Variety Piece: 5 Things That Could Make Mass Effect 3 an Amazing Game

To anyone who follows my Variety Friday articles, they're changing a bit.  They are no longer scheduled to be posted every Friday, but instead every week or two, adding more "Variety" to the articles.

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While Mass Effect1 and 2 were pretty great games, there were a few things that just felt...missing. Couple that with Bioware's tendency to screw sequels up (I'm looking at you Dragon Age 2!) and then you have a nice amount of things that could improve Mass Effect 3, as well as hinder it. This article is to focus on the main features that I feel, if added and done right in Mass Effect 3, could make it one of the best games ever.

Number 1: Meaningful Combat

In Mass Effect 2, if you really sit back and take a look at it, the combat seems more of a filler between story than an actual needed game mechanic. The majority of the time combat is simply allowing Bioware to call the game “A 3^rd Person Shooter/RPG combo” instead of an “Interactive Narrative” and half the time combat is just used as a means to get from point A to point B. Now I'm definitely not saying that they should have taken out all the combat in Mass Effect, god no, but what I am saying, is that combat should have more meaning with story.

What we've seen: With the addition of many more large enemies, Reapers, and a more “apocalyptic” feel in the world, the fights seem to be a lot more dynamic, epic, and useful for the story.

What could be added: Choices from within combat, Bioware has really made an effort to separate story choices from gameplay, but what if some choices were embedded within the gameplay? One example being how in Deus Ex: Human Revolution, *minor spoilers* when your pilot crashed, her survival depended on how fast you could kill all the enemies around her, and the majority of the time she would die. What if Bioware had moments similar to this in Mass Effect, where your combat skills affect the story, or how you can choose what path to take and who to kill.

Number 2: Bringing Back The Scale of The Universe

In Mass Effect 1, actually being able to drive around land on planets gave the game a sense of scale, showing that the game universe is actually large and expansive. I would really like to see them add some sort of “feeling of scale” into Mass Effect 3, beyond simply looking at a map.

What we've seen: Bioware has talked about their “search and rescue” missions which change as The Reapers conquer more of the galaxy, depending on how this is executed, it really could show not only a sense of scale, but a better sense of progression.

What could be added: If beyond “search and rescue” missions, you could explore planets that actually had secrets which could help, or hurt you later on in the story, that would definitely help make the galaxy feel alive. I would also like to see the addition of world exploration/travel again, whether it be with a better controlling Mako, the hover-tank from Mass Effect 2, or a whole new vehicle.

Number 3: Combat Options

One thing many shooters do to help make gameplay more interesting and engaging, is giving the player a choice of how to tackle problems in game (gameplay wise, not story wise) each with their own benefits. For example, with the original Deus Ex, you could choose to go head-on, hack hidden security systems, or be stealthy. A similar idea could be applied to Mass Effect gameplay to make it more diverse, although I'm not sure how you would be rewarded by taking a Stealthy vs. Head-On approach. Perhaps you could use the lives of a boss's employees as a bargaining chip if you sneak by them, and on the hardest difficulty, sneaking by would definitely make life easier.

What we've seen: In The Arrival DLC, you could go through a whole section of a mission without killing anyone, and you would get an achievement for it. The Mass Effect 3 Demo's Multiplayer also shows how level design is more based on levels, and verticality, which can allow for multiple paths to choose from.

What could be added: If they took the stealth aspect of The Arrival DLC and added it to certain sections of Mass Effect 3, it would definitely improve the game experience, and it wouldn't hinder anything since it would be completely optional. Hacking could also play a larger role in the game, such as opening up sniper perches, and alternate routes, or possibly turning a turret against the enemy.

Number 4: A Real Possibility of Failure

In Mass Effect 2, while the developers did say Shepard could actually end up dying at the end of the game, in reality, the only way for that to actually happen, was if you specifically wanted it to. You had to piss off your teammates, do absolutely no upgrading to The Normandy (which, even if you didn't do any mining, you could get ore in other ways), and then some. In Mass Effect 3, there really needs to be a possibility of failure, not only depending on how well you upgrade or make people happy, but also by the choices you make through out the game, and not the obvious ones either. There needs to be choices that, over the course of the game, would evolve and could, quite possibly, screw you over.

What we've seen: The developers have come out and said that in Mass Effect 3, The Reapers can win.

What could be added: As I mentioned earlier, I want all of my choices, from Mass Effect 1 and onwards, to fully contribute to whether or not The Reapers win, not just the straight forward actions in Mass Effect 3.

Number 5: Bioware, Don't Suck Money out of Us Twice.

Bioware is a game company, which means they like making money, and that has been seen with the DLC they produced for Mass Effect 2, most of which was quality and well worth the money. Now, the only thing I hope is that they don't over-do it, and force us to buy an additional pack of DLC for Mass Effect 3, to continue a story or see the effects of our choices from Mass Effect 2 DLC we played. I would ultimately feel like I would be getting ripped off, and that Bioware didn't make a full game and took content out of it, if to have Kasumi as a team mate in Mass Effect 3, I had to buy a whole new DLC pack.

A Personal Number 6: Bring Kasumi Back

Out of all of the characters in Mass Effect 2, the one who I liked the best has to go to Kasumi Goto, she is the only character who I actually felt fully interested in with their back story, as well as she had some unique skills. Besides Thane, she was the only other one with an enigmatic personality which made having her on your team, always “interesting”. If Bioware brings anyone back, I would love to see Kasumi return as an actual squad mate.

What we've seen: Bioware said they would bring major characters back, and according to the Mass Effect 3 wiki, that includes Kasumi.

What could be added: Bring her back as a full fledged squad member, not only with more full voice acting, but also playing a larger role in the game.

Variety Friday: The Main Character

Main characters in games tend to have a few things in common.  First, they are usually male, and if they are female; they are usually badass, or over sexualized.  They usually do not represent the “every-day man” and are in general, bad ass.  Now I’m not saying having a badass dude character is bad, but it is bad for the industry when it’s true for nearly every game.

The problem is that I believe it is easier to simply have a badass character, it allows the developers to focus on another aspect of the game, other than “progressing the character”.  If you wanted to have a badass character, why couldn’t you have it like that in the end of the game, and at the beginning have the character be a complete n00b.  Not only would it help the player relate to the character, it would help them see how the character evolved into a badass.  Think of if in Mass Effect you started out as a recruit and shit went down, Mass Effect 2 you heard of the reaper invasion and had to serve under someone to fight the reaper threat.  Then in Mass Effect 3 you were a lone survivor on Earth and had to start from scratch.  Now that doesn’t sound as fun does it?

The reason for this is because it shifts the focus of the game, the game would have had to be envisioned completely different, and I believe that it honestly would have allowed the player to really connect to Sheppard, or whoever the main character may be, more so than starting out as a badass.  Now since Mass Effect is a great series, I’m not saying that all games should do this, I’m saying more games should take risks and try this.  A game that did this on a smaller scale is Dragon Age: Origins.  You chose an origin story and it dropped you in, showed you your characters previous background and had the player play out the events that lead up to him becoming a badass.  Within the experience of “n00b-to-pro” the player made game altering choices.  Now the game didn’t solely focus on this, which is okay, what’s important is that it builds upon the player’s initial actions and let the player create a larger bond to their character through interaction and choices.

Now a much simpler example of “The Common Man” who starts out not knowing much can actually be found in one of this year’s most popular games, Minecraft.  If you think about it the actual character within the game doesn’t know anything except how to punch stuff.  It is up to the player, who at the beginning also knows nothing, to learn how to make a simple shelter, and learn from mistake the dangers of night.  As you play more you as a player learn how to make more and more advanced stuff, this is a great example of having the character, and player, learn as they play.

Now female characters in games are an entirely different subject, since game developers (I’m looking at you Japanese!) have an odd tendency to give almost any female character big breasts so she is less of a main character and more of eye candy.  Bayonetta for example, it was a fun game, but the main character may have been a bit overboard, it may have fit that game’s style, but it doesn’t fit all.  Even Catherine!  At the beginning it seemed like it was all well and good until miss I’m a Demon or Something (Spoilers!) comes walking in all sexy and ready for a good time.

A game that has done a female character well is harder for me to think of, but the first…and only thing that currently popped into my mind, besides certain MMOs, is Hydrophobia.  Their goal was to have a female main character with an obvious weakness which she then was forced to overcome.  Unfortunately the game had subpar voice acting and didn’t really show the aspect of Hydrophobia all that much, as within 15 minutes the main character was essentially diving headfirst into giant swimming pools, but they tried to portray an average female character, and did it well.  Not only that but the game was fun, they also didn’t have a “badass” female character, instead they had an intelligent one.  The game’s gameplay aspect was to use your environment to kill enemies, so the character, and player, had to be intelligent which made the gameplay unique.  As far as the problems go, they released the game on steam with tons of fixed and additions so it is probably better to be played on PC.  Unfortunately I played on the 360 when it first came out.

Now as far as races go, I’m just going to give one example and call it good, Dungeons and Dragons.  That game allows you to play any race with any skin color with any attitude.  More games need to be as free as DnD and let the character fully choose how they want their main character to be, whether it be race, gender, or traits.