Amost A Masterpiece

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great back-story, stunning visuals.

Cons: Clumsy squad tactics, a few technical glitches, short.

The Bottom Line: 

Easily one of the year's best games.  A refreshingly original science-fiction epic.

Author's Review
"Mass Effect" is Bioware's unfortunately titled science-fiction rpg title that takes the player on an exciting adventure into galactic combat and political intrigue.  It is an intriguing hybrid of role-playing elements and third-person action that is highly reminiscent of the "Knights of the Old Republic" style of gameplay.  I would argue, however, that this game is far more original and immersive than KOTR.

The game puts you in the role of Commander Shepard, a heroic human character whose background and appearance you can determine before setting off.  The background options allow for a few interesting choices, such as making Shepard a child of space-faring parents or an orphan from the streets of Earth.  You can also choose a personality trait based upon life experiences.  These choices don't make a massive difference in your gaming experience, but they do affect certain dialogue options and nicely shape your character in a subtle way.

The story behind Mass Effect is one of its biggest strengths.  It depicts a human society in the not-so-distant future, that has found itself vaulted into a massive galactic political system after discovering alien technology buried on the surface of Mars.  As a young and ambitious race, humans are received with a great deal of caution and even downright hostility among the "friendly" alien races that have been traveling the stars for centuries.  The Human Alliance has been taken in by a sort of alien United Nations called "The Council" and is rapidly making its presence felt.  Unfortunately for the humans, not all of their alien mentors find this to be a positive development.

The plot unfolds as your character, a heroic soldier working for the Alliance, rescues a colony from an attack by sentient robots and uncovers a much larger plot which threatens the entire galaxy.  Accepted as the first human member of the elite force known as the Spectres, it is your job to explore the galaxy in search of clues behind a looming threat from a long-forgotten race called the Reapers.  Along the way, you can choose to complete a large number of side missions, allowing you to earn money as well as valuable technology and experience points.  You encounter a large number of well-developed characters from a variety of alien races, both friends and enemies, who provide glimpses into the complex political and social interactions seething beneath the surface of the game.  You can choose between a series of character classes, although the non-combat varieties will put you at a distinct disadvantage throughout the game.  Like many role-playing titles, the game is heavily weighted in favor of pure combat rather than the biotic powers that serve as "magic" in this universe. 

As you play, your dialoge choices allow you to choose the moral path that your character will follow.  Rather than calling it "good" and "evil", Mass Effect uses the words "paragon" (mearning law-abiding) and "renegade" (meaning you tend to break the rules).  This affects the way that character interact with you, and has subtle effects on the way in which the plot is exposed as you move through the various missions.  You also unlock extra dialogue options based upon your ability levels such as "charm" and "intimidation."  The dialogue is a fairly large part of the game, and it is voiced by some familiar actors including Seth Green and the woman who played Deanna Troi in Star Trek.  The voice acting is done quite well, and the script writing is generally superb. 

In fact, the writing of the game as a whole is quite stunning at times.  The overall feel, from the visual design of the alien Citidel to the uniforms worn by your characters and the countless planets you explore, is carefully constructed for maximum impact.  There is a wonderful unity to the game's visuals, as well as a powerful sense of wonder.  The background music is tasteful and goes a long way towards immersing you in the experience. 

There are some breathtaking graphics in this game, although it can tax your computer if you are using outdated hardware.  With a mid-range video card, however, you are treated to smooth textures, strong lighting effects, and exciting battle scenes. 

The action in the game is third-person, and breaks down into three basic categories.  First, you spend a lot of time in the Citadel talking to people.  It is here where you receive a number of your assignments, buy and trade supplies, and learn much about the game's complicated back story.  Although this part of any rpg can be a real bore if handled poorly, the writers of this game have done a very good job making the role-playing elements engaging.  The voice acting, in particular, keeps these stretches of inaction from becoming tedious. 

Mass Effect was originally a console title, and this is clearly evident in the battle scenes.  You fight in third-person, using a variety of standard weapons such as shotguns, assault rifles, pistols, and sniper rifles in order to defeat your enemies.  The weapons are overly familiar, in my opinion, although the game does allow you to make a large number of custom modifications as you discover new equipment along the way.  You can upgrade your hardware and choose between a staggering number of specialized ammunition types to best suit your opponents.  You wear armor, which provides both melee protection as well as a force-field to protect your from energy weapons, and like everything else in the game you can purchase upgrades as you go along.  Both armor and weapon choices are limited based upon your chosen class.  Soldiers, for example, are the only ones who can use heavy armor and assault rifles.  This can be frustrating at times, but the pistol is so high-powered that I rarely found myself wanting anything else outside of a shotgun for close combat.  One refreshing change from other shooters is the fact that none of your weapons require ammunition...instead, they have a tendency to build up heat, which can cause you to lose firepower in the middle of a fight if you aren't careful.  More expensive weapons do more damage and build up less heat, allowing you to fire without worrying about shutting down your equipment. 

The weapon upgrade system is nice, but after a while you essentially max out the options for your weapons.  At that point, the piles of ammo upgrades and weapons becomes a hassle to deal with...you can turn salvaged weapons into "omni-gel", useful for hacking electronics systems, but the process of doing this is cumbersome.  I also found that my early poverty was quickly replaced by a surplus of credits and no place to spend them.  This feels like poor planning on the part of the game's developers, although it is a fairly minor complaint.

The last element of the game are the vehicle stages, where you drive your six-wheeled ATV into combat.  This vehicle is tricky to maneuver, but has the ability to get over nearly obstacle you put in front of it.  The vehicle is armed with a cannon and a machine-gun, and is incredibly powerful.  It's so powerful that driving the Mako means that you are essentially in store for a turkey-shoot until the game forces you to get out and walk. 

There are some significant problems with the game that can be irritating:


I found a series of jarring flaws during some of the dialogue scenes where the sound would stutter several times before skipping the dialogue entirely.  This would also happen occasionally in the middle of key battles as my computer struggled to handle both the sounds and the visuals that were being processed.  There were also a few bugs when calling elevators, where I found myself unable to move and was forced to restart from an earlier saved game.  The vehicle stages, while enjoyable at first, become repititious before long.  The Mako vehicle is quite fun to drive over bumpy, mountainous terrain, but its guns are so powerful that any enemies you fight while driving are quickly decimated. 

The fighting scenes make up a large portion of the gameplay, and involve some basic squad-level tactics.  You have two companions during battles, and you can give them a series of crude commands as well as outfit them with various types of armor and weapons upgrades.  I found the tactical commands to be clumsy, and my companions often spent a great deal of time getting killed.  There are times when they will simply ignore commands, leading to a number of frustrating battles.  I did, however, enjoy the fact that your companions each have a distinct set of skills which can become useful during the course of your adventures.  I rarely found myself leaving the ship with the same set of companions, as different missions would require different skills to complete. 

The overall story is fairly short, which is a shame.  Bioware has released one add-on mission as a part of its recent patch, but this is not one of the longer role-playing titles I've encountered.  It's a shame, because in many ways Mass Effect is the strongest science-fiction game I've played in years.  It blends a powerful setting with solid characters and a swashbuckling plot.  Outside of a few technical glitches, and some truly irritating "puzzles", this game is a major success.