Spacey soap opera

by ERIK LEIJON

Last September marked the end of one of America’s most beloved five-day-a-week institutions when CBS cancelled soap opera Guiding Light after nearly six decades on the air. The glory days of the soap have understandably come and gone, as the serial novel before it, but the cliffhanger-to-cliffhanger pacing of those formats remains an effective way of building a dedicated audience that sweats in anticipation for each thrilling episode.

Mass Effect 2 (X360, PC/EA, BioWare) is like an interstellar, interactive soap opera, or a Charles Dickens novel set in space. It’s a dialogue-driven adventure to save humanity from a dangerous galaxy of untrustworthy aliens, specifically a nasty species obsessed with harvesting paralyzed human bodies called Reapers. It again stars Shepard (a fairly customizable avatar), two years removed from a near death experience and now working for a shadowy humans-first organization run by a man voiced by Martin Sheen (no joke).

I’m wary to divulge any more details concerning the plot, not because of spoilers, but because Mass Effect 2 also introduces the greatest stylistic advancement to storytelling since Dickens figured out how to reintroduce characters long thought to be dead (another tool frequently used in ME2).

Hopefully all you Mass Effect 1 players kept your save file, since the ability to transfer your built-up character to the sequel is a remarkable feat. It doesn’t give you back your impressive weapons caches, but it does recognize all the tough decisions you had to make in the first, such as which teammate to sacrifice, the fate of the council and, of course, which sexy alien chicks you shacked up with. The decisions you gave little thought to two years ago will dramatically alter how things go down in Mass Effect 2 (no baby mamas, thankfully), a ridiculously ballsy idea given that it keeps players on a set track they may not have anticipated. It does bring a personal touch to the characters and stories though, as if Dickens was writing David Copperfield just for you.

Of course, all would be for naught if developer BioWare hadn’t made some necessary improvements to the third-person shooting action and dialogue trees. Blasting aliens in the first felt more like a means to an end, and underdeveloped compared to the plot and Blade Runner-esque visuals. Now the missions, including deviating from more immediate goals to scour unknown planets and star systems for loot, work perfectly in tandem with the juicy, scandalous twists and turns. The convoluted inventory system has been streamlined, and the shooting scenes resemble your typical over-the-shoulder perspective action game.

Unlike the first Mass Effect, you get the sense that the action sequences could have worked as a standalone game, but BioWare’s unconventional and utterly inimitable style of storytelling and interactivity remains tied to the dialogue. Each of Shepard’s many conversations branch into multiple paths, allowing players to portray Shepard as everything from a selfless hero to an inconsiderate jerkoff. In reality, Shepard will receive plenty of both Paragon (good) and Renegade (evil) experience points, and even though many of these responses come colour-coordinated to denote whether they’re nice or naughty, hitting on your redheaded assistant isn’t as stilted as a series of pre-recorded statements might suggest.

A neat touch is how Shepard’s still-healing face will alter in appearance, his scars becoming more pronounced if he acts more cruelly. Not unlike Bill Shatner trekking across the stars, part of the discovery of Mass Effect 2 is not just out in space, but also in the minds, hearts and fleshy bits of its characters. With downloadable content coming in the future courtesy of BioWare Montreal, the Mass Effect 2 journey of blasting and bedding is hopefully just beginning.