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Everything was streamlined, dumbed down, simplified for the “casual gamer”, who the big-wigs in marketing assume have the attention span of gerbils.  Casual gamers, surely, could not be bothered with such tiresome things as inventory management or deep character customization.  Strangely, though, it was determined that the casual gamer would not find it at all tedious to drag a slow-roaming cursor across planet after planet to collect resources – a rough equivalent to earning money, although there is already a money system in place.

The galactic codex remains in tact for fans who want to soak up every last detail about the Mass Effect universe, and Bioware kept the elaborate dialogue trees  – albeit within a weaker narrative.  But Mass Effect 2 is entirely a shooter, with some RPG elements thrown in, as opposed to the original game, which was an RPG with shooter mechanics.

So why has the balance shifted?

Probably because the sales figures of games like Halo and Gears of War suggest that the market is fertile for more of the same. And if EA was going to put its formidable capital and marketing power behind the franchise (e.g. higher production values and the 2 minute television spot during the NFC Championship Game), then there needed to be some serious risk vs. rewards calculations.

Mass Effect gained the role-playing genre even more ground in the collective attention of the mainstream – it was a game that almost everyone could enjoy.  The critical acclaim was near-unanimous.  But clearly its success wasn’t enough for a company that has proven that it is safer and more profitable to churn out the same game year after year (Madden) than to take risks on things like creativity and originality.

Furthermore, the sparse narrative in Mass Effect 2 highlights another aspect of EA’s business model – the focus on downloadable content (DLC).  This game provides us with a sort of main course – maybe even only the meat of the entree – and undoubtedly within a few weeks or months we’ll have a chance to purchase the sides, the drink, the dessert, and perhaps the appetizer after the fact.

I say all of this knowing full well that I’ll be amongst the first to snatch up every bit of DLC the moment it is released – hoping beyond hope that they’ll serve to fill in some of ME2’s missing details.  So, if nothing else, it does represent a strong business model.

In spite of all of this, I can say that I did enjoy Mass Effect 2 – but perhaps only because it allowed me to return to the universe I had come to know and love in the first game, to once again take the reins of Commander Shepard and save the galaxy from certain peril.  As a standalone game it does just enough right to as a shooter and as a basic RPG to hold its own in the market, and to enroll a new corps of casual gamers into the franchise.  As the middle game in a trilogy, it does just enough to satisfy fans’ two-year hunger.

So overall is Mass Effect 2 a success?  Certainly.  Is it everything I expected?  Not even close.

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As it turned out, I wouldn’t have to wait too long, and I may even have been overdue in giving proper credit. Bioware, a Canadian company that has risen to high acclaim in recent years for producing consecutive triple-A quality games, also deserves credit for being a trailblazer when it comes to inclusion. Back in 2005, Bioware released a game called Jade Empire, one that took place in a fictional world, but that borrowed extensively – and authentically – from Chinese culture, history, and mythology.  Unlike other Asian-inspired properties that feature white protagonists – the list here is endless, from Kung-Fu with David Carradine to M. Night Shymalan’s whitewashing of Avatar: The Last Airbender – Jade Empire featured an entire cast of Asianesque characters – “esque” only for the fact that the game does not take place on Earth.  It was evident in every detail of the game that Bioware had done their research.

2007 saw the release of Mass Effect, a space opera featuring an ethnically ambiguous main character – Commander Shepherd – who players had the option of customizing to resemble a variety of different ethnicities, and to be male or female.  The majority of the crew were aliens, with special mention to Tali’Zorah nar Rayya (pictured right), whose name, appearance (clearly inspired by Muslim hijab), and accent invoked the Middle East.

Mass Effect challenged norms of sex and sexuality as well, with the possibility for a “lesbian” sexual encounter, and a race of aliens – Asari – who invoked human femininity, but in actuality had no separate sexes or genders.  I quoted lesbian because the aforementioned encounter could happen between a female Commander Shepherd and Liara (pictured left) – an Asari who could be called “feminine”, but who explained that she was not female.  In this, the Asari might also be the closest we’ve come – or will come for a long time – to transgendered characters.

Finally, in 2009, Bioware released Dragon Age: Origins, a high fantasy game in a world populated by the usual suspects – humans, elves, and dwarves.  At a glance, DA:O would appear to be a step backwards for the company in terms of inclusion, because there is nary a dark-skinned or almond-eyed character to be found in the world.  Every character – with perhaps the exception of a random NPC or two – had European features.  It could possibly be argued that one character, Sten (pictured right), for his cornrows hairstyle, was intended to invoke an African-American, but that would be a stretch, due to his otherwise European features.

There was also the character creation system, which again – like Mass Effect – allowed players to create a character inspired by a variety of ethnicities (my character is pictured left).  The only trouble here is that regardless of the look of the character, the families of the character remain constant – and they invariably have a European countenance.  Different world, different rules of genes and inheritance – I was willing to accept some creative liberties, although they could’ve taken a hint from Fallout 3, which demonstrated well how a character’s family can be changed to match the player’s ethnicity choices during character creation.

Thankfully, Bioware did not even attempt – or need – to rely on the weak “hair connection” of Sten, nor the minor concessions of the character creation system.  They also didn’t simply rest on the laurels of creating two inclusive games for the mainstream years prior.  Above I talked about how a character’s ethnic inspiration could come through in ways other than appearance – namely by invoking real human experiences.  This is exactly what Bioware did in Dragon Age: Origins – and much like we saw with Jade Empire, there was clearly a fair amount of research done, or information drawn from a diverse or well-informed design team.

Without flinching from the possibility of controversy, Bioware boldly modeled the Elves of Dragon Age after the American “black experience” – the very thing I suggested back in February.  The Elves, thousands of years before the events of the game, possessed a rich and vibrant culture until they were conquered and enslaved by a human empire.  Fast forward to the present and slavery has ostensibly come to an end – although still practiced in some pockets of the world – but most Elves, living in cities, are confined, by a legacy of oppression, to what are called “alienages” or slums.  Their social status as second-class citizens follows even those that leave the alienages, as happens if you play an Elven main character, with humans marveling at an elf that actually made something of him or herself.

There are other elves, too, not confined to the city slums, who live nomadic lives and remain extremely wary of humans.  They also look down on their city brethren, referring to them as “flat-ears”, and thinking them weak for not casting off the yoke of human oppression.  The parallels between the elven experience and the black experience is not at all superficial, with the game asking some tough philosophical and moral questions around these issues of race and racism.

For example, during a dialogue between my city-elf main character and one of the nomadic elves, she asked me whether or not I thought that humans were generally sorry for their history of enslaving the elves – a question that invokes the idea of “white guilt”.  The potential answers to these questions were even more telling of the care that Bioware put into building this narrative.  I had the option of saying “It depends, all humans are different.” – the enlightened response, for sure – or “I don’t think most of them (humans) think about it.” – invoking the all too common attitude of Americans today of dismissing slavery and its legacy to history, as something not necessary to consider in present day.

The moral question comes when you encounter an elf who long ago was wronged by humans – they killed his son and raped his daughter, who upon realizing she was pregnant, committed suicide.  This fellow – through means I’ll leave for you to discover – continues to punish the humans for what they did way back in the past.  As an intervening party, you need to decide whether or not he is justified in his actions, or whether it is time for him to let go of his hatred.  In this we see the other side of the black experience – how should African-Americans respond to today’s Euro-Americans – with hatred or resentment for crimes of the past, or with the possibility of forgiveness?  This is a question left for every African-American to answer, not just once, but sometimes on a daily basis – and in Dragon Age, the player is left with a number of different ways to address the vengeful elf.

The Elven analogy is only one of many ways that Dragon Age demonstrates inclusion, albeit probably the richest example.  There are also the Dwarves, who use a caste system clearly inspired by India – including the so-called “Castleless”, corresponding to India’s “untouchables”.  There are also possibilities for gay and lesbian sexual encounters, depending upon the gender of your main character and the choices you make in relationships with your teammates.  This marks the first time ever in a video game that we see an illustrated sexual encounter between two male characters, as two women had at least been done before in Mass Effect and in Fear Effect: Retro Helix back in 2000.

Hana and Rain from Fear Effect: Retro Helix

Going further than that, the male companion in question – Zevran (pictured right) – was not a stereotype of the gay male, but a very complex character with a rather Ancient Greek sensibilities about sexuality – partnering with whoever he finds beautiful, regardless of gender.  And unlike many depictions of “gay” male characters in media, Zevran was not defined by his sexuality, but more by his life as an assassin.

In spite of the near unanimously Euro-inspired cast of characters, Dragon Age:Origins demonstrates inclusion of diverse experiences in ways that no game has ever done before.  Bioware has again established themselves as a trailblazer in an industry that so far has shied away from challenging the status quo or tackling tough issues.

One can only hope that in addition to blazing a trail, Bioware has also set a trend, with other developers soon to be nipping at their heels in trying to be more inclusive.

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This new problem became even more present in the case of the latest game I’ve played – Uncharted 2: Among Thieves for PS3.  In it you play as Nathan Drake, the white treasure hunter (thief).  Let me give you a quick background on this guy.  In the first game, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, we learn that Nathan is the descendant of Sir Francis Drake – one of many brutal conquerors of the Western world.

Nathan is pursuing a lost treasure that his ancestor is said to have left behind.  My problem with that game, aside from the fact that Nathan is plundering cultural sites, is that it maintains the mystique of Francis Drake the explorer, rather than Sir Francis the conqueror.  Now you may say, it’s a just video game, not a social commentary.  But that’s just it.  It doesn’t have to be a social commentary to at least acknowledge that Sir Francis Drake was a piece of shit.

Anyway, this really created for me the problem of not being able to relate to the main character that others had described to me in the past.  And my “other world” argument doesn’t work in this case.  Here we have the descendant of a plundering conqueror doing some more plundering – and he’s the goddamn hero of the story.

He starts off fighting native soldiers of what looks to be some place in South America, and ends up fighting some kind of zombies or some other nonsense.  I’ll let the killing natives thing slide, because it’s to be expected that the villain – some other plundering asshole – would recruit locally.  Cheap labor and all that.

The “zombie” thing could’ve been interesting if they were the vengeful dead left behind by Francis the conqueror, but it was nothing so relevant as that.  It was some magical B.S. that changed people into creatures.

That was the first game.  And I brought all that baggage with me into the second game.  There was not a moment of playing Uncharted 2 where I wasn’t thinking “I don’t want to be this plundering white boy”.  Nathan Drake for me, by his very premise, is character with few redeeming qualities.  As the game proceeds, we see Drake robbing a museum in Turkey, but at least having the moral sense to use only tranquilizer guns on the museum guards – at least those he isn’t pummeling into unconsciousness or choking out.  These guards are all dark-skinned, which from my understanding of Turkish demographics, is rather improbable.

He goes on to loot temples and other sites in Nepal.  The villain – some burly homicidal Eastern European – is exploiting some sort of Civil War in Nepal to raze temples to the ground in search of a certain artifact.  Drake is hot on his trail, not to stop him, but to beat him to the punch.

Disaster happens, Drake ends up isolated in some snowy mountains, and is rescued by a Nepalese mountain man.  A popular story.  When he wakes up, he finds himself in a village where, as is to be expected, no one speaks English.  Drake makes a number of snide references like “Yeah, I still don’t speak that.” and “Why do I bother?”.

Oh, SORRY to burden you, white plunderer, by having the audacity to not speak your fucking language up here in the Nepalese mountains, and hinder you in your efforts to steal from us.

By some sheer coincidence, Elena – Drake’s reporter friend from the first game (she’s white, too) – who for reasons unknown can speak the language of the Nepalese mountain people – is there waiting for him when he wakes up.  She proceeds to take him to someone who “really wants to meet him”.  At this point I was expecting the Nepalese equivalent of the “magical Negro”, some sagely old woman or diminutive hunchback, maybe.

Imagine my surprise when it’s some jolly old white guy wearing the Nepalese garb – obviously a transplant.  Turns out he was once an “explorer” like Drake, looking for the same elusive artifact, but he gave up and settled in this village.  Phew!  Good thing there was another white guy around, because for a minute there Drake’s quest for plunder might’ve been obstructed by a language barrier!

Drake’s presence in this mountain village eventually brings a full scale assault from the villain down on the natives, who are mowed down relentlessly as Drake himself runs for cover.  We’re talking men, women, children – being gunned down by soldiers and a plowed by a tank.  A tank.  Seriously.  In exchange for your hospitality, kind villagers, I bring you death.  In spite of the mass devastation of innocent villagers, the only two moments of mourning in the game are upon the deaths of Elena’s cameraman – also white – and Schafer, the former treasure seeker.

Maybe the moral of the story is, if you’re a Nepalese mountain person and find a white man collapsed in the mountains, leave his punk ass there to die.

Oh, and did I mention Chloe?  Well, she is Drake’s other potential love interest, a direct contrast to Elena, his reporter friend.  Elena is white – very white – with blonde hair and blue eyes and an investigative journalist.  Chloe is dark-skinned, green-eyed, dark-haired, and a fellow thief.  She’s the “exotic” one.  In only her second scene in the game, we find her straddling Drake, ass in the air, putting his hands on either of her hips before leaning in for a kiss.  Completely forced and disingenuous sexual banter continues between the two throughout the game – brilliantly written lines like “You know you’re going to miss this ass”, and “I think you’re enjoying this too much” as she climbs a ladder.

And of course she’s all kinds of shady, selfish, her motives and loyalty repeatedly questioned, whereas Elena is the reliable mainstay.  Elena’s also the only one to call Drake on being a pig, and to have anything close to a sense of feminism – that is to say, some self-respect as a woman.  She’s also the one that Drake chooses to “love” in the end, with Chloe going on to…who knows where.  But no worries, because Drake points his friend, a lecherous cigar-smoking old white man, in her direction.  So we can assume she won’t be alone for long.  You know, because she’s just waiting around for the next white dick.  All women should be so fortunate.

Once upon a time, I was able to just play video games and enjoy them.  I didn’t see race, I didn’t see cultural issues, didn’t see gender issues, didn’t see anything.  Games were, after all, my escape from such heavy things.  But now, being more “conscious”, I can’t help but notice them.  And damn if it isn’t a burden.  This burden carries over into just about everything these days.  There is hardly a movie or a game or a book where I’m not looking for and easily spotting a slew of cultural faux pas and outright offenses that can only be attributed to the dominance of an oblivious majority.

Does anyone else get this?  Do you mournfully reminisce the days of blissful ignorance?  I do sometimes.  Yet, I don’t think I’d be willing to trade it for my current awareness.

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The characters are complex, three-dimensional, complete with virtue and vice.  April Ryan from TLJ returns, but she is no longer the idealistic starving artist who went on the save the world.  Now she is a jaded, cynical, and bitter woman driven by revenge.  She seems both noble and selfless in how she fights for her cause, but in reality she is bent – even if only subconsciously – on self-destruction.  Saving the world, it seems, creates a void in purpose after the fact.

Kian is a man of both unshakable faith and honor.  He has committed himself to the word of his Goddess, which he believes is aligned with the will of the Six Empresses of his kingdom, a belief that is easily protected within his home city, insulated from the reality of the outside world.  Once abroad, however, and faced with the grim truth of what his Empire does in the name of the Goddess, he questions not his faith, but the politics of his leaders.  It is a strange sort of thing to play as a character who is killing the allies of another of the playable characters and watching as he comes to grips with his purpose.

Zoe.  Zoe, Zoe, Zoe.  There is so much to say about the new main character – but in a few words, she is a dreamer who has lost the ability to dream.  Like the other characters she questions her purpose in life, and has become restless, lazy, uninspired, and bored.  So when her closest friend goes missing, she jumps at the opportunity to search for him, not out of some altruistic instinct, but out of a personal desire to rekindle her sense of purpose.  Along the way she discovers that she is tied into the very nature of the twin worlds, that she has some affinity to the Dreaming.

Although most of the game is played as Zoe, there is enough of April and Kian to add plenty of variety and alternate perspectives, creating a truly three-dimensional narrative.

Dreamfall is probably better described as an interactive story than a video game, and so a warning to action gamers and even RPG-players, this is a game purely driven by its plot and characters, with everything else merely an excuse to keep you involved.  For me and other adventure game lovers, it is perhaps the crowning achievement of the genre, an example of how a video game can be art – indeed, interactive literature.

Of lesser importance to the overall product, but worth mentioning is that the visuals are excellent – not the high poly count of current gen games, but rendered in a style that somehow allows it to remain timeless.  Clean, simple character models with no muddy textures, and gorgeous environments that showcase top-notch art direction.  From the bright and clean quasi-futuristic middle-eastern look of Casablanca to the esoteric and hauntingly beautiful City of the Dark People, there is plenty to look at in Dreamfall.  The only shortcoming here is that the environments aren’t larger, because here is truly a world that you’d like to spend a few hours just exploring.

As for sound – the music is mostly ambient, and falls into the background, present enough to create an atmosphere, peaking at critical story points, but never intrusive.  Of greater importance is the quality of the voice acting, which does justice (at least in English) to an incredible script.  The believability of the characters is enhanced not only by what they say, but HOW they say it.

There is so much to love about this game, I could spend another ten paragraphs singing its praises, but I’ll spare you.  Let me just summarize it all by saying that this is the single greatest adventure game that I have ever played, and a contender for my favorite game of all time.  If you do not agree after your first playthrough, I’d recommend waiting awhile and giving it another go, perhaps after dabbling in a little of the underlying mythology.

I give Dreamfall my highest recommendation.

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Books

Tore through the 12 book Everworld series by K.A. Applegate only to find out that it ends rather abruptly.  It’s pretty obvious that the series was intended to go further, but something happened along the way – maybe a dispute with the publishers, bad sales, who knows.  But I highly advise everyone to stay clear of this series, as it completely fails to come to any resolution of the conflict.  After so much suspense and build up, you never find out what happens to the main characters or whether or not they defeat the main enemy.  Worst ending for a book series ever.

So, on a mythology high, I turned to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan, and so far he has not disappointed me.  Applegate left me even more wary than I usually am about endings, so we’ll see how Riordan fares in that department.  An ending really can make or break a story.  Once I’m done there, I’ll get back into the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull.

That’s what I’ve been up to – in addition to a few personal projects for intellectual stimulation and cash flow.  Expect this draught to continue for awhile, because save some great controversy or disaster – not that I’m wishing for either – I couldn’t be any less interested right now in politics or current events.

So if you’ll excuse me, my cave awaits…

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