The original Mass Effect has lied to you coldly. It has deceived you with something that did not exist.
When thinking of great video game series, most people think of the Mass Effect trilogy. Even today, the first three parts are considered true milestones in the RPG genre, and the story surrounding Commander Shepard is one of the most exciting ever.
However, the developers also employed some tricks to maintain the illusion of a great game – even though the technology did not cooperate.
Because when Commander Shepard ran, he was not actually faster.
What kind of trick is this? In Mass Effect 1, a lot of time was spent on the Citadel. It served as the hub of the storyline, and all missions somehow started there. After all, the Council was also there, to whom one had to report. But the Citadel was also quite a large place, and one often had to walk long distances. Fortunately, Commander Shepard could sprint to move forward faster.
At least that is what one thought. In reality, Shepard did not become any faster while sprinting on the Citadel. Only the camera angle was altered, and slight motion trails were added, making it appear as though one was running faster – even though Shepard was not doing so at all.
Why did Mass Effect do this? On X, John Ebenger, a former Cinematic Designer at BioWare, revealed that they used this trick to compensate for the technology of that time. After all, personal computers back then were not that powerful, and the game would not have been able to load environments and textures quickly enough if Shepard moved too fast on the Citadel.
Mass Effect 1 was known for somewhat lengthy pauses in the game. Many may still shudder at the memory of the elevator scenes, where one stared at the screen for many seconds while nothing seemed to happen at all.
So if you play Mass Effect 1 again and run around the Citadel, it is actually just a significantly more dramatic run.
By the way, this was corrected in the remaster, namely the Legendary Edition. Here, Shepard can actually sprint – which makes the time spent on the Citadel much more enjoyable. The next installment of Mass Effect is already in the works, and a first teaser is already raising the appetite for more.
