Mass Effect (2007)

Mass Effect scales the idea of the "unidentified flying object" up from a lone night-sky sighting to an entire working galactic civilization. Set in the 22nd century, it has humanity unearth the ruins of an ancient species, the Protheans, on Mars, then use a network of "mass relays" to step abruptly into a crowded interstellar community. The game's real suspense is not whether aliens exist but who is quietly pulling the strings once contact becomes routine. The answer—dreadnought-shaped machine intelligences called Reapers, dormant in deep space—recasts the flying saucer from a distant light into an unseen hand steering the fate of whole civilizations.^[1]