In Julian's Mass Effect Pixltalk I talked entirely too much about what I love about ME and why it matters so much to me. I covered everything from gameplay, to the universe, characters, religion, ethics, everything. I haven't played ME3 though so I have no idea what fans are talking about and I know nothing of the ending. I'm trying to avoid everything as much as possible because it'll probably be a while before I play the game. At the moment the #1 game on my to-do list is Deus Ex Human Revolution. I can put Mass Effect 3, Borderlands 2, Bioshock Infinite, and Far Cry 3 on the back burner for now. So far the only game this year that's a must have for me is Halo 4. I will get Halo 4. I will get a collectors edition if they offer it, and I will pay extra for fast shipping. Even if I have to work the corner and sell my ass, you better believe I will come up with the money for Halo in every way.
I love Mass Effect because of the characters, story, and cinematics. It's the melting pot and combines the things I love about Star Trek, Star Wars, Halo, and other sci fi. In one of my recent blogs I explained my distaste for the gameplay and combat, but Mass Effect is one of those series that keeps me in it despite its flaws and I really adore it for very personal reasons. I like the characters, my Shepard, and how everybody deals with each other. You have to play it and see how everything works to really understand why it's so different. On paper its simple. A sci fi setting, space ships, ancient threat, save the galaxy. Halo anybody? Gears of War clone anybody? But in execution it's different than anything else and becomes something completely fresh. It's all in the details and moments of the game. I can't just tell you, "It's the story and characters Nick, I swear!" because everybody says that about any game they like, we have all heard it before. It's all in the small moments and details that makes ME on top of the world as far as storytelling and character development. The combat mechanics, level design, animation, and engine the games use are all going to be antiquated in the blink of an eye (they kind of already are). A few years from now none of those aspects of the games will hold up, I think they all are lacking, but I will always remember Eden Prime, Legion, Miranda Lawson, Mordin Solus, the Genophage, the Krogan Rebellions, trying to teach Garrus about mercy and patience, trying to get Mordin to see the ethical consequences of his Genophage weapon, getting Ashley to be tolerant of aliens and talking with her about her religion.
It's a really mature setting and the games are like an intellectual exercise, just like Star Trek. It's not special because it's got "super dooper badass graphics bro", or awesome online play. Mass Effect is special because it gives you well wrought characters in a well wrought universe, and lets you choose how it all evolves, interact with it all, and just be there feeling like you're living a second life in this gameworld. My Shepard is mine, nobody elses, I'm meeting incredible people, saving the world, being confronted with issues other games don't touch. The games allow you to explore your own ethics, personality, and emotions the way other games haven't. I think that is the best point I can make.
Playing ME might teach you more about yourself than it will about anything else. If you go into the series just because you want to shoot everything, get achievments, and bang chicks, you're going to miss everything that really matters about it. It has these deep core elements and brings you intellectual exercise, but it's wrapped in a package of accessible, action packed, sexy, epic sci-fi, and spectacle.
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