Mass Effect: A pleasant evolution of the text adventure

Text in videogames is a tricky thing. It can either help enrich the experience or slow the game to an agonizing pace. Sure, back in the days of Zork, a text-based adventure was actually a genre, but now it’s often an overlooked element of a larger game.

I’m not talking about MUDs here – I’m talking about the more standard graphic-based games that rely on conversations to progress the game. Forget the talking heads where you button mash to get to the next bit of action. I’m talking about games where text plays a crucial role in the action.

In reviewing Mass Effect for an upcoming CiN Weely column, I realized that there is a rather unexplainable difference between the way American games treat text-based interactions versus most Japanese games. Well, at least the DS and PC dating sim (aka bishoujo) games I’ve played.

In the games Mass Effect as well as Knight of the Old Republic, text-based conversations involve a…