Mass Effect

"Another masterpiece from BioWare"

BioShock is the latest RPG from BioWare, who also made Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [which won 49 Game of The Year Awards], Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, and the upcoming Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood.

In my mind the Canadians at BioWare are the western equivalent to Square Enix. Those of you who know about the quality of the games they make won't be surprised by how good this game is.

Also, I wanted to reference Kevin McCullough's comments on the alien sex in Mass Effect, but I decided against it. If you want to see that, go in the Forums.

Story: 9

The main premise of Mass Effect is that it is the year 2183, and 35 years before this game took place Humans discovered Prothean technology that was found on Mars to leave the Milky Way and expand across the universe. And they are currently trying to become a member of the Council, which is the head of the Government that controls Citadel Space.

The game itself starts off with your character, Commander Shepard getting ready to go on a mission on the planet Eden Prime, which was terraformed by the Humans to find a Prothean Beacon, and you are being escorted by a Spectre [Citadel Agents who are "above the law", they can do whatever they have to do to in order to complete the mission] named Nihlus. On the mission, everything goes wrong as an evil synthetic race called The Geth and a rogue Spectre named Saren attack the base, and kill Nihlus.

When you reach the Beacon, you are given a vision about biological races being slaughtered by machines. Then you go to the Citadel and you are trying to get the Council to bring Saren in to face justice, but they don't listen. So, you go and find evidence of him talking about the attack on Eden Prime, the return of The Reapers, and discovering The Conduit.

So, you are sent on a mission to take Saren down. I will leave the rest of the story for you to discover if you haven't played, because I don't want to spoil anything.

Gameplay: 8

Mass Effect plays like a mixture of Star Wars: Knights of the Republic, and Gears of War. You have to go around talking to people in order to advance the story, and when you are in a fight the combat is in a 3rd person view, and you can use four guns [Sniper Rifle, Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol], you can also use the Mass Effect version of Force Powers called Biotics, some of which will result in some very entertaining ragdolling after use, and you have some Technical abilities which hack weapons and technology. You are also capable of adding upgrades to your weapons, and armor to make them more powerful.

You also have to learn how to use them wisely, because there is a recharge time limit on the Biotic and Technical powers, and your weapons can overheat and you will have to recharge them if you keep that trigger held down too long.

Several missions involve getting into an off road vehicle called the Mako that looks like a tank, but this did not turn out very well. Driving around is confusing at first, but even after you get used to it the driving sections are a low point in the fun of the game, as is having to explore some of the planets where you have to drive over some very steep mountains. the Mako sidequest levels were annoying, but everything else in the game is very good.

The main similarities to Knights of the Old Republic are the dialog system, [which has been revised quite well] where you spend a lot of time talking to people, and the choices you make influence how the story turns out, and how you wind up going through a hell of a lot of sidequests if you choose to. You can also change where you are on this karma meter by how you respond to people, being nice gives you Paragon points, and being an ass gives you Renegade points. These also help you charm or intimidate people.

There is not any real problem at all with the game, some of the sidequests can get tedious, driving is annoying, and the menu is not very well designed, and the ******* elevators that are used to hide the game loading the next area gets really annoying. But overall the game is incredibly fun.

Challenge: 7

As I said in my KotOR reviews, the challenge in Mass Effect stems from that stuff that you have to do in order to complete the entire game, in my play through I usually spend a little over 20 hours and I get around 75 percent of the game done, so it will take you a while to do the game if you try hard enough. But, after you get your character leveled up enough you can be so overpowered that you will just be plowing over the Geth, especially since you can start a new game with the items and stats you had in the last play through. But like in most games, the basic difficulties are very easy, and the tougher ones are VERY hard.

Although, I might as well add that like in KotOR, there is a puzzle you have to do that is really out of place, and you need to look up how to do it if you want a chance of beating the game.

Controls: 7

The game is very simple to control, since the controls are like a 3rd person shooter, and the dialog wheel is very easy to use. But the menus are hard to navigate and the Mako can be frustrating to drive so that took off a point.

I have also gotten stuck in the wall a few times, but I think that is just a glitch.

Graphics: 9

There are just so many things that look incredible in this game; there are some of the best looking people and aliens I have ever seen in a video game in Mass Effect. The main planets that you travel to also look incredible, and the water effects are amazing. But, the mini planets in the driving levels don't look as good if we are comparing them. The look like a bunch of mountains with a simple white/brown/green texture implanted over them to save room on the disc.

And like in several other 360 games I have played, the textures sometimes take a couple seconds to load; I'm guessing that it is because of the Bump Mapping. And that is the only real problem I have with the graphics, I think that you can fix it by installing the game to your Hard Drive but I don't have enough room left in mine [20 Gig HDD....] to do that.

Sound: 10

If you have played KotOR or any other BioWare RPG you will know why I gave this a 10, BioWare games always have a massive amount of dialog and Mass Effect is no exception. A problem that was in KotOR was also fixed [constant reusing of the same dialog for the Aliens].

I am amazed that this game was only on one DVD because there is so much dialog for good choices, bad choices, who is in your party, and what gender you are for every conversation. There are also some NPC's who have very well done voices that add to their character [like Garrus and Wrex, my favorite characters in this game].

The music was also very well done, and I liked it enough to vote for Mass Effect in the "best music" category on GPhoria a couple weeks ago. And the sound effects sound great as well, the weapons sound like a futuristic laser weapon would.

Atmosphere: 9

You know you are playing a good RPG when you really get into the story, and Mass Effect did that. You really started to care about the characters, and one of the choices you have to make near the end of the game can be pretty tough to do depending on how well you like Kaidan and Ashley.

Replayability: 6

The main things that make you want to come back are doing the game again while keeping your previous stats, or trying to get the good and evil ending. Otherwise, there isn't much left to do.

Pros:
Immersive, great graphics and sound, great story, likable characters, well done combat.

Cons:
Driving levels, Elevators, The menus, some tedious sidequests.

Should you get it:
Mass Effect has gone down to $19.00 in most of the stores I have seen it at, so that is a good deal for a game as fun as this. Get it now if you like WRPGs.

Overall:

What is left to say that I haven't said already? Mass Effect is a great RPG, and possibly one of the best I have ever played. It was also made by BioWare, a company that has never made a bad game. What are you waiting for get it now!

9

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/08, Updated 06/08/09

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