Code won’t behave, so no images for now.  Sorry folks.

So I just beat the game last night.  It took me a grand total of 45 hours, 16 minutes from start to completion on my first time through.   I enjoyed just about every minute of it.

Pluses +

• The combat was quicker but clearer, and the sniper rifle regained it’s dominance on the battlefield.
• I loved customizing armor and color schemes.
• Research was fun, and I like how you could improve the ship and have it matter in the end.
• Some of the romances were fun and natural for the most part.  Sometimes it did feel like the game was going for shock value with having so many alien creatures for the player to sleep with but only one guy or girl, but the story behind the characters was touching.  Garrus is used to failure, and his dialogue conveyed how nervous and insecure a cop-turned-vigilante can be.  Lawson felt like she had no self esteem because all of her gifts were bio engineered into her, and yet she was capable of catty dialogue with the main character.
• Sometimes you need to hug someone, and other times you need to smack the shit out of them.  The”interrupt” options in the game were a great addition and spiced up how dialogue could flow.

Minuses (-)

Lets face it, in a game like this there were still some shortcomings that did affect my enjoyment.  I did love the game, but some things I can’t overlook if I’m going to give it a fair review.

•  Searching for resources was fun and interesting at first, but soon became a weeping sore on the inside of my lip.  I’m serious, I liked scanning planets for resources when I was low on all four of them and there were plenty of side missions to discover by scanning planets.  Then I ran out of missions and the only element in the game I couldn’t find was Element Zero and everytime I scanned a planet I walked away with three metric tons of fucking Iridium which I couldn’t spend on shit.  It was still a big improvement over the last game, but it was a pain none the less.
• The customization was great, but there was a lack of options for customizing my armor.  I loved the glowing headband though, but I would have liked it if they kept some of the options they showed in the previews for the game.
• Some cool things in the game were never realized, like the Shepard VI you buy off someone.  Never saw it in the game even though I wanted to see it.
• Just like the first game, once you’ve killed everything in the universe and unlocked all your cool powers and weapons, your only choice is to commit to the end game.  I would have liked either random pirate missions or something to spice up searching the outer rim.
• Once again, the Blue/Red options dominated the conversations and there was no reason to choose any other options.

I loved the aliens they introduced in the game.  Mordin was a laugh riot, especially when he takes an interest in your personal life and gives you “medical advice” for a situation that comes up later in the game.  Legion was interesting, and I was enthralled with how the Geth lived and operated.  Thane was boring and generic at first but after accomplishing his mission I felt really close to him.

I’ll talk more about aliens later, but for now lets get on to Moral Choices in Games.

Morality in Games

In Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Fallout 3, and similar games you have a deluge of options to choose from.  When talking to someone the game gives you several options in some cases, like the following.

Generic Evil Mercenary Guy: I’m not giving you the disc, so go to hell!

(Good)Don’t do this.  If you give us the disc, it can save lives and you’re a hero.
(Bad) Screw you in your stupid face, I’m taking the disc!
Option 1:  Give us the disc!
Option 2: Zounds!

For those that don’t know how I play games like this, I play it honestly the first time through.  I play it like I’m the person in the game.  This means when I’m offered a choice in the game, I answer it the way I would do so in real life.  This means if I’m offered a chance to do something good, I take it!

The great thing about role playing games is they let you reach out and act how situations as a different character in a manner that’s similar to improvisational theater.  Even in video games you can find this, such as the scenario I presented above.  You have a choice and in game the dialogue options convey this choice as much as possible.  I say this because obviously there’s no option for “Pull down the villain’s pants and kick him down an uphill escalator.”

Hehe, uphill escalator.

With the new era of RPGs available for video games, the writing and the programming in the games allow for many different options.  If I want to be a good guy, I go with the Blue option and my character advances the story along as a good guy.  If I want to be a bad guy, I choose Red and continue on after performing something sinister.  If I’m Beige or don’t care for the scene, I choose a neutral  option and A. Nothing Happens or B. The story proceeds in a pre-determined manner but you’re neither good nor bad.

For me, I found myself clicking the Blue option throughout the game.  I was giving people money to buy tickets off of stations or convincing them not to do something stupid even though if they had I’d have made a profit.  The options made my character good but more importantly made “me” feel good.  I was proud of Shepard for helping people, though I did choose the Renegade path every now and then when I felt it was appropriate.

I’m not criticizing people who play games to escape from reality or who have always dreamed of playing The Punisher or La Femme Nikita.  I have a friend who told me he went through the entire game and when he was done Sheperd had glowing red eyes and firey scars over his face.  You want to go through the game and shoot people in the face, then go for it.  I just find it a little…boring.

Why?  I think it’s because I like heroes.  While I love a good villain, like Atrocitus from Green Lantern or  Badger from Firefly, I like to think that when it comes down to it I’d do the right thing regardless of the circumstances.  My Mom worked hard to make sure I knew what was right and wrong and it’s just kind of stuck with me. At most I’d be the mischievous sort of villain, but never the diabolical one.

Of course, this crosses over to real life.  I’ve stayed late after work to take a call from a social worker who has had a rotten day and is behind on their work (though I’m not usually happy about being it), I try to cheer people up when they’re feeling down, and the idea of stealing from a store is just downright repulsive to me.

Does this mean I hate villains and I’m a saint?  Nah.  I enjoy Grand Theft Auto, and in Fallout I’m running around town stealing from people to help line my pockets.   In Mass Effect I enjoyed some of the scenes that called for sudden action or a surprise attack even if it wasn’t particularly honorable, but even then I only did this against other villains.  I do feel bad in Fallout 3 when I rob from people’s homes, but considering how I saved a town from nuclear annihilation you would think they wouldn’t mind parting with their excess ammo and hidden secrets.

Will I play through the game again and go the Renegade path?  Probably.  I want to see the other half of the game and I want to see what changes in the story would happen if I did something differently.  I’m not going to go full blown, “Bluh!  I want to suck your bluhd, and possibly kick your dog too” but I will definitely take things from a different approach.

That’s the great thing about RPGs of course.  You get from it what you want, and with the new games coming out you get to make the choices you want…

… course sometimes it is freaking sweet to reign down destruction on the peasants!