I just can't seem to get enough of the game series. Speaking objectively, it's got what this gamer would ask for: a decent story line, development of characters, rich setting and background, plenty of action, and the chance to be the galaxy's ultimate bad-ass. That's not to say there are no flaws: Bioware does have a habit of giving the player lots of FedEx missions; driving the Mako over all the giant rocky crags and craggy rocks is maddening; searching planets in 2 to probe them for minerals is also maddening; even with this urgent sense of "you must do X to save Y," there's still all this time to take on all these other side missions.
But what is I that I like about the games? Why can't I get them out of my head? In the case of the first game, I can answer that: there's a sense of actually BEING the central character in an epic adventure movie or book. It'd be like actually BEING Aragorn, for example. This is particularly true at the end of the first game. In fact, the first time I finished it, I had to go be alone with my thoughts for an hour or so, and just ponder. The second game starts with a similar sense of being that central hero in an amazing trial, and combines it with an event that just rips your guts out. I won't risk spoilers, though anyone who's reading this has either already seen what I'm talking about or isn't going to play the games. Still, every time I watch that opening, I feel like I've been gut-kicked. At least I don't tear up when I see it anymore (I did the first 3 or so times).
Aside from that opening, the second game doesn't have quite that same drive, even at the ending. I still feel like a hero accomplishing a neigh-impossible task, but it doesn't have the same...punch? Depth? Impact? Don't get me wrong: it's just as cinematic and profound as the first one. It just doesn't make me feel sad that the journey through the game is over.
I think that's probably what it is that moves me about the first game: it ends. There's an amount of enforced tragedy prior to that, and that's got weight, but even that's not what I'm talking about. By the time I've finished the first game, I feel like I've been living in this colorful universe, and now I'm being kicked out to return to my mundane life.
To try to get across just how much I'm into these games (trying to avoid the word "obsessed"):
- There are 6 character classes in the game. I have one of each of 5 of them that I've played all the way through BOTH games.
- I've bought the soundtrack .mp3s on Amazon. All of them.
- I've bought all of the DLC (downloadable content) for ME2.
- My computer wallpaper rotates to a new image every 10 minutes. Roughly 2/3 of the images are screenshots from the 2 games. For both my desktop at home and my laptop at work.
- I've bought and read the books. There are 3 of them. They aren't great, but they're written by one of the writers for the game, so they maintain a little of the flavor.
- I felt the need to share my joy with my wife. So I had one playthrough in which I ran Fraps (a utility for capturing games in movie form), recorded what I felt was the most important stuff overall, edited the movies, and showed them to her. So she got to experience a little of what I do every time I play through. And what a trooper: she actually watched all of it, and it took us somewhere around 30 hours to do so.
After all that, you'd think I'd be sick of the game(s) by now, but you'd be wrong. I find that I'm pondering starting an Engineer character (yes, the one class I haven't hit yet is MY class) in ME1. I still have a few characters that I need to run through some of the ME2 DLC that became available after I'd finished their runs, too.
I've heard Mass Effect being called the "Star Wars of the current generation." I'd have to disagree, but only because it doesn't have the cultural icon status that Star Wars has. Maybe it will with time, but I rather doubt it. Aside from that one fact though, I'd have to agree. It is, in my book, that epic.
