Bioware enjoys its companion systems. Whether the chapters-long henchmen quests in Neverwinter Nights that reward the player with unique items or the romance options in the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, interacting with party companions is in the DNA of Bioware games. Unfortunately, too often these quests suffer from the video game medium and the completionist mindsets among many gamers. Many loyalty interactions feel like meters to be filled and not much else. Real roleplaying takes a back seat to completing one more questline.
What bothered me recently was the loyalty quest for Zaeed Massani in Mass Effect 2. In this entry of the Mass Effect series, loyalty quests are necessary to unlock powerful abilities for the relevant party member and Commander Shephard. I accidentally completed Zaeed’s loyalty quest first because he was the first recruitable character I found. I had forgotten all about the loyalty quests from the one time I played through the Mass Effect games many years ago. I decided to help Zaeed because I wanted to see his new ability.
Zaeed’s quest is a simple revenge mission. He and a business partner created a mercenary group. Zaeed was betrayed by his partner. Bad feelings ensued and for the past twenty years, Zaeed has been out for blood. Long story short, Zaeed has tracked down his old business partner to some sort of factory hideout. Shephard and Zaeed raid the hideout and near the end of the mission, the player is forced to make a choice. Save a handful of innocent workers from a massive oil fire or chase the target. My Shephard saved the workers because she had no major problems with the target. Zaeed was expectedly angry and blew his stack that Shephard flushed away twenty years of his life.
All is well and good up to this point. Zaeed reacted as anyone would have. But after the mission I had “completed” his “loyalty” quest and he unlocked his extra ability. That annoyed me. I can’t fathom a reasonable explanation as to why Zaeed would pledge his loyalty to my Shephard. Zaeed is a hardened mercenary, the veteran of dozens of conflicts. He continually brags about how many people he has killed. There was no moment of catharsis where Shephard showed Zaeed that he needed to let go of the past. No. All that happened was the bad guy got away and Zaeed decided he was perfectly fine with it. Twenty years of pain and toil; gone because Shephard is a defender of the working class. No way would he be happy about it.
Choices ought to matter in video games. Players should need to weigh their options and anticipate what content they might be locked out of. If every choice leads to the same outcome, the roleplaying aspect weakens to the point of nothing. It seems like many roleplaying games are “numbers get bigger” games, not roleplaying games.
At least the rest of the Mass Effect 2 is slammingly good. This game rules.
The Keasy Depot 