Saturday, March 30, 2013

Mass Effect

I'm going to talk about a video game and try to explain to all you non-gamers why I really love this game.

First a little history. Early march 2012 I was gamed out on some of the things I had been playing up till then and was looking for something new. I came across advertising for the release of Mass Effect 3. It was an RPG (Role Playing Game). The kind of video game I prefer but I had never played anything in the series or by the maker of the game. With RPG's this normally isn't a problem since the games in a series can be separated by vast lengths of time and space and don't usually have the same characters. so I bought it. And played it and liked it enough to start doing some research so I could do better at the game. Thats when I discovered the Mass Effect fanbase. And learned that there were lots and lots of rabid fans who really loved this series passionately. Online sites abounded with fan fiction. You Tube stuffed with fan made videos. Deviantart.com filled with fan art. You get the idea. This fascinated me. I dug deeper. I bought and played Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. I bought and played all the DLC (downloadable content) that went with each game. Let me explain why.

Mass Effect came out in 2007 and won lots of awards and acclaim. It was unusual. The NPC's (non player characters) had depth. In most games the comments heard as you jog your hero through any location are repetitive and shallow. NPC's are scenery and nothing more. In Mass Effect the conversations differ. And can be important to you as the player. As an example in Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, every guard in every town and city says in the same actors voice the same lines. "I took an arrow to the knee" was so common it became an internet meme. Not the case in Mass Effect or ME2 or ME3 (I'll use the abbreviations from now on). Also your interactions with NPC's that are to become part of your "squad" are complex and involved. The entire game in ME2 was recruiting and gaining the loyalty of the 10-12 members of your squad. There are only 5-6 missions in the main script of the game. There are 20-30 missions involved in getting your "people" together and ready for the end game mission.

 There are in all three games opportunities for romantic involvement. Again an example from Skyrim. Give Ysolda a mammoth tusk and she becomes available as a wife. Not so easy in the ME universe. You actually must talk to the object of your affections. Again and again. If you chat up more than one they will eventually call you on it and you must to break off those other relationships. All three games were about your relationships with the NPC's. Friends, lovers, allies and enemies. The voice acting is also incredibly good. All of this is reason enough to like a game, but love it the way these people did?
No. Here's the kicker. Your character is Commander Shepard. In all three games. Your hero/heroine doesn't just come from nowhere like most games. You choose the life history of your Shepard and your choices have consequences in the game. Where you were born, how you came to the military, your career.
Your Shepard has a past. And at the end of each game the system saves the results and you can upload your Commander Shepard to the start of the next game. Unprecedented! These fans have been following this game since 2007 because... Their Commander Shepard really is theirs. Different from all others. Bioware, the maker of the game, says that over 1000 decisions get downloaded at the start of ME3 if you have brought forward a Shepard from ME through ME2 to finally arrive at ME3.    

Jump to March 2012. ME3 releases. To great acclaim and massive fan controversy. I won't go into what upset the fans, it's too complicated. But what I realized was that they wouldn't be so angry if they didn't really, really love this game. In a move that hasn't ever happened before Bioware actually released DLC that modified the end of the game to satisfy some of the fan complaints, but lets just say the ending has flaws. Which is a shame because this is the end if the franchise. It's a trilogy and it's over. No more Commander Shepard ever.

Jump to March 2013. The last piece of DLC ever for Mass Effect 3 is released. And this finally made me love this game the way the other fans did. It's called Citadel and takes place in the capitol of the galaxy. The first half is mostly a fight. But wait. You and your crew are on shore leave. The fight starts with you by yourself. No squad to back you up. Then it gets cool. Remember all those relationships? People start to rally round you. Characters you haven't seen since the first game. All your squad mates. anybody from earlier times who isn't dead rallies to your side. And it turns from a grim ambush into a hilarious romp. Not just 3 of you against the bad guys but every wisecracking buddy you ever had against bad guys who are quickly realizing that they are totally outclassed. When the big bad guy asks at the end "why you and not me" your answer is simple "I have comrades. You have minions". But the Citadel DLC is less than half over at this point. You can now meet up with and enjoy time with all of these characters. Heck you can invite them to a big ol' party at your place. I spent the next 3 hours running my Shepard ragged trying to hear all the silly, loving, fun and touching conversations.

This DLC, released a year after the game, is the real goodbye.

Here's a few quiet moments with my Shepard's bestest girlfriend. She's a little weird. Ok. So she's a dangerously violent sociopath who gets turned on during combat. But she's my dangerously violent sociopath and MY Shepard loves her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PA5lnFtZaw0  

And this little piece was done as a tribute by a fan. It'll give you an idea of how the fans (I'm one) feel about this trilogy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZoXla3QVTA

Listen to the music. For those who don't know I am very susceptible to mood swings created by music. I can control my world by picking my own sound track. Bioware must have aimed this game right at my head.

ME2 launch trailer, just listen.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlk3w13JHM4

If you want the long version it's Heart of Courage by Two Steps From Hell.





Friday, March 1, 2013

Silent Knife, Holy Knife




Orinoco felt no qualms about killing the two fools. He was surprised they had lasted this long.

He did feel a little sympathy for the pig however.

Still, orders were orders and an assassin who didn't follow orders to the letter was considered too dangerous
to live.

In a way that made his kills simple self defense.

One would have needed specialized knowledge to realize that he broke his own rules by whistling on the
way home.

Not the whistling. The tune. Few indeed knew the words to "Silent Knife, Holy Knife".

But any of those few might well have ended his career with a quick word to the wrong ears.



(added 2-16-13)


His room was just that. A room. 10 feet by 40 feet with a door at one end and an ornate bed at the other.

Not that Orinoco ever slept in the bed. Misdirection had been ingrained by hard lessons. The bed was just
the first thing anyone saw when they walked in the door. Since he slept behind the door it was also sometimes the last.

Between the door and the bed were boxes, chests, sacks, crates and tables laden with all kinds of interesting
and useless junk. Anyone searching this room would spend far more time than they intended. Time was very
important to someone in Orinoco's career path. Survey time, set up time, action time, escape time. Time to
find excuses. Time to be somewhere far, far away.

Orinoco entered only after checking all of his tell-tales for intrusion, and finding none opened the door. He
immediately stopped whistling.

Somebody sat up in his bed. Somebody magnificent. Somebody impossible. Somebody with a small smile
on her face.

A very cold, very angry, very satisfied smile.