[More updates soon -- the video project that consumed two weeks of my life is now complete.]

I probably should be commenting on Actiblizzard, the Gerstmann-gate or similar overshadowing news items, but I’m still so smitten with Mass Effect, the newest offering from my one fanboy passion, BioWare. Despite my awe, I have some criticisms.

Set in an original futuristic universe, Mass Effect combines aspects from nearly every science fiction franchise and icon into one daunting game. Interstellar exploration, automatons gone bad, hive-minded bugs, a struggling humanity, etcetera ad nauseum.

What impressed me most about the game is the degree of cinematic immersion it achieves through gorgeous graphics, a breakneck pace and a fantastic conversation system, which allows fluid conversation between Shepard and NPCs (if you haven’t played the game, you should really check out a video of the conversation system in motion). I felt like I was watching and participating in a thirty hour space opera instead of playing a game.

Now for the criticism.

The conversation system makes for a cinematic experience, but can be unintuitive at times. It uses a radial menu of heavily abridged topics that do not always represent the actual dialog. A few times I found myself choosing one option only to hear something I definitely did not intend come out of Shepard’s mouth.

The fast-paced plot causes some problems as well. Mass Effect affords the player little to no tutorial explanation. It drops you right into the game and lets you figure out how to control, manage, and equip your party all on your lonesome. Tutorial stages can break the mood in a game — it’s always a little strange to hear a knight or spacer tell me to use the A button — but the also relieve the confusion of what can be a daunting system.

Luckily, Mass Effect is much simpler than its predecessors, especially Baldur’s Gate II and its Bible-thick manual. Like Jade Empire, it has more of a twitch-gaming component to it with the third-person shooter combat. Nevertheless, a little help would have been nice. I even missed the customization options the first time I started the game — you have to say you want to change your name to get to them for some reason.

The game’s immersive pace has an impact on the gameplay as well. The main quest is a race against time to find out what rogue super agent Saren is up to and then stop him. Maybe I’m too into it, but I felt wrong making an extensive sidequest tour when the galaxy was on the cusp of destruction.

These problems are understandable. Mass Effect as an experiment in cinematic storytelling tries a lot of things that are very new to the RPG genre and raises a lot of questions about where gaming narratives can go. It’s also fucking awesome, and I highly recommend playing it.