I completed my playthrough of Mass Effect this weekend. Total logged time played, 35 hours and 19 minutes. I did almost every side quest in the game. Well, at least all the ones I found. When I was done I only had about 2 collection quests I hadn’t quite managed to complete.
I have to say I changed my opinion on what I loved and hated a bit as I put more time into the game. I definitely got better at combat. I still hate the Mako. And I realized that there’s a NORTH arrow on the minimap, so it’s really quite possible to use it for navigation if you keep your eye on that.
I was a bit annoyed because I didn’t get some achievements I was expecting to get. There are achievements for playing through the most of the game with each of the squad members, and I swear I played through almost exclusively with two members. But right at the start, I was trying different ones out. Apparently, it’s a mission count thing, not a time played thing, because I probably used the members I had for 30 hours, but I didn’t get the achievements. Oh well, what can you do?
I’m still not quite done with the game, I started it up with a new main character, since I played as a woman the first time I was curious to see how it played as a man. I know that it’s the same, but I wanted to hear the dialogue, pick the “dark side” and be a renegade instead of a paragon. At least for a little while. And I also wanted to try out a different character class. So I’ll come back and give some more thoughts (if anyone can bear more thoughts on this game I’ve already written several essays about) once I’m really truly done. 
2 Responses to “Finished Mass Effect”
I had the same problem - I played through most of the game with Wrex and Ashley, but never got the achievements.
Considering the driving around the barren wastelands probably encompassed 80% of the total play time, the Mako is my top most-hated item about this game.
Number two would be the story. I know you said in an earlier post that you found it to be a good point, but I think what you meant to say was that the _setting_ was very impressive in regards to the amount of detail and information. The actual story involved very little in the way of character change or theme.
I’ll be interested to see what you think of changing sex in the game- Personally I thought the Jane Shepherd voice actor was far, far better than John. too macho and cheesy for me.