I have literally spent a quarter of my entire weekend doing nothing but playing Mass Effect 3. And there is still time for me to play more. I have played more ME3 than I have slept this weekend, but that’s okay, because whenever I’ve waken up, it’s because of pretty sunshine, and not the obnoxious chiming of an alarm clock in the darkness. But for the sake of simply doing something else, I have forced upon myself this break, so I can clean some stuff and maybe do something productive. Instead, I find myself doing the e-rounds, since I haven’t even touched my computer all weekend either, and here we stand.
What I really love about the Mass Effect series isn’t so much the game play itself, although I do find it enjoyable, but it’s really the simple fact that it’s a very good story that you the player, play through. Truthfully, so much of the ME series is spent running around the galaxy doing odd jobs and menial tasks; without question it’s feasible to blow through all three games in one day by doing solely the core missions. Whether or not you get the best outcomes is up for debate, but the fact is that they’re not entirely long games if you stick to the main goals. But the way the game is designed, players like me find that they want to do all the side missions, explore the stories of your supporting cast, and do the things that make you a boy/girl scout or a cold mercenary. And the fact that so much of the game and its succeeding games remember your outcomes and decisions to a degree to impact your current stories leads to some actual thought behind the player’s actions.
In the past, people deferred to the idea that good video games only came out of Japan. In terms of the list of great games and series that came from there justifies the notion, but the truth is, Japanese people can’t write a story worth a shit. They’re always full of holes, the same generic tropes and plot devices, and getting an ending that isn’t completely WTF confused-face inducing is about as likely as winning a lottery. It’s not just video games, but in their literature, television and movies. People cry about The Hunger Games being a Battle Royale rip, to which the premises are clearly similar, but the integrity of their core stories can’t really be compared. I enjoyed BR, but after the ending passes, and the Dragon Ash song is over, I’m left thinking, “wait, what was the ending again?” Spoiler: If you liked Battle Royale at all, DO NOT WATCH THE SEQUEL. I did, and it fucking blows.
But anyway, back to Mass Effect 3. I loved the Resident Evil series, and I still do. But these days, it sits in the backseat to the Mass Effect series, mostly because of the story. RE’s stories are full of holes and some sketchy patchwork; believe me, I’ve analyzed the shit out of all the games ad nauseum, but I still defend it as one of my favorites due to simply how fun the games are. But Mass Effect’s storytelling blows Resident Evil’s out of the water. It’s really no contest. I don’t care about any RE character like I do about ME characters. ME’s storytelling and plot twists are capable of pulling on some heavy emotional heart strings, whereas I spend a lot of time laughing at how lame some of the dialogue in RE games can get.
And on that note, this break is over, and I think I’m going to play some more ME3 now.
