The (Almost) Perfect Game

Before I go on I’m going to give you all a textual wave *wave* and a ‘hello’ for my inaugural blog on Ready Up! I’m excited, nervous and giddy about this position and the opportunities it’ll bring, and not because I’ve just eaten a whole tube of smarties in under a minute, either.

If you’re a gamer, there’s every chance you’ve thought up the most award winning, E3 pwning game imaginable in your head. I know I have once or twice. Whether it would work in practise as well as it works in the gap between my ears is a different thing but whilst pondering my most recent bestseller first-person-RPG-survival-horror-about-pirates-made-of-lego game (starring Nathan Fillion as every character), it got me thinking, what makes the perfect game?

In game development terms, this is like asking how big the universe is. There are millions of gamers on this planet, and most of us all like something different. I can name you at least two dozen people whose favourite game contradicts their usual favourite style of gaming. My brother-in-law, for example, used to only buy driving games but his favourite game is his one first person shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Generally my favourite style of game to play is a sweeping RPG that uses a good 70-100 hours of my life that I don’t even want back afterwards. I have devoured Final Fantasy and Dragon Age games in twelve hour stints before sleep or work have forced me to give in and shut the damn thing down before it sets itself on fire. But my favourite games at the time of writing? LA Noire and Red Dead Redemption. Sandbox games with a shooting element, no levelling up and no real-time strategy whatsoever. Once again the styles of the games are cut from two very different pieces of cloth.

But what is the one game I consider ‘perfect’ in the context of trying to please everyone? The closest I’ve seen to a game that I would label ‘perfect’ (as far as a game can be) has to be, wait for it, Mass Effect.

“What? Rae! You be crazy! Now shut up and make me a sandwich,” I hear you all cry.

Perhaps. But Mass Effect is a third person shooter with first person controls, it has a heavy role playing aspect, moral consequence and it has – unashamedly one of my favourite parts at the start of any game – customisable characters and outfits.

Of course Bioware have always been known for creating immersive and addictive games like this, and it’s true that even Mass Effect with its attempt-to-cover-most-angles spiel isn’t going to please everyone, but it comes pretty gosh darn close.

That’s not to say the gameplay of Mass Effect is perfect. Nor the story. But if you’re looking for a game that’s such a whopper it takes as many hours as you’re willing to throw in, a character in your own image, funny dialogue and, well, Seth Green, you won’t get any better.

Except, of course, if you cast Nathan Fillion as every character.