Mass Effect - Retrospective @ Playdar.co.uk

I've discussed before how deeply I can involve myself in the mythology of a game's universe. It's one of my favourite things and I'd be lying if I said that the ending of the main story didn't leave me unedified. Enough has been written about that for me not to need to add my pointless penny's worth.

What I will say however is this: BioWare did give me the ending I wanted. Forget the arbitrary red pill blue pill Crucible bullshit; what I wanted was the goodbye. And in that long walk through the command centre at London, speaking to all your squadmates past and present, that's exactly what I got.

They might have ballsed up their story - and I won't pretend that that doesn't bother me, because it does - but more important for me was the people that had brought this massive, remarkably rich and detailed universe to life. Every entry in the codex, every planetary biography, every Reaper attack, every historical inter-species conflict... All would have been redundant without there being people in the galaxy to care about. With the Citadel DLC and that final walk, BioWare did at least do right by their characters. The ones that weren't Shepard, anyway.

The Mass Effect games are not the first and will not be the last to inspire these kinds of reactions in people. They're also far from perfect from a 'game' perspective: in places broken, janky and just poorly thought out in so many ways. But my experiences in their universe are some of the most profoundly affecting and meaningful ones I've had with any form of media.

For all their issues, they remain a masterful triumph of characterisation. In that respect they are not unique - but they are rare. I already miss them.

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ChaosTheory said:

"..."

Sums it up perfectly. ME was one-of-a-kind for me. I'm unfortunately not optimistic that we'll ever get another franchise that allows so much perceived customization of your experience over an epic 3-game arc. When you consider the effort it took to continue your choices/character into ME2 and ME3, combined with the outcry BioWare got over the ending and the fact that they've basically painted themselves into a corner with any story progression following the events of ME3 (leaving us only with prequels and sidequels), I really don't believe any current game company would attempt it again. Therefore, a similar emotional investment is unlikely.

Hope I'm wrong, though.

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