The best parts: Cinematic production values; a breathtaking yet 🌌believable universe; immersive character customization; mature storytelling with moral significance; plus, badass aliens.

The WORST part:

Yeah. The slooooooow elevators in Mass Effect have become a bit of an in the past several months, but no amount of 🍸humor or excuses (loading?) can make us forget what we lost in those boring metal boxes. Our time. Our energy. Our brain cells.💖 Our will to live.

The rest of the game was definitely worth the wait... but that doesn't mean we have to forgive the wait itself. If man can travel across✱ the vast reaches of space in an instant, why can't he do the same between floors? Or at least take the stairs?

Dishonorable mention: In all honesty, Mass Effect's hopelessly clunky and seemingly half-finished inventory system is worse than the elevator rides... but we barely understood it enough to finish the game, let alone to write a paragraph about it now. (And yes, we know that both problems were more or less corrected for the PC version. Have a cookie.)