- Reviewed on: Xbox 360
- Also available for: N/A
- The Good: Excellent dialogue system and great characterization (even with the sci-fi setting) keep the game interesting.
- The Bad: Combat (and the locations) can be quite repetitive, and the enemy and companion AI is nothing to write home about. The set character class system seems outdated. Terrible driving sections.
- The Verdict: As a mix between a third-person shooter and RPG it manages to be slightly less than the sum of its parts, but for fans of both genres the strong writing makes this title well worth playing.
It's a strange complaint to begin a review with, but why oh why do character creators never include an option for sideburns? Mass Effect has the most fully featured face creation tool we've seen since the Xbox 360's last (western) RPG of note, Oblivion, but as usual you're stuck with a limited range of base components. As a result, if you're like me and like to spend hours trying to create a digital representation of yourself in any game which offers you the opportunity, you'll still end up with something that could only charitably be claimed to look anything like you through half closed eyes full of Vaseline. It's still better than the blandly handsome "John Shepard" that the game offers as the base starting character.
The character creation tool works as a neat microcosm of my experience of Mass Effect: it doesn't live up to its promise, yet somehow it seems worth the effort anyway.
Massively Unfamiliar
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With a huge RPG set in an unfamiliar universe, players are expected to learn a backstory and come to terms with a lot of new concepts quickly in order to enjoy it fully, and Mass Effect doesn't make it easy. There's an absolute ton of critical dialogue within the first few hours and little to no explanation of the concepts first. There is a "Codex" containing a lot of extra information that the player can read as they go along, but it's incredibly dry and usually appears straight after it would have been useful.
Set in a world where humans have discovered faster than light speeds and now interact with a galaxy full of alien races, all of whom seem to speak English (which I'm sure is explained in the Codex but I can't be bothered to look) Mass Effect sets player the task of saving the galaxy from an ancient alien race that has mysteriously returned after thousands of years.
Unlike most games, Mass Effect does not hold your hand in this quest, and leaves the player on their own to not only get to grips with the world but the game itself. Right at the start, with the consequences barely explained, the player has to choose a character class from a choice of six, selecting to specialise in combat, engineer or "biotic" skills. Biotic skills will be quickly familiar to any players of BioWare's earlier title Knights of the Old Republic, as they're essentially Jedi Skills.
BioWare, by the way, is one of Canada's most successful home-grown developers. Based in Edmonton, they found critical and commercial success with licensed properties such as Baldur's Gate and 2005's Jade Empire, but since then have concentrated on their own products.
With the amount of customisation available in the creation of your character's appearance, Mass Effect's class system seems unnecessarily restrictive. That my character could use a shotgun but could never be proficient with an assault rifle (no matter how much I want him to be) doesn't make any sense.
Massively Frustrating
As the game features real-time combat, there's a bigger problem at the heart of the RPG design, however. The majority of the action in the game plays as a third-person shooter, and if you choose a character that can learn to use a decent weapon, you can play the game as if it was a clumsy Gears of War (never even realising you have skills) as long as you use cover and aim well, as the enemy AI is rudimentary at best, often choosing to simply run forwards, guns blazing.
Traditional RPG fans are going to become quickly frustrated with the combat, especially any segment of the game which requires command of the Mako, an all terrain vehicle that is used on several missions to travel between bases on planets with hostile atmospheres. Control of the Mako is terrifically fiddly (it loves getting stuck on scenery) and certain Mako segments throw far too many enemies at the player, with desperately avoiding them usually the only course of action if you want to survive.
The game (surprisingly) doesn't even set any waypoints during missions, expecting the player to regularly refer to the map to find their way around. Unfortunately worlds can be very samey looking — I've spent a long time wandering about lost looking for objectives that weren't clearly marked on the map.
Massively Affecting
The world of Mass Effect makes it seem like it would be most suited to Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica fans, but even players who have no interest in sci-fi will find a lot to like thanks to strong characterization. It's likely you'll grow to like Commander Shepard's companions, even though they are rarely of any use in battle.
A lot of that is to do with some sterling voice work from actors such as Seth Green, but Mass Effect's dialogue system helps the attachment, as it usually offers enough options to make you feel as if you really are choosing what you say. I never thought I'd happily discuss the existence of God with a video game character, but I have now.
Massively Uneasy
As imperfect as Mass Effect is, the writing, which initially seems to create a game that's far too dialogue heavy, is a strong point that kept me playing, even when I was frustrated by the lacking enemy AI and often dull environments. Although the game straddles an uneasy middle ground between a third-person shooter and an RPG it kept my attention throughout, and is worth checking out by fans of both genres.
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