Via The PA Report comes “Why Mass Effect is the Most Important Science Fiction Universe of Our Generation,” Kyle Munkittrick’s exceedingly well-reasoned examination of BioWare’s Mass Effect games. Ever since the first Mass Effect, I’ve been more or less in love with this series; while the games certainly have their flaws (like, oh, I don’t know, much of the overarching plot in Mass Effect 2), what they do accomplish is pretty extraordinary. Ambitious and smart, Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 managed to pair brave, big-idea genre fiction with visceral thrills and strong characters. While the Mass Effect universe is certainly built upon a lot of preexisting science-fiction (most notably Star Trek), it’s pushed a lot of those ideas further and weirder. And added explosions. To say I’m excited for Mass Effect 3 is an understatement*.
Munkittrick’s observations range from the basic-but-insightful (“I don’t need to explain why the option to have a non-white, non-male, non-straight person as the main character of a blockbuster action science fiction story is important”) to the grandiose (“To play Mass Effect is to consider the value of the lives of other species, the meaning of life on a cosmic scale, and the importance of individual relationships in the face of cataclysm”), and I’m not sure I 100 percent agree with his whole “Mass Effect has forever changed science-fiction” thesis, but it’s well worth a read, whether you like philosophy or storytelling or just shooting aliens on your Xbox. Do so here.
*Hey, you saw that new Mass Effect 3 trailer, right? The one with the tiny little resident of the Uncanny Valley getting alien attacked, and then Shepard beating down some Husks? Here you go.
WHY DIDN’T YOU LIKE THE PLOT OF ME2? I REALLY LIKED THE IDEAS WITH CEREBRUS AND HAVING TO FORCE THE WILL OF A XENOPHOBIC ORGANIZATION TO WORKING WITH ITS ENEMIES AGAINST A LARGER THREAT.
BUT THE MINING MINI-GAME CAN GO EAT A BAG OF DICKS.
At the risk of uncharacteristically agreeing with Graham, yeah, I agree with Graham.
Both on the plot and insomuch as the mining thing was way lame compared to the joy of driving around a planet’s surface fighting sandworms with a huge cannon.
@Graham: Oh, the ideas throughout ME2 are great, especially the Cerberus stuff. It’s the more nuts-and-bolts stuff involving the Reapers and the Collectors that doesn’t work as well for me. Sometime around the boss fight against a giant electric blue skeleton, I started to suspect that the individual missions’ plot points somehow weren’t keeping pace with the larger ideas behind the games’ universe.
Graham has never been more correct. Needs more fucking mako.
Erik’s right – the large plot elements are awesome. But those were put in place by Orson Scott Card in the first game, right? The second game felt like it was written by committee. That stupid giant blue skeleton could have been lifted right out of an NES game, like Master Blaster. Why was it there? And the stupid stuff in the background, like the secret agent Hanar movie? And the Hanar hiring assassins? That burned up some amazing groundwork from the first game, just for some cheap laughs and plot points. Frowny face!
Especially after spending some time playing the Old Republic MMO– which feels to me like I imagine a “Mass Effect the MMO” probably would– I would say it borrows at least as much from Star Wars than Star Trek. The alien races from ME would fit right in in Mos Eisley.
As for ME2, I didn’t care so much for the giant robot ending (it also makes me think of Master Blaster) but the rest of it was really fun. When it comes to video games, “is it fun?” is the bar I use. So perhaps that puts me in the “I just want to shoot aliens on my X-Box” category, but I do think they are great games.