Lets Talk About: Mass Effect

Ugh....


God damn it Bioware, why do you do this to me...

It should be no secret that I have a problem with Mass Effects overall narrative. The problem I have of course is that alot is really stupid, and not thought out well. Saying that, some of the stuff in there is really good.... for one reason my favorite is the exploration of the fact that not only do salarians have shorter lives, but that their perception of time is completely different from everyone else's (The blue chicks are supposed to live for like hundreds or thousands of years, but talking to one you would never believe that... their own perception of time seems to run alongside our own, and if that was the case then they would mentally age into something we would be totally unfamiliar with... but no.... There just blue 'hot' chicks.... le sigh).

One of the main problems I had with the last one was the fact that in the end everyone was like "OMgosh there after Earth next!" but then if you actually look at it.... the collectors ship is not equipped for that... not even a single reaper would be equipped for that. A species home planet would be massively defended... and I did not believe for a minute that the collectors could have pulled that off.... Taking out fringe colonies no one cares about... fair enough... but anything above that? No.

Now it has been revealed that in Mass Effect 3 earth will mostly likely be the main stage, as the reapers are coming for it.

This is a poor decision for the writer.

It's the same issue I have with any sort of made up medium.... if your not using the tools of your genre, why are you even in that genre? There are over a billion possibilities for location for this battle against the reapers... and you pick the boring option...

But ok, lets let that go.... and look at this another way....

Shepherd has almost zero attachments to earth. The writer seems to be relying on the fact that, hey, we all live on earth so you'll make a connection right? If that's the case why did you give the option for the player to choose a spacer background... You need only look at say, the Gundam series to get an idea how spacers would feel about earth (I.e. Earth can go f*** itself, I live in space).

The worst part of this decision I think is the fact that we haven't been able to visit earth once. Aren't you supposed to show us all the happy people before attacking? Couldn't you have shown us a peaceful earth, an earth we would care about in the first two games? This is a problem Bioware have keep falling into, assuming you'll care about something because they told you to care.

Honestly, the final battle should take place on the citadel.... not only does it actually belong to the reapers, but it is the core of the allied races. Surely that would be the main target? You know, the place where all your enemy's make alliances with one another against you? Plus we've been there before.... even if you hated it it would still make an interesting and stark shift if the whole place had its white shine burned away.

While were here, perhaps we can discuss Bioware's naming of stuff? It's got a very Christian theme, which isn't a problem... it just doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Oh Bioware, did you get jealous of Obsidian's Mask of the betrayer? Did you get angry that it turned out they could make a great fantasy game with under tones of death, heaven, hell, and rebirth? Did you spit vile as you witnessed them ask very big questions about how gods act and if judgement is right? Did you realise that your ability to tell complicated story's appears to have floated away?


Ahem.


Finally it is bullshit there isn't girl on girl with Tali.

.... Don't judge me, you want it too....