Mass Effect, Pt 3

Before we continue our story in Mass Effect, I wanted to mention a couple of other features of the game I hadn't before.  As I mentioned in our first game post, player choice plays a huge role.  I've already covered the morality system, but there a lot more to it than just the dialog options.

The main story of Mass Effect is told through the primary missions.  You could conceivably play through the game and never touch any of the secondary quests, called Assignments.  But, this is just a sample of what the game has to offer.  Through the Assignments, you get to explore other worlds and experience hundreds of little stories, some of which have a bigger impact in later games.  The Assignments are totally optional, but you do yourself a disservice if you ignore them.

The bridge of the Normandy

Aboard the Normandy, you have the Galaxy Map which opens up, as the name suggests, the whole of the Milky Way galaxy to you.  From here, you decide where you want to go.  You start with an overview of the entire galaxy.  Little blue circles scattered throughout represent different clusters and within each cluster are solar systems.  Each of these systems has planets, ships, and asteroids that you can, if you so choose, travel to.  Now, as we know even from our own solar system, not every planet is hospitable enough to visit, but there is usually at least one location that you can land on to explore and investigate either on foot or using the all-terrain vehicle, the Mako.

Assignments range from simple quests, such as chasing down a renegade doctor or fetching data files for a journalist, to the complex, such as tracking down a geth outpost to halt a impending invasion or negotiating with a biotic terrorist cell.  There are some assignments that are fun and goofy like when you have to track down an data chip stolen by an actual space monkey.  And then there are some that tug at your gut, like pretty much anything that involves stopping one Cerberus' operations.  Cerberus plays a huuuuuuuuge role in later games, but for this one they are primarily regulated to Assignments.

And through many of these Assignments, you are given moral choices that can impact the lives of thousands, even millions.  BioWare did a fantastic job of giving you the feeling that you are playing a starship captain whose actions determine the course of an entire galaxy.  And as any kid that grew up on Star Trek or Star Wars will tell you, its a sci-fi nerd's dream come true.

On Thursday, I'll briefly tackle the squad mate roster and then dive back into our story on Monday.  See you next time!