Game or interactive novel ?

I have something that I'm highly tempted to add to my A to Z on books thing that I'm doing this year.

In the early days, games were restricted to a very limited scope. Pacman was an "eat all dots, avoid ghosts" game, nothing more. Beat 'em ups were "last man standing". Shoot 'em ups were survival or get to the end of the level. Apart from role playing games, there's been very limited scope for games to really tell a story that engages the player more than just getting the most powerful character or getting through those levels.

Role playing games broke the mould because there was a path to their story. Your character started out weak and inexperienced and by the end of the game, you were MegaMage, Ninja Warrior or SecretSquirrel Thief. You'd saved the galaxy for its people or defeated the Evil Overlord only to take their place. You'd done every single side quest or barrelled straight through to finish as quickly as possible. Your character had gotten the girl, the boy or both (take a bow Dragon Age)

However, even the most open ended games failed to really engage the player like a good novel can. That's been changing lately ...

I'm a firm fan of games produced by the Bioware development house. Over the years, they've consistently made their games transcend the "it's just a game", such that playing through them feels like you're in the middle of a series like Babylon 5, absorbed in an Iain M Banks novel or munching popcorn in front of a movie.

The latest one of these is the Mass Effect series. It's a space scifi shooter that's got role playing aspects tacked on. At the start, your character struggles through opening encounters as you get to grips with the tactics and duck and cover gun play. By the end, you're a hard bitten warrior capable of sniping the fingers off a Geth at 1km away. But ... whereas most shooters have the player given a set of rails to follow, this game is much more open ended.

And most shooters don't have character interaction the way only Bioware games seem to have. In Dragon Age, you can be rushing through town on your way to the next bit of story (or just exploring) and your companions will start having a chat with each other. In the case of Alexander and Morrigan, that's usually a touch of bickering that ends up guaranteed to pull out a grin as one or the other (usually Morrigan) gets the upper hand. In Mass Effect 1, your companions will chat to each other while in the lifts. It's a little thing but that random conversation pulls you in.

Yes - there's a series of encounters that you have to follow in order for the game to progress but you can go through those in whichever order you pick. This is where game starts to transcend novel. You're not just playing through the encounters, you choose the order of those encounters. You pick how your character interacts with the world. Do you punch the bigoted reporter or outflank them with words ? Do you rescue the Blue Lady first or save that for the end ? (If you wait, it changes the encounter)

Wait - what's the game I'm talking about ?

It's Mass Effect and its sequel, Mass Effect 2. I've played through both of these several times now and I'm highly likely to go for it again sometime reasonably soon. The third in the trilogy is expected in November, somehow I doubt whether I'll be able to wait until then. It's a space opera game, where your central character is flying around saving the galaxy on a starship called Normandy.

The Normandy is your home for the entire first game and up to a point, you can freely roam its interior. So when you're walking through SR1 Normandy in the early part of Mass Effect 2 when the ship comes under fire, you can imagine the player's reaction when you look up to where the command bridge ceiling should be and see ... stars.

You only get Impact if you care about what's going on. Bit like rooting for the Lost Fleet and feeling a tinge of sadness when they list the ships that didn't make it through an engagement in those books. Like when the drone from the Culture that's been the supporting act for the main cast member gets damaged.

The story, characterisation and voice acting is that good. In fact, I'll repeat the phrase from earlier, these games can transcend books. With a book, when you've read it you're unlikely to go back for years if you do re-read it. Even though it's just a couple of weeks since closing out the last Mass Effect 1+2 play through, I could head back in there now.

(At least, if my main PC was in game mode !)

Yes. I'm tempted to add Mass Effect 1 + 2 to the books A to Z under M for Mass Effect or K for Drew Karpshyn (lead writer ME1). However, I'll wait until I've read Mass Effect Retribution, a book that's in my pile of books to read soon. That will wait until after Inversions by Iain M Banks.

Right - that's enough worship of Game for tonight, or is it ... I can feel the Normandy calling ...

PS Have a look here (ME1 cast list) and here (ME2 cast list). I knew some of the higher profile voice actors, like Jennifer Hale who possesses a voice that is probably a key reason why I keep coming back to this game. There's also Tricia Hale playing an AI (shades of the Cylons ?), Seth Green as the hotshot pilot and a series of other cameos. I never realised Dwight "Murdock" Schultz played the navigator or Armin "Quark" Shimerman played a couple of roles. Even Michael "Worf" Dorn takes a turn at the mic.