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Sunday, September 29, 2013

Immersion

Ah, here's that promised blog post a week later. Better late than never!

So here's what happened: Almost three weeks ago, I finally sat down to play Mass Effect 3. And it was amazing and addictive and I didn't want to do anything else. I went to work, I fed myself on occasion, I pulled my hair out when some home improvement projects made a giant mess in my house, and I played the game. That's really it.

I actually finished the game last Saturday night (well, I've seen 3 out of 4 endings, and more on that later). Now that I'm done and I don't have to worry about spoilers, I can truly jump into the fandom with both feet. I've been reading trivia, perusing fanfic, looking at artwork...all that stuff you do when you don't want your experience with a story to end. I'm not sure if that really counts as being productive, but I don't mind the little mental break. We all deserve that every now and then, right?

And what a story it was. Yeah, yeah, I knew going in about the controversy over the ending. Truth be told, I was initially disappointed, but after a little time passed, I grew to appreciate some aspects of it. Is it perfect? Wait, scratch that...is it satisfying? Eh. Mileage varies. While I'll never condone some of the behavior that immediately followed the game's release (sending death threats over a video game? really?), I'm also not rolling my eyes at the people who are in the "well, THAT sucked" camp. Amusingly enough, I've done some guest blog posts on this very topic before - how important is a stereotypical happy ending?

Regardless, the game was still fantastic. Since this is supposed to be a writing blog after all, I might as well pontificate a bit about the storytelling aspects. The worldbuilding is rich and complex, and the characters that inhabit said world are varied and compelling. The romantic in me was satisfied with the love story on the side, especially since the relationship I chose seemed so realistic. I both laughed my ass off and cried my eyes out, and it's rare that something can elicit both those reactions. Even if you're not really a fan of games, I highly recommend the series because it's such a vibrant fictional universe.

And yeah, there are fanfics coming out of my keyboard. I've already knocked out a quick one, and I'm collaborating with Boobulon to write a humorous tale about late nights aboard the ship. Don't judge me.

6 comments:

  1. I haven't played any of the Mass Effects (well, I started the first one, hated how locks were opened, and stopped playing) but I've heard such good things about them, especially the latter two. Have you played them by uploading your "old" games, so that what you've done affects the new universe each time? I've thought that was a really neat feature.

    Currently, I'm playing Grand Theft Auto 5. Certainly a less nuanced story, but it is there (and with 3 main characters this time).

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    1. I did play the same imported character throughout, which was really cool. I read that if you import your character into ME3, there are 1,000 different flags that the game looks for to shape the story. Crazy!

      The locking minigame was annoying in ME1, and then there were two different ones in 2, but they did away with altogether in 3. Can't say I missed them.

      I don't think I've played any of the GTA games in almost five years, eep!

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  2. I don't have the patience to play a game like that to the end. The longest I've ever played one game is Spyro the Dragon and Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I've always wanted to, but they intimidate me. It's sounds interesting. And I can understand being a little bent out of shape over an ending. I've been playing this iPad game for a couple of years and the last installment came out a few months ago. I was so excited. And it ended on a cliff hanger! It's like...it just ruined everything. So I'm hoping that wasn't really the last installment and those punks are working on another sequel, cause that was not cool.

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    1. Yeah, it is a timesuck, not gonna lie. I want to say that oh-so-helpful counter clocked me at almost 50 hours for my playthrough? (Granted, I refused to drop down to the easiest difficulty level, so I, uh, maybe have died a lot.)

      I've yet to find a game I really like playing on my phone. That might be for the best!

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  3. We've debated jumping into that one, the hubby and I, but haven't quite found the time. So essentially you're saying, "If you only have time for one game every six months, skip this one"?

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    1. It took me over six months to play through the entire trilogy, what with other commitments and wanting/needing to write at all. If you think you can squeeze it in and you love a good story with great characters, I say go for it! (The first is the weakest in the series, but the other two definitely make up for it.)

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