[skocznymroczny]

I view Mass Effect as KOTOR without a Star Wars license. It has always felt to me like Bioware wanted a parallel universe to a popular universe, one they could have creative control over. Kind of like Warcraft was basically Warhammer without license and Starcraft feels in many ways similar to WH40k.

[HelloNurse]

Warcraft and Starcraft are similar to Warhammer and Warhammer 40000 only at the superficial level of having several races and cultures fighting a multilateral war. Races are similar, but generic and traditional; space marines and hive-mind insectoid aliens, for example, are an old standard of science fiction (Starship Troopers has both). The more peculiar elements of the settings, on the other hand, are vastly different, particularly the basic conflict: crowded races and invasions, with peaceful and deranged people on all sides, in Warcraft and Starcraft, feel very different from the fanatical mutual destruction effort of the Emperor and the Chaos Gods of Warhammer and Warhammer 40000.