Summary
Massively entertaining
The Good
I've been a huge fan of
Bioware ever since it entered the RPG stage with the legendary
Baldur's Gate. Needless to say I was very excited when I heard "Mass Effect" was going to be released for the PC (I had my doubts about buying an Xbox 360). I grabbed it immediately. I played it non-stop, having some of the longest gaming sessions in recent times. I fell in love with the game the moment I started playing. And I enjoyed it enormously from the beginning to the end.
There are so many great things in "Mass Effect" that it's hard to decide what I should praise first. For me, one of the defining factors of enjoying a video game is its
personality. Games are more than just code. Developers often put their souls into games they make. They treat games as their creations, almost like their children. It was obvious to me that the developers of "Mass Effect" treated it just this way. It is a game with immense appeal and charm, one that will draw you in like few others, one that you won't put down until you complete it.
Some people see the new combat system as a drawback. For me, it was a delightful change. If in
Jade Empire Bioware combined their classic story-driven, conversation-based RPG template with a Chinese-style fighting game, in "Mass Effect" they combine it with a shooter. However, "Mass Effect" is significantly more of a "heavy RPG" than "Jade Empire" was. You have a fully controllable party, plenty of weapons, armor, and upgrades, etc. It is in many ways more similar to
Knights of the Old Republic than to "Jade Empire". But there is also an important distinction: the combat of "Mass Effect" takes place in real time. There are no turns, and you have to manually aim and shoot with your main character. If you don't pause constantly and issue orders to your party members, they will simply do their best to help you in battles. With a press of a button, you can tell them to move forward, to target the same enemy as you, to take cover, etc. If you pause the game, you can give them specific instructions: use a power, change a weapon, and so on. You can set them completely on AI, allowing them to use their powers at will and concentrating entirely on controlling the main character.
I think this combat system simply works like a charm. It combines tactical approach to battles with adrenaline-raising gunfights. It takes the best from RPG and shooters, and I think the combination is nearly flawless. Sure, the team AI and particularly path-finding could be improved somewhat, but overall the system is fantastic, making the battles great fun all the way through. There is plenty of combat in the game, but at no point did I find it boring. I loved the real-time touch, I loved the physical shooting. The battles have retained the depth you'd expect from an RPG, but added so many nuances that they took the experience onto a new level. Taking cover, throwing grenades, paying attention to weapon overheat, crouching, aiming - all those physical activities, taken straight from shooters, brought an entire new exciting sensation to RPGs. The innovative combat system of "Mass Effect" is a step into the direction of genre-merging.
A really cool gameplay feature is the ability to navigate a "mako", an armored vehicle with guns, through the outdoor areas of most planets. The weapons mounted on the mako are very powerful, and it's fun to use them in combat against the many enemy ambushes you'll encounter on your way.
Naturally, there are also plenty of traditional RPG elements in the game. The three character classes of the game roughly correspond to the traditional fighter, thief, and magician. Soldiers are pure firepower and nothing else; technically oriented characters can hack into electrical devices, crack open locked crates, etc.; finally, some of the characters have "biotic" powers, with all kinds of interesting supporting and weakening spells. Some of the party members specialize entirely in one of those areas; others can be moderately good at two of them. Having a balanced party, experimenting with party members, investing experience points into their (and your own) talents, testing out newly acquired powers, upgrading weapons and armor with all kinds of cool enhancements - everything you've enjoyed in other RPGs is also present in "Mass Effect".
For a modern story-driven RPG, "Mass Effect" is very open-ended. It cannot be compared in this aspect with
Elder Scrolls games. But since the main story line of "Mass Effect" is very rich and focused, it is amazing that it can still offer so much non-linear gameplay and exploration. There are many planets you can simply go to and drive around in your mako. You cannot land on all of them, but there are still enough left to explore and to look for side quests. In comparison,
Knights of the Old Republic games didn't allow you to go to any planets but those that were required to visit in order to complete the main quest. "Mass Effect" paves way for a new kind of modern RPG, one that has a tight, cinematic story line, at the same time offering free roaming in a large game world.
One of the trademark features of Bioware RPGs is the ability to make moral decisions. According to their design philosophy, RPG is more than just killing monsters and improving your stats. "Role-playing", as the name implies, means shaping your character the way you like. Story-driven RPGs give you an opportunity to take decisions within the frames of a given story. And "Mass Effect" certainly delivers in this aspect.
Just like in
Oblivion, you can physically create your character in "Mass Effect". You can shape the face of the character in a meticulously detailed way, changing his/her nose form, cheekbones, eyebrows, etc., not just choosing a portrait from several available ones. This character (always called "Commander Shepard", no matter the first name you choose or the gender) is also fully voiced throughout the game. You can choose a background story for Shepard, and unlike many other RPGs, it is actually referred to in the main story. During the conversations, you'll always have different responses at your disposal. While some of them are merely cosmetic, leading to the same outcome, many others affect the events that will take place afterwards.
Many of the things you say, many of the decisions you take will leave their mark on the game's story. Some of those decisions are really tough, as they should be in a truly great role-playing game. They go far beyond being nice or rude to someone. At one point of the game, you'll have an opportunity to commit a genocide against a race that is perceived as incurably violent by nearly everyone. However, the representative of the race promises you that they have learned their lesson and will never attack anyone again. Will you risk putting peace and safety in the galaxy in danger, or will you exterminate an entire race of living creatures? The choice is yours. At another point, you'll have to take a life and death decision concerning two of your party members. You won't be able to rescue them both, but you will be able to choose whose life you'll save. Which one will it be? The choice is yours.
Like in other great RPGs of Bioware tradition, "Mass Effect" pays a lot of attention to party members. Each party member comes with sharply defined backgrounds, personalities, opinions, etc. Very often party members will interfere in your dialogues, agreeing or disagreeing, stating their opinions, giving you advice. Sometimes I wanted to replay an entire location just because I was interested what other party members would say about what I did. Party members will comment on situations, talk to each other, and generally will always be
present, almost to the extent of Japanese RPGs. But while in Japanese RPGs party members will usually talk only if they are supposed to be in your party as dictated by the plot, in "Mass Effect" you have the choice of bringing different party members and getting different reaction from them anywhere.
After each major quest, more conversation topics will be open for you with each party member. You can take your time and get to know them all, find out more about their past, their opinions, their personality. And of course, what would a Bioware RPG be without romance? As a male Shepard, you can have love affairs with two female members of your party; as a female Shepard, you can romance a male human soldier, and a sexy female human-like alien. The famous lesbian sex scene that caused so much controversy is really worth watching!
"Mass Effect" has excellent writing. Most Bioware games shine in this department, and "Mass Effect" is certainly no exception. The writing is rich and yet so natural, it never gets awkward or too sophisticated, but also never over-simplifies things. Many of the dialogues have this particular fine sense of humor Bioware-style games are known for. What makes the dialogues truly exceptional, however, is the stellar voice acting. "Mass Effect" showed me how much good voice acting adds to a game, how it strengthens the dialogues and gives them more depth. It is an absolute joy to listen to those dialogue - and the game is fully voiced, including Commander Shepard him/herself. Another thing that stands out is the facial expression of the characters. I've never seen a game with more life-like characters than "Mass Effect". This also adds a lot of realism to the conversations, making "Mass Effect" a real movie-like experience.
On top of all that, there is a wonderful story in "Mass Effect". It is one of the most truly epic stories I've seen in video games - and that's saying a lot, since I've played plenty of Japanese RPGs with their typical megalomania. But "Mass Effect" exceeds most of them in scope. Featuring plenty of traditional sci-fi themes (humanity and other races, organic life and machines, problems of evolution and civilization, and so on), the story of "Mass Effect" is perhaps not very original, but it so well-written, so convincingly presented, so excitingly told, that our hearts begin to sing in unison with it. The imagination and the passion of the writers are clearly reflected in this story. While relying on many cliches, it manages to be deep and intelligent, and it adds its own personal touch to eternal themes. This is science fiction story-telling at its best. The story of "Mass Effect" can compete with the most exciting offerings of sci-fi writers.
Even though the setting of the game is a rather standard sci-fi, complete with space ships, different alien races, advanced robotic creatures etc., the developers brought it to life through their dedication to it. They have created a whole universe in "Mass Effect", one that makes the universe of Star Wars (such as seen in the movies and
Knights of the Old Republic games) feel superficial and lacking detail. While in Star Wars there are all kinds of alien races, we never really learn much about them. They are all just aliens, weird or funny creatures. In "Mass Effect", every race is described in detail, every race has its own characteristics, history, social system, customs, values, etc. I've rarely seen alien races so vividly portrayed, so interesting and memorable. It's a pleasure to just read the in-game "codex" - information about races, locations, scientific terms, and history of the game's universe. In "Mass Effect", they have created a setting that could serve as a great background for many stories.
The Bad
Despite being a fantastic game, "Mass Effect" has some shortcomings that I hope will be corrected in the sequel. The biggest drawback is probably the size of the game's locations. I know it probably sounds funny, since there are all those planets you can explore, but the problem is that the planets themselves only offer a very small area for exploration. Same applies to the planets you have to visit as part of the main quest progression: they all consist of a small settlement, that is typically connected by a strictly linear route (on which you drive the mako) to a dungeon-like location.
What I personally missed most of all in "Mass Effect" are all those large urban locations from other RPGs, in which you can talk to hundreds of NPCs and undertake many side quests. The locations in "Mass Effect" are very under-populated. While some characters offer extensive conversation trees, often with interesting personal questions and alike, others either blurt out short, simple lines, or won't talk to you at all. I like the feeling of being lost in a huge, bustling city, exploring it, listening to the latest gossip, talking to everyone, and interfering myself in the local matters. Unfortunately, "Mass Effect" doesn't really have all that. The only location that comes close to that is the Citadel, the main "hub" of the game.
This lack of population and activity probably harms "Mass Effect" more than it would any other game. "Mass Effect" is set in a very detailed universe, with many distinct alien races and cultures. How exciting would it be, for example, to visit a turian megalopolis, or a beautiful asari city! Sadly, there is nothing of that sort in the game. The planets that you can land on are for the most part colonies, with ugly-looking settlements and nothing more. "Mass Effect" is not very pleasing aesthetically. There is hardly a location that would stun you with its beauty. It is always the same unexciting architecture all over again. Even the dungeons look very similar to each other. There is a certain lack of life in the game's locations, which is even more noticeable when compared to the outstanding liveliness of the characters.
The side quests of "Mass Effect" are surprisingly uninspired. We are not talking
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. here, but compared to previous Bioware games, "Mass Effect" is less than satisfying in this aspect. The few interesting side quests are quickly dissolved into the many similar "go there, kill everyone, come back, get the reward" assignments. Granted, there are many side quests in the game, since there are so many locations. Unfortunately, the quantity hasn't really translated into quality here.
The paragon/renegade moral system sounds good on paper, more like a law/chaos axis than a good/evil one, like in
Shin Megami Tensei. But in reality, the system is nearly always used for good/evil decisions rather than lawful/chaotic ones. Sure, in some instances the game does use its system properly (like whether to report everything to the Council in a paragon fashion or just do your thing on your own, renegade-wise), but many other choices are just standard black/white decisions, much like open fist/closed palm in "Jade Empire" or jedi/sith in Knights of the Old Republic games. For example, exterminating a race for the safety of the galaxy is actually a pretty paragon (lawful) decision, while letting it develop, with unforeseen consequences, is much more chaotic (renegade). Yet you score paragon points for sparing the race, because it would be the morally good thing to do. The Council - the very incarnation of the paragon system - actually reprimands you for doing that! Which is another proof that something went wrong with implementing this system.
A minor annoyance for me was the fact that most of Shepard's responses didn't correspond to the conversation choices that were presented to me. Often I would choose a response only to have Shepard say something quite different from what I intended. Sometimes Shepard would change the tone of the conversation without me actually wanting that. That makes it pretty hard to make choices during dialogues. Also, some of the choices suspiciously lead to the exactly same answer, adding to confusion and making me wonder why they were made available in the first place.
The Bottom Line
When I got "Mass Effect", I had ten untouched games from my collection waiting in queue. But the moment I started playing this game, all the others didn't matter anymore. With the exception of brief concluding sessions of
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, which I played together with my wife, I dedicated all my gaming time exclusively to "Mass Effect", until I finished it.
"Mass Effect" has an outstanding personality, detailed and convincing game world, fun and innovative gameplay, and superb writing. I love most of the games made by
Bioware. And I love "Mass Effect", in a way perhaps even more than the others. It is high quality entertainment from the beginning to the end, and alone the thought of its promised sequels fills me with joy.
