Fair. What's a fair score for a game that is rich with story and
character development with breathtaking visuals to boot but fails in
technical performance and repetitive environments? A game that leaves
you speechless by the end but trying to drive around to complete
missions and actually get to the end is a frustrating chore? A game
where every choice you make will have an impact on how that mission,
and possibly future missions, plays out but auto-saves are so poorly
placed that failing a battle will have you talking through the same
dialog over and over?
Before I go any further, let's get one thing straight. I loved Mass
Effect. Certainly one of the best games I've played in a long time. It
could possibly go on my "ever" list. Despite all its technological
shortcomings, 35 hours later I can't wait to start all over again with
a completely different character. It's story isn't original and is
something of a hodgepodge of Halo, Star Wars, the Matrix, Contact, you name it. Some may call it predictable. But it
works. And the characters make it work on a personal and emotional
level as well.
Unfortunately, the game is riddled with problems that ruin the game for many. So let's get those problems out of the way first.
Biggest issue? Definitely texture pop in (up?). The graphics in Mass
Effect are gorgeous and understandably it takes time to load them –
especially in open world environments where the system is trying to
buffer data around your location before you get there. While a few
games have been successful at this in the past it seems developers
haven't quite got the handle of it yet on the new consoles. So the
biggest visual drawback is lots of texture pop in. Mostly only after
loads but it can really occur anywhere. I even had it happening during
cut-scene conversations which I think is inexcusable. That's just bad
programming and resource management.
Random loading. While you're playing, Mass Effect is trying to load
content into its buffer before you get there. Unfortunately, the buffer
can't always keep up, even when you're not moving quickly. While it's
not nearly as bad as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, it happens and anytime
you're walking around freely, only to be interrupted by a frozen screen
trying to load content, it breaks the mood and takes you out of the
environment. An interesting side-note: All the slow-moving elevators
that people complain of are actually cleverly disguised loading screens.
Inventory management. This one has come up a lot. It was even discussed
with the people at Bioware in a 1up.com article who said they didn't
think it was a problem. And no, it's not huge. Inventory management is
certainly doable. The problem is that there is no way to sort your
items. So like Oblivion, you're stuck scrolling through long lists of
items. This is so easy to fix. Why can't developers get this sort of
thing right? And how do these poor management systems get approved to
begin with?
Poorly placed auto-saves. Part of the problem here is that they're
inconsistent. On some missions they'll be at the perfect spot – right
after long dialog and right before the battle. In others, even if you
save manually (which you can at any time as long as you're not in
combat) you're forced to go through long sections of dialog before the
difficult boss battle. Fail the battle and you restart from your last
save (however far back that was) only to have to go through the entire
dialog again... and again, and again. Very irritating.
Terrain variety and the Mako. Driving the Mako around in and of itself
isn't so bad. Sure, trying to back up or get turned around can be
frustrating but I can deal with that. Mostly though it's the terrain
that you're constantly bouncing wildly over that's the issue. Why is it
that every planet you land on has very little flat ground and instead
has super steep cliffs that take ages to crawl up? Although it is nigh
impossible to flip the damn thing. I did however manage to do it: on
flat ground nonetheless. Which sucks because there's no way to right
the thing.
Terribly written love saga. For such a wonderful story this inclusion
sucks. Seriously, who wrote this part? The same people that wrote Star
Wars: Episode 2?! "Hi, we just met. We're suddenly awkwardly in love.
Let's do it. No, we have to wait." I'm all for a little love story but
it could have been handled much better. For how quickly things start,
the mood just wasn't there.
Mission environment variety. It's not really that the missions are
repetitive. In any game you're pretty much going to be doing the same
thing over and over. The missions here even do a pretty good job at
distinguishing themselves. But every moon base and cavern is exactly
the same. You can walk into each one and know exactly which rooms the
enemy will be in – also because there's only four rooms. It's for this
reason that non-story missions begin to feel tedious. Enter a system.
Pick the one planet you can land on. Bounce around wildly for 10
minutes. Reach objective, maybe encounter outside base defenses. Enter
base. Enter hall. Enter main quarters. Defeat bad guys. Explore other
two rooms and wrap up mission criteria if necessary. Blah.
Short. At 35 hours?! Yes. Truth is, if you skip all the side quests
Mass Effect only has about 6 "chapters." Each chapter may take you a
couple hours to play through but it's a little disheartening when you
look at your mission list and can see 3 objectives that, once
completed, will lead right to the last mission. More story development
and searching the galaxy would have been excellent.
Crates. Yup, just like any RPG you have your standard crates full of
weapons and health packs. Ok, cliché but no big deal. Except you have
to play some little "Simon" mini game for nearly every one. Fine, but
is that really necessary?
Unrelated dialog options. Admittedly, this isn't a big deal and most
RPGs of this nature are guilty of it but, to me, I feel it affects the
mood of the game. The scenario is some kind of heated situation when
suddenly you're presented addition dialog options to inquire the person
on a more personal level. It's not the response you'd make naturally.
And that response is present in your options. But you know that if you
want to get more info and experience you'll have to take that awkward
dialog detour. So it's a matter of do you stick to the feel of the
situation or do you play the points game? I wish developers would come
up with better solutions for these types of situations.
Still with me? Good. Because if you can overlook all of Mass Effect's
little inadequacies you'll be immersed in an imaginative world full of
unique and memorable characters with a great story to boot. Which is
what this game is all about. If you can lose yourself in the story,
then just like a good book, it'll be hard to put down.
While it's unfortunate that the revolutionary dialog system (the one
that let you interrupt NPCs while they were talking) got dropped from
the final build, you're still left with several dialog options that
will affect the outcome of that meeting and may impact future missions.
Increase your Charm or Renegade attributes (I went Renegade which was a
blast) and you'll open more options that can dramatically change the
course of a conversation or even avoid a conflict altogether. It's
through these options that you'll face some tough choices – the outcome
of several which will lead to some amazing "holy ****!" moments. The
ability to make choices with a real impact as well as the number of
different character c1asses you can create and teammates you can play
with really adds some worthwhile replay value. It'll be the same story
of course, but it certainly won't play out the same way twice.
Example: In one side quest I found myself confronting a soldier holding
a scientist hostage at gun point. Well, no, not hostage. He was about
to kill him. The scientist was meek and non-threatening so my initial
reaction was to simply take down the man with the gun. I am a Renegade
after all. But rather than hastely kill him, I chose to ask some
questions and it turned out that the situation was related to an
earlier mission and the scientist was part of a group that I had
dispatched of earlier - so technically, I was on the same side as the
would be killer. With this info I now had four options: kill the
soldier; try to convince the soldier to "stand down;" let the soldier
kill the scientist; or kill the scientist myself. I won't spoil the
ending but my version was definitely a "holy ****!" moment. I'm eager
to find out how that, as well as many other missions play out when I
make different choices.
And yes, that little irrelevant side mission was superbly detailed with
unique actors for each part - or well unique enough. Which brings up
the point again that the story and the visuals are really the hallmark
of this title. If you're willing to immerse yourself in this universe,
the cut-scenes will be a joy and will carry you through to the end. And
really, any time you're talking with another non-player character it'll
be easy to get wrapped up in it. While the lip sync is far from
perfect, it's good enough to be believable. Add in the excellent voice
acting, lighting, modeling and textures and you're left left with truly
cinematic scenes that are engaging and fun to watch as well as play
through.
But the story is only half of it. This is an "RPG-shooter" after all.
Even with some squad based tactical elements. This too I've heard
complaints about. For me I thought it worked well. Your teammates may
not be the smartest but I never once found myself at a disadvantage or
killed because of their actions. That's not to say that you or they
won't die. It's not uncommon for them to die but it isn't the norm
either. Plus, you'll eventually get a handy little ability to resurrect
fallen teammates during battle so it's not really an issue. Unless of
course, "dead" teammates returning to "life" ruins the feel of the game
for you. The key to combat in Mass Effect is using your team's powers
to your full advantage. Everyone has something to offer and in
difficult boss battles it's worthwhile to make use of those abilities.
Except for some frustrating boss battles, the combat is
straight-forward and relatively easy - especially as your hero(ine)
levels up and acquires more powerful weapons. Playing as a Vanguard, I
found the Pistol/Shotgun combination to be quite effective - the
shotgun taking down lesser foes with just a single shot on the Normal
difficulty level (from just about any range). A nice feature of Mass
Effect I feel is the leveling system itself. On normal your team will
level up by themselves. As you increase the difficulty, enemies will
level up as well to match you. Personally, I've never cared for enemies
leveling up. I think it defeats the point of leveling in the first
place. (If we're going to remain on even ground, why go higher?) This
seems to be a really good compromise however, allowing the player to
adapt the game to their preference of play. On the whole, my teammates
did a fair job of protecting themselves: they'd take cover and use
shield power-ups when necessary while I managed their attack biotics
and special abilities.
Mass Effect's version of "magic" or "the force" is biotics. A special
case that grants the wielder the ability to physically manipulate
others around them. This includes things like pushing groups of
charging enemies away with an invisible burst of energy or suspending
them helplessly in the air, to disabling enemy shields or causing their
own weapons to explode and damage them. While it's doable to play
through the whole game just shooting your way, I found it much more
enjoyable when I employed my own biotic abilities in conjunction with
those of my teammates to easily bring down difficult foes. There's just
a very satisfying sense of power when you can have one teammate disable
the shields of a Geth Colossus while you lift it helplessly into the
air with another going fully automatic on it with an assault rifle,
then finishing it off with a shotgun blast of exploding bullets.
Despite side missions taking place in similar locations giving them a
somewhat repetitive and tedious feel, they are enjoyable. The real meat
of the game though is within the main storyline. Some of the side
quests feel a bit tacked on as if Bioware was just trying to fill out
the game and make it longer. While the story is very well developed as
it is, I wish Bioware would have spent more time creating a longer
story that involved more missions and more exploration and detective
work.
When all is said and done, I think Bioware put out a remarkable product
and I can't wait for the sequels. While the ending of Mass Effect sets
you up for the next chapter, it ends well with a fairly solid
conclusion, albeit a bit cheesy. There's still questions left
unanswered of course. Mass Effect is intended to be a trilogy however
and one that I'm quite looking forward to completing. And with any
luck, Bioware will be able to complete all 3 for the 360 before the
next-gen consoles.
While there are many technical problems, I never found them to be so
distracting or insurmountable that they detracted from the enjoyment of
the game. Driving the Mako got laborious and repeating scenes of dialog
over and over after dying in battle was frustrating these were minor
instances and once overcome they were quickly forgotten. Even the
constant texture pop in after loads weren't enough to disrupt my pure
enjoyment of this story.
Whether or not Mass Effect is a must buy depends on your personal taste
and own buying habits. Personally, I quite often regret outright buying
games without trying them beforehand. Mass Effect is not one of those.
I enjoy it immensely now and it's the kind of game that I'll be able to
go back to a year later and enjoy all over again without feeling like
I've "been there, done that."
