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Hello everyone and welcome back. Joker's begun his approach to Eden Prime, so let's see how everyone's doing.

Engaging stealth systems.

Somebody was doing some serious digging here, Captain.

What about survivors, Captain?

Helping survivors is a secondary objective. The beacon's your top priority.

Isn't that a little callous Captain?
The Normandy isn't equipped to handle mass evacuations. Stick to the mission, Lieutenant.
Yes, sir.

Approaching drop point one.

Nihlus? You're coming with us?

Nihlus will scout out ahead. He'll feed you status reports throughout the mission; otherwise, I want radio silence.

We've got his back, Captain.

The mission's yours now, Shepard. Good luck.

We are approaching drop point two.

We've got control now. The basic hud when on foot is pretty self explanatory. The person's name is up top, any captions are below that, notifications are on the right, and the motion tracker is below that.

You can also play the game more tactically. I will never do this because it's tedious and kinda jank. Quick select is in the upper left, first party member's weapons and skills are mid-left, everyone's health is bottom-left. Shepard's weapons and skills are bottom center, and second party member's weapons and skills are on the right.

Shepard starts with two skills: Overload and Sabotage. Overload attacks an enemy's shields, while Sabotage overheats their weapon and damages them moderately. Simple enough, right?

Kaidan has Lift and Sabotage, while Jenkins doesn't have anything. There's a reason for this.

This place got hit hard, Commander. Hostiles everywhere. Keep your guard up.

This is a feature I will miss in 2 and 3 - area maps. Though in most cases, Mass Effect never really has complex maps. Everything is pretty much a straight line.

What the hell are those?

Gas bags. Don't worry - they're harmless.

Just ignore them. We've got bigger things to worry about.

Over in one of the obscure corners we find an upgrade kit.

A shield battery is a good find.

Commander? What are you doing?
They didn't teach you grunts how to tune up your equipment?

There's really no strategy here. You just equip the upgrade in the slot and presto you have 40 more points of shields.

No ma'am.
Tell you what, Jenkins. Next one we find, I'll show you what to do.
You'd do that for me, ma'am?
You're part of the team, Jenkins. Gotta have my guys at their best.

Moving right along...

Shepard is holding up her fist. The universeal tactical sign to slow down and stop.

Jenkins takes point.

The drones ambush him and instantly light him up.

We're given control back and the drones go down in a couple shots each.

We also level up!

Fuckin' hell...

Ripped right through his shields. Never had a chance.

We'll see that he receives a proper service once the mission is complete. But right now I need you to stay focused.

Aye, aye, ma'am.

More recon drones at the top of the hill.

I've got some burned out buildings here, Shepard. A lot of bodies.

And past them we find another upgrade kit.

Another shield battery... Alenko, come here.
Ma'am?
Hold still. Not gonna lose someone else to insufficient shielding.

Gonna stop calling out the enemy spawns soon. Just assume that every couple feet we get attacked by more Geth Recon Drones.

Over in the corner we find a medical kit, which always has some medi-gel. If you glance at the bottom left, you can see that Kaidan has taken a beating because Mass Effect party members aren't smart enough to stay in cover. This is a constant thing throughout the series.

While we're here let's look at the level up screen. Right now we're gonna be dumping points into Pistols and Engineer. Each level costs 1 point, and we have 6 to spend.

Kaidan has 4 points. He gets the Barrier skill and 3 points in Sentinel. The class skills for any party member improve both weapon damage and cooldowns.

Shepard gets 3 points in Engineer, and 3 points in Pistols, unlocking the marksman skill. This skill is part of the reason why pistols are broken as fuck. It lets you unload your weapon for as long as the skill lasts without worry about overheating. And there's several upgrades to it as well.

The other important skills here are Charm and Intimidate. Those improve your Paragon and Renegade scores respectively, and you get small bonuses at shops as well. I mentioned it last time, but once I get my marching orders from you all with regards to character stuff, I'm gonna open the developer console and cheat both of those to max. You can't take certain dialogue options unless your Charm/Intimidate is at an appropriate level and I think that's a stupid design choice.

Anyway, let's move on past the top of the next hill.

Jenkins, as you probably guessed, was the requisite sacrifice guest party member. Except he died well before the end of the prologue chapter.

Meet his replacement.

We'll talk to her in a second. Not too far away, she spots something fucked up happening.

What are they doing to...

Oh fuck that. I'm getting out of here.

The organic is escaping.

Those things are hunting her. Help her!

Geth troopers are a pretty constant enemy throughout the game. Especially in story areas. We'll be fighting them from now until the tail end of the game. Thankfully they go down easily enough.

Thanks for your help, Commander. I didn't think I was going to make it. Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams of the 212. You the one in charge here, ma'am?

Commander Shepard of the SSV Normandy. Are you wounded, Williams?

A few scrapes and burns. Nothing serious. The others weren't so lucky. Oh, man.... We were patrolling the perimeter when the attack hit.

The Normandy received part of your distress signal while in route to the planet. We're here to help if we can. Where's the rest of your squad?

We tried to double back to the beacon. But we walked into an ambush. I don't think any of the others.... I think I'm the only one left.

This isn't your fault, Williams. You couldn't have done anything to save them.

Yes, ma'am. We held our position as long as we could. Until the geth overwhelmed us.

I'm sorry, did you say the geth?
Yes, ma'am. Our tech guy recognized them from the old vids.

The geth haven't been seen outside the Veil in nearly 200 years. Why are they here now?

They must have come for the beacon.

We could use your help, Williams.

Aye, aye, ma'am. It's time for payback.

Before we move out, let's compare notes. What do you know about the geth?

Just what I remember from history class back in school. They're synthetics. Non-organic life-forms with limited AI programming created by the quarians a few centuries ago. They were supposed to be a source of cheap labor, but ended up turning on the quarians and drove them into exile. After that, they just kind of disappeared behind the Perseus Veil. Nobody's really heard much from them since.

I'm part of the team that's been sent to retrieve the beacon. So please tell me everything you know about it.

They were doing some digging out here to extend the monorail and expand the colony. A few weeks ago they unearthed some Prothean ruins... and the beacon. Suddenly, every scientific expert in the colony was interested. That's when they brought us in to secure the site.

This is pretty much MassEffect1.jpg right here. A character in a white and pink helmet staring at you with an unimpressed look in their eyes.

I don't know much about the beacon itself. But I heard one of the researchers say this could be the biggest scientific discovery of the century.

What happened to the researchers at the dig site?

I don't know. They set up camp near the beacon. The 232 was with them. Maybe their unit fared better than mine. They hardly could have fared worse.

Describe what happened leading up to the attack.

We were sent out a couple nights ago from the main colony to secure the area.

We should probably assume the geth are after the beacon. That's why they're killing anyone who gets in the way.
But what would the geth want with a Prothean artifact?
It feels like we're missing a crucial piece of information.
I've already told you everything I know, ma'am.
We'll figure it out as we go. Oh! Right... Have you seen a turian Spectre around here?

There aren't any turians on Eden Prime. None that I've ever met. Not sure I'd be able to tell if one was a Spectre, anyway.

If you saw this guy, you'd know. Carries enough firepower to wipe out a whole platoon. Luckily, he's on our side.

Sorry. Like I said, no turians.

Alright, then, let's move out!

We get a pretty big upgrade to Ashley's rifle. While Kaidan and Shepard can equip rifles, they don't have the training to put them to good use. So it goes to Ashley instead.

And while I'm here, let's take a moment to explain really quick how weapons work. I've mentioned overheating a few times. In this game, weapons have infinite ammo, but each shot you take builds up a heat meter - like a turret section in most modern action games. Fire too much and the gun overheats and you're not allowed to use it until it cools back down.

Sniper rifles can fire at most 2 shots before overheating. If you mod it for damage, it can only fire a single shot before it overheats. Shotguns overheat pretty quickly as well and require you to get up close and personal with the enemies. Assault rifles don't deal a lot of damage with each shot, but don't overheat very quickly at all.

And then there's pistols. They suffer from very little heat buildup, so you can stay in combat firing for much longer than other classes of weapons. They also have fairly high top end damage - nothing quite on the level of a sniper rifle, but the DPS is higher. It's a matter of sustain vs alpha. And, most crucially, with the right weapon mods you can make a pistol that never overheats. It's not even particularly hard to do.

So when I say "pistols are far and away the best class of weapon in the game" there's a damn good reason for it.

Anyway, that's enough of that for now. Let's move on!

A few more geth and we're in the clear.

This is the dig site. The beacon was right here. It must have been moved.

By who? Our side? Or the geth?

Hard to say. Maybe we'll know more after we check out the research camp.

You think anyone got out of here alive?

If they were lucky. Maybe hiding up in the camp. It's just on the top of this ridge. Up the ramps.

Change of plans, Shepard. There's a small spaceport up ahead. I want to check it out. I'll wait for you there.

In a nearby crate we find a new pistol that has better damage, but lower everything else. I equip it because why not. But that leaves us with a useless old pistol. If we hit the Omni-gel button in the lower right...

We go from 15 to 19 omni-gel. Sigh. This is one of the biggest complaints about mass Effect. Look at the inventory screen. Just go up one screenshot. What you see is what you get. So there is no quick or easy way to manage it. Furthermore, it's a semi-loot based game. 99% of what you find is utter garbage. What does all this mean?

It means if you like to loot every object you can, then you're just setting yourself up for punishment down the line. Every 4-6 play hours, you'll be forced to stop what you're doing and spend 15-20 minutes extremely tediously clearing out your inventory. You click on the item. You click on Omni-gel. You click 'Yes'. You rinse. You repeat.

You can also just sell everything. Or you can not bother picking anything but weapon and armor mods up. But that's just delaying the inevitable. Sooner or later, no matter how much or little you loot from the environment, eventually you will be called to pay the price for having a limited inventory.

I've neatly sidestepped the problem altogether. The inventory limit normally is 150 items. I've increased it to 500 with a very simple INI tweak. I've also gone through and done a test run with it. There's no stability issues and the game is infinitely better for it. Fuck low inventory limits!

Moving on. We go up the hill...

Looks like they hit the camp hard.

It's a good place for an ambush. Keep your guard up.

Yeah, it does not look good.

What did the geth do to them?

I think I'm gonna be sick...

It's climbing up off of the tower.

Meet the Husk. It's the basic-ass enemy in Mass Effect. If we're not fighting pirates or geth, then we're killing husks.

They like to run up to your guys and detonate an EMP, which as you might imagine does nasty things to your shields.

Three or four husks is a good introduction to them. There will eventually be a time where we face wave after wave of the bastards.

One of the habitats has a locked door. We can pretty easily break it, so...

Allow me to introduce something that I am not looking forward to at all. Mass Effect is widely known for being an epic space opera where it keeps track of most of your decisions. It's also known as being the game that had a controversy because the ending to 3 was extremely badly written and took into account nothing you did througout the entire series. But beyond that, to those who have played the series, there's one thing in particular Mass Effect is best known for.

Shitty minigames. We have 14 functional seconds to get the arrow to the middle of the screen. There's 6 layers counting the center, and the blocks are constantly moving. It's frogger. We're playing frogger. And frogger fucking sucks.

Not pictured: the two times that I failed. This is the primary use of omni-gel throughout the game. You can use it to override security on any object and bypass the fucking awful minigame. Easy locks cost 15 omni-gel, medium ones cost 20, and hard ones cost 25. Most containers only have 3 items inside. Each item can be converted to 4 omni-gel. If you aren't using the console to cheat in infinite amounts of it, you're gonna have to play a lot of frogger.

And if you're about to pipe up about a much worse minigame than frogger... oh don't worry. This was before Bioware forgot about its roots. The Towers of Hanoi are alive and well in this game, and if you want to skip them, they have the single heaviest omni-gel cost in the game at 100.

Anyway, we unlock the door, walk in, and are immediately greeted by two rando NPCs.

Hurry! Close the door! Before they come back!

Don't worry. We'll protect you.

Thank you. I think we'll be okay now. It looks like everyone's gone.

You're Dr. Warren, the one in charge of the excavation. Do you know what happened to the beacon?

It was moved to the spaceport this morning. Manuel and I stayed behind to help pack up the camp. When the attack came, the marines held them off long enough for us to hide. They gave their lives to save us.

No one is saved. The age of humanity is ended. Soon, only ruin and corpses will remain. The ancient gods return and bring a flood of fire and death.
Not gonna acknowledge that... What else can you tell me about the attack?

It all happened so fast. One second we were gathering up our equipment. The next we were hiding in the shed while the geth swarmed over the camp.

This is Manuel. He's the other guy in the conversation. Now you know!

We could hear the battle outside. Gunfire. Screams. I thought it would never end. Then, everything went quiet. We just sat there, too afraid to move. Until you came along.

Did you notice a turian in the area?

I saw him. The prophet. Leader of the enemy. He was here, before the attack.

That's impossible, Commander. Nihlus was with us on the Normandy before the attack. He couldn't have been here.

No shit. I talked to him myself. At length. That doesn't discount the possibility of there being another turian around, though.
I told you, there's no turians here that I know of.

I'm sorry. Manuel's still a bit... unsettled. We haven't seen your turian. We've been hiding in here since the attack.

Williams mentioned that you were in charge of the beacon dig. Can you tell me anything about the beacon?

It's some type of data module from a galaxy-wide communications network. Remarkably well-preserved. It could be the greatest scientific discovery of our lifetime!

A warning! Given too late. The end comes! We have unearthed the heart of evil. Awakened the beast. Unleashed the darkness.

Manuel! Please! This isn't the time.

What's wrong with your assistant?

Manuel has a brilliant mind, but he's always been a bit... unstable. Genius and madness are two sides of the same coin.

Is it madness to see the future? To see the destruction rushing towards us? To understand there is no escape? No hope? No, I am not mad. I'm the only sane one left!

I gave him an extra dose of his meds after the attack.

Doctor. He's dangerous. Just listen to him. He sounds like those doomsday preachers on Earth just after First Contact. It's time to say goodnight, Manuel.

And Shepard punches Manuel straight out.

Oh my God! What did you do?

That might've been a little extreme, Commander.

Alenko, shut up. I don't want to hear my squad second guessing my decisions. Understood?
Yes ma'am. Sorry, ma'am.

You can't just go around whacking people in the head!

It was only a matter of time until he did something crazy. And dangerous. There's no shortage of guns out here on the frontier. Both of you are better off with him unconscious.

I suppose you're right. By the time he wakes up, the meds will have kicked in.

We're gonna head out. Once we leave, lock the door and do not open it unless they verify themselves as human. Williams, take us to the spaceport.

Good luck, Commander.

Punching out the deranged scientist gave us a pretty hefty renegade boost. +9 is larger, I'm pretty sure, than the rest of the paragon gains for the entire game up to this point combined.