Disingenuous Discussions: Mass Effect 3's Weird Ass Ending (Contains Weird Ass Spoilers)

My God.... it's full of plot-holes!

The other day, Mister Buch and I got together online to discuss Mass Effect 3's already much-discussed ending. This time, we were able to get some very decent discussion in before it devolved into a rant about the Transformers films - which seems the typical occurrence.

Buch: The Buzz Aldrin bit.

Knight: If you're so excited about that [part in Mass Effect 3], check out his cameo in Transformers 3. >=D

Buch: I......

Knight: Muahaha!

Buch: Please, no... He's in Transformers 3?

Knight: Buzz Aldrin is in Transformers 3. He Talks to Optimus Prime. That happens.

Buch: NO

Knight: YES

In our defense, we held off for as long as we possibly could.

But we did take the time of going over the ending of Mass Effect 3 - all three endings, actually - just to make sure we didn't miss or misinterpret anything. Turns out, we did misinterpret some things. But also, as it turns out, there are a lot of things we didn't, and they just don't make sense no matter how you look at them. So, here are some of the things we broke down, discovered, rediscovered, and totally found confusing.

We found that we liked what the ending was trying to do, but didn't like its execution.

1. Shepard's Victory, or Lack Thereof

One of the reasons the ending didn't seem as great as it should have was that, when the credits start rolling, there's no real feeling of accomplishment left over. You don't feel as victorious as you should after crossing the finish line of a three-game series you've been playing for five years. Why's that?

Because the game makes you feel like you're losing. But this may not have been intentional.

When Shepard ascends on that platform to meet with the Catalyst, the Kid-God-Thing quickly starts talking your ear off about a whole bunch of things that you were never really exposed to during the rest of the game. Revelation after revelation without much time to process it all.

"I created the Reapers."

"I control them."

"I created Synthetics to kill off Organics to prevent Synthetics from killing off Organics. U MAD?"

There's a point in this conversation where, I would assume, everyone just reached a saturation point and just said, "What the fuck is going on here?" Buch and I both reached it. In fact, we did so very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that we missed where the Catalyst says:

"The Crucible changed me. Created new... possibilities. But I can't make them happen." [1]

With this line removed from the game, the Crucible doesn't appear to have done much of anything... at all... except assist in randomly expelling different-colored magic into the galaxy. In fact, no where else in the game is it implied that it does much of anything. It had all been educated guesses until that point, with everyone blindly hoping that it was some kind of a weapon.

It's revealed that the Crucible is actually the result of thousands of extinct races passing down and marginally improving the plans across each Reaper cycle. When connected with the Citadel and the Catalyst, the Crucible more or less reprograms the VI controlling the Reapers. This "convinces" the VI that there are other solutions to the Singularity problem that it was trying to prevent, therefore allowing Shepard the options of Control, Destroy, and Synthesis.

Put this way: it took the combined efforts of a thousand races across millions of years and thousands of Reaper cycles to perfect the Crucible, it took the unification and combined efforts of the current galactic races to actually build it, and it took Commander Shepard to not only bring a million years' worth of sacrifice to fruition, but to put it into action. By doing so, he not only saved the galaxy, but justified the countless lives lost to the Reapers and put an end to the cycles.

This makes the ending seem much more gratifying than it actually is, because BioWare wrote all of this into the story, but clumsily, and they didn't drive that point home as firmly as they should have. There was a good ending in there somewhere, but they decided not to draw it out. So in the end, it seems like you're obeying the Catalyst, going along with its plans, and throwing yourself off a cliff to kill yourself for no real reason.

Buch: The Crucible made it possible for organics to destroy, control, or merge with the Catalyst. Organics designed it, over a long, long time, to do that.

Knight: Ahhhh.

Buch: "The created will always rebel against their creators." EDI disproves this. She and Joker represent hope for life after the cycle.

Knight: Very true. This all seems like miscommunication. Listening closely, this was a good ending.

Buch: Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

Knight: Like... we did win. We beat the Catalyst.

Buch: Go on.

Knight: We kicked the Catalyst's ass, pretty much.

Buch: Yes.

Knight: It all happened so fast, though. No time to process, interrogate, learn, come to grips with the whole situation. I think that's the real problem: pacing.

Buch: Right. There is still the strong similarity between the endings. But yes, if it were slower and you could ask questions, it would have been easier to understand.

This seemed to be one of the bigger problems with the ending. No one understood it, because BioWare didn't give anyone the chance to do so.

2. Joker's Retreat

This would be another one of the bigger problems with the ending. When the Catalyst ignites and shoots its space magic into the galaxy, some odd things happen. Let's breakdown what we saw in the cinematic, at least with regards to the Synthesis ending:

- Shepard throws himself into the beam of light and dies.

- The Catalyst ignites, throwing off an initial wave of energy that destroys a few things in its path.

- The wave of energy reaches Earth, reprogramming the Reapers and convincing them to leave the planet. The soldiers do some arm pumps.

- The Catalyst charges up, drawing a lot of the space debris into itself. At this point, the entire fleet seems to have disappeared, as there's only a few things floating around nearby. [2]

- The Catalyst shoots space magic toward the Charon Relay, destroying it.

- The space magic bounces between every mass relay in the galaxy, destroying them all, and sending out the wave that will combine all synthetic and organic DNA everywhere.

- We see the Normandy in the middle of a mass effect jump between relays, for some damn reason, trying his best to outrun the space magic. He also looks over shoulder, like the Normandy has a rear window or something. He continues outrunning the magic, fails, and is ripped out of the jump.

- We are on an unknown world that is supposed to represent the Garden of Eden; all the plants appear to be partly synthetic.

- The Normandy has crashed here. The door opens and Joker, EDI, and your party members emerge partly synthetic, and take their first steps on this alien world.

- The End - Project Director: Casey Hudson

So... what happens here?

Let's stick with what we know about that timeline. The Charon Relay (called the "Sol Relay" in the game) is the only mass relay in the Sol System, and it's called the Charon Relay because it was discovered within Pluto's largest moon. Pluto. So that means that Joker would've had to have fled from the battle well before the Crucible/Catalyst ignited, to allow time for an FTL jump to the very edge of the system and a mass relay jump to... somewhere.

There's really no reason why Joker should be running. Buch and I both agreed that maybe he'd make a getaway if the situation was just absolutely hopeless, since he does have a crew to look after, and he wouldn't get them all killed in a no-win situation. But there's nothing to indicate that actually happened. Harbinger was on Earth and the Sword Fleet had enough leeway to get the Crucible in place. In fact, while Shepard's talking to the Catalyst, the battle is still raging outside. [3]

So, the situation never seemed dire enough to have us believe that Joker would have made a getaway at any point before the Crucible is brought in. And that's not even taking into account that your crew is somehow miraculously back aboard the Normandy, despite some of them already being dead if you took them with you during your mad rush to the Citadel portal.

Buch (maybe not Knight) has a theory about all of this: Joker wasn't running. He was just leaving.

Notice that when Shepard talks to the Catalyst, the battle is raging. But when we see the Citadel shoot the green/red/blue stuff into the Charon Relay... there is no space traffic whatsoever. There is debris, and if you chose the red ending, there are dead Reapers, but there are no allied ships. Buch figures there is an editing error. There is a stretch of time between the Reapers being destroyed / carried up and the Relay chain reaction going off.

In this time, the Reapers (in the blue and green endings) leave Earth's vicinity and go off to wherever Shepard puts them -- the allied fleets and Hammer team pump their arms -- the fleets leave, going back to Rannoch and Tuchanka and all the rest (thus making your decisions a touch more meaningful) and the Normandy reassembles its crew, minus Shepard obviously. At some point they begin a Relay jump (maybe they're dopping off their crew... I dunno) and the Relay chain reaction is right behind them.

There is one plot hole to this as I see it: if you have enough assets, Shepard is revealed still breathing under a pile of rubble at the very end. So this would mean that the Normandy crew gathered together but failed to notice Shepard's body under that rubble. Odd.

3. This DLC is important... until it's not.

Buch: And we still need to know why the Normandy is running, with a full crew. But see -- there is no allied traffic in the air in any ending. Just Reapers and debris. The battle is over and disbanded. Unless it's just an error from the aninators.

Knight: But if the explosion of one mass effect relay could destroy an entire star system (Arrival), what does that mean for the galaxy?

Buch: O.o Hm. Is that what happened in Arrival? The whole system?

Knight: Seemed that way.

Buch: I'm not sure about that... God, who the hell knows...

Knight: From the Mass Effect Wiki - "She finishes by saying that the resulting explosion could destroy the system."

Buch: Hm.

Knight: "If asked why destroying a Mass Relay would destroy the system, Kenson will say that they are the most powerful mass-effect engines in the galaxy and the energy released from destroying one would probably resemble a supernova. There are three hundred thousand people on the colony in the system, and the resulting explosion would probably kill them all." [4]

According to Mass Effect 2: Arrival, Shepard has just destroyed every single star system containing a mass relay, which would include... everyone. Even Earth, obviously, though we never see what happens to Earth or any of the other affected star systems after the relays explode. [5] It still clashes with the rest of the lore. Unless...

Buch: The green stuff is this dark energy? You see it shoot from relay to relay. And it is right behind Joker as he is mid-jump when it happens. Your supernova would only occur at the last relay.

This is literally the only explanation that would make sense. Short of magic.

BUCH again: I disagree. I think we're nitpicking here. The green/red/blue space magic is not the same thing - it destroys the Relays safely. The Catalyst is essentially a god - he can break the Relays safely if he wants to.

4. BioWare Promotes Inbreeding

So, the last scene of the game is of the Normandy crashing on an unknown "Eden" planet. There doesn't seem to be anyone else around, no indigenous peoples, though we don't know that for sure. We see Joker, EDI, and (in my case) Liara step out into the world and look out toward the sunrise. Discounting the fact that both EDI and Liara were on Earth with the rest of Hammer, this ending doesn't seem as hopeful as BioWare thinks.

Most of the galaxy has just been wiped out, on account of the mass relay explosions. Even if not, they're on a mystery world with maybe a shuttle or two available to them - though one of them is definitely destroyed (Cortez' shuttle). So, the chances of them making it off the world any time soon are... slim. And we're not sure how many members of the crew are alive, or how many of them died in the crash. So it might be that only a few people are being tasked with repopulating the planet. Not to mention there are some incompatible races on board, so they might hit a dead end eventually.

So, while Joker and EDI are having a moment with the sunrise, I can imagine the rest of the crew having a genuine "Oh Fuck..." breakdown. There's also some similarities between this Eden world and the Snow World that we see post-credits, so we can assume the crew succeeds in utterly destroying their own gene pool.

Buch: So, Shepard jumps into the light. He dies, becomes an AI ghost, and carries the Reapers away. Then perhaps (in a very long off-screen sequence) the fleets return home, and the Normandy crew reassemble, satisfied that Shepard is dead. They jump a Relay, and then Shepard's green stuff goes off. Normandy, maybe the last to leave, is knocked right out of hyperspeed by the green stuff, and crashes, thanks to Joker being the best pilot ever ever. They land on a planet and tell Shepard's story.

Knight: To themselves.

Buch: And the creepy inbred Williams/Moreau children they have.

Knight: Yeahhh...

Buch: It is definitely the same planet, though. I would have loved for only Joker and EDI to be stranded. Neither had a family left, nor any other goal but each other. Would have been beautiful... But no, Liara gets out with them.

5. Should History Be Altered?

Neither of us are really in favor of BioWare altering their vision for where the Mass Effect series is going, or how it ends. If a writer wants to end their novel a certain way, then that's just the way it is. J.K. Rowling isn't going to rewrite the ending of her series just because it didn't fit someone's vision for how it should have ended.

Sure, both of us have ideas for how Mass Effect 3 should have ended, but that's not our call to make. Really, our gripes with the ending are that it doesn't seem finished. It has plotholes, inconsistencies, and good ol' fashioned nonsensical continuity errors. On top of that, it feels rushed and lazy. And of course, for the final scene of a role-playing game, it seems like our choices have little consequence. Like the Dragon Age 2 team was brought in to build the ending. That's not something I think any writer or creator strives to inject into the closing moments of their fictional works. It could've been an accident, or perhaps the rumors of the ending being changed at the 11th hour are true, and this is just the result of a sloppy patchwork.

We're not in favor of the ending being changed; we're in favor of the ending being completed. And judging by what we've seen, that's just not the case. (I mean, the main antagonist from the last game, Harbinger, appears toward the end and doesn't have one line of dialogue. What's up with that?) So, we hope BioWare does pay attention to the outpouring of discontent from their fans and makes amends in some way.

If not, you know, whatever. We'll always have Taris.

--

Buch: I love a dead hero.

Knight: Sacrifice just made the most sense... And yeah, between DA:O and ME3, I think you just like sending people to their deaths.

Buch: I do.

Knight: You shot Anderson...

Buch: Right in the heart. He said, 'You did good, child. You did good.' And I said, 'I did you good" and then I don't think he heard me.

Knight: LOL

--

As a side-note, if you were a little peeved about the ending, like we were, some folks over at the "Retake Mass Effect" site have organized a charity drive as a means to vocalize their collective dislike. I've never seen a protest really take shape like this, so I'm all in favor of supporting it. Upon writing this, they've raised over $40k for Child's Play.

-Retake Mass Effect: Child's Play-

100% of all donations go to Child's Play, which uses the funds to send toys, video games and video game consoles to hospitals and therapy facilities. If you've ever been to a hospital for an extended stay, you know how much distractions like video games can mean. Even if you don't want to donate through the "Retake Mass Effect" community, it's still a worthy charity.

-Child's Play-

Disingenuous Discussions: "Revan, Cover Art, and Kurt Russell."

Buch: So, today we're bringing back our Disingenuous Discussions column, because we want to complain about the cover for the new Star Wars videogame tie-in novel, Revan by Drew Karpyshyn.

Knight: Indeed. There is much wrong with this, and we want to tell you why you should be angry, as well. And then buy it, like we inevitably will.

Buch: I actually quite like bad book covers - sometimes I've deliberately paid more for a copy of a book with a silly cover. And compared to a lot of Star Wars books, this one is not too bad. But we do enjoy hating things that we financially support.

Knight: Right, they could've gone with the same artist that made up the nightmare-inducing cover for Darth Bane: Rule of Two.

Buch: Exactly. That was the same author, and it was easily the worst cover I've ever owned. But Revan here does look like he's holding onto the support railings on a bus.

Knight: It kinda looks like he's afraid of the lightsaber. Keeping it at arm's length, like Indiana Jones would hold a snake.

Buch: Looks like he's trying to read the serial number off the back.

Knight: So he can return it for the one he actually uses in the game.

Buch: To be fair, in the game, everyone just uses plain white ones in the wrong shape.

Knight: Yeah, well, I'm not here to listen to reason and logic. I'm here to trash this on the grounds of irrational nostalgia.

Buch: That's basically all we do. And Darth Revan is usually involved.

Knight: In some negative way. He's our President Obama.

Buch: Do you think Revan looks overweight in that picture?

Knight: Like he ended up eating the rogue gizka on the Ebon Hawk. In one bite.

Buch: I don't think there's any need at this point explaining why Revan is so important to us. But it is important to know that he's a really big deal and the two of us really care about his story. Here we have the writer who invented him, apparently continuing the largely user-defined and non-specific role-playing game character's story, but in a novel. On the one hand, I'm extremely excited to learn what happened next - the Knights of the Old Republic series always had an unsatisfying lack of an ending.

Knight: Agreed. No endings I could really latch onto. And Revan is a really big deal, you're right. His story was intriguing not only on its own, but because it was open to so many interpretations. Revan could be unique to everyone. So it's... odd, I guess, that they're deciding to so openly set his character in stone.

Then again, there's money to be had.

Buch: They've got to have money. And really, I think I'm glad about the book. Frankly, I don't rate Karpyshyn's previous SW and Mass Effect novels much at all, as much as I adore his work on the games. And as you know, I have a real 'thing' about going back to a story after it has concluded to my satisfaction. I think Knights of the Old Republic 2 was a disappointment. I like to leave stories alone - very opposed to sequels, especially after time has passed. But I'm excited to read this. I don't know why. You?

Knight: I'm excited to be given any reason to delve back into the "Realm of KotOR," I suppose. The Old Republic is three centuries removed, The Sith Lords focused on the Exile, and Bane was an idiot. This'll be the first real... anything to represent a true sequel to KotOR. So, I'm excited, even if the form this project eventually took isn't really to my liking. There were other stories to tell in that time period.

But if any of the original party members show up in the book, I will probably clap and scream like a girl at a showing of Twilight.

Buch: I am very attached to 'my' Revan - the girl with the blue eyes and black ponytail who looked a bit like Barbara Streisand, carried a yellow lightsaber and sometimes turned out dark side. It will be a stretch for me to accept Revan is now absolutely, no-arguments, officially a handsome, heroic white man, as I assume he will now be.

But yes - seeing HK-47 or Canderous or whoever will just be wonderful. And even seeing the classic Revan costume there - odd choice of lightsaber aside - makes me feel like this will be more of a sequel than anything. Which is probably why it's on that cover, despite the continuity questions it raises.

Knight: Either they know something we don't, or we know something they don't. Or maybe it's a case of, "It's Revan on the cover. They'll buy it anyway."

Buch: But if Revan weren't on the cover, or his armour wasn't there, how would you be feeling?

Knight: They could've shown Revan's face for the first time. In that case, I probably would've dug up my torch and matching pitchfork. So, it sounds like on a basic level, they were still thinking about the fans. However minimally.

Buch: I like that the armour is there. But I'm sure it makes no sense that he would wear it after the events of the games - after his return to the Republic. There is no denying that this cover is silly.

Knight: I agree. Maybe we make up a very small camp of folks (along with the KotOR fans back at the ME Fanfic Forum) that would actually get pissed at something like this. The lack of the Juyo lightsaber form on the cover, the green blade, the inexplicable lightning in the background, as you pointed out, makes it hard to even place this in the timeline!

Buch: He's at some kind of Sith reunion during an unbelievably heavy thunderstorm. On the Shadow Broker's spaceship. And it's windy out.

Knight: Everyone knows that wind is a severe problem inside... spaceships.

Buch: I just noticed that there is blue lighting above him and red below him - that's actually kind of a nice touch, considering that the character was constantly switching sides, and the game was largely concerned with which way the player chose for him. Reminds me of the level-up screen.

Would have been nice for his damned lightsaber to have been one of those colours, though.

Knight: There was pretty much only one color they could've picked for his blade that wouldn't have fit with anything we know about Revan. Green is that one color.

And purple. But Mace Windu's badassery was not yet known to this galaxy.

Buch: Green lightsabers are cool because Luke Skywalker's sword was green. Luke Skywalker is cool. I hate purple lightsabers.

Knight: I hate your cat.

Buch: And I think you'll find that Mara Jade actually invented the purple lightsaber. Plus - I hate all cats.

Knight: Mara Jade invented a weird way for a Jedi to die. That's her contribution to the New Republic, in addition to Ben Skywalker.

Buch: All silly things, I think. I don't like purple lightsabers, and I don't like sequels to Jedi. Where were we?

Knight: Uh.

Buch: We are ace journalists.

Knight: Dragon Age 2?

Buch: Dragon Age 2. Fuck that game.

Knight: Fuck that game complete.

Buch: Not complete. Two-thirds.

Knight: 66%

Anyway, Revan! So, all of that aside, Karpyshyn and the New Adventures of Revan. How about some closing thoughts?

Buch: I think I would have preferred that title: 'The New Adventures of Revan.' It would have been poor, but at least it would have been interesting. 'Revan' as a title just emanates laziness. 'It's a book about Revan - whaddya want? There he is, look - see the Revan costume? Yeahhh.' But really, as I say, Star Wars book covers are usually pretty lousy and involve someone we know, in a costume we know, holding a lightsaber in a threatening manner. That's how it goes. It's just not an encouraging sign.

Because Revan to me is more important than your Ben or Anakin Skywalkers - he's up there with Luke and Han (and maybe Gandhi) in the VIP Club. I'm 27 years old now, so I ought to have bigger concerns... but I really don't want Revan's tale to end badly. And I really don't want some endless series of diminishing sequels.

Knight: Right-o. I think in the six-or-so years after KotOR's release, we've both sort of settled on how we imagined Revan's story to continue, where it probably would've ended. This book's likely to end up being one big case of, "I'm not so sure that would've happened," since Karpy's probably going to try and link Revan to The Old Republic in some way. It might be a frustrating experience, but then again it might not be. This might be a good book, and maybe Karpyshyn took this as seriously as we would have. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Buch: That's a good point. And maybe he had a great idea. He might just have a fun adventure ready for us here, involving closure for Revan and a cool sword fight in a thunderstorm.

Knight: Closure? When an MMO is involved? Stranger things have happened.

Buch: The MMO thing worries me, for sure. I feel like the old man from Big Trouble in Little China. 'You leave Jack Burton ALONE!' Except it's Revan.

Knight: Would you accept Kurt Russell as Revan?

Buch: What I really like about our friendship is that quite often you will type out, word-for-word, what I was thinking! :D

Knight: Haha! Fantastic, then we'll end on an agreement!

Buch: Normally we disagree more on these things! Dragon Age 2 next time, eh?

Knight: Aw, yeah.

Buch: 70%

Knight: 33%

That's how much of a game it was.

Buch: That's how much of a game your mum was!

Knight: I'm telling.

Disingenuous Discussions: Dragon Age Origins

Hello and welcome to the first Disingenuous Discussions! We thought it would be fun to write an article together, and also we wanted to talk about our most beloved video games (for a change). So this will be an occasional series, in no particular order, looking at our very favourites. We've no particular structure for this - expect it to be long and meandering!

I'm Buch, and I'll be writing in this elegant, British font.

I'm Knight from the US of A, and I'll be using this typewriter-ish font, even though I've only used a typewriter twice in my life.

Ironically, Knights are from the British Isles, and not the USA.

Ironically, Americans are also from the British Isles. We make everything better.

I own that t-shirt! *looks down*
I'm wearing that t-shirt!

---

For the first one we chose a very recent game - Dragon Age: Origins from last year. Nobody really seems to play or talk about this game, though there is a sequel in the works and a number of expansions available, so I guess it did well enough.

It's a story-based RPG from BioWare, using semi-turn-based, part-based combat and lengthy dialogue trees to tell an engaging and very interactive story. In that regard it bears a striking resemblance to our beloved Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, from the same brilliant developers. But I think we've talked enough about that game already.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a role-playing game set in the Star Wars universe, which also just happens to be the best game ever created by man or Canadian. The comparisons that can be made between it and Dragon Age: Origins are many, and I think it's safe to say that this is the heir apparent to the spirit of KotOR. Even after this MMO, The Old Republic, is released, I can't imagine this opinion being changed much.

I call it the 'Spiritual successor' to KotOR. Also in many ways it reminds me of Jade Empire, BioWare's wuxia-style RPG which I really loved for its simplicity and enormously fun plot. Dragon Age seems to deny itself a sense of 'fun' at times. See Landsmeet, later on.

And, to be perfectly honest, I think it's almost a crime that BioWare's Mass Effect series is being touted more than Dragon Age. If there is one series that I'd like to be stranded on a deserted island with, it would be DA:O. This is also taking into consideration that I would also be stranded with an Xbox, electricity, and a television.

I'd be stranded with the original (well, I played it first) and best: KotOR. But. Enough of that. We were talking about Dragon Age. I think what might harm this game's success is its lack of originality. The setting is a standard Medieval Fantasy World: a mix-mash of Tolkein and all the usual fantasy archetypes. There are some nice, unique (and distinctly BioWarian) touches though - the elves are second-class citizens who live in the slums of human cities as servants, the dwarves are not Scottish (oddly, they're either American or from the West-country...) So, whilst unoriginal, the story and setting are frequently refreshing.

As is the case for most fantasy stories these days. It's very difficult to market a fantasy world that DOESN'T have the elf/orc archetype in there somewhere. George R.R. Martin and Robert Jordan sort of blazed a trail of their own, in that regard. But I think it's safe to say that most are okay with that. I certainly am. It saves the player (or reader) from too much of a learning curve. The same can be said for Mass Effect, with their almost-Jedi main character, space marines, democratic order of planets (DOOP), and last but not least, blue women.

But! At the same time, while I don't mind another storyteller taking those archetypes and running with them, I sorta mind when they half-ass the originality. Yes, we have dwarves, they hate magic, and they are expert craftsmen and miners...but they are certainly not Scottish. I think that's the only part of the lore where Dragon Age really twisted my sides: their original twist on a race was to give them a different accent.

To BioWare's credit, though, they did try to make this game more about the politics of the world and not as much about the battle, which I commend them for.

Agreed. The game begins with an intro promising 'multi-racial heroes battle orc-like demons', but all 6 'origins' (the unique and superb opening acts depending on your chosen race and background) reveal much more depth than that. And with the arrival of villain Teyrn 'Stop Comparing Me To Richard III' Loghain, the secondary plot reveals itself. At that moment the land of Ferelden gets really interesting.

Similarly, the combat and general gameplay are very similar to Bioware classics like Baldur's Gate and those mentioned above. But Dragon Age seems to seek to refine all those tried and tested elements. I'm not sure if this is to the game's detriment or its advantage. Most every character, quest and location is good (the same cannot even be said of KotOR) but you often get the sense you've done all this before, in another world.

The only point of contention that I would have is the Landsmeet, which I think we both agree: sucked all the magic out of the room. If it had just boiled down to "pick who you want to be ruler" I'd have been fine with that. But, no. Like the Mass Effect 2 ending, the player lost control of the situation based on erroneous choices at some point in the game. Boo.

Agreed, a thousand times! The insanely-complex 'Landsmeet' section, right before the dramatic conclusion, threatens to ruin the game. Both times I played it, I had a walkthrough open and was studying it very carefully, just to make sure the plot didn't veer off course. Easy there, BioWare. I just want to beat the bad guy.

Anyway... we seem to be coming down awfully hard on the first entry in the Favourite Ever Games Ever series. Be assured the only reason we pick at these slight negative points is that in a game this good, they stand out. Also high difficulty and poor graphics. But who cares.

RPG's are something I've only come to love in recent years, since the advent of full voice acting. So it's not too surprising that this brand new game is on my top-twenty list - so are a lot of BioWare titles, and maybe a couple of other, similar games. Dragon Age is one of the very best of this genre - the modern, Western RPG. Even if it does seem overlooked.

I just finished playing the game again, and managed to clock in a personal record-breaking 63 hours of silly, silly procrastination (writing it down makes me wonder what accomplishments I could have made in that time...) But the game sucks you in completely. For those 63 hours (and the thirty-or-so extra hours of endless unsaved deaths) I deeply cared about stopping the Blight, confronting Richard III, romancing the French spy on my team and getting to know the varied cast of followers in my camp. Even Sten.

63 hours is something I've yet to beat in terms of Dragon Age, but I have over 70 on Fallout 3 and Poke'mon Sapphire, and over 3000 hours on World of Warcraft. Don't beat yourself up.

Your mother has three hundred hours on World of Warcraft.

And the camp itself is wonderful. Traditionally, BioWare provide a place where the player can wander around in peace and with all the time in the world, and manage inventory / chat with his party. But not since the Ebon Hawk has one of these home bases felt so much like home. This time, we get a dimly, warmly-lit makeshift camp in the Fereldan countryside. Our wardog (I named him Molyneux, after Peter) stands guard and barks, a lovable pair of traveling merchants are with us, there's a big fire, and representatives from the various groups you recruit to your cause. As you progress, the camp gets more and more populous. And there is lovely, soothing, Tolkeiny music in the background.

The camp is my most favorite part of the game. Perhaps because of the way the game is structured so that no place in the world feels safe, except for that damn camp.

Even the camp is attacked at one point.

Fuck. Get on that BioWare.

And the music, well I'm listening to it right now.

Me too!!

Combined, it represents the spirit of the genre in my mind. Something that you find often in R.A. Salvatore's writings, for instance.

The soundtrack is generally very nice, if a lot of it is forgettable (compared the the brilliant 80's synth style stuff for Mass Effect, the very cool pseudo John Williams for KotOR or the astounding Chinese-esque epic score for Jade Empire.) I already mentioned in an earlier blog how much I adored the scene where Leliana sings a beautiful, beautiful elven song - in camp.

The camp also happens to be where you come to know your party members more intimately, so you come to associate the camp with the pleasant feeling of growing closer to your companions as friends and, sometimes, as more-than-friends.

Even now, I'm thinking about Duncan...

I would've liked more moments like this throughout, but the game suffers from one of KotOR's biggest drawbacks: world creation. The zones are confusing and it all feels like on-the-rails exploration. Oblivion and Fallout 3 did exploration justice, and even though Fable 2 had some pretty straight paths, there was so much to see/discover. Dragon Age feels like the worst parts of KotOR at times: i.e. Manaan, the Shadowlands, and Dantooine - all of them are pretty to look at, but feel like mazes and are confusing beyond all reason. Ocarina of Time did exploration better than DA:O and KotOR and that was a generation before.

The Brecilian Forest reminded me very, very strongly of the Shadowlands. There was even a mad hermit.

Gimme some open zones BioWare! Orzammar's very pretty, but here's what the map looks like: |-------------|-------------| Boo. The visuals and gameplay need to catch up to the storytelling in a lot of respects. If they sprint fast enough, they just might catch up by the time Dragon Age 2 is released.

In that sense, I suppose that's why I adored this game (go figure), the story is amazing, because you actually feel like you're a part of it, as I've mentioned before. Just like KotOR, you feel like you have the freedom to behave as polite or as foul as you would if you were presented such choices in real life. Bethesda almost allows this, but they don't have the writers for it. Lionhead has the writers, but all the choices are fairly black and white (hehe). Until the sequels to all these games come along, Dragon Age provides the best interactive stories of all time.

Lionhead has the....
I strongly disagree with this. This is why we used separate fonts.

Say what you will, British, but Fable 2 was consistently clever and engaging. The gargoyle quest had one of the worst rewards ever (initially) and I still felt satisfied. And my font's better anyway.

Hm.

In conclusion, I think we both agree that Dragon Age: Origins is a game that deserves our admiration, with a side of scorn. The formula for this game is dated to the point where it shouldn't even exist in this generation...

I disagree... hugely...

...but BioWare's writing staff, led by the Fabulous David Gaider, have managed to create a story that's sure to pull you in, even if the gameplay and visuals do no such thing. Give us a game that doesn't molest us with loading screens, give us some open zones that don't look like a crossword on paper, and for the love of god: NO MORE DARKSPAWN.

When that day comes, BioWare, you have my axe.

And my massively-underpowered bow.

---

Knight's Review:

+ The characters are some of the best BioWare have created.
+ The interaction with said characters is very dynamic and real. You really come to genuinely feel like you're a part of the gang.
+ The world at large is very well crafted, believable, and open for more exploration that I wouldn't mind being a part of.
+ The origins are an amazing gameplay element! One can only hope more games adopt this as a way of giving their players more unique experiences.

- The graphics.
- The gameplay could use more depth.
- Exploration has been done better in text-based games of yore.
- Fighting three kinds of darkspawn for hours sucks.
- Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening

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As for me, I'd say DA:O is made up of everything you've seen before (plus some Canadian-style twists), but it's undeniably more than the sum of its parts. Despite the GOD-DAMN LANDSMEET and a very steep difficulty, this is up there with the very best of BioWare.

Buch's Top Five Random Awesome Things:

1) Leliana's song
2) You can have a male/may gay relationship in this. YES. There is even a sex scene, albeit a very muted one. BioWare remains the gay gamer's best friend. Seriously, they're really doing their best. That move HAD to hurt sales, but they did it.
3) Despite smallness, Orzammar and the Dwarven culture are fasinating and beautiful pieces of background.
4) The prequel novel, Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne, is very good. Much better than a game tie-in has any right to be. And it really enhances the game too - makes certain themes more apparent and certain characters (Loghain, Alistair, Shale) a lot more fun to speak to.
5) As you explore or dungeon crawl, your party-members will have funny little conversations. They're very funny. And there are tons of them in this game.