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Even the box covers look similar…
Mass Effect and Unreal. What’s the connection here? Mass Effect 1& 2 used more than just the Unreal Engine, you see. Mass Effect is also somewhat similar to Unreal II: The Awakening.
I bought the Unreal Anthology the other day, which had Unreal II bundled along with three or four other games in the series. This got me thinking back to the days when I played Unreal II. Okay, so it didn't continue the story of Unreal, but it wasn’t a bad game.
What does all that have to do with Mass Effect? Look at Unreal II, and then look at Mass Effect.
Both featured one man out to save the world, along with his crew, on his ship. You argue that those two men aren’t the same rank, and that with Shepard you could at least customize what he [or she] looks like.
Fair enough, but then look at the how the game plays – you have those dialogue options and so on. Yeah, Unreal II had those, and could also be one of those talky games as well at times.
Okay, so you argue that the dialogue options weren’t as in depth, and didn’t feature Paragon and Renegade and so on. I know you’re probably getting cross now, but have a look at this next one.
Unreal II also saw you travelling to different planets and so on to stop threats: one which included a trip to the snow-covered planet known as Hell, where John Dalton [you] ended up battling these huge spidery looking things called Araknids, and the Heavy Araknid -essentially the Queen. Sound familiar? Mass Effect also had a snowy level, Noveria, where you drove up to this building, where you faced the Rachni - which were big spidery looking things, with a Queen Rachni…
Mass Effect 2 also had that suicide mission at the end of the main storyline, but if you played it carefully, most of the crew if not all came out alive. In Unreal II, there was also a bit a of a suicide mission, but this time the crew ended up sacrificing themselves by plunging their ship into the sun.
Not to mention that Mass Effect 2 had your Cerberus officer, Miranda – the eye candy of the game – and Unreal II had Aida.
I’m not saying that BioWare copied Unreal II, and it could all just be coincidence, but I just happened to notice a few similarities. Perhaps, spiritually, even though they are now working on Mass Effect 3, the Mass Effect series all ready has a trilogy… in a way.
