As a wee boy, boy, I went against the trend of today and hated first and third person shooters. I was more of a Mario, Pokemon, and Sonic kind of kid, and since I thought that I should try a bit of everything, so I decided to buy Mass Effect. Being a fan of RPGs since I bought Final Fantasy 1&2: Dawn of Souls and Golden Sun, And BioWare’s previous title Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
I decided that I might as well start with a hybrid of both an Third
Person Shooter and an RPG. But now without the rose tinted glasses of
nostalgia, and with the partially poo stained glasses of a critic.
Mass Effect Review
Platforms: Xbox 360(Reviewed), PC
Release Date: 20/11/2007
Mass Effect
takes place nearly two hundred years in the future, when mankind has
encountered a council of aliens and is trying to colonize the galaxy,
and gain enough respect to join the council. You play as Mr. or Ms.
Shepard, a human commander who was sent to a human colony from a race of
robots, known as Geth. Shepard proceeded to receive a vision of the
whole galaxy being destroyed. Said vision was caused by an artifact of
the race that occupied the galaxy before mankind and the other 12 or so
unique aliens that scavenge the Milky Way. It is well told and does
send you across a wide variety of planets, although it can easily get
overrun with grey corridors, but relies a bit too much on you reading
codex articles to get the full understanding of the plot and lore.
The
vision also included a Spectre, an interstellar secret agent who is
above the law, joining with the destruction of Alienkind. You are also
made a Spectre, where you look for side missions, gain help, kill, and
knob several Alien friends, who work as AI controlled companions. Said
companions are a tad bit thick, often refusing to get out of my way and
never using cover. But the actual role-playing is done via a
conversation wheel, which included a kind, angelic Paragon, and sly,
thuggish Renegade. These options are nice, and I won’t be critiquing
the decision, since this franchise started in 2007, where a non 2D
morality system was unfathomable, which might extend to today, but it’s
the least of the game’s problems. Let’s begin with the gameplay, it is a
mostly enjoyable Third Person Shooter, but suffers from hard to
distinguish enemies, who I could barely seen if not for the red
triangles on their bellies. And a cover system that makes me feel like I
don’t have much control over Shepard when a wall of any kind is
involved. Yet, it works and makes for a unique shooter due to the
plethora of abilities you unlock by leveling up throughout the game.
The tech and bionic abilities do let you play the game in an entirely
different way, and is justified for multiple playthroughs of characters
spreading across the six unique classes. Unfortunately, the game has
several areas that are just random terrain that you need to navigate in
the MAKO, a form of all terrain tank that feels like I’m driving in a
butter factory.
Then
there is the audio problems, namely that it is dull. I had to rewatch
all of Sgt. Frog and Futurama just to get through the boring ambiance of
any scene that didn’t involve shooting or talking. I also had trouble
hearing numerous voices, Wrex and Garrus could have been mumbling all of
their lines while in the ship and I wouldn’t have noticed a difference.
The visuals are equally underwhelming, with bland models, repeated
areas, planets that lack any originality in their level design, and an
awful grainy filter that is coating the game. However, the game manages
to be entertaining in terms of dialog, both of Shepard’s genders have
good voice actors, and the rest of the cast doesn’t slouch either. The
partner characters also have their own stories to tell if you talk to
them, but they are a bit underwhelming, and with the way the game
handles upgrades and weapons, it makes more sense to only care about two
other characters and maybe one more if you want to see a second of bare
ass. There is also about 20 hours of side quests to do, but most of
them are very forgettable and just have you going somewhere, activate,
find, or kill something, and be on your marry way. There was some
effort placed into these side quests, but there is so much copying and
pasting in this game, that it makes recolored enemies seem like an
original thought.
In
the end, the game feels a bit too ambitious, it manages to be buggy,
bland, and a unbearably boring at times. The voice acting is great for
2007, and the story holds on it’s own, with a lot of lore to explore,
making the world feel livelier than it actually is. The core of the
gameplay is shootery fun, with numerous nifty abilities that you can
play with. It does however, suffer when it dabbles into extra content
and driving sections. Time has not been kind to this game and it’s flaws
are even more evident once you compare it to its sequel.
28/40
Good
There are evident flaws, but the game still manages to remain fun and the game is competent in it’s execution.
Sorry for the late post, I got distracted :P
