The game world
The ME universe is huge, detailed, and most interestingly, it’s a plausible universe. Earth is overcrowded and humans are only a recent addition to the collection of alien species. The level of detail that went into this
game is comparable only to the Knights of the Old Republic universe. The biggest problem I had with the game world were the conversations. They all seemed very simplistic. Every time I talked to an alien, it felt like I was stuck in one of those awkwardly boring conversations you have with a new coworker or the lab partner you’ve never met before. It was just a very 2D experience. It was the lack of emotion in their voices, coupled with the static camera and the lack of body language from my characters as well as the npc.
The gameplay
There isn’t much to say about gameplay outside of combat, because there isn’t much to it. Most of the time spent on the colonies and at the citadel consisted of fetch quests, and finding stuff. But the combat is where the game shines the most. Each weapon feels very satisfying when you use it, the grenades are fun to use because there is no arc on the throw, and you can decide when to detonate it. The Biotic powers are excellently done, and drastically improve your odds of survival in combat. Combat does have a few drawbacks. Your AI sqaud seems to be afraid of the trigger. They don’t fire their weapons very much at all, and they’ll let an enemy run right pass them, they won’t fire on them or punch them. The combat is far from tactical, and that’s a let down for me. Commanding your squad is almost pointless because if you send them into the fray, they’ll just let the enemy mow them down. If squad tactics were anything like a Brother in Arms game or Freedom Fighters, it would work better. If the AI actually did what you told them, then the pause mode (spacebar) would be extremely nice, no issues otherwise.
I’ve read about some of the PC versions (my review) improvements over the Xbox 360 version, and I’m really glad I didn’t get the 360 version. From Gamespot:
“The inventory system is much easier to manage with a mouse and keyboard, and long lists of items won’t reset to the top every time you sell something near the bottom. The Mako vehicle sequences are easier to manage thanks to the implementation of dedicated forward and reverse buttons in place of the 360 version’s viewpoint-dependent controls. A new hacking and decrypting minigame, in place of the old button-matching one, is both more interesting and more suited to the game: You must move a small arrow through concentric circles to reach the core while avoiding stationary and rotating barriers. It’s generally easy to accomplish once you get the hang of it, but the time limit and tricky perspective shifting help keep it entertaining. Keyboard hotkeys allow quick access to the map and squad upgrade screens, and the quicksave button is a great way to ensure you won’t have to do too much backtracking. They aren’t big changes, but the aggregate benefit is definitely noticeable.”
Fatal Flaw
For me anyway, it seems like Bioware’s formula is fatally flawed. Mass Effect wants to tell a grand story while incorporating fun, progressive gameplay, but the two goals don’t feel like they fit together in Mass Effect, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, giving the player dialogue options doesn’t help the immersiveness of the story. In my opinion it
dehumanizes Shepard, by making him quite literally a puppet for the player. And one might argue that dialogue options are an attempt to make the player feel like they are the character, but there is no getting around the fact that players know that to be false. It’s programmed into a gamers head, that if the game is third person, then they are controlling a character, rather than being a character. The game may have turned out better if there were no dialogue options. One could argue that dialogue options leave no room for character development either.
Secondly, when the character is solely responsible for stopping the Geth, Sarin, and a species of ancient cybernetic beings from destroying all life in the galaxy, a distracting sidequest better be really really important. But in Mass Effect, most of the side quests are completely irrelevant to the main quest, and that fact severely damages the story. No, I don’t want to scan 21 keepers when there is a traiterous alien trying to destroy all life in the galaxy. It seems like the main quest just waits for the player in Mass Effect.
My experience as a DM has taught me this lesson. If you want a main quest, then focus solely on the main quest, ensure that all the side quests progress the plot of the main quest, and ensure that the players ignore distracting quests (by not creating them). If you want an expansive game, then don’t have a main quest.
Overall, I give Mass Effect an 8/10
