Tuesday, March 20, 2012

We’ve discussed the texture of games, media self-consciousness, escapism, and other ideas before, but it was only recently I realized the importance of narrative in gaming. It’s what made all the difference between 120 ill-spent hours on Curt Schilling’s magnum opus and 40 thrilling hours of Mass Effect 3.

120 hours. That’s a grotesque figure. This weeks-long undertaking started off well enough, with many of the merits outlined in the Times review on full display, but then things started getting repetitive, and the paper-thin story failed to compensate. It was, like, I don’t want to slay exactly ten rats in a nearby cave! Again. I want escape, a tale well told–not an opportunity to moonlight as a virtual Orkin Man. By that point, though, I had sunk too many hours into the title, and I had to tie it off.

Conversely, there’s Mass Effect 3. You’ve likely seen the TV commercial replay ad nauseum. Well, the game was worth every penny. Pacing was expertly crafted. Choices I made in preceding entries had significant weight. This was a story years in the making that was written for me and by me. 40 substantial hours went by in a blink. As the credits rolled, I concluded the core mechanic of a game must engage–be it slingshotting birds across the sky, or destroying fruit, or fitting blocks snugly into place, or popping off alien heads with a high-powered rifle–and sometimes, secreted away on that shiny disc, is a really good once upon a time.