Mass Effect Trilogy Review (PC)

Developer: Bioware

I don't know why I feel like doing a "review" on the ME trilogy.  Maybe it's because my blog is severely lacking these past few years.  Oh well, I do what I want "foo".  

For those who are unfamiliar with the ME series, ME is a sci-fi adventure game with shooting elements.  The game advertises itself as having a choice system where the player's choices will transfer through each save through all 3 games, shaping the ultimate outcome of the whole galaxy.  I never regretted getting into this series and finishing it; regardless of the pick-your-color endings.  You take control of a male or female Commander Shepard, tailoring him/her to your tastes in terms of appearance and skills.  I kinda went backwards by playing ME2 and then the 1st one, which was a bad idea in the beginning.  

Review time:

Story: The lore of the ME universe was interesting enough to make me care about the end of the game.  ME1 focused on stopping the baddie, Saren, from restoring the Reapers (gigantic, mechanical squids) to full strength.  ME2 had a story that was essentially a spin-off of sorts where Shepard sets off to stop the Reapers' lackeys called the Collectors.  ME3 was the finale where the story went back on course to eradicate the Reapers once and for all.  In a more minute detail, Bioware had done a good job on personal interaction with the NPCs and teammates as well as the interactions between every race.  The main storytelling focus, for me, lie in the conversations taking place among the crew and acting as a diplomat (or not) in the universe with the attempt to unite everyone against the Reapers.  The entire lore built up in the ME trilogy is also something to note.  Although the lore might be confusing at times, it still made the ME universe believable to a certain extent (until Bioware botched it towards the very end).  ME2 and ME3 heavily emphasizes character relationships between Shepard and the teammates.  Specifically, ME2 was character backstory-heavy with the loyalty missions.

Characters: This trilogy is story-heavy so characters are to note for the creation of the ME universe.  Shepard is essentially a blank slate so the player can make Shepard totally good or bad.  ME1 did fine keeping things neutral, although it's hard to get what you want out of the story if you stay neutral.  ME2 and 3 practically halved the amount of neutral responses and left it as paragon or renegade.  By picking either side, Shepard becomes the goody-two shoes or becomes a rebelling soldier with a streak of badassery in ME2 and early ME3.  Here's a little taste of what would happen if you wanted to raise Shepard to be a renegade in ME2:

Some like Shepard's personality in this manner, and some don't like the restrictive personalities in the sense of gaining paragon/renegade points.  Most of the squad mates, to me, were a likeable cast.  ME had Wrex/Garrus/Tali/Anderson (from popular observation) to ME2's Mordin/Liara/Grunt/Thane.  ME3 almost had a cast of returning characters with the exception to the useless Diana Allers as a new character.  The romantic relationships were also icing on the cake, especially for characters who have stuck around from beginning to end.

Gameplay: ME1 had, unfortunately, the most elaborate skill system compared to the other two installments, but it also had some minor flaws in the shooting department.  ME1 had things like weight capacity, weapon attachments, and about 10 + skills/traits for upgrading.  Compared to ME2/ME3, the first installment had an issue (for me) during battle where the default keyboard layout was slightly inefficient and needed personal keybindings.  Also, if you were out of ammo, you were out of ammo.  ME2/ME3 allowed Shepard to take cover and leap over certain obstacles as well as having universal ammo to make reloading easier.  ME2 lowered the amount of skills per class for upgrades, but the upside is that Shepard gains a bonus ability from any loyal squad mate.  Lastly, ME3 simplified the skill system significantly by making each 6+ skills a single thread that branches out to 2 paths for the last 2 upgrades.  It's essentially level up > pick skill to be upgraded > level up to the next stage > pick 1 of 2 perks from the upgrade.  Some people might be picky about this super streamlining system, but I don't really care.  To me, the shooting wasn't clunky and worked fine.  ME3 stepped up in terms of gameplay with multiplayer that affects the ultimate outcome of the trilogy.  Multiplayer consists of making your own character and then playing up to 4 players against AIs while completing escort, collection, and hacking tasks on a map.  Multiplayer is important for ME3's "galactic readiness" where the percentage is multiplied with the total war assets that make up the overall score that determines the amount of damage Earth, Normandy, mass relays, and team takes.  The higher the score, the less damage will be inflicted.

Overall:  I'd say definitely get the ME trilogy.  It may not be Game of the Year-worthy, but it is definitely a good series for the ride.  There will be at least one or two characters who will stick on you.  Some people feel like the choices they made didn't matter and drastically altered the ending at all.  I didn't follow Bioware's advertisement about the choices influencing the ending, but the choices did affect how the player plays through the story?  Don't want to have to pick one race over the other?  No problem, if you did certain things in ME1 and 2, then you can have both sides on top of picking paragon or renegade.  If you wanted the "happy" ending where everyone lives, then you have to use a walkthrough to make sure whatever choices you did fall into the category of plan A or B.  An example would be killing A and keeping B, and then you can lie to C and sabotage D in order to get both races to cooperate.  But if you want to be a bit masochistic, you can make whatever choices and see if there are any alternatives left to make everyone happy to make it a real twist.  In my Paragon run, I didn't have an ME1 save so I was out of luck, had to lose someone to win over a race, and didn't get the support of the other.  Remember, the choices you made affected how the story laid out and did not directly affect the endings.  The endings are still ok... if you install the Extended Cut DLC from Origin into ME3.  Also the EC hit me in the feels saying goodbye to my love interest, but that's in the story-telling section.

The Walking Dead (PC) Review

Developer: Telltale Games

I kinda heard TWD was a TV series, then I found out it was a comic series, and THEN I realized that this game can be stand-alone and doesn't have to be tied to the other two works.  I got it during Steam's Summer sales for like $15... I think.  Anyways, I'm pretty sure I paid for the whole season so when future episodes come out, I don't have to pay additional costs per episode.  I don't know, it just said PURCHASE WALKING DEAD so I hope I'm not getting ripped by only buying the released two episodes.

Story: You start out as this guy named Lee Everett in a cop car and I'm thinking 'WTF, I'm a criminal?'  Old man cop tells some stories of his arrests and then like a bad elderly driver, he hits a zombie no matter how fast I tell him to avoid.  So after blacking out, Lee looks around to see the cop in a pool of blood and checks to see any signs of life.  Turns out the old man turned into a zombie and then went after Lee... BUT NOT WITHOUT BLASTING THE COP'S BRAINS OUT.  Searching for help leads to a little girl called Clementine who's stuck at home trying to escape from her zombified babysitter.  Exploring the house would let Lee know that her parents are dead and Clem doesn't know yet.  After smashing the babysitter's brains out, Lee and Clem set out to escape and try to find a safer place to live.

Characters: The characters are definitely the stars of this drama that would make you feel invested in the story.  Clem makes you feel like you want to protect her (well... most people would), a military old fart makes you want to leave him dying of a heart attack, and a guy who is supposed to be your buddy slowly turns unpleasant.

Lee Everett: A former teacher at the University of Georgia.  Lost his job after news broke out about a crime implying the involvement of his wife.  Did he kill his wife or beat her?  No one knows... yet.  The player is left in the dark until halfway through episode 1, which explains why Lee may act strangely as he does.

Music: Does its job to building suspense and maintaining the mood of the game.

Graphics: Nice and clean as the art style has stylistic features of a comic book.  Cel-shading makes the game appealing to anyone.

Gameplay: Pretty much like an interactive movie.  You can play with the mouse and keyboard or with a gamepad.  Personally, I use the game pad to move Lee around better because of the odd angles sometimes. The mouse is better for quickly aiming the cursor on the target you want to kill.  Dialogue and actions are meant to be decided within a time limit taking only seconds to do.  I have a habit to check out every single little item that can be picked up in hopes that it'll come useful later.  There's an option to turn off the hints so the mystery is tighter.

The claim that the story adapts to my choices have yet to fully taken shape.  The first two episodes are out, but I feel like there's only the illusion of making choices to go completely different paths.  For example, I could let the kid die and let the teenager live, but the teenager still dies and WTF, THIS ISN'T WHAT I ORDERED.  Another life and death choice is more permanent, but I haven't tested it out yet.  There's still a couple more episodes to be released, so maybe the small details will pay off.  The neat little thing is that at the end of each episode, the player's choices are displayed against what other people have picked.  I was in the middle with the first, but the second episode had me in the majority.  Replay value is questionable because you have to play the whole game once and not try to make multiple story saves otherwise if there is an illusion of an adaptable storyline, then that illusion is broken and the player will keep thinking that nothing significantly changes.

Overall: TWD is a must-buy on sale for the drama unfolding.  If you like games like Heavy Rain where it's interactive, then you will like TWD on PC.  There's no need to understand the TV and comic series to enjoy the video game version.  High expectations are to be had as players' emotions get tugged, choices make you feel good or regret doing so, and you wish you could redo some of the things over again if you wanted to.  Replay is strong depending on your imagination.