Mass Effect (computer game)

This article explains the first Mass Effect game; for an overview of the range, see Mass Effect .

Mass Effect
Studio	BioWare Demiurge Studios (Win)
Publisher	Microsoft Game Studios (Xbox 360) Electronic Arts (Win)
Erstveröffent- lichung	Xbox 360 November 20, 2007 November 21, 2007 November 22, 2007 Windows May 28, 2008 June 5, 2008
platform	Microsoft Windows , PlayStation 3 , Xbox 360
Game engine	Unreal Engine 3
genre	Action RPG
Game mode	Single player
control	Gamepad , keyboard , mouse
system advantages preconditions	CPU 2.4 GHz 1024 MB RAM 128 MB graphics card DirectX 9.0c 6.5 GB hard disk space
medium	DVD-ROM , Download , Blu-ray Disc
language	German
Current version	1.02
copy protection	SecuROM
Age rating	USK PEGI

Mass Effect is an action role-playing game and the first part of the Reaper trilogy in the Mass Effect universe . The game was first developed for the Xbox 360 by the Canadian developer studio BioWare and released by Microsoft . The game was later ported to the PC . As part of the Mass Effect Trilogy game collection , which contains the first three titles in the Mass Effect series, the first Mass Effect was also released for the first time for the PlayStation 3 .

In the game, the player slips into the role of either female or male Commander Shepard in order to fight the alien race of the Reaper, which threatens to wipe out the intelligent life of the entire galaxy.

action

prehistory

See also : The Prehistory of Mass Effect (in detail)

The action begins in the year 2183. 35 years earlier, humanity had discovered artifacts and ruins on Mars of the Protheans, an apparently extinct but technologically extremely advanced civilization. After examining and deciphering the prosthetic artifacts, humans were finally able to develop space propulsion systems with speeds faster than light and also discovered the mass portals that allow them to travel quickly to other planetary systems. Shortly afterwards, numerous human colonies were established within the Milky Way .

In 2157 humans first encountered an intelligent alien species, the turians. The so-called First Contact War broke out, but it ended shortly afterwards on the intervention of the Citadel Council. The Citadel is a space station in the Serpent Nebula that serves as the seat of an intergalactic world government. The most influential species, asari, turians and salarians, are represented with their own councilors in the Citadel Council, less influential species usually try to protect their interests through a message on the Citadel. Humanity then also sends its own ambassador and tries to integrate itself peacefully into intergalactic society. But since the people belong to the most rapidly expanding and aspiring peoples of the Citadel, the turians in particular encounter them with a certain distrust.

Plot of the game

An unknown Prothean artifact was found on the human colony of Eden Prime in 2183. The player character Commander Shepard, who can be either male or female, is a soldier on a secret mission of the Citadel Council on board a frigate prototype called "SSV Normandy", a spaceship of the Human Alliance, to recover the artifact. The mission also serves the purpose of Shepard as a possible candidate for the Citadel special unit of the Specters (next to the salvage Spec ial T actics and re connaissance) to consider. Members of this unit are elite soldiers whose job it is to maintain peace and stability in the galaxy. They have special powers and a high reputation, only they have to justify themselves before the Citadel Council, from which they can also receive orders. The Alliance hopes to gain importance among the Citadel peoples by accepting a person in the special unit for the first time.

Upon arrival of the Normandy, however, Eden Prime is attacked by the geth led by the turian and longtime Specter Saren, who is trying to get the artifact into his possession. The geth are a cybernetic race created as servants by the quarians who turned against their creators and exiled them. Shepard and his unit can prevent them from stealing the artifact, but it destroys itself when Shepard comes too close to him. Visions burn into his consciousness that herald the destruction of planets and all of the inhabitants living on them. As the game progresses, these turn out to be a warning to the Protheans against the attacks of a technically advanced race known only as "the Reaper".

After the initially skeptical Citadel Council can be convinced of Saren's betrayal by providing further evidence, Shepard is granted the acceptance as Specter and he is given the task of preventing Saren's plan to use the Reaper to plunge the galaxy into ruin. To support him, he recruits several companions, some of whom are also of non-human origin and who stand by his side on his missions. After a while, Shepard is sent to Virmire, where he meets Saren and learns that he is only a stooge of a huge spaceship, the Sovereign. As it turns out, the mighty spaceship, similar to the Geth, is a cybernetic life form and a representative of the Reaper.

Shepard finally learns of the planet Ilos, a former Prothean retreat, where a facility called "The Tube" is said to be located, with which Saren plans to initiate the arrival of the Reaper. On Ilos, Shepard and his crew find a 50,000 year old prosthetic hologram that explains the origin of the mass portals and the Citadel. These were once built by the Reapers, with the intention that in the future all subsequent intelligent life forms would use them as the central starting point for their galaxy-wide operations and expand along the travel routes of the mass portals. The Citadel itself turns out to be a huge mass portal, which enables the reapers to get from their distant retreat outside the Milky Way into the heart of galactic civilization. Since then, it has always been the first step of the Reaper to wipe out the central galactic organization on the Citadel and systematically wipe out the biological life forms that have subsequently become leaderless. According to the information on the hologram, this process is repeated whenever the living beings of the galaxy have developed sufficiently technologically to create synthetic life. This fate was the last to happen to the Prothean race and explains their sudden disappearance.

However, shortly before their destruction, a small group of Prosthetic scientists succeeded in blocking the Citadel mass portal for future orders from the Reaper. Therefore, it was not possible for the reapers to proceed according to the usual pattern at the time of the game action. Instead, the Sovereign had to be sent ahead to manually activate the Citadel portal. With the help of her superior skills, Sovereign indoctrinated Saren, robbing him of his free will to take the steps necessary for arrival.

Saren flees from Ilos through the "tube" (a small version of a mass portal built by the last Protheans) to the Citadel in order to activate the mass portal for the Reaper, but is pursued by Shepard and ultimately defeated. Meanwhile, a battle rages in front of the Citadel between Sovereign, the Geth and the Citadel fleet. With the support of the alliance, the fleet finally succeeds in destroying Sovereign and so stop the invasion of the Reaper for the time being. Depending on the player's decisions, the Citadel Council survives and offers the people a full seat on the council in gratitude or the council is killed and the people take control of the Citadel.

Characters

Bioware was able to engage many well-known actors as speakers for the English version, and the respective voice actors can also be heard in the German version.

Surname	gender	race	class	Speaker (english)	Speaker (german)	role
Commander Shepard	male	human	selectable	Mark sea	Herbert Schäfer	Player character
Commander Shepard	Female	human	selectable	Jennifer Hale	Nicole Boguth	Player character
Ashley Madeline Williams	Female	human	soldier	Kimberly Brooks	Isabella Bartdorff	companion
Kaidan Alenko	male	human	Guardian	Raphael Sbarge	Daniel Sellier	companion
Liara T'Soni		Asari	Asari scientist	Ali Hillis	Christine Stichler	companion
Urdnot Wrex	male	Krogan	Krogan combat master	Steve Barr	Stefan Müller-Ruppert	companion
Tali'Zorah nar Rayya	Female	Quarians	Quarian machinist	Liz Sroka		companion
Garrus Vakarian	male	Turians	Turian Infiltrator	Brandon Keener	Ronald Spiess	companion
Jeff "Joker" Moreau	male	human	-	Seth Green	Hubertus von Lerchenfeld	Normandy crew (pilot)
Dr. Chakwas	Female	human	-	Carolyn Seymour	Cornelia Bitsch	Normandy crew (on-board doctor)
David Anderson	male	human	-	Keith David	Thomas Rauscher	Alliance captain
Saren Arterius	male	Turians	-	Fred Tatasciore	Kai Taschner	Renegade Specter
Matriarch Benezia		Asari	-	Marina Sirtis		Asari matriarch

1. ↑ ^{a b} Asari have female bodies, but are both male and female

Gameplay

As is usual in many role-playing games, the player initially creates a character who can be either male or female. A face editor allows numerous setting options for an individual appearance of the player character. The surname Shepard is given and is used for salutation in dialogues. The first name can be determined individually. The player chooses a background biography and a psychological profile of his character from three suggestions, both of which have an impact on how Shepard is perceived during the game. Furthermore, the player decides on one of six different character classes, to which twelve different talents are assigned: two uniform talents across all classes (intimidate, flatter), one class-specific (named after the class) and, from a selection of 21 talents, nine skills predefined for each class , whereby four of them can only be activated with a corresponding character development. The number of talents for Shepard increases in the later course of the game by two more to 14. In the course of the game there are also six companions to choose from. In contrast to Shepard, these only have nine skills, eight from the same pool as Shepard and one character-specific. This talent pool can be divided into three areas: weapon systems, technology and biotics. Technical skills include a. deciphering electronic locks or first aid. Biotics are paranormal abilities with which, for example, opponents can be telekinetically knocked over or protective screens can be briefly reinforced. By completing missions and killing opponents, the player receives experience points that trigger a level increase when certain point limits are reached. As a result, each character receives talent points, which the player can invest in expanding and improving talent values.

The game is divided into two main game areas, external missions and the stay on the spaceship Normandy, which is commanded by the player. Shepard acts alone inside the spaceship. He can talk to crew members or companion characters and in this way receives more background information about events and the people themselves. In the course of the game, under certain circumstances, there are various possibilities of a romance between Shepard and a companion character. On a tactical space map in the spaceship, various solar systems within the Milky Way can be approached, planets can be examined and ground explorations can be initiated. The player usually receives mission assignments on the Citadel space station or via a cutscene as a radio message on the Normandy bridge.

Missions and field operations on planetary surfaces or the Citadel space station are carried out in a group known as a squad. Before leaving the spaceship, the player decides on two companions for the player character Shepard. Planetary explorations usually begin with launching a ground vehicle called a Mako. The Mako allows much faster locomotion and, thanks to its armament, is able to eliminate gun emplacements and enemy soldiers in the outdoor area. The squad then explores facilities and blocked passages on foot. The player controls his character directly from a third-person perspective , while the other two group members follow AI-controlled. The player can exercise full control over the skills and equipment of his companions at all times. Fights take place in real time, but can be interrupted if necessary, e.g. to give orders to the companions, change weapons or use special equipment such as first aid kits. If Shepard dies during a mission, the game is over. The same applies to the destruction of the mako.

The main story is spread over six planets and the Citadel space station. In addition, however, numerous other planets can be explored in connection with optional side missions. While the majority of the optional exploration possibilities take place on generic, freely accessible planetary surfaces together with various facilities, the planets of the main missions consist of individually designed, but strongly linear levels .

Another main aspect of the game is the film-like staged dialogues. Unlike in previous games, BioWare did not use a selection of complete lines of dialogue for the first time, but only keywords that indicate the meaning of a possible answer. The choice of the player in the dialogues influences how Shepard is perceived in the game world. The player has the choice between a community-oriented or an ego-centered, sometimes brutal, performance. In the interaction with the companions, in a few cases the relationship with Shepard can change, which in some cases can lead to a romantic relationship with Shepard or in another case to the departure of the character from the group. In some missions, depending on the respective talent values, alternative solutions can be opened up by intimidating or persuading characters. All dialogues are fully audio, including the responses of the character Shepard.

development

Mass Effect was announced by BioWare on October 4, 2005 in Amsterdam at Microsoft's in-house exhibition X05 exclusively for Xbox 360. When it was announced, BioWare announced that the game would be the beginning of a three-track story arc. Furthermore, the use of Unreal Engine 3 was announced.

After the takeover of BioWares by Electronic Arts , the new parent company announced on February 12, 2008 that the game would be ported to the PC. The porting was carried out in cooperation with the American developer Demiurge Studios, and work began during the final phase of the Xbox version. The graphics have been improved for the PC version, and the operation of the inventory and the structure of the command menu have been adapted to the mouse and keyboard. A new mini-game replaced the previous keyboard shortcut game when deciphering locks, the control of the Mako was decoupled from the camera and saved games during battles.

The concept of the game was influenced, among other things, by the science fiction genre mix Starflight by the developer Binary Systems from 1986. The game's design also drew influences from the movie Final Fantasy: The Powers Within You , especially the Normandy spaceship design and the glowing graphical user interfaces shown in the game . A special focus of the game is the so-called cinematic design, the film-like staging of dialogues with the help of synchronization, music, animated characters (especially facial animations) and different camera perspectives. The cinematic design follows the tradition of film-like staged games such as Another World , Wing Commander , Rebel Assault and Half-Life . A separate development department was set up for this purpose, which, according to the company, was the first special department in this area worldwide.

In the USA, the ESRB only rated the game as mature , mainly due to the partially visible nudity , which corresponds to an age recommendation from 17 years.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by Jack Wall, Sam Hulick, Richard Jacques and David Kates and released by Sumthing Else Music Works in March 2009. It contains 37 pieces of music, including the end title "M4 P2" played by the Canadian rock band Faunts. According to press releases, the music was inspired by classic sci-fi films such as Blade Runner and Dune .

reception

reviews publication Rating Windows Xbox 360 1UP k. A. 9/10 4players 89% 89% GamePro k. A. 93% GameSpot k. A. 8.5 / 10 GameStar 85% k. A. IGN k. A. 9.4 / 10 PC Games 85% k. A. Meta-ratings GameRankings 89.70% 91.24% Critify 88 of 100 91 of 100

Within three weeks of the start of sales, the Xbox version had already sold more than a million times.

At the 2008 Interactive Achievement Awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences , Mass Effect was named Best RPG of the year. It was also nominated in the categories Console Game of the Year, Best Plot and Best Character Performance.

Since Mass Effect , cinematic design has been the focus of all BioWare game developments, for example in the MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic . The dialogue wheel was u. a. in the role-playing game Dragon Age 2 also developed by BioWare , the dialogue staging was adjusted. The spy action role-playing game Alpha Protocol , developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published in 2010, also shows clear parallels to Mass Effect in the way the dialogues are staged .

Copy protection controversy

On May 3rd, 2008 it was announced that the PC version of Mass Effect would use the latest SecuROM version and that the game would also have to be activated online. Activation should only be possible three times, and the game will also have to be automatically verified online every ten days.

This was followed by a storm of indignation over these highly restrictive measures, including calls for boycotts. Bioware responded and announced that the game did not have to automatically contact the server every ten days, but that the limited number of activations would remain and that support would have to be contacted if for special reasons (e.g. frequently changing hardware) the activations should not be enough.

In early April 2009, Electronic Arts finally released a deauthorization tool with which the activation of a game installation can be temporarily removed and the activation can be credited back to the account. An internet connection is required to perform a deauthorization as well as for activation.

Due to massive customer protests directed against several EA games that were published during this period with mandatory activation, the publisher EA was induced to publish Mass Effect 2 without activation. A simple DVD query serves as copy protection.

Controversy about the image of women

A statement by the author Cooper Lawrence in the program "The Live Desk With Martha MacCallum" on the American broadcaster Fox News on January 21, 2008 caused controversy . In ignorance of the game and only on the basis of a single cutscene as part of the Liara romance, she threw the Developers suggest reducing women to objects of pleasure. The program also claimed that the game contained nude scenes, explicitly showed sexual acts and made these young people accessible. Publisher Electronic Arts felt compelled to clarify the false statements made in an open letter to the broadcaster. As a result, Lawrence's books were given massive negative ratings by angry fans of the game on the Amazon.com sales portal . The author finally apologized for her statement a few days after the broadcast.

Download extensions

Collision course

The expansion was released on March 10, 2008 for Xbox 360 and June 5, 2008 for PC. She adds another explorable solar system with a new side mission to the galaxy map while the game is running. Shepard must prevent terrorists from the Batarian people from directing an asteroid onto the human-colonized planet Terra Nova. In contrast to the Xbox, the PC version of the expansion was released for free.

Pinnacle Station

The expansion was released on August 25, 2009 for Xbox 360 and PC. Shepard receives the invitation to a secret Alliance space station. In the form of arena fights, Shepard can complete 13 combat missions there, the aim of which is to convince the turian Vidinos of the fighting abilities of the people. The DLC was developed by Demiurge Studios for BioWare.

successor

Mass Effect 2

→ Main article : Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 2 , the second part of the series, continues the story of Shepard and the threat to the Reaper. The plot continues shortly after the events of the first part. The game was released in Germany on January 28, 2010 for PC and Xbox 360 at the same time. The version for the PlayStation 3 was released in Germany on January 20, 2011.

Mass Effect 3

→ Main article : Mass Effect 3

The final part of the Reap trilogy was released on March 6, 2012 in the USA and on March 9, 2012 in Europe. In Germany, however, the game was released on March 8th.

As the first game in the series, Mass Effect 3 included a cooperative multiplayer mode in addition to the single player campaign. With the optional Galaxy at War game function , multiplayer and single player modes were also linked, so that successes in multiplayer mode have a positive effect on the final confrontation of the single player campaign.

See also : for offshoots and the overview of the series

literature

Non-fiction

• Casey Hudson , Derek Watts & Stephen Reichert: The Art of the Mass Effect Universe , Splitter Verlag 2014, ISBN 978-3-868-69759-9 ; English original edition: Dark Horse Comics, Milwaukie 2012, ISBN 978-1-5958-2768-5 .

Fiction

• Drew Karpyshyn , William C. Dietz : Mass Effect (novel series) Panini Verlag , Stuttgart
  • Volume 1: The Revelation (Original Title: Revelation) 2007, ISBN 978-3-8332-1648-0 (before Mass Effect 1.)
  • Volume 2: Der Aufstieg (Original title: Ascension) 2008, ISBN 978-3-8332-1745-6 (located between Mass Effect 1 and 2.)
    • Mass Effect Anthology: Vol. 1: The Revelation / The Rise 2018, ISBN 978-3-8332-3631-0
• Accompanying doctoral publication
  • Mass Effect: Genesis
    Since the first Mass Effect never appeared on PlayStation 3, Mass Effect 2 included this specially designed interactive comic on PS3. It tells the plot of the first part and offers the player several options for action. So PS3 players could also fall back on game decisions that could be imported from the predecessor for the PC and Xbox 360 versions with the help of an old save.

See also : Literature section in the Mass Effect article for more literature on the series

Web links

• Official website (English)
• Mass Effect at MobyGames (English)
• Mass Effect Wiki

Individual evidence

1. ↑ PC Action Edition 8/2008, p. 75.
2. ↑ Hilary Goldstein & Erik Brudvig: Mass Effect: The Paragon and the Renegade ( English ) In: IGN . News Corp . November 8, 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
3. ^ Brian Crecente: BioWare Announces Mass Effect for Xbox 360 ( English ) In: Kotaku . October 5, 2005. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
4. ↑ Electronic Arts : Mass Effect to Land on PC in May 2008 ( English ) In: Official company website . February 12, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
5. ↑ Demiurge Studios : Mass Effect ( English ) In: Official company website . Retrieved October 17, 2011: " Demiurge began working with BioWare during the final stretch of development for the Xbox 360 version, allowing the studios to collaborate closely throughout the co-development process. "
6. ^ Benjamin Jakobs: Mass Effect - Test . In: EuroGamer.de . EuroGamer Network. May 27, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
7. ↑ Casey Hudson: Twitter message from May 9, 2011 ( English ) In: Twitter account of the ME producer . Twitter . May 9, 2011. Retrieved May 16, 2011: “ Yep, Starflight was a key inspiration for the ME series. It's now older than some ME3 team members! "
8. ↑ Tamoor Hussain: BioWare: Mass Effect inspired 'a lot' by Final Fantasy film ( English ) In: Computer and Videogames . Future Publishing. June 27, 2011. Archived from the original on February 13, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Simon Carless: AGDC: BioWare Duo Dish On 'Cinematic Design' For Mass Effect ( English ) In: Gamasutra . United Business Media. September 16, 2008. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
10. ↑ The Cinematics Mass Effect ( English ) In: VFS Blog . Vancouver Film School. November 20, 2007. Retrieved October 22, 2011: “ Cinematic design is a unique position not only in BioWare, but the industry as a whole. "
11. ↑ Mass Effect Original Soundtrack Product Page, Sumthing.com ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
12. ↑ GameRankings.com review of Mass Effect (Xbox)
13. ↑ GameRankings.com review of Mass Effect (PC)
14. ↑ Average magazine rating of Mass Effect (Xbox)
15. ↑ Average magazine rating of Mass Effect (PC)
16. ↑ James Brightman: Mass Effect Amasses One Million Copies Sold ( English ) In: GameDaily.biz . AOL . Archived from the original on December 12, 2007. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
17. ^ Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences : 2008 Awards Winner . Official website. Last accessed on March 8, 2012.
18. ↑ Paul Marino: Developer blog: Cinematic Design ( English ) In: Official website for Star Wars: The Old Republic . Electronic Arts . December 31, 2010. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
19. ↑ Matt London: Feature Interview: Dragon Age II Developers David Gaider & Heather Rabatich ( English ) In: Fantasy Magazine . May 2011. Retrieved August 4, 2011.
20. ↑ Matthew Councill: An Analysis of the Dialogue in Dragon Age II ( English ) In: Dialog Junkie . September 15, 2011. Archived from the original on October 2, 2011. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 22, 2011. 
21. ↑ Tracey John: Producer: 'Alpha Protocol' Similar But Different From 'Mass Effect' ( English ) In: MTV Multiplayer . MTV . July 25, 2008. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 26, 2011. 
22. ↑ Original forum post from Derek French, Technical Producer at Bioware, on the initially reported copy protection ( Memento from March 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
23. ↑ Original forum post from Jay Watamaniuk, Community Manager at Bioware, on the final, defused copy protection measures ( Memento from May 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
24. ↑ EA deauthorization tool to get back used activations
25. ↑ Seth Schiesel: Author Faults a Game, and Gamers Flameback ( English ) In: NY Times . The New York Times Company. January 26, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
26. ↑ Chris Remo: EA Responds to Fox News Report on Mass Effect: "A New Level of Recklessness" ( English ) In: ShackNews . GameflyMedia. January 23, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
27. ↑ Simon Fistrich: Sex scandal on Mass Effect: author apologizes . In: Videogameszone . Computec Media Group . January 29, 2008. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
28. ↑ Nicolai Dircks: Mass Effect: Collision Course - Free download of the add-on . In: GameStar . IDG . July 30, 2008. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
29. ↑ Markus Schwerdtel: Special: Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station - Mini-Addon played through . In: GameStar . IDG . September 30, 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
30. ↑ Robert Purchese: BioWare fixing Pinnacle Station bug ( English ) In: EuroGamer.net . EuroGamer Network. August 27, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
31. ↑ Official homepage  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
32. ↑ Release date of Mass Effect 3 in the video trailer. Retrieved August 25, 2011 .