Mass Effect Review

The current generation of console gaming has seen no shortage of space shooters. Between Halo, Gears of War, Crysis and many others the market is saturated. So then what makes Mass Effect stand out from the competition?

One way it separates itself from the pack is the level of detail in the game. This applies to both the plot of the game and the technical aspects. The story revolves around the protagonist, Commander John Sheppard, chasing a rogue galactic official around the galaxy to protect the world as we know it. Not groundbreaking material in and of itself, but the level of detail in the characters and the dialogue is what can suck gamers into this game. Much of this is accomplished by the choices the player has in the dialogue. The player is sporadically given choices in Commander Sheppard’s dialogue. These choices sometimes just allow for further customization of the character of Sheppard, as they affect the “morality” of the character. For example, choosing to insult someone will raise your “Renegade” level while being more polite raises your “Paragon” level. This scale affects future dialogue and story choices. The various alien races also help immerse the player, as they are all unique and detailed in the appearance and speaking habits.

Speaking of the appearances of the characters, the game really does look fantastic. The character models all help to breathe life into the experience. Combined with the above average (especially be video game standards) voice acting it brings the game to life. Special notice should go out to Seth Green’s appearance as the pilot known as Joker.

While the game does look great, it unfortunately does not run great. The framerate drops throughout the game, causing it to lag and run slow at times. There are other random technical issues that can ruin the flow of the game, such as your character getting stuck in the environment, forcing the gamer to re-start the game. For a game that is so polished in other areas it really is surprising to see such rudimentary problems like these persist.

Then comes another problem, and unfortunately it’s a big one- the gameplay. Mass Effect plays like a blend between a third-person shooter with cover based strategy and an RPG. The characters level up to increase health and stats, and also feature character specific abilities and magics to use. The combat seems to be meant to incorporate all of these abilities, magic and character commands, but the temptation is great to just play it as a straight shooter. While there is some merit in combining these two genres, it ultimately just feels convoluted and ill-defined.

Despite that, the worst aspect of the gameplay is the vehicle portions of the game. The vehicle handling is among the worst in any modern game, as it feels like Sheppard had one too many drinks before his trip. The controls are herky jerky, and the weapons on the vehicle can be difficult to aim. This is another seemingly easy problem to fix, which makes it all the more frustrating to deal with.

These drawbacks are what keeps Mass Effect from entering the Halo and Gears of War tier of action games. Those games feature some of the tightest and fine-tuned gameplay experiences around. Mass Effect may have greater story-telling potential, but until it can fix its own problems it will never realize its true potential. Perhaps the sequel has fixed these problems.

Score: 7.5/10