The Journal is the quest log in Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3, which allows the player to review completed, ongoing, and newly available quests. It can be accessed at any time from the main in-game menu.
Organization
Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2
The Journal is divided into two tabs, corresponding to the different types of quest available in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2:
- Missions - quests considered a part of the main storyline.
- Assignments - side quests.
On each tab, quests are organized in lists as follows, depending on the player's progress:
- Uncompleted quests on top, completed quests (which have grayed-out text) below.
- Within the uncompleted quests, the most recently acquired quest is always at the top.
- Completed quests are organized by type ("Citadel:", "Illium:", "UNC:", "N7:", etc.), but not necessarily in the order by which they are completed.
Mass Effect 3
In Mass Effect 3, the Journal was merged with the Codex and reorganized into three tabs:
- Mission Summary - all quests available in the game.
- Codex - primary Codex entries.
- Codex (Secondary) - secondary Codex entries.
The Mission Summary tab does away with separating side quests into Assignments. All quests are classified as Missions. Missions are listed in a similar manner as described for Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2.