Stunning games and endings... I've got a long story on that one. But hey, there can never be enough stories about positive gaming experiences, right?
I've been a multiplayer freak ever since I can remember. If a game wasn't competitive, if I couldn't prove my skills against a real human being, it had no value for me - so, naturally I was especially fond of MMOs. However, there came the day when my favourite MMO (Dark Age of Camelot) started dying due to a lot of reasons that led the majority of people of its wonderful community to turn their backs on it, and in the end I gave up as well.
Dissatisfied with most MMOs and other multiplayer games that came after, I tried to find my way back to the singleplayer kind. Which was pretty hard, I was hotheaded and didn't really see any purpose in it. I couldn't get into the Zelda games again, although I loved Ocarina of Time as a kid. I was bored by most platformers, racing games, and first person shooters. I even disliked RPGs because I had only played Oblivion at the time. I didn't realize that I was blaming those genres for my own lack of knowledge and understanding.
So then I almost gave up on gaming as a whole and only played Counterstrike from time to time. Yep, I was an idiot.
Along came Mass Effect. I knew next to nothing about it, only that it was a shooter in space and that Steam had it on sale. So, why not?
What followed was the most memorable gaming experience I've had to this day. Objectively one can argue that it isn't among the greatest games humanity has ever produced - but to me, it was perfection. It taught me to appreciate well written characters and immersive storylines again and made me realize that I've had lost all sense for these things in my games.
The ending can be seen as kind of clichéd and even a bit kitschy, but I loved every moment of it. I was so tense during the last couple of scenes, then the credits started rolling and that song set in... and I was speechless. The tune caught me off guard and gave me the chance to cool down and reflect for the first time on what I had just witnessed.
Although I've probably played better games and seen better endings over the last years, this one will always stand out. What comes to mind are for example Portal, Bastion, Limbo or Half-Life. For now. I still have a lot of catching up to do.
I've been a multiplayer freak ever since I can remember. If a game wasn't competitive, if I couldn't prove my skills against a real human being, it had no value for me - so, naturally I was especially fond of MMOs. However, there came the day when my favourite MMO (Dark Age of Camelot) started dying due to a lot of reasons that led the majority of people of its wonderful community to turn their backs on it, and in the end I gave up as well.
Dissatisfied with most MMOs and other multiplayer games that came after, I tried to find my way back to the singleplayer kind. Which was pretty hard, I was hotheaded and didn't really see any purpose in it. I couldn't get into the Zelda games again, although I loved Ocarina of Time as a kid. I was bored by most platformers, racing games, and first person shooters. I even disliked RPGs because I had only played Oblivion at the time. I didn't realize that I was blaming those genres for my own lack of knowledge and understanding.
So then I almost gave up on gaming as a whole and only played Counterstrike from time to time. Yep, I was an idiot.
Along came Mass Effect. I knew next to nothing about it, only that it was a shooter in space and that Steam had it on sale. So, why not?
What followed was the most memorable gaming experience I've had to this day. Objectively one can argue that it isn't among the greatest games humanity has ever produced - but to me, it was perfection. It taught me to appreciate well written characters and immersive storylines again and made me realize that I've had lost all sense for these things in my games.
The ending can be seen as kind of clichéd and even a bit kitschy, but I loved every moment of it. I was so tense during the last couple of scenes, then the credits started rolling and that song set in... and I was speechless. The tune caught me off guard and gave me the chance to cool down and reflect for the first time on what I had just witnessed.
Although I've probably played better games and seen better endings over the last years, this one will always stand out. What comes to mind are for example Portal, Bastion, Limbo or Half-Life. For now. I still have a lot of catching up to do.
