For the past week or so, I’ve been playing Mass Effect, and have been enjoying it immensely. As a living, breathing universe, it’s engaging. As a dialogue-fueled story, it’s compelling. As a sci-fi title, it’s… well, it’s rather disappointing.

There are many problems with the game. It’s clearly unfinished, ravaged by bugs, and is at times too frustrating to fully enjoy. Its worst fault as I see it, however, is its uncompromising hatred for science.

Which isn’t entirely new. As a video game which strives to be a big-budget interactive movie, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that it follows in Hollywood’s footsteps and suffers from “mad-scientist” syndrome. When scientists aren’t going crazy and experimenting on and subsequently killing innocent people, they’re thugs, practicing “science” on the fringes of the galaxy to disastrous results. They steal people’s organs for so-called experiments. They genetically-engineer evil monstrosities for profit. etc. etc. etc.

In Mass Effect, the universe’s underground is dominated by evil research corporations causing all sorts of havoc and mayhem.

Nevertheless, Mass Effect is by no means a bad game, and there are a few redeeming moments where true science peeks through all the grime. There is one point where, upon being asked, your ship’s engineer explains a cloaking system which essentially cuts out the ship’s electric and radio activity, effectively “cloaking” itself from sensors. He later adds that the feature would not work during travel due to, among other things, the resulting doppler effect, as your ship would create a detectable red or blue shift in light. That line left me smiling.

Despite its flaws, Mass Effect is a fun game. It’s just a shame that there was that particular aspect to leave a bad taste in my mouth. If only there were a game where scientists are the virtuous good guys, and the protagonist, a scientist himself, becomes the savior of humanity.

Why, that’s the kind of game I’d call the best ever made!