Mass Effect
So, I've just finished Mass Effect and I have to say that the game has something. The number of times I turned it off in frustration at the moronic actions of my squad, the slow, slow lifts, the crazy controls of the all terrain vehicle, the linear nature of the story, the wooden acting and painful dialogue, etc., etc., and yet I completed it. Every time I turned it off I was back on it shortly afterwards, determined to get past the next bit. 13 hours of gaming and I finished it.
I have to say that I am now very annoyed that I can't actually go back and fill in the little side missions which I skipped because I was drawn in by the ever urgent insistence of the games wooden narrative. Of course, I always arrived just in time to save the day and just miss capturing the bad guy. About half way through it did dawn on me that the game wasn't actually time based, I could spend how ever long I liked lost in one of the stupid, poorly mapped sections and as soon as I emerged I would be in time to do my bit. Never did I run around and around in circles for thirty minutes and emerge to find everything was over, all the people were dead and the mission lost. But I let myself be swept up in the pace demanded by the narrative, the urgency it wanted.
It's a game format I normally hate. At the mid-point battle with the bad guy I'd totally kicked his ass. I mean, completely. My squad and I were on full health and full shields. He was on a sliver of health. Then the cut scene kicks in and my guys are lying down unconcious and I'm writhing around while the bad guy stomps around triumphant. "Huh," thinks I, "I'm sure that you were one bullet away from biting the big one..." but no, the story insisted I'd just been bested and was lucky to be alive. That pissed me off no end and earnt the game a good hard turning off.
The dialogue also leaves a lot to be desired. Because you can do the missions in any order as you see fit the dialogue is difficult to write. I accept that. The writers want to reveal at the right momrnt and so can't have someone on the ship just blurt it out and give the game away. However, I shouldn't be confused about what's happening when I've done the 'stop being confused and find out' bit. But because the dialogue can be accessed at any time, I have to be... "I wonder what bad guy wants?" Um... I know, I've just found out... no option for "You were just on the planet where we found out" so I have to play dumb. Also it seemed that, for most of the conversations, it didn't actually matter what I said (or wanted to say) at all, the story proceeded along its rails and I was swept along. I often choose the pissed off one and the person carried on regardless.
Despite this I've finished the game and have even started it through again so I can do the mini missions before stomping my way through the main missions again. I kept going back to it and I'm not sure why. There is a certain something about the game which got in my head and I think it's the attention to TechGuff. I like a game that tries to TechGuff explanations for stuff rather than just shrugging and telling you not to ask. Because of the internal consistency (except their inability to use the mass effect fields to MAKE THE LIFTS GO FASTER!!!) I believed that this technology was possible and so bought much of the TechGuff with relish. I enjoyed reading about how and why stuff worked. I enjoyed finding new TechGuff to read about. There was a lot of it which was just fun and wasn't ashamed of being fun.
Very good game, all in all. Although I am still waiting for the game where I don't start out as a chosen and super special person right from the off and have to make my own way. I want to start out as a raw recruit and earn promotion. I want to have no responsibility until I've earnt it. I want it to be possible to actually fail and for the failure to impact the story rather than failure meaning I have to just do-over that part of the story. I'd love a game that starts me off as a raw recruit, the tutorial being boot camp, then puts me in missions where I have choices, proceed and succeed at the given mission gaining credit, go above and beyond the mission and get recognition, or fail at the mission and get chastised. Possibly even get access to sekrits and then defect! Real options. Of course, such a game would probably be monsterously epic to make. Still, I can dream.
ADDITIONAL: Why were there so many merchants in the game? I bought one piece of armour, one gun and the upgrades for the medigel and grenades, and that was it. Without doing all the side missions I was able to amass all the weapons and armour I needed to fit out my crew and still had enough left over to sell for monster bucks (which I didn't then use, but that's not the point ;). I can't imagine how much money I'd have had by the end if I'd done all of the side missions in the game and collected the loot which would come with those missions... I stopped selling towards the end as I could find no use for the money at all, only to find that there was a 150 item limit and so I had to omnigel some nice loot which would have sold for quite a nice amount of cash. Ah well.
So, who's going to suggest my next X-Box RPG adventure? ;)
I have to say that I am now very annoyed that I can't actually go back and fill in the little side missions which I skipped because I was drawn in by the ever urgent insistence of the games wooden narrative. Of course, I always arrived just in time to save the day and just miss capturing the bad guy. About half way through it did dawn on me that the game wasn't actually time based, I could spend how ever long I liked lost in one of the stupid, poorly mapped sections and as soon as I emerged I would be in time to do my bit. Never did I run around and around in circles for thirty minutes and emerge to find everything was over, all the people were dead and the mission lost. But I let myself be swept up in the pace demanded by the narrative, the urgency it wanted.
It's a game format I normally hate. At the mid-point battle with the bad guy I'd totally kicked his ass. I mean, completely. My squad and I were on full health and full shields. He was on a sliver of health. Then the cut scene kicks in and my guys are lying down unconcious and I'm writhing around while the bad guy stomps around triumphant. "Huh," thinks I, "I'm sure that you were one bullet away from biting the big one..." but no, the story insisted I'd just been bested and was lucky to be alive. That pissed me off no end and earnt the game a good hard turning off.
The dialogue also leaves a lot to be desired. Because you can do the missions in any order as you see fit the dialogue is difficult to write. I accept that. The writers want to reveal at the right momrnt and so can't have someone on the ship just blurt it out and give the game away. However, I shouldn't be confused about what's happening when I've done the 'stop being confused and find out' bit. But because the dialogue can be accessed at any time, I have to be... "I wonder what bad guy wants?" Um... I know, I've just found out... no option for "You were just on the planet where we found out" so I have to play dumb. Also it seemed that, for most of the conversations, it didn't actually matter what I said (or wanted to say) at all, the story proceeded along its rails and I was swept along. I often choose the pissed off one and the person carried on regardless.
Despite this I've finished the game and have even started it through again so I can do the mini missions before stomping my way through the main missions again. I kept going back to it and I'm not sure why. There is a certain something about the game which got in my head and I think it's the attention to TechGuff. I like a game that tries to TechGuff explanations for stuff rather than just shrugging and telling you not to ask. Because of the internal consistency (except their inability to use the mass effect fields to MAKE THE LIFTS GO FASTER!!!) I believed that this technology was possible and so bought much of the TechGuff with relish. I enjoyed reading about how and why stuff worked. I enjoyed finding new TechGuff to read about. There was a lot of it which was just fun and wasn't ashamed of being fun.
Very good game, all in all. Although I am still waiting for the game where I don't start out as a chosen and super special person right from the off and have to make my own way. I want to start out as a raw recruit and earn promotion. I want to have no responsibility until I've earnt it. I want it to be possible to actually fail and for the failure to impact the story rather than failure meaning I have to just do-over that part of the story. I'd love a game that starts me off as a raw recruit, the tutorial being boot camp, then puts me in missions where I have choices, proceed and succeed at the given mission gaining credit, go above and beyond the mission and get recognition, or fail at the mission and get chastised. Possibly even get access to sekrits and then defect! Real options. Of course, such a game would probably be monsterously epic to make. Still, I can dream.
ADDITIONAL: Why were there so many merchants in the game? I bought one piece of armour, one gun and the upgrades for the medigel and grenades, and that was it. Without doing all the side missions I was able to amass all the weapons and armour I needed to fit out my crew and still had enough left over to sell for monster bucks (which I didn't then use, but that's not the point ;). I can't imagine how much money I'd have had by the end if I'd done all of the side missions in the game and collected the loot which would come with those missions... I stopped selling towards the end as I could find no use for the money at all, only to find that there was a 150 item limit and so I had to omnigel some nice loot which would have sold for quite a nice amount of cash. Ah well.
So, who's going to suggest my next X-Box RPG adventure? ;)