Mass Effect Replay: Galaxy map music forever and an extinction level event

I could listen to the galaxy map music for hours. Ten hours, actually. You think I’m kidding. I’m picturing myself right now, in my Space Navy uniform, standing on the short platform leading up to a top-down view of the Milky Way inside the Normandy’s blue-lit hull. Ever been to the roof of the galaxy? Commander Shepard has. Every time they step up onto that platform. Look at me. I’m the Captain now.

Thank you, Sam Hulick, for masterfully composing “Uncharted Worlds,” the galaxy map music. I give all due respect to video game soundtracks as a whole, but I don’t often Spotify them on the regular. As good as they are, I’m not playing Minecraft’s soundtrack while I’m doing house chores, or bumping The Witcher 3 down the road. But (but!) there have been more than one nose-to-the-grindstone days at work where I’ve YouTubed that galaxy map music. The airy flute and plucky electronic cadence have kept me focused many, many times when the caffeine drip had long since worn off.

The galaxy map music continually runs the risk of becoming robotic and monotonous, but still somehow maintains an atmosphere of mystery and humanity. I’ve heard nothing else quite like it in gaming. So while I ended my last stream stepping up to the galaxy map for the first time, the part you didn’t see, after I shut off the stream, was me entering this song’s vast, meditative space, and feeling my 2007 initial playthrough of Mass Effect start to wash over me like 100 billion stars in the Milky Way. (I guess that’s something that gets lost in my no-commentary gameplays.) 

In the Gaming Nexus Slack channel, we often post some new track for New Music Fridays. But if I don’t post something, it’s usually because I didn’t hear anything fresh that caught my attention, and I’d rather just post “Uncharted Worlds” again but don’t. There aren’t too many songs making up the Soundtrack to My Life. But this sure is one of them.

I took the scenic route to my first mission as a Spectre: finding Dr. Liara T’soni. You know, the blue-skinned gender-fluid alien that sparked a “SexBox” debate on Fox News. Her. But on the way to scooping her up, I accidentally landed on the Bring Down the Sky DLC. Which has a great premise. The Batarians—who’ve got weaker chins than Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell—make their introductions, and are currently driving an extinction-level-event-sized asteroid towards a planet. I’d insult them further, but they managed to Game Over me six or seven times between their missile-chucking drones and sniper-scoped minefields. Lost count of the number of times I shouted, "I've lost shields!"

I’m also given my first taste of the Mako, Mass Effect’s infamous six-wheeled all-terrain vehicle. Along with Mass Effect’s elevators, which I will likewise defend unto death, the Mako is a much-maligned aspect of the series’ debut. I mean, yes, I was nearly turtled onto my back more than once. Also, the Mako loves going from zero-response to full-180 when you’re turning the wheel. And, yeah, the jump jets are only just okay at bunny hopping missiles, but stellar at swan diving off lunar cliffs. But I blame the horrific topography of this asteroid more than I blame the Mako. The Mako just does what the Mako has to do in order to traverse the terrain. The Mako may be all over the place, but you know what it ain’t? Stuck. You’ll never get yourself into a situation you can’t get out of in that bad boy. And for that, the Mako gets an A+ in git ‘er done.

It is kind of terrible, though, I don’t know what I was thinking trying to defend this vehicle so hard for the past 14 years. I mean, I don’t hate on the Mako. But if you do, I understand. Here's my most recent no-commentary slow play of Mass Effect as we make our way towards the trilogy's rerelease this Spring.