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!editors choice award! |
Mass EffectMass Effect is the first title in BioWare’s epic, galaxy-hopping, third person action series. You play as Commander Shepard, a human Navy combat specialist who unwittingly gets sucked into a sweeping story of galactic proportions. Saren, a rouge Specter (an elite class of soldier who is able to operate outside the bounds of space law), discovers an ancient artifact that will surely destroy all life in the universe by using this device to call forth a sentient machine race called the Reapers. If allowed to succeed the Reaper Sovereign will call forth his brethren from deep space to exterminate all sentient life in the galaxy. The player takes control of Commander Shepard as he or she jumps from star system to star system exploring alien planets, partaking in various side quests, and earning Paragon or Renegade points along the way to flesh out whether this Commander is the salvation or bane of the galaxy. Either way the story will drive forward revealing shady political motives, ambiguous moral issues, and an overarching story that remembers your choices and carries them forward into the series’ other two entries. No matter your pathway you will ultimately save the galaxy but how yo get there is up to you, to a point. Conversations have branching choices which gives some autonomy but at its core this is a very linear game. The PlayStation 3 graphics are disappointing considering the system is capable of handling much more and the game is loaded with system-melting bugs, glitches, and crashes. These aspects smack of poor porting over from the PC and XBOX 360, but glitches, crashes, and flat textures aside Mass Effect certainly one of the best space-themed RPGs to date and is a game you should certainly invest your time and money into.
Score: 9/10Developer: BioWare
Released: 2007 Genre: Third Person, Action/Adventure, RPG Official Website: Mass Effect |
Graphics
Mass Effect is thematically a visual beauty and every detail and nuance makes this game universe not only believable but absolutely stunning to look at. You start the game on the Eden Prime and this is where you’ll get your first taste of the overall look of Mass Effect. The planet is Earth-like but you’ll notice floating alien pod creatures that signify you’re not in Kansas anymore. Cargo containers rendered in start white with bright red lettering and serial numbers make this a planet that is lived on, colonized by the recently accepted human race to the galactic counsel. As you explore Eden Prime you’ll be fully absorbed by the sheer beauty of everything around you from the trees swaying gently to the harsh geometric contrast of the human settlement against the organic backdrop. Each and every planet you explore has its own distinct look and color palette to fully flesh out this universe. From the lush forests and sweeping plains of Eden Prime, to rocky spheres of molten lava in close orbit to their parent star, to frigid wastelands on the edge of distant solar systems the Mass Effect universe is unified in its visual representations.
Everything your eyes come across shows just how much thought BioWare put into crafting the look of this video game. Space craft have sharp angles that completely defy the laws of fluid dynamics and everything is covered in shiny metal and flashing lights because, you know, this is science fiction and if it’s not covered in blinking lights then it really isn't all that futuristic. The Normandy, Shepard’s faster-than-light battle ship and base of operations, is impossibly designed but visually appealing and the interior is designed with a cohesive look. Everything is covered in a patina of sci-fi that’s immediately cliche but pretty, complete with holographic controls and a giant floating map of the galaxy in the center of it all. The game is everything you imagine the far flung future should look like and it’s displayed so naturally that it is quite convincing.
Once Commander Shepard is funneled through the opening mission, and the few bits of story that are required to get the game going, he’s allowed to take control of the Normandy and start cruising through the galaxy visiting star clusters and their orbiting planets. Open up the galaxy map from the control center and you can select star systems to drill down progressively further into until you're looking right at the planets suspended around their star. Each system has at least one planet that the player is able to land on and, once on the ground, take control of the Mako, the Normandy’s resident planet side passenger rover. Each planet in a solar system has as few paragraphs of history and every planet is wonderfully crafted even if it can’t be landed on directly. Gas giants and Plutonian ice worlds can be zoomed up to and you can laze a few moments as you watch clouds slowly drift through the atmosphere. Those planets you can land on are each unique though bland if they’re not part of the main story line. Most explorable planets are nothing more than barren rocks but each is meticulously created around a central visual design. You’ll find a planet in perpetual twilight, another tidally locked to its star and blasted by intense heat and radiation, and yet another that has captured a rouge planet in a decaying orbit that will eventually cause the two to crash together. From the surface of any planet you can look out into the sky and see orbiting moons and the parent star displayed in such stunning detail you’ll find yourself simply gawking at the awesome beauty of it all. This is about as close to exploring a real extraterrestrial solar system as we can get and the effect the game has on the psyche is nothing short of amazing.
Mass Effect is thematically a visual beauty and every detail and nuance makes this game universe not only believable but absolutely stunning to look at. You start the game on the Eden Prime and this is where you’ll get your first taste of the overall look of Mass Effect. The planet is Earth-like but you’ll notice floating alien pod creatures that signify you’re not in Kansas anymore. Cargo containers rendered in start white with bright red lettering and serial numbers make this a planet that is lived on, colonized by the recently accepted human race to the galactic counsel. As you explore Eden Prime you’ll be fully absorbed by the sheer beauty of everything around you from the trees swaying gently to the harsh geometric contrast of the human settlement against the organic backdrop. Each and every planet you explore has its own distinct look and color palette to fully flesh out this universe. From the lush forests and sweeping plains of Eden Prime, to rocky spheres of molten lava in close orbit to their parent star, to frigid wastelands on the edge of distant solar systems the Mass Effect universe is unified in its visual representations.
Everything your eyes come across shows just how much thought BioWare put into crafting the look of this video game. Space craft have sharp angles that completely defy the laws of fluid dynamics and everything is covered in shiny metal and flashing lights because, you know, this is science fiction and if it’s not covered in blinking lights then it really isn't all that futuristic. The Normandy, Shepard’s faster-than-light battle ship and base of operations, is impossibly designed but visually appealing and the interior is designed with a cohesive look. Everything is covered in a patina of sci-fi that’s immediately cliche but pretty, complete with holographic controls and a giant floating map of the galaxy in the center of it all. The game is everything you imagine the far flung future should look like and it’s displayed so naturally that it is quite convincing.
Once Commander Shepard is funneled through the opening mission, and the few bits of story that are required to get the game going, he’s allowed to take control of the Normandy and start cruising through the galaxy visiting star clusters and their orbiting planets. Open up the galaxy map from the control center and you can select star systems to drill down progressively further into until you're looking right at the planets suspended around their star. Each system has at least one planet that the player is able to land on and, once on the ground, take control of the Mako, the Normandy’s resident planet side passenger rover. Each planet in a solar system has as few paragraphs of history and every planet is wonderfully crafted even if it can’t be landed on directly. Gas giants and Plutonian ice worlds can be zoomed up to and you can laze a few moments as you watch clouds slowly drift through the atmosphere. Those planets you can land on are each unique though bland if they’re not part of the main story line. Most explorable planets are nothing more than barren rocks but each is meticulously created around a central visual design. You’ll find a planet in perpetual twilight, another tidally locked to its star and blasted by intense heat and radiation, and yet another that has captured a rouge planet in a decaying orbit that will eventually cause the two to crash together. From the surface of any planet you can look out into the sky and see orbiting moons and the parent star displayed in such stunning detail you’ll find yourself simply gawking at the awesome beauty of it all. This is about as close to exploring a real extraterrestrial solar system as we can get and the effect the game has on the psyche is nothing short of amazing.
The Citadel, a massive space station that houses hundreds of thousands of residents, is another notable landmark in Mass Effect. Its gleaming white walls and sheer size are something outright spectacular to look at. The area is littered with various species milling around, but most characters are static and there more for effect to keep the place from looking too sterile than serving up anything useful. Even here the game flaunts the sci-fi veneer that’s plastered everywhere but the look is so integrated into the lore and story that it feels like everything here just belongs. Computer terminals with orange hued holographic screens and a sublime blue lighting filter add to the visual flair. This is a place that is so impossible but also so effortless in its representation and with such unified visuals it never comes off as hackneyed even though the genre is basically done to death.
While the game conceptually is visually just amazing the graphics are loaded with bugs that immediately, and disappointingly, break your total immersion in the game. Shepard tends to disappear while in conversation with the various denizens of the galaxy, the Mako will sometimes get its tires stuck in the ground only to be warped into the sky as the game attempts to correct itself, and clipping and bizarre camera glitches are abundant. A few graphical anomalies in a video game are excusable and mostly expected, but the volume of such bugs in Mass Effect takes the graphics from something spectacular to something very cheap in a matter of moments. You’ll forget these bugs after a while as the story is so grand it covers up some of the ugly, but when these hiccups happen you’re keenly aware of them. The PS3 graphics are also disappointingly flat and it’s a shame to see the system shudder under the weight of the game. This isn't even the best that the PS3 has to offer in terms of graphics and it’s shameful to see the system so underutilized. The game will stutter as the system attempts to load the next scene or area and, upon entering a new space, the game loads up the low resolution textures first then progressively decompresses them all while shaking under the load. Even when the levels are fully loaded the textures still look low grade and the PS3 seems to struggle more than it necessarily should. To see a system as powerful as the PlayStation 3 stumble so violently under the graphics of the game is upsetting considering this is the system that brought us games like the Uncharted series and The Last of Us which so effortlessly displayed eyeball melting graphics.
Visual glitches and shuddering aside, Mass Effect is so beautiful to look at you’ll lose yourself in the visual fidelity despite these annoyances. Each sentient race you encounter is wonderfully detailed and well thought out. The insect like Turians, the blue-skinned Asari, and the perpetually cloaked Quarians, who are unable to remove their protective respirators due to a weak immune system, are all unique in look and style. Each species has their own lore associated with them that explains how their appearances came to be and it’s explained away in such easy pseudo-science jargon that they become aliens that could actually be out there in space somewhere right now. As usual in BioWare titles you’ll be able to equip armor on yourself and your comrades that are distinct in look, color, and texture palette and completely change the look of your squad. Everything you come across in Mass Effect has such visual panache and a unified high technology appearance. If you’re looking for the most seamless visual experience you may wish to play the game on the PC where, if your machine is capable enough, you’ll be afforded the best graphics and most seamless environment transitions. The PS3 version of the game is playable though the fact that it buckles from the pressure detracts from your overall enjoyment of the visuals which are admittedly some of the most beautiful you’ll encounter in a video game.
While the game conceptually is visually just amazing the graphics are loaded with bugs that immediately, and disappointingly, break your total immersion in the game. Shepard tends to disappear while in conversation with the various denizens of the galaxy, the Mako will sometimes get its tires stuck in the ground only to be warped into the sky as the game attempts to correct itself, and clipping and bizarre camera glitches are abundant. A few graphical anomalies in a video game are excusable and mostly expected, but the volume of such bugs in Mass Effect takes the graphics from something spectacular to something very cheap in a matter of moments. You’ll forget these bugs after a while as the story is so grand it covers up some of the ugly, but when these hiccups happen you’re keenly aware of them. The PS3 graphics are also disappointingly flat and it’s a shame to see the system shudder under the weight of the game. This isn't even the best that the PS3 has to offer in terms of graphics and it’s shameful to see the system so underutilized. The game will stutter as the system attempts to load the next scene or area and, upon entering a new space, the game loads up the low resolution textures first then progressively decompresses them all while shaking under the load. Even when the levels are fully loaded the textures still look low grade and the PS3 seems to struggle more than it necessarily should. To see a system as powerful as the PlayStation 3 stumble so violently under the graphics of the game is upsetting considering this is the system that brought us games like the Uncharted series and The Last of Us which so effortlessly displayed eyeball melting graphics.
Visual glitches and shuddering aside, Mass Effect is so beautiful to look at you’ll lose yourself in the visual fidelity despite these annoyances. Each sentient race you encounter is wonderfully detailed and well thought out. The insect like Turians, the blue-skinned Asari, and the perpetually cloaked Quarians, who are unable to remove their protective respirators due to a weak immune system, are all unique in look and style. Each species has their own lore associated with them that explains how their appearances came to be and it’s explained away in such easy pseudo-science jargon that they become aliens that could actually be out there in space somewhere right now. As usual in BioWare titles you’ll be able to equip armor on yourself and your comrades that are distinct in look, color, and texture palette and completely change the look of your squad. Everything you come across in Mass Effect has such visual panache and a unified high technology appearance. If you’re looking for the most seamless visual experience you may wish to play the game on the PC where, if your machine is capable enough, you’ll be afforded the best graphics and most seamless environment transitions. The PS3 version of the game is playable though the fact that it buckles from the pressure detracts from your overall enjoyment of the visuals which are admittedly some of the most beautiful you’ll encounter in a video game.
Sound
Mass Effect greets your ears with a rather strange, minimalistic opening theme song. It’s a melodic string of tonal noises and seems out of place for the theme of a video game as epic as this. Beyond the title splash screen’s weird choice of music, the sound of Mass Effect is satisfying and well recorded. You’ll find all manner of futuristic bleeps and bloops that are the staple of any sci-fi diet anymore, and the Normandy swooshes as it pulls from port to travel the galaxy. It is annoying to hear the ship make sound as it enters faster than light travel or to hear the shock wave of the sonic boom as the ship is influenced by a mass effect relay since this is the vacuum of space. For all the believability the game builds up around its fictional science, hearing sound in space breaks immersion. It is gratifying to hear the Normandy be sling-shot into the far flung corners of the galaxy by the gigantic mass effect relays but when you realize this is interstellar space and sound out here is impossible the reams of fiction you've come to latch onto break apart.
Voice acting is typically what you’d expect from a BioWare game. The actors portray their characters well especially the tough-as-nails Commander Shepard. While the actual dialogue is recorded well you will be shockingly aware of the moments where the subtitles don’t match the spoken words. As a hard of hearing gamer that must play with subtitles on to fill in the parts I miss these slip-ups were immediately noticeable and bothersome. The sheer amount of spoken word and text in games as immense as Mass Effect allows for some mistakes surely but, if you’re like me, you’ll find it grating that said errors slipped through the cracks. Some misplaced inflections of emotion round out the mishaps of the dialogue but generally speaking the recorded voices are pleasing to listen to.
Sound effects are handled adeptly by the developers. Different weapon types each pack a heft that’s appealing, especially the roar of the sniper rifle as you dispatch enemies from afar. Even the lowly pistol has a sound that conveys sheer and utter destruction as the bullets are discharged from the barrel. For the minor complaints I have of the sound it’s overall handled well. Again, what I can only imagine is poor optimization on behalf of BioWare, the PlayStation 3 is simply unable to handle the game adequately and the sound will stutter as the processor struggles to keep up with the flow of data. When this happens, which is uncomfortably common throughout the game, it’ll immediately rip you out of the game. It’s sad to see such an epic and engrossing game scarred by this poor optimization as you listen to the narrative shredded to bits by an overloaded processor. You’ll forget it eventually but forgiveness is harder to come by and BioWare should have spent a little extra time ensuring the system ran smoothly as the architecture of the PlayStation 3 is capable of much more than the likes of Mass Effect.
Mass Effect greets your ears with a rather strange, minimalistic opening theme song. It’s a melodic string of tonal noises and seems out of place for the theme of a video game as epic as this. Beyond the title splash screen’s weird choice of music, the sound of Mass Effect is satisfying and well recorded. You’ll find all manner of futuristic bleeps and bloops that are the staple of any sci-fi diet anymore, and the Normandy swooshes as it pulls from port to travel the galaxy. It is annoying to hear the ship make sound as it enters faster than light travel or to hear the shock wave of the sonic boom as the ship is influenced by a mass effect relay since this is the vacuum of space. For all the believability the game builds up around its fictional science, hearing sound in space breaks immersion. It is gratifying to hear the Normandy be sling-shot into the far flung corners of the galaxy by the gigantic mass effect relays but when you realize this is interstellar space and sound out here is impossible the reams of fiction you've come to latch onto break apart.
Voice acting is typically what you’d expect from a BioWare game. The actors portray their characters well especially the tough-as-nails Commander Shepard. While the actual dialogue is recorded well you will be shockingly aware of the moments where the subtitles don’t match the spoken words. As a hard of hearing gamer that must play with subtitles on to fill in the parts I miss these slip-ups were immediately noticeable and bothersome. The sheer amount of spoken word and text in games as immense as Mass Effect allows for some mistakes surely but, if you’re like me, you’ll find it grating that said errors slipped through the cracks. Some misplaced inflections of emotion round out the mishaps of the dialogue but generally speaking the recorded voices are pleasing to listen to.
Sound effects are handled adeptly by the developers. Different weapon types each pack a heft that’s appealing, especially the roar of the sniper rifle as you dispatch enemies from afar. Even the lowly pistol has a sound that conveys sheer and utter destruction as the bullets are discharged from the barrel. For the minor complaints I have of the sound it’s overall handled well. Again, what I can only imagine is poor optimization on behalf of BioWare, the PlayStation 3 is simply unable to handle the game adequately and the sound will stutter as the processor struggles to keep up with the flow of data. When this happens, which is uncomfortably common throughout the game, it’ll immediately rip you out of the game. It’s sad to see such an epic and engrossing game scarred by this poor optimization as you listen to the narrative shredded to bits by an overloaded processor. You’ll forget it eventually but forgiveness is harder to come by and BioWare should have spent a little extra time ensuring the system ran smoothly as the architecture of the PlayStation 3 is capable of much more than the likes of Mass Effect.
Gameplay
The galaxy and fiction behind Mass Effect is sheer joy to play through with minor stumbles along the way. The narrative and grand story you follow will keep you seduced for hours on end as you tease out the details of the plot. Traversing the galaxy is fun though it’s burdened by entirely too many loading screens. Hopping from solar system to solar system requires a far-too-long loading screen as does dropping the Mako on a planet’s surface, which is further muddled by another pause as the game auto saves then continues to load the planet. Once an environment is fully loaded you won’t usually run into any additional loading hiccups except for the pervasive lag as the PS3 struggles to keep up. The first time the game releases its hold on your hand for the first mission and you find your first explorable planet you’ll be instantly absorbed in the gameplay. As you progress through the game the attraction of terrestrial planet exploration wears off regrettably.
Once on a planet's surface you'll experience the absolutely bizarre physics of the Mako. The rover is able to scale impossible mountain faces and suffer impacts that you anticipate would destroy the vehicle. It is fun to drive the Mako to the highest point you can find then launch it off the edge of the cliff using the built in thrusters. It'll tumble and pivot in such a violent manner and almost always land upright despite being dropped from a few hundred kilometers height. As I played the game I would imagine the crew inside being jumbled around and cursing my name as I sent them lurching to what would be certain death in the real world. The vehicle quickly gets the player from one point to another but controlling it is awkward and requires the camera to be used as a steering wheel but if the camera auto-adjusts forward suddenly becomes reverse; it takes a while to get used to handling the Mako with any tact. You'll also notice that planets have their own gravity in the description and this does nothing to change the handling of the Mako or the organic life you control. It's a limitation of hardware to render the disparate gravity of every single place in the game and change how it will affect game play, but once you're aware that the area you're entering has twice the gravity of Earth and everything handles the same here as everywhere else in the game you feel let down in a strange way.
The planets that are not story critical are nothing more than barren rocks floating in space with a few points of interest, yet each has a unique color pallet that at least keeps things interesting. The planets that are story critical are detailed and gorgeous to look at, if formulaic and more of a funnel that channels the player from one story point to the next. The effect works but the formula is painfully obvious by the second main mission. The Mako is forced through a tunnel of sorts to the door of a building where the crew disembarks and tromps around the narrow corridors and open battle arenas. Firefights are engaging and plentiful but after a while they become far too easy as Shepard and his compatriots rack up experience points and special abilities. Combat is further simplified as you don't need to find ammunition for your guns; the "science" of mass effect fields explains away the unlimited ammo you posses. The only thing you need to keep an eye on is your gun's heat meter which, if filled, will cause your gun to seize until the meter runs down. As you poke around the galaxy you’ll also come across weapon and armor upgrades that help regenerate your shields, heal your character, or improve the damage dealt by your guns. Very nosey players will find a dearth of items which can be reduced to omni-gel, the game’s all-purpose substance that can bypass security systems or repair the Mako, or sold to the merchants scattered around the galaxy. The game throws far too many of these your way and Shepard will wind up with more items than the player will know what to do with and a huge bankroll that will almost never be depleted. In the first few hours of playing you’ll struggle to find items or the cash to purchase upgrades, but by the end of the game you’ll simply be overloaded with junk that serves no real purpose anymore. The crazy amount of items the game gives you is a burden and your inventory screen will be littered with dozens of repeating items. Reducing obsolete items to omni-gel will make unlocking doors much easier and with so much junk you'll be hard pressed to be at a loss of resources.
Opening locked containers, doors, or surveying the mineral deposits you’ll discover around the galaxy is handled by a short button matching mini-game if you chose to manually bypass the locks or stake your claim for humanity. It’s far too easy to accomplish and becomes outrageously redundant after a while. And this is the trap the entire game itself falls straight into. The first half of the game is nothing but a joy as you zoom around the galaxy and the sheer rush of awe you experience the first time you go planet side or find your first non-sentient life form on some backwater planet is overtaken by what can only be described as too damn much to do. The main story arc is actually quite short and if you only follow the main missions the game will be over rather quickly. The game is filled with various side quests to complete and succeeding or failing at them will have various consequences in the later titles, but after a while they all feel like filler as opposed to quality content.
Your first experience with Mass Effect is nothing but spectacular but the game suffers from redundancy and eventually you’ll just be wishing it was over already. My experience with the game felt much this way and it’s worth mentioning to players first coming to the series. The game opens up a huge playing field to explore and you really will be enticed by the sheer volume of missions to complete, which are relatively varied, but eventually the game becomes far too easy. Combat at first is frantic and wild but once Shepard becomes overpowered it’s more rote than challenging and, unless you switch the option off, your followers use their special abilities automatically and intelligently enough to make gun play less tactically interesting. The automatic cover system is almost useless and more aggravating then necessary; Shepard will hug walls automatically if the player brings him close enough and pop out of cover when you hold down the aim button, but it’s not typically required to hide under cover unless you have the difficulty cranked way up. While the game as a whole becomes formulaic and the challenge obsolete the story is enough to carry it all forward until the conclusion. There is a late game sex scene, which apparently is a BioWare signature anymore, but it’s not as titillating or satisfying as the one found in Dragon Age. All in all Mass Effect is certainly worth playing even though it collapses under its own weight after a while and you’ll find yourself trying to rush to the end. You can only help so many distressed star citizens before wondering how everyone is able to survive without you and the feeling that you're a powerful galactic hero turns to feeling like an overqualified babysitter. Most side missions have dissatisfying endings that fizzle down to nothing instead of making the player feel like they've actually accomplished anything important and the main story line is cliche and finished far too quickly. Each aspect of the game loses its luster the longer you play but there is some form of dark magic at work here that will keep you playing despite the flaws.
The galaxy and fiction behind Mass Effect is sheer joy to play through with minor stumbles along the way. The narrative and grand story you follow will keep you seduced for hours on end as you tease out the details of the plot. Traversing the galaxy is fun though it’s burdened by entirely too many loading screens. Hopping from solar system to solar system requires a far-too-long loading screen as does dropping the Mako on a planet’s surface, which is further muddled by another pause as the game auto saves then continues to load the planet. Once an environment is fully loaded you won’t usually run into any additional loading hiccups except for the pervasive lag as the PS3 struggles to keep up. The first time the game releases its hold on your hand for the first mission and you find your first explorable planet you’ll be instantly absorbed in the gameplay. As you progress through the game the attraction of terrestrial planet exploration wears off regrettably.
Once on a planet's surface you'll experience the absolutely bizarre physics of the Mako. The rover is able to scale impossible mountain faces and suffer impacts that you anticipate would destroy the vehicle. It is fun to drive the Mako to the highest point you can find then launch it off the edge of the cliff using the built in thrusters. It'll tumble and pivot in such a violent manner and almost always land upright despite being dropped from a few hundred kilometers height. As I played the game I would imagine the crew inside being jumbled around and cursing my name as I sent them lurching to what would be certain death in the real world. The vehicle quickly gets the player from one point to another but controlling it is awkward and requires the camera to be used as a steering wheel but if the camera auto-adjusts forward suddenly becomes reverse; it takes a while to get used to handling the Mako with any tact. You'll also notice that planets have their own gravity in the description and this does nothing to change the handling of the Mako or the organic life you control. It's a limitation of hardware to render the disparate gravity of every single place in the game and change how it will affect game play, but once you're aware that the area you're entering has twice the gravity of Earth and everything handles the same here as everywhere else in the game you feel let down in a strange way.
The planets that are not story critical are nothing more than barren rocks floating in space with a few points of interest, yet each has a unique color pallet that at least keeps things interesting. The planets that are story critical are detailed and gorgeous to look at, if formulaic and more of a funnel that channels the player from one story point to the next. The effect works but the formula is painfully obvious by the second main mission. The Mako is forced through a tunnel of sorts to the door of a building where the crew disembarks and tromps around the narrow corridors and open battle arenas. Firefights are engaging and plentiful but after a while they become far too easy as Shepard and his compatriots rack up experience points and special abilities. Combat is further simplified as you don't need to find ammunition for your guns; the "science" of mass effect fields explains away the unlimited ammo you posses. The only thing you need to keep an eye on is your gun's heat meter which, if filled, will cause your gun to seize until the meter runs down. As you poke around the galaxy you’ll also come across weapon and armor upgrades that help regenerate your shields, heal your character, or improve the damage dealt by your guns. Very nosey players will find a dearth of items which can be reduced to omni-gel, the game’s all-purpose substance that can bypass security systems or repair the Mako, or sold to the merchants scattered around the galaxy. The game throws far too many of these your way and Shepard will wind up with more items than the player will know what to do with and a huge bankroll that will almost never be depleted. In the first few hours of playing you’ll struggle to find items or the cash to purchase upgrades, but by the end of the game you’ll simply be overloaded with junk that serves no real purpose anymore. The crazy amount of items the game gives you is a burden and your inventory screen will be littered with dozens of repeating items. Reducing obsolete items to omni-gel will make unlocking doors much easier and with so much junk you'll be hard pressed to be at a loss of resources.
Opening locked containers, doors, or surveying the mineral deposits you’ll discover around the galaxy is handled by a short button matching mini-game if you chose to manually bypass the locks or stake your claim for humanity. It’s far too easy to accomplish and becomes outrageously redundant after a while. And this is the trap the entire game itself falls straight into. The first half of the game is nothing but a joy as you zoom around the galaxy and the sheer rush of awe you experience the first time you go planet side or find your first non-sentient life form on some backwater planet is overtaken by what can only be described as too damn much to do. The main story arc is actually quite short and if you only follow the main missions the game will be over rather quickly. The game is filled with various side quests to complete and succeeding or failing at them will have various consequences in the later titles, but after a while they all feel like filler as opposed to quality content.
Your first experience with Mass Effect is nothing but spectacular but the game suffers from redundancy and eventually you’ll just be wishing it was over already. My experience with the game felt much this way and it’s worth mentioning to players first coming to the series. The game opens up a huge playing field to explore and you really will be enticed by the sheer volume of missions to complete, which are relatively varied, but eventually the game becomes far too easy. Combat at first is frantic and wild but once Shepard becomes overpowered it’s more rote than challenging and, unless you switch the option off, your followers use their special abilities automatically and intelligently enough to make gun play less tactically interesting. The automatic cover system is almost useless and more aggravating then necessary; Shepard will hug walls automatically if the player brings him close enough and pop out of cover when you hold down the aim button, but it’s not typically required to hide under cover unless you have the difficulty cranked way up. While the game as a whole becomes formulaic and the challenge obsolete the story is enough to carry it all forward until the conclusion. There is a late game sex scene, which apparently is a BioWare signature anymore, but it’s not as titillating or satisfying as the one found in Dragon Age. All in all Mass Effect is certainly worth playing even though it collapses under its own weight after a while and you’ll find yourself trying to rush to the end. You can only help so many distressed star citizens before wondering how everyone is able to survive without you and the feeling that you're a powerful galactic hero turns to feeling like an overqualified babysitter. Most side missions have dissatisfying endings that fizzle down to nothing instead of making the player feel like they've actually accomplished anything important and the main story line is cliche and finished far too quickly. Each aspect of the game loses its luster the longer you play but there is some form of dark magic at work here that will keep you playing despite the flaws.
Final Thoughts
Mass Effect as a narrative vessel is epic and the volumes of lore that have been crafted to breathe life into the fiction is refreshing. A lot of time and work went into making this universe seem real and within the grasp of the human psyche. The story is strong and well written and the voice acting behind the characters is done with enough believability so as not to come off contrived or silly.
It’s upsetting that a game as grand as this one seems to devolve the longer you play it. Combat becomes far too easy and the use of your special abilities is nullified; I rarely had to use the tactical pause menu to ensure I was victorious. On harder difficulty settings the use of your special abilities and the tactical placement of you and your squad becomes necessary but more casual players will tire of the combat. Toss into the mix the PlayStation 3’s piss poor optimization and lag will be your undoing rather than challenging enemies.
For all the shortcomings and rather routine gameplay, Mass Effect is certainly a game you should play especially if you’re a fan of the RPG genre. Craft the look of your Commander Shepard to your liking and unleash him or her into the galaxy to save the day and countless lives to live in fame or infamy. The main story line is compelling enough to keep you hooked but it’s far too short for its own good and the various side missions will feel like fluff as opposed to quality content to drive character development forward. There is one game breaking bug that, for a game this late out, is completely inexcusable. Upon your arrival at the Citadel you must follow the game’s instructions to the tee otherwise the game will crash when you finally get back on track. It is a design flaw of the highest order that should not even happen. If the game designers required the player to complete the first mission before being allowed to accept and complete side quests they should have forced the player right to the destination as opposed to opening up the entire environment. Like almost every BioWare game out there you must save often as bugs and crashes that never seem to get patched are insidious creatures that crop up more often than they should. Even with a ruinous first experience should you decide to veer off in your own direction when you’re first allowed to, Mass Effect is a video game you should certainly give your time to. If you’re looking for the absolute best experience with the game consider purchasing the PC version first, then a console port if your computer is unable to handle the game. I suggest you only purchase the PlayStation 3 version if it’s the only way you’ll be able to experience the game. It’s poor optimization and system halting bugs and crashes will certainly have a huge impact on your experience but if you can look past them, which you almost certainly will given the game is simply beautiful, the controls are responsive, and the sound and story are top notch, you’ll find a place to sink hours of your day into as you get lost in the grandeur that is Mass Effect.
Mass Effect as a narrative vessel is epic and the volumes of lore that have been crafted to breathe life into the fiction is refreshing. A lot of time and work went into making this universe seem real and within the grasp of the human psyche. The story is strong and well written and the voice acting behind the characters is done with enough believability so as not to come off contrived or silly.
It’s upsetting that a game as grand as this one seems to devolve the longer you play it. Combat becomes far too easy and the use of your special abilities is nullified; I rarely had to use the tactical pause menu to ensure I was victorious. On harder difficulty settings the use of your special abilities and the tactical placement of you and your squad becomes necessary but more casual players will tire of the combat. Toss into the mix the PlayStation 3’s piss poor optimization and lag will be your undoing rather than challenging enemies.
For all the shortcomings and rather routine gameplay, Mass Effect is certainly a game you should play especially if you’re a fan of the RPG genre. Craft the look of your Commander Shepard to your liking and unleash him or her into the galaxy to save the day and countless lives to live in fame or infamy. The main story line is compelling enough to keep you hooked but it’s far too short for its own good and the various side missions will feel like fluff as opposed to quality content to drive character development forward. There is one game breaking bug that, for a game this late out, is completely inexcusable. Upon your arrival at the Citadel you must follow the game’s instructions to the tee otherwise the game will crash when you finally get back on track. It is a design flaw of the highest order that should not even happen. If the game designers required the player to complete the first mission before being allowed to accept and complete side quests they should have forced the player right to the destination as opposed to opening up the entire environment. Like almost every BioWare game out there you must save often as bugs and crashes that never seem to get patched are insidious creatures that crop up more often than they should. Even with a ruinous first experience should you decide to veer off in your own direction when you’re first allowed to, Mass Effect is a video game you should certainly give your time to. If you’re looking for the absolute best experience with the game consider purchasing the PC version first, then a console port if your computer is unable to handle the game. I suggest you only purchase the PlayStation 3 version if it’s the only way you’ll be able to experience the game. It’s poor optimization and system halting bugs and crashes will certainly have a huge impact on your experience but if you can look past them, which you almost certainly will given the game is simply beautiful, the controls are responsive, and the sound and story are top notch, you’ll find a place to sink hours of your day into as you get lost in the grandeur that is Mass Effect.