Mass Effect, Bioware’s next ambitious project in their line of epic role playing games, aims to set a new standard in the genre that they have dominated for the last decade. The sci-fi setting places you in a time two centuries beyond our own, when space travel and contact with alien species has become a norm. You are Commander Shepard, a fully customizable space officer (or Spectre) who has been given an extremely creative and unique task that will grace the gaming community for the first time: you must save the galaxy from a machine race, the Geth, who have come to collect the organic resources of all living things. What is more, they do this every 50,000 years! Oh my! But in all seriousness, besides the minor flaws in the stereotypical storyline, Mass Effect is boasting a vast array of new and greatly improved gameplay features that Bioware has always been known for.
If you were to question the developers about some of the key features in Mass Effect, two confident answers you would likely receive are character dialogue and customization. Character dialogue has been a focal point ever since the beginning of the project. The plan is to make every conversation entirely in real-time, meaning you can cut off an npc’s voice acting at any point to make way for your own words. Not only this, but you will be able to choose what Shepard says and how he responds from a number of different dialogue pathways: you may be a ruthless official whose sole purpose is to get the job done at any cost, or you may develop your character into a calm, smooth and collected speaker who uses choice words to get to the solution; the decision is yours.
But how Bioware plans to keep things intriguing for gamers is the use of expressive emotion during dialogue sequences. Depending on the words and actions you choose from the dialogue branches (whether that be holding a gun up to a Salarian’s face and issuing a harsh order, or implying a compliment along with a gentle smile), you will observe characters quiver and become tense with fear, be open and talkative with overflowing joy, or dark, hateful and downright cruel with rage. This active game play component will hopefully show itself for what it really is in the coming months.
Customization will also play an important role in the experiences that players take away from the game. The amount of customization you can perform on your individual character is astounding, but on top of that, how you can modify the world around you is truly breathtaking. While you are roving around on the various alien planets, you may decide that you have an insufficient amount of armor or that the weaponry on your MAKO (your all-purpose, all-terrain vehicle) is out dated, so, provided that you have the dough, you are able to customize those specific features to your heart’s desire. Let’s also say that as you are undertaking a certain quest and discover a hidden area that is inaccessible on foot; just purchase a jet pack for Shepard and you are back in the action. And if you are not satisfied with the current performance of your weapon (such as the energy shotgun or rifle), just slap on the necessary items in order to upgrade it.
