What was the last time we saw something like Mass Effect, anyway? With the sense of wonder, something new to explore, all kinds of different people and places we had never seen before?
We've seen all of it before. It was everything I could do to suspend disbelief during all the generic Sci Fi schlock and just play the game.
I liked the game for what it was: a generic sci fi shooter that let you captain a ship with a crew that could talk to you etc, but it ripped off so many ideas from so many sci fi shows, games and movies that nothing seemed novel to me.
It was all:
Blue alien women. (Star Trek, Star Wars, Farscape)
They have head tentacles. (Star Wars)
Space marines. (Aliens, Starship Troopers)
Machines that have attained sentience. (Everything. Done by literally everything. I haven't seen Harry Potter, but I bet they've done it too by now.)
Space lizards. (Star Wars, Star Trek)
Warrior races. (Screw warrior races. Every show has them.)
Clones. (Go away.)
Zombies. (brains)
Mind control. (EA did this to get you to take your wallet out.)
Sand worms. (Dune, Tremors)
Insect race - surprise, they're intelligent! (*snore*)
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONZ WIPED OUT BY THE PLOT MCGUFFIN! FEAR THE MCGUFFIN!!!!
None of this would be so bad if it had solidly written plot and interesting characters that you cared about to back it up (ME2 did better with this), but it was all set in a big plastic world with plastic characters and a bland plot. I never felt I was exploring a "new" world. I was always just trying to overlook how generic the sci fi was and doing my best to larp [renegade] space marine.
Maybe the devs aren't even human and they are manatees that move idea balls around a tank and whatever balls they pick become elements of the game. See that? I just ripped off an idea from South Park. It's not original or clever, but eh, who cares? That's Mass Effect.
Rant over. We now return to our regularly scheduled crap.