Bioware Story Overview

So right about now unless you've been living under a rock for the last month or so you're probably aware that Bioware is facing some degree of controversy over the ending to 'Mass Effect 3', the (hopefully) final entry into their sci-fi trilogy and we'll get to that.  Probably next week.  Before jumping into that snake pit though I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the other recent entries into Biowares game library.  Now normally Biowares games are praised for having good writing (mostly relative to other games) but there are definitely differing degrees in the quality.  And we're off:

1) 'Mass Effect'
So in my opinion this is the top dog for quality writing out of Biowares recent offerings.  The game has good pacing, decent support characters and game mechanics notwithstanding a vast and well developed game world.  It also, unlike every other entry on this list, has a high profile, well written and convincing villain.  In all other recent Bioware fare you too often find yourself fighting some nebulous evil force that threatens all life blahblahblah and that's fine to a degree.  It's fine but it isn't optimal. Unnamed evil is OK in my book as long as said evil force has some sort of avatar for the player to channel their efforts towards defeating.  It further enhances the game because you can actually interact with your nemesis whereas amorphous evil forces tend not to be up for much conversation.  All other things being equal (they're not) this level of interactivity with your opposition would be, to me, what  sets 'Mass Effect' above the rest of this list.

2) 'Mass Effect 2'
A sequel that's not quite as good as the original (again ignoring gameplay improvements) end sentence.  The game is just sort of solid overall with very little standing out as outstanding story choices for better or worse.  It could perhaps have stood to spend a bit less time on the team building aspects and maybe do a better job fleshing out the opposition.  That said it is nice that you really get the opportunity to get to know your various squad members with this aspect coming heavily into play in 'Mass Effect 3'.

3) 'Dragon Age: Origins'
This game is a very solid swords and sorcery fantasy entry into the Bioware library that punts a bit on the “you are the chosen one” aspects of its story and while it has some amusing banter between your party members* the actual conversations with many of them feel kind of hollow and forced.  This is also the game on this list that suffers most from having a more or less undefined evil opposing force.  After fighting through hordes of Darkspawn (even the evil entities name feels generic) the final opposition isn't particularly well explained.

4) 'Mass Effect 3'
Come back next week.  This one's getting an article to itself.

5) 'Dragon Age II'
OK, so this may be the “worst” entry on this list but the game actually has writing that is still on par with any of the other entries.  The issue is that it breaks its story up into three largely unrelated chapters.  The first chapter is especially weak as your character arrives in a new city and your goal is basically to accrue money to fund an expedition (i.e. pay 50 gold enter dungeon).  The second chapter features a wholly predictable city-wide riot as its finale (best description that isn't much of a spoiler) and the third chapter features yet more city wide chaos but this time involving a different group of people.   Now obviously my descriptions are short and spoiler free but hopefully that's enough to give you an idea of how little overlap there is from one chapter to the next.  The main saving grace to me here is that the characters in 'Dragon Age II' are a bit more interesting to me than those found in 'Dragon Age: Origins'.

That's it.  In hindsight I regret, a bit, not having played 'Dragon Age: Awakening' as this list does feel a bit incomplete without it.  I may at some point go back and try it out.  That said unlike the 'Mass Effect' series there isn't much in the way of continuity in the 'Dragon Age' games so I guess it feels like I'm missing out on less.  I suppose it's also a little unfair that I'm giving 'Mass Effect 3' an entire article but oh well.  See you all next week.

*In 'Dragon Age: Origins' and every other game on this list your party members will, depending on who you've brought with you, talk amongst themselves.  Overall this manages to convey the idea that your party members actually do stuff when they aren't following you around killing monsters.  For example in 'Dragon Age II' there was a specific party member who I usually didn't bring along because he was kind of a dick to almost every other character and I got tired of him being such a downer all the time.