Mass Effect or Why Do I Need to Find Everything in a Game Part 2?

To keep things shorter I’ll jump over the whole PS2 Xbox generation, though I’m already eyeing Bioware with a mixture of admiration and utter contempt at this point. In the modern era we have two games that represent the destruction of my body and soul, or at least usher in a massive influx of OCD gaming habits. Bioware put together Mass Effect which for those of you not aware, is the gaming equivalent of crack to people like me. Modern games have been slowly moving away from the idea that collecting a hundred items, and then doing it again works as a valid plot point. Mass Effect slaps down that idea and sends you right back to a hell that Super Mario Brothers could only dream of. This is the mother lode of things that make me obsessive. To begin, we have a protagonist that has multiple conversation choices, that can lead to different outcomes. This means that right out of the box there is no way for me to get everything my first go around. I need to play it multiple times to see everything. just thinking about it is  raising my blood pressure. But I’ll do it.

The next part just compounds the first problem. You now have the choice to be good or evil. The choice of one can block out the choices available to the other. In Mass Effect it isn’t too bad, as there are ways around it or you can play multiple times. But Fable II! That is a whole other ball of wax. I play it and I hate it at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great game and I love to play it, but there is a part of me that cringes when I make a choice. I know I’ll need to make a whole new character if I want to make that choice again, as there are no multiple saves per character. At least with Mass Effect, I can save right before a new choice. With Fable I’m effectively screwed.  But I still love it.