finished Mass Effect, here's my review

[Atari5200]

After finishing Mass Effect in 21 hours, included side quests, some. I figured I'd write a little review for everyone.

 

STORY: 10 out of 10: It's great and sucks you in early. With out spoiling anything, the basis of the main quest is to track down and stop a rogue SPECTRE, special agent, and stop him from destroying the galaxy, sounds like about every other game out there right?? It's a simple story, but implemented perfectly throughout the game. Everything flows as it should and some of the side quests can help push the story a long or at least give you some more information to make the story more interesting. AFAIK, none of the side quests are necessary to finish the main quest. All in all, the story followed by the gameplay is going to suck you into this universe.

 

GRAPHICS: 7 out of 10: The graphics are above average in my opinion. I like the "fuzz" effect, gives it a cinematic feel. I think the characters are excellet in design, all species. The weaponary are standard and average. Ship design I like and the over all environments are just about average. Citadel is nice, but the planets you explore preety much all look the same just different colors. There are a few unique ones, but all in all, rehashes, as well as the "caves" and buildings you explore, they are all pretty much the same, which was a real disapointment.

 

SOUND: 7 out of 10: I honestly didn't pay much attention to the audio, to many other things to pay attention. So I figured a 7 would be fair. The explosions are nice, the weapons sounds are your average standard rifel, pistol, shotgun sounds, the voice acting is great though. I didn't notice the music, other than the last hour or so, gets a little intense but the music fits right in and adds to the experience.

 

GAMEPLAY: 10 out of 10: Give these guys a medal. The game plays almost identical to GRAW. So if you've played GRAW, you can pick this up without problem or learning curve. You control 2 other people and can command them much like GRAW to move to a location, fall back, etc.. The action uses alot of duck and cover in the fire fights, but it works great, just like GRAW. Then there are the RPG elements. As you level you have points to sell for stats and other things based on which character you are using. Some characters are basically for fighting, while others use electronics to open up locked things or for hacking into computers, etc. The points for your character gain health and help with aiming and such. At first it's hard to use sniper rifles because your character has a severe case of the shakes, but as you level and get better weapons, it does steady. Getting cash is also extremely easy as there are tons of items throughout the game to salvage and sell. I finished the game with all the best stuff and still had well over a million cash to spare.

 

The Planets: You use your Makko, basically land rover, to explore alien planets. It took me some time to get the hang of the controls, but once I did, it was pretty easy. You can repair your Makko if it gets too beat up, your electronics stats determine how much and how fast your repair will be. Exploring some of the planets seemed like a chore, which is the one bad thing about this game. You have a set area you can explore on each planet. The area is rather large for them, but alot of them are very rocky and mountainous, which is a pain in the ass. The other think I liked is that even if you couldn't explore the planet, there was still a description and story along with the planet as well as some other scientific information about the planet.

 

The Conversation: The acting and script are terrific, but the best feature is that you can choose the outcome on most of the conversations. You have a rating, Renegade or Paragon or something like that, Paragon is being good. How you chose what you say and act will raise these traits. There are many "tough" decisions to be made that really make you think, and think "what would I really do" or "do I chose me or the galaxy" tough stuff and very well done.

 

OVERALL: 9 out of 10: Other than the graphics of the planets and bases, this game is fantastic. The developers rehashed a lot of stuff to make all the bases and planets and it shows. There's not a whole lot of variety when it comes to the side missions. You'll go from one system to the next and be like "didn't I just clear out this base??" Or "isn't this the same planet I just came from?" But if you follow the main mission, there's not much that I recall being rehashed, seemed to be just confined to the side quest missions, so I don't know if the devs ran out of room on the disc or just got lazy.

 

Any how, this game is fantastic. I recommend anybody to play it. The last hour of the game is really really something to see and makes it worth it without a doubt. Great story followed by great game mechanics makes this a very easy recommend to anybody that likes either RPGS, Shooters, or both.

Edited January 13, 2008 by Atari5200

[Lord Helmet]

I agree with your review for the most part.

 

I kept comparing it to the original KOTOR. I really wish that Mass Effect would have had more planets to really explore the way that KOTOR did. Other than that, the game is damn good. So far the best game I've played on the 360.

[moycon]

I like the "fuzz" effect, gives it a cinematic feel.

 

I turned them off. In case anyone didn't know, that's an option in one of the menu's. It was kind of cool the way it looked like a movie, but I decided I wanted a crisp unfiltered view.

Edited January 13, 2008 by moycon

[Hyper_Eye]

I like the "fuzz" effect, gives it a cinematic feel.

 

I turned them off. In case anyone didn't know, that's an option in one of the menu's. It was kind of cool the way it looked like a movie, but I decided I wanted a crisp unfiltered view.

 

I do the same thing with the Silent Hill and Fatal Frame games. I want to see the graphics in all their glory!

[EricDeLee]

I haven't got into this one yet. I started playing it, but don't see the hype as of yet. It hasn't grabbed me like ol' BioShock did. I'll spend some extra time with it though... probably next week or something.

 

I can pretty much see myself not doing the side missions.

[Lord Helmet]

I haven't got into this one yet. I started playing it, but don't see the hype as of yet. It hasn't grabbed me like ol' BioShock did. I'll spend some extra time with it though... probably next week or something.

 

I can pretty much see myself not doing the side missions.

 

It's more RPG than anything else, and involves quite a bit of exploring and talking with characters. Many people may not like it because its a little slow when you aren't fighting. I actually loved the pace of the game.

[Atari5200]

I thought the pace of the game was pretty well done. I know there is a good thread at Neo-geo.com about this game and everyone is comparing it to KOTOR and I don't think that is a fair assessment. I can't stand KOTOR, I've tried twice to get into the game, I get about 6-10 hours in and then just stop. This game, in my opinion, is nothing like KOTOR other than how you communicate with people and the choices of either being good or evil. The pace can be slow at some times, especially exploring planets, but it's still higher paced than KOTOR, at least what I played of it.

[Lord Helmet]

That's funny since other than the fighting and the fact that dead dudes don't leave you anything, it felt just like kotor to me,.

[Atari5200]

i only played KOTOR through the first planet, where you become a Jedi, so I guess that's actually 2 planets, and that's all the more I could stomach. So I know I'm missing a lot of the game, but again, from what I played, I don't think Mass Effect can be compared accurately to KOTOR, you honestly can't tell someone, well if you like Mass Effect, you'll like KOTOR or vice versa. I would've never had got Mass Effect if I was basing it off of KOTOR.

Edited January 14, 2008 by Atari5200

[MCHufnagel]

I haven't got into this one yet. I started playing it, but don't see the hype as of yet. It hasn't grabbed me like ol' BioShock did. I'll spend some extra time with it though... probably next week or something.

 

I can pretty much see myself not doing the side missions.

Due to MLK Day and end of semester, my kids had a four day weekend. So my oldest started this game Friday night and finished it Tuesday afternoon. He loved the the game (and replayed the ending for me after dinner). But he told me that he didn't do most of the side quests. He said that he really didn't need to do many of them to beat the game.

[Atari5200]

that's true, the game is so incredibly easy that there's really no need to do the side quests to help level up. I did most of the side quests and by the time I was done, I was at level 30 something and breezed through the rest of the game pretty much with god like skill, there was really nothing including bosses that were of any challenge.

[moycon]

that's true, the game is so incredibly easy that there's really no need to do the side quests to help level up. I did most of the side quests and by the time I was done, I was at level 30 something and breezed through the rest of the game pretty much with god like skill, there was really nothing including bosses that were of any challenge.

 

Which difficulty were you playing on... Hardcore or Insanity?

[StormSurge]

This is probably a dumb question, but here it goes.

 

I have the game via Gamefly, so no instructions. How the heck do you use these God-like abilities? All I have is an assault rifle, a pistol & a shotgun. I see that I unlock stuff after I level up, but I have no idea what to do with it or how to do it.

[moycon]

I scanned the manual page for combat for you. Hope that helps.

[StormSurge]

I scanned the manual page for combat for you. Hope that helps.

 

Thank you sir!

[Atari5200]

found the sex scene on my new, all renegade, game