质量效应
Mass Effect

BioWare, 2007
Windows, PS3 和 Xbox 360*

BioWare, 2007
Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360*

过去十年中,世上涌现了很多有着数百万粉丝的游戏,它们也在游戏界留下了浓墨重彩的一笔。在这之中,没人会质疑,《质量效应(Mass Effect)》是其中最具影响力的作品。这传奇般的三部曲横跨 6 年——从 2007 到 2012 年——却都发售在同一个主机世代,运用着同一个引擎。很难说我们未来是否还会看到这么具有野心的计划获得如此的成功。

《质量效应》仿佛就是当初 BioWare 制作的《星球大战:旧共和国武士(Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)》的最终版,无论是游戏的视角、叙事抑或是 CRPG 特色的多结局模式都如出一辙。不过《质量效应》做得更加容易上手,用手柄玩也很方便。BioWare 曾经试过像《翡翠帝国(Jade Empire)》一样在游戏里加入实时武术战斗,但最终他们发现《生化危机 4(Resident Evil 4,2005)》以及《战争机器(Gears of War,2006)》等游戏证明了第三人称射击游戏跟主机简直是绝配。

同时《质量效应》也不仅仅是一款“射击版的《星球大战:旧共和国武士》”,它大量借鉴了《星际迷航(Star Terk)》和《巴比伦五号(Babylon 5)》[1] 的元素,同时也吸收了一些例如《星航(StarFlight)》和《行星控制(Star Control)》等经典太空类 RPG 的内容。

你不再是个年轻的农夫,莫名其妙的开始了一场冒险;也不再是一个雇佣兵,突然陷入到了一系列麻烦之中。这次你是薛帕德指挥官(Commander Shepard),一位星系联盟(Systems Alliance)[2] 的士兵。你有各种需要完成的任务,有上报任务的长官还有一艘属于你的船。以及你必须向神堡议会(Citadel Council)——一个由先进的外星种族组成的管理全银河系的委员会——汇报你的工作。

During the past 10 years, we had many popular RPGs that conquered millions of fans and left a mark on the entire industry. However, few will dispute that Mass Effect was the most influential of all. An epic trilogy that spanned six years – from 2007 to 2012 –, yet was still contained in a single console generation, using the same engine. Hard to say if we'll ever see an ambitious project like this succeed again.

Mass Effect feels like the end goal of what began back in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – the scope, narrative and choices of a computer RPG, but in an accessible form, easy to be played on controllers. BioWare had tried using a real-time martial arts combat in Jade Empire, but titles like Resident Evil 4 (2005) and Gears of War (2006) proved that third-person shooters were a perfect match for consoles.

Yet Mass Effect is not just “KotOR with guns”; it draws heavily from Star Trek and Babylon 5, as well as classic space RPGs like StarFlight and Star Control.

You're not a young farmer in search of adventure, nor a lone mercenary who's getting into trouble – you're Commander Shepard, soldier of the Human Alliance. You have missions, commanding officers, a ship, and must answer to the Citadel Council, a committee of advanced alien races who rule the civilised galaxy.

《质量效应》最终成为了一个全媒体的大作,它发行了 7 部小说,10 个漫画系列,多种桌游和手办,一个主题公园甚至还有一部正在拍摄的电影。

Mass Effect became a cross-media hit, with seven novels, ten comic series, board games, action figures, a theme park ride and even a movie in the works.

《质量效应 1》的角色系统是全系列中最复杂的,玩家有很大的自主权。

The character system in ME1 is the most complex of the series, allowing great customisation of playstyle.

游戏开始时你需要自己选择薛帕德指挥官是一个什么样的人,是男是女,出身背景如何,以及是 6 种职业中的哪一种。6 种职业包括战士(Soldier)——专精于枪械,工程师(Engineer)——专精于科技(包括护盾和骇入),以及异能者(Adept)——能运用强力的异能(例如隔空移物等技能),而剩下的 3 种职业则是上述职业的缝合版。

创建完角色之后,游戏就正式开始了。刚进入游戏你就会发现 BioWare 这次竭尽全力的在尝试让游戏变得具有电影感,包括游戏中对话时的分镜以及游戏里的胶片质感滤镜。游戏里另一个开创性的设计是对话轮(Dialogue Wheel)。开发者一直以来都在纠结怎么把那些在 PC 上很长的 RPG 对话放到电视屏幕上,《质量效应》最终运用的办法是先显示短小的句子转述使得玩家可以快速选择对话,之后便看到角色说出完整的句子。

《质量效应》同样也遵循了 BioWare 一贯的公式,先来一个引入的任务,之后便要玩家探索 4 个区域,顺序不限,最终迈入终章。但这次不同的是游戏一开始你便可以指挥一艘完全属于你的太空飞船,可以自由的飞向不同的星系和星球去做支线任务,这样的设计与游戏理念一拍即合。

当你在星系间旅行时,你会遇见并招募许多同伴。《质量效应 1》里你会遇见 6 个队友,他们毫无疑问是生软自《博德之门 2(Baldur's Gate II)》之后塑造的最好的角色。虽然他们的故事直到《质量效应 2(Mass Effect 2)》才会完全展开,但每个角色都已经极具有魅力,让人印象深刻。

在游戏流程中,你会遇见不同的抉择,这些抉择通常都会增加你的楷模(Paragon)或是叛逆(Renegade)点数,一个继承于《星球大战:旧共和国武士》的简单道德系统。很多抉择都流于表面,仅仅是改变一下任务的奖励或多了几句对话而已,但多亏一些真正有意义的选择的存在,这套系统还是带来了不错的体验。

You start by defining who Commander Shepard is, choosing gender, background and one of six classes. These range from the Soldier, a gun combat specialist, to the Engineer, who focuses on tech (shields, hacking), to the Adept, who uses powerful biotic abilities (like telekinesis), with the three remaining classes being hybrids of these archetypes.

Once you're done, the game truly begins, and you'll immediately notice how BioWare did everything to make the game as “cinematic” as possible, from the camera angles during conversations to the film grain filter the game uses. Another new feature is the Dialogue Wheel. Developers always struggled to display the long dialogue lines of PC RPGs on a TV screen: the solution used here is to only display short paraphrases of the dialogue lines, so the player quickly reads and chooses, then sees his/her choice spoken verbatim by Shepard.

The game follows BioWare's traditional formula, starting with an intro mission then opening into four locations the player must visit in any order to reach the ending. The difference is that when the game opens you also gain control of your very own spaceship and can fly to various planets and systems to engage in side-quests, which fits perfectly with the game's concept.

As you travel to various planets, you'll eventually meet and recruit companions. Mass Effect 1 has six of them, and they're easily the best BioWare made since Baldur's Gate II. While they wouldn't be fully developed until ME2, the cast is charismatic and memorable.

As the game advances, you'll get the chance to make several choices, which often will award Paragon or Renegade points, a simple morality system inherited from KotOR. Most of them are rather superficial, only changing your mission reward or some extra dialogue line, but they create a decent illusion, thanks to some actually meaningful choices woven in between.

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1 译者注:1994 年至 1998 年播出的一个美剧系列。
2 译者注:星系联盟(星联)是一个独立的超国界政府,代表人类的整体利益。星联负责太阳系外所有殖民地和空间站的治理与防卫。在游戏开始时星联已经成为人类在银河系中的正式代表。

GameDB 相关游戏: 质量效应

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