This game was one of the most hyped and anticipated games of 2007, it
was promoted as a game where a wide open setting and an emotional
roller coaster of a story were the main driving force . It came damn
close to accomplishing both. From the moment you start the game you
will be in awe of the graphics and the amount of interaction that takes
place. Characters are beautifully modeled and the graphics rival that
of any other game out there. Then again it is to be expected of a game
that is running on the unreal3 engine. The audio in the game is
exemplary, especially the voice acting. The audio complements the
graphics very well as characters give very good performances and the
weapon effects are good too. The opening cut scene puts the basic story
in place and the developers take an unique approach when you "make"
your character that is very refreshing.
The first mission is considered to be a tutorial of sorts but you can
immediately see that Bioware put in considerable time and effort into
the story. By the end of the first mission the game will have you
saying "hell no he did not do that/" This in itself is a feat that has
only been accomplished by few games; games in which the first level
sets the bar for the rest of the game. Mass effect for the most part
meets and or exceeds the bar that was set. My only complaint about the
story was that if you have seen the trailers and the ad's they give
away some key plot elements. Still though its fun to be playing the
game and get to a certain point and remember the ad and go "This is
going to happen now".
Just like every other RPG, ME also has a number of side quests,
although the number of side quests might not exactly be mind boggling,
they all for the most part have different plots and lots of different
characters to interact and kill. Also, bioware has gone ahead and
included unchartered worlds for you to explore. However, this is where
things start to break down, most of the side quests take place on these
uncharted worlds and most of the building and the caves you will fight
in are the same models. In fact I think they only have about 4 kinds of
building and caves. Over a period of time this gets incredibly
annoying. Also, unlike the main plot which keeps you guessing and
wanting more, the side quests dont really get you involved. The main
reason for doing these side quests comes down to credits and leveling
up, both of which can easily be achieved. This brings me to my next
point; you will accumulate a lot of money by the end of the game and
you will frankly not have much to spend on. Most of the weapons and
ammo are already available from fallen enemies. This transitions to one
of the worst aspects of mass effect, that is the inventory system. You
automatically pick up weapons/ammo/grenades/mods from fallen enemies
and there is no clear way of managing them. They are just clumped
together in your inventory menu and if you reach 150 items you will be
forced to convert the excess into omnigel, while this doesn't seem bad
consider that you do not get to chose what you convert to omni gel.
Everything you pick up must be converted before you can move on and
they cannot be dropped either. It seems like bioware really did not
think this through.
Another problem is while the graphics are breathtaking to say the
least, you will clearly see a lot of little quirks. Some times if you
walk into an area you can see that the textures take a little while to
load. However, this really isn't much of an issue and you will hardly
notice it. Another problem is that the MAKO driving part isn't really
that fun as I had helluva time controlling it. However, this is a
personal opinion and must be taken with a grain of salt as you might
like it.
The game isn't exactly long considering other games(oblivion), clocking
in at a little over 20 hours but it does offer lots of replayability.
Also, the game offers up a tremendous amount of "knowledge"; knowledge
in the sense that there are detailed manuals explaining every species
and every technology(this info is in the codecs). So, Bioware has
really tried to make this universe as believable as possible. With the
upcoming downloadable content ME is going to offer up even more
excitement. Overall it is a very solid game that will keep you
entertained for hours.
