I've gone through three phases of fandom for the first Mass Effect since it launched:

After Playing It: "Some flaws here and there, but overall, a fantastic space opera with an intriguing universe, great characters, and highly satisfying missions."

After Playing ME2 And Going Back To ME1: "Holy crap, is this game slow. The inventory is awful and omni-gel is the dumbest thing ever. Thank Gosh for sequels!"

I've come around, though, with enough time to process the whole shebang. Mass Effect 2 only gets to be a rip-roaring adventure because the original did all the hard work of laying down the foundation of an engaging sci-fi universe. ME2 gets to blow up what ME1 worked so darn hard on.

Creating a believable, interesting sci-fi universe is, like, hard. All of the biggies have done it - Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. - but both leaned heavily on Rubber Forehead Aliens and Green-Skinned Alien Babes to populate their realms. (To be fair, Mass Effect has Blue-Skinned Alien Babes in the Asari, but they're an elevated parody of the trope and a powerful race in their own right.) Now obviously, humany aliens were borne from a limitation of special effects, but it has pervaded a large portion of our science fiction experience. Sci-fi gives us infinite worlds at our fingertips, and yet we always populate them with beings that are basically like us, but with black dots on their neck. A lot of this, of course, is rooted in our innate human desire to bone aliens.

So BioWare makes a concerted effort to craft a ton of races that fall out of the humany comfort zone. You've got the humanoid-but-decidedly-alien species like the Turians (avian-ish raptor dudes with mandibles), Krogan (dinosaur-like bipeds) and the Volus (asthmatic Space Jews). Then you actually get alien aliens! The Hanar (third-person speaking jellyfish thingies), Elcor (big, lumbering something-or-others who don't emote), and whatever the hell the Vorcha are. And you can't bone any of them.

Well, actually...

It's a funny story! ME1 offers three romance options - Human Kalenko for the ladies, Human Williams for the fellas, and Asari Liara for either. So of course, fans demanded romances with Garrus the Turian and Tali the Quarian, 'cause they were way more interesting. Allow me to remind you that Turians are basically bipedal RAPTORS whose bodily fluids are outright toxic to humans - but that is no matter! Garrus is an amazing, lovable dude and the ladies wanted him, even if it would be nothing more than big hugs and cursing fate for alien biologies. BioWare shrugged and said 'sure,' and Garrus become a love interest in ME2. Once again, ME2 gets to cash in on ME1's efforts. (The fellas are slightly better off, as Quarians CAN have sex with humans. Kinda. It requires civil engineering-like planning and enough antibiotics to choke a Thresher Maw, but it can work.) Like all Quarians, Tali's face is never shown, so her appeal is largely in her stellar voice acting and engaging personality quirks. If there's a more adorable mechanically-inclined Space Gypsy that lives in a vaccuum suit, I'd like to meet her!

For bonus points, the aliens tend to hold the stronger hand in the Mass Effect world. Humans are relatively new to the scene, although we're advancing fairly quickly thanks to the trademark Ruthless Human Ambition no video game can be without. Still, humans ain't squat when compared to the entrenched Council Races (Asari, Salarians, and Turians) and it's a big deal when Shepard becomes a Spectre - the equivalent to a universal problem solver with minimal oversight. Overall, ME does a good job of illustrating the bigotry on both sides of the human fence without turning into a Very Special Episode. Shepard's run as a Spectre will go a long way to proving that humans are capable of joining the intergalactic community, and if you choose to use this opportunity to go around pummeling shopkeepers and taking part in arms dealing, well, you proved the smug jerks right. Nice job.

ME's overarching plot - the good guys versus a race of ancient murder-bots - is not terribly inspired, so it's the smaller moments that fans are drawn to. Ashley Williams seems like a cliche Frankenstein (the love child of her two inspirations, her namesake from Evil Dead and Vasquez from Aliens) until you get to talking to her, and she turns out to be a scorned military brat with a deep religious streak. Sadly, you don't get to point out that the Bible was fairly specific on not killing people, which Williams is exceptionally good at AND fond of, but there's always a loophole for those things. Oh, and she likes poetry. And seems like she's racist, but really isn't. And she wears normal, functional, non-hooker clothes around the ship. She's actually kinda great. Her male counterpart Kaidan Alenko is less engaging - he's like a well-meaning block of wood - but maybe that's my straight guy bias.

Anyhow, there IS a game tethered to all of this, but do you really need the details? You're familiar with BioWare, no? Conversation wheel, morality choices, that sort of thing. The action was okay for its time, but since video game combat evolves by the microsecond, it already feels stale. ME1's gunplay lacks the adrenalized elegance of its sequel, and is hampered further by gear micro-management and the worst vehicle combat this side of... well, Combat, the old Atari game with the little square tanks. After a while, you'll wish the mercenaries would go away so you could talk some more... which is weird to say, but there it is. You won't remember many of the firefights, other than some good setpieces against Liara's Mom and arch-villain Saren.

What you WILL remember, though, is that first gorgeous vista view of the Citadel. Or a pissed-off Wrex shooting at fish on Virmire. Or the basic cable sex scenes that somehow sparked a Web-wide scandal. ("My son Timmy saw a digital character's breasts! If only there had been some kind of legal guardian to protect him from a product with a legally-mandated age restriction printed on the box!") All of this is backed up by the best voice-acting in the industry - this CANNOT be stressed enough. I gamed back when voice acting never existed, and then when it became an exciting novelty. Folks, I cannot tell you how bad game voice-acting used to be. Resident Evil? That was pretty much standard fare until companies like LucasArts and BioWare/Black Isle stepped up, realizing that their stories and gags might have more punch if they came from someone more qualified than a mumbly intern who doesn't know which word to accentuate in a sentence.

ME2 is a much stronger game than ME1, but I've come to appreciate what the original brought to the dance. It tells a fairly typical story very well, and populates it with delightful characters and great moments. More importantly, it crafts a universe that gives BioWare a chance to tell two of the greatest video game adventures ever told. ME1 is like a solid drummer or unselfish straight man - it won't get the shiny awards or adulation, but true fans realize how important their work is.

And if nothing else, it gave us Shepard's unspeakably bad dancing animation. For which we are forever grateful.