Mass Effect

"Massive expectations! Effective execution!"

I'm going to get straight to my point. This game is Gears of War, Oblivion style. Or Oblivion, Gears of War style. In space. If you loved the action elements from Gears of War, or the quest based open-ended freedom from Oblivion, you will be pleased to know that this game is an effective mix of both, in a unique sci-fi setting that has more mythology at your disposal than you could hope for. You will be engrossed in the great story and its surprisingly deep characters. You will be glad that there is so much action. The game has its flaws, definitely, but you'll overlook them because its core elements are just so well delivered. Put simply, Mass Effect is an great action game and an excellent role-playing game. Any fan of either genre is going to find something that they like here.

GRAPHICS

The extra polish that has been given to the environments in Mass Effect have made them worth stopping just to look at. In certain areas I would find myself simply moving the camera around to notice all the little details that I would normally take for granted. I can't remember seeing water looking better than this in any game. The landscapes on the more barren planets look very crisp and realistic. The detail and scope of some of the buildings you'll be exploring help to establish the sci-fi atmosphere that Mass Effect pulls off so well.

The characters, too, have been given a much welcomed sense of life in the facial department. Mouth movement during speech is believable, and it's also nice to see that the expression a character gives is in accordance to the situation they're in. The faces of the alien races in particular are those that I loved most, and gladly there is extensive variation between each race. The turians, the galactic badboys, have been given a rough look that completely deviates from the, uh, sexy asari race. No single kind of being in this game has been left with little detail to be looked at. The extent of detail given to the them is something that you can sit back and appreciate.

This game is definitely eye candy central, but the technical issues that it has can bring down the look of the game significantly at times. Every time you land on a new planet, or sometimes even when you just enter a nearby room, the game can take a good ten seconds to load all the detailed graphics. The atmosphere is somewhat detracted from when you see the system at work, slowly loading bits and pieces to finally give you the finished product. More importantly, sometimes the framerate either drops down or just goes insane. This can be frustrating during action sequences because, well, sometimes you'll have no idea what is happening because everything is moving so sporadically. On the whole, the graphics in this game are commendable, but they are let down to some degree by these technical issues.

In short: Very detailed environments, character faces look great, technical issues are a let down at times.

STORY

Everything about the story is wonderful except for the main storyline itself. The mythology of this game is extremely deep, and can be learned either by talking to characters throughout the galaxy or looking through the abundance of information that you'll pick up for your codex, your very own Mass Effect encyclopedia available in the inventory. Thankfully the game doesn't throw all this information in your face through long and tedious cutscenes, and it's welcoming that you can wade through whatever information you want in your own time (I like learning about the alien races, but the technology and spaceship parts? Not my bag). By providing so much information, but leaving it at your expense, Mass Effect has established its setting perfectly for the rest of the trilogy, and been nice about it.

You'll be surprised by the depth of the characters. Each of your squad members have whole histories that they'll be all to eager to lay upon you. They also have distinct personalities that, you'll be pleased to know, bear little similarity to the generic RPG characters you've been subjected to in the past. Characters are believable. Their situations make sense. Motives aren't stupid. And for those who only want action, listening to these characters is completely optional.

The antagonist in particular has been very well-crafted and implemented. You don't see much of him, but what you do see will make you eager to learn more, and you might find yourself fishing around for tidbits of information on his characteristics or history. Character depth isn't limited to main characters alone. Even those you will come across in sidequests are interesting and believable, and worth caring about. I bet Bioware have a warehouse of boxes filled with character related info.

Then we come to Shepard, the protagonist. The story of Shepard progresses depending on the decisions that you are going to make while playing the game. Whether you aim to be a pious hero or the meanest guy in the galaxy, the character development of Shepard has been fleshed out well, and is usually expressed through what others say depending on your actions and decisions. The open-ended nature of Shepard's story is much more engrossing than if you were playing a character with a story of linear progression. This freedom is very much one of the best aspects of the game, and I'll definitely be returning to the game to find out what would have happened if I had done something differently (I'm wondering what would have happened if I didn't try to be as cruel as possible).

I said previously that everything is great except the main storyline. Don't get me wrong, the main storyline is actually good and I enjoyed it. But really, when you break it down to its core, not a whole lot happens in the main story. I will not go into detail of course, but with all of the character depth, mythology and focus on decision making, this story could have been more complex than it was. I completely see this story as one that was used to establish the setting of Mass Effect for the future games, and it has reached this end very efficiently. Now that the setting has been fleshed out, I'm hoping that we see a little more complexity in the plot when the next game comes around. Please don't get me wrong here. This is a good story, but less happens than you will expect.

In short: Lots and lots of Mass Effect mythology, surprising amount of character depth, making decisions rules, main storyline could be better.

GAMEPLAY

The gameplay in Mass Effect is composed of three parts: Quests, action and exploration. The main quests involve a fair amount of in-game discussion and decision making along with heavy amounts of action. The sidequests, on the other hand, also involve these things but are more oriented towards planet exploration. If you were to focus solely on the main quests you would be missing out on over half of what Mass Effect has on offer, and could probably blow through the game in about 15 hours. It is doubtful that this will happen, however, because the sidequests are more engaging than you would expect, and you may find that you haven't even done a main quest for a few good hours. If you were to complete all of these sidequests before beating the game you could probably squeeze in about 35 hours of play, depending on your skill. Sadly you cannot continue to do quests once the main game has been completed, so keep that in mind if you are yet to play the game. Extra saves will help.

I don't think this is the first review you have read. I'm certain that you know about the whole paragon/renegade choice system that has been widely talked about when people mention this game. I will simply say that it has been very well implemented. Many quests in the game are effected by the choices you make, as are the opinions of the people in the Mass Effect world. You are also given some tough choices that shape the main storyline that you're going to have to think about before deciding. I won't go into detail about this system because I'm sure you've read enough about it by now. My opinion, though, is that it's definitely integrated into the game excellently. It doesn't feel tacked on. And also, it changes many things in-game, giving you many reasons to want to play the game over and over if you want to know all the possible outcomes of each situation. And you probably will, because the situations are awesome.

The action, as I said earlier, is similar to Gears of War. The action sequences play out like a third person shooter and you will have to duck and find cover as you recklessly shoot down any force that gets in your way, while simultaneously having some control over squad members who have got your back. At the beginning of the game you will select what kind of abilities you want your character to have. You have the choice of being a simple soldier, a 'biotic' fighter with abilities similar to those of a magic based character in a fantasy RPG, or a technical fighter who can crack through any decryptions to disable enemy shields and weapons. Depending on which one you pick, you will likely find yourself relying on the squad members with abilities dissimilar to your own. You also level up during play and choose to raise the skills of all squad players and yourself.

The action moments in the game are exciting at times while they can be a pain during others. They're usually quick and tense, and there's a great sense of satisfaction when you happen to get out of a situation where you're pinned down by enemy forces. There's more reason to fight in this game because you are rewarded experience points for each kill you make, and it is again satisfying to see the little "level up" icon appear on the side of the screen whenever you've wiped out your foes. The pain comes in the fact that the action is somewhat buggy. Actually, scratch that. The action is very buggy. Squad members tend to do stupid things when you don't take control of them. Besides its use of cover, the enemy AI isn't very smart either. The framerate can be detrimental because it drops whenever there is too much happening on the screen. And on normal difficulty the game swings too heavily in your direction. By the end of the game I was simply too strong. I still had to take cover, but I knew I wasn't going to lose most fights. I will importantly add, though, that while these problems are definitely apparent, I still enjoyed the action a lot. It's similar to Gears of War, and it's still good, but it's simply not as good.

The exploration part of the game is good and frustrating at the same time. Exploring in the Mako is interesting. The feeling of searching some barren planet for all of its little secrets is enjoyable, and bouncing up and down the mountains and rocky hills along the way is fun. The terrain also looks cool. But the game outside of the main planets is too barren. Any planet not involved in the main quest usually contains some little things to find and might involve a quest. But if you're looking for any towns or colonies of people, I'm sorry to inform you that anyone you find outside of the main planets probably wants to kill you, and is hiding in some base that has exactly the same layout as every base on all of the other barren planets. Also, the Mako is frustrating at the worst of times. Its gun turret is useless. It is impossible to aim with and even if it does hit your target it does very little damage. And if you happen to crash into a wall it can be very difficult to get moving again. This is especially problematic when you're surrounded by massive robots bent on your demise. Exploration is fun, but not without the problems mentioned above.

In short: Quests are excellent, good/bad choice system is awesome, action is enjoyable but problematically buggy, planet exploration is fun but planets are barren and the Mako is sometimes frustrating. But these negative points are easily overlooked because the greater aspects of the gameplay shine.

LASTABILITY/REPLAYABILITY

If you were to stick to the main quests alone, this game could be completed in about 15 hours. It is very likely that you will be distracted the surprisingly deep sidequests, however, so this game could last you up to 25 hours and even longer if you manage to complete all of the quests available to you. I personally beat it at just under 30 hours. There is plenty of reason for you to go back and play this game again because of the paragon/renegade system. Acting differently to how you did with your previous Shepard opens up new quests, new outcomes to quests, and conversations you have never had before. The only negative comment I can give is that the main quest could have been longer. But in terms of both lastability and replayability, this game is a winner.

OVERALL: 9.4/10

I'll put this whole review in a nutshell. Mass Effect is an excellent addition to your Xbox 360 library if you're a fan of either RPG or action games. Most aspects of the story are very well thought out and presented, especially the Mass Effect mythology and the characters of the game. The graphics are pretty. The choice system is implemented very well and will likely have you replaying the game to find out what would have happened if you had done something differently. The action, while buggy, is still enjoyable and satisfying. Ultimately, I am writing this to come down to a very cliche suggestion: Buy this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/26/07

Game Release: Mass Effect (AU, 11/16/07)