Mass Effect: Immersive Storytelling

Over the last few months me and my roommate been laying a game called Mass Effect. It is about a distant future where humanity and other alien civilizations have colonized the known universe using technology left behind by advanced civilizations that have now been wide out. You play as a Commander Shepard, a lieutenant commander for the space capital. You spend the game assembling a team of highly trained aliens and humans as you uncover the mystery of a threatening alien race. There are three mainline games in the series, currently, I’m on the second game, Mass Effect 2, and I’ve been loving every minute of the match, particulate the story. Mass Effect has a unique way of telling its story, as it puts the player in Commander Shepard’s shoes and uses many different narrative techniques to make you feel immersed in the game’s story and lore. I wanted to share some of my favorite parts that Mass Effect has to offer when it comes to the way it immerses the player.

Dialogue Wheel

In many video games, when a cut scene plays out, it usually feels like you’re watching a movie everything plays out a certain way, with very little freedom for the player to make decisions and take control. In Mass Effect, whenever Commander Shepard is about to say something in a cutscene, the game reveals a dialogue wheel, with 2-6 dialogue options, depending on the conversation, that the player can choose to make Commander Shepard say.  The player chooses how the cutscenes play out since they have full control of what the main character says. This makes talking to characters in the game so much more interesting, as you can find out as much as you want. If you disagree with a character’s decision, you have a dialogue option to call them out on their behavior. However, if you agree with them you have another option to support their decisions. This makes the story so much more compelling since you have a say in most of it.

Some dialogue options may just give you different answers from characters, however, sometimes the dialogue makes drastic changes to the story, like making you choose which member of your team will have to sacrifice themselves. This raises the stakes since almost everything in the game is on you, the good and the bad, naming your choice of words is very important. At times I feel like I’m Shepard like I’m there commanding my team or discussing with the enemy. The game has several options of dialogue for different play styles. If you like talking your way out of situations, at times if you say the right things you can talk your way out of fighting the enemy or saving a person’s life. Or if you like immediately causing chaos, you can cut the conversations off short and just start shooting people. This freedom of choice makes me feel immersed in the way I play since I’m not only playing during the combat segments but in the cutscene segments as well.

Shepard’s Team

Your squad plays a very important role in the Mass Effect games. Throughout the three games, find characters that over time slowly fill up your squad. Your team is comprised of several different alien species, coming from all sorts of different backgrounds, such as assassins, scientists, soldiers, and more. You pick members to go on missions with you, helping you eliminate enemies and get to your goal. While in other games you have merely allies that are always with you, Mass Effect takes it a step further. Over time, taking certain members of your team on missions more and more will increase their trust in you, making them fight better for you in missions. You can also talk to your members separately on your ship, They have scattered around between missions. Talking to your members will give you a backstory on where they come from and what their desires are, increasing their trust in you and building their loyalty. I enjoy this mechanic since it makes me spend more time with these characters, and over time you begin to care about them since you know their traits, desires, and struggles throughout the series. There are certain members of my team that I like more than others, and the freedom of choice that Mass Effect gives me allows me to build loyalty with the ones I like.  These things are essential because you want your squad to like you. There will be moments in the game where situations get heated, and if a member of your team doesn’t have enough loyalty, they may turn on you.

Also, if one of your team members dies, they don’t come back. They don’t respawn, if a member dies in your party, they won’t show up in the rest of the games, since your story continues through the trilogy. This adds stakes to your missions and decisions, you could have a strong bond with one of your squad mates, just for them to die. You feel these deaths more emotionally since you may have taken the time to build loyalty with them.

I’ve really enjoyed my time with Mass Effect and its immersive storytelling. If you have an interest in video games, I would greatly suggest playing the Mass Effect trilogy and getting yourself invested in the lore, characters, dialogue, and story these games have to offer.