Gamertell

Product: Mass Effect
Price: $59.99
System(s): Xbox 360
Rating: 9/10
Publisher (Developer): Microsoft (Bioware)
ESRB Rating: “Mature”
Pros: Amazing story, solid shooter action, great custom character creator, great new franchise.
Cons: To short for a true RPG, graphics aren’t quite up to Unreal Engine 3 standards, a number of noticeable technical problems and worst of all, this game has to end.
Overall: Mass Effect is a game that can’t be missed by any true RPG fan or gamer in general.

To put it bluntly, Mass Effect is by far the strongest and most outstanding game that has been released to date on the Xbox 360.

July 2003, acclaimed Canada-based developer Bioware brought to the Xbox one of the most original and deepest Role Playing Games to have come along in the past decade. The game I am referring to is of course, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic which would go on to become one of the original Xbox’s most successful games with more than a million units sold and winning of a number of high-profile Game of the Year awards.

As many of you already know, KOTOR created a new vision of the already iconic Star Wars universe. Set four thousand years before the setting of the current Star Wars saga, KOTOR introduced a new playing system that truly allowed gamers to control the story and develop their character to their liking. The main attraction of course was the ability to become the perfect Jedi Knight who was selfless and only concern with the safety of the galaxy. Or the player could become a Sith Lord who was bent on total galactic conquest.

Jump ahead and slightly back to November 2007 when Bioware managed to outdo itself once again with the release of Mass Effect as an exclusive Xbox 360 Action/RPG game in time for the Christmas 2007 shopping season.

Design: 8/10

Probably the only real weakness to Mass Effect has to be its overall design. While this game is certainly cutting edge, I honestly can’t say that Mass Effect uses the Unreal Engine 3 to its full capability - not like we have seen in other games that have used the engine, including Gears of War. The graphics are nice and occasionally very nice. Primarily during the final climatic showdown in the end of the game, the in-game cinematics don’t seem as impressive as what we saw at the beginning of the game. Whether this was because the developers were running out of time or simply what we see was attended as the final vision, there are still numerous points that the visual quality of this game just let me down. I would have preferred Bioware using CG cut scenes instead of the in-game engine.

The rest of the game design is really hit or miss. While the story-based levels are all designed well, the side quest missions (where the player has to explore uncharted worlds) all tend to look and feel very much the same. A snow world, lava world, or lush green world, are all built in a generic fashion and set in a large square. There is no sense of life or wonder in these environments beyond a few sparse wildlife walking around.

Strangely too, while humanity is new to the universe of Mass Effect, only venturing out from our own solar system some thirty years prior, not much about the worlds or environments of this game felt very alien, as if the various planets and locations could have all been built by human hands and not alien.

By far the worst and most noticeable problem with the design has to be the frequent texture issues. None of this effects the player’s game play, but having to wait a few seconds for textures to load after a cinematic or mission begins, can get quite annoying and distracting.

With all of that said, the universe of Mass Effect is a truly well thought out and a completely developed continuum. You can get lost for hours just going through the various menus that give the player a deep and detailed history lesion on just about anything you might want to know about the worlds, races, technologies and threats of Mass Effect.

Features: 10/10

Mass Effect hits the player with so much plot, side quest, main missions, characters, races, events, challenges etc, that gamers will restart this game numerous times as they struggle to develop the perfect hero or villain. In fact, there are way too many general features to mention in just a single review. What everything mainly boils down to is, players create their avatar’s profile such as birth and general background, all of which plays into some of the major story events. From there players can choose either a male or female were you can either use the default faces, or create your own. Similar to Elders Scroll IV, you can change just about any feature on the face. If you are creative enough, it is possible to create an avatar that could even look like your self.

The dialog system is by far the most impressive and improved aspect to Mass Effect. Instead of just having a couple of choices of what your character will say, this time around you pick from up to a list of six choices at any giving time words that represent what your character is thinking. Then, the character actually speaks using dialog different from what you chose, but meaning the same thing. Needless to say, this new system gives the player the chance to develop his or her own characters to degrees never before seen in any other RPG’s, even KOTOR.

Combat and targeting boils down to a simple duck-and-cover strategy. This system can best be compared to Gears of War or Ghost Recon. While this system isn’t as perfected as those titles, Mass Effect still manages to create some really intense gunfights where duck-and-cover is the only way to survive some of the game’s more heated battles. Still, from beginning to end, you will be doing the same thing time and time again. Once you get the hang of this system, battles will get easier, especially once your character’s level reaches the high 40s or 50s.

The character building system is pretty deep. Players will level up frequently as you earn experience points for just about everything you do. Spending your points is key to victory. Each character is unique and important to the story. You will find you’re self-switching back and forth between the six playable character (not including your own) frequently.

The main story quest is pretty short. If the player chooses to avoid the side quests, Mass Effect will take roughly 12 to 15 hours to finish. With all the side quests, each of which can be accessed through a number of ways, the total game time can reach up to 25 to 30 hours. Most of these side quest are actually worth the effort, even if it seems they are below the social status of your character.

Performance: 9/10

Mass Effect has a lot of technical issues, and I mean a lot. From general frame rate issues, frequent crashing, characters getting stuck for no reason, to the horrible texture loading times, all of these are problems that could have been worked out if Bioware had put a couple extra months into polishing the game before release. I am sure though that most of these issues can and will be resolved through downloadable content through Xbox Live in the near future. Despite these issues and a few smaller details, all of these problems can easily be over looked. It is more likely that gamers will be to deeply invested in the overall design and story to really care about these hip-cups. At worse, you might have to restart your 360 from a few crashes.

Mechanics wise, Mass Effect works perfectly. While it might take a couple of hours to get use to the various interfaces and setups, players in no time should have the game mastered. Regardless, it is more then likely that you will restart your quest several times before commenting to the whole game. I know I redesigned my character 4 times before I was settled on my final avatar.

Overall: 9/10

While it might seem like Mass Effect has too many technical issues (and there is a lot of them), it is by far the best game on the 360 to date. The game is a masterful fusion of story telling and art.

With a universe that is as developed and focused as Star Wars or Star Trek, Mass Effect is a universe that has plenty of room, if not unlimited space to grow into a welcome franchise that transcends beyond just games. Few, if any, games give players so much freedom to not only determine the story’s outcome, but to truly create a unique character based from the choices made through the short 30 hours of game play (which really just isn’t enough game time for a such a deep RPG).

By the end of the game, I no longer remembered that my hot-redhead hero was a creation of my own, but could have believed she was built, designed and writing for this game as a original creation. I was sad to actually see her go once the end credits had rolled. With the amazing character details and graphics for your avatar and the game’s NPC’s, I challenge gamers to not develop an emotional connection with their creation.

Now comes the saddest and most difficult part, and that is the long wait before Mass Effect 2.

As a side note for those of you who need more Mass Effect, then make sure to check out the official Mass Effect Prequel novel, Mass Effect: Revelation. Written by Drew Karpyshyn, this story is set some twenty odd years before then events of the game. There is a lot more insight to the universe of Mass Effect and hints at thing to come.

Site [Bioware] Site [Mass Effect]

Keep up with the latest Gaming news! - Subscribe to our feed →