Legendary Rolling Rules: Mass Effect - The Planned Science Fiction

In 2007, Triple A game were hot and never before: large announced titles, which were equipped with a high budget, usually developed to popular hits and received praise from players like critics. According to benefited established manufacturers from the high degree of confidence of their customers, which was also for the Canadian studio bioware.

Originally, the developer was known for fantasy role plays such as Balder's Gate (1998) or Never winter Nights (2002), but he mainly with the license hit Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) in series game-of-year prices one. However, director Casey Hudson was not enough, which is why he endeavored a completely new Science Fiction Universe. And because he wanted to create something huge, he agreed with Bioware right onto a whole role-playing trilogy. Already the first part of Mass Effect (Buy Now €8.99) (2007) Busy with a small galaxy where you encountered different alien breeds, the mighty space station Citadel traveled and external planets visited. The player took over the role of Commander Shepard and got a rather harmless task at the beginning of history: he should take care of the procurement of a strange artifact. But he quickly was confronted with the corrupt plans of the Turner San Arteries. He was indoctrinated by the hostile-minded repairs and led through his machinations several species — including the Alliance of People — to the edge of a war.

Audiovisual from another world

Mass Effects's most obvious trump card was the presentation that shone with a nice synth soundtrack and many professionally written dialogue scenes. These reminded more due to the permanently occurring shot mesh cutting technique rather on films than on games. In the plain text means: constantly the faces of the characters in close-up saw and sucked on the rather realistic animations of the video game history, which can still be seen today.

However, the dialogues were not only optically great staged, because during a conversation, the player had to choose regularly between all kinds of question or answer options. These were arranged in the form of a clear circle, which at first sight betray: Which option is friendly, which refers neutral and which aggressive? Various key decisions caused different games, which, among other things, determined the fate of confidant crew members. So bald to choose a phrase, Commander Shepard cheerfully struggled, and developed a full-fledged dialogue sequence. Bioware did not rag and offer two synchronizations for each common language (including English and German): once with a male and once with a female voice. As a result, at the beginning of the game, one could determine not only the exterior of his hero, but also its gender and either as John or Jane Shepard that makes all uncertain.

Snapper included

The life of a small love relationship already knew Bioware fans from Balder's Gate 2 (2000), and also in Mass Effect this was possible. However, the possibilities of this seemed a bit limited here compared to the two successors: there were only a potential human partner for both the male and the female Shepard. Only those who liked it exotic taped with one of two Atari females.

The Turbans were already modeled in the first Mass Effect and still look great today. Source: Andromeda Of course you did not have to talk in the role-playing game, but also move a lot — for example on planet surfaces, within the citadel or through the cabins of your own spaceship, the SSV Normandy. Most of the time you walked on foot and managed Shepard similar to the shoulder perspective similar to Knights of the Old Republic. From time to time, however, it was allowed to take place in a vehicle to bridge larger distances.

If it came to a fight, then this was held directly in real time and with the help of futuristic firearms. In addition, one had different talents (called forces in later episodes) with which, for example, opponents hurled through the air or healed. Nice side effect: If you opened the selection menu for another weapon or another talent, then paused the gameplay, and you could think in peace about his next train. This included the command of the two squad members, the Shepard accompanied during his mission.

While the combat system on the paper heard quite well, it turned out to be a bit stiff in the implementation. Especially with the lack of hit feedback, that Bioware had forced a classic role-play in a rather capped shooter corset. The design of the game world also offered the reason for criticism, because bioware copied several buildings including their facilities. This missed the otherwise so high variety of the game a decent damper.

The jump to the epic

As mentioned earlier, three mass effect parts were planned right from the start, which clashed directly. More: Bioware designed the trilogy so that all decisions have also been taken into account in the successors. The player was able to take the ERGO to the beginning of Mass Effect 2 (2010) the score of the predecessor and continue to play with his / her old Shepard — a feature that knew only grayed role players from series like Ultimo or Wizardry at this time.

Otherwise, there is no major secret that Mass Effect 2 conquered the hearts of the players in the storm. The title consistently built the strengths of the first, and Boo wares authors turned out to be a true master of the reluctant narrative. The makers introduced several new characters to the legend from the first scene — especially the mysterious, cigar smoking unknown, who was spoken in the English version of Martin West Wing Sheen and for the US Composer Jack Wall Sensually good music theme composed. In addition to the strong, mostly playable intro, the fulminant showdown remained in memory with the so-called suicide mission. He was so well-designed and structured that it gave countless potential ends depending on your previously made decisions. And the inclusive of the ultimate possibilities that all crew members — so also Shepard — died... or all survived.

The player bought the way to this goal, the player bought in the large middle part, where he turned on the search for potential crew members and, on the other hand, graduated their individual secondary orders. If he did it to their satisfaction, then he won the loyalty of the member and his chances of survival increased immense. In the combat system of Mass Effect Mite Bioware again a third-person shooter with role-playing elements as well as the option to pause at any time. The implementation was clearly managed here: In Mass Effect 2, the battles felt anything but stiff and actually reminded of state-of-the-art action games à la Gears of War (2006).

No wonder so that Mass Effect 2 important game-of-the-year prices like the D.I.c.e. or cleared the BAFTA Games Award. In retrospect, it was recorded in the gallery of the best games of all time and is consistent with the absolute highlights of the Xbox-360 / PlayStation 3-generation. Thus, the fans rose the anticipation of the third part and the completion of the planned trilogy into immeasurable. Unfortunately, the end result in 2012 not only caused a auxiliaries...

Completion with stumbling stones

In Mass Effect 3, Bioware spreads from the first season to the full and confronted the player with a devastating invasion of the Reaper, which overwhelmed the earth. Forced to escape, Shepard's task was quick to clear: with sufficient reinforcement and save the home planet of people.

Again, the presentation made a leap forward, even if the differences were limited compared to its predecessor — on the basis of its high quality a faster shortcut. Likewise, not much changed: again the mix of role-playing and third-person shooters, who had already worked out in Mass Effect 2. On the subject of relationship, Bioware did not compromise no compromises and offered for the first time a gay partner for the male Shepard. At the same time, the developers were too unnecessary and sexist superficialities, by making the Edited a female body with particularly climbing curves and narrow clothes — something that did not arrive well in 2012.

The beginning of Mass Effect 3 is particularly dramatic and confronted with the destructive rage of the Reaper, which attack the entire earth. Source: Andromeda this with a distance the biggest problem of Mass Effect 3, however, was the extremely disappointing finale. This seemed, on the one hand, from the embassy rather plump and uninterrupted instead of clever constructed. Much worse, however, was the almost completely lack of relation to the playful decisions that had met all the hours before with Shepard.

Although there were three fundamentally different ends and a handful of variations, however, the result was almost exclusively based on so-called effective military strength. This formed from two factors: one rose by completing certain missions and the resulting war activities that were collected. The other was the standby ranking, which in turn could increase by playing brand new multiplayer mode.

There, the word RPG was very small. Instead, Bioware stuffed up to four players in action-like battles in which they stood under the pressure of recurring opponents and had to complete generic tasks such as turning off certain goals or escorting a drone. Alternatively, you could increase the standby rating with the help of the SALTED iOS Spin-Offs Mass Effect Infiltrator or via a Mass Effect 3 ATAWAD app (both of which are now no longer available). Stupid for those who want to catch up without multiplayer in today's times.

Long speech, short sense: In the original version of Mass Effect 3 it was not possible to achieve all available ends alone by completing the one-player parts. In addition, this multiplayer alternative finally destroyed the illusion that the finale was predetermined by its own decisions from Mass Effect 1 or 2 and the associated consequences.

The criticism of the community took this overhand that Bioware had a few months later the so-called Extended Cut. This squeezed the required score for the various ends huge down, which solidifies the weighting of multiplayer mode massively. In addition, the players got stuck-pointing more details about the survival of various characters and races related to his previously made decisions.

The Extended Cut was therefore not perfect, but under the bottom line good enough. In the end, most players spoke of a worthy completion of the trilogy. And so it was clear that Biowares decision-makers announced shortly afterwards the next prank, which eventually appeared in 2017: Mass Effect: Andromeda.

A complete reboot

The fourth part of Mass Effect consciously removed from the main series — in the truest sense of the word. This time you took the role of Scott / Sarah Ryder, who drifted as a member of an ark for over 600 years through all. Your goal: the founding of a new colony in the Andromeda Galaxy. Of course, one came across numerous problems and a handful of novel aliens. Ryder stumbled like the good old Shepard from a frenzy adventure to the next.

Habitat-7 is the first planet to visit the colonists in Mass Effect: Andromeda. As he invites visually to dream, he turns out to be uninhabitable due to unpredictable storms and a fatal atmosphere for humans. Source: Andromeda The actually quite smart premise, but unfortunately got several strong scratches in the game: the intro of Mass Effect: Andromeda seemed carelessly staged, the story equal to a 08/15-Scifi novel, barely a character could be with those from the original trilogy Coming (especially the awkward Ryder) and dramatic events they smelled miles against the wind.

At setting, there were also some defects to complain: the brand new alien breed of the Angara could hardly be ugly and generic, while the relationship options before clichés only so puzzled. With regard to the fights, Bioware also had little effort — and annoyed the player to the end of the same end bosses of the same end bosses. The only really positive aspect of Mass Effect: Andromeda were the planets in themselves with their beautiful design and open Structure The debating areas from Biomass Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) made honor. However, even this plus was deliberately clouded by numerous bugs that really covered the entire bandwidth. The error spectrum ranged from graphically relative facial animations (from which numerous mating memes have arisen) over sudden crashes to broken scales.

In the end, you could measure the damage in nude numbers: The metacritic cut was limited to 76 (Xbox One) to 71 (PlayStation 4) points — for a title of this magnitude a disaster. The players especially rose on average with five out of ten possible points, and also in terms of sales figures remained Mass Effect: Andromeda behind the expectations of Publisher Electronic Arts. How else is to explain that all Single player LCS have been deleted a few months after the publication? But it was even thicker: The studio Boo ware Montreal, founded for Andromeda, was dissolved and still much worse — the franchise Effect laid on ice.

The hope dies last

Three years later, the fans ask for the survival of their favorite series and are comforted with semi-yarn rumors. For example, BioWare published a few months ago a Tweet with the iconic intro music from Mass Effect, mindfully without explanation and no visible occasion. Insiders suspect behind the subtle announcement of a Remastered version, which includes at least the first part and possibly the complete original trilogy.

In addition, they may not forget that Bioware had to fight with another science-fiction debacle named Anthem (2019) and has been behind his good reputation. Even harder expressed: Canadians have just become two titles from the hit guarantee to the mockery of the scene.

Science Fiction stories still provide enough substance for epic role-playing adventures. The Mass Effect series is compared to the cult around Star Trek, which also combines space adventure of any kind with a wide variety of alien breeds. And if Gene Roddenberry's legacy will be elaborated after 54 years again and again: Why shouldn't this applies to Mass Effect?

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