Right because Mass Effect reviewing has become extremely popular I was left with two choices. Either
A. Boldly defy established trends and not go with the fad
B. Do it anyway out of a desperate plea for attention.
I know myself best and that's why I'm here. Okay take it away, Vrex.
Story: Set in the distant future Mass Effect tells the story of humanities political struggle alongside various other races for their share of the galaxy. This is introduced by the character 'Shepard' of whom has no name, personality or history save for what you make for him/her. So I began the chronicles of 'James Shepard' playing this game. The story principally involves Shepard's admition into the the galactic counsil's personal best troopers called 'Spectres' and he is tasked with capturing the rouge Spectre Saren who has betrayed the council and has teamed up with a machine race called the Geth.
What follows is a story of cat and mouse as Shepard gets a team ready to go out and pursue said Saren and as he does more and more elements of plot unfold showing him that there is much more going on than first appears.
In short this feels very much like an epic sci fi film/ tv series and Bioware have clearly realised that as every aspect of it's presentation feels very cinematic and epic. This helps me enter a new level of immersion.
One thing I have to give mention to is the characters in this game as they truly are my favourite part. When you make a team you are given a great supporting cast, most of which are aliens. My favourite has to go to Wrex the grumpy Krogan solely because he is just hilarious and awesome.
Second to him comes Ashley for she too is very likeable. All the characters have a well thought out history and real personality that have both likeable qualities and dislikable qualities that help make them more real. Praise to the writers.
Finally my only thought on the romance/sex scene... it is done in a good and clever way, the romance between Shepard ans Ashley (in my case anyway) had both charming chemistry and was well woven into the plot. Also the media blowhards who were offended by the sex scene are EEEEEEDEEEYYYYOOOOTTTTSSSS! (Idiots)
Ultimatley Mass Effect's story carries a lot of the sci fi cliche of the world but it presents it so well that you will most likely get swept away uncaringly. Besides I love Science Fiction, it's beautiful.
so fucking beautiful.
Design: Mass Effect is an RPG, as you have probably guessed from all the OTHER reviews so far. The main structure that makes it an RPG is of course the dialouge feature where you are given the option to say whatever you want and do what you want and your actions change how things turn out in the long run. It is easy to use and frankly is a better and smoother option then the dialouge 'stack' from other RPG's. Mass Effect also boasts a very large playable universe that cna be overwhelming at times, however most of the actual maps are fairly enclosed. On thing that must (and indeed has been addressed a lot lately) is that most of the other planets are very boring without much life in them. Just empty space to drive over with no real life or character, this is something that I hope can be fixed in the sequel.
Also of course other RPG elements include the ability to upgrade weapons and give level up points to both you and your team. Teammates also have different skills that can aide you in different ways.
Gameplay: Mass Effect plays as a third person tactical shooter, and controls like any other third person shooter. The game it most closely resembles in Gears of War... but even then they are pretty bloody different. Mass Effect has a working cover system that functions very well so that there are never parts where you get stuck to a wall by accident. There is also a fairly decent tactical element with the ability to select what weapons you want your team to carry as well as a sort of perks system thrown in and basic commands. if there was one issue with the fighting it's the lack of a 'roll away' move. In Gears of War for instance if something is charging you, you can leap away. In Mass Effect you can only frantically run away from it. Too bad lots of really powerful enemies love charging at you.
And of course there are the giant vehicle sections with the Mako, the vehicle controls aren't the best* but there are still points of fun
Presentation: Mass Effect both looks and sounds great. the visuals are vibrant, colourful and very detailed. Character models often look almost real, the lighting effects are well done and help give the game it's own personality. The sound effects are also well done (except for that human enemies wil repeat the same lines of dialouge over and over again). Voice acting is as I said before excellent and the music is MOSTLY top notch stuff. This is with the exception of the music that plays when you die, not bad music in and of itself but when you ahve to hear it for the thirteenth time it drives you nuts.
Faults: Okay let's be fair it still isn't perfect. First of all the Mako controls* are truly terrible at points, for a vehicle so big it bounces around like a balloon and can often cause unavoidable death. Further more at points the dialouge gets a little cheesy, just a little though. Further more the frame rate has a bad habit of chugging up and slowing things down to crawl speed and there are more than a few cases of enemy spamming. Some of the enemies are proufoundly annoying to fight and if you die in a boss fight welcome to the unskippable cutscene.
However if someone chooses only to focus on these faults and no see the scope of good things that is Mass Effect... I feel sorry for them.
okay that's my review, joining the rest of the crowd. But regardless Mass Effect is brilliant as a game in itself.
A. Boldly defy established trends and not go with the fad
B. Do it anyway out of a desperate plea for attention.
I know myself best and that's why I'm here. Okay take it away, Vrex.
Story: Set in the distant future Mass Effect tells the story of humanities political struggle alongside various other races for their share of the galaxy. This is introduced by the character 'Shepard' of whom has no name, personality or history save for what you make for him/her. So I began the chronicles of 'James Shepard' playing this game. The story principally involves Shepard's admition into the the galactic counsil's personal best troopers called 'Spectres' and he is tasked with capturing the rouge Spectre Saren who has betrayed the council and has teamed up with a machine race called the Geth.
What follows is a story of cat and mouse as Shepard gets a team ready to go out and pursue said Saren and as he does more and more elements of plot unfold showing him that there is much more going on than first appears.
In short this feels very much like an epic sci fi film/ tv series and Bioware have clearly realised that as every aspect of it's presentation feels very cinematic and epic. This helps me enter a new level of immersion.
One thing I have to give mention to is the characters in this game as they truly are my favourite part. When you make a team you are given a great supporting cast, most of which are aliens. My favourite has to go to Wrex the grumpy Krogan solely because he is just hilarious and awesome.
Second to him comes Ashley for she too is very likeable. All the characters have a well thought out history and real personality that have both likeable qualities and dislikable qualities that help make them more real. Praise to the writers.
Finally my only thought on the romance/sex scene... it is done in a good and clever way, the romance between Shepard ans Ashley (in my case anyway) had both charming chemistry and was well woven into the plot. Also the media blowhards who were offended by the sex scene are EEEEEEDEEEYYYYOOOOTTTTSSSS! (Idiots)
Ultimatley Mass Effect's story carries a lot of the sci fi cliche of the world but it presents it so well that you will most likely get swept away uncaringly. Besides I love Science Fiction, it's beautiful.
so fucking beautiful.
Design: Mass Effect is an RPG, as you have probably guessed from all the OTHER reviews so far. The main structure that makes it an RPG is of course the dialouge feature where you are given the option to say whatever you want and do what you want and your actions change how things turn out in the long run. It is easy to use and frankly is a better and smoother option then the dialouge 'stack' from other RPG's. Mass Effect also boasts a very large playable universe that cna be overwhelming at times, however most of the actual maps are fairly enclosed. On thing that must (and indeed has been addressed a lot lately) is that most of the other planets are very boring without much life in them. Just empty space to drive over with no real life or character, this is something that I hope can be fixed in the sequel.
Also of course other RPG elements include the ability to upgrade weapons and give level up points to both you and your team. Teammates also have different skills that can aide you in different ways.
Gameplay: Mass Effect plays as a third person tactical shooter, and controls like any other third person shooter. The game it most closely resembles in Gears of War... but even then they are pretty bloody different. Mass Effect has a working cover system that functions very well so that there are never parts where you get stuck to a wall by accident. There is also a fairly decent tactical element with the ability to select what weapons you want your team to carry as well as a sort of perks system thrown in and basic commands. if there was one issue with the fighting it's the lack of a 'roll away' move. In Gears of War for instance if something is charging you, you can leap away. In Mass Effect you can only frantically run away from it. Too bad lots of really powerful enemies love charging at you.
And of course there are the giant vehicle sections with the Mako, the vehicle controls aren't the best* but there are still points of fun
Presentation: Mass Effect both looks and sounds great. the visuals are vibrant, colourful and very detailed. Character models often look almost real, the lighting effects are well done and help give the game it's own personality. The sound effects are also well done (except for that human enemies wil repeat the same lines of dialouge over and over again). Voice acting is as I said before excellent and the music is MOSTLY top notch stuff. This is with the exception of the music that plays when you die, not bad music in and of itself but when you ahve to hear it for the thirteenth time it drives you nuts.
Faults: Okay let's be fair it still isn't perfect. First of all the Mako controls* are truly terrible at points, for a vehicle so big it bounces around like a balloon and can often cause unavoidable death. Further more at points the dialouge gets a little cheesy, just a little though. Further more the frame rate has a bad habit of chugging up and slowing things down to crawl speed and there are more than a few cases of enemy spamming. Some of the enemies are proufoundly annoying to fight and if you die in a boss fight welcome to the unskippable cutscene.
However if someone chooses only to focus on these faults and no see the scope of good things that is Mass Effect... I feel sorry for them.
okay that's my review, joining the rest of the crowd. But regardless Mass Effect is brilliant as a game in itself.
