Mass Effect

"An Example of How Minor Flaws Can Drown a Great Game"

To start, I'd like to say that I have enjoyed most of the time I have played Mass Effect, and I certainly do not regret the $60 I paid for it. In fact, this is a game I'd consider replaying, and few games make me want to revisit the story in the way Mass Effect does. With that said though, the flaws in this game are plentiful. It is sometimes very sad to see a game that was almost perfect just get bogged down by stupid negligences.

STORY/STORY-TELLING ENVIROMENT (10/10):
The story in this game is simply amazing. All the chat sequences play through very fluidly, and it comes off as an experience rather than a game. You are there with Shepard, a soldier assigned to a top priority mission on a beautiful planet, battling a synthetic Geth horde. You're quick to learn that an operative, or Spectre, is the cause for the attack of and that his goal is to obtain enough relics from the past to bring back a murderous race of machines. I should make it clear that nobody but a true storyteller could bring justice to the story that is Mass Effect.

The believability of everything you see in the game is astounding as well. The races you encounter, the enemies you fight, the landscapes, all of it. It all gets sucked into this Mass Effect “experience”. The story told in Mass Effect is by far the best I've heard yet.

DIALOGUE (9/10):
When looking at a game like Mass Effect (where depending on your play style you could spend nearly 40% of your playing time engaged in chat) dialogue is always very important. The voice acting is superb, the chat options you are offered almost always will correspond to at least one emotion you feel at the time, and chat flows much like a conversation would in real life. One of its flaws, though, is that sometimes Shepard doesn't say something synonymous to the dialogue you selected. This can be frustrating at times, when the option hinted at some sort of middle ground response and Shepard ends up saying something pretty nasty. It's not too bad though, and chat still runs nearly perfectly.

GAMEPLAY (7.5/10):
When one looks at an RPG it is sometimes very difficult to evaluate the combat or “game play”. Naturally you would think that the story would be weighted much more heavily, as in an RPG that's what counts. The truth of the matter though is that the combat, while fun, in a way detracts from the great seriousness to be found it the story. The game uses very vibrant colors, awkward and funny looking biotic animations and unrealistic movements in the Mako, Mass Effect's “Warthog”. The chest opening system, as referenced in a Penny-Arcade comic, is also overwhelmingly absurd. While these features would be fine on their own, in a separate game, the truth of the matter is that the combat and the story don't fit together like they should, and that's disappointing.

GRAPHICS (8/10):
The graphics in Mass Effect are quite nice. While you won't be sitting down looking at a Gears of War or Assassin's Creed, you will be treated to very nice facial detail, and a character creation system (while not very in-depth) that yields great looking characters. The game though, frequently will need to load textures as you enter an area, but surely being able to move without textures for a second is better than a second spent in a loading screen.

FLAWS:
-Level/Weapon Design:
Sadly, Mass Effect has to feature some of the worst level design I have ever seen. To start, many of the side quests will occur in the same level. The level is pathetic too, simply being a linear path of about 3 rooms with a fork into two rooms at the end. The main city, while beautiful, emphasizes on the game's horrible elevator system (we're talking slower than a rock, here) and is, in general, confusing to navigate. Unless you spend a good amount of your time in the Citadel, (as it is called) don't expect to be able to get around without the in-game map.

On to weapon design. While some people may not be bothered by the simplicities of weapon design, the sad fact is that there are only two models for each weapon type, and both are pretty generic. You will never say “Dude, that looks really friggin sweet” while in the equipment screen.

-Controls:
The controls in the game are slightly awkward. Two different buttons are used to draw an holster your guns, wasting controller space, the back button throws grenades, and the Mako drives to an odd camera system, forcing you to really need to think hard if you want to shoot in a direction you aren't moving. Once again these problems aren't sufficient to ruin a game, but as a whole they really disrupt the immersion of the great story.

-Horrible Sidequests:
I'd describe most of the sidequests in the game as chores. Not only do they utilize that one horrible pre-designed level, but they also have no backbone. About half of the sidequests in the game can be received and completed without talking to a single person, really making you feel like you didn't accomplish anything, and very rarely is there a mercenary boss that you feel good about killing. Just the same re-used enemies. As a person who loves completing everything there is to complete in a game and loves to complete every side quest in a game, I can officially say I missed maybe a third of them out of sheer boredom.

LENGTH/REPLAYABILITY:
The game is short for an RPG, but so impressive that it comes to be acceptable. I beat the main story and some of the sidequests (ew) in roughly 25 hours. Replayability, though, in this game is off the charts. The in-game classes really limit what you can do with your character, and because of that you will really want to see the game from the perspective of a completely different classed (maybe opposite aligned?) Shepard.

BUY or RENT?
This game is definitely a buy. You will want to replay it, at least for the achievements if nothing else.

In conclusion, Mass Effect really is an amazing game that gets disrupted too often. It's a shame that the final product had to turn out that way, but the good to take out of it is that every flaw is fixable. It's for this reason that I cannot wait for Mass Effect 2 ^-^.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/03/07

Game Release: Mass Effect (US, 11/20/07)