Mass Effect

Sep 28, 2006

Mass Effect is at X06, and by all accounts, it's blowing away most of those who come into contact with it. BioWare's upcoming sci-fi epic is looking quite promising indeed, building on the already strong foundation we saw at E3 and offering up a few interesting surprises.

What we had once pegged as a throwaway game element at the time of the game's E3 showing is looking like it will turn out to be one of the coolest things in Mass Effect. We're talking about the all-terrain vehicle that you'll use to get around the surfaces of planets. It's called the Mako, and judging from what was shown today, players will probably spend a whole lot of time behind its wheel, as well as under its hood. The BioWare rep who conducted the demo said that the designers are treating the Mako as a character in its own right; its various systems can be tweaked and upgraded, and it can be equipped with all sorts of neat modifications.

One that was on display today: a set of jump jets that, when used, heavily invoke the flea-style hopping of Moon Patrol's mechanized protagonist. In one sequence, the Mako's driver, in order to evade enemy fire, drove behind a bit of cover, only to hop up and take potshots at its assailants. In the demo, the Mako's cannons -- one of its two weapon systems -- was equipped with a mod that vaporized its targets. Our host mentioned that there will be many such options in the final game.

The more we see of Mass Effect, the more evident it becomes that one of the game's prevailing design themes is interactions between Commander Shepherd and the supporting cast, both on and off the battlefield. As was showcased at E3, BioWare is shooting for a very dynamic conversation system that not only allows players to choose their actual responses when communicating with characters in the world, but also to specify the tone of their interactions. What we saw today seemed a bit improved over what was shown at E3; the transitions between lines were less jarring, and the protagonists' interjections seemed more fluid. One sequence we saw had the main character cut off his alien companion (the one who resembles a silver-faced, wizened Predator) quite harshly -- it seems he was lackadaisical about veering off track to save some human lives -- and when our hero put him in his place, it was almost convincing.

Conversely, we're already basically fully sold on the in-combat interactions. As we saw at E3, players will have a very deep level of control over all characters in their party; they can issue general commands in real-time via the D-pad (a la Rainbow Six), or they can pause the game and plot exact paths for their squad members to follow (think KotOR meets Full Spectrum Warrior). The set piece used to showcase this during today's demo consisted of a giant two-legged war machine with a cannon mounted on its face, and a handful of the bipedal sentient robots that we're already familiar with.

The little guys were summarily disposed, but the big guy took some coordination. It went down like this: one party member (the female soldier in the clean white armor) provided suppression fire from behind cover, giving the alien guy a chance to deploy some kind of armor-eating charge. Finally, with the big robot's shield down, Shepherd was able to blow him up with a combination of munitions and "biotics" -- Mass Effect's answer to magic/psionics/what have you.

Previously, Shepherd had used his biotic powers to telekinetically deprive a group of sheltered enemies of their cover, courtesy of an ability called "lift." As per the game's class system, Shepherd is a "Vanguard": a soldier who heavily employs biotics to supplement his combat skills. There will be three basic types of characters from which an unknown number of subclasses will branch out: soldiers (what the woman in the white armor is, and presumably, what Vanguard is a subclass of), tech specialists (what the alien is) and biotics specialists.

Mass Effect's galaxy will be wide indeed, as evidenced by the maps we saw today. Via a series of gorgeous in-game charts, you can get views of varying scope on the Milky Way -- from entire star clusters to individual solar systems. There will be a metric crap-ton of planets, if what we saw was any indication, and though only a definite minority will be populated enough to host story elements, you can go down and explore the surface of any one. It's truly a vast galaxy that's being created here, and the potential for post-release content is quite promising.

Today's demo was all too brief for the captivated audience, but it's clear that BioWare -- whom many believe to be the masters of the Western RPG -- are hard at work on their most ambitious game yet. We won't see the fruit of their labor until some time next year, which seems frightfully far away.