11 Addictive Video Games You Had To Stop Yourself Playing

9. Mass Effect 2

Chances are if you've ever seen a sci-fi film growing up you've wanted to enact some part of it - be it planetary exploration, laser-fire duels with long-standing enemies, or just assembling your own crew out of a handful of different colours and creeds with which to tear off around the galaxy with. Mass Effect delivered on that idea and then some, letting us create our custom Commander Shepard before choosing exactly what we wanted to say to each and every crew member and citizen across the galaxy. Needless to say losing yourself in a day-swallowing Mass Effect hole is as easy as taking your next breath, and the feedback loop of interconnected systems that mean you go from mining a planet for materials, to jetting off into a firefight before levelling up and acquiring a new squad mate is the very reason the series is so fondly remembered. These days it seems bashing the ending of the series might be getting slightly tired (but we'll see how we feel when another picture of Starchild pops up), but the main reason the whole thing was so universally despised was surely due to the creators putting a giant roadblock in the way of a previously established formula we were thoroughly enamoured by. Mass Effect 3 stands as proof of what can happen when a game establishes a firm sense of enjoyment through perfected systems and gameplay mechanics - only to remove them at the last minute and assume people wouldn't completely lose their minds.