JANDUINS MASS EFFECT THOUGHTS!!! So I was ruminating as I played Mass Effect last night, and I came to the following conclusion: You can tell the quality of a game by the characters you meet in the first 10 minutes of play. Now in the case of Mass Effect, this applies to Nihlus, the Turian Spectre. He comes off as a bit regimented, but thats a result of his Turian heritage and military training. Yet hes the one who recommends Shepard as a Spectre candidate. Later, hes killed by his former mentor, Saren Arterius. I think the designers made a conscious decision to have Nihlus on the Normandy as more than just a plot device. He and Garrus are the antidote. Think about it - youre playing as a human man or woman, racing through the galaxy to stop Saren from summoning the Reapers and wiping out galactic life. Now, as a human, the only race youre going to focus on at a primitive level is humanity. You want to save them. Youd do anything to accomplish that. The line between being focused on the mission and outright hatred towards Saren and through him all Turians is blurring. Enter Nihlus and Garrus. Nihlus is the reason youre a Spectre in the first place, and Garrus is the chilled Turian calibrating the M35 Mako that stops you becoming a racist assface. And throughout the game youre exposed to the still-present tensions between Humans and Turians, remnants of the First Contact War. And yet, its impossible to hate Garrus. I tried, at first. But he wants to take down Saren just as much as you do, and I think thats overlooked at times. So in closing, Ill finish with a salute to the two greatest characters Ive encountered in the world of sci-fi video games - Nihlus Kryik, who died before his time, and Garrus Vakarian, a soldier who values calibrations over everything else. Credit for the artwork goes to: sandara.deviantart/
Posted on: Sun, 06 Jul 2014 01:47:48 +0000