Mass Effect

"A Great Modern RPG"

I have played many games in my time, I have played classics such as Deus Ex, System Shock, Elder Scrolls series, The Legend of Zelda and Half Life to Fallout. And this is a great game, maybe not the same impact of those titles previously mentioned, but Bioware didn't fail to deliver a solid title.
Some people complain this game isn't RPG enough or Shooter enough for them, but I say this is a good movement for the genre, sure it wont be as complex as the old days but this game delivers what they couldn't do, and that is bringing a movie like experience to a video game and pulling it off quite well.

And again you might say that this game might not deserve it, to each their own, but I will let my review do the talking:

Introduction:

Mass Effect, a game created by the makers of timeless games like Knights of The Old Republic and the Baldur's Gate series, and of course there are other great games that they made that might not have been as well known to others, but BioWare has always seem to create an interesting story for their games and this one delivers.

You play the role of Commander Shepard, a character you can really shape and change, you can change his or hers history, the way he was brought up as a child, then in his or hers actions that made them legendary, such as being a war hero or a sole survivor in an impossible survival situation, these of course play a part in how other NPCs respond to you, will take note of what you did and bring it up in conversations, it will also give you unique side quests depending on what happened in you're characters past.

And along with that the character customization is good, maybe you don't have the option in creating so many varied things as for example Oblivion but it is still a solid system, put scars on the character, give them a unique look to them, the choice is yours, but don't except to have a Afro wearing character with massive eyebrows, it will always be military styled.

Gameplay:

I am going to kick right off into the gameplay of Mass Effect; some that look at videos or see gameplay moments in this game think it is just a shooter, but there is more to it, the combat shows a more Ghost Recon Advance Warfighter style of combat, over the shoulder, the use of squad commands and on harder game modes you can be killed rather quickly. Plus there is some tactical things about it people overlook, for example you might see people think the squad you have is useless, but I have been saved countless times by putting them in flanking positions.

But they do mask the real time combat with RPG style of numbers inside, so it mixes the players skill at the game with their characters skill.

But there are more things to use then just guns, you can also harness the power of Biotics and Technology, Biotics involve using your mind and harnessing the power of Mass Effect Fields using implants you carry, with them you can launch people with hundreds of newtons, lift them into the air, create a black hole like attack that draws all the enemies around to it, damaging enemies around it.

Technology involves the use of the Omni-Tool, a holographic tool that can overload shields, burn the weapons off the enemies hands, and hack massive robotic creatures to become you're slaves as they kill everyone around them, and with that you can decrypt objects, salvage probes and have a large shield which keeps you alive, and the power to heal you and your team and give people a neural shock.

Then there is the standard gun play of a soldier, you have access to practically an arsenal on you're character, though this game lacks the truly odd weapons of say Unreal or Half Life, but they do fit the sci-fi bill when you can freeze enemies, melt them, or just explode them using ammo types.
Changing ammo is a main point of this combat line of play, do you want to hurt them over time or give them powerful slow shots?

But shooting up people isn't the end of the gameplay, no another part of the game is the conversations that take place, conversations take a big part in the game, choosing what to say may not be the newest thing, but it does have some movie like moments in it, choosing to cause a massive genocide of a species or choose to have someone live or die is in your hands in some of the moments, and there are quite a bit of humorous moments with the conversations also, not to spoil it, but lets just say you can teach a reporter who is in command now...

Another thing they added to this games gameplay was The Mako, an armored rover that is capable of climbing the largest mountains, the exploration in this game is a mixed bag for some people, I personally loved the exploration in this game, you feel like a futuristic astronaut or someone from Star-Trek going down with your shoreparty and investigating planets, the controls for the Mako is like the controls to a Scorpion Tank in Halo, you can drive and shoot at the same time, it gets a bit to getting used to but once you have it down it is smooth.

Story:

This is the biggest thing for Mass Effect, the story is epic and engaging, it doesn't use the exact same plot twists as BioWare's past games, but this game uses more of revelations for characters. Even the main enemies in this game have motivation to why they are doing this, they believe what they are doing is the right course of action.

The characters you find while going through the game are enjoyable, each character in your squad does have an enjoyable storyline that goes with them, much like Knights of The Old Republic, I enjoyed talking with my party members after missions, but BioWare did an even better job with the characters, they are even more interesting and there are likable things about them.

Now there is more to the story then the main quest or your teammates, the side missions also have some interesting plots in them, and the game universe is grand when it comes to a story.

Each world you land on, uncharted or something else has a small story about it, even the worlds you cant land on have stories linked to it, from Krogan Warlords having such a deadly conflict that landing on the surface would be impossible to worlds that have been invaded that have been too risky to land on.

The universe of Mass Effect is quite good, the races you find have their own interesting things about them, and along with that even other NPCs of these same races look different, different facial features and colors about them.

Each race has a good sized story about them, what they believe in, what form of government they have, others have unique ways that they engage in conversations from the Elcor and their saying the type of response they are to give before saying their statement(for example, Chastising Remark: Don't be so rude. the Elcor give homage to the lovable assassin droid in KoToR HK-47) or the Hanar that talk in third person.

Graphics:

Truly great graphics, the way the characters look, looking at a dust storm on a sandy world, driving through a jungle planet, exploring a sewer system on a world and looking at the decaying ruins all look good.

But its not just the things around you but the characters themselves, the lips match pretty good with the words that they are going to say, the detail in each character is rather good, from scars on their faces, rips in their armor it shows it. The Characters are very life like, the one game that I have always said to be the best graphics and design of characters was Half Life 2, and finally I can say another game that can put a candle to that game.

The characters emotions are great, maybe not lifelike, but when they are angry they will have wrinkles around the brow line and their eyebrows will lower, or when they are curios they sometimes tilt their head at a response, when happy they will look more at ease and calm etc.

These things while they seem minor add to the game.

Sound:

The Sound is epic no denying that, the music is ambient and the sound of the universe around you is engaging, but what is truly amazing is the voice acting in this game, this game has many well known actors in it, and some cameo voices from BioWare's past installments, but the voicework is well done for human characters but also the alien species in this game.

The Issues:

Like I said at the top every game has issues, this game has some flaws to it of course, but to me they weren't major enough to ruin the experience for me. There are some graphical popups, the squad based AI might mess with you a few times, I have heard some people having problems with frame rate but I have barely experienced any of that.

But I doubt that there are any glitches that could end your game completely.

Conclusion:

A great game, and with it being a trilogy we can see that they can improve on what was already great and fix some issues that they had with the first and they can add to an already great story.

So there you have it, the length of the game is depending on how you go through it, rush and you will be done in about 15 hours, do everything and it goes up higher to around 40 hours, and with all the times you can go through again and try something else with your character(when unlocking achievements some achievements boost future characters, so give an engineer with a shotgun for example)

If I could give a more accurate rating on this site it would be an 9.8 but since there isn't, I feel that it is right to give this game a 10.

Rent or Buy: Buy! But if you are unsure about it, and maybe strapped for cash and not sure you will like this type of game then rent it and judge for yourself.
Finding a modern RPG that doesn't have bright eyed children saving the day is rare, and that is also what makes this game special.

Well I hope my review has helped you in one way or another. Play it, judge it, wait for the sequels.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/07, Updated 10/09/08

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