Mass Effect 2 is a great action RPG with memorable characters. They have so much personality for people that do not exist yet they grab us and don’t let go. Jack and Thane are only two examples of personalities that grasp you with their depth and attitude. They made me think about how characters in video games have become so complex and in some cases give us the desire to hang with them rather than our real friends.
Tetris and Pong didn’t really give us characters, but icons. The two paddles and small cube they pass around or the L-shaped piece that you needed to create that last square could be considered characters without a personality, but they still were able to grab gamers into their simple worlds for years to come.
Video games like Mass Effect, Fallout 3, and Uncharted have given us characters that are powerful and live such dramatic lives that can’t help but give us a reason to continue to the end of their stories. They are people who we care about and we want to know what will happen to them. They make us hurt for them when they are hurt. They give us strength when they gain power and make gamers feel like the bad asses that they are.
Some video games create powerful characters by giving gamers the power to use their imagination in order to create the hero of their stories. The Halo series reaching from Halo to Halo 3 have provided a character without a personality but still give the vibe of a hero in the making. Bungie created a character that players can imagine themselves as because there is no exact personality to give, so the gamer must inject him or herself into the suit of Master Chief and become the last Spartan.
Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard is a character that belongs to the gamer. He is your commander Shepard. The gamer sets what skills Shepard has to where he came from. All those little aspects of the game enhance it dramatically and also advance your plot lines with other characters you meet throughout your journey. Shepard is also one of the few characters in video games where he has a voice you can control with the sleek and powerful speech wheel that Bioware has placed in the Mass Effect series.
Video games have become more than just a pass time; they are interactive stories. They are pieces of art that tell an imaginative tale told by the actions of interesting characters that draw gamers into a world that they will never want to leave.
