GAMEFURY

Mass Effect

This is the closest any game has ever come to living up the the hype. No one thing about it makes it great. There are many things that are rather annoying about the game. If you look past the individual problems, the game as a whole is an amazing achievement. This is the first game I have ever played that upon completion, I immediately started my second play through.

Designed by the same people that made Knights of the Old Republic, that game’s influence can be seen everywhere. It plays nearly identically and many of the ideas are the same. Imagine Star Wars without lightsabers and a little better technology and you will basically get the gist of Mass Effect. The battles play similarly to Gears of War. The action is seen from an over the shoulder third person perspective. There is a cover mechanic similar to Gears but a targeting assist makes gun battles a little easier. It needs to be easier to target because, until you get a few levels under your belt, the game is incredibly difficult. There isn’t much of a tutorial to help you out either. Once your abilities get some experience behind them, you really become a force to be reckoned with. You need to be, because your party members are complete idiots in battle and you will find yourself doing almost all of the fighting. You can issue basic orders to them, but much of the time they will just ignore you and end up getting themselves killed. Luckily, they are returned to life as soon as any nearby hostiles are eliminated. The game ends only if you are killed.

The story is everything a scifi epic needs to be. Every life in the galaxy is in danger and you are the only one who can save them. It is nice to see that people actually appreciate what you are doing in the game. You will start to be recognized for your deeds and even get some fans that want your picture or autograph. I was getting tired of games where you are the toughest SOB in the universe and everyone still talks down to you the whole time. Listening to the local news channel put it’s own twist on what they think happened during my last mission always brought a smile to my face. These things don’t have any real bearing on the game play; they just add to the depth. There aren’t as many difficult decisions in the game as the television ads (or even the game’s intro video) would like you to believe. Never will you have to sacrifice one quest to go do another the way the ads imply. Only twice did I have to actually think about which decision was the best one. The main quest was a little shorter than I would have liked. As far as the time to complete is concerned, I had no problem with that. My first play through took just under 25 hours and unlockable difficulty levels make it quite a long game. The problem was that there weren’t enough main story missions to really make you feel the epic scale of the game. Most of your time is spent on side missions, and many of those have mini storylines that are nearly as good as the main one. There were a few times when I didn’t even care about the main story until I found the person I had been tracking down for a side quest. The ending of the game is the first to come along in a long time that really just felt right. I got the closure I like to get from a game but there is enough left open in the event of a sequel. You can even play the game again with your leveled up character once you complete it, but since you can’t change the difficulty without starting a new character, this option felt a little useless to me.

The graphics overall are amazing. The character’s faces portray very real emotion and look more realistic than any other game I have ever seen. The character creator allowed me to make a guy that looked almost exactly like myself. One of the alien races, the Krogan (seen in the above screenshot on the left), actually look like they were taken right out of a movie. Put next to Hollywood’s best CG special effects, they would fit right in. I wish the loading screens were a bit longer because the graphics don’t completely load until after a scene is on the screen. Many times, the game looks terrible for just a couple seconds. There are also a few glitches here and there that bothered me. Occasionally a NPC would walk straight through a crate or box. Many of the enemies will twitch on the ground until the game decides they have settled properly. These are somewhat forgivable problems given the scope of the game, but they are still disappointing to see. Also, the building interior for nearly every side quest is one of two layouts. I find it hard to believe of all the planets in all of the solar systems in all of the star clusters you will visit, that every building used these same two floor plans. Many other games implement some kind of random map generator and I am not sure why it couldn’t have been done here. Two other design decisions that happen quite frequently bothered me a bit. When entering an elevator, no matter where they are, your party member warp to your location instantly. When getting out of your vehicle, the party appears about a foot above the ground and falls into place. Both of these situations could have been fixed by a quick fade to black and back. While these issues do detract from the immersion level of the game, many of the locations look so amazing that you will quickly forget about the games problems. One level in particular takes place along a shallow river valley with waterfalls and scenic views along the entire stretch. You almost forget that you are in the middle of a firefight.

The game features some great music and voice talent. The right type of background music is always playing to fit the scene and the entire soundtrack is awesome. All the voice acting is top notch and features recognizable stars like Keith David (Imam from Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi from Star Trek: Next Generation), Seth Green (Scott Evil from Austin Powers), and several others. Not only does having such talented people add to the believability of the conversations, but it also adds to the epic feel of the game.

It is very easy to tell you about the problems in the game, but I don’t want you to think I didn’t love every second of it. is a little slow at first, but only gets better as time goes on. This is definitely a ‘sum of all it’s parts’ type of game. Individually, nothing about it is great. Added together, this is one of the greatest gaming experiences in recent memory.

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