Mass Effect 3

A couple of things have happened to me in the last few days that have given me pause.

Someone who has annoyed me for five years saved my life and was willing to sacrifice their own in order to do it. This nobody annoyed me precisely because he was focused on ‘being a hero’ but in completely the wrong way. Heroes arise, typically unwillingly, because they’re committed to ideals that demand they do what others can’t or won’t. This chap was focused on the glory of other people's adulation for being a hero. Still, somehow he turned it to the good. After he threw himself in front of me and it turned out that someone I’d helped years ago and had completely forgotten about also came to my rescue the two of them walked out of my life as quickly as they’d re-entered it. In the end I was incidental, my impact on their lives profound but not the be all and end all of what they were about.

Then there was Thane. A former soldier who in the end stood up for what was right even though he was terminally ill and could barely make it out of bed to do so. I went to his bedside last night to be with him in his final hours and his family graciously allowed me to be there with them. As he died he prayed for peace and that loneliness wouldn’t overwhelm. After he was gone his son said he had been praying for me – that I might not be alone. I confess it made me cry.

If you’ve not guessed, I’m talking about Mass Effect 3. I’ve played all three and as I dig into this one story choices, characters and themes I’ve been engaged with for 5 years are coming home to roost. Characters I helped (or didn’t) in the previous games remember my actions. They remember what I was like and they’re now, when it matters, deciding what they will do. I’ve impacted them but my word they’re challenging me too. Mass Effect 3 – especially if you’ve played the others, is one of the most sublime pieces of storytelling I’ve ever encountered. I read and play a lot but this is something else. A story I’ve made myself with Bioware. They’re the authors but somehow I’m the narrator and my story exists within their world. My commander Shephard is mine as much as he’s theirs.

Not only that but with the Kinect almost all of my conversations have actually involved me speaking to the characters. Not selecting an option via a controller but actually speaking out loud. The kinect is that good at hearing my words that it’s not once fluffed a line and that ability to be immersed in an entirely new way, controller limp at my side while I actually engage personally with a computer, is something entirely new and profound.

The world Bioware has created isn’t completely open which allows them to control the nature of the story but the banks of the river are far apart. There’s a lot of room to move. I know that in the previous games various characters could die and I wonder now just how this would impact the story as several key moments have revolved around people who I saved or who survived but I know could have died in different play throughs. This is an amazing game. It is an amazing and effecting story.

In some ways it’s pay off from the first two games but in others it’s almost perfectly judged in its own right and I would suggest that with Mass Effect 3 we are witnessing a game changer.

Other games are perfect examples of flawless technical achievements; design raised to the sublime and delivered in perfectly digestible chunks. Mass Effect 3 is a masterpiece of a story and building on games like Heavy Rain, The Witcher, and other high water marks of proper story telling creates something that will stay with me forever. Astonishing Bioware, astonishing.