So far, we've gone toe to toe with some of the industry's biggest names – Shadow of the Colossus, Sonic the Hedgehog and Ninja Gaiden, to name a few. When it came time for me to nominate a target of my, it took less than a second for it to come to mind. As regular listeners of the podcast and readers of the forum will know, I have an affinity for a certain science-fiction epic made by the Canadian masters of the role-playing genre. BioWare's space opera Mass Effect rates as my favourite game of all time. Normally, I would banish critics of Mass Effect to the furthest ends of the earth. However, on this occasion, I will cross the demarcation and dissect one element that undermined what was otherwise a superb gaming experience.
What I really, really love to hate most about Mass Effect is the tedious planetary exploration. Potential Spectres will know of the numerous 'uncharted worlds' scattered throughout the game's cosmos. These planets lie outside the main story and are home to various side-quests. At its heart, the concept of venturing out and exploring the galaxy is fantastic. The Mass Effect universe is a rich tapestry of fascinating and diverse planets, and if you take the time to delve into the game, you will discover that each world has an extensive back-story. Aboard Commander Shepard's vessel, the Normandy, players can live out their childhood dreams of going out to explore the depths of space. Unfortunately, when it actually comes time to shuttle down to a world, the dreaded process of planetary exploration begins.
On each world that you can land, there's an absolutely massive area to explore. Credit to BioWare on that point. Planets, for the most part, also look fairly different. One world could be a barren rock scorched by the hash rays of sunlight, while another could be dark, desolate and icy, much like Hoth from Star Wars. Kudos to the Canadian developer on that point as well. However, when it comes to comes to exploring your chosen destination, that's just about as good as it gets. Indeed, upon touching down in your all-terrain vehicle known as the Mako, listening to the sound of fingernails on a blackboard seems like a leisurely pastime.
Mountains. Hills. Mounds. Peaks. Call them what you like. Whatever the case, Mass Effect's developers have had an absolute love affair with them. Regardless of the world you land on, your starting point is always in the middle of the equivalent to the Himalayan Mountains. You can literally spend hours going up and down great piles of dirt driving to your objective and looking for loot. And it isn't a good type of driving either. On more then one occasion, the Mako has to manoeuvre up a hill perpendicular to the ground. Because of some super-duper sticky wheels, driving on a ninety degree angle is possible, but it's an incredibly slow and painful process (a non-Mass Effect devotee could be forgiven for thinking an advertisement for a futuristic 4WD was screening). Going up a mountain can take anywhere in the vicinity of 5 to 55 minutes, and if you take your hand of the thumbstick for even a microsecond, the Mako will come crashing down to the ground. Then, you have to start the process all over again. Definite controller through the television screen moment.
Driving to an enemy bunker to complete a side-quest takes long enough, but if you want to explore an entire world, setting aside an hour or so is recommended. Going through the process of gathering all the collectibles littered about a planet is definitely the lowest point of Mass Effect. To demonstrate, I'll recount my experience of exploring Planet X:
Battlestar Galactica-style zoomed-in cinematic of Normandy entering the atmosphere. Mako deploys and descends to the planet. Mako lands on planet. Game automatically saves. Textures and models begin loading. Textures and models still loading. Decide to get self drink. Return to game, but textures still loading. Decide to get self a snack. Return to game, textures finally loaded. Consult in-game map. Collectible all the way in the north-east corner. Enemy base in far south-west corner. Decide to find collectible first for a valuable 100 experience points. Take off in north-east direction. Mountain range ahead. Begin to drive up mountain. Driving up mountain. Still driving up mountain. Finally atop mountain. Begin driving down mountain. Still driving down mountain. Finally down the mountain. Drive up and down another ten or so mountains. Finally arrive at collectible. Complete mindless 'mini-game'. Rewarded with a Salarain ID tag. Awesome. Only ten Salarain ID tag's left. Take off in south-westerly direction towards enemy base. Begin driving up mountain. Still driving up mountain.
So you don't fall asleep, I will stop there. I'm sure you will have got the gist by now.
Overall, Mass Effect was a brilliant videogame. The planetary exploration, however, could have been implemented so much better. Given that it represented such a large chunk of the game, many of us were left utterly frustrated and bored brainless by the experience. Thankfully, the overlords at BioWare have promised to vastly improve the planetary exploration system in Mass Effect 2. The possibility of being parachuted onto Mars with nothing but a Hummer by a horde of angry fans (me included) should be motivation enough.
Until the next adrenaline-pumping edition of Love to Hate, may the force of hate be with you. Now, I think I'm still missing that second Salarain ID tag…
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