I Heart Mass Effect
I’ve so far spent 33 hours commandeering the Normandy and landing on uncharted galaxies, wracking up those Paragon points and reprising my role as the finest Soldier in the Alliance. I am, at the time of writing, a Level 50 Soldier, Colonist, a Sole Survivor, and have just embarked on my second play-through where I plan on being the bitch, otherwise known as Renegade (it makes far more sense; I’d be cold, heartless, and full of resentment too if my entire family was slaughtered on Mindoir).
At what point did it stop mattering to me that this game was a science fiction based RPG? (And if you don’t know why that would be an issue, I direct you here.) Pretty much the moment the camera panned out to show Shepard admiring Earth from the ship’s window while two members of the Alliance conversed about why they should entrust a critical mission in Commander Shepard’s reliable hands. What a cinematic opening scene!
But it hasn’t always been plain sailing. Admittedly I was initially overwhelmed with Mass Effect. I felt that as soon as I would get comfortable with one assignment, another 3 would land in my to-do list, and that as I tried to tackle the growing number of Assignments, more and more would be designated to my character, Shepard. It felt like things were getting a little hectic, and that was before even stepping outside of Citadel. Then there’s the Codex, which was continually flashing to alert me of new information I could learn about the Mass Effect Universe. Don’t get me wrong, the Codex is a great implementation to the game, one I put to good use on my first play-through. It’s incredible how much thought and detail has went into Mass Effect, but for the first few hours, I felt all I was doing was checking my plethora of Assignments and burying my head in the Codex.
Then there’s the combat, which, at least to begin with, I was abysmal at. Now, I’m no stranger to shooters and have played all types of ‘em; first person, third person, tactical, run and gun etc. But there was something about Mass Effect I struggled to get to grips with, and my lack of skill with my usually trusty assault rifle saw me spend more time reloading my save than playing the game, consequently shouting ‘Someone pass me a FAMAS!’.
However, despite my initial shortcomings I’m happy to report - Admiral Steven Hackett stylee - that I’ve fallen in love with the Mass Effect Universe, and that the proverbial Mass Effect jigsaw has slotted together rather nicely. I no longer feel overwhelmed by the amount of Assignments, or how quickly and at what pace to tackle the side quests. I realised I could progress through the Assignments at my own pace, and that any urgency that had been imposed was only from myself. And the Codex, well that’s still blinkering away all the time, but since that’s an aspect of the game you can take or leave there’s no point in complaining about it.
As for the combat, whether it’s as a result of leveling up and awarding points to my chosen weapon of choice, or simply from getting a hang of things, I slowly improved at wielding my gun upon a slew of Geth and surviving a little longer than I would have done at the beginning of the game. Yay me!
But what I did love right from the beginning was both the dialogue (and whatever the technical term for the conversation wheel is) and the rich character creation tool. But, speaking of the latter, someone needs to share a few tips on making attractive characters in video games with me. My characters look great on the character creation screen, but in-game turn out to either look like fish or chimps.
Funny thing is though, all these little gripes I had with the game were nothing to do with the fact it’s sci-fi, which I definitely didn’t see coming. I was apprehensive about playing Mass Effect in case I couldn’t stomach the dark ‘uninspiring’ environments (which I now realise isn’t the case at all) or the horrible alien characters I’d encounter (many of which are actually rather charming). The environments, although becoming a tad de ja vu by the end of the game, weren’t as dull as I thought they would be - far from it. Often I’d stop my Mako (which sounds like an overly zealous sniffing dog, no?) and admire the beautifully coloured sky illuminated by a bright planet in the distance.
But the question on everyone’s lips - or at least this person who asked me a couple of nights ago over MSN - is whether Mass Effect has converted me to sci-fi. You’ll be happy to know that the simple answer - at least as far as video games are concerned - is yes. I can’t believe I almost missed out on one of the greatest games the 360 has, potentially missing out on a whole trilogy of epic excellence. I don’t think you’ll have me catching up on Battlestar Galactica (one L) episodes just yet, but I’m not going to be turning a blind eye to possible great games like Dead Space and future Mass Effect installments just because they’re science fiction. Space can be fun!
Anyway, seeing as Mass Effect was so entertaining, here are some fun things I spent my time doing:
- Getting a lap dance
- Overheating my weapon
- Dancing at Flux in my Soldier armour
- Trying to defy gravity in my Mako by driving up ridiculously steep hills
- Having lesbian sex with an Asari
For anyone out there unsure of whether to play Mass Effect and in a similar position to myself, which is not big on sci-fi but love their RPGs, do eet! You’ll love it.
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Hmm. Uhh. Yeah. Skyrim. It’s massive. The quests are never-ending. My character has a mohawk. My class is Breton. Don’t
Alexander Radsby