Mass Effect

I couldn't think of a clever pun for the title of this post. So sue me.

So, I've gotten through several games in the last couple of weeks. Primarily, I finished Bioshock and Halo 3. Everything they say about both games is true.

Bioshock is videogames as art personified. It has its flaws (pacing in some of the sections is spotty, most of the audio diaries don't make sense until much later in the game, and the last hour of the game or so feels a little out of place), but completely satisfying in every way. I've enjoyed pouring over the game's nuances in my head after the fact, picking apart the message buried within, and it's tremendous fun. There have only been a handful of games that have managed to pull this off effectively (weaving deeper themes and philosophies throughout the narrative) without resorting to beating the player over the head with heavy-handed symbolism and imagery. Well, I suppose it could be argued that Bioshock was *extremely* heavy-handed in its imagery and naming and whatnot, but they made it work, given the overall setting.

Halo 3 is, well, Halo 3. The story is nonsensical unless you've followed the "offline" fiction (books, etc) and some of the levels are *extremely* tedious... But overall, the game is still one of the best *feeling* FPS games on console to date. While some people complained that the graphics were subpar, I disagree - I think the human facial models and the shadows were poorly done, but the lighting was amazing. Some of the most realistic, subtle lighting engines I've seen, and it really added to the overall atmosphere. This game shines, of course, with online play... which I can't seem to get the hang of. I was fairly decent on Halo 1 multiplayer... and started off okay on Halo 2, but my skills have since drastically deteriorated :(

However, now I have moved on to play Mass Effect. I must first add the caveat that I loves me some Bioware. There is something in the style of the dialog and the presentation of their worlds that grips me someplace deep, so I am usually blind to many of the flaws of their games.

That being said, I *love* Mass Effect. Sure, there are huge swaths of the game that are tedious (why on earth would you make players randomly wander around nearly barren maps looking for random objects that don't appear on the minimaps... and have them do it over nearly vertical mountains?), but the presentation is amazing. Great characters, great world fiction... And while I'm only a small portion of the way into the main storyline, I'm enthralled by the detail put into the entire galaxy. I actually find myself reading the descriptions of each planet - even the ones you can't explore.

The combat... takes some getting used to. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of things, I encountered a boss battle. The enemies are introduced via cutscene, but literally within 1 second of the cutscene ending, I was dead. All I had time to do was to move the camera 45 degrees or so to look for cover, and I died. That wasn't fun at all. Next attempt went much more smoothly (though the fight was still difficult).

And while we're on the subject of pain in the ass parts of the game - why is the player required to go all the way back to the Normandy to switch party members? You'll often find downed probes on the surface of planets and unless you've got the Quarian with you (Tali?), it will usually tell you you don't have enough Tech skill to examine it. So, I inevitably have to return to the Normandy after each mission, trade her into my party, and then trek all the way back to the probe. This could be resolved by simply adding her into the party from the beginning, but I've already invested in playing as the 3 humans...

In addition, I've encountered *many* show-stopping bugs. I examined ore deposits on 2 separate occasions. After you successfully examine them, a little yellow pillar appears next to it, showing that you've claimed the ore. However, the collision detection on the pillar is extremely buggy - on the above-mentioned 2 occasions, the pillar actually spawned on *top* of me, effectively locking me in place. Nothing I could do would shake me free. On one of the occasions, it was actually on a hazardous planet, so I could either load my save game or wait to die slowly.

On another occasion, I encountered a group of geth assaulting a facility. I took out a couple snipers, but then high tailed it out of there to let my shields replenish. When I came back, that section of the map was empty. I thought it was strange, so I exited the MAKO, and suddenly the structures and enemies all spawned on top of me, causing me to get stuck inside the building's geometry. Fun.

And yet *another* time, I was speaking with one of the crew members on the Normandy. I accidentally exited the conversation (another complaint - why the hell does the cursor default to ending the conversation???? I've accidentally exited out of at least 5 conversations), and immediately clicked on the person again... For some reason, even though they weren't in my party at the time, it took me to that character's equipment screen, and wouldn't let me exit. I could pull up the start menu (which was overlayed over the character screen for some odd reason), so I was able to load my game.

And there's a lot of minor gripes, too. Like the above-mentioned cursor default during conversations. You can speed through conversations by pressing the X button, but if you do it one too many times, you'll exit the conversation. Or the fact that buying equipment from the requisitions officer on the Normandy only allows you to compare stats on the equipment the main character has - you can't look at anyone else's stuff. Or the fact that to access the section of the ship where most of your party hangs out, you have to go through an elevator that takes 25 seconds to reach its destination.

All that being said, it's still one of the more interesting RPGs out there. From the Blade Runner-esque synth background music used on the title screen to the *crazy* detail in the Codex, if you're a fan of sci-fi and/or RPGs, it's hard to go wrong with this one.