Mass Effect 2: Too Much Too Soon?

*SPOILERS*

I love Mass Effect. I got too involved with the Star Wars fiction as a child, but Mass Effect captures my imagination as (ostensibly) an adult like the Bible does to the Westboro Baptist Church. This was probably the first game in which I actually enjoyed taking time out to read peripheral “codex” details – encyclopedia entries on made-up species, technologies, etc.

Mass Effect 2: Mercifully, No Subtitle is now imminent. I heard Shepherd dies in the first five minutes. After hearing that, I decided to hear no more.

So hearing no more PR, no more previews, reviews or impressions, I look forward to the end of this month, when the game actually comes out.

I now resign from the internet until I have played Mass Effect 2.

So this is the Illusive Man. He heads a human-supremacist group called "Cerberus". He says "for the greater good" a lot and - SHUT UP! I shouldn't know this yet.

At least that's how the intro to this piece would have read 24 hours ago. In the last day I have read more than one preview of the game, seen this Co-Op, downloaded and listened to the audio-book of Mass Effect: Ascension (it's actually not bad).

Why should I be so unable to control myself? I said I wanted to experience the game “fresh”. I'm confident Bioware can do a good job (they've got a pretty good track record, right?), so I was definitely going to buy it. I wanted every second of the sequel to be new and unanticipated. I didn't want to know when to press the trigger to interrupt a conversation because some preview-writer told me to.

That's irreversible though. (I know too much – there are insect people and returning characters I wanted to be surprised by.) So now I await the end of the month, when the stupid game gets here and I can finally play the fucking thing. I feel slightly ashamed of my lack of self-control. But in a few weeks I'll hopefully write here about how masterful the doctors were in giving me just enough information to get me excited, but just too little to spoil it for me.

Part two.

(4)

Jeffrey Sandlin

January 12, 2010

In my experience very few pre game details actually spoil the game for me. If I'm getting a game on day one then everything I've heard about it before is usually only the suprises that make up the first...like 15 minutes. Or one twist near the end that you would have seen coming a mile away anyway but theirs 20 twists after that.

I am not really bothering with mass effect 2 coverage but that's not because i'm avoiding it as much as I've stopped really paying attention to pre game coverage on games I know i'm going to buy anyway in general. It just saves me brain cycles to think about other things.

Can't wait for that damn game to come out though. 60 dollars on standby!

Ian Culver

I think the spoiler thing mostly applies to movies. Like when you see a trailer for a movie that has every single good part of the movie in it, or one that completely explains the entire story of the film.
I do see your point though. I'm avoiding all media on Alan Wake because I want that to be fresh.

Matt Giguere

I'm in the same boat. I've held off from reading or listening to any details of story or game moments that show up in previews. It has been hard to ignore, espcially when headlines to the game stick out in my rss reader, but I will maintain. I did the same for Fallout 3 after I saw the clip at Microsoft's E3 confrence, which deffinatly made the experience memorable from start to finish. What sucks for me this time is I have to wait till next month to play the damn game. I know that once it comes out it will be nearly impossible to stay under a rock, but I'll have to try my best.

Alejandro Moreno

January 21, 2010

a) I started playing ME1 three weeks ago. And I fucking love it, too.

b) You're right! Mercifully no subtitle! I'm surprised EA's marketing machine didn't add something silly there.

c) I read the prologue novel to the first game, and I really liked it. It was pretty tight. Both books are written by ME's Lead Writer, so it shouldn't be a surprise. I'll certainly track the second book before starting ME2 (eventually).