Is Mass Effect an Rpg series?

This whole "define an rpg" discussion is so overdone.

And lame. Very lame.

For me, it's an rpg.

DON'T SHOOT ME FOR IT

It's an RPG.

But that's what you do in Mass Effect...

Don't start this shit.

You play a role and get the world/characters to view you in different ways. So I don't get what people expect an RPG to be.

Mass Effect 1 is an RPG absolutely.

I think it offers enough in terms of building/customizing your chracter and affecting the story and relationship with other characters to be clasified as an RPG. But it's a pretty uninteresting discussion tbh.

It's more TPS than RPG.

The first one you could count it as a RPG but the rest? Nah hahahahahaha

Yes, all 3 are RPGs and all 3 are some of the best games this gen.

Rpg elements intro something else

They are driving games. Everyone is wrong except for me.

The degradation from RPG into RPShooter from 1-3 is pretty clear. But, it's still an RPG series.

Short answer: yes.

We used to have this dicussion back in the day. It isn't. It's primarily a shooter (and a bad one at that.) Thankfully more people realize that now than they used to.

In short, yes.

Does that make Dark Souls a S&M game? :P

yes dark souls is an education in masochism.

but what an education!

Third person manshooters with RPG elements.

RPS (Role-Playing Shooter)

Or rather, it's a game of H&S&M (Hack & Slash & Masochism).

That would not work unless you agree it's an rpg. That cop-out won't work.

I'd consider it more of an action shooter than an rpg. Mass Effect 1 was very rpg like, then every installment after is less an rpg and more of an action shooter.

It's an action RPG. People should get over it.

Not to me it isn't. Still a great series though (haven't played 3 yet).

Are people serously saying it's NOT an RPG?

How is it not an RPG?

I'll give you third person action RPG, but it's not like this is gears of war.

Lots of character customization? Check.

Meaningful interactions with the world? Check.

Explorations/Loot management? Check and Check.

Intricate conversations with charcters that lead to various choices and consequences? Check.

Stats and abilities? Check and check.

Tactical gameplay and power/ability management is important in combat? Check.

Seriously, I'd love to hear the argument people who think it isn't an RPG are putting forward.

It's an RPG with heavy shooter elements (2 and 3 more so).

Mass Effect 1 yes.

But 2 and 3 are Third Person Shooters with Magic at best.

With that said I think 2 was the best.

Simply playing a role isn't sufficient. Technically you're playing a role when you play Super Mario.

Affecting the world as a direct consequence of your decisions, Is one valid requirement, but there are others. And that one requirement implicitly itself requires that the game provide you with menaingful choices.

Yes, it is.

Oh my. You don't actually believe this, do you?

I actually played all three, and the interactions were certainly meaningful. It's hard to argue that the decisions you made did not effect the game in any meaningful way. Let's just take Wrex:

"Wrex returns inMass Effect 2, provided he lived through the first game. ^[7]If Wrex survived, he is encountered on the krogan homeworld, Tuchanka, where he has united the various krogan clans under Clan Urdnot to strengthen his ailing race in the face of the genophage.^[8]He has introduced many modernizing reforms to krogan society, but faces fierce opposition against more traditionalist clans. Should Wrex have been killed in the previous game by either Ashley or Shepard, the player will be sourly greeted by Wrex's brother, Wreav.

Wrex returns in Mass Effect 3, provided he survived the events of Mass Effect, and has become the de facto leader of the krogan. During a war summit between the Salarian Dalatrass Linron and the Turian Primarch Victus, Wrex demands a cure for the genophage. In return, he would deploy krogan troops to Palaven. Using leaked information, Wrex forces the Dalatrass to release a fertile female krogan who is immune to the genophage."

EDIT: People like to complain about the original ending in ME3, but after 300 hours of interacting with characters and making decisions that did in fact have direct and indirect consequences, I certainly have no complaints about the time I spent role-playing in the ME universe.

Having Choices in the Game don't mean Squat when the ending you get is the same.

One reason why Fable 2 got so much flak and guess what, Fable 2 is more RPG than Mass Effect.

Mostly yes.

Yes.

Is it a bit bare bones on the elements in the 2nd and 3rd game? Certainly, but it still has enough distinct RPG elements to be considered an RPG franchise.

Just because it plays like a TPS doesn't mean it's a TPS. By that logic, other RPG's are simply strategy games, or Hack n Slash games.

The poll results (so far) and most of the comments satisfy me :)

Eh. I wouldn't mind it being classified as one. Wouldn't mind it being classified as a TPS either.

When you play Super Mario you do not play a role. Mario is a pre-defined character, he does not change.

Yes, lots of Japanese "RPGs" get an unchallenged label of being called so and they can be even more linear and less stat and choice driven than the Mass Effect series is. And Mass Effect has more hurdles since it's sci-fi and not a generic fantasy setting of most RPGs.

If you take the most superficial aspects of Mass Effect like the alien races, and replace them with orcs and elves and dwarves and instead of a space ship you traveled on a dragon and instead of guns got bows and arrow and staffs for casting magic then nobody would argue it's an RPG. Fantasy settings have dominated the RPG genre far too long where something that is not so has to be challenged as not being an RPG.

mass effect is a third person shooter. CoD has more RPG elements.

People really need to understand the difference between merely controlling a character, and actually role playing a character. They're not the same dynamic at all.

If you have to rely on hyperbole to make an argument, you really have no argument at all.

And people always talk about the elements, but mechanics alone are only part of the equation of RPGs. Yes they have their part, not saying stats and leveling don't matter. But if that's all it took, then sure COD or Force Unleashed would count as RPGs.

The other side of the coin is the players ability to define their character, such that it becomes an extension of themselves, and not simply a puppet they're pulling the strings for, which is what you get in any action game. It all goes into the player determining their character development, not just in skills but in shaping the characters role in the story, where the player has interaction with the world around them through their character.

This type of experience isn't found in your typical shooter (Halo, COD, Killzone, Battlefield, Crysis, etc...) that is structured around linear story sequences with a pre-scripted avatar for the character.

Nah Homie.

"Mass Effect is a series of science fictionaction role-playingthird person shootervideo games developed by the Canadian company BioWare"

granted, wiki is the source, its a damn RPG, any moron saying no or voting no... get your head out of your a$$ you don't define genres.

I would say that the first one was without a doubt, the 2nd and 3rd ones took away too much of what would make it an RPG and placed it straight in the hybrid Box. They are not 3rd person shooters, but not wholey RPGs either, given that alot of the layers of choice and consequences were stripped out.

Certain choices are simply removed in order to have a bigger focus on battle and war. But if you sk if mass 2 or 3 are bad games? No, I simly can not bring myself to claim that they are RPGs, but I find it perfectly fine to say that they are RPG hybrids. Most modern RPGs are afterall.

It definitely is an RPG. And pretty good one at that. It has all the attributes - character developement, strong story that is impacted by players choices and I really feeled like Ms. Shepard (yep, my Shepard was a lady) when playing it.

I'd say its a TPS-RPG hybrid. Anyone expecting something like CoD or Gears will be disappointed though.