The popularity of this game, as well as the main reason for its high marks across all gaming sites is -- somewhat surprisingly -- the strength of the main character and overall character web. This fact should not be surprising, however, as video games allow you to become the hero and manipulate your opponents and allies more than any other storytelling medium. Yet most games give you an unchanging hero, allies, and opponents.
In "Mass Effect," the player actually gets to fine-tune the main character's traits, ranging from giving him a scar, to actually choosing autobiographical details that will actually determine dialogue options and character interactivity throughout the game.
The story relies heavily on the Story World, as most video games do. This Sci-Fi "Space Opera," as it has been called, takes the player into a futuristic version of our universe in which humans have little to no power, but are not exactly repressed, either. The desire line involves political intrigue, action, and melodrama -- with the option to pick up additional quests along the overall journey your goal takes you on. And along the journey, we have a major opponent heading a hierarchy of lesser opponents that present challenges as you reach the story's climax -- much like any novel or film about a journey.
As video games grow more dependent on the choices the player makes, they also grow more dependent on the writer -- so don't count this medium out. It seems that, before we know it, video games will be completely driven by the player, and stories will have to be written for any option or path the user chooses.
In "Mass Effect," the player actually gets to fine-tune the main character's traits, ranging from giving him a scar, to actually choosing autobiographical details that will actually determine dialogue options and character interactivity throughout the game.
The story relies heavily on the Story World, as most video games do. This Sci-Fi "Space Opera," as it has been called, takes the player into a futuristic version of our universe in which humans have little to no power, but are not exactly repressed, either. The desire line involves political intrigue, action, and melodrama -- with the option to pick up additional quests along the overall journey your goal takes you on. And along the journey, we have a major opponent heading a hierarchy of lesser opponents that present challenges as you reach the story's climax -- much like any novel or film about a journey.
As video games grow more dependent on the choices the player makes, they also grow more dependent on the writer -- so don't count this medium out. It seems that, before we know it, video games will be completely driven by the player, and stories will have to be written for any option or path the user chooses.