The Mass Effect Experience

A remarkable excavation of alien technology on the dusty red plains of Mars catapulted humanity's progress in interstellar travel and introduced the human race to the rest of the galactic pantheon. To paraphrase the game's introduction, Earth called the discovery a miracle. The rest of the galaxy called it Mass Effect.

The last Krogan?

Humanity's Spectre
You play as Commander Shepherd, a seasoned military veteran and much glorified (feared or loved is up to you) member of the human race. In fact, just after laying the foundation for your character (male or female, background and class), you're pegged to represent humanity on the galactic stage, to prove yourself and your people worthy of being reckoned with on intergalactic affairs.

To do so you must prove yourself worthy of being a Spectre agent, the most feared and respected of peacekeepers whose sole purpose is to maintain stability across the galaxy. As a Spectre agent, you answer only to the shadowy Council, and then only rarely. It is your judgment and swift execution of justice that holds sway wherever you may go.

Interactive Cinema
Where Mass Effect distinguishes itself from any other role-playing game is its uniquely cinematic and dramatic presentation. Even the earliest view of your character, shot from behind, staring intently out into space as a voiceover debates your merits in representing humanity, sets the stage admirably.

Prove yourself and your people worthy of being reckoned with on intergalactic affairs.

Conversations crackle with tension and subterfuge due to excellent voice acting, and some of the best virtual acting this side of a blockbuster movie. Add to that cinematically appropriate camera angles, pans, zooms, and shifts that add intensity to even the most innocuous dialogue, and drama fills every inch of the screen in every encounter.

Adding further credence to the film-like experience, Mass Effect boasts a grain lens filter, helping to soften the environment and character models, further solidifying the game's photorealistic approach. Gone also are the stilted, inhuman animations so often found in expansive role-playing games. Even alien characters move with an elegance and natural gait unheard of in the genre.

You can toggle helmets on and off.

Sample Encounter
To help illustrate the point, the following is just one short example of in-game drama in Mass Effect.

After mercilessly dispatching the high-powered guards of a criminal mastermind, Commander Shepherd walks calmly to the now prone kingpin, who scrabbles along the ground, looking up with haunted eyes, begging Shepherd to spare him.

Using the dynamic dialogue system, you keep the conversation flowing at lightning speed and use Shepherd's intimidation skills to whittle away the kingpin's defenses, shattering his psyche and laying bare the secrets Shepherd needs to unearth the latest mystery in the game.

After exposing all he knows, the kingpin relaxes and begins slowly to pick himself off the ground, sure that Shepherd will spare him. His arrogance though forces Shepherd's hand as you choose to denounce the misery the kingpin has caused throughout Citadel (Mass Effect's sprawling, space-age metropolis). While the dialogue option doesn't explicitly spell out the outcome, the camera snaps behind the kingpin, Shepherd draws his pistol in a flash, and one thunderous bullet spells out his final judgment.

Production Values
It's logical to expect that the tributary missions that branch away from the core storyline wouldn't possess the same pop and production value associated with Mass Effect's most crucial, jaw-dropping moments.

Welcome to the Normandy.

However, even a simple jaunt to an unexplored planet may lead to a gripping exchange between Commander Shepherd and a holographic officer pleading for Shepherd to track down and reclaim a missing nuclear weapon. There is just no let up in Mass Effect's relentlessly high production values.

Critical Decision
While there are certainly parallels to draw with the light side/dark side mechanic of Bioware's Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic™, the morality system in Mass Effect is a great deal more sophisticated. Not only are the ethical quandaries less clear-cut, but without giving too much away, they also hit home much harder in Mass Effect.

The journey in Mass Effect is not only told through brilliant presentation, excellent acting and spectacular conflict, but also by somber, joyful, and even tearful moments. You will care deeply for the characters involved and the surrounding world at large. Bioware has crafted a masterpiece of interactive gaming, and a brilliantly exquisite drama. Enjoy the journey.

Article by Ryan Treit