Mass Effect: A narratological review

[gothemasticator]

From Per's guide:
"During the game you'll see four Hakunin dream sequences, which will befall you on 23 Oct 2241, 21 Jan 2242, 21 Apr 2242 and 20 Jul 2242. When you leave Vault 13 after getting the xp for finding it (no matter if you got the G.E.C.K. or even talked to the deathclaws), or leave San Francisco after getting the tanker ready to go, you'll always jump ahead to the fourth sequence ("the village dies"). As time passes the garden and fields will go empty and people will become generally despairing. After 90 days, which corresponds to the first Hakunin dream sequence, you will be unable to get (or to finish, if you already got them) quests 1, 3 and 4, and Hakunin won't give you healing or make Healing Powder any more. After 91 days you'll be unable to get the Water Flask and cash from the Elder.

If you return to Arroyo after seeing the fourth Hakunin dream sequence, the bridge will be destroyed and the village inaccessible. A dying Hakunin will greet you with a story of how the villagers were taken south in vertibirds, and Navarro appears on your world map. You don't have to return here and whether you do or not has basically no effect on the rest of the game.

If you find Vault 13 but don't enter it, Arroyo won't change, but Hakunin's description and dialogue will! This should be a pretty rare occurrence, but it did happen to me once. Hakunin won't actually die after you talk to him, and it won't put Navarro on your world map. Another funny thing is that if you're in Arroyo when you get the fourth vision and talk to Nagor, he'll tell you that Morlis cooked Smoke... but if you didn't rescue Smoke already, you can go and do that (although as noted above you get no xp for it and Nagor's dialogue doesn't change).

The Arroyo bridge location will actually change to a whole new map, so if your car is parked there at the time it will be lost forever, along with any NPCs left on that map or any other Arroyo map."

So, there's an acknowledgement of the timer's real presence, but no actual hurry to the game. Not a bad setup. But not exactly real urgency either.

 

[shihonage]

this time, it's people with titbits of information you're after

Very true. There are titbits in that game.

 

[a budda]

this time, it's people with titbits of information you're after

Very true. There are titbits in that game.

very true, only bits though why don't they just made it porn that it is actually (ehm ,that's what Eco said i believe)

 

[BLOBERT]

BRO GREAT REVIEW REALLY TIMELY TOO I THINK THIS IS ORIGINAL NOONE HAS TORE APART BIOFAGS SHIT BEFORE

 

[xantrius]

Nice review.

TNO wrote:

The third is amateurishness. Whether there's an artform (or entertainment) peculiar to computer games I'm unsure, but Bioware is definitely driving their stories to ape Hollywood cinema. If they're serious about it, then they should look to getting proper scriptwriters and cinematographers in to do it. Given the vast budgets of games like this, money spent on writers with real sci-fi or cinema credits or similar 'creative types' seems money well spent. I can't imagine a script of an average mass effect cutscene surviving a director or publisher's scrutiny. I definitely can't imagine the plot surviving it either. No offense to Karpyshyn, but Bioware want to do 'interactive cinema', their lead writer should've done more than write movie-tie in novels and are looking for an agent to market their screenplays.

But isn’t Bioware only imitating Hollywood cinema to the extent it serves their ideal of generating a certain amount of profit; i.e. they have no interest in being on par (with fucking Hollywood of all things) with their standards, as long as they can sell enough of their product?

Bioware have after all no vision of evolving the gaming medium, they have the pride of parasites. Take Ice-Pick Lodge in contrast, at least they have vision and an ideal to make something new that is only possible within the medium that is a game.

 

[TNO]

But isn’t Bioware only imitating Hollywood cinema to the extent it serves their ideal of generating a certain amount of profit; i.e. they have no interest in being on par (with fucking Hollywood of all things) with their standards, as long as they can sell enough of their product?

Bioware have after all no vision of evolving the gaming medium, they have the pride of parasites. Take Ice-Pick Lodge in contrast, at least they have vision and an ideal to make something new that is only possible within the medium that is a game.

Well, sure, they're after money ultimately. But they do that by making something people want to buy, and I think their strategy for doing this is to co-opt the tools of blockbuster cinema. If they want to do this, I think they need to get expertise in this, as opposed to playing with the tools themselves.


Aside: minor edits.

Second minor aside: Vibalist posted my sugar up on the bioboards:

linky


Third:

YO BLOBERT MY BRO. WE NEED TO PLAY THESE GAMES FOREVA SO THE SHEEPLE KNOW WHATS BEST. I WOULDA DONE IT EARLIER BUT I WAS HAVING TOO MUCH HETEROSEXUALITY. AND I KNOW YOU WERE HOLDIN IT DOWN WHILE I WAS GONE BRO.

 

[xantrius]

Well, sure, they're after money ultimately. But they do that by making something people want to buy, and I think their strategy for doing this is to co-opt the tools of blockbuster cinema. If they want to do this, I think they need to get expertise in this, as opposed to playing with the tools themselves.

Yes, but while they are replicating a certain flavour of cinematic approach, I cannot see why they should be interested in implementing it with a certain level of expertise nor adhere to a certain standard – as long as they can get away with less. They’ll probably have to put a lot of resources into it, in order for such a path to open itself, and what incentive do they have to do it; it’s not like the big gaming-press cares whether or not Bioware’s co-opting of various things is on par with the things they imitate. A segment of their fanbase cares but they are a minority, so I think odds are they’ll continue to ignore it as best they can, or sooth it, or maybe take ideas from where it is reasonable within their goal and budget.

 

[anomie]

Dunno if you guys have seen any of the garbage Hollywood has shit out in the past few years, but many "Blockbuster" movies certainly are not of higher quality than even the shittiest of video games. Thanks Michael Bay and James Cameron. And George Lucas.

Really, I can't understand why you think the plot for ME wouldn't make it past the publishers in Hollywood. Have you even seen some of the shit that gets made? Watch this guy's reviews for the star wars prequels and avatar. He does a great job of dissecting how fucking awful these movies are.

 

[Phelot]

Great review TNO, but mostly because I agree with you :D I suspect this article would cause some rage with the hardcore fans of ME.

I couldn't stomach the story at all.

 

[Vibalist]

Dunno if you guys have seen any of the garbage Hollywood has shit out in the past few years, but many "Blockbuster" movies certainly are not of higher quality than even the shittiest of video games. Thanks Michael Bay and James Cameron. And George Lucas.

Really, I can't understand why you think the plot for ME wouldn't make it past the publishers in Hollywood. Have you even seen some of the shit that gets made? Watch this guy's reviews for the star wars prequels and avatar. He does a great job of dissecting how fucking awful these movies are.

Holy shit, this guy is hilarious. Thanks for showing me these!

 

[Clockwork Knight]

They try to paint Saren as a reluctant villain to give him a motivation, but then he just looks stupid (the reapers will need people like us given their self-sufficient omnipotence. I for one, welcome our genocidal machine overlords!)

I got the impression he did it to avoid total destruction, not to help the reapers. Sort of "they are going to win anyway, might as well be nice to them so maybe they don't kill everyone". It didn't sound absurd to me because he really didn't believe the reapers could be stopped, so that would be the best (and only) course of action besides heroic resistance.

When he's talking like generic saturday morning cartoon villain, it's because of Sovereign messing with him. He sounds like a p. reasonable guy when in his normal state.

 

[Mikser]

A nice analysis, TNO, sums up my thoughts as well.

I enjoyed Mass Effect despite its limitations as an RPG and how contrived the situations often seemed. Really my biggest complaint with the game is not the quality of the narrative, but rather how short it is on actual content: if you skip the cookie-cutter planet exploration minigame, you could blaze through the main game in a matter of hours, even if you perform the miniquests that actual NPCs (as opposed to faceless admirals) issue to you.

Fallout is interesting in this respect. It has a timer, but it's not that hard to do everything in the game before the timer runs out. So, I don't know: good implementation of timed urgency or not? But, your point is taken.

Fallout 2: Arroyo gets destroyed as unavoidable plot-point.

The time limit in Fallout isn't strict by any measurement, but that's only from the hindsight of metagaming: the first time around you have only the barest idea, if any, of how far along you are in the game. I distinctly remember feeling uneasy whenever I had to dally around healing wounds and watching the days count down, having only a vague idea where to go next.

As for FO2, I really thought I'd screwed up and wasted too much time when the villagers were kidnapped, so the illusion was convincing at least the first time.

Now System Shock on Plot 3, that's a horrifying time limit.

 

[Sceptic]

I got the impression he did it to avoid total destruction, not to help the reapers. Sort of "they are going to win anyway, might as well be nice to them so maybe they don't kill everyone". It didn't sound absurd to me because he really didn't believe the reapers could be stopped, so that would be the best (and only) course of action besides heroic resistance.

There's only one little problem with your analysis: he should already know by now that the reapers do not need to uphold their end of the bargain once he's helped them come in and destroy everything.

Considering what they are and that they want to kill everyone and that they have already done this many times believing that they'll uphold their end of the bargain becomes stupidity of ungodly proportions.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Yeah, but the thing is he does not see any other way (He believes stopping them is impossible, and they'll come one way or the other, sooner or later. That's what they always did, right? No use trying to stall them). The best we could do is be cooperative and hope they just eat most things, not everything. It's not stupid to surrender if it's the only way you'll have a slight chance of surviving.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

I wouldn't say his mindset is much different. His duty as a spectre is to keep the galaxy safe, and that's what he's trying to do, only surrendering because that's the only way to (possibly) avoid total rape.

"BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY" also "surrendering". It doesn't sound so cool and extreme, but that's one perfectly viable option when facing an army of space horrors.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

These "some enemies" are a race of space horrors that are doing the "consume everyone, sleep, rinse and repeat" routine for god knows how long. He knows that, he didn't just sissy up all of a sudden.

mean, shouldn't his reaction be first and always "if you at first you don't succed, use more bullets" ?

Being a soldier doesn't make you a bloodthirsty psycho retard, you know.

And he's not trying to inspire decency in them, just begging them to leave some people alive because that's the only option besides suicidal resistance.

Yes, but that's dumb.

And trying to fight the invincible space monsters isn't dumb?

Either you go all out on space horrors, or you die. You'll probably die anyway.

Correct. Since going all out on them would be the equivalent to ants going all out on an elephant (i.e., dumb) , your only chance is surrendering and hope they'll go "meh, whatever".

Where did the idea that maybe he could save some of the people come from? It really seems like an asspull to make him slightly less moronic in the end.

It's a "do you have a better plan?" kind of idea. Since he doesn't see a way to stop them (they're doing this for ages and nobody ever managed to, remember), he tries surrendering.

Imagine you're surrounded by 10 guys in a dark alley. You can either go retard viking on them and end up with 23 bullets to the face, or surrendering and maybe they'll just rob, rape and beat you.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Bottom line: OH GOD ARMY OF ANCIENT SPACE HORRORS IS A-COMING

Saren thinks...

Resist : die, obviously

Not resist (not doing anything): die, since they're coming anyway, sooner or later

Begging them to not kill you and maybe some other people: probably die, but maybe not if you amuse them enough

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Collar-grab your way to victory? Why exactly is it that Shepard thinks he can do it, but Saren doesn't?

Because Shepard is the hopeful human, never give up guy, etc. Most people won't go "o lol, cthulhus approaching, lets punch them out", they're going to do whatever is more likely to let them live. Saren (like any normal person) sees surrendering and begging for some mercy as the only option (can't fight, can't escape).

And Saren's been doing all kinds of shit a lot longer than Shepard has, and it is also hinted in the beggining of the game that he IS a psycho retard, yes. Somebody says sumthin' like 'he likes to kill people." or some crap like that. Not just one time too, methinks.

Psycho, yes. Retard, no. He kills some lots of faggots now and then, yes, but he's not depicted as someone who would fight an invincible enemy for the lulz. He likes to kill, not to be killed.

I could understand a politician, one of them councillors, or somebody like that thinking like Saren did in the game. But a Spectre doing that kind of thinking seems out of character.

Unless said spectre knows what happened dozens of times before (rocks reapers fall, everyone dies), in which case he'd have to be a retarded action hero like Shepard to not understand the problem and panic like a little girl. He knows the reapers already destroyed civilizations far more advanced then the current ones, so resisting or ignoring the problem won't help. Turns out the best solution is indeed welcoming our new galaxy eating overlords.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

but in a fucking game, motherfuckin merc badass squadron extraordinaire giving in to cthulhu just doesn't compute. fiction doesn't work like that.

More like, WH40k doesn't work like that, amirite. Why does he have to be retarded and run into the brick wall just because he's a SPESS MEHREEN? He's sane enough to know that fighting invincible enemy = death.

It's not flip flopping if you find out your enemy is an invincible ancient horror.

And his "blood for the blood god" self only exists while he's fighting normal people. Once he meets the galaxy eating monsters, he does like anyone with a functioning brain and pussies out.

Saren isn't really deep, just the more normal guy in the game (instead of "FUCK YEAH LETS KILL SOME ELDER GODS" he goes "oh god please don't kill everyone").

His interaction with Sovvy is implied as "hey, if I help you, you won't kill everyone?", "k, lol". There's not much more that needs explaining.

 

[Phelot]

WHo calls the ancient robots or whatever "Reapers?" Is that what they call themselves? Why do they speak English? It's never mentioned why they want to destroy?

 

[Sceptic]

It's not stupid to surrender if it's the only way you'll have a slight chance of surviving.

In this scenario? no, it's not a stupid. In a scenario where you know that the enemy takes no prisoners, never has, never will? It's beyond stupid.

 

[gothemasticator]

It is explained that proximity to Sovereign over time results in brainwashing/mind control.

Not that that's brilliant as far as plot goes, but it is the game's explanation for why Saren falls for the lie. Also, later, when he doubts in spite of the brainwashing, he is physically implemented with further mind control devices.

 

[Sceptic]

The whole "indoctrination" bullshit is the most pathetically contrived plot excuse to show up in space opera. It could've worked if the writers spent some time giving the villains some depth, if you could see them really being reluctant, hesitating, flipping back and forth trying to break free... but as TNO already pointed out in the article the villains are left with minimal characterization. As it is indoctrination is just the excuse that gets involved by the plot whenever it wants to justify Saren or Benezia doing something extremely stupid. Unfortunately that's what they're doing most of the time.

 

[Phelot]

Not, it's not. I'm assuming it will be, but since p. much all space opera settings have ye olde mysterious race of destructionists, don't hold your breath.

I would post a pic of the necrons here, but since this is a prestigious thread, i'll refrain from it and point out that "the dark harvest" is actually a recurring theme in mythology as well (see: fairies and stuffies, nya), and that theme may or may not be used with the reapers.

also, lovecraftian abominations. and so on. it can't actually be anything spectacular, because everything's been done already. a thousand times.
but it could turn out to be not completely retarded, I suppose.

Marathon made use of the "evil ancient aliens that destroy all" in a great way and in fact ME, from what I've heard of the story, has a few similarities:

In Marathon an ancient alien race (Jjaro) battled an ancient... ITZ called the "W'rkncacnter" (which no human tongue can pronounce) who could never be destroyed but rather trapped in the gravitational pulls of black holes, stars, etc:

hidden in stars, trapped in storms, forever looking along the event horizons of black holes.

The ITZ are apparently formless, chaos incarnate, perhaps sentient perhaps not. Think: what ants are to humans except we're even more insignificant. But all in all they have great lore to back them up without even having that much text about them.

At some point, the Jjaro disappear, leaving behind their technology for other races to find, including the main antagonists for the game: the Pfhor.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

It's not stupid to surrender if it's the only way you'll have a slight chance of surviving.

In this scenario? no, it's not a stupid. In a scenario where you know that the enemy takes no prisoners, never has, never will? It's beyond stupid.

Ok, then whay else is left to do? Kneel down and commit honorable seppuku?

Also, I have no idea why do they call themselves reapers.

And the indoctrination thing isn't shown in game, but the villains tell you that they struggled a long time until succumbing to it. Maybe bio didn't know how to convey it properly.