Why I dislike Mass Effect

I dislike Mass Effect (and BioWare games in general). Let's get that out of the way before I begin my review. I disliked Mass Effect before I played it when it was receiving all this hype, I learned to dislike it while I was playing it, and I learned why I disliked it after I was done. And I'm not sure I can pinpoint exactly which part of the game I disliked. Because I enjoyed Mass Effect.

Don't get me wrong, I don't, in any way, think it's a bad game. I enjoyed it because it was a decent 3rd person shooter game with a safe script, a solid story, and a bunch of complex characters. And I dislike it EXACTLY for these things I mentioned: because it's an unremarkable third-person shooter in a time where shooters are treated with vast derision; the script, being safe, comes at the cost of it sounding too formal and clean, far from what I'd expect a gritty military science fiction story; the story, being solid, loses any chance for it to experiment with narration and form thus resulting in a formulaic plot; and the characters, complex as they may be, aren't necessarily interesting. In fact, their Recruitment and Loyalty missions are the only times the characters seem to have actual story-changing presence. In other missions, they're just replaceable soldiers to fill in your party while Shepard does all the decision-making (this is the plight that befalls a lot of RPGs).

What generally irks me about this franchise is how every race is just another facet of humanity in disguise, the alien races conveniently bearing too striking of a resemblance to humans for them to even be called "aliens". This, perhaps, is why this series appeals to so many people: the fact that aliens could be presented in such a way that people could sympathize with and say, "if aliens from across the galaxy could be this similar to humans, then there must be some pattern or greater force, that the universe operates by, that guides different species toward the same set of archetypes. Perhaps this is how fantasy works thrive: by presenting fantastical things as eerily comfortable and relatable, and by that, works of fantasy achieve its own sense of "realism" by being so grounded in reality. But that is exactly the trait about this series that puts me off the most. The more words you use to describe a culture, the more you humanize it. And the more human the aliens seem, the more I think, "Oh shit. This is an allegory," thus dispelling my immersion.

But that couldn't be the only reason why I dislike it; the language being too formal and clean, the Reapers acting like some stereotypical final boss of a Final Fantasy game, it being too formulaic and not bringing anything new and insightful to the table, as science fiction should. It is a massive allegory masquerading as a science-fiction story. Just like Star Wars, Mass Effect is a product of pure fantasy that uses pseudo-science to make it sound like an actual science-fiction story.

Everything is an amalgamation of things that have been done before, and in greater detail. Perhaps it was made for gamers who have never watched Star Trek to experience Star Trek in a different manner. Perhaps it wants to draw in Star Wars fans by creating something so similar to Star Wars, because they think people want more of the same thing over and over again. Perhaps this game is a ripoff of Wells' War of the Worlds and Asimov's I, Robot when it talks about giant machines harvesting organic life and the philosophy of artificial intelligence. Perhaps Mass Effect is a way to make all of this previous literature accessible to gamers. Perhaps I may be hating on this game exactly for the reasons that make it good.

It's radio-friendly. It ultimately has the mainstream aesthetic, meaning, more of the same thing. Which leads me to my conclusion: Mass Effect is definitely not art.

But I'll say this: There is no other way Mass Effect could be presented better. It does exactly what it sets out to do: "a hero on a journey to rescue the galaxy", having two main themes at the core of its story: "racism is bad; aliens have human feelings too" and "the triumph of heroism over so much politics", two subjects I have heard enough about to last me an asari's lifetime.