8 Hours, Again, on the Normandy
So I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver my copy of Mass Effect 3, I’m waiting, I’m waiting, I’m not doing anything because I don’t want to be in the middle of something and get distracted, I’m bumming around online just killing time, and finally the buzzer rings. In one graceful movement I leap from my room to the kitchen to the intercom. “FedEx”, the guy says, and in another graceful leap I’m in the living room in front of the door, the dog looking at me unsure if there’s something to panic about or if I’m doing this all for his amusement. I don’t want to open the door too early–I don’t want to seem too eager–so I wait till the last minute, proudly fling open the door…and the FedEx guy has me sign a receipt for a delivery of 30 pounds of dog food.
It reminds me of when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out–one of those moments when you realize just how many people are fellow fans. My Twitter feed was blowing up with people talking about how excited they were and how annoying it was to download all of the DLC and set up the accounts and all of that and why the fuck isn’t UPS coming. It’s one of those double-edged swords because not only is it exciting–for gamers, Mass Effect 3 day was Christmas, your birthday, and Rex Manning Day all in one–it means you’re in some very real proximinty to spoilers. And when you’ve been waiting–wait a second, has it only been two years?–you want to make sure that you don’t get spoiled by some asshole.
So basically, anything I write about Mass Effect 3 for the next while, assume it to be chock full of horrible spoilers and discussions about specific parts of gameplay. I’ll be giving the timeframe as well as the major location I’m working on as a guide to where I am–making sure to spoil out any location names that might say too much, so use your best judgment.
–I don’t think the game begins well at all. We’ve never seen Earth before and the bits we see seem very “generic city” to me. The invasion of Earth should feel much more of a threat than it does. Perhaps it’s the fact that it takes place during the tutorial and we know that we’re going to get out of it okay, but this level was something I played through quickly so the real game can start. Maybe it would have helped if there had been something major you could fuck up right away. Show that there’s something at stake here. The general consensus is that the beginning is extremely underwhelming.
Compare this to the attack on the Citadel at the end of the first Mass Effect. Even though the Citadel was just one–albeit important–location that we only visited in a single game, the attack on it felt like a major threat because it was a location we’ve come to know very well. (If there’s an attack on the Citadel, a location I’ll have explored for three games, at any point in this one, man, that will have some huge emotional impact.) Here…Earth might as well just be another planet.
–Either way I’m not happy that they’re going much more to the “interactive movie” route. It feels a lot more cutsceney this time around. It’s a good story, it’s decently written, it’s well-crafted–but the beginning especially has you sitting around a little too much.
That being said, it’s interesting to compare ME3 to LA Noire. LA Noire had you watching the adventures of a character who was completely separate from you, so much so that he even hides things he’s ashamed of from the player; its gameplay segments were just something to do between cutscenes. The game and story here are better integrated, and there’s a lot more game after the introduction–and more importantly, this is the third game in which we’re controlling Shepard, who is explicitly set up as an avatar of the player. I don’t feel like he’s hiding anything from me, at least.
–Scanning has managed to become both streamlined and more annoying. You don’t have to scan entire planets in order to find minerals–which, I must say, I found very soothing in a Zenlike way and I will miss it–but you do have to scan solar systems to find resources. That part is fine–the scan takes maybe a second too long to recharge, but mabe you can get an upgrade later.
But in an attempt to add challenge, most of the systems have been taken over by Reapers, and so as you fly through you’re being chased by Reaper ships. It’s very Pac-Man like but not as much fun. I get it–you want to address the fact that this isn’t a pleasure cruise and that the Reapers are everywhere–but still. I don’t know if you upgrade your speed later on or what–all I know is that whenever I see a new star system I immediately need to scan it to 100%.
–So far my gay love interest for the game is James, mostly because it’s early on enough that roance options are slim, and because one of the quickest ways to my heart (or at least to my bed) is to be a muscly Latino who gives me a Spanish nickname. However, if they’ve made Garrus a gay option, I’m definitely going with him. He and Shepard have been through so much together–it’s only natural they would want to celebrate their eventual victory over the Reapers by getting married.
–I did love how a minor character manages to mention that he “had a husband” in a way that was at the same time casual and ham-fisted. Partially it felt like Bioware saying SEE WE LIKE GAY PEOPLE TOO, but honestly? That’s how gay guys come out to straight guys if there’s even a slight possibility that the news would be unwelcome. A sort of mild bravado in which you kind of dare the straight guy to be wussy enough to get offended. It worked for me. That being said, if Bioware were truly committed to giving me as many options as I would have in real life, there would have been a “comfort the widower” option. Come on, I’m a starship captain and he’s grieving the loss of his husband. I can totally translate that into some play.
–I believe that my secretary has hit on every female character in the game so far. It is a sign of the times that the videogame community has evolved to the point where an oversexed femme lesbian can have a supporting role in a blockbuster title.
–Sexy Robot EDI is going to get a LOT of attention from the critical community, to the exclusion of important stuff like gameplay and all of that. The critical community is wonderful for that–look at how many Dragon Age 2 character articles manage to ignore the fact that Dragon Age 2 was a videogame. Anyway. I’ll be interested in seeing how that plays out. So far the game seems to be attempting to both revel in the trope–the camera seems to love her robot-girl breasts–and poke fun at it–Joker’s obvious infatuation is seen as almost endearingly adolescent, and EDI has enough depth that it’s very difficult to reduce her to the robot-girl breasts. She was just introduced before I stopped playing last night, so I’ll see how that works out.
–I simply can’t get the cover system to work in my favor. I keep popping out when I want to move to another bit of cover, I can’t seem to slide behind corners at all, and jumping over always takes me a second longer to figure out. I don’t know if this is my fault or the game’s yet–while I was never great at it in ME2 I don’t remember having this much trouble.
Funny, though. In my notes, I wrote the phrase “wonky cover system”. I texted a friend to see how he was enjoying the game and he said, “the wonky cover system occasionally drives me up the wall”. I’m going to keep an eye out–perhaps “wonky cover system” is the new “visceral combat”.
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