So with a school term recently ended and my having, as a consequence of that, a little more free time on my hands, I’m going to start gameblogging.

I (finally) finished Mass Effect 2 a few days ago. Took me… four months? Admittedly, a significant contributor to that extended time-frame was the heavy workload I had during the Spring academic semester. Also, and more to the point of this post, I was never completely grasped by it.

I’ve been thinking back on my experience with game sequels and I’m realizing some peculiar tendencies I have with playing them. No matter how much I loved the original, no matter how excited I am for the sequel, and even no matter how much it might have improved on the original formula, they never quite grasp me.

Mass Effect was a special game for me. Skipped class the morning it came out and went straight to the mall to pick it up. Spent the entire day (I think it was about 10 straight hours that first day) enamored with the sense of exploration and adventure it provided, and with the incredible story-telling and characterization powers BioWare seems to have in raw abundance.

It was the only game I’ve ever played with a codex where I actually read everything. Not just the quest descriptions (which I admittedly just skim in the majority of games for keywords). I read every word about the chemical compositions of every planet in the galaxy, the culture and political structure of every alien species, the detailed descriptions of every piece of technology. Everything.

Mass Effect 2 improves on the first game in almost every way. I don’t like some new design choices I’ll admit: I miss the vehicular planet exploration (even if the planets did have copy-paste missions) and the itemization of the first game. Gripes aside, the story is larger, side-quests are better, achievements are much less annoying, there’s a great deal of really cool fan-service such as visits to various races’ homeworlds/fleets.

There’s really no immediately apparent reason I would have less of an experience with ME2.

So that’s where I start reflecting on sequels. Is it typically a case of “more of the same” for me where I’m constantly looking for fresh experiences in my games, or more of a case of “too much of a good thing” where I like my good games in discrete, self-sufficient packets?

In recent memory, the most painful example of this behavior is with Mother 3 (the sequel to Earthbound.) There is no exaggeration when I say that Earthbound was a life-changing game for me. I won’t elaborate too much on this (maybe another time) but I’ll just say I believe it had a great effect on my personality, sense of humor, and is very likely the reason I am a professional programmer today.

Anyway, trust that when I say that my excitement for the fan-translation of Mother 3 (again for those not familiar with the series, Nintendo decided not to bring the game to the western world despite its large and dedicated fanbase) was almost unbearable. When it was finally released 12 years after my first experience with Earthbound, I think I happily played it for a few days, in awe that the day had finally come. And then I just.. stopped? It’s two years later and it’s still on my “To Finish” list anyway. My 14 year old self would be disgusted with me.

The Lost and Damned? Yup. Loved GTAIV. Picked up Episodes from Liberty City like 6 months ago.. that’s also on the “To Finish” list.

It makes me fearful for the anticipation I’ve built up for the soon-to-be-released Dead Rising 2, and Fallout: New Vegas shortly after that. Their predecessors are also some of my favorite current-gen games, so hopefully I can overcome this bad habit and get more of the zombie / nuclear-apocalyptic goodness I got from the originals.

Of course, there are exceptions.

I played the shit out Diablo II.