You’ve had to make some tough life choices…and your crew has opinions about them. Lots of opinions. While the sweeping space opera that is the Mass Effect trilogy shoots you directly into an epic story involving ancient sentient machines bent on exterminating life as you know it, what makes the original 2007 RPG stick is its companion dynamics. Saving the galaxy might be Commander Shepard's job, but keeping the crew of the Normandy together is what players remember.
If earning Garrus' loyalty means as much to you as saving the galaxy, we've got your next games queued for you. Some of these directly paved the way for the original Mass Effect. Others have similar mechanics, or are just really, really good at making you and your squad feel very small in a very big universe. Until it's time to calibrate the Normandy one more time, these should keep you busy.
1 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Why you’ll like it: This was BioWare’s first take on choices, companions, romance, and morality meter…years before Mass Effect existed
Why you might not: Combat is real-time-with-pause, not cover shooting
Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, Nintendo Switch, and Windows PC
Knights of the Old Republic begins with your character on a Republic ship under sudden Sith attack. You grab a weapon, you don armor, you have no idea what’s happening, but you survive the chaos. KOTOR, the BioWare space RPG that preceded Mass Effect, has the same get-a-ship, get-a-star-map, save-local-planets DNA as its spiritual successor. It’s a bit scrappier than Mass Effect, but the whole blueprint is there: A tight-knit crew, a galaxy-spanning adventure, and conversations just as havoc-wreaking as the game’s iconic firefights.
2 The Outer Worlds
Why you’ll like it: It’s a choice-heavy RPG set in space with lots of corporate satire
Why you might not: It’s lower budget and has a much smaller scale. No Normandy-sized ship, here
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X
The Outer Worlds starts when your character wakes up from a hibernation pod. A scientist named Phineas is asking for your help. You’re one of several frozen colonists aboard the Hope, which is on a journey that’s taken much longer than expected, your resources are dwindling, and everyone’s fighting.
This game’s tone differs from Mass Effect’s quite a bit: Where Mass Effect is dramatic, The Outer Worlds is dark and satirical, with a biting commentary on corporate capitalism. What they share is a spaceship base, lots of planetary exploration, quirky companions, and questions about what human society in the far-flung future might look like.
3 Fallout: New Vegas
Why you’ll like it: Choices with consequences, factions that remember you and may or may not be very good at holding grudges
Why you might not: You’re in irradiated Nevada, not space
Where to play:PS3, Windows PC, and Xbox 360
The New California Republic and the brutal Caesar’s Legion are at war! In Fallout: New Vegas, all eyes — including those of the mysterious Mr. House — are on the Mojave Wasteland and the Hoover Dam. But we’ll get there. When the game starts, you’re delivering packages. Seems safe. Seems like you’re not going to get ambushed, buried alive, dug up by a robot, then forced onto a quest for revenge. For *sure. *
Once you get your bearings, you have a lot of agency within this game. As in Mass Effect, your choices truly matter and change the outcome of the story. Will you support the Legion, join forces with Mr. House, or seize control for yourself? Download the game to find out.
4 Cyberpunk 2077
Why you’ll like it: A reactive world, intriguing narrative branches with no takebacks, romanceable companions
Why you might not: You don’t have a squad; this is a solo-character game
Where to play: PS4, PS5, Windows PC, Xbox Series X
Your player character — V — spends Cyberpunk 2077 trying to survive a heist gone wrong. You’ve got a biochip containing the digital ghost of a dead rock star played by Keanu Reeves in your brain, which complicates things. Further complication: The biochip is overwriting your mind, so you’ve only got so much time left before you’re not yourself anymore. That’s a ticking clock worth paying attention to.
As a sci-fi RPG with customizable protagonists and futuristic shooter combat, Cyberpunk 2077 slots nicely next to Mass Effect, but it’s not a 100% match. Instead of interstellar survival across a trilogy of games, Cyberpunk delivers a dystopian, tightly-wound narrative focused on one city. Both feature gorgeous aesthetics and stories you’ll never forget.
5 XCOM 2
Why you’ll like it: The stakes are permanent, and losing a squad member truly hurts
Why you might not: Minimal character writing and relationships; this is a mechanics-heavy alternative
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, PS4, Windows PC, and Xbox One
Twenty years ago, Earth surrendered. Now, you’re trapped in a fake, alien-run utopia with a puppet government called ADVENT. Your small rebel group, XCOM, is attempting to fight back from a stolen ship. Specifically, you need to stop a secret plan the aliens have to harvest human bodies. No pressure.
Here, as in Mass Effect, you’re commanding a crew and making hard choices as you fight alien forces. The combat in XCOM 2 is turn-based, and you do have a mobile base to go back to — but the feel is slower, more methodical, and strategic than you’ll find in Mass Effect.
6 Starfield
Why you’ll like it: There’s a crew to recruit and get to know, and you’ll get to do space exploration at a similar Mass Effect scale
Why you might not: The companion writing isn’t quite up to Mass Effect’s
Where to play: PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X
While you’re using a laser cutter to dig up rocks for your new job, you happen across a strange, glowing piece of metal. It gives you a vision…and a harrowing to-do list: Now, instead of mining moon minerals, you’re taking your artifact over to New Atlantis to join forces with other artifact-finders and hunt down the rest.
Starfield, like Mass Effect, gives you a spaceship hub, companion recruitment, faction politics, and fast-paced shooting combat. Here, instead of stopping an extinction-level threat, you’re charting your own course. Where Mass Effect can feel like a tightly-written TV show, Starfield is an outer-space sandbox. Enjoy embarking upon whichever adventure next catches your eye.
7 Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Why you’ll like it: Hefty political choices to make, a protagonist wrestling with their own changing identity
Why you might not: You don’t get a squad; this is a solo stealth-action game
Where to play: PS3, Windows PC, Wii U, and Xbox 360
Set in, uh, the far-flung future year 2027, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, originally out in 2011, follows the head of security for a biotech firm — one Adam Jensen. After a mysterious attack that brutally injures him to the point where he needs life-saving cybernetic augmentations, Jensen starts investigating the people pulling the strings behind the augmentation industry.
As you uncover the plot, you’re also grappling with life’s biggest questions: Human enhancement, AI, transhumanism, and how best to reconnect with your ex when you’re forced to work together. While this game features a stealthier, more exploration-based gameplay style compared to Mass Effect’s squad-based shooting action, Deus Ex: Human Revolution’s story is similarly magnetic. You also get an eerie final-room decision to make…and the chance to argue why you’re right with other Deus Ex players for years to come.
8 Jagged Alliance 3
Why you’ll like it: The squad banter! (Think: Garrus and Wrex bickering, but…everyone does it)
Why you might not: There’s not an overarching sci-fi narrative; the focus here is on tactics and relationships with non-romanceable companions
Where to play: PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X
A rogue paramilitary group, The Legion, has seized control of your world – and now the president of fictional African nation Grand Chien is missing. Along with Emma La Fontaine, the president’s daughter, you need to secure an operations base, get intel from the local village, and start tracking down the president.
Jagged Alliance 3, like Mass Effect, gives you squad management and companions to bond with — but here, you get turn-based combat. The ability to change the whole game based on early choices remains. For example, will you choose to spare and recruit Pierre, the local Legion leader, or execute him? Everyone’s watching, and everything’s at stake…
9 Star Traders: Frontiers
Why you’ll like it: It’s a space-opera RPG with crew management where you’ll balance opposing factions and allies to accomplish your goals
Why you might not: It’s a much, much, much smaller production than Mass Effect with a minuscule budget
Where to play: Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows PC
You’re a brand-new captain of a starship at the beginning of Star Traders: Frontiers. What will your background be? Are you an explorer or smuggler? How good at managing resources are you? Doesn’t matter — your crew’s wages need to get paid either way, and it’s up to you to maintain morale as you accept galaxy-wide transport contracts. Fulfilling those contracts can be easy; some are basic cargo runs. Others are dramatic political transports. Either way, you need the money, so accepting these contracts will probably work out. Right? If you played Mass Effect for the deep-space angle and the highs and lows of working with a loyal crew, you’ll feel right at home here. Just keep an eye out for the Xeno. If you’re not prepared, fighting Xeno crews can easily end your run.
10 No Man’s Sky
Why you’ll like it: The vast, lonely space odyssey vibes are instantly recognizable
Why you might not: The character writing isn’t the focus (see: “lonely”). You’re exploring largely solo
Where to play: Nintendo Switch, Mac, PS4, PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X
This just in: The universe is a dying computer simulation run by a failing AI. You’re simulated, too – a Traveler trying to figure out what’s going on. You have amnesia, which doesn’t help. After waking up on your procedurally generated world (at least you have a hazmat suit!), you’ll gather elements to survive and fix your gear. Soon, you’ll meet others and have to decide just what your plan is.
In No Man’s Sky and Mass Effect alike, you’ll travel across the galaxy, interact with aliens, and upgrade your personal starships. The procedurally-generated sandbox setup is what differs: Mass Effect has you on a linear mission with a focus on narrative, and No Man’s Sky lets you do what you want…as long as you can survive, that is.
Wending your way across the universe (or post-apocalyptic Nevada), dealing with sparring factions, making sure you’ve got enough to eat, and befriending enough companions to feel mostly sure you’re not about to get stabbed in the back — no matter what you’re looking for in a Mass Effect-adjacent experience, you’ve got your hands full with these 10 games. It’s time to get to it — the galaxy needs saving. Your next crew is ready and waiting.