Favorite Piece of Art... Mass Effect? Part 1

Mass Effect, a Bioware RPG/Shooter epic released in 2007, is probably among one of the best works of art I have ever witnessed in my life. I picked Mass Effect because it is one of the only video games I have ever played that I can classify as art. From the narrative, to the art direction, to the lore, to the acting, Mass Effect is better than any film I have ever scene.

So what is this game you ask? Well the story of Mass Effect (or rather the Mass Effect Trilogy, Mass Effect 2 came out last January) takes place in the late 22nd century after humanity has discovered ancient technology left on Mars by an extinct race of space faring beings and joined the galactic community after unlocking the secrets of FTL travel (Faster-than-light) and mass effect fields. You play Commander Shepard, a human marine who's background you can choose for yourself and whose journey you can play out in any way you want. Shepard is the player's character and no one will play the exact same Shepard.

I won't bother going anymore into the plot than I already have because, honestly, I don't want to spoil it and because I honestly don't need to. The other aspects of this game can speak for themselves. That isn't to say the narrative itself is not formidable, on the contrary, Mass Effect has one of the most compelling stories ever told in the video game medium.

Let's start with what makes this game a brilliant story; the narrative structure. Basically the game can be classified as an RPG (role playing game) not only because it has many of the same game play mechanics but because you ultimately have full rein of how your Shepard progresses through the story. You can be a nice guy... or you can be a douche... or you can be something in between. Bioware has a gift of writing very morally ambiguous stories and you are constantly bombarded by these decisions throughout the story. Most decisions are not between right or wrong, they are between logical and what you feel in your gut, between convenience and risk, between the lesser of two evils and sometimes both decisions sit on very sound foundations. Those are the best kind of decisions and why this game's story telling is ultimately so compelling.

Minor spoilers: My favorite part of both games, is not an epic space battle, or an emotional romantic scene. In Mass Effect 2 the game digs deeper into one aspect of their lore in which, long story short, one species used a stability plague against another species to end a war. Throughout the entirety of the first game you hear nothing but the Krogan's side of the argument (the species that got effected by it) and you will most likely come out thinking the Salarians are responsible for a horrible crime. In the second game you get the full explanation of the Salarian's side of the argument. This all coalesces in one amazing scene in which you take your teammate, Dr. Mordin Solus, a Salarian scientist partly responsible for the re-engineering and re-implementation of the genophage (sterility plague), to the Krogan homeworld to save his old colleague. Upon arrival you investigate the labs scattered throughout the base riddled with the corpses of test subjects. It turns out the Krogan had been running experiments on living subjects to try to cure the genophage, and after defending the plague for the entire game Mordin shows an enormous amount of self doubt and maybe even guilt at what he sees. It is one of the most compelling scenes in fiction I have ever experienced... honestly the writers need some awards for it... as well as Mordin's voice actor.

Holy crap turns out there is a lot to talk about here. Well might as well talk about it more in my online journalism blogs!

Well here is the launch trailer for the first game... the Mass Effect 2 launch trailer made me crap my pants the first time I watched it... I post that one in part 2:


To Be Continued...