Massive Mass Effect Week: Simply the Best

I said a lot of nasty things about Mass Effect yesterday. I stand by those things (even the ones I had to look up), but I wouldn't have devoted five days to a video game trilogy I've only played 1.5 games of if I didn't think it was the best damned game out there right now.

Okay, one of the best games out there (I forgot how good Fallout 3 is. Also...Portal? How do you even compare that?). None the less, if Mass Effect isn't the best, it's one intelligently-placed bomb away from being the best. Is it perfect? No. But if it wasn't so great, no one would care about it, its warts, or its ending.

The best thing Mass Effect has going for it are its characters and the relationships you have with them. You guys know I love Mordin Solus by now and that Garrus is my bro. You may have picked up on the fact that I'd leave Chief Ashley Williams to die on Virmire twice if I could. Even when you hate them, you hate them for being believable, consistent people, consistent enough that every conversation with them rekindles that fire of loathing. I was yelling at Josh just this week over how he'd let Mordin die in one of his ME2 games because Mordin is awesome! I ask Garrus about his calibrations every time I come on board the Normany in ME2 because I wanna see how he's doing. The characters in Mass Effect engender feeling in me, which sets it apart from almost any game at all which failed to engender more than hate for an exposition character in me.

Massive Mass Effect Week: Nerding Out

As much as I love Mass Effect, there are some serious flaws with it. Sexism, racism, thematic inconsistencies, grinding, and the morality system all periodically mar my enjoyment of just gettin' missions, shootin' dudes, and leaving Ash Williams to die.

In some respects, it's intellectually difficult to bring up The Asari as an example of sexism. With only one gender, you can't really call them "female," but they've...you can see...

female.

Granted, there are fewer questions to be raised about Asari gender roles than about the evolution of a race designed to breed with species from other planets. A species which is completely hairless, but still mammalian enough that most of their members possess what I can only describe with my limited experience as "rockin' tits." Even though few to no Asari are ever portrayed as victims, many of them work in the contextually respectable fields of table-dancing-as-implied-stripping and consorting-as-implied-prostitution.

Massive Mass Effect Week: Gaaaaaaaaay

I mentioned Monday how high the expectations for Mass Effect 3 are. The quality of its predecessors poses a challenge for the series' third installment, not just to carry the torch forward  or raise the stakes, but to cap all the details and plot threads of a game that's known for its nearly-inexhaustible supply of detail and dozens of responsive, interwoven plot threads.

I'm often careful about not creating too many expectations about things. If The Avengers is great, that's fine. I'm not anticipating "that scene between The Black Widow and The Hulk" or "the reveal of the alien menace." I'll experience these things in time. I don't need to go hoping for my perfect Hulk/Black Widow scene that Joss Whedon would never want, think, or choose to make. I will rip on how much better it could have been and/or write fan fiction about it later, but I'll give the vetted creative professional first swing at it.

So I had no expectations of Mass Effect 3 until I heard male Shepard could have a relationship with a guy in ME3. And it was a dudes-only guy. This was a teaser that engaged me and I wanted to know who the other man would be. If it was a new character, I couldn't really speculate and my engagement ended. If it was an old character, though, I could go wild. It couldn't be a character that was available to femshep in a previous installment (sadly, no Garrus). I never explored romantic options in ME, though I maintained healthy bromances with Garrus and Mordin whenever possible. I floated the possibility of Mordin past my boyfriend, and he countered with a jaw-dropping surprise: Joker.

Massive Mass Effect Week: Talk Like a Renegade

The Citadel

Shiara: “Appeal to his honor as a soldier. Remind him he used to be a general.”

Horum Shepard: “Hey, don’t tell me how to talk soldier to soldier, and I won’t tell you how to pleasure men for money.

                                                     …not that I couldn’t give you a few pointers.”

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Ashley Williams: “Nice lake. Think anyone ever drowned in it?”

Horum Shepard: “….what’s wrong with you!?”

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Horum Shepard: "Wait. I can't move! This elevator's a trap! Everyone, draw your weapons!"

Tali: "Have I ever told you about my life as a space pariah?"

Horum Shepard: "Worse! It's character development! Everyone, run away!"

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Ambassador Udina: “…jeopardizes your entry into The Spectres…”

Horum Shepard: “Don’t care.”

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Horum Shepard: “Straighten up general.”

General Oraka: “She deserves it. I’ll go to her…after a cold shower or two.”

Horum Shepard: “Sounds good. Also…eeeeuuggghh!”

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Acolyte: “My brother’s part of The Alliance back home!”

Horum Shepard: “And you’re a prostitute on The Citadel. How's Christmas? Awkward?”

Massive Mass Effect Week: Meeting Expectations

When I first played Mass Effect 1, I soaked up everything: read the codex every time it updated, examined planetary write-ups, and hit every point I could on my dialog wheel. The universe was surprisingly deep, even if some of the dialog ended up coming off as campy.

The characters built in it were great. The members of your squad came off as different people, even disregarding their powers. Garrus is sullen and dissatisfied with the failure of law to ensure justice. Tali is dealing with her people's status as the pariahs of the galaxy. The game focused on humans getting used to being part of an interstellar community, and the interstellar community trying to discern a real threat from the human race's background level of belligerent, self-important bitching about their status.