Mass Effect

The Good
Mass Effect, for the Xbox 360, is the latest game from Bioware. Planned as a trilogy many fans are already clambering that this is the studio’s best game. But with KOTOR, Jade Empire, and Baldur’s Gate under their belts, can this be possible?

The year is 2183, and humanity has made great strides in the universe. Yet to the older and more advanced species, humans are still considered children. They are brash and impatient. And are not treated like they belong. Yet trouble is brewing, an ancient threat is coming, when it does it will wipe out all life in the galaxy. It is time for humanity to prove their worth to the galactic community.

In Mass Effect you play as Commander Shepherd, whom is fully customizable, from the basics male\female, to very small details like visible scars. You also get to choose his\her back story.(This feature is kind of similar to that in Arcanum.-MM-) And as in the Bioware tradition you can play the character any way you want. Which will have a noticeable change in the game as a whole NOT just the ending as in so many other games.

The game begins with a simple but crucial mission. Shepherd, is tasked with recovering an artifact from an alien world, recently colonized by humans, he will be joined by a Spectre. They are an elite force of agents that a responsible for any number tasks. They answer only to the council. They are given free range to finish a mission by whatever means necessary.

Something goes terribly wrong and, the mission is compromised. It seems that a Spectre, called Saren, has gone rouge. Shepherd must now finish the mission, or what is left of it anyway. It is here when Shepherd comes into contact with a beacon. It sends strange images into his mind, he sees death, destruction, the end to all life in the galaxy.

Shepherd is named a Spectre, the first human to get the honor. Shepherd’s ultimate goal is to track down Saren, and stop his deadly machinations, before it is too late.

Your main point of extraction or “hub” if you will, is, The Citadel. Which is a huge spaceport/city. It was built long ago, by whom or what no one knows for certain. It is a home away from home for all the different species of the galaxy. And is maintained by the mysterious, “keepers”. The Citadel is large and beautiful, with tons on details and graphical tricks possible only on the Xbox 360.

And there are two main part of it. The topside area is reserved for dignitaries, wealthy socialites and the lot. The lower area or “wards” are for the working class. With breathtaking port views of space. (The top area has an artificial view of blue skies.-MM-) As well as shops and bars.

From here you can travel to distant worlds. Aside from the main quests, there are tons of secondary tasks to undertake. From a galactic survey, taking readings from worlds to find what if any resources they have. To fighting space-pirates, and battling Thresher Maws. Which are gigantic sand worm type creatures.

Not all the worlds in Mass Effect can be explored. There would simply be to many for that, furthermore, just as in our solar system, many of the planets are just gas giants, or made of a thin lair of ice. Speaking or our system, you can travel to our own system!

For the planets that you can land on, there are two ways to explore them. Via, “The Mako”, an all terrain vehicle. You can also fight in The Mako, it fires a machine gun, and has missiles. And you can explore on foot. However some planets are to dangerous to stay out on for extended periods. They may be too hot or too cold, or any other number of things. The emphasis on exploration and discovery are somewhat reminiscent if the Dreamcast game, “Skies Of Arcadia”.

Well, Mass Effect, certainly has a great story. But many an RPG has been killed, in my mind anyhow, by bland and uninteresting characters. Mass Effect excels here as well. Each and every character that can join your party is unique, and has their own personality. From fellow solider and potential love interest, Ashley Williams, to the badass mercenary, Urdnot Wrex.

And as in previous Bioware titles, you can converse with your crew and learn more about them, and can often help them if not in a quest, then you can help them in other ways. And yes there is a romance subplot. And yes there is a sex scene, but it is done very tastefully and not at all the filthy thing some, jackass “news” channels try to make it out to be.

There is also a part that the fate of two main characters is in the balance. You cannot save them both, so the loss of one feels more real.( I have not been this moved by the death of a game character since Phantasy Star IV-MM-)

The supporting characters are also handled well. This is often overlooked in RPGS. Captain Anderson, and “Joker” in particular come to mind.

The conversations are laid out a bit differently than in most RPGS. Firstly all the dialog choices are displayed on a ring, And the conversations all flow more naturally. And as we have come to expect from Bioware, the dialog is incredibly well written.

Parties are formed of three members. For exploration, and eventually combat.

The combat system is Mass Effect, is refined and great fun. It plays basically like a squad based tactical game, Rainbow Six, for example. When I first read about it I was dumbstruck. But once you get into the game and start using the system, you will wonder how you ever played any other.

You directly control Shepherd, and indirectly control your other squad members. The A.I. does the rest. You can fire your weapons, pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles. Each weapon has it’s own strengths and weakness. Furthermore some classes can only master certain types of guns. There are also various grenade types. As well as Biotics. This is basically the games magic system, mixed with bio-mods from Deus Ex. Only the Adept class can utilize these. They can be quite fun to play with particularly the levitate ability. This allows you to lift and project enemies.

You can heal, give orders to your squad via the D-pad. And use Powers. Not unlike those seen in KOTOR, powers are learned by leveling up. They range from rapid fire, to projectile shields, and the like. Each class has a unique set of these, and using them can often get you out of a tight spot.

I briefly mentioned the alignment system earlier. Now I will explain it in more detail. In Mass Effect, there is Paragon, or Renegade. Someone whom is Paragon follows procedure, and does things by the book. A Renegade on the other hand believes that any means are justified to get to job done. Unlike most games with a morality system, that, of Mass Effect does not just change the ending. It also changes how others react to you, including party members. Some quests may not be offered to you if you are a renegade for example. Yet most quests have both a Paragon and a Renegade resolution.

Mass Effect is easily above par in the graphics and audio departments. The visuals are absolutely stunning. From the realistic character designs, their real-time facial expressions every human and alien looks real. The lighting effects have to be seen to be believed.

And the areas will blow you away! From the beautiful alien architecture of, The Citadel, to quiet glory of Earth’s moon, with a stunning view of planet Earth to boot. All the alien planets have unique look. Some have an Earth like beauty, while others will have you in awe of their alien majesty. Now this is eye-candy!

The music is Mass Effect, has a very spacey feel to it. I enjoyed it very much. From the wonderful title theme. To the adrenaline pumping battle music. Especially the end boss music.

The voice-acting is superb as we have come to expect from Bioware. I would say that is Hollywood quality, but I fell that it even surpasses that. This is simply some of the best voice acting I have ever heard.

Great sci-fi sound effects as well. From bop-guns, to space ships, it’s all good.

The Bad
I almost want to put: NOTHING, in the “bad” section. Of course that would not be entirely true so here goes.

The targeting system is battle can feel off at times. One part in particular, where you have to be careful not to hurt any civilians, if you want the Paragon bonus. The auto-target always tried to target the innocents, that was quite frustrating.

This game has lots of untapped potential. I realise that when making a game, the designers cannot fit in EVERYTHING, but a lot of the game had me wanting more. Of course there will be sequels. For example some space-ship combat would have been nice.

The Bottom Line
Mass Effect is a killer app for the Xbox 360. I would list is as a reason to own one. And in answer to my earlier question: Is Mass Effect, Bioware’s best game?(You didn’t just skip to this part did you?-MM-) This reviewer can answer an ecstatic, yes!

The Good
I've been a fan of BioWare ever since they entered the RPG stage with the legendary Baldur's Gate. Needless to say I was very excited when I heard about Mass Effect, ready to trust the crafty Canadians even after a few hiccups. I grabbed the game immediately. I played it non-stop, having some of the longest gaming sessions in recent times. And, even though it managed to confirm some of my darkest suspicions concerning BioWare's new design philosophy, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

Mass Effect is a game with a lot of charisma, ranging from cheap bravado to serious cinematic appeal; it cleverly cheats its way out of situations another game would surrender and collapse in.

Many people see the new combat system as a drawback. I think they did pretty well, given the impossible task of combining fast-paced shooting with party management and role-playing. In any case, this is a definite improvement over the paltry choices of Jade Empire. You have a fully controllable party, weapons, armor, upgrades, etc.

A nice 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. 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.

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 tough and go 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? It's a shame such meaningful choices are few and far between.

Keeping a well-known BioWare tradition intact, Mass Effect pays a lot of attention to companions. 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. Companions will comment on situations, talk to each other, and generally will always be present. After each major quest, more conversation topics will be open for you with each companion. 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. And oh, naturally there is the famous lesbian sex scene that caused so much controversy...

Mass Effect has good writing. Most BioWare games shine in this department, and this is certainly no exception. The writing is fluent and natural, it never gets awkward or too sophisticated, but also never oversimplifies things. Many of the dialogues have that particular fine sense of humor those games are known for.

However, what I liked most about Mass Effect is its ability to create a new world from scratch and immerse the player into it. In that respect, it is like a good sci-fi book, the first part of a series set in an original universe that compels you to get the sequels and have the entire collection. Even though the setting of the game is a rather standard sci-fi, complete with spaceships, different alien races, advanced robotic creatures etc., the developers brought it to life thanks to their dedication. They have created a whole universe in Mass Effect, and that universe became the undisputed star of the nascent franchise and the main justification for its existence.

Though a lot of its themes were hastily taken from various works of American science fiction literature, Mass Effect does manage to combine popular sci-fi tropes with interesting nearly-philosophical speculations and convincing depiction of a vast alien world. It almost makes the universe of Star Wars 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, having its own characteristics, history, social system, customs, values, etc. I've rarely seen alien races so vividly portrayed, so interesting and memorable - surely not since Star Control II a while ago. 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
There is no way around the fact that BioWare is getting lazy, and unfortunately Mass Effect displays clear symptoms of that disease. The biggest drawback here is the size of the game's locations. I know it probably sounds strange, 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 the game are severely underpopulated. 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. Alas, Mass Effect doesn't really have that. The only location that comes remotely 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 many other games. The game 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, this offering is less than satisfying in that 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 plain old good and evil decisions rather than lawful and 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 and white decisions, much like Jedi and 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 exact same answer, adding to confusion and making me wonder why they were made available in the first place.

The Bottom Line
It's tough for someone with classic preferences in role-playing games to appreciate Mass Effect. It is in many ways a typical modern game, and a typical product of commercialized BioWare, with some serious corners cut and efforts spared. It's fun, but there is no denying the fact that deep role-playing has given way to lesbian romances and merry shoot-outs in space where no one can hear you copy-paste.

The Good

• Mass Effect has not only a fantastic story in terms of its scope and imagination, but the structure, pacing, and general presentation of the story to the player is truly superb. This game plays out more like a really well-written novel than a video game or (as some may be tempted to say) a movie. There is an incredibly detailed backstory, intertwining narrative threads, and a plot twist near the end of the game that caught me completely off-guard, yet turned out to be perfectly logical. This aspect alone makes the game worth playing, and sci-fi junkies will walk away extremely satisfied.
• Likewise, the game's characterization is fantastic. The myriad dialogue options allow you as the player to delve as much or as little as you wish into individuals' backgrounds. As a result, the player can become very emotionally invested in certain characters, and this does nothing but increase the game's immersion.
• There are often a number of dialogue choices in the game which can affect your character's good/evil alignment. Although this is by no means an original implementation, the ability to mold your character in such a way is always a welcome addition, and thanks to the game's brilliant writers, there are a number of different dialogue paths you can take through almost any given encounter.
• The voice acting in the game is mostly well-done. There are a few voice actors who noticeably overact occasionally (Ashley Williams tends to sound a little too passionate most of the time), but a greater number do the job very well (Garrus is probably the best example). In no cases is the voice acting stiff or monotone - it is well-balanced from beginning to end, and helps to make the dialogue portions of the game as interesting as any action part.
• The action elements in the game are top-to-bottom fantastic. Going into gunfights is simply fun, and the entertainment really doesn't wear off. There's also an interesting strategy element to such portions; your characters have biotic and tech abilities (the sci-fi analogue to magic in fantasy RPGs), some of which are offensive and others defensive, that can be used at any time in a battle. Although in many cases it's simple enough to just run in and blast everything that moves, just as often it's beneficial to take battles slower and use these abilities to maximize your squad's effectiveness. This gives combat a certain depth that enhances the game's replay value and keeps firefights from getting stale.
• There's a huge number of sidequests, all of which help flesh out the game's universe. Although many of the sidequests differ little from one another, they are a pleasant distraction that allow for extra experience and opportunities to find extra items. Most importantly, these sidequests can provide the player with abundant additional information on the Mass Effect universe, which gives the game significantly more depth.
• Mass Effect has an absolutely killer soundtrack. Most of the music in the game is of the spacey, electronic sort, but it fits the atmosphere splendidly, and often moderates the mood better than anything else. Also, the song played during the closing credits could not have been better-chosen.
• The game's graphics are gorgeous. Although the colors tend to be on the vivid side, I think the game's setting allows for it compared to a duller, more "realistic" color palette. Character designs are all well done, as are ship designs and cinematic sequences.

**The Bad**

• The gameplay tends to focus too much on an exploration mechanic that quickly wears out its welcome. Whenever you land on a planet, you are dropped in an all-terrain vehicle known as the Mako, which you can drive around on the surface. The map is typically marked at objects of interest, the variety of which is unfortunately small - crashed probes, mummified corpses, abandoned bases, that sort of thing. Visit five planets at random, explore them, and you'll have seen just about everything you'll encounter throughout the Galaxy, with few exceptions. Although you get different things when you scan these anomalies, it's a little disappointing to constantly run across the same objects over and over.
• There is distinct evidence of laziness on the developers' part with certain aspects of the game. Planets don't really look all that different from one another, other than different terrain shape and color. There's never any vegetation, rarely alien animal life, and never any cities or anything of the sort, except in storyline missions. Beyond this, it seems that all bases and underground mines established on planets throughout the Galaxy have the exact same layout. You can go across light-years of space to the other side of the Galaxy, and whatever rogue base that you're trying to take down on whatever obscure planet it's on will have the exact same shape and size as a completely unrelated base elsewhere. Besides simply smacking of laziness, it makes the game much more boring, because now you can't even enjoy the scenery.
• Sidequests are all mostly the same. They're either fetch-quests or mercenary ones, where you simply go to a planet and wipe out the bad guys, and few stray very far from here. Although the combat is fun, going through the motions gets rather stale, and near the end I found myself getting frustrated with doing them.
• Absolutely horrendous inventory management. There is no way to organize any of the items you get, making scrolling through them to get to what you want a pain, more often than not. Although there is a basic organization feature built in to the game (all your items are divided by type), a simple "alphabetize" option would have helped enormously, especially because many weapons have the same name, but a different number after them (i.e. a Stiletto VI pistol, which is better than the Stiletto III). Adding upgrades to armor and weapons just complicates the inventory screen further, and as it is it's mostly a huge mess.
• Item overload. There are too many crates, too many secure boxes, too many weapons lockers, etc. that you come across in the game. When you open these (or hack them), you tend to get weapons and upgrades. It's nice, especially in the beginning of the game when you don't have much, but in the mid-to-late game, you find this stuff EVERYwhere, and it gets to be a hassle to manage, especially because you tend to get duplicates and it's hard to remember which guns you have and which you don't. I spent a LOT of time near the end of the game going through all my weapons and discarding what I didn't need, which was almost everything. There are simply too many versions of weapons, and the developers could have reduced the number such that coming across a new weapon was actually a big deal; instead, getting a new weapon is an entirely trivialized event that you'll eventually just get annoyed with.
• The game tends to suffer from occasional slowdown, something I feel should be absent from console gaming altogether. Although this only tends to happen right after entering a new area (i.e. the game is still loading when you begin) or right after autosaving, there were several instances where there was simply too much on the screen and the game slowed down. This is hardly a major issue, but it happened enough to be aggravating.
• The AI is not great. Although I did die several times through my play on Normal difficulty (which was otherwise a cakewalk), such instances were due more to my own stupidity or impatience than because the AI did something particularly clever. Most of the time, enemies will just rush at you and you can simply blast them away, or they'll hide in the same spot behind cover until you come up behind them and kill them.
• Elevators. These "loading screens" take forever - up to a minute or more on the worst occasions. Especially in the beginning of the game, when you're on Citadel, you have to use elevators frequently and too much time is spent in them.

**The Bottom Line**
Overall, Mass Effect is a game worth playing for most, and there are a number of people out there who will play through it multiple times. It's a game that succeeds mostly on its writing and its design, less on its gameplay, and not at all in its organization. Ultimately, its a bipolar game in the sense that most people are going to be enjoying themselves most either when they're learning about the rich and detailed history of Galactic civilization, or when they're blasting enemies away with their Assault Rifles. Even though the game is filled with a significant amount of filler material, the game is incredibly fun. I just finished and I already want to play through again, even in spite of the large amount of complaints I have. When the game gets it right, it gets it right, and the result is an uneven but ultimately satisfying experience.