Is Mass Effect Open World?
Mass Effect is a franchise of science fiction RPGs (role playing games). Mass Effect video games allow the player to assume the role of characters and role-play their choices and consequences in a futuristic universe. Mass Effect video games have been praised for their third-person shooter gameplay, RPG combat, character progression, dialogues, choices and consequences, atmosphere and storyline. The first Mass Effect video game, Mass Effect (2007), was developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for PC and PlayStation 3 and by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox 360. Considering that Mass Effect video games are classic RPGs, and often favorites among RPG players, and also considering the size of the universe of Mass Effect video games, players often wonder and debate whether the Mass Effect video games can be considered open world video games, and how their game worlds compare to the game worlds of traditionl open world video games.
Most Mass Effect video games are technically open world, but not in the same sense as GTA. They feature an overworld, the galaxy map, which connects different environments. Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) is a traditional open world game.
Although Mass Effect (2007) is not a traditional open world video game, it features large, unique environments with many activities and NPCs. The galaxy map connects different planets, and many planets feature an impressive variety of locations to visit and activities to perform. One of these examples is the Citadel, a densely urbanized metropolis-like location in Mass Effect (2007).
The Overworld of Mass Effect Video Games
Early Mass Effect video games, such as Mass Effect (2007), Mass Effect 2 (2010) and Mass Effect 3 (2012), generally feature an overworld, similar to the overworld of early Final Fantasy video games and early Dragon Quest video games. In this overworld, the main character, or party of characters, are able to travel to the unique locations of the universe, often spanning multiple galaxies, including planets and space stations. The traversing of this overworld is done in a fashion similar to strategy video games, in which the player is able to click on specific destinations in order for the ship of main characters to travel to that location.
In Mass Effect (2007), Commander Shepard can adventure in many planets, either on foot or using vehicles. Steep locations may require the use of the vehicle Mako, and there is an impressive degree of freedom of adventuring in the open environments of these planets.
Moreover, this type of traversing is quite different from traditional third-person sandbox open world video games, such as Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, Just Cause, Saints Row, Sleeping Dogs, Watch Dogs, among others, in which the player character is able to adventure throughout the game world in a seamless experience, without loading screens or transitions. However, at the same time, Mass Effect video games, due to the nature of their futuristic game universe, feature very distinctive and diverse locations, such as different and exotic planets. In Mass Effect video games, each of these unique locations provide different activities or missions. In this sense, Mass Effect video games are not open world sandbox video games such as GTA video games or Just Cause video games. Instead, they are RPGs with large environments and diverse locations that can be visited through an overworld view.
In Mass Effect (2007), Commander Shepard may use the Galaxy Map available on the Normandy to travel to different planets. Due to the possibility of freely travelling to different locations during most of the gameplay, Mass Effect (2007) is technically an open world video game.
Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) presented a game environment larger and more open than previous Mass Effect video games. In this sense, it could be reasonable to describe Mass Effect: Andromeda as more open than the early Mass Effect video games. In this video game, the player character is able to move in different directions, enjoying a greater degree of freedom. For this reason, Mass Effect: Andromeda could be described as an open world video game.
Commander Shepard and his team can adventure in many planets in Mass Effect (2007) using the vehicle Mako. Each planet features unique landscapes and characteristics. Some planets have hostile environments, which require the constant use of helmets. When adventuring with the Mako vehicle, players can traverse throughout the landscape in an open environment.
The Size of the Game Universe of Mass Effect Video Games
Early Mass Effect video games have a considerable game universe in terms of size. The overworld design of these video games allows the possibility of very diverse and distinct environments, such as exotic planets. Cities and locations are inhabited by different species of alien life forms. The variety of activities and missions that can be performed in each of these locations adds much variety to the gameplay of Mass Effect video games, and also considering that in many cases the player character is able to have dialogues with these different species of life forms, and also considering the rich and deep lore of Mass Effect video games, the universe of these video games can be quite vast and immersive.
The Galaxy Map of Mass Effect (2007) features many different locations to visit, including not only different planets, but also different star systems.
At the same time, early Mass Effect video games, such as Mass Effect (2007), Mass Effect 2 (2010) and Mass Effect 3 (2012), were released during a time when vast open world video games are not as common as during the late 2010s, with the releases of video games such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Red Dead Redemption 2, Death Stranding, among others. At the time of release of the early Mass Effect video games, during the late 2000s and early 2010s, action RPGs often featured large environments, such as in the cases of the early Mass Effect video games, the early Dragon Age video games, and the early The Witcher video games. For these reasons, while these environments are quite large and provide immersion and variety of player activity, at the same time they are in a very different scale when compared to open world video games released at the late 2010s and early 2020s, which were able to make use of more advanced technologies and hardware available at the time.
This difference in open world design is especially evident in the case of Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017), which retains the classic gameplay of Mass Effect video games while also presenting a larger and more open game world. Mass Effect: Andromeda is familiar to fans of the franchise, while also featuring an open world in which the player character can adventure. For this reason, Mass Effect: Andromeda can be described as an open world video game.
The Case of Mass Effect: Open World Genre or Open World Design?
The debate of whether a video game can be considered open world is quite frequent among video game players, and this is mostly because there is often not a single consensus about the definition of open world video game. There are video games which are often considered traditional open world video games, or classic open world video games, and these are often associated with some shared characteristics, such as first-person or third-person camera perspective, seamless open world experience without loading screens, sandbox open world gameplay experience, among other aspects. Due to the shared characteristics of these video games, these video games are sometimes described as belonging to the same genre: the open world video game genre. Some example of these video games include Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto (GTA), Just Cause, Red Dead Redemption, Saints Row, Sleeping Dogs, The Elder Scrolls, Watch Dogs, among other video games.
Although Mass Effect (2007) is not a traditional open world video game, it features immersive landscapes which provide a sense of depth to players, such as seen in this view in the Citadel. Despite the main character not being able to directly visit some parts of the seen landscape, the large environments and the sense of depth provide immersion and a sense of adventuring.
Another point of view is that open world is a design element of video games, and in this sense, it is the feature of allowing players to have freedom of movement in multiple directions, as opposed to a traditionally linear gameplay design, in which the player is only able to progress the video game by moving in a single direction. Due to the subjectivity of this description, many video games with large environments could sometimes be described as open world video games according to this line of thought, although many of these video games would not be considered sandbox open world video games due to their directed experience.
For example, early The Witcher video games, with the exception of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, feature quite large environments, and the player character is, indeed, able to move between different locations, at certain points of the video game, and with some limitation, considering that some locations become locked at certain points of the story. However, while some players would describe these early The Witcher video games as open world in the sense that they feature large environments and freedom of movement, at the same time they provide an experience that is quite different from the open world experience of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and the experience of traditional open world video games such as Assassin's Creed and GTA video games.
As I see it, early Mass Effect video games are much more similar to these early The Witcher video games than they are similar to traditional open world video games such as GTA and Just Cause, with the noted difference that Mass Effect video games feature much more freedom of travelling between different locations of the game world, and in this sense, they would probably be considered more open than the early The Witcher video games. Moreover, Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017), which presents an open world environment in which the player character can adventure, is more similar to traditional open world video games, such as Assassin's Creed and GTA, and thus Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) can be considered an open world video game in both genre and gameplay design.
Is Mass Effect: Andromeda Open World?
While early Mass Effect video games are not open world video games in the same sense as traditional open world video games, such as Assassin's Creed, GTA and Just Cause, considering that Mass Effect video games feature diverse locations, with an impressive amount of different environments and locations which can be visited by the squad of main game characters, players may wonder whether subsequent Mass Effect video games, such as Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017), could be considered open world video games.
While early Mass Effect video games are not open world, Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) is an open world video game, featuring much more open environments. However, it is not a sandbox open world video game such as the Grand Theft Auto video games.
The early Mass Effect video games, such as Mass Effect (2007), Mass Effect 2 (2010) and Mass Effect 3 (2012), feature an overworld, which is a galaxy map in which the player may decide on the next destination of the ship and of the squad of main game characters. The galaxy map of these video games is quite large, featuring a variety of environments, planets and locations which can be visited, providing variety to the gameplay of these video games. However, this overworld feature is different from traditional open world video games, such as Assassin's Creed and GTA, in which the open game world is traversed in first-person or third-person camera perspective. In Mass Effect: Androemda (2017), while there are different environments which can be visited, environments in this video game are much more expansive and open, allowing players to effectively be able to free-roam with the game character in different directions. This experience is much more similar to the gameplay of traditional open world video games, and for this reason, Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) can be described as an open world video game.
Differences Between Early Mass Effect Video Games and Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017)
Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017) retains the classic gameplay of Mass Effect video games, also seen in the early Mass Effect video games, such as Mass Effect (2007), Mass Effect 2 (2010) and Mass Effect 3 (2012). However, Mass Effect: Andromeda, unlike most previous Mass Effect video games, features quite expansive and open game environments, allowing players to adventure and roam these different locations with the main game character. The main game character is able to adventure in these landscapes either on foot or using a vehicle. In this sense, this video game is much more similar to traditional open world video games such as Assassin's Creed and GTA.
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