Posted by Kromey at 8:34pm May 14 '09I picked this one up in the ol' bargain bin a few weeks ago, but it's been gathering dust ever since. Until Monday, when I popped it in because I was home sick and alone and bored.
OMG OMG WHY THE HECK DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THIS GAME WAS SO AWESOME????
The depth of this game's background is stunning, and the amount of thought that was obviously spent on devising the "hard SF"* world is just unparalleled by anything else I've seen! The graphics are beautiful, although they definitely cut corners on the exploration of non-storyline planets. Can't blame 'em too much, but it is a minor gripe.
*Science fiction is typically grouped into two types: "hard" and "soft". "Soft" science fiction for the most part does not attempt to explain the technology used in the story - you're just expected to accept that it is. Examples: BSG, Terminator, Stargate (and spin-offs). "Hard" sci-fi, on the other hand, is typically very much grounded in real or at least plausible science. The technology used is explained at least to the point that you can buy into the underlying scientific principles, even if they themselves are fictitious. Examples here are far fewer, but could include both Star Wars and Star Trek at the fringes (both started as soft SF but later "reverse-engineered" much of the more prominent stuff, although still not to an extent to be what I would call "true" hard SF).
Mass Effect's Codex (the in-game equivalent of a digital Encyclopedia Brittanica) includes discussions about why heat is such a problem for starships, and discusses the various means of dealing with it, ranging from simple metal radiators to more expensive ceramic "bleeders" to complex "drip" systems that literally just pump a liquid coolant out the bow and collect as much as they can again at the stern. They even go into why this makes battles over planets so short and frantic (the nearby star adds too much ambient heat for the ships to operate long before they literally cook the crew) compared to deep-space combat which can go on nigh-on indefinitely. The means of artificial gravity, FTL (faster-than-light) engines, and the massive cannon-like structures that hurl ships between stars are all explained by a particle, "element zero", which has the effect of being able to generate a field that can either increase or decrease the relative mass of matter inside it. While this particle itself is more in the realm of soft SF, Mass Effect remains solidly in the hard SF realm due to the in-depth analysis of the wide-ranging effects of this particle, from creating artificial gravity and aiding in construction to FTL and interstellar travel to its military use of enabling much higher muzzle velocities of projectile weapons (i.e. you lighten the mass of the projectile, enabling it to reach a much higher velocity without increasing weapon recoil, and then it returns to its normal mass as it leaves the field at the end of the barrel).
I may seem more excited about the hard SF background of this game than the actual storyline or game play - that's because I actually am. I am a sucker for a good hard SF setting, I just love having everything made plausible instead of having to just accept it at face value (I certainly can still enjoy the latter, however). That doesn't diminish the fact that the storyline is superb and the game play is rock solid.
OMG OMG WHY THE HECK DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THIS GAME WAS SO AWESOME????
The depth of this game's background is stunning, and the amount of thought that was obviously spent on devising the "hard SF"* world is just unparalleled by anything else I've seen! The graphics are beautiful, although they definitely cut corners on the exploration of non-storyline planets. Can't blame 'em too much, but it is a minor gripe.
*Science fiction is typically grouped into two types: "hard" and "soft". "Soft" science fiction for the most part does not attempt to explain the technology used in the story - you're just expected to accept that it is. Examples: BSG, Terminator, Stargate (and spin-offs). "Hard" sci-fi, on the other hand, is typically very much grounded in real or at least plausible science. The technology used is explained at least to the point that you can buy into the underlying scientific principles, even if they themselves are fictitious. Examples here are far fewer, but could include both Star Wars and Star Trek at the fringes (both started as soft SF but later "reverse-engineered" much of the more prominent stuff, although still not to an extent to be what I would call "true" hard SF).
Mass Effect's Codex (the in-game equivalent of a digital Encyclopedia Brittanica) includes discussions about why heat is such a problem for starships, and discusses the various means of dealing with it, ranging from simple metal radiators to more expensive ceramic "bleeders" to complex "drip" systems that literally just pump a liquid coolant out the bow and collect as much as they can again at the stern. They even go into why this makes battles over planets so short and frantic (the nearby star adds too much ambient heat for the ships to operate long before they literally cook the crew) compared to deep-space combat which can go on nigh-on indefinitely. The means of artificial gravity, FTL (faster-than-light) engines, and the massive cannon-like structures that hurl ships between stars are all explained by a particle, "element zero", which has the effect of being able to generate a field that can either increase or decrease the relative mass of matter inside it. While this particle itself is more in the realm of soft SF, Mass Effect remains solidly in the hard SF realm due to the in-depth analysis of the wide-ranging effects of this particle, from creating artificial gravity and aiding in construction to FTL and interstellar travel to its military use of enabling much higher muzzle velocities of projectile weapons (i.e. you lighten the mass of the projectile, enabling it to reach a much higher velocity without increasing weapon recoil, and then it returns to its normal mass as it leaves the field at the end of the barrel).
I may seem more excited about the hard SF background of this game than the actual storyline or game play - that's because I actually am. I am a sucker for a good hard SF setting, I just love having everything made plausible instead of having to just accept it at face value (I certainly can still enjoy the latter, however). That doesn't diminish the fact that the storyline is superb and the game play is rock solid.