective other wise).

Ultimately, ME is probably less about making the "right" choices and more about just having the ability to choose. Then experiencing how those choices affect the game regardless of subtlety.

@Evan: Good questions. I definitely wanted to go into the Mass Effect universe completely cold -- with Genesis my only source of information -- and write from that angle.

As for what I suggest...I'm not sure. It's a hard position to be in, trying to introduce gamers to a fiction heavily dependent on choice and detail, without letting them play through the whole experience for themselves. I think the modicum of interactivity allowed in Genesis almost made things worse, though.

I like Joe's idea above -- create your character first, give him the backstory and attributes you want (like birthplace, personality, and Paragon/Renegade), then let the comic play out without interaction, but based on those choices. That way, I'm influencing the story by what I want my character to be, rather than being forced to choose between quickly-summarized plot points when I don't understand the ramifications or context.

Maybe that still wouldn't be perfect. Honestly, there's no good way to summarize an epic 50-hour RPG experience in ten minutes and have it retain the same weight. If I really cared that much (and if I didn't want to write from this particular viewpoint), I probably should have just figured out a way to play the first Mass Effect game. Oh well, I guess. :)