Why Mass Effect was good

It is fun to watch. Of course, in retrospect, I think Manuel has to be indoctrinated. How else could he know what the Reapers are?

Yea, that was my interpretation as well. The content of Firewalker in ME2 further corroborates this as well (though admittedly, the "story" of that DLC is a bit weird and it's not 100% clear what was going on exactly, but it does seem Manuel got paranoid, seeing indoctrinated agents everywhere and it turned out he even was partially right).

As fir the topic: Sometimes I wish I had one of these memory wipers from Man In Black, just to experience stuff like this again for the first time.

I always worry people will do nothing but point out how old ME1 feels if they see it for the first time in 2018, but it holds up, not in all aspects but you know there's a reason why many love it so much. It has a timeless quality to it just in how it builds the world and in the little touches like Shepard being an ass.

I remember back in 2010 when I got into the series, my previous high-point for what games could and should be was Uncharted 2. Mass Effect 1 seemed so amateurish in contrast playing it for the first time, and then 2 really upped the ante with presentation and trumped UC2 in my opinion because it was so non-linear. I also didn't give a shit about the plot in ME1, I thought it was esoteric and boringly told but then as I walked around the Citadel I slowly did start to care just over all the side-objectives. The world totally pulled me in and then in hindsight as I played ME2 and 3 I realized that while I still think the presentation of lots of ME1's plot was kind of generic and cliched at least there was thorough plotting save for one questionable, potential plot-hole with Saren and the Citadel at the end and a completely unexplained mechanic on Ilos that lets you progress arbitrarily. All the major beats were set up, thematically resonated and revealed themselves with a resounding effect that sticks with you.

2 and 3 really lost the plot there haha and I think that's always where ME1 wins for me. It was a brave new world that was well developed and explored within itself and then the sequels sometimes retained it but over time did so less and less but thankfully the characters became deep as a biproduct of the game world establishing a context for their situations. That said, I still feel Mass Effect had a potential high-point as a franchise that we never saw. It's something like Mass Effect 1's strengths combined with the style and presentation of ME2 and a plot that really goes into some depth with intelligent writing and not just writing that is good because characters banter well or because it's interactive. It's not impossible but arguably the ship has sailed for BioWare and the canon has been set so definitively for Mass Effect and the biggest story that could possibly ever be told in Milky Way so maybe it would be.

Without even clicking the link we probably agree. I just mentioned it because I've seen reasonable arguments in the past for why it is a flaw. To be fair, even if it's not actually a plot hole it's still a sort of shaky side to the story that is never addressed when it seems sort of obvious once you think about it. There's typically moments in stories where the characters expose what needs to be done and then they balance off how to convey this information to the audience through the banter of the characters. With how much Shepard talks to Vigil about what the plan is with the Reapers it's kinda suspicious nobody ever mentions the fact that Saren could've made his surprise attack via his Spectre's permissions and not a trojan-horse device. The fact that he was looking for the Conduit before the plot begins is kind of a weakness considering he isn't rogue until Shepard makes him one.

It's cool, who cares?

I love ME1. If the lore had continued perfectly based off of it, the rest of the series would have been even better.

Really?  I can play offline but still have to log in.  In my experience, the game accepts the log in but won't allow you to access "new" Origin content.  Certainly, in my current run of ME2, I've been offline but able to log into the "Cerberus Network" so I could play with all DLC.

You can't beat the atmosphere of ME1. Heading off in the Mako across the ice to a mysterious research station where something undefined but bad has happened. Hunting for Geth in the brutalist bowels of Feros. Happily driving along and then... oh God, what just popped out of the ground?