Going into playing Mass Effect I honestly couldn't tell you what I was expecting. There was mp demo, some video, and a few screenshots. I had watched a video review and even cracked a couple written reviews. But I had seen enough to know that it was better not to prematurely judge, even if I would have normally given up on other titles that bore similar problems. But with Bioware's pedigree I was more than happy to just wait and see. Even though something deep inside me kept screaming, "Mass Effect is broken."

In general, Bioware games may be wonderful but unfortunately they usually not very stable. The original Kotor on XBOX had the problem of freezing completely during one particular mission. Jade Empire had some quest givers that just wouldn't except quests. So with Mass Effect when there are hiccups, what can be said other than, "What were you expecting?"

But then.... Mass Effect tells the story of Commander Shepard(male/female, it's your choice). As Shepard you are cast as a Spectre, an Elite Solider that does the bidding of a Intergalactic Council. You are to stop Saren, a Rogue Spectre who wants to destroy humanity using the machine race, the Geth. That's about all I can say, Mass Effect is about 80% story and knowing all the secrets would probably ruin the game for you. Also, if you don't know about the story by now. Who am I to pull you from your cave of ignorance.

The Best Thing about Mass Effect is also it's greatest problem. The all encompassing incredible graphics and dialogue make this game as near to a cinematic experience as any game to this point is going to come. Also with the incredible voice acting touches, the game is just incredible. The Star Wars-like music in the game makes the game all most inseparable from any space opera Hollywood blockbuster. Do they still make those, by the way?

The problem with all this is that, that is where Mass Effect seems to drop into the proverbial pit of despair. The design of the game seems to be all over the place in so many ways. The cities that populate the worlds are little more than collections of wandering people most with nothing interesting to say. The smaller towns are nothing more than encounters in most cases where you shoot enemies. The game did an abysmal job of making the player feel as though they were playing in an inhabited galaxy. Normally, most place looked abandoned and even the Citadel. Where the majority of the actual interaction between your character and non-team NPCs takes place; seems like NPCs were just dropped down into their little slots rather than allowed to freely roam around and go about their daily lives. This game should have been the science fiction version of Elder Scrolls IV; Oblivion. All it seems like it turned out to be was an amped up version of KOTOR.

There were plenty of other difficulties in Mass Effect. One of them being the really unnecessary HUD(heads up display). Quest Markers are often unclear and don't take into account multilevel structures. Also, The radar is all most all ways jammed. So why include it at all, unless it was to simply ape First Person Shooters. In the future, it would seem that a targeting system would be utilized with at least some armor and at the very least every gun would have scope. Neither thing is the case here. For some reason, the only way to zoom in or target is handled by holding down the aiming button which only zooms you in as much as your skill with that weapon allows. Which makes no sense considering that between the RPG targeting and even fully maxed your targeting on most weapons only allows for a 5X or 10X increase; seems to really conflict with the FPS style of gameplay that the game seems to encourage.

During my play session, I played as a Vanguard. The class allows the player to use pistols and shotguns as well as biotic powers(basically magic or the force). The pistols and shotguns at a high level work effectively and with the right upgrades and ammo can be even a little too overpowered. Now the weird thing about these upgrades is that nothing really changes in the utilization of the weapons just the stats. Also, the addition of different ammo really only changes it stats and color, not the sound it makes or distance it travels. All of this may seem like nitpicking but other less ambitious games like Hellgate London and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Have made use of both of those kinds of changes as well as the wildly popular Call of Duty 4. It could be argued that this is an RPG and therefore should not be scrutinized against FPS. But for things like the Game of Year Awards games are compared together even across genre. Besides Bioshock is an FPS with RPG elements so if this is a RPG with FPS elements it should be similar.

Getting back to biotics; It seems like in the endgame or around level 35(level cap is 60). The biotics get pretty usable and in some instances they can really save your bacon. But before then, the game pretty much treats biotics like magic in Elder Scrolls. It might help in some instances but I wouldn't want to be a wizard. Which brings me to the point that Vanguard needs to be allowed to have a wider range of biotics, like access to singularity. Or they need to allow them to use assault rifles. Because as it stands the game makes Vanguards the jack of all trades and master of none. The Sentinel is weak because they cannot wear descent armor and cannot master any firearms. What they get in the bargain is the ability to use a couple more biotic powers than everyone else and the ability to hack machines. Which while satisfying this usually just means blowing them up. I would have loved to see a power that took control over enemy Geth and set them attacking their fellows. The Solider is exactly what it sounds like. They get to use all the guns and can't really use any biotics. You can do some preliminary hacking but nothing major. The classes as a whole could have used a complete re-imagining. Or at the very least some extreme rebalancing. One more thing about biotics; it would have been nice if biotics were explained better. During the game it seems like biotics are a natural part of life and perhaps in the Lexicon there is a good explanation. But it would have been nice in those hundreds of lines of game dialogue that biotics were explained, at least a little.

I'm normally a pretty patient guy. I NEVER complain about load times in any game. But this game brings the loading issues to an all time high. In the normal course of the game it seems that the game spent more time loading and I spent more time in elevators than actually playing. Elevators, by the way, are the games pathetic attempt to hide it's load times. With a huge hard drive that comes with or can be purchased for all most XBOX 360 system it's stupid that the option of installing some of the game on the drive wasn't offered. The people without hard drives could deal with the load times and the people with them would benefit. This should be the way it was setup. But instead more than a quarter of the game is just spent loading.

Another trend seemed to be that the further Mass Effect charted new territory in video games. The more it's scared creators latched on to the bare bones of the traditional as far as game design. The whole game consists of some very basic elements. Driving, the vehicle sequences that are too frequent and seem to be there purely to lengthen the game and get you from place to place in a more challenging manner. Combat, shooting stuff with your squad with very basic commands, and finally puzzle solving. Which with Mass Effect mostly involves trying every combination of a lock like system until you get it right. Which really has been done to death so many times before. All of the above have been done before, and done better by other games. The only reason Mass Effect turns out to be a good game is not for the pat elements but what it does differently.

The lag and other bugs in Mass Effect seems to hint at the rushing of this title to market. So many times in Mass Effect the game seems to have too many elements going on at the same time and there is some screen studdering. Then, there are the times when the player can simply sit behind a piece of cover and the screen shudders and the battle is over. Your NPC squad mates have killed the enemies during the lag. Then there are the instances of blind shooting. NPCs just fire at whatever it is on their radar screens and don't bother checking if there is a wall or another player standing in the way. This seems to happen more than you would like and when the player shoots the NPC they respond with a verbal warning not to do it. Even though they seem unapologetic about doing it to you.

The game also, doesn't seem to understand that, yes, you were truly paying attention. Like in instances where you meet an NPC and they say, “I am (insert characters name), I'm a doctor from such and such.” The first question in the dialogue tree for your character's response is usually, “who are you?”

Sorry but I was listening... Often it seems, your character has a tendancy to ask some pretty stupid questions. Some of the answers are good and some of the NPCs answers are even good. But as a whole the doesn't do the best job of making the player feel like “they are,” Commander Shepard.


Another problem that made playing the game less enjoyable is the save system. The system basically just hides another checkpoint system hidden under the more obvious one. Another words, you can't save anywhere just where the game allows you to. Conan had a similar system and Mass Effect certainly suffers for utilizing it, just as Conan did. Both games made the player believe they could save anywhere but in actuality it is just another checkpoint system hidden under the broader one. I don't expect to save after every step. But I don't expect to lose progress in the game or in my stats once I've saved.

In the end Mass Effect is an excellent game but I think it could have used some extra time to play test and bug fix everything. Also, the idea of Downloadable Content for the game seems incomprehensible when the game doesn't allow you to further explore the game once the main story is over. Perhaps more biotic powers or guns could but added, but I don't that will change the game too much. One play through takes about 26-30 hours depending on difficulty. But if this game is truly the first in a trilogy then there are lots of changes needed for #2. Hopefully there will be at least final changes made in the Platinum Edition of the game. I give Mass Effect a

8.5/10