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- Malevolent Effect
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I’m a year late than everybody else, but I’ve finally finished Mass Effect from Bioware. And I must say I’ve really enjoyed it. From start to finish I think I’ve enjoyed it – and feel far more satisfied from it – than just about any other game I’ve played in the last year. It’s a bit funny as well – it’s a game I didn’t get when it first launched, and a game that I started, then left for about three months partially due to my computer dying and partially due to my occasional inability to stay focused on one game for too long when playing for personal fun. So right from the bat the fact Mass Effect managed to sink it’s claws into me twice is definitely a good sign. The fact I want to go back and replay it almost immediately is another. More on that in a minute.
One of my other favourite games is another RPG epic Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. It went far beyond any real love for the series – heck, I’m not really a huge fan of the films or franchise. Lightsabers are pretty awesome and all that but beyond that I don’t really care about the Skywalker family tree. However, Bioware did craft a great story in that game, and everything about it just appealed to me. Given the freedom to create their own universe, with their own backstory and races – well, they’ve done an absolutely sterling job. Mass Effect did what I really like games to do – give me a fun and awesome adventure. And it certainly achieved that.
So about the replay? Well. Yeah. In a completely unoriginal and possibly ill-advised move, I think I’m going to shamelessly steal the ideas from John Walker and Tom Francis and replay the thing as a decidedly more… “evil” character (Or Renegade as the game calls it, as it’s not quite Good/Evil) with the addition of posting regular updates from my adventures here on my blog. Hopefully if I manage this, I’ll be able to keep it up throughout the playthrough. Although you can probably rest assured real life stuff coming up will mean I can’t promise any definitive regularity at the moment – heck, I’m just about to cease being a student and everything that goes with that – but we’ll see what happens.
First things first – a name for this semi feature. I’m not sure whether to go with Masochistic Effect or Malevolent Effect. Anyone got any preferences?
6 Responses to Massively Effected
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Don’t miss out on the opportunity to start the game again at your previous level with your previous equipment and background! I did. Also, don’t install the patch – it miiiiiiiiiiight entirely fuck up your performance, in a manner that outlasts reinstalls and mockingly permeates your every effort to fix it.
I love Mass Effect so much that when I saw the thing for Mass Effect 2, I actually covered my mouth with my hand like a girl. There’s a fair few V:TM chromosomes in there, I think, dialogue wise – didn’t it feel great to say fucking anything? I’m surprised more developers don’t put dialogue on the pedestal it deserves to occupy.
The best thing ever, though, is the simultaneous goodbadbars. Not as good as just, you know, having no goodbadbars, like in real life, but it meant you could be this bad-ass shit-talking war vet who can talk a crazy person out of suicide and make beautiful bleu love to another woman.
I’ve always been playing with the patch anyway, so can safely say it’s not effected me. Is there any special way to ensure you do have the same equipment, or is it just start a new Career? (Also, I’d probably want to change the background, to be honest – if only so that my new characters persona works better.
Malevolent Effect is clever 🙂
I found the game good but not great… hopefully Mass Effect 2 will improve on it.
I too am looking forward to sequel. It’ll be very interesting to see how they approach the issue of the previous save games thing, and hope it’ll be more than a few cosmetic changes…
Thanks for the suggestion on the title – my main argument for Masochistic Effect is that obviously it appears visually slightly closer to Mass Effect than Malevolent Effect does, but for actual meaning, Malevolent would be more accurate. Hopefully I’ll come to a decision before I write the first post. Yes, I know it’s primarily a stylistic over accuracy choice, but this is my blog and thus such discussions are acceptable, goddamnit!
I never finished the original one completely myself. Mainly because I got distracted from it by various new games and just found it too hard to settle back in. But I really enjoyed what I’d accomplished in it and and I’m glad that I’ll get a chance to see my own plan of playing it as a total asshole be realized. Even if its not by me.
Personally my preference for name would be something along the lines of “Mass Defect”. Maybe “The Maso defect” even as it sounds like some sort of harmful personality disorder, which fits. Or even things like “Massively Imperfect”. Just a thought.
Lambo.
Being the smart person that I am, I deleted my saved games once I finished the game and traded it in for something else. Sigh.