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| Clever Canadian Bastards |
Running alongside the skin-tight space suits and explosions is a thoughtful, meaningful story, wrought with difficult moral decisions and deep philosophical problems. Questions about the meaning and origins of life, and the future of humanity in terms of technological progression as well as spiritual meaning all offered to the player in the guise of a video game. Imagine that.
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| She has her Doctorate in Archeology, or something. |
There's also an option in the game to customize Commander Shepard. Don't care for the Shepard Bioware made? No problem, go make one in the character creator. You can even be female Shepard. This was surprising, because Bioware really sold the male Shepard they made, putting his face on everything. The reason this is interesting is that the female character is better. A lot better.
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| Look at his stupid face. |
For starters, Jennifer Hale as Commander Shepard delivers a stronger performance. I have a hard time playing the game as male Shepard because of the difference in quality. The voice of male Shepard (Mark Meer) sounds to me like a guy in a sound booth delivering lines. They fit the story and we get the point but for the most part there's no feeling, because these lines work too well for a man. Jennifer Hale got that and chewed the scenery. These lines were written for a male character to say, and very little was changed for the female character. What we end up with is a tough, smart, empowered female character saving the galaxy. She gives impassioned speeches and boldly leads her crew to victory and it's fucking sweet.
FemShep fits the story better, and I think the paragon/renegade dynamic of the game presents the best way to describe this. In every conversation in Mass Effect Shepard can choose from three responses: Paragon, Neutral, and Renegade. These choices give points to Paragon and Renegade meters that determine the outcome of the game. Male Shep's responses for paragon choices often feel dopey and cheesy, while his renegade responses feel ignorant and campy. These are fine if you really go for the Orlando Bloom paragon or the Bruce Campbell renegade. Jennifer Hale on the other hand delivers Paragon lines like a compassionate bad-ass, and Renegade lines like Kali. The weight she gives the character does as much for the game as anything else. The writing is superb, the plot is engrossing, and the characters are three-dimensional (you genuinely care for them by the end) but none of that means anything if the protagonist is (like male Shepard) just a carbon copy from every shallow male hero ever. If I had to guess, Mark Meer saw the surface game, while Jennifer Hale got into the story. And completely by accident a classic feminist hero was born.
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| Pictured: A Hero |
