The Gamer’s Quagmire #71: Six Hours of Careful Editing Outside Fallujah
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less
by Jamison DeLorenzo
It is not as nearly a compelling title, but it’s not like there is any competition now. Konami was able to make headlines recently by walking away from their war game based on the Iraq War. Having known nothing about the game or much about the conflict, largely due to my indifference to war games, this event prompted me to educate myself a little about the development of this former project.
Before I dive in, let me say something about the development of games dealing with a war that is still in progress – good luck. Six Days in Fallujah, you never had a chance. I say this, however, not for the reasons you would think. It comes as no surprise that there was a ton of blowback once people found out about this game. It comes as no surprise Konami received a bunch of complaints. The cancelation of the game was, for all intents and purposes, inevitable.
One of the interesting facts about this former project was that journals and diaries from soldiers involved in the conflict were used as a reference for the game. Other soldiers encouraged Konami to go ahead with the game. Why their voices do not get to be heard is a story for another time. Perhaps.
I bring this up not to start a debate over the war, but instead to get people to see multiple sides of this story. The crux of the problem here is when is it safe to create a social commentary about a war? Until soldiers want stories about their experiences to be told, I firmly believe no for-profit stories should be produced. This includes movies, books, games, or any other media. War has a massive impact on everyone involved, and, like it or not, the discussion afterwards needs to begin with them. If soldiers were contributing to this project I thought this time would have arrived, but this is obviously not the case.
As one should expect, there are plenty of people that had a problem with this game being made. The war is still going on. People are still over there. Also, there appeared to be some contributions on the game from Iraqi citizens and insurgents. You are certainly welcome to react to this however you want. I’m going to let that point be for now and build on it later.
I think a good chunk of the anger goes back to what Roger Ebert said over a year ago about video games – that they are not proper art. A lot of video game pundits, if not every one, laughed off this comment as being misinformed and out of touch. It should not surprise anyone that other people besides this movie critic have this opinion (and, by extension, people will also view as out of touch). You are all welcome to ignore the numerous stories on TV about this war. Ignore all the books published about the war. Ignore all the stories news anchors used to draw people into watching their broadcasts (yes, I have every right to make this criticism in an age where stations view news as entertainment). These are all welcome and it’s not hypocritical to accept those and reject a video game.
The thing is, I have to ask myself if I am ready to openly criticize the aforementioned hypocrisy intertwined in this situation. As I am someone who knows nobody that has been or is overseas in the Iraq war it is a lot more difficult to remain objective when discussing this. Then again, why even bother writing about video games at all if I am afraid of what my opinions mean?
I have no idea why people still struggle with viewing different forms of art objectively. There is art out there with the sole purpose of inflaming the senses. It is probably safe to assume that was not Konami’s intent with this game. What boggles my mind is why many people still see all video games in a constant vein of evil and void of any intrinsic value.
Something I need to be clear on – I do not have any concrete information on how Konami was approaching the story in this game. We’ll get to that in a minute. Remember that art is subjective by its very nature. Disagreeing with a viewpoint should not necessitate its very existence. If you cannot handle something’s existence just because you don’t like it, well, that does not mean the problem lies with the object of your ire.
What I cannot do is claim to be an expert on sensitivity. I am willing to entertain the notion that it is too early to make a game closely representative of the conflict in Iraq. Some soldiers want their story out in the open, as evidenced by the development of this game, but many people still do not. So we shelve the project and wait. That is fine with me. But I have to wonder – what is the appropriate time needed before a game like Six Days in Fallujah can be made? What are the variables? Does the number of deaths, duration, number of nations involved, or overall brutality of the war make a difference? Is anyone qualified to answer this question?
I live by a certain set of rules. One of these rules is to always welcome new information into a discussion. Let people speak their minds. It is always up to the recipients of the information to determine whether they agree with it. After all, it is no fun to call people idiots without hearing their side of the story first. Again noting my detachment from this situation, this is why I have no problem with Iraqi citizens and soldiers contributing to it. I get why this annoys soldiers involved and others as well. Developers were trying to get as much information on the battles as they could. If you are reading more into it than that, fine, but you simply don’t understand the roles and functions of video games.
With all this in mind, it’s time to identify the primary idiots.
Konami, let me be one of many to say thank you for your completely spineless reaction. Thank you for shrinking into the sunset. You are doing the gaming industry absolutely no justice here. Saying “we just wanted to make an entertaining game” is the same lame response any publisher uses for any public backlash. Not wanting to use controversy as a selling point is fine if that’s not the type of attention or reputation you want. I find it hard to believe, however, that you did not see any potential issues when starting this project. Is there any chance we can stop your work on the next DDR abomination if we whine enough?
We saw this response from Capcom when Resident Evil 5’s details starting coming out. Even Bioware didn’t stand up for itself (not really) with the Mass Effect controversy that the media tried to stir up. In terms of corporate PR they probably did the right thing, but I still don’t think they sent the right message to service the industry as a whole. If our industry didn’t have Rockstar I would wonder if anyone in the industry had any backbone at all.
Here is the message publishers and developers need to say when people overreact – “we are not the first ones to make a statement about this topic, we are not even the first ones to make the statement we are making, thus we have no plans to change our direction in making what we think will be a great game.” Tailor this sentiment into any specific situation and we are all set.
If you plan on making a game that you know is going to be controversial on some level, then why would you back off once the… wait for it… controversy begins to take shape? React with however much knee-jerkiness you feel is appropriate (this includes the gamers out there who are sure to whine about this incoherently), but the fact that people were upset that this game was being made should only be a surprise to idiots.
War is a very serious issue. Any work, whether it be a book, film or game, can go about a right and wrong way. The problem is that by and large people hate video games (or anything else they do not understand). We need to get people to see things on a level playing field. Just as I do not see the inherent disrespect in a game about a war, others do not see the valuable reason for the game to exist. Both are valid opinions and I wish people would see that.
Post your comments in the Forum!
April 25, 2008
The Gamer’s Quagmire #67: And Internet Justice For All
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less
by Jamison DeLorenzo
Pay attention to enough news stories and you can see pattern with the media extolling the negative qualities of the Internet and what they refer to as the gaming subculture. It’s not that I am any different – I do what I can to provide negative comments every week for parts of the industry that are negative influences. Today, however, things are going to be different. Oh yes, they will be different.
Within the past month there was a proud owner of an Xbox 360, laptop, and a few other possessions, who had his house broken into and items stolen. In what feels like nothing more than a transparent attempt to land a spot on America’s Dumbest Criminals, the thief messaged a thread through Xbox Live a ransom demand for the stolen 360. Anyone who has ever watched even one episode of any crime drama, or has an ounce of common sense, can probably guess what happened next.
Only, you probably can’t. The police involved in the case worked more slowly than people on the Internet. After the person who had his possessions stolen was not receiving the desired help from the police he posted his grievance up on the Internet. Many members of the networked gaming community sprung into action, found detailed information on the person who was connected to the account from with the ransom demand was initiated, and soon afterwards property was recovered. The police finally helped out after this happened.
From this there were several interesting responses. Let’s start with the fact that Fox News managed to squeeze in a story covering this saga. I found the timing of this amusing because the first thought that popped into my head was that they felt guilty about their Mass Effect story and thought this was a great opportunity to endear themselves to the gaming community. Sorry, you didn’t sucker me in! In the story the kid who had his stuff stolen was mention to be an aspiring Guitar Hero legend, or something to that effect. I’m saying this kid is going to grow up to be a rocket scientist, but it picking that header for him was funny. It’s almost like a smack in the face. Was that the most notable thing in his life so far? Guitar Hero is the pinnacle achievement to date? Really?
(I do not mean to imply that I have any better things to do than write about or play video games – that would just be insane)
Another miss in this situation was the fact that Microsoft missed this message completely. In my paranoid little world where all digital communication is monitored I seriously expected there to be some built-in monitoring of all communication, or at least the text-based communication, so that when something criminal were sent over the wires, say, for example, a ransom note about stolen property made by Microsoft, that the monitoring software would see it and disable any offending party’s account. I want this to be bad news, but maybe the fact that this did not happen is good news.
While the Big Brother justice system is not quite in place yet on Live, this does make me wonder a little more about the technical proficiency in the standard Law and Order segments of our society. In modern times a controlled Internet account handle is just as good as a mailing address. You would think that if the police were notified of an address in a ransom situation that the case would be solved in a matter of hours. Technically you could throw the term “vigilante justice” around here. How can you just skip over using inflammatory comments in topics related to gaming? The news outlets missed an opportunity here.
Seriously though, this ties in to my main point – that there has been a steady stream of negative stories about video games for a long time. Video games cause obesity in kids, they make people shoot each other, they’re killing simulators, they are too sexually explicit, they have no redeeming qualities, and so on. We’ve been seeing these stories for years. We now have a story about how a community rallied around a theft that was largely being ignored by the police (or, at least, ineptly handled) and the community was able to get the person most, if not all, of his belongings back.
We praise the neighborhood watch for their efforts, do we not? Look, I can’t sit here and claim that perhaps some of this information should not have been obtainable by average citizens (i.e. Xbox Live account info), but this information was used to get stolen property back. I am never one to ignore exceptions to rules. In the scenario dealing with the what the road to hell is paved with, I have no issues with whatever non-physically threatening tactics were used to get the property back (keeping in mind that I am not someone who’s opinion regarding moral tactics you should necessarily listen to).
The lesson in all this, aside from needing to be a smarter individual when attempting to extort money from someone, is that we are still living in a world that predominantly is incapable of understanding technology. Things that seem simple to many people simply do not translate to people in an older demographic. Naturally, this isn’t a new trend. It’s going to happen to us too. A lesson that I took from this, which I feel may benefit many people, is that until a changing of the guard occurs in the media, we are going to have to continue dealing with gaming stories in the media being constantly mishandled. Anyone who is unable to grasp this will eventually go insane when the next Mass Effect controversy hits front and center on the 6 o’clock news.
Post your comments in the Forum!
February 22, 2008
The Gamer’s Quagmire #62: Rewards Systems as Mandated by Yoda
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
Achieving something great in a game has been a fascination of mine for a long time. The first order of business, ironically, is having fun. It is difficult to pinpoint the transition period from enjoying games and excelling at games. I believe that this sentiment about excelling in gaming is the central ideal that makes a gamer a hardcore gamer, and stage 1 of a social disease that can escalate from Adventurer’s Perfectionist Disorder (commonly known as APD) all the way up to Elitist Gamer Syndrome.
Console video games were in their infancy when I started my gaming habit. Kids growing up today get to experience a much more polished medium which is just starting to become mainstream. No, the intent here is not to start the crotchety old man routine; not today at least. The goal here is to unite gamers by talking about what drives them to play games. If you understand why Final Fantasy VII isn’t complete before you have Knights of the Round or why Super Mario Galaxy isn’t done before you collect 120 stars you know motivation as I do.
For several generations of consoles the gamers that wanted to unlock everything in the game they could just go ahead and do it. Nobody needed to ask the Ocarina of Time fans to collect all of the hearts. Nobody taped Devil May Cry fans to chairs before getting an S rating on every stage. Nobody held a gun to my head to force me to complete Castlevania IV without dying. Gamers did these things because they wanted to.
Luckily we now have a world of gamers clamoring to prove that they can play all of these games better than anyone else. I realize that this drive isn’t new, but the ability to advertise these accomplishments across the world is. The advent of Achievements on Xbox Live is this semi-official place where gamers can prove who the better gamer is by completing more in-game feats than other people and posting high scores for the whole world to see.
In a matter of speaking the idea of achievements can be a good thing. Anybody who talks trash in message boards now can be more easily ignored (of course, if you ever listened to these people you are the central part of the problem) because without the proof that Achievement Points provides they have almost no way to back up their talk. Granted, there’s no law that tells you that you should listen to these people (and common sense tells you that you shouldn’t), but having extra ammo for someone who truly annoys you, such as an incompetent amphibious wingman, is never a bad thing.
I can’t say that the notion of Achievements is a bad thing, because sometimes gamers need extra motivation for doing certain things in games. Unfortunately, a lot of the 360 Achievements you see resemble the completion of an entirely fruitless endeavor. Crackdown, on top of one of the simplest and enjoyable games on the 360, has several achievements that make me question a few things. You get achievements for maxing out your stats, blowing up enough bad guys, taking down each crime syndicate, collecting all of the ability orbs, and even climbing to the top of your headquarters. Look closely at these items before continuing to the next paragraph.
My contention that there are three types of Achievements in existence: the wholly pointless, the painfully obvious, and the surprisingly noteworthy. If you do not believe me, let us walk through this together.
The first category, the wholly pointless, is obvious: climbing to the top of the HQ in Crackdown, while fun and entertaining, is pointless. I never would have thought to do it if it were not in the game, the developers wouldn’t have put it in had there been no Achievement system, and it serves no purpose whatsoever. There is a heightened sense of vertigo when climbing the tower that provides some entertainment, but the reality is that if it was never in the game I don’t think anybody would have cared considering the complete lack of any real reward other than finding another creative way to get gamers to jump to their untimely deaths.
The second category, the painfully obvious, is… what it is: taking down each crime syndicate, as a prime example, is already a requirement for completing the game. Why is this a noteworthy action? Is there a point in rewarding players for not being hopelessly moronic? It may make sense to promote idiots into management, but we are talking about video games here. At least in this scenario nothing gets taken off of the table.
Achievements that create a false sense of gameplay, thus taking something off the table, truly annoy me. In Mass Effect there is an Achievement for achieving Spectre status. In reality this is just like the previous Crackdown example, only it implies that it might be possible to somehow avoid achieving this goal (hint: it’s not). I had to change how my character reacted with others because I thought my dialog choices would screw up my chance to become an all-powerful Spectre. Maybe paranoia is to blame, but I steadfastly maintain that placing a sense of fear into gamers for the sole purpose of supporting the Achievement system is faulty. This situation becomes highly untenable when training to become a Jedi – Yoda would not be pleased.
(Subtle Star Wars joke – it’d been far too long since I used one)
The final category, the surprisingly noteworthy, comes along with items like collecting the ability orbs and maxing out all of your stats. Again, you are going to do these anyway for the same reasons you collect all 120 stars as Mario in Super Mario Galaxy. You hardly need to do this to complete the game, but you want to because it separates you from the pack. The attraction of others seeing that you did this does add a sense of accomplishment to the feat that is nice, albeit an inflated one. Rewarding this type of gaming behavior, unlike all other scenarios, is to be lauded.
The truth is that I am a fan of Achievements, but only when done properly. Game developers should not add Achievement points to a game just to support an artificial structure. If the points meant something then ranking players by those points would make sense. Instead we have reward points for people who fail a song 10 times in Guitar Hero and survive in open combat (you are an assassin!) for 10 minutes in Assassin’s Creed. These people should not be rewarded.
Mass Effect is, with small exception, a great example of how to use the system. It supports the Live Achievement system the way games should because most of the rewards unlock extra gameplay options for the player. Gamers like me who have APD know that if you give the player any reason at all to complete a task they would gladly do it. In an RPG the reward is almost always some form of loot or a new spell so that is easy, but if the reward is just a pat on the back for doing something insane I would just as soon grab that same arm and slam the would be back-patter to the ground.
One final point before today’s lecture is complete. I realize that the Mario example is not entirely pulling its weight here anymore because you do not need this to complete the game. What it does do is unlock playing the game as Luigi and offer a true sense of completion (imagine getting points for collecting 20% of the required stars). When your special rewards system recognizes achievements such as this then you have a system that has some meaning. Instead we have a system where you get into arguments revolving around your ability to complete tasks ranging from the deranged to idiotic, and I am tired of explaining that Live Achievement points have absolutely no value whatsoever. It is like winning a ton of tickets playing Skeeball in an amusement park without a ticket counter.
Then again, if you manage to satisfy your ego by completing utterly pointless tasks, then maybe the system already has an inherent sense of meaning to it.
Post your comments in the Forum!
January 27, 2008
The Gamer’s Quagmire #59: Mass Obscenities Like a Fox
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
Last week was a special time for me. It wasn’t because that Burnout was an excellent game. It wasn’t because I managed to find myself in the middle of a Guitar Hero party where I was the only one able to show off my skills in Expert mode. It wasn’t even because I was blessed with seeing GTA IV’s April 2008 release date. The media finally managed to embarrass itself beyond belief with what might go down as the stupidest video game debate since the original panic surrounding the Pac Man obsession in the mid 80’s.
Those of you into video game news are not new to this information at all. In fact, you are probably wondering why you should continue reading when you’ve seen so many different video game experts sound off on this issue, including X-Play and Penny Arcade. I’d offer forthcoming pictures of boobs, but this is a family-oriented site. Instead, what I can offer is more cheap laughs at the expense of the “news” corporation that started this discussion.
The reason I take such exception to the Fox News debate last week goes far beyond the egregious lies that were flying around the debate like flies at a fall baseball game in Cleveland. Mass Effect had an enormous impact on me. It was easily one of my favorite games from the past five years. Whatever your impressions of that game were, you understand that when a massive amount of lies swarms around one of your favorite games you become enraged. It took a long time to figure out exactly how I wanted to respond to the Fox segment on Mass Effect. Once I realized that it has been ages since I did a line item breakdown of something that has gotten under my skin the internal debate was resolved.
It is time to kick back, relax, and watch the snowball of rage come rolling down the hill.
The event begins as the tag line on the bottom of the screen serves as the basis for the topic du jour. According to the always accurate bottom-of-the-screen banner, Mass Effect features “Full Digital Nudity” and “Graphic Sex.” I realize that the news shows on the channel are generally pretty right-wing, but what is most striking is that this is the same network that has brought us a litany of shows revolving around sex and edgy cartoons. How can the same network that reruns the Side-boob Hour with Peter Griffin also get freaked out about a side-boob in a video game? That and a small portion of a posterior is the racy sex scene that these people are talking about.
Before the interview comes in play, an interesting comment on marketing was thrown in. Admittedly I do not watch a lot of TV, but did you know that the game, which is clearly rated ‘M’ (i.e. ages 17+), is being marketed to kids *and* teenagers? Sometimes it is difficult to tell when people make up lies used by other people in an attempt to sound poignant, but this felt like one of those templated arguments that is used by so many people when they attack video games.
Anyway, the interview came next between a psychological expert of some sort (I refuse to put the name in because I don’t want to leave any hints that I am lending any credence to the person) and a video game columnist (in other words, someone far more professional than myself). I got a really good laugh when every single opinion made by the psychologist was shot down like the Luftwaffe over England when she admitted to never playing the game. I always find it annoying that people can make by informed decisions about a game without ever sitting down in front of it. It’s easy to make snide remarks about anything without being truly informed, but you cannot call yourself a professional without doing actual first-hand research. This is bad science at its very core.
- Studies prove adolescents play games more than kids – I don’t know about you, but every report I have ever read about gaming studies shows that most gamers are men somewhere in the realm of ages 27-34. To quote a famous rock band – “this is my generation, baby.” Pretty much the only thing worse than an expert that doesn’t do their own research is one that lies about the research they have (or have not) seen. On the plus side, the comedy continued because the expert then went on to claim that they had to side with the research they, supposedly, read instead of listening to someone who actually played the game.
- Women are only there for their sexuality – Ignoring that you can pick the lead to be a female, this comment is still quite the impressive broad stroke. Coming from someone who claims never to have played the game this is not a surprising comment, because you cannot know about the internal struggles all three female party members have throughout the game if you never played it.
- The man is deciding how many women he wants to be with – Technically this is a true statement, in that you can choose to be with 0 or 1 other female. Oh yes, you can make a truly stupid remark in the game to see if there’s a way you can get both female love interests to go with you. I don’t think I need to elaborate on how that choice winds up not working for you. Still, if you insist on taking the stance that the dialog option merely being present in the game is enough to be revolting, I should warn you that only someone who wants to string to women along and then make a piggish response is going to make that happen. This is the player’s choice, and I refuse to blame a video game developer or publisher for a choice that players make in a game. If this sounds familiar, this is the a rehash of one of the many attacks against GTA.
- Boys cannot tell the difference between what happens in the game and real world – I don’t doubt this for a second. I find it difficult to blame this on a video game that has arrived during the sixth console generation. I don’t know about you, but the day when people realized that raising children takes true diligence is going to be a welcome one.
Moving past this segment we get to the panel discussion portion of the program. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this segment after the interview melted my brain, but on some level I expected to see a balanced discussion. Naturally this is the trap that is laid out in front of everyone. It is a relatively clever one as it will catch almost everyone who is highly ignorant of video games.
Anyway, I’d love to give you some deep insight on the discussion the panel laid out and the differing sides of the debate, but they all landed on the “we hate Mass Effect” side of the table. In case I missed something in my years on a debate team, group discussions were always the most informative when people had differing opinions.
Here is a quick breakdown of all the comments made during this evil segment:
- Luke Skywalker meets Debbie Does Dallas – It’s hard to say exactly what this means, other than somehow a game has gone one graphic sex scene to multiple sex scenes. The lie is worsened by the clear fact that nobody on the panel has played the game because the story is one of the most compelling in an RPG that I’ve seen in a while. BioWare understands storytelling better than most, and it always annoys me when people are turned away from incredible stories based solely on disinformation and a differing taste. As a side note, I find it amusing that anyone who is unfamiliar with the original movie from 1978 is going to look it up and become more educated on a subject that the panelists clearly view as vile and disgusting.
- Why didn’t it get the AO rating? – This alone ranks a 10.0 on the Asinine Comments Meter. Pot shots aside, the AO rating is not some horrid rating that only the vilest games get. The AO rating is a direct equivalent to the movie NC-17 rating, although with movies like Saw IV being given an R rating I honestly have to wonder how a game like Mass Effect could ever possibly be given a rating similar to what you would see on current R movies. If Mass Effect were a movie it would unquestionably be a PG-13 movie. The AO comment in this case is nothing more than a buzzword used way out of context to try and make a point (or, more accurately, beat it to death).
- What happened to Atari, pinball, and Pac-Man? – The same thing that happened to Gone with the Wind – the medium grew up. I know, I know. These are turbulent times and we must all shy away from the vile video game industry. Seriously though, how can broad comments like this be made during the time of what can only be described as the Wii generation? As little interest as I have in playing it I don’t know that I could argue with anyone who claimed that Wii Sports is the most played console game in the world right now. If you want to know what happened to Pac-Man, Wii Sports is the answer to your question.
- It’s up to the parents to censor what kids see… unfortunately – Apparently the day of parental responsibility I’m pining for is a long way away. I am genuinely interested in finding out if anyone on the panel has children of their own, because that would go a long way to explaining this comment. I know only one person said it, but nobody reacted negatively to this at all. On top of all the lies tossed around in the small segment, I find it difficult to take the opinion of anyone seriously who publicly refuses to pay attention to their own children.
What frightens me is that I could keep going with this article, but I am way past the length I like to write for my weekly articles. I’m happy to discuss this further with anyone who cares to post in the forums, but in the meantime let me close by saying that I always knew there was a reason I refused to watch network TV news segments. Even if you strongly disagree with that, at least I have proof of doing firsthand research on the matter.
Post your comments in the Forum!
December 3, 2007
The Gamer’s Quagmire #55: Thanksgiving Gaming Week II
Everything you wanted to know about gaming, and less.
by Jamison DeLorenzo
Our previous helping in the quagmire was a decent appetizer for the main course of the Thanksgiving Week Gaming Marathon. It wasn’t a coincidence that I took a week’s paid vacation the same week the latest BioWare game, Mass Effect, was due out in stores. As I am still without a working PC after 3 weeks, something that makes PC gaming somewhat challenging, it was a good thing that this game is, for now, a 360-only title.
Apologies are probably due to all readers because, let’s face it, I write way too much about KOTOR here. It is true that we all needed a GTA break, but, like any good addict, one substance was replaced with another. BioWare has been working with a consistent formula with their story mechanics for several years now, but when you consider how it allows you to have very different gaming experiences it should cancel out any complaining.
BioWare is where I go for my top RPG enjoyment, and that week turned into a week spent close to Gaming Nirvana (we should look into coming up with our own name for that, I feel like I’m greatly offending Buddhists with this term). Before getting into any details of this game you should know that because this is under the Microsoft title, BioWare’s last, this game will inevitably be ported to the PC. It is by this point in time that if you do not pick up this game that I will flog you.
That is, if I’m not still playing this game.
One week and two playthroughs later I have a lot of good things to say, starting with character creation. We’re not at Tiger Woods PGA Tour level yet for creation (which I hold as the pinnacle for face customization), but there is enough detail to make someone that resembles you not too difficult. Once you get through that you get to pick your class, history, and military service. There are 3 main classes, one per primary skill set, and 3 hybrid classes. History and military background seem like trivial things, but BioWare is able to make these choices rather substantive. They effect not only how your party members and other NPC’s interact with you but also which side missions you will have access to.
The 3 major skill sets are battle, biotic, and tech. Battle refers to the weapons you use (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, sniper rifle), biotics are environmental attacks (multiple enemy throws, shield manipulations, etc.) and technical skills (first aid, lock decryption, electronic device tampering, etc.). While you can get a way with pretty much any party configuration, I do have two big suggestions. Always have a Decryption expert so you don’t miss quests and a First Aid expert, or, well, let’s say you better be extremely quick in the fight sequences. Electronics plays a good role too, but your Decryption expert should have both.
The background of this game, which already has a full length book, is a 22nd Century universe where Mass Relay technology allows space travel between various star systems (approximately 16 overall, each with multiple subsystems). I’d explain the whole thing, but so much science fiction went into putting together the game that it would take hours to read through all of the information you gather throughout the game. The game would have been quite good without all of this information. Its inclusion makes the game so much more enthralling. As you can imagine, exploring everything takes a very long time.
Like most of their games, the movies in the game are impressive, the sound effects and music is fantastic, and the level design are as good as ever from BioWare. If not for the slowest elevators in the history of gaming I would not have a single complaint about the game’s environment. Other elements which have been kept in from past games are party NPC interactions and dialogue that draws you into the story (along with some lively and memorable quotes).
The battles in this game take an FPS approach, so how you pick your class and abilities is very important. Like any decently built RPG character you need to beef up your charm/intimidate skills so your dialogue options are always open, but beyond that you always need to make sure the skills you choose to focus on are well complemented by your party. I can’t say I’ve ever truly enjoyed shooters, but they can be fun and in this game it is. Anyone familiar with the Gears of War mechanics will notice almost no difference. I think it works quite well for this game as taking cover is key for surviving the battles on the two unlockable difficulty levels.
If you’re reading this carefully, I have highly approved the graphics, sound, character creation, story, dialog, background, environment, and breadth of universe. Even the Xbox achievements you unlock add some depth to the gameplay. There are, however, two flaws out in the forefront.
One problem was the voice acting. Taking into account that the NPC’s are no longer stoic during conversations, the interactions were compelling. However a number of voice actors did not provide a lot of life with their lines. Some of them were good (most notably the voices of Bastila and Carth from KOTOR, Seth Green, and Marina Sirtis), while others had me convinced they had no context for any of their lines. Luckily the protagonist’s voice, male and female, were good.
The other area of concern was the ending. You’re able to be good or evil and have a great effect on future interactions. It is even possible to kill two party members (always a welcome choice). Whether you choose to help everyone at all costs, ignore people, or kill anyone that annoys you, you affect how people interact with you as the game unfolds. What bothers me is that, despite all of that good, the ending is only truly affected by a singular choice you make during the sequence of the final boss in the game… and either way you are a hero. Nothing else matters at all! Considering all of the work put into the dialogue trees it is time BioWare decides to put in more than two endings to the game (or, in this case, 1 1/2 endings).
As a whole this game has a ton of replay value and is a must buy if you have the means to play it. As for me, I’ve already played through the game twice and two more are already scheduled.
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