About a month ago I completed Mass Effect, a video game for Xbox 360. I thought it was a typical Role Playing Game, where you get to choose your own adventure and any actions you take have an impact on your environment and beyond. I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would have (although I have to admit, some parts did give a mellow feeling) until I heard about the sequel that is.
Mass Effect is science fiction game where Humanity has conquered space travel and has built up this mass armada called “the Alliance”. As the protagonist you must protect the rest of the galaxy and from an unknown present threat out there. The weapons, graphics and game play were up to my standard, but there were some things I could not stand such as the long wait when my character is in the elevator (this was used to mask the loading time) and the same old mass customization allowed in the game. I could play the same over a hundred times differently depending on if I want to be a good guy, bad guy or something in the middle and who I choose to be in a relationship with.
Now, I finished the game and I said to myself “school’s about to start. Thankfully I finished and have no need to play again. At Least I won’t be distracted in September.” I had some sort of appreciation for the game, enough to read about to the new “Mass Effect Wiki”. Reading about it, I found out this game is a few years old, but more importantly, I found out that there was a sequel. I was curious enough to click on that and read up about it. At this point I was clearly distracted at what I saw.
The sequel, Mass Effect 2, allows you to import your character from Mass Effect One! That is a complete first in my books and the RPG genre. I was completely excited to play the sequel and at that point I was engaged in a learning period.
RPGs as a brand are known for the amount of options it gives to its consumers. There are limitless possibilities for anyone playing whether it is weapons customization, order of completing quests, entity affiliation and team choice. However, this is a point of parity in any RPG. The point of differentiation was the fact that one’s actions in the game would transfer over to the sequel, which is also an RPG. This leads to another chain of events not seen in any other game of the same genre.
This new addition in the RPG genre raises the standards of any subsequent games that have sequels. Gamers in the industry will definitely love the elevation in the choice. I know that even after September I will be more than distracted.