It often requires port forwarding to be able to reliably join games, which are filled with frequent disconnects and crashes. The 3rd game especially, based on early Origin netcode, is filled with inconveniently placed loading screens in menus as it accesses online features. For starters, it is, charitably, a technical mess.
And there are many, many more factors that should have prevented it from being enjoyable at all. And I don’t think this comes mostly from the simple pleasure of well-designed combat (though that is certainly a factor), or because I get to spend more time in a universe I love with friends (though, again, that is a factor). Even playing today, I feel something compelling about them that Gears of War, it’s closest gameplay competitor, lacks. Does anyone remember the multiplayer mode for Tomb Raider (2013)? So it’s strange that, years after launch, Mass Effect’s multiplayer modes are not only something I remember quite fondly, but something I return to regularly with friends.
In 2021 especially, half-baked multiplayer tacked on to a single-player game feels like a relic of a previous generation, one of those features you forget as time goes on.
For all the hours I’ve spent playing it, I have a hard time explaining precisely why I love Mass Effect’s multiplayer modes so much.
