Game dissection- Mass Effect 2’s UI.

I finally finished Mass Effect 2. After purchasing it on Xbox 360 on launch day, on PC six months later, and on the Playstation 3 launch, I’m ashamed to say that it was at the third attempt that I actually took the jump through the Omega4 relay.

On the two previous attempts I had completed everything up to the moment when you were required to enter the end game. Up until that point I was thoroughly enjoying the experience. The combat, whilst having frustrating mechanics and brain-dead AI was fun. The fluidity of the combat through the environments hardly ever out stayed it’s welcome, and the variety of combat scenarios that play out at any given situation keeps things fresh enough.

So what happened when I had to jump through the Omega4 relay? I felt I needed to take a step back. When reaching milestones in games I like to have a little break and reflect on what I’ve done until that point. If I’ve enjoyed the game it makes the climactic moments special, as I can fully appreciate everything in the moment, rather than reflecting on it later.

That original 24 hour break turned into 48 hours. Then I ran out of money and had to sell some stuff, along with my xbox 360. I never returned. My crew were stranded.

With the PC version I got to the same point and took a little break. Forgetting that Mass Effect 2 doesn’t support Steam Cloud, I lost my save file in a reformat. My crew were not only stranded, they had been wiped from the face of the galaxy.

So I picked it up on PS3, and I finished it. Whilst enjoying the overall experience, for a third time, there were moments that really stood out. The Garrus loyalty mission, along with releasing Grunt from his ‘tube’ were particularly highlights. One complaint I did have was that each of the missions seemed to follow the exact same pattern of ‘land on planet, sit through expositions moments that eventually lead to combat, rinse, repeat.’ It left me thinking “can’t we just talk about it?”. However, it seems that there is enough variety, it just so happened that the order I chose to do the loyalty missions meant that I did all of the combat orientated ones one after the other.

The conversation system is excellent. It’s one of the great game mechanics of all time. The way it revolutionised the flow of interactive cut scenes is hugely important in keeping the player involved within the experience. Heavy Rain used a very similar system, however the ambiguous descriptions of the choices it presented were often confusing, meaning you didn’t always feel in control. Mass Effect handles this extraordinarily well. The placement of your choices dictate whether or not they are going to be ‘good’, ‘bad’ or neutral, whilst the brief descriptions give and indication of which path the conversation is likely to take. You’re always one step ahead of the conversation, meaning there is never a break in the experience.

In contrast to the excellent conversation system is the menu system. I really feel like a trick was missed here (or probably just not enough time). Whilst it’s mostly in context with the overall style of the Mass Effect universe, it’s derivative, very ‘video gamey’, when it could have really have helped the experience.

Press Start and you’ll see this…(well, this is the original Mass Effect screen,but it’s the same…but orange)

Fine, right?
It’s just an options screen. So in a world that we have omni-tools, and in particular ones which are used most of the time as a portable computer, can’t we interact with the menu system in a way that doesn’t remove us from the experience. Fallout 3 says hello.

Having the menu screen activated in a way that makes it seem that Shepard is interacting with an omni-tool would make the player feel as though Shepard is making the decisions. Mass Effect 2 does a great job of making the player make decisions that feel natural to the main character, that it’s a shame it removes the player from the experience so often by switching to the ‘mission computer’…

Dead Space’s UI is an excellent example of not only designing a UI around the overall game, but using it in a way that improves the experience. You basically can’t piss about with options and stuff in combat. Why? Because your in combat. You need to be prepared and ready to fight at any point.

I’d love to see this approach to UI in more games, especially ones where your supposed to be role playing. Mass Effect 2’s UI didn’t ‘ruin’ the experience in any way, it’s just one of the areas that I would like to have seen more creativity…