Review: Mass Effect (Xbox 360)
Ah, greetings, traveler. New to The Citadel, are you? I can tell because we don’t get too many humans here… well, at least not yet. That’s all starting to change. A lot of things are starting to change, and right fast, too. I never trusted the Spectres, no matter how many times they claimed to be “the right hand of The Council”. Giving a government operative unlimited legal power is always a risky venture, and whenever one of those eerie bastards goes rogue, a lot of innocent civilians end up dying before things can get cleaned up. And now the legendary Spectre Saren’s gone off the deep end and seems to be intent on wiping out just about everyone here in the galaxy. And, honestly, I don’t care how promising this human, Commander Shepard, is. Just because he has the qualities necessary to become the first human Spectre in existence doesn’t mean he’s capable of taking down a monster like Saren, I don’t care what he’s accomplished: rescuing diplomats, taking out Thresher Mawls, going up against the Geth, and even saving the Rachni from extinction doesn’t exactly measure up. Besides, for every good deed he does, I’m sure there are darker ones we never hear about… like I said, you shouldn’t trust those Spectres.
There’s a darkness coming, and this Shepard seems to be the only thing standing between it and our certain doom. Best to for us to drink up now, lad, it doesn’t look like we’ll have a lot of opportunities in the future.
Mass Effect, in case you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know about it, is the latest epic title from the brilliant minds at Bioware. The game is a space opera of the grandest variety, taking place all over our galaxy and following the adventures of a veteran soldier who is thrust into the role of galactic savior when they’re assigned to stop the mad goals of a rogue alien.
Gameplay
Gameplay comes in two different modes: a third person action-shooter/rpg and semi-regular vehicle missions which span planet surfaces. The former mode is a lot of fun, as the combat portions feature a combination of standard shooter-style play and the pausing/assigning actions which were required in the Knights of the Old Republic games. Even the conversation trees feature a nice design change which adds an extra bit of freshness to chats, as opposed to just providing players with the same old lists as have appeared in previous RPGs. Unfortunately, the vehicle missions are more of a pain in the ass than anything else.
Controlling a space-age ATV to explore planet surfaces sounds like it should be great, in theory, but there’s very little to actually do on these drives, even though players can literally drive up a vertical mountainside with their set of oh-so-shiny wheels. Most of the vehicle levels are vast tracts of nothingness, spotted by occasional bases to explore, minerals to survey, and random Thresher Mawls (imagine the Sandworms from Dune with tentacles, a nastier disposition, and acidic spit) to fight. Not only that, but the vehicle’s guns don’t really aim as well as they should, particularly the powerful cannon. The other problem, of course, is that all the side missions that are accessible via the planetary explorations start to blend together... especially since the various mine shafts, bases, and abandoned camps feature the same general level designs over and over again.
Sound
Audio is always something which Bioware does well, but this time they’ve outdone themselves, largely due to the fantastic actors they’ve assembled for Mass Effect. The roles are filled by a cast straight out of a nerd’s dream team, including Keith David, Jennifer Hale, Marina Sirtis, and Seth Green (whose character even looks like him). Of course, the game’s music is beautiful to listen to, as well, and would be a great addition to any game nerd’s iTunes library.
Graphics
Of course, Mass Effect manages to look great without trying. However –on the 360, at least- there are some problems with rendering these superb visuals which become apparent from time to time. Texture popups are a fairly regular occurrence, and the framerate will sometimes stutter for even simple things like camera rotation. The best advice is to simply grit your teeth and just hope these might get patched in a future update.
One thing I particularly enjoyed was the fact the overall creativity that went into the different species of aliens: each group look has a unique style and anatomy, and the way their personalities are conveyed through their body movements and clothing designs.
Ultimately, Mass Effect is yet another triumph for Bioware. Because of its smart story, highly-developed characters, lush graphics, and (mostly) gameplay, it’ll make an excellent addition to the collection of any 360 owner who’s a fan of action shooters, RPGs, or science fiction in general.
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to Hot Stuff, Reviews on 7 December 2007
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: bioware, mass effect, reviews
I'm still resentful over its lipstick lesbian favoritism. *Sigh* When will we get a significant, non-cult hit game with man on man action scenes...
AMEN TO THAT BROTHER!! I want some man-on-man action in a nice FPS or something lol...just today I was thinking of some manly action movie with some burly gay charactors...it would be awesome!....sigh towards american ignorance
I agree with both of you.
But I still love this game! Thank you Bioware for another great game!