gaming

I spent the weekend rushing through Mass Effect 3. The game is quite well polished from a production stand-point, though I was irked that one side quest was buggy. The ending generated massive player backlash, for very good reasons – I won’t go into details here as there are already excellent analyses elsewhere. In short, the production quality dropped off a cliff during the last 15 minutes of the game – it felt very tacked on and had numerous plot holes.

The remainder 99% of the game was satisfying. From a narrative point of view it felt closer to the original than the sequel – it was “epic” in thematic dimensions and there was constant tension (my main objection against the sequel was that the narrative of building out a team of diverse personalities – while all the characters were very interesting individually – felt like a cheap plot device to add 15 hours of gameplay). The entire universe was in peril; even against this backdrop, different civilizations were pursuing selfish goals and there were multiple conflicts across galaxies; you, as the central character, could choose to defuse these conflicts and unite the species against a common enemy (and you may succeed or fail depending on your choices).

The most interesting take-away I have about the game, is the unique immersive experience a video-game can provide, as opposed to other forms of media (such as film), and how it could leverage and expand on narrative techniques commonly found in films. There are a couple of really powerful moments in Mass Effect 3 – spoilers ahead – that demonstrate fully the power of the medium.

My favorite scene from the game is involving a side character, Mordin. Mordin is an alien (Salarian, to be precise) scientist introduced in Mass Effect 2, who speaks in a rapid fire monotone voice. He represents a strict utilitarian world-view, and is responsible for causing a disease called the “genophage” which made another hostile species, the Krogan, largely infertile – he sees this as an elegant solution to solving a complex problem. Over the course of the narrative of Mass Effect 2, his character development involves a side story where he discovers research that could cure the genophage, and it was up to the player’s choice how that data was used. Regardless, during this side story Mordin’s character evolves as he sees the damage that the genophage has done to the Krogan civilization, and he begins to feel remorse (while not necessarily changing his utilitarian view on the goals).

Mordin also serves as a source of comic relief within Mass Effect 2. His intentionally monotone machine-gun speech is always funny to listen to, and players could also unlock the following if diligent with engaging the character in dialogue:

In Mass Effect 3, the player is rewarded with a very dramatic scene that builds on top of these previous player investments. One mission provides closure to the genophage side-story, allowing Mordin (if the player chooses to do so) to cure the genophage and give the Krogans a renewed future. However, in doing so Mordin has to make a personal sacrifice, and during the climactic scene he quietly hums the song uncovered in the previous video:

Many a player have been quoted as crying when they first witnessed this scene. The beauty of the narrative here is that it is not only strong from a passive, cinematic point of view (the cutscene is well edited and can rival similar scenes in films and TV); but it is all the more stronger because the player’s interactions with the game led up to this point. The player interacted with Mordin, and got to know the character; there is stronger emotional investment than what is ever possible in film (which is all passive).

And of course, it is all the more intriguing that the player could, through a different set of choices, avoid this scene from happening. This to me was one of the best demonstrations of the power of the interactive medium, and the highlight of the game.

Mass Effect is BioWare’s critically acclaimed space opera RPG series. It features original IP in terms of narrative, and in terms of core gameplay it also has made some very interesting design decisions.

Narrative

The series is much praised for its excellent writing. I’m not a huge sci-fi buff so I won’t dwell on this too much, but the series’ positioning of mankind as up-and-comers fighting for its rights in a mult-racial galaxy (its struggle to get acceptance into the powerful Council) is fairly refreshing. In this regard most of the praise belongs to the original Mass Effect. Another point of praise is the emphasis on player choice and consequence – players literally choose which characters live and die, making the narrative much more impactful and thought-provoking (do you save your loved one, or your loyal friend?).

In the sequel, from a narrative point-of-view the game takes a somewhat lazy approach. By setting the bulk of the story as a series of recruiting missions to build up your team, the narrative becomes a series of origin / character background stories. These are effective, and the characters are admittedly distinctive, but the overall story definitely pales compared to Mass Effect 1. There’s no sense of epic-ness in 2, compared to the historic struggle in the original, especially the climatical battle at the end of Mass Effect 1.

Gameplay

Mass Effect 1 is more conventional in terms of RPG elements. It is strictly single-player. It has a familiar inventory system, based on the characters’ various weapons classes, tools and armor systems. Players manage a team of 6 characters at max, and any given time the player can field 3 characters. Interestingly, characters that are not active are not punished; they level up along with the active members. This means there is less emphasis on prioritizing which team-members to develop (or make a choice early on regarding which characters will be used primarily). There is a class system in place, with unique skill-trees per class. This adds a lot of replayability to the game.

Combat is in real-time with a pause function to allow the player to setup complex tactics. It is in a 3rd person shooter perspective, and utilize cover mechanics. The game does not feature mana or any type of energy resource; there isn’t even the concept of ammo. Instead, special abilities rely on cool-down timers, while weapons can overheat if the player is too trigger happy. Another type of combat utilizes a moon buggy type of vehicle, which has two types of ammo and unfortunately has fairly awful controls.

Besides combat, there is major emphasis on dialogs, with players being presented various dialog options that affect the narrative. There is a moral system in place – performing heroic and just actions accumulate “Paragon” points, while cold-blooded acts that mainly focus on the outcome (the end justifies the means) accumulate “Renegade” points. Both Paragon and Renegade points unlock hidden dialog options, so while players could accumulate both (one does not offset the other), from a practical point of view the player should be consistent in one type of action. Thus the moral system also adds a layer of replayability to the game.

Besides combat, leveling up and collecting items, the game also offers character interaction in the form of romance. Romance is purely dialog driven – i.e. it doesn’t include a game mechanic where you increase the chances of romance by making a character active in duty.

In Mass Effect 2, BioWare made a number of interesting choices in reworking the gameplay. The inventory system is drastically streamlined, to the point where it is almost completely removed – players still manage different types of weapons, but they are not dropped by enemies nor do they have item quantities; instead, weapons are researched/discovered, and once you unlock one weapon, all characters that could use the weapon can equip it. Classes are also reworked, with condensed skill-trees – the typical character has about 5 spells to use throughout the game, with 1-2 of the spells being ammo modifiers (passive spells). The redesigned skill-trees also introduce a progressive points system – each spell has 4 ranks, and each higher rank costs more upgrade points to unlock. Upon unlocking the highest rank, the player can choose from one of two advanced upgrades – usually a more potent single target nuke vs. an AOE version of the spell. This again seems mainly aimed at increasing replayability, as there are more options for the player to explore.

From a combat perspective, Mass Effect 2 also took some cues from popular straight-up 3rd person shooters such as Gears of War. The cover system is less buggy, and combat in general feels more tense. The game also introduced a significant global cool-down timer, which means players could no longer spam spells in rapid succession. The health bar now auto regenerates if you stop taking damage, which again is taking cue from popular shooters.

Mass Effect 2 removed the moon buggy vehicle, while injecting a few new alternative game modes. There are two mini-games positioned as computer hacking in the game, and both are based on finding patterns. Another mini-game revolves around the collection of resources, which is done by scanning planets for minerals using a radar and collecting minerals when the scanner picks up a strong signal. The resources are used for tech upgrade research, so they are significant, but that also makes this mini-game tedious. In general, these mini-games seem positioned to balance the pace of the game – a small break in a long combat mission, or a break from progressing the story while just scanning unchartered planets for resources.

For die-hard RPG fans, Mass Effect 2 will feel like a hybrid game. It feels more like a 3rd-person shooter with strong storytelling, especially when you run the game at normal difficulty and usually don’t need to pause the game during combat for tactical micro-management.

Criticism

Mass Effect 1 definitely suffered from some bugginess in terms of its combat. Players could get trapped entering / exiting cover. While 2 made some big progress in this regard, the 3rd person shooter angle still meant that in the heat of the battle it was common to lose track of where your AI team-mates were – and since the combat is based on tactical management and team composition matters (e.g. you want to effectively send in your tanky team-mate to soak up damage), this meant combat still is frustrating at times.

Also, in both 1 and 2 the game relies on dialog to progress character interaction (namely, romance and additional backstories). This became fairly mechanical and repetitive as the player learns he needs to visit the support cast scattered around the spaceship after a couple of completed missions if he wants to unlock new dialog. A better way would be to have such major developments embedded in missions.

Another criticism is around UX. This is a minor point, but on the PC I expect to be able to double click in menus; yet the series forces me to click the respective “select” buttons to confirm an action. This becomes increasingly annoying as time progresses.