EPTI'm someone who really enjoys experiencing ideas and exploring emotions through story telling. A good book can enthral me for days if it's well written and I can connect to even a single character. A television show or a film with a strong focus on a story can capture my imagination for years.
My favourite Star Trek series was Voyager because of its strong narration and character development over time as I came to understand the crew on their lonely journey home. I've laughed and cried at books I've read. I've even explored aspects of the human experience through them that I would otherwise have never touched. None of these mediums though, have the same ability to consume me like gaming.
An interactive story of the kind we get in gaming is an experience unmatched in the arena of storytelling when it's delivered by a great development team. The sounds, characters, emotions, details and concepts that can be delivered in a single package can create an experience that might be matched by good a film, but the involvement of the individual makes everything so much more compelling.
As you can probably tell, I love RPGs. Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Zelda - I don't care. I love a well-made RPG.
Recently though, I haven't played any RPGs. The last one I played was Mass Effect 3. The end of the greatest gaming trilogy of all time, in my opinion. The original ending to Mass Effect 3 though, crushed me. To explain why though we need to go back in time to Mass Effect 2.
When I first bought Mass Effect 2 I hadn't heard of Mass Effect, but I had heard of Bioware. Being the company behind NeverWinter Nights and at the recommendation of my boyfriend at the time and also of my brother I bought it anyway. As it turned out I absolutely loved the game, even with no clue of what had happened in the first game I had become able to understand the universe I was living in and the role I played. I had begun to develop emotional attachments to the characters I was playing with, albeit in a rather confined way, but still far more than is possible in most games and any film or book. And then something terrible happened. Worse still, when I realised what had happened wasn't just something that happens, but had happened because of my actions I immediately wanted to try play the game again. I wanted to change the course of events so what had occurred, wouldn't.
It's worth stopping here to consider that for a moment. I had become so integrated with the story I literally wanted to go back and change things to experience it in a different way. As great as other story telling mediums are, beyond choose your own adventure, you're never going to have that option. Gaming as a way to experience a story truly is something remarkable.
So I bought Mass Effect before I played Mass Effect 2 so I could transfer the saves forward and better understand the past events. What I found though were clunky mechanics and an unsatisfying combat system with some fairly annoying questing. Even with all those issues combined though, the story was so strong and so well delivered. It is quite simply one of the most engaging stories I have ever encountered. Whilst it's true it's not quite a Planescape Torment, this was something special. I hated a lot of elements of the way that game played, and yet I've completed it on several occasions because despite them all, that game is unbelievable good.
I played through Mass Effect 2 again having completed the first one and what I found, and what I experienced, was a far stronger emotional attachment than I had the first time through. I understood the politics, I looked forward to seeing how friends had moved on and seeing my own impact on the lives of others. I met different characters, experienced a different story almost. When I completed Mass Effect 2 the second time, with my imported save and understanding of the first game, I was speechless. It literally felt different.
Then comes Mass Effect 3. I actually cancelled my CE pre order over their consumer unfriendly practices but I couldn't boycott the game, so I got the standard version. What followed were the most intensely emotionally satisfying days of my computer gaming life. The game of Mass Effect 3 really is outstanding in many regards. The original ending isn't one of them.
My emotional interaction with the story was so broad that to list everything I got out of even the third game would be an entire blog in itself. After the potentially hundred hours or more I had put in to learning that world and understand those characters though, the original ending was so jarring it was a crushing experience. Without any warning the story took a nose dive, the options became limited, the story nonsensical and the characters, alien. My game ended before I had put the controller down, watching the ending was a surreal experience. It was like I hadn't moved but in the blink of an eye I had jumped in to a different story without warning. I don't think the writers of that sequence had for a moment considered just how much people had invested in to their story, but it became quite clear after as many are probably aware.
It was still a powerful experience, but it wasn't the right one. It was the experience of being jarringly brought back in to reality, like talking with friends you've known for years only to have them all immediately fall to the floor because they're just dolls. It was seeing the story stop before it ended and knowing there was never going to be a resolution to those years invested in to it. It was all that and worse.
I know there are explanations of the ending that some gave at the time, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers, but I found them ultimately empty anyway.
I sit here today with the new ending on my computer, and I haven't yet had the heart to play it through. I'm hoping it at least provides for more of an ending, as I understand the story itself didn't change, but something is lost now either way.
Computer games can be amazing works of art, and the Mass Effect series is still one of them. I look forward to seeing what kind of immersion we will see in future games, but I will forever remember Mass Effect 3 as a cautionary tale. Excluding the ending though, I hope there will be more writers like the Mass Effect team in future. I still believe the interactive stories of the gaming world have the potential to be unparalleled in their scope and depth and I hope I get to see what comes next.
Edit:
Just wanted to add this music track.
+ Show Spoiler +
And yeah, Jennifer of course! She did such a great job too.
