So What If Mass Effect 2 Is Emotional?
The following editorial was produced by Marco Fiori, a Freelance Contributor. To see more of his work, check out his website here.
It has never been better to be a RPG fan. Not only are Bioware, considered by many to be the best in the business, looking to deliver on their Baldur’s Gate ‘spiritual successor,’ Dragon Age: Origins. We are pleased by the announcement and cannot wait to find out more details on the game.
So what do we already know? Well, it has the unimaginative title of Mass Effect 2; a QA man at Bioware indicates that Mass Effect saves will have a purpose; and the game might reach the PS3. Finally we have the proclamation from Bioware’s CEO, Ray Muzyka that Mass Effect 2 will:
“have consequences that are emotionally compelled; choices have to have consequences that are emotionally impactful [...] it’s part of the emotional investment.”
Good one Ray, tell us another.
Call us sceptical, but we have played far too many games where the player is promised that everything they do will have an effect. In reality, it is blindingly obvious when the ‘choice-moment’ occurs. It usually involves killing someone or letting them live. The Witcher is the only modern RPG that has genuinely delivered on that old chestnut. There used to be a time where RPG’s were about an enriching story, logical character development and believable setting. That was done without the need of HD-graphics or self absorbent marketing pap like “300 different endings,” or “a spider web of possibility.”
Half Life 2 (and Episode 2 in particular) did not need to boast about its emotional involvement. Valve created the game and it became apparent by playing it. We do not remember anyone coming to us during Baldur’s Gate II’s build up and preparing us to ‘feel.’ The characters and writing did it without intentionally searching for emotion.
Video games will always struggle to connect to our emotional needs. After all, they are about enjoyment and lack the same depth / intention that literature / cinema possesses. Mass Effect 2 may shock us with a twist or two (which is usually the only ‘emotion’ that developers can tap into), but it will not cause us to cry or rethink our lives.
The PR department would be better off telling us how they are improving the vehicle sections or introducing unseen gameplay elements rather than dictating to us how our brains should work.
i agree, id rather hhear how they improved the gameplay or what new features they added in, hopefully this game will be good cause i loved the first
I agree also the first game was brilliant, although flawed due to the tedious and awful handling in the vehicle sections.
Do you really feel video games don’t have the same affect on emotions as movies or books? I think that if a game has the intention to make a player cry or even lesser, just a little sad, it will accomplish that. There are so many cutscenes out there that players remember forever just because it had an impact on their emotions.
I agree no one should be talking about emotions and consequences right now, but I’m definitely all for Bioware trying.