This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. One of the reasons that the Mass Effect series has been one of the most-discussed franchises of the generation is because the games are many different things to many different people. They're science-fiction epics. They're cover-based shooters. They're dating sims. They're long-term serialized stories. They're slowly wandering through cities in space, engaging in long conversations. They're tough battles against overwhelming odds.

The core divide is between the self-serious saga of Shepard versus the Reapers that the franchise attempts to convey, and the entertaining - if slightly goofy - glorious mess that some perceive it to be. The final story-based expansion for the series, the recently-released 'Citadel' add-on, demonstrates how big that divide can be and then it bridges the gap.