By: William Chandler
I’ve been meaning to replay the original Mass Effect for quite some time now. It stands as not only my favorite of the first two Mass Effect games but rounds out the holy trinity of Bioware games that is also comprised of KOTOR and Jade Empire. If I took the time to make a concrete top ten list of my favorite games, it would likely hold a pretty high spot. My love for the Mass Effect series is also tinged with regret. I’ve never actually even played Mass Effect 3 due to a lost save file that I carried through the first two games and a lack of motivation to start anew thanks to the quite controversial reception of the third game. After a nasty relapse and subsequent rage quit of my horrible addiction to ranked League of Legends, I decided to begin a full series play through in order to finally wrap things up for both Commander Shepard and myself.
Frankly, just thinking about how long it has been since the first Mass Effect came out makes me physically ill. It was nearly nine years ago and I was twelve years old. I did at least two full play throughs of the game in the week after its release, one renegade and one paragon, and I would later take my paragon file into Mass Effect 2. After which I wouldn’t ever play a Mass Effect game again. Well, until now that is.
For some reason the first things I thought of while installing Mass Effect onto my PC were the damned elevators. The ones on the ice planet of Noveria to be precise. I remembered their strange mosaic-like frosted glass windows that made them feel like they doubled as tacky bathrooms. I also remembered just how hated the elevators actually were at the time of the game’s release in 2007. The elevators served as some fairly lengthy and far too frequent loading screen cover ups which, if player reaction was anything to go by, was almost a worse idea than just having some long as shit loading bars. Back then I didn’t really mind them. Boy, was I tolerant. In the year of our Lord 2016, those things are actually the devil. They kill pacing and the frequent comrade conversations that I remembered from before actually are not all that frequent. I think I heard Garrus and Wrex (because those are the only two companions I ever use in ME1) bicker one time in my full 25-ish hours with the game.
Upon reaching the menu screen I felt some deep nostalgia from the music. I remembered it being great but, man, is it actually incredible. Honestly, the entire soundtrack is just aces. It’s one of the things from Mass Effect 1 that has held up the best. It’s highly electronic, of course, but it is sparse and tasteful enough that it never overstays its welcome and the incredible orchestral accompaniments are saved for some of the most memorable sections of the game. Outside of the soundtrack, however, the audio is surprisingly lackluster. Ambient audio is either barely acceptable or entirely not there and just about anything other than the bass filled gunshots are pretty bare. I think of my frequent MAKO drives along the surface of the empty side-planets and can really only call to mind the faint whirring of the MAKOs engines, another decidedly passable effect. At some point I just wound up turning on a podcast to fill in the silence.
Sort of.
Dying Light – Developed by Techland and Published by Warner Bros.
Space Marshals actually reminds me quite a bit of 2014’s Counterspy, both in good ways and bad. Counterspy was, of course, pretty strictly 2D whereas Space Marshals is more isometric, but the minute to minute gameplay isn’t all that different. Simply running headlong into a room full of enemies will only serve to get you straight iced in Space Marshals due to the fact that you are frequently both heavily outnumbered and outgunned. This leads to the utilization of stealth elements in order to tactically position yourself in the environment to give yourself an upper hand in combat. This is the modern equivalent of stealth gameplay boiled down to its simplest elements. Sneak around killing dudes just out of earshot or sight of other dudes and continue doing so until you’re spotted, then just start mowing guys down until things return to status quo. Rinse and repeat.
Alien: Isolation asks quite a lot from the player. It asks that you consistently pay attention to your surroundings, that you strongly consider every single move, and that you be aware of the Alien’s location at any given moment. It asks that you remember things; passcodes to doors, the minute details of a floor’s layout, and even potential hiding places should things go south for you. It even asks that you look past your own anxiety and stress in order to move forward, one step at a time while under extreme and constant duress from all manner of forces more powerful than you. All of this takes a toll that is both emotional and mental, and, over time, this tension drastically alters the way you perceive the game itself as well as the challenges that it places in front of you. But perhaps the thing Alien: Isolation requires most from the player is something that is often in short supply: Patience.
I’m officially referring to Sunset Overdrive as my “Pleasant surprise of the year” because, man, I really didn’t expect to like it at all. Insomniac’s favor with me fell off pretty drastically during what I considered to be a run of pretty mediocre PS3 exclusive FPSes, uninspired Ratchet and Clank sequels, and then whatever the fuck Fuse was. This heartbreak and subsequent loss of faith in Insomniac’s ability to consistently put out quality, fun, and charming products really made me skeptical of Sunset Overdrive even if its concept had a lot of potential. Then came the abysmally unfunny ad campaigns which tried way too hard to get across that silly, anti-authoritative punk tone. The odds were pretty heavily stacked against Sunset Overdrive for me but, almost as if to simply prove me wrong, I think Sunset Overdrive is some of the most fun I’ve had playing a video game this year.
nerdorgy 