One of the games I got for Christmas was Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. This game was made by BioWare who is well known for their long line of RPGs, recently with more action and less turn based. The only previous game I have played by BioWare was Knights of the Old Rebulic for the original Xbox. Most of their games have not been the type I like since I am not a traditional RPG fan. I also played KOTOR2 which was very similar but made by Obsidian instead. I played the original KOTOR over my Christmas break for the 2003 holiday season. It was my first year working at a school and had a long time off. I then spent the 2004 holiday break playing KOTOR2. Each of these took about 40 hours of total play time, some of those hours were more enjoyable than others. Now for the 2007 holiday break I have spent a good amount of time playing Mass Effect. The total time according to the game clock was 37 hours, however I think it was less than 35 and there were just times I left paused for quite a while.
As I said I don't usually play RPGs since I don't like them as much as other game types. I got into KOTOR based on the idea it was a Star Wars storyline. I wanted to play Mass Effect as I trusted the developer and there looked to be some real advancements in the game this time around. The game is based 150-200 years in the future with the Human race being able to travel the universe and having met many other alien races. If you played KOTOR (or I am told any other recent BioWare game) you immediately know the basics of this game. There is the main character and a possible group of six additional characters on the team. When you go on a mission you pick two others to complete your team of three.
I will get the bad parts of the game out of the way first. The game's interface and controls are not straightforward and they are also not explained during the game much at all. There is a little explanation in the manual, but if like me you didn't read the manual cover to cover you may be lost even more than usual. This was most apparent in that it took me 10 hours of game play before I knew about the ability to use and control powers in the game, that is just silly. The next annoying interface is inventory management. Equiping your players, buying and selling equipment and finding the best mix of equipment literally took me hours throughout the game. This has been a problem for this game engine since at least KOTOR and I know there has to be a better way. Simple things like only showing items that apply to a given character would be great or being able to manage all 7 players at once without having to change screens would help too. I sure hope they improve it in Mass Effect 2. Other common complaints didn't seem to effect much or at all. I never had a problem with save games getting corrupt or the autosave system. I had a handful of frame rate issues, but very rarely. The loading screens while more frequent than I would like never seemed too bad, that might be due to lowered expectations due to many reviews mentioning it. The last little issue was texture pop, especially from loading. You would see a blob, which would then refine its geometry and then usually two steps of texture application. It didn't happen often but was very obvious when it did.
Reading that last paragraph you might think I thought the game was broken or flawed, that really isn't the case though. The best way I can prove that is to say that I played this game for 35 hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. You may see other reviews saying they finished the game in 15 hours, which I am sure is possible however to do it you would have to skip a large majority of the side quests and only concentrate on the main plot quests. I chose however to do every possible side quest (those that were offered to me) and as a result reached level 50 in the game which I think can only be done by doing everything.
The reason I played all the side stuff is that I have a collectors mentality for the most part. The other reason was that often the side quests fleshed out character back stories or added to the overall story. The one downside to all the side quests was the repetitiveness of the survey missions as you explore the universe. The other problem was the landing missions. These landing missions were mostly driving a 6 wheel armored personnel carrier around chunks of the planet. This driving missions weren't too bad and some were actually quite fun as you explored and encountered enemies. The downside was in many cases the terrain seemed to be generated by a random map maker with a likeness for steep cliffs and jagged edges. It was frustrating at times trying to climb certain mountains because they were basically vertical with a few pixel wide peaks.
The story was pretty average sci-fi fare. The universe it compares most to for me is Babylon 5. There is a central space station called the Citadel that serves as the hub for government and has mysterious beginnings. A lot of the story is about a parent alien race that created the technology that was found and allowed later races to rapidly advance. The last major chunk of the story is a hidden race of ancient super evil. Your goal as the main character is to investigate what is happening concerning the main villain. In the process you learn of the ancient race coming to kill everything and begin trying to stop it as well.
One of the much touted advances in this game was the new dialogue system. This system allows for 2-6 responses to a branching discussion tree. The tree is based upon the main characters backstory which was chosen during the character creation. It is also based on your previous actions in the game. The last two pieces are whether you have upgraded your character with either charm, intimidation or both. These allow you to push the conversation using those talents. The main difference is whether you want to be a paragon (good) or a renegade (bad). Often times a renegade will choose to beat up or kill someone to get something from them rather than verbally convincing them. The end result is often the same it is just how you get there and people's reactions to your methods.
The story got better and better as it went I really enjoyed playing through it. The ending is quite a thrill ride. The only complaint I have about the ending is that you choose your party members with probably close to 10% of the game remaining. I hope you choose well. The ending is obviously left open for sequels which is no surprise since this has been sold as a trilogy all along. The question is can BioWare get all three out on the 360 before it goes away. If not it may be a long time before the final part comes out.
This game was assumed to be a game of the year contender prior to release. After release it wasn't quite so perfect. For me it is in the top five if not top three for me. I still think I liked BioShock better simply because it was just as good if not better but it was better paced and more condensed experience. If you liked KOTOR or other BioWare games you will probably enjoy this one. Further bang for the buck is really there. There are even incentives to play through again, which I may try and just do the story only and speed through it.
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