(no subject)

eponymous-rose:

I was feeling kind of sick and tired and not-great tonight and went, okay, I have a couple spare hours, what’s guaranteed to put me in a good mood? So I jumped into a brand-new game of Mass Effect 2.

Man. I don’t know that I’ve actually played it in something like three years, but Mass Effect 2 is just, I mean, it’s just a ridiculously good game. I think every time I try a new game, I’m kinda half-hoping it’s Mass Effect 2 all over again. Part of that’s just how I got into it–Mass Effect was the first modern game I ever played, and that took forever to get through, but I dove straight through ME2′s more streamlined and character-based storytelling in one weekend and was completely bowled over. 

There’s a really earnest cheesiness about it that’s just so much fun and really hits the right note for me–in terms of tone, the first game was trying very hard to establish itself as an Homage To Sci-Fi, and then the third game had so much hype that it was stuck trying to be an Homage To Itself, but somehow the second game stumbled into a sweet-spot of identity, where it was designing its own unique (often absurd) formula without being overtly self-conscious about it. 

There’s a huge threat in the background, you’ve always got this sense that it’s a one-way trip, but it’s still… weirdly light. You’re spending all your time helping your teammates through their various and sundry personal traumas, you invest time building up your ship and making sure everyone’s playing nice, and if you play your cards right, all your friends make it out alive. There aren’t any no-win scenarios in this game. There are tragedies and heart-in-your-throat moments and yes, that one high-speed chase in a taxi, but all in all it’s just plain fun to play. 

I adored ME3 more than a lot of folks, I think, but it still by necessity had this grimdark edge to it that you couldn’t shake if you wanted the threat to feel real. There were friends you couldn’t save, there were small mistakes that could balloon into massive failures, it was just… stressful in a way that often felt unfair from a gameplay perspective (”you can do everything right and still fail” is an important lesson and a useful narrative technique, but it wears thin awfully fast when you’re working with this level of investment in the characters). I think part of the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the Citadel DLC was the return to that goofy “sure the universe is at stake but EVIL CLONE and also YOU HAVE TO HOST THE BEST PARTY” feeling. It was much-needed relief from the unrelenting weight of the knowledge that sometimes there was no way to win.

Anyway. I had a great time in ME2 and have a greater appreciation for the game the more time passes, is what I’m saying.