Mass Effect
Oct 4, 2007
The developers at BioWare are known for epic stories with big casts set in elaborately crafted universes. They've ranged from an even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away (the Knights of the Old Republic games took place centuries before Star Wars) to the mythology of Ancient China (Jade Empire). Now they're going into the future with Mass Effect, a sci-fi yarn set against the backdrop of humanity learning how to get along in a newly discovered galaxy full of alien races.
During a recent demo of choice moments in the storyline, BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk says they've hired "cinematic specialists" to help with the cutscenes. Whatever that's supposed to mean, it shows. There's a fine grainy filter over the visuals that gives it the look of film (you can turn it off, but why would you want to?). Some of the cutscenes follow the action as if they were shot with a handheld camera. Your character's entrance onto the bridge of the Normandy, the spaceship you'll use to travel the galaxy, looks like Scorcese's long tracking shots from Goodfellas.
But perhaps most importantly, the character interaction plays out like scenes from a movie rather than dialogue trees from an RPG. In most RPGs, character interaction is a matter of reading a bunch of responses and choosing the one you want. While you ponder your options, the conversation is put on hold in the background. It lends the dialogue a staccato pace. Talk, talk, talk - hold for choice - talk, talk, talk - hold for choice - talk, talk, talk, and so on.
But in Mass Effect, a little dial discreetly pops up at the bottom of the screen while characters interact. Around the dial are a few simple responses. Steer the analog stick to make your choice. The short comments on the dial are just the subtext for whatever your character will say. So you make a choice and your character's response plays out as part of the scene, fitting neatly into the flow of the conversation, and letting you hear something other than what you just read. Responses are color coded if you can make them because your character's charm or intimidation talent is high enough. It's at once gamey and cinematic.
Watamaniuk also showed off the character creation screen, which contains the usual face morphing and customization. Then he moved through a series of choices for pre-service history and psychological profile, creating a space colonist who was the sole survivor of a disastrous mission. These details were referenced in the opening cinematic, in which your character is selected for a special mission. The implication is that they'll also play a role in later events.
The key choice will be your military specialization, which is the equivalent of a class in other RPGs. The main choices are soldier, engineer, and adept. The soldier is good with guns and armor, the engineer has a holographic multitool on his or her arm, and the adept is capable of wielding the ancient forgotten power that gives the game its name ("mass effect" is described in the game as "a force that controls the fabric of space and time"). Also available are three hybrid choices: infiltrator, sentinel, and vanguard are all combinations of the main military specializations.
Each class will have its own talents, which are like skills. They're mostly combat oriented, and your talent points from leveling up are relatively rare to encourage tough choices. There are only about ten talents per character to keep things streamlined, and casual users can play Mass Effect with an auto-leveling system if they don't want to bother with assigning points. Inventory is simplified as well. Your weapons can be modded, and unneeded items can be rendered down to omni-gel, which is a basic resource that can be used for everything from healing to lockpicks.
Watamaniuk showed several parts of the game that might be construed as spoilers, so we'll refrain from detailing them. Suffice to say that BioWare's trademark moral choices are present. As you play, you'll earn "renegade points" or "paragon points", which are stored up separately. This means you can never undo what you've done, but you can eventually balance it out if you want a middle of the road character.
During a demonstration of combat, Watamaniuk uses cover and flings grenades when he's not shooting. It's almost like he's playing Gears of War. Mass Effect's fights seem to play very much like a shooter with one important caveat. At any time, you can hold down the right bumper to pause the action and call up a "power wheel". From here, you can use skills and command your two teammates. You can also freely look around to check enemies and target them. When you release the bumper, you're back in real time action.
Just as BioShock was a shooter one step closer to an RPG, Mass Effect looks like an RPG one step closer to a shooter. But based on what we've seen, Mass Effect is primarily concentrating on a detailed story, with heroes, villains, and lots of room in between for you to find your own place in this interstellar rogue's gallery. "Over ten years, BioWare has made games about story and character," Watamaniuk says. "That's what we do."