If you are a stand-alone fan, even if you have never played it, you must know the game "Mass Effect". As an IP with a history of nine years, the "Mass Effect" series has explored a new path in the RPG field.
"Mass Effect" is a role-playing game owned by Bioware, a well-known production team in the industry. The game series produced by Bioware include "Neverwinter Nights"
The combat content of the game is mainly third-person cover shooting, so TPS is also an indispensable element of the game. In addition, due to the pollution caused by the leakage of Element Zero during the battles of ancient civilizations, some species began to possess superpowers, so players or some teammates in the game can use superpowers.
The new game in the series "Mass Effect: Andromeda" is about to be released. The author will also make a certain analysis of the entire series here and explain the background of the story. Players who are not very familiar with the series may wish to understand it.
The story background of "Mass Effect" needs to be traced back billions of years ago. In "Mass Effect 3", Shepard discovered the existence of "Leviathan" by pursuing the research of scientists, and saw it through the mecha going deep into the sea. this ancient species. Leviathan told Shepard that they were a very ancient race, gods worshiped by ancient races on countless planets billions of years ago, and maintained the stability of countless galaxies.
However, as the creatures under Leviathan's control continue to evolve, and the technology mastered by the creatures continues to deepen, mechanization begins to replace biology, and the machines created by humans gradually tend to destroy humans (including aliens).
Leviathan hidden deep under the sea
So Leviathan created an artificial intelligence to preserve human biology and avoid species extinction caused by true mechanization. This artificial intelligence is the pioneer "catalyst" mentioned in the three generations of works. Its body is the "castle" where various galaxies unite and live together.
After Leviathan successfully created the Precursor, the Precursor betrayed Leviathan and used Leviathan's genes to create the first Reaper. The Reaper is a very powerful intelligent machine that looks like a giant beetle. Most weapons cannot cause effective damage to it, so it can be said to be invincible.
After the reapers appeared, the pioneers began to harvest advanced civilizations. When the civilization of the galaxy reached a certain height, the reapers would appear, deal a devastating blow to the civilization, and then enter the next cycle, allowing the low-level civilizations to gradually develop into high-level civilizations. , another devastating blow.
In order to facilitate harvesting, the pioneers created "mass relays" for super-light flight, interstellar shuttle, and shortening the extremely far distances in the universe.
The name of the game also benefits from this. From a game perspective, "Mass Effect" should be a cosmic acceleration method that reduces the mass of an object by compressing its volume, thereby greatly increasing the speed of the object to reach super-light speed. For example, When the Normandy passes through the mass relay, there will be an electric arc flashing through. When it leaves the mass relay, it will turn into a stream of light, which is a process of compression and release.
Of course, this is just the author's understanding. I am not a professional physicist. Wormholes, black holes, Einstein's theory of relativity, and singularities are all relatively esoteric terms. We apologize for any deviations.
The impact of "mass effect" is very far-reaching. The most intuitive impact is that it is the core principle of mass repeaters, and mass repeaters greatly facilitate communication and exchanges between galaxies. Civilizations between galaxies only A spacecraft would need to be built to easily reach another mass relay across vast distances.
The magnificent mass repeater and the ship entering the repeater
During the final battle of the three generations, all civilizations, under the communication of quantum communication, passed through the mass relay to reach the earth to seize the catalyst. This is a typical example.
Therefore, "Mass Effect" is actually synonymous with a series of elements such as science fiction, technology, universe, and space that can have a profound impact on the development of civilization. It is a very noble name.
PS: Let’s briefly talk about “quantum communication”. This is an emerging technology hotspot in recent years. The author only noticed that this technology actually exists after playing “Mass Effect”... The so-called quantum communication uses the principle of entanglement No matter how far apart two particles are, as long as one changes, the other will also change instantly. Using this principle, particles can be freely combined to convey messages and communicate with zero delay. In addition, quantum communication technology can transmit five gigabytes of data per second with high security.
As a science fiction game, "Mass Effect" once amazed the author with its in-depth study of physics.
Now let's get back to the Pioneer build quality repeaters.
After the establishment of the Mass Relay, it became more convenient and faster for the Pioneers to harvest civilizations. With the assistance of the Mass Relay, some civilizations also developed rapidly, and the Protheans were one of them.
More than 60,000 years ago, the Protheans were the most advanced civilization in the galaxy. They learned about the existence of the Reapers through the messages left behind by the civilization destroyed by the Reapers, and began to build the "Sky Furnace" to kill the Reapers. .
However, before the Overlord Forge was built, the Reapers arrived, and the Protheans left a large number of messages as well as the catalyst used to activate the Overhead Forge - the super-large space station "Citadel". It reminded the existence of the later civilized Reapers. After leaving behind the design of the Sky Furnace, it was obliterated by the Reapers.
Enter the Citadel space station above the earth in the third generation
Tens of thousands of years later, in more than 500 BC, the Salarian people's technology developed to a certain height, discovered the existence of mass repeaters, and found the Citadel through the mass repeaters, establishing diplomacy with another civilization, the Asari. Relations, the "Citadel Council", an organization similar to the "United Nations Security Council" was established in the Citadel, and then races of all sizes began to join the Citadel Council and set up embassies.
Around 2100 BC, humans on earth continued to conduct space exploration, establishing bases on the moon and Mars, and discovered the "Element Zero" on the moon that can give people superpowers, and discovered the remains of the Protheans and the "Mass Effect" on Mars. "Principle, mastered the super-light flight skills, and technology developed rapidly.
In the middle of the 22nd century, humans discovered the mass relay located near Pluto and finally made contact with the Citadel.
The protagonist Shepard, who was born in the middle of the 22nd century, experienced two element zero radiations and finally gained superpowers and became a superpower.
"Mass Effect 1" was released in 2008. The background of the game is set in the 22nd century, around 2150. The player plays the role of Shepard, the only human elite in the cosmic peacekeeping organization "Ghost".
Shepard was originally an orphan. After learning that joining the army was a more stable job than cheating and kidnapping, he joined the cosmic coalition, which was still expanding at the time, and became a soldier. After establishing many meritorious deeds in battles between planets, Shepard was promoted to be the adjutant of Anderson, the commander of the Normandy spaceship. Shepard was already on the ship when the plot of the first generation began.
Aboard the Normandy, Shepard participated in the Eden Prime War, a geth war against human alien colonies. During the battle, Shepard discovered that the ghost agent Saren Atreus was plotting against the organization to attack his teammates, and then began to hunt down the renegade agent.
In fact, Saren works for the Reaper Overlord, and he has been looking for the "Holy Path", which is a mass relay and its unlocking program so that the Overlord can return to the Citadel and start harvesting.
The reaper who destroyed countless civilizations—this is just a small one
The Citadel was originally a space station created by the Reapers, and the meaning of its existence was to summon the Reapers. However, after the Protheans found the Citadel, they transformed the Citadel to avoid being used by the Reapers.
The first generation of Shepard's mission was to pursue Saren and the Holy Path, and finally stopped the Reaper Overlord from attacking the Citadel.
One month after the battle between the Citadel and the Overlord, Shepard's Normandy was attacked and damaged by an unidentified spaceship. Shepard was killed in action, and the story of the second generation began.
After several twists and turns, the Illusive Man, the controller of the opposition force Cerberus, obtained Shepard's body. After spending a lot of resources, he resurrected Shepard and appointed him to investigate anomalies in the human colonies. Shepard discovered that the Collectors, who had been transformed into puppets by the Reapers, were behind the scenes, so Shepard sneaked into the Collectors' base, destroyed the Collectors with little risk, and saved the colonists.
Shepard, who had done several great things, became famous and received a mission from Navy Captain Hackett to sneak into the Batarian base on Aratoht and rescue Dr. Amanda Kenson.
Shepard learned from Kenson that the Reapers were heading to the Batarian Alpha Relay, the mass relay of the Bahak system, and were about to invade the galaxy through it. Shepard destroys the mass relay with an asteroid. The entire Bahak system and its 300,000 Batarian inhabitants were destroyed, but the Reaper invasion was delayed.
The third generation began with the Reapers' invasion of the Earth. Six months after the end of the second generation, the Reapers invaded the Earth. Shepard successfully escaped in a spaceship and headed to Mars, while Anderson stayed on Earth to lead the human army to resist the Reapers.
Before Shepard left Earth, he received a mission to Mars. It turned out that Mars had dug up a big secret. After arriving on Mars, anomalies were discovered at the excavation site, and the Illusive Man sent Cerberus agents to infiltrate the Martian excavation site.
After a battle, Shepard got what Mars dug out, which was the "Sky Furnace" design left by the Protheans mentioned earlier.
Introduction to "Qingtian Furnace" in Game Encyclopedia
So Shepard began to unite various forces across the galaxy to work together to build the "Sky Furnace". However, there are conflicts between various forces in the galaxy, and there are also problems within the forces. Some forces are also at war with the Reapers, and the base camp is in danger, let alone helping others.
So Shepard helped various forces solve problems and resolve conflicts, united the human army in the galaxy, while looking for clues and methods to fight the Reapers, and at the same time had people build the Sky Furnace.
It was during this process that Shepard met the Leviathan, the ancient race that created the Forerunner and indirectly created the Reapers.
It's actually hard to tell whether the Illusive Man is paranoid or has ideas.
At the end of the game, both the Illusive Man and Shepard came to the Citadel, the catalyst that can drive the Sky Furnace, and Shepard killed the Illusive Man.
Only here did the Pioneer tell him that the purpose of the Reapers' existence was actually to harvest advanced civilizations and avoid excessive mechanization, which would bring about the biological destruction of humans (including aliens).
If advanced civilization is not restricted, then the machines created by humans will eventually betray humans and destroy them. For example, "Horizon: Zero Dawn" tells the story of a data virus contaminating machinery, causing the machinery created by humans to eventually destroy human civilization.
At the end of the third generation, the Pioneer gave Shepard three choices:
1. Become a catalyst and merge with the Pioneer. The Pioneer will assist Shepard in transforming humans, and humans (including aliens) will become "reformed humans" like Adam in "Deus Ex".
2. Give up destroying the Reapers, continue to harvest high-level civilizations, and protect low-level civilizations, that is, maintain the cycle of harvesting, and completely shift the position of preventing the Reapers to supporting the Reapers.
3. Destroy the reapers, give up harvesting, and let humans continue to develop civilization and fend for themselves. The potential danger is the mechanical destruction of human civilization in "Horizon: Dawn" mentioned by the author earlier.
To be honest, I rarely play games with such depth of thought. Any of the above three choices is a question that cannot be concluded in philosophy and ethics. The official itself cannot come up with a suitable answer, so it will choose The rights are put in the hands of players.
The first option, we have seen a lot of cyborgs in "Metal Gear Solid" and "Deus Ex", but in fact cyborgs are not a reasonable solution. If we want humans to gain powerful computing power, we must rely on chips, etc. High technology. The hidden danger brought by the chip is that the modified people become puppets of virus hackers. Once a large-scale virus spreads among the modified people, the harm will be self-evident.
"Deus Ex" powerful cyborg Adam
The second option, to maintain harvesting, is actually a direction that the author relatively agrees with. However, I considered that it was inappropriate to insist on a lifelong dream and slap myself in the face in the end, so I still did not choose it. The Illusive Man has also always insisted that the Reapers should exist, so it has been looking for catalysts and refused to cooperate with the Star Alliance. It believes that only in the time and space where the Reapers exist, humanity is full of hope. Without the Reapers, humanity will move toward self-destruction. So in the end Shepard asked himself if the Illusive Man was right.
"Horizon: Zero Dawn": Artificial machines have become the end of human civilization
The third option is to destroy the Reapers. The consequence of intelligence is that the thin human body cannot withstand a few attacks from the rebellious robots. We don’t know how powerful computing power intelligent machines may have, but now, AI that can automatically write codes according to needs has been born. One day in the future, will awakened robots take over the Internet and develop their own intelligence to destroy mankind? We don't know.
In the end, the author chose the route of transforming people. Of course, I didn't know whether my decision would one day become the target of criticism for a certain game.
In the later stages of playing "Mass Effect 3", I felt it was quite boring. On the normal difficulty level, the game's weapon and model collection system is of little significance. A laser gun can handle most situations, and the branch content, in addition to fighting, is also repetitive. higher.
The final plot made me feel that my trip was worthwhile, and the time spent on the game was completely recovered.
Therefore, in fact, "Mass Effect: Andromeda" should be called "Mass Effect 4". In terms of order, it is the fourth orthodox work in the "Mass Effect" series.
Of course, "Mass Effect 2" is also a good choice. After all, Shepard served as the protagonist of three works. "Assassin's Creed II" is also a three-part series for EZIO, which is a model in the industry.
However, Bioware probably did not expect that this work would be released for four consecutive generations, so the previous three games did not have special names. After this generation of "Andromeda", I believe that each generation will have a special theme.
If the Shepard Trilogy is about the contradiction between technology and humanity, then this contradiction has actually been concluded when Shepard or the player makes a choice, so the theme of "Andromeda", looking at it now, is more Favors exploration and survival.
The story officially comes to an end after reaching the third generation. The archives of each generation's works in the previous three generations can be inherited into the next generation's works, and your choices in the previous generation will affect the next generation. The "Mass Effect" trilogy has always used this setting. The plot of the entire game can be said to be very precise, and the choices given will have an impact on subsequent content.
In "Mass Effect: Andromeda", any choice Shepard makes in the third generation will lead to his physical death. He can no longer be the protagonist in subsequent works. The official seems to have plans to open a new pit, so , the story of "Andromeda" has little connection with the previous works.
However, "Mass Effect: Andromeda" is not unrelated to the previous three generations. It began with the "Andromeda Expedition Project" launched after humans discovered "Mass Effect". Therefore, the protagonist is not far from Shepard's era, but It is also an indisputable fact that he spent more than 600 years in a spaceship.
If you are a player who is very interested in the "Mass Effect" series or "Andromeda", there is no big problem in starting "Andromeda" directly, because there are not many connections in the plot, the so-called "Andromeda Expedition Project" , is more of a background setting to cut off the relationship with the previous game, which is also the benefit of the new pit.
As for what kind of story "Andromeda" tells, we will get a complete answer soon.