First Impressions: Mass Effect 3: Galaxy At War

When BioWare announced there'd be a multiplayer mode for Mass Effect 3, that's really the point where I started assuming the worst. You know, because what place did multiplayer have in a story-centric RPG like this? (I haven't forgotten BioWare's old CRPGs, but this is a different situation.) What was the point, other than to appeal to the Gears of War/Battlefield 3 crowd? (Nothing against those games; I own and play both.)

(Parentheses.)

The really clever thing about the multiplayer, though, is that they didn't make it some separate entity where it's really just a battle royale for no reason. BioWare have gone through a lot of trouble to ensure that not only does Galaxy At War make sense within the context of the lore and the story, but it also ties back in with the singleplayer mode in a creative way. I'll go over that first before we dive into the actual game.

In Mass Effect 3, most of the game revolves around Shepard uniting the galactic races against the Reaper onslaught by way of the main campaign and the many sidequests that are woven in throughout. By doing this, you add "War Assets" to your overall "Effective Military Strength", the latter of which is represented by the big progress bar that you have access to in your war room on the Normandy. Collect more war assets and the EMS progress bar fills up more and more, and in order to get the "best" ending, that bar needs to be filled up all the way.

Now, you can max out your EMS exclusively through singleplayer if you wish, but it requires that you really go out of your way to grind out those sidequests and scanning quests for war assets. Let's say you're on your second playthrough, and you just really don't want to do all of that planet scanning again, but you still want to fill up your EMS bar all the way. Galaxy At War essentially provides an alternative for this. The more matches you win in multiplayer, the more your "Galactic Readiness" increases.

Your Galactic Readiness acts as a multiplier for your war assets, so you can pretty much look at it like this:

(War Assets) X (Galactic Readiness) = (Effective Military Strength)

Basically, you can play multiplayer in place of the many sidequests, if that is your preference. To that end, the singleplayer and multiplayer modes complement each other quite nicely, adding more depth and spontaneity to Shepard's overall goal. It's nice to know that you can take a break from the game... by playing another part of the game - and you'll be working toward the same goal in each. I'm hesitant to say more games should do this, but it definitely makes multiplayer modes look like less of a slight against the prime function of the product.

So! That's how Galaxy At War functions within the context of Shepard's quest. But how does it play?

Gameplay - "BioWare Loves Waves."

Galaxy At War is probably excessively complex for what it actually is. Basically, it's "Horde Mode" from Gears of War, and "Firefight Mode" from Halo. It's wave combat, with you and three other players going up against ten waves of increasingly stronger enemies, such as: Geth, Reapers, and Cerberus. Your task is to survive, and do as much damage to your foes as you possibly can.

Randomly divvied out through the waves are simple little missions that add to the challenge. Kill these targets or Activate these terminals or Upload the information... Actually, I think those are the only three.

The game itself is remarkably barebones. Beyond an adjustment of difficulty - Bronze, Silver, and Gold difficulties, that is - there's really not much here in the way of variety. Playing the game a handful of times will probably show you everything the game has to offer. And since it plays almost exactly like the base game, you won't be surprised by much.

But when I say the game is perhaps excessively complex, I'm referring to the customization options.

Customization - "Diversity in Combat."

The neat thing about the multiplayer mode is that it allows you to customize your own character - albeit in simplified ways, but it's still entertaining. All of the classes from the base game are available, and each class sports a group of three different characters for you to choose from. For instance, choosing the "Soldier" class will give you the option of being a Human Female, Human Male, or a Turian. For "Vanguard", a Drell, Asari, and a Human are available.

And so on.

Choosing one of these characters will allow you to give them a name, customize their color scheme, loadout weapons, and distribute points into the various trees as you level up. In essence, you can tailor your character to fit your play style. And let me tell you, it's pretty satisfying and exciting to charge into battle as a turian. If you've ever wanted to play a character of another race, this is pretty much your first opportunity to do so.

But even with customization options available to you, you're still going through all this trouble to level up your character, acquire weapons, skill points, color options, etc. to play a game that never really changes. It's only one game mode and six different levels, all of which you might have played before in the singleplayer story.

It's barebones, but that might have been intentional on account of...

Monetization - "Why Play When You Can Pay?"

It's obvious that EA/BioWare are looking at their multiplayer mode with an Activision/Riot Games mindset. The levels that are offered at this point are pretty unremarkable and static. You can tell that there's going to be a map pack in the near future. A character pack, as well.

Additionally, most of the characters, customization options, weapons, and mods in the game have to be unlocked. You can do this by playing through different levels, acquiring credits, and spending them on veritable grab bags that might contain the upgrades or the characters you so desire. There are three different packs, with the cheapest one having the least chance of containing good items or characters.

But let's say you're tired of playing through the game and just want to unlock your turian soldier right now. Well, EA/BioWare have graciously allowed you the option of purchasing these item packs with Microsoft Points. So if you don't want to play the game to get that "Spectre Pack", you can just buy it with real money.

I'm not opposed to stuff like this in theory. I've played League of Legends, and I think charging people for cosmetic items is a pretty neat way to displace the fact that the game is free. The thing about BioWare's Galaxy At War is that it's not free; it's unlocked with the dreaded Online Pass, and you have a rotten goddamn chance of getting the characters and mods that you will definitely need if you want to play at the higher difficulties without being carried by the other players.

I'm almost at level 20 with my character, and I still haven't unlocked a single mod for my assault rifle. It's by the grace of the Goddess that the only character I've managed to unlock was the only one I wanted: the turian soldier. So, for now, I'm stuck at Bronze difficulty, hoping I'll unlock the mods I need to ascend to the... higher difficulty for the same levels.

Eh...

In Summation - "Buy You A Fight In Space."

In theory, Galaxy At War is a fantastic idea. And actually, in theory, it's pretty fun for a while! Being able to fight off the Geth or the Reapers or Cerberus with your friends, playing as your favorite race, is damned entertaining. It plays like Mass Effect 3, contains sufficient customization to add some much needed depth to it all, offers some good ol' co-op action and a distraction from the singleplayer campaign that'll actually end up benefiting Shepard's mission.

The multiplayer just doesn't seem to have the kind of staying power that I'm sure EA/BioWare were hoping for. There's no real reason to progress or get better or hit that upper tier other than the achievement, and the single "wave combat" mode gets old fairly quickly. There's also that prevalent feeling that eventually, with the right amount of cash in hand, you'll be able to buy the experience you're craving.

"Space Cash..."

It's all a bit uneven once the initial thrill wears off, but it's still multiplayer Mass Effect. Although, with Assassin's Creed now shipping with a lengthy campaign and a rich multiplayer mode that also ties back into its own story, you might wonder why EA/BioWare didn't push the envelope a bit further.

Game Review: Mass Effect 3 - Part 2 - Where Do We Go From Here?

Here's Part 1 of the review if you haven't read it. If you have, here's a link so you don't feel left out.

"LENS FLARE!"

Role-Playing - "I'll take it from here, kid."

Here's the thing I've never quite liked about Mass Effect. It claims that it's an RPG, yet there have been very few instances throughout the series where your choices actually mattered. Yeah, the Council; yeah, Wrex, but none of it really changed anything. In KotOR, you could kill off half your party and conquer the galaxy. In Fallout: New Vegas, you could destroy an entire city and take over the Mojave. In Alpha Protocol, one decision could keep you from seeing a large portion of the game (in favor of another portion).

Not to mention Shepard. I'll say it again, voiced protagonists are really not conducive to a true RPG. When your character is saying things that you wouldn't say, or doing things that you have no control of, with a voice that really isn't yours, then you're not really role-playing, are you? I've always maintained that even though the Mass Effect games are some of the best I've played in a long time, they're not proper RPGs. Which has always been a strange thing to associate with BioWare, the company who has arguably made some of the best ever.

But the beauty of Mass Effect 3 is that, very suddenly, a lot of those choices that you made in the last two games suddenly come back around where they hadn't before. It's like you were firing your gun into the air throughout ME1 and ME2, and this is the game where all those bullets fall back to earth and just mess you up.

Without having played the game a second time without an imported save, I don't know how much of the game was just coincidence and how much was an actual alteration of the game based on my decisions. But what I saw was everything coming back around; like an overblown karma simulator.

There were quests in Mass Effect 1 that seemed insignificant at the time, people I talked to maybe once or twice, and little decisions that seemed to amount to nothing. In Mass Effect 3, I was suddenly talking to these people again, seeing how my little decisions altered the course of their lives - sometimes for the better, sometimes not - and in some cases, it actually helped me out. How many series have you played where being nice to an NPC in the first game amounts to a reward in the third? Not too many. If nothing else, this is what really impressed me about the game.

The other thing I mentioned up there was the voiced protagonist. I do hesitantly support it in the Mass Effect series, if only because that's how they've always done things. (I will never support a voiced protagonist in, say, Dragon Age 2. It didn't/doesn't/won't make sense - ever.) What got me worried in the demo was that the dialogue options that you're provided are noticeably slim. That is to say, where in the last games you were typically provided a few options to respond and then some "investigate" options, here you're typically provided only two responses: with one being amicable and the other being aggressive.

This was tough to accept, but I eventually warmed up to it. What it appears BioWare did was take up all that disc space that would've been committed to Shepard's various and frequent responses, and passed it on to the other NPCs and Shepard himself. In this game, there is noticeably more dialogue coming from NPCs, and although Shepard does a lot of the talking without any input from you (which I typically don't like), it makes the whole game feel a bit more even, more cinematic. And honestly, that's what the games have always been trending toward. Immersion definitely suffers, but you feel more engaged in the story.

You'll still have to make some tough decisions, as I said before, but you won't get many decisions involving the direction of the conversation. If that was something you outright loved in the previous games, you might be disappointed here. Much more than the other games, Shepard feels like his own character here.

I'm fine with this. Mass Effect could never really figure out if it wanted to be an RPG or a cinematic action game. With Mass Effect 3, it finally finds some footing somewhere, so the overall experience is a more consistent one. It's not trying to be everything at once. Now, it's only trying to be Mass Effect, which is cool by me.

But I still won't accept this in Dragon Age. I won't and I can't. Let Mass Effect be Mass Effect. Dragon Age 3, look to Dragon Age: Origins for inspiration!

"I want to be a Reaper."

The Characters - "To Hell and Back."

What really made the game memorable was how pretty much all the characters from the last two games make a comeback - with the exception of those you killed off or got killed, of course. This wasn't like the Star Wars prequels, where somehow all the classic characters made illogical comebacks. Here, all the old characters are written back into the story with the right amount of patience and logic. You never really feel like BioWare's throwing everyone back into the mix, saying, "Look! Garrus! You fans like Garrus, right? He's here! Calibrations!"

It's done with a little more tact than that. Indeed, the characters seem to come through a lot more intensely in this game. Now that they're given more time to talk, unlike in ME2 where they'd suddenly shut up for the rest of the game after two conversations, you can really get to know everyone all over again.

And this being the end of the series and the end of all things, you see a more vulnerable bunch of characters, who see everything that they know and love coming to an end beneath the Reaper invasion. You're not the only one with their homeworld being ravaged, and you'll actually get into a number of conversations where sympathy comes into play. Suddenly, you and all these races from all walks of life share something very personal. You're all losing a home.

There's little else I can say without spoiling things, but I would say that this game has probably the best batch of characters out of any other BioWare game going all the way back to KotOR. When all is said and done, you really do feel like you're bidding real people with real lives a fond farewell. It's an amazing accomplishment for the series and for the company, especially given BioWare had every reason to completely ignore all of it. The goodbyes were all the more heartbreaking because of this.

The Ending - "Departing Known Space"

Note: Again, I'll try to keep this spoiler-free, but just in case, you might want to avoid this section if you don't want to know anything about the ending.

BioWare have said continuously that Mass Effect 3 is the end of the series, Commander Shepard's story arc, and other such things. I will say this much: they weren't lying.

This ending represents a lot of things for the Mass Effect universe. Up until now, the Reapers' greater purpose has been shrouded in mystery, as was the Illusive Man's ultimate role in everything. Why were you brought back to life? Why is the Illusive Man so obsessed with the Reapers? What are the Reapers? Why are they being such intergalactic dicks to everyone?

Most of all: How do you stop an unstoppable force that has already decimated the Council races?

All of these questions will be answered, and then some. Unlike Dragon Age 2, there's no towering billboard raised up just before the credits that reads, "Stay tuned for Mass Effect 4!" No, this is it. This is the end - in more ways than one.

But I guess the big question here, more than anything else, is whether or not the end of a trilogy that we've been following for the better part of five years lived up to expectations. Basically: Is this a satisfying end to the Mass Effect trilogy?

Well... no. It's not.

Well, why the fuck is that?!

I don't know.

You better have some answers, man! I'm playing this thing right now and I don't want to be pissed off when I finish it!

Without spoiling anything, I'll say this. The entire series has been leading up to this "final battle" between the Reapers and the allied forces that Shepard is able to unite. That final battle is one of the most magnificent and exhilarating sequences in any game that I've played. And it's only elevated by everything that's at stake. If you care for the story, for the characters, for an end to the conflict: you'll feel the fire lit under you. It's an all out war against the Reapers, and it's extraordinary.

Everything starts to resolve itself. Questions are answered. Conflicts are put to rest. A lot of people die. It all converges at this moment when you start saying to yourself, "This is it. This is the end, and that was amazing." And then you start expecting the credits to roll.

But they don't, and in the last five minutes of the game, the story makes a sudden and drastic right turn into Lost territory. It's so sudden, so out of nowhere, and so utterly devastating in terms of its implications for the universe at large, I pretty much just sat there, staring blankly at the screen asking myself, "What the fuck just happened?"

It makes no sense. It feels like BioWare outsourced the final moments to the lowest bidder and slapped it on there. Compared to the extraordinary amount of love and care that went into the other 99.9% of the game, the last 0.01% seems like hate mail. It's just impossible to reconcile what it does and what it means with the rest of the game. I wasn't expecting a happy ending or anything like that, but I certainly wasn't expecting to be mindfucked.

For me, the game ended twenty minutes earlier, when you say goodbye to everyone before the final battle. That's the ending, and it's a damned good one. The ending that BioWare throws in there at the last minute exists solely to confuse and aggravate. To make matters worse, it's horribly derivative. I won't pretend to know what the developers were thinking when they wrote that ending, but it was very likely contempt.

I know this because my first reaction when I shut off the game was, "What did I do wrong?"

In Summation - "Beyond the Point of No Return."

Despite that last minute ending, Mass Effect 3 hit all the right notes, with a single sour chord being struck at the end of the composition. Everything up until that ending, if I might say so, is absolutely brilliant. This game was made for fans of Mass Effect. Legitimate arguments can be made concerning their use of Day One DLC and their other questionable marketing tactics, but the game itself is solid. If you've followed the series thus far with much excitement, then this last chapter will just about tip you over the edge.

As far as the story and the characters are concerned, there's no going back. As such, the game retains an "all or nothing" feeling throughout. If it stumbles, it does so when it's of no consequence. If it does something terrible, it's that it tried to go out in an ambitious and unpredictable way instead of taking the responsible route.

But for all intents and purposes, this is a satisfying conclusion to the series and an interesting, new beginning for the Mass Effect universe. I have no idea where future games in the franchise will go, how they'll function, who we'll meet. If nothing else, the galaxy that Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy SR-2 leave us with is an uncertain one, born of immeasurable sacrifice and steadfast friendships, upon which all things will be built.

4.5 out of 5 Stars

Game Review: Mass Effect 3 - Part 1 - This is How the World Ends

"Take Earth Back! ...Or Don't."

Note: I've tried to keep things as spoiler-free as possible, but there may be indirect allusions to things, if you're worried about stuff like that.

Before we talk about the end, let's go back to the beginning. Let's talk about Mass Effect here for a moment and what makes it such a special thing 'round these parts.

As always - though I'm threatening redundancy here - I don't think I can overstate just how much of an impact Knights of the Old Republic and subsequent BioWare games have had on my life. It's immeasurable, unquantifiable, tautological. I think of that revelatory moment in KotOR when you discover the "truth" of Darth Revan, and I can't even fathom where my life might have gone otherwise. That was the moment I fell in love with writing, storytelling, literature in general. But that was KotOR. What does this have to do with Mass Effect?

Well, because of KotoR, I became a BioWare fan. I made it my mission to play every single game they released, and Mass Effect naturally came up. I wasn't sure what to think of the game, since it was most certainly not anything close to what I thought it was going to be. Voiced protagonist, a new cast of characters, a universe I practically needed a manual for, and Gears of War-style gameplay. Weird, initially, but I ended up absolutely adoring the universe. The politics, the locations, the alien races, and the history - you just don't get that in a game everyday. I was excited about Mass Effect for a long time.

The sequel was a different story. It played better and it was new, but it felt like a wasted opportunity. I mean, compared to the first game where you traverse the galaxy and fight you a Reaper, the second game had you working with a terrorist organization and acting as Space Counselor to your crew. And let's not forget about the removal of most of the RPG elements in the game, and the "Suicide Mission", which was about as ill-conceived as you can get. I liked the game, but superior to ME1, it was not.

Mass Effect 3. I was worried about this game for a good long time. This is post-Dragon Age 2, after all - one of the worst games I've ever played. It just seemed like BioWare had lost their touch, and with The Old Republic out, making some of that internet money was their highest priority. Based on what I'd seen, what I'd heard, I could've bet you Mass Effect 3 would be a cash-in, straight up. There just seemed no reason for them to step up, because they already had the fanbase and already had a bunch of people (myself included) who pretty much had to buy the game. This was going to be the last of the trilogy. The big send-off.

Even with the game in my hand on launch, I thought the thing was going to be as big, if not a bigger, disappointment than Dragon Age 2.

In so many words: I was fucking wrong, and for that I'm thankful. The BioWare that made me love storytelling has made a comeback.

The Story: "All or Nothing."

"Fighting big ass robots isn't how I imagined spending my twilight years, Shepard."

The Reaper threat. It's a conflict that the series has been building since its opening moments, when Eden Prime was all but leveled by Sovereign. Now, three years later, the war has finally arrived - and, unfortunately, no one has bothered to listen to Shepard's warnings. (Bastards.) As a result, Earth is taken within a matter of minutes, in one of the more exhilarating set pieces of the series.

You're just barely able to get aboard the Normandy with Admiral Anderson, who then proceeds to stay behind and help organize the resistance. This leaves you with the task of organizing a fleet to, as the trailers say, Take Earth Back. Seasoned Mass Effect players will know that this is no easy task, because if the last two games have taught you anything, it's that most of the galactic races can never seem to get along. A tough task, but too bad, you have to make them see the light. In a sense, the bulk of the game boils down to one big diplomatic mission after another: appeasement on a galactic scale.

The game presents you with a myriad of ways to accomplish this. You'll find that you're constantly given the option to just screw things up royally or bend over backwards to ensure that everyone gets along. The choice is up to you. Anderson trusted you enough to leave the unification of the galaxy in your hands. If you'd like, you can show him just how misplaced that trust really was. The difficult choices are back in full swing here.

In your journey to unite the galaxy (or to travel thousands of light years just to piss everyone off), you'll be visiting many, many places throughout the Mass Effect universe. A handful will be familiar, but for the most part you'll be seeing places that the games have alluded to quite frequently. I won't say which worlds, since they might be a bit of a spoiler. I will say that, as per the trend, the Citadel is back. Those of you, like me, who were disappointed by the three or so rooms that you were able to explore in Mass Effect 2 will be delighted to know that there's probably more of the Citadel to see here than in the first two games combined.

As advertised, all of this is leading up to the final encounter between you, whatever army you're able to gather, and the Reaper forces. This final battle, if I can say as much, is definitely one of the most amazing and frenetic sequences I've ever seen in a game - elevated to spectacular heights by the story that's been building behind it across three games for nearly five years now. If you've invested a lot into that story and the characters, you'll definitely feel a sense of urgency there.

For those of you wondering, Assassin's Creed this is not. There's no cliffhanger here, no door left wide open for Mass Effect 4. BioWare have said this is the conclusion of Commander Shepard's story arc, and that is most definitely the case. I'll tell you this: the goodbyes were pretty rough on me. It feels like you're leaving a world behind. The way to the exit was an emotional rollercoaster, and tastefully done - on par with the ending to Dragon Age: Origins.

There's a small little detail about the ending that should be mentioned, not spoiled, but I'll cover that at the end of the review.

That little detail aside, though, this is definitely one of the finest stories BioWare have put together in some time. How it constantly draws upon the finer points of the last two games, how it celebrates all of the memorable moments throughout, and how tons of your decisions from previous games swing back around to either assist you or bite you in the ass... it's a very unique adventure. One of the best.

I won't be forgetting this for quite some time. Only positive memories here.

God, it's been a while, BioWare!

Gameplay - "Take Cover! Take Cover Everywhere!"

"Chest-high walls are the real hero of this war."

The series has come a long way from its rather cluttered origins. In terms of combat, Mass Effect 3 actually succeeds in playing as fluidly as the Gears of War series has for some time. Shepard moves a bit quicker, traversing obstacles is a bit easier, and the new melee system adds a new "wild card" to the whole process. But even then, it feels only slightly improved over ME2, but it seems to make a difference, however small.

The big thing here is that the RPG elements from the first game have been reinstated, so to speak. Remember how you only had, like, five guns to choose from in ME2? There are a lot more this time around, and each are upgradable. A weapon can be modded by way of attachments or upgraded models - and the attachments can be upgraded as well. So you feel like you have much more control over your weaponry there, and it's pretty satisfying when it makes a noticeable difference in combat. Wow, look at me giving props to something that was in the first game.

But seriously, glad to have it back.

Armor slots have been thrown into the mix, as well (which is actually an improvement over ME1, which just had mod slots). There are a variety of different helmets, chestpieces, gauntlets, greaves, etc. You can also customize your armor's color, tint, pattern, and lighting. In addition to that, you also find Reaper and Prothean tech along the way that can be used to give you bonus attributes.

Lastly, you'll a little more freedom when it comes to your abilities, since they now do a little bit of branching. It's fairly rudimentary (since they only branch in two directions, really), but it's still another level of control. It's certainly not Dragon Age or Skyrim, but it's a breath of fresh air to have these RPG elements back, and to see them optimized and structured more efficiently. The manufacturers and all that are back, but you won't be scratching your head wondering how you have all these items and none of them seem to be an upgrade (which was half the battle of ME1).

When BioWare said they were bringing back those RPG elements, they weren't lying. I hesitate to say they're very deep options or anything you'll spend an overabundance of time analyzing, but it's a thrill to see them make a return. More than just having additional options, it brings back a sense of control, customization, and immersion back into the game where it had been severely lacking in Mass Effect 2. When you suddenly have a choice of how you go into battle, it makes a difference. It separates the series from Gears of War, with which I felt ME2 shared a little too much real estate. It's great to see some heavily defined borders here.

That does it for Part One! Read Part the Second right here!

Hear Me Out: Mass Effect 3 & The Curious Case of Day One DLC

Its kinda funny, because Knights of the Old Republic on the Xbox was my first real experience with DLC. I wouldn't call it substantial or anything, but there you go. Upon hearing about it, I busted out the ethernet cable and hooked my Xbox up to the internet for the first time. It was an odd experience. Xbox Live wasn't really a thing at the time; people used it, but mostly for Halo 2. No one I personally knew used it, at least.

So the thing boots up, slowly, and I'm greeted with a little screen that lists the DLC for KotOR. "Yavin Station" it was called, and I was unreasonably excited at the time. Shouldn't have been, since it really only amounted to a brief encounter with an NPC and a little bit of loot - and, I guess, the geek delight of being in orbit somewhere in the Yavin System. All in all, it was a brief distraction.

But you know what? It was free! The price was absolutely right for BioWare's first attempt at console-based DLC. And we've come a long way since then.

Now, I'm certainly not saying that BioWare should've kept releasing free DLC, because I know that's not how the world works. (Except in CDProjekt's magical realm.) My main problem with BioWare has always been what's actually in the DLC. That problem really started emerging during the release of Dragon Age: Origins; for as much as I absolutely love that freaking game... most of the DLC is shit. Why is that?

During the initial release, there was a deluxe edition for DA:O that included "Warden's Keep" for free. It wasn't in the standard or collector's editions, though. Everyone else had to pay $7 for the add-on at launch. Sound familiar? And the primary selling point of the add-on wasn't really the story, it was that it came with the only storage chest in the game. In a loot-heavy game like Dragon Age: Origins, you had to buy, with real money, a means to store it all if you didn't want to manage your inventory over the course of an 80 hour game. Some would say that's a more egregious overstep in "DLC ethics" than "From Ashes".

BioWare's slowly building a history of being that company that makes compelling games, and then sells you the pieces that made them compelling. They've shown that they're not afraid of selling you the ending to a story they've built up. "Lair of the Shadow Broker" is by and large the most celebrated piece of DLC BioWare's put out in a long time - yet, it's the ending to a story that's been built up over the course of two games. The mystery of the Shadow Broker was introduced in Mass Effect and continued well into the sequel. An intriguing story that you cannot finish unless you buy the add-on.

Another couple of examples that I'd call to the forefront would be "Return to Ostagar" and "Normandy Crash Site." In both of these add-ons, you're returning to a place of much relevance to your respective characters. In DA:O, you're returning to the place where you became a Grey Warden, met Alistair, Duncan, and witnessed the Battle of Ostagar. There's a lot of history in that little part of the game. Same with "Normandy Crash Site." Obviously, the Normandy played a big part in the first game, and seeing it destroyed in the opening moments of Mass Effect 2 is what really hooked you back into the story.

Both of these were cut away from the main game and sold as DLC. (Though "Normandy Crash Site" did come with new copies of ME2.) Why these parts specifically? Let's say I'm in charge of writing the stories for DLC, and I literally have thousands of years of history and an entire galaxy to use as my canvas: why, then, would I make an add-on that would make for such a compelling moment for players who truly love the lore of these games? Why do that instead of keeping them in the game, thereby bettering the product as a whole, and focusing on something else?

Well, I might have just answered my own question.

And that's really the sad part for me. BioWare would rather piece out key character moments and sell them separately (or use them as a means to combat piracy/used game sales) rather than just focus on delivering a whole game. They're known for their stories, their narratives, their universes; so what does that say when they're completely a-okay with holding all of these hostage to bring in more sales?

It makes them a business, certainly, that much is true. But for some reason, that's never how I saw BioWare. Ever since Knights of the Old Republic, I saw them as a bunch of storytellers first and a corporation second, sci-fi/fantasy fans, whose main goal was to deliver immersive, story-based RPGs. It took the atrocity that was Dragon Age 2 for me to realize, "Holy crap, they really don't care anymore, do they?" Dragon Age 2: a game where they literally left holes in the narrative so that they might be filled at a later time by DLC. Dragon Age 2: a game that spoiled its own endgame plot twist in its day one add-on, "The Exiled Prince."

So, here comes "From Ashes", an add-on that'll be available the day Mass Effect 3 is released. From what's been confirmed, we not only run into a living Prothean, but we also make a return trip to Eden Prime - both of which are huge developments with regards to the lore, and most fans will take notice of why this is the case. Eden Prime, much like the Normandy Crash Site and Ostagar, represents a key moment in the series. It's the place that kicked off Shepard's trilogy, and includes the member of a race that might as well be the True Sith by comparison. (Pre-SWTOR True Sith, when they were still a mystery.) So, of course, that's all up for sale now. A galaxy's worth of stories to tell, and that's the one they pick.

I'm still baring in mind that we don't know all the details yet. BioWare could turn around and release a small bit of info that would make us all realize we blew this way out of proportion. Regardless, BioWare still managed to spoil the fact that we even have Protheans in the game to begin with by ensuring this DLC was a little more crucial than it needed to be... and on Day One.

BioWare's still going to end up getting my money out of this - for the game, at least, not for the DLC. It just has to happen, though I hate myself for it. They're building on a foundation that means a lot to me, just as The Old Republic did. I want to see how the story ends, though I'm amazed that throwing $60 at this thing won't get me the whole package at launch.

Drew Karpyshyn Leaves BioWare, Takes Company's Integrity With Him

What exactly is a "lead writer" on a video game? Well, if you have a room full of writers working on a video game, the lead writer is one of them - the one with the whip who keeps the story in line. They're essentially narrative designers, directors, and staff writers all rolled up into one. (Or, at least, this is how it was explained to me.) This is important when you think about general tone, when/how certain plot points emerge, how characters develop, etc. The lead writer has to keep track of all of this.

My first experience with Drew Karpyshyn's work was during Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the first game in which he was credited as "lead writer". I don't think I have to go back over how much of an impact that game made on my life. I can! But I won't.

...I totally could!

But I won't... Or, maybe... Nah.

His second game as lead writer was Mass Effect. Again, huge impact on my life. It was a fantastically imaginative game, with great characters and great sci-fi that harkened back to the classics of the genre. Mass Effect 2 is when Mr. Karpyshyn had to hand over the reigns, and I think anyone who pays close attention to these things can see that there was some definite change. Not for the worse or for the better, but definite change.

Mass Effect 2, while good, was a little formulaic. Character development occurred on cue and usually involved what you thought it would. When Karpyshyn was involved, these things were handled with a little more subtlety. Party members joined your crew more organically, and their stories unraveled at a more natural pace. You saw Garrus's discontent before you ever heard about Dr. Heart, and how it affected his handling of Saren's case. You sensed Kaiden's subdued personality before you ever heard about his time on Jump Zero, and what actually happened there.

Even going back to KotOR, connecting Carth's trust issues to Malak and Saul Karath was fantastic. It made sense because it had always been there. Even Bastila's parental problem was something I didn't see coming but made sense. Or, you know, how you don't think about why fourteen-year-old Mission Vao is hanging out with a Wookiee until you find out she'd been abandoned.

Let's face it, the writing on both of those games won't win the Pulitzer, but there's something to be said for writing that's a little more subtle, more human. Mass Effect 3 is looking like it'll have all the bombastic dialogue that EA/BioWare have encouraged out of the series of late, and, you know, whatever. But there's something to be said for subtlety. Dialogue doesn't have to be a series of exciting and loud one-liners to make an impact. I don't remember Kaiden saying one interesting line that I can quote endlessly. What he said over time is what made him interesting. His actions and the many conversations he had with Shepard are what combined to make him one of my favorite characters in the game.

Subtlety. I'm gonna type that a few more times, because I think that's what Karpyshyn encouraged while he was with BioWare. Because people don't naturally talk with extravagant rhetoric; sometimes you can talk to someone for a long time before they say anything interesting. That's what made the characters Karpyshyn oversaw a little more human, because they acted like it.

That's an element that I think will be sorely missed once we're finally up to our controllers/keyboards in the beautiful guys and gals of the Mass Effect universe. Time will tell. I've been overly critical of Mr. Karpyshyn's other endeavors, but his work at BioWare speaks for itself: subtly, without sex and explosions doing all the talking.

Thanks for the ride, Mr. Karpyshyn. And good luck.