The quote is by Jefferson. He wrote it with the intention of one day it being applied to Mass Effect.
Well... maybe not - but it certainly works magnificently in this scenario.
Mass Effect is Galactic exploration for your average console ?tard. BioWare doesn?t give you a single city to explore; and can rightfully laugh in the face of the scope in GTA 4. BioWare doesn?t give you a country to explore, and can point and laugh at Oblivion. BioWare gives you the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
Apparently, that?s pretty big.
[IMG_inline align="left" height="250" width="250" caption="Just one of the planets in one of the nebulas in one of the galaxies in the universe of Mass Effect."]http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/834/834650/mass-effect-20071112085806632-000.jpg[/IMG_inline]
Hyped not only for being an incredibly deep and open world RPG but also a shooter, I was ready to have my definition of the genres totally smashed. That was certainly wishful thinking? Mass Effect doesn?t combine the genres like I expected. It?s both genres together, but not intertwined. It leans on neither RPG nor shooter too much, which can be both a complaint and something for which the game can be commended. I tend to view it as a complaint, simply because of how ?meh? the shooting was.
Being fair, the shooting was certainly not ?meh? for an RPG. In fact, it exceeds what would have been my expectations for combat, had it not hyped itself up as a shooter. If Mass Effect were just another linear shooter, with no RPG elements it wouldn?t be awful, I guess. It would be one of the ?Dark Sectors? of the world ? an average TPS that would be fine for a rental, nothing more.
With that little disclaimer tucked away, let?s move along with Mass Effect.
Essentially, there are 4 types of guns - the sniper, the pistol, the assault rifle, and the good ol? shotty. You can also get the abilities to use ?mysterious powers? to pick people up, blow them backwards, and so on. These ?mysterious powers? sound really, really sweet in theory, but in the game you are required to use a true-pause to select them, and then aren?t allowed to actually inflict the powers? affects ? rather, the computer does it and you watch some cool rag-doll afterwards. This really holds back these powers from distinguishing Mass Effect?s combat, and were a bit disappointing in my opinion.
Back to the usual arsenal - The shotgun is probably the most efficient weapon of those four weapons, and I found myself leaning on it for most of my two play-throughs. You can get all sorts of goodies for your guns, and pimp them out to be as effective as you want by the end of the game. There isn?t any ammo for any of the weapons, which was scrapped in favor of an ?overheating system.? If you fire too many shots at once, your weapon overheats and you must wait for it to cool down before you can use it again.
[IMG_inline align="right" height="250" width="250"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v22/yogurt_fog/mass_effect_1.jpg[/IMG_inline]
I liked the overheating system ? it works well combined with the RPG factors of the game. The rest of the shooting, however, does not work well with RPG elements.
?Immersion? is key for many a game. Games like BioShock, Half-Life, and others don?t even display true cut-scenes because they want you to feel as if you are the character, rather than if you were playing as him. Now, this doesn?t directly correspond to the shooting in Mass Effect, but it suffices as an example of immersion. RPG?s tend to use a different kind of immersion to keep you playing, with complex leveling systems and a wide variety of items to find. Mass Effect has both of those, but still, the shooting was much more controlled by you, the player, rather than what your level was or what gun you were using.
In a struggle to please both shooter and RPG fans, they frustrated both with the combat.
They did not, however, miff both groups of fans in the way the setting was handled.
Now, being your average Earth dwelling non-astrophysicist, I know relatively little of space ? actually, all humans know little of space, not just us under-achievers. Mass Effect preys on the curiosity in all humans, the curiosity to know what lies beyond our own knowledge.
Everything is polished to a shine, to appease our ever-growing curiosity of what lies beyond. There are so many planets in so many solar systems in so many galaxies, it gets to the point where you, even if you search everywhere, will probably miss one of the planets you might have gotten to explore ? which isn?t a complaint at all. Every planet has been given a population, points of interest, people to meet, places to see, etc.
I guess that I do have to point out that the planets can get very repetitive in terms of design, and that you can only visit (usually) one planet in every solar system.
The second mini-complaint isn?t that big of a deal, considering how many solar systems there are, but the first is a legitimate party-pooper. You have your snowy planets, the tropical ones, and so on ? but with so many planets to design, Bioware must have just run out of landscape ideas.
[IMG_inline align="left" height="250" width="250" caption="Sheppard and his team exploring Mars, or one of the numerous other red planets in the game."]http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles/a/6/1/1/5/6/masseffect_03_745x440.jpg[/IMG_inline]
Sooner or later, hopefully right about now, you?re going to wonder why my title seems so negative, while most all I?ve said about the game has been positive.
The title is indicative of the grind that the game induces on the player. I shouldn?t have expected it to not have grind, it is an RPG after all, but the game sets itself up for such criticism ? in a good way.
All right, I?ll try to start making sense now that I?ve had my fun.
If you stick to the ?linear? main plot of Mass Effect, you?ll miss out on most everything the game has to offer, but will find yourself still satisfied with the interesting storytelling and decent shooting. If you decide you want to venture away from the main plot, an entire galaxy is waiting to greet you complete with an outrageous number of side-quests.
I?m someone who likes to complete games all the way through, so completing Mass Effect definitely tested my? boredom skills.
A lot of the side-quests involve backtracking or finding a specific object. Backtracking + retrieving objects = falling asleep at the controller and?
Who am I kidding? The main story is just so great that it makes up for whatever I don?t like about the grind.
If you didn?t already know, you play Commander Sheppard ? a ?spectre? charged with one simple task ? protecting the galaxy. It?s not necessarily the overlying plot itself that captures my heart, but the ways in which you can completely customize the story to make, what would be an average sci-fi thriller, your own. Everything that Sheppard says can be changed or altered in some way, to make him say exactly what you want him to say.
[IMG_inline align="right" height="300" width="300"]http://i.cdn.turner.com/gametap/web30/eMagazine/emag_masseffect_x360_080607_1_44c40.jpg[/IMG_inline]
With its branching dialogue options, different ways to handle every scenario, and multiple endings, the Mass Effect ?story? is fantastic.
As you?ve gathered by now, Mass Effect is a big game - big in size, big in number of side-quests, and big in different ways to play the game. Big games usually get cut breaks when being graded on ?number of bugs? and ?graphical hic-ups?, and Mass Effect needs all the technical breaks in the world.
Now, to clarify, Mass Effect doesn?t get cut a break in the same way that some open-world games do. Some of the bigger games just don?t look very appealing? This is definitely not the case in Mass Effect.
The game looks fantastic for being so darn big. Distances look amazing, textures are sharp, the world is very detailed in populated areas, and lighting is used very well. The only complaints one could have with the presentation are in the frame-rate and loading time issues, because the sound is just as good as the look of the game.
With so, so many lines of text, I?d hate to have to count how many voice actors BioWare had to hire to keep things fresh ? and these aren?t just run-of-the-mill voice actors, either. This is an all-star cast, highlighted by such talent as Seth Green.
Now, about those pesky little bugs?
Mass Effect doesn?t have one or two little bugs ? this is a full-blown infestation.
And not just flies ? termites, too. Yup, you?re gonna have some serious structural damage...
[IMG_inline align="left" height="250" width="250" caption="Yup. I found him in the manual - the one place he thought he'd be safe..."]http://lamar.colostate.edu/~secarney/AntCourse/133-BIG_Bug.jpg[/IMG_inline]
?
Oh, sorry. Lost my train of thought.
Anyways, it?s a shame that Mass Effect has so many glitches. It?s the only clear-cut flaw in an otherwise brilliant game. I hate to be ?that guy?, but glitches really dampen the experience for me. Even one bug, and I begin to contemplate ?boycotting? the game. I?m not going to say that Mass Effect has the most bugs of this generation (STALKER, despite its awesomeness, wins that dubious honor), but it is pretty close to the top of the list ? really bringing down what I would score it.
Ya? know - if I was actually going to score it.
The XBox 360 has some very nice exclusive games, like Halo, Dead Rising, and Gears of War to name a few. Most of these exclusives are violence heavy, slugfests with no real thinking needed to get by in the game, yet still, bugs and all, Mass Effect manages to rise to the top. Mass Effect is the clear-cut best RPG for the XBox 360, if not the XBox 360?s very best offering and is the must-buy for any RPG fan or any person, for that matter.
If you don?t have it, get it.
Now.
Run.
Run to your local game store.
Or you could order online.
I don?t care.
Just get it.
Now.
Stop reading this drab and go get Mass Effect!
Well... maybe not - but it certainly works magnificently in this scenario.
Mass Effect is Galactic exploration for your average console ?tard. BioWare doesn?t give you a single city to explore; and can rightfully laugh in the face of the scope in GTA 4. BioWare doesn?t give you a country to explore, and can point and laugh at Oblivion. BioWare gives you the entire Milky Way Galaxy.
Apparently, that?s pretty big.
[IMG_inline align="left" height="250" width="250" caption="Just one of the planets in one of the nebulas in one of the galaxies in the universe of Mass Effect."]http://xbox360media.ign.com/xbox360/image/article/834/834650/mass-effect-20071112085806632-000.jpg[/IMG_inline]
Hyped not only for being an incredibly deep and open world RPG but also a shooter, I was ready to have my definition of the genres totally smashed. That was certainly wishful thinking? Mass Effect doesn?t combine the genres like I expected. It?s both genres together, but not intertwined. It leans on neither RPG nor shooter too much, which can be both a complaint and something for which the game can be commended. I tend to view it as a complaint, simply because of how ?meh? the shooting was.
Being fair, the shooting was certainly not ?meh? for an RPG. In fact, it exceeds what would have been my expectations for combat, had it not hyped itself up as a shooter. If Mass Effect were just another linear shooter, with no RPG elements it wouldn?t be awful, I guess. It would be one of the ?Dark Sectors? of the world ? an average TPS that would be fine for a rental, nothing more.
With that little disclaimer tucked away, let?s move along with Mass Effect.
Essentially, there are 4 types of guns - the sniper, the pistol, the assault rifle, and the good ol? shotty. You can also get the abilities to use ?mysterious powers? to pick people up, blow them backwards, and so on. These ?mysterious powers? sound really, really sweet in theory, but in the game you are required to use a true-pause to select them, and then aren?t allowed to actually inflict the powers? affects ? rather, the computer does it and you watch some cool rag-doll afterwards. This really holds back these powers from distinguishing Mass Effect?s combat, and were a bit disappointing in my opinion.
Back to the usual arsenal - The shotgun is probably the most efficient weapon of those four weapons, and I found myself leaning on it for most of my two play-throughs. You can get all sorts of goodies for your guns, and pimp them out to be as effective as you want by the end of the game. There isn?t any ammo for any of the weapons, which was scrapped in favor of an ?overheating system.? If you fire too many shots at once, your weapon overheats and you must wait for it to cool down before you can use it again.
[IMG_inline align="right" height="250" width="250"]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v22/yogurt_fog/mass_effect_1.jpg[/IMG_inline]
I liked the overheating system ? it works well combined with the RPG factors of the game. The rest of the shooting, however, does not work well with RPG elements.
?Immersion? is key for many a game. Games like BioShock, Half-Life, and others don?t even display true cut-scenes because they want you to feel as if you are the character, rather than if you were playing as him. Now, this doesn?t directly correspond to the shooting in Mass Effect, but it suffices as an example of immersion. RPG?s tend to use a different kind of immersion to keep you playing, with complex leveling systems and a wide variety of items to find. Mass Effect has both of those, but still, the shooting was much more controlled by you, the player, rather than what your level was or what gun you were using.
In a struggle to please both shooter and RPG fans, they frustrated both with the combat.
They did not, however, miff both groups of fans in the way the setting was handled.
Now, being your average Earth dwelling non-astrophysicist, I know relatively little of space ? actually, all humans know little of space, not just us under-achievers. Mass Effect preys on the curiosity in all humans, the curiosity to know what lies beyond our own knowledge.
Everything is polished to a shine, to appease our ever-growing curiosity of what lies beyond. There are so many planets in so many solar systems in so many galaxies, it gets to the point where you, even if you search everywhere, will probably miss one of the planets you might have gotten to explore ? which isn?t a complaint at all. Every planet has been given a population, points of interest, people to meet, places to see, etc.
I guess that I do have to point out that the planets can get very repetitive in terms of design, and that you can only visit (usually) one planet in every solar system.
The second mini-complaint isn?t that big of a deal, considering how many solar systems there are, but the first is a legitimate party-pooper. You have your snowy planets, the tropical ones, and so on ? but with so many planets to design, Bioware must have just run out of landscape ideas.
[IMG_inline align="left" height="250" width="250" caption="Sheppard and his team exploring Mars, or one of the numerous other red planets in the game."]http://images.eurogamer.net/assets/articles/a/6/1/1/5/6/masseffect_03_745x440.jpg[/IMG_inline]
Sooner or later, hopefully right about now, you?re going to wonder why my title seems so negative, while most all I?ve said about the game has been positive.
The title is indicative of the grind that the game induces on the player. I shouldn?t have expected it to not have grind, it is an RPG after all, but the game sets itself up for such criticism ? in a good way.
All right, I?ll try to start making sense now that I?ve had my fun.
If you stick to the ?linear? main plot of Mass Effect, you?ll miss out on most everything the game has to offer, but will find yourself still satisfied with the interesting storytelling and decent shooting. If you decide you want to venture away from the main plot, an entire galaxy is waiting to greet you complete with an outrageous number of side-quests.
I?m someone who likes to complete games all the way through, so completing Mass Effect definitely tested my? boredom skills.
A lot of the side-quests involve backtracking or finding a specific object. Backtracking + retrieving objects = falling asleep at the controller and?
Who am I kidding? The main story is just so great that it makes up for whatever I don?t like about the grind.
If you didn?t already know, you play Commander Sheppard ? a ?spectre? charged with one simple task ? protecting the galaxy. It?s not necessarily the overlying plot itself that captures my heart, but the ways in which you can completely customize the story to make, what would be an average sci-fi thriller, your own. Everything that Sheppard says can be changed or altered in some way, to make him say exactly what you want him to say.
[IMG_inline align="right" height="300" width="300"]http://i.cdn.turner.com/gametap/web30/eMagazine/emag_masseffect_x360_080607_1_44c40.jpg[/IMG_inline]
With its branching dialogue options, different ways to handle every scenario, and multiple endings, the Mass Effect ?story? is fantastic.
As you?ve gathered by now, Mass Effect is a big game - big in size, big in number of side-quests, and big in different ways to play the game. Big games usually get cut breaks when being graded on ?number of bugs? and ?graphical hic-ups?, and Mass Effect needs all the technical breaks in the world.
Now, to clarify, Mass Effect doesn?t get cut a break in the same way that some open-world games do. Some of the bigger games just don?t look very appealing? This is definitely not the case in Mass Effect.
The game looks fantastic for being so darn big. Distances look amazing, textures are sharp, the world is very detailed in populated areas, and lighting is used very well. The only complaints one could have with the presentation are in the frame-rate and loading time issues, because the sound is just as good as the look of the game.
With so, so many lines of text, I?d hate to have to count how many voice actors BioWare had to hire to keep things fresh ? and these aren?t just run-of-the-mill voice actors, either. This is an all-star cast, highlighted by such talent as Seth Green.
Now, about those pesky little bugs?
Mass Effect doesn?t have one or two little bugs ? this is a full-blown infestation.
And not just flies ? termites, too. Yup, you?re gonna have some serious structural damage...
[IMG_inline align="left" height="250" width="250" caption="Yup. I found him in the manual - the one place he thought he'd be safe..."]http://lamar.colostate.edu/~secarney/AntCourse/133-BIG_Bug.jpg[/IMG_inline]
?
Oh, sorry. Lost my train of thought.
Anyways, it?s a shame that Mass Effect has so many glitches. It?s the only clear-cut flaw in an otherwise brilliant game. I hate to be ?that guy?, but glitches really dampen the experience for me. Even one bug, and I begin to contemplate ?boycotting? the game. I?m not going to say that Mass Effect has the most bugs of this generation (STALKER, despite its awesomeness, wins that dubious honor), but it is pretty close to the top of the list ? really bringing down what I would score it.
Ya? know - if I was actually going to score it.
The XBox 360 has some very nice exclusive games, like Halo, Dead Rising, and Gears of War to name a few. Most of these exclusives are violence heavy, slugfests with no real thinking needed to get by in the game, yet still, bugs and all, Mass Effect manages to rise to the top. Mass Effect is the clear-cut best RPG for the XBox 360, if not the XBox 360?s very best offering and is the must-buy for any RPG fan or any person, for that matter.
If you don?t have it, get it.
Now.
Run.
Run to your local game store.
Or you could order online.
I don?t care.
Just get it.
Now.
Stop reading this drab and go get Mass Effect!
