Hey, believe it or not I'm writing this blog post on my own accord. That's right, no teachers telling me what to write about, no boring in depth explanation on literary elements, and most of all, no restrictions.
If you have read my blog previously, you may or may not know that I am a very avid player of video games. Some, including nobody, would say I'm MLG Pro, and if you know what that stands for then why have we not met hello my name is ASWprime, damn glad to meet you. In all seriousness though, video games are the best medium of entertainment on the market right now and it is certainly one that people should get more involved with. I say this because it brings together all of the best parts of other mediums and mushes it all together to create an awe inspiring feeling. The cinematics of a movie, the well paced storyline of a television show, the details of a book, and often times a kickass soundtrack. This combined with the interactivity that only a video game can provide, gives us the players a world filled to the brim with possibilities, and if well executed, a truly emotional experience. In my mind there is one game series that puts all of this together so well that I believe it is the definitive title of the past two decades. This series of course being the Mass Effect series.
Mass Effect entails the story of one Commander Shepard of the alliance naval fleet in the late 22nd century. His/Her (that's right, it's a make your own character game) mission is to defeat a largely unknown enemy that wiped out entire civilizations in previous millennia, but don't let me spoil it for ya. If you want to know what happens go and play for yourself, but I'm just here to show the amazing aspects of video games through this series (but if you do have any respect for yourself or your PS3/XBOX 360/PC I recommend it highly). Anyways, we have this game that has a story that any motherlovin' sci-fi fan would a-freaking-dore, visuals that start off great and get better with every installment, and an admittedly cool techno soundtrack that I proudly illegally downloaded after hearing. But that does not even nearly scratch the surface as we have not gotten into what makes this movie sound alike, a game and that is the gameplay and mechanics.
Now when you were a kid did you ever read one of those choose-your-own-adventure books that had you... well... make your own choices to influence the story. Well take that concept and apply it to Mass Effect because everything that you do in the game, the choices you make, to kill or spare, to help or to stand by, to be or not to be, they all have an effect on the story. Not only this but your save and your choices travel over from one game in the trilogy to the next. If you somehow can't grasp this concept allow me to clear it up for you. Say, for example, that for some reason, a character in your party dies due to a choice you had made earlier on in the game, well that's all fine and good, you'll get him back in the next game, he's not real, he can respawn right? WRONG YOU PSYCOPATH! He's dead, gone, finito, tres mourir, forever, and not just for this game but for the rest of the trilogy, whether or not he played an integral part. This is revolutionary not just for the gaming industry, but for story telling as a whole. Bioware, the creators of the game, say that there are over one thousand different variations that could happen in your game, therefore you will very seldom meet someone with the exact same game as you and I just find that mind blowing.
Look at it this way. You have what appears at first glance, to be a third person shooter. Upon further examination you find that it is also and RPG (for you gamer novices out there, that's role playing game... and no NOT Dungeons and Dragons). Then you find that it has an amazing story with characters you care about, that make you feel, that you sympathize for, combined with a soundtrack that really brings out those cinematic moments such as defeating an enemy ship ten times the size of your whole fleet. Then you top off this amazing experience with the fact that you completely control the universe you play in, how you go about combat, political situations, casual conversation, everything right down to your love interest and you have the king of all games.
Video games have come a long way from the time of Atari and have really become their own medium, and the finest one in my eyes. While Mass Effect is a prime example of this innovative industry, there are many others out there but this one just happens to be my favorite. My real purpose for writing this, however, is to just get more people into the gaming community, whether casual or core, there's something for everyone... and I can't fall asleep.
