The sum of all Sci-fi
Despite my initial rants about controls of Mass Effect 2, I’ve been able to overlook it and have grown to like the game to the point of addiction. I started on a new character this week, rerolling just after the start of the suicide mission, which puts my first run at about 75% complete. I had messed up my chances of entering into a romantic relationship with Miranda (tip: always choose a pro-Cerberus option when talking to her, especially in the scene when both of you are sitting on the bed), and I wouldn’t have that. Not only do I fail at romances in real life, but even in a largely scripted video game, I didn’t stand a chance either. Sigh.
In traditional RPGs, the amount of influence your character exerts over the rest of the party is usually represented by a numerical score. Not in Mass Effect 2. There isn’t an obvious way to tell how much a particular member of your crew likes you, although some might argue that not representing a quantifiable figure for a relationship might be more in the realm of reality.
As I advance in Mass Effect 2, I begin to find that the game draws multiple parallels to various Sci-Fi universes. An especially obvious one for me was that of Stargate. The Collectors seem to imitate that of the Wraith. Even the layout of one of the Collector ships mimics that of the Wraith’s Hive ships with the layout of captive pods along the entire interior hull. Similarly, when embarking on Tali’s personal mission and listening to her explaining about the Geth their history with the Quarians, it seemed exactly like that of the Asgard and their creations, the replicators. Additionally, the Geth also resembled the replicators in that they’re about to rebuild from splintered parts.
I brought the similarities up merely as an observation, and not as a stance against Mass Effect 2. On the contrary, I enjoyed the melding of various elements of Sci-fi seamlessly into the Mass Effect universe. I hardly think of it as a rip-off at all because if it were considered as such, every other Sci-Fi and fantasy game would be equally guilty. As Joseph Campbell documented in his book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, every heroic and epic story follows more or less similar curves.
Back to Mass Effect 2.