The Indiepinion

Mass Effect’s manual-override minigame – push the highlighted button within a limited amount of time – is insulting. It offers no real challenge and basically the only way to fail is not being concentrated at that moment.

Admittedly it seems like a minor flaw that i subjectively happen to take offense at and i can’t blame you if you’re quick to disregard my opinion. I admit that not feeling challenged by button-in-time-smashing is a right exclusive to the illustrious circle of hardcore gamers – which i believe i’m a member of – but which aren’t necessarily the main target audience for Mass Effect seeing the success amongst casual gamers (hence the default “Casual” difficulty). But like many others I do wonder why a “Simon” (“Senso” in Germany) game exists in Mass Effect and why solving it has the power to open locked containers. Care to elaborate?

I think this should concern all players, casuals included: the manual-override minigame has no foundation or explanation in the game’s world at all. I find this especially neglectful and harmful to enjoyment in a game that took so much care implementing a thriving universe and immensely captivating storytelling.

Additionally, the manual-override and other similar minigames in Mass Effect painfully violate immersion by presenting you on-screen the colored and labeled buttons of the real-world device that is the Xbox360 controller in your hands. Thus it not only fails to challenge, it is also breaking the feel of immersion each time it appears. Remember: Mass Effect is an immersive role-playing game – it says so on the backcover. But maybe that’s just me, and everyone else is seeing these green, red, blue and yellow A, B, X and Y buttons as some sort of container decryption interface?

Bioshock has showed that one can implement a simple yet challenging minigame for “unlocking containers” and they also tied it well to their skill system. Their “Pipe Dreams” minigame is far from being innovative, and has actually been at it’s core a commercial puzzle game about a decade ago. But it blends in perfectly with the game’s world and mechanics. You could even imagine how the protagonist is hacking the systems by reflowing their energy wiring – however you see it, it just makes more sense when put into perspective with the game’s world than Mass Effect’s detached manual-override system. Sure, Bioshock’s minigame may not seem like a big step forward and has also received criticism, mainly for being too repetitive and being simplistic. Oh, wait, what exactly is manual-override then?

Bioshock raised the bar just enough for any future game design to shy away from such uninspired, non-integrated minigames that is Mass Effect’s minigames. I even feel uncomfortable classifying these as “minigames”, they are actually nothing more than uninspiring and repetetive gameplay elements that have no right to be in a triple A roleplaying game.

Simply put: Mass Effect’s minigames are a shame, and insulting because we know (if only by playing Mass Effect) Bioware can do better than that and that other games offer much better “put-my-hacking-skills-to-use” minigames.

UPDATE: see also some of the user’s comments over at the Bioware forums.