The NPCs of
Mass Effect, meaning the characters controlled by the game's AI, all fit into the "Fantasy" character type. Since I've already covered the personalities and story elements of the main co-protagonists and antagonists, I'll look at the characters of various species that populate the galaxy and do not have scripted reactions to your actions. Instead, they need to adapt to everything that happens immediately. In combat, the co-protagonists become this kind of NPC and assist you to the best of their ability. Often, this assistance includes running into your line of fire like secret service agents for your enemies or standing in the open and absorbing plasma when they should be taking cover. There is a squad command system which is pretty easy to use but it would be nice if you didn't have to worry about your allies so much. However, if you allow them to freely use their powers, carefully build up their skills, and properly manage their gear, they can really be quite helpful. It's always cool to be a millimeter from death only to be saved by a biotic throw from one of your teammates that sends your assailant tumbling away.
Another type of NPCs are the friendly or neutral characters that just stand around as window dressing or heralds for sidequests. Depending on what planet you're on, about 15%-50% of these characters will be eligible for conversation and a handful of them will have quests, such as: "smuggle this merchandise for me" or "assassinate my competitors." These kinds of duties can be gained from the undercover criminal types and will lead Shepard down the path of a renegade. Other characters, like Admiral Hackett (only heard, never seen, and voiced by Lance Henriksen) will give you more noble goals, like: "take down the extremists while making sure not to hit the civilians." These talking NPCs have their dialogue scripted to respond to Shepard's queries the same way every time. They will not vary depending on the circumstances. The window dressing NPCs do not change either, eternally waving their arms like they're conducting an invisible orchestra and nodding their heads in silent conversation with their fellow NPCs. These quiet, nameless beings make the environments seem a little less dead but it's quite rare to find any that move and they provide no cacophony of noise to supplement their presence. There also seems to be only one gender of every species other than human. For the mono-gendered asari, this makes sense but why are there no turian chicks?
Your enemies are all NPCs as well. They engage you more intelligently than your allies engage them but often aren't too sharp either. Fighting them would be more fun if they were a bit more varied. Basically, all you do is shoot and shoot until they fall down dead. There is no option to merely disable enemies and no more strategy involved in killing them. I would especially like to see some creativity implemented in the boss fights. All you do is hold down the trigger as Saren floats around firing missiles. For the most part, you fight geth, a robotic enemy. They make neat sounds when communicating to each other during combat and sometimes will make decisions that surprise you (I wish that all the enemies would be damaged by your gunfire, though; blood may fly out of them but there is no wound to indicate where it came from. I hate it when games do this, even though most of them do). Overall, the enemy AI is perfectly acceptable. I don't play the game for the combat.
Concept art for the lead villain can be seen below. Notice the spines on the side of his head and robotic arm that make him clearly distinguishable from other members of his species. Other strategies
Mass Effect uses to make NPCs stand out are unique colors, voices, and animations.
One HUGE benefit that
Mass Effect has is that all of the NPCs look great. It is a breath of fresh air after the sloppy and hideous characters from
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I'm not suggesting that every character needs to be attractive (half the aliens would have to be cut from the game), but they need to look "good," which is a vague way of saying they should fit their roles. If a character is to be respected (like the comical elves of
Oblivion were) they shouldn't look like clowns. Furthermore, they can't be stiff, stoic, and expressionless.
Mass Effect's NPCs emote and gesture realistically, even if it is sometimes repetitive.
The NPCs of Mass Effect, meaning the characters controlled by the game's AI, all fit into the "Fantasy" character type. Since I've already covered the personalities and story elements of the main co-protagonists and antagonists, I'll look at the characters of various species that populate the galaxy and do not have scripted reactions to your actions. Instead, they need to adapt to everything that happens immediately. In combat, the co-protagonists become this kind of NPC and assist you to the best of their ability. Often, this assistance includes running into your line of fire like secret service agents for your enemies or standing in the open and absorbing plasma when they should be taking cover. There is a squad command system which is pretty easy to use but it would be nice if you didn't have to worry about your allies so much. However, if you allow them to freely use their powers, carefully build up their skills, and properly manage their gear, they can really be quite helpful. It's always cool to be a millimeter from death only to be saved by a biotic throw from one of your teammates that sends your assailant tumbling away. 
Another type of NPCs are the friendly or neutral characters that just stand around as window dressing or heralds for sidequests. Depending on what planet you're on, about 15%-50% of these characters will be eligible for conversation and a handful of them will have quests, such as: "smuggle this merchandise for me" or "assassinate my competitors." These kinds of duties can be gained from the undercover criminal types and will lead Shepard down the path of a renegade. Other characters, like Admiral Hackett (only heard, never seen, and voiced by Lance Henriksen) will give you more noble goals, like: "take down the extremists while making sure not to hit the civilians." These talking NPCs have their dialogue scripted to respond to Shepard's queries the same way every time. They will not vary depending on the circumstances. The window dressing NPCs do not change either, eternally waving their arms like they're conducting an invisible orchestra and nodding their heads in silent conversation with their fellow NPCs. These quiet, nameless beings make the environments seem a little less dead but it's quite rare to find any that move and they provide no cacophony of noise to supplement their presence. There also seems to be only one gender of every species other than human. For the mono-gendered asari, this makes sense but why are there no turian chicks? 
Your enemies are all NPCs as well. They engage you more intelligently than your allies engage them but often aren't too sharp either. Fighting them would be more fun if they were a bit more varied. Basically, all you do is shoot and shoot until they fall down dead. There is no option to merely disable enemies and no more strategy involved in killing them. I would especially like to see some creativity implemented in the boss fights. All you do is hold down the trigger as Saren floats around firing missiles. For the most part, you fight geth, a robotic enemy. They make neat sounds when communicating to each other during combat and sometimes will make decisions that surprise you (I wish that all the enemies would be damaged by your gunfire, though; blood may fly out of them but there is no wound to indicate where it came from. I hate it when games do this, even though most of them do). Overall, the enemy AI is perfectly acceptable. I don't play the game for the combat. 
Concept art for the lead villain can be seen below. Notice the spines on the side of his head and robotic arm that make him clearly distinguishable from other members of his species. Other strategies Mass Effect uses to make NPCs stand out are unique colors, voices, and animations. 
One HUGE benefit that Mass Effect has is that all of the NPCs look great. It is a breath of fresh air after the sloppy and hideous characters from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I'm not suggesting that every character needs to be attractive (half the aliens would have to be cut from the game), but they need to look "good," which is a vague way of saying they should fit their roles. If a character is to be respected (like the comical elves of Oblivion were) they shouldn't look like clowns. Furthermore, they can't be stiff, stoic, and expressionless. Mass Effect's NPCs emote and gesture realistically, even if it is sometimes repetitive. 
good detail aboutthe NPC's
ReplyDeletehave ya seen the footage from GDC of MassEffect2 - what do ya think?