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Excellent long playing RPG for 360.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect Review by Ed Fillmore 022208

First off, I am a huge fan of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic series for my original XBOX. Science Fiction (RPG) role-playing games with cinematic adventures are very appealing to me. It is my opinion that this game is quite similar to KOTOR. It was one main reason that I picked this game up. The only major difference is the "real time" combat system. Which is better for people who want to dive into real-time action.

The adventures and missions are quite similar to KOTOR, so when it comes to story I'm not very surprised. Some of the smaller side missions are quite repedative. But first time gamers will love the main story based missions and the secondary missions as well. There are tons of different aliens to meet and help with various levels of complex problems. You can spend hours just solving them. It's a great way to build experience and level up your characters so they are stronger for the main missions.

You also have almost limitless choices to customize your characters. The gender, race and overall look of every feature of the human face are fully customizable! There is an incredible amount of details that you choose and the look transfers very well in game play as well as cut scenes. You can also choose between over six different character classes. Each class has their strengths and weaknesses. The amount of customization is a very well planned.

The most amazing feature of Mass Effect has to be the graphics. Every planet or moon you land on has a beautiful amount of color and variety. And when you encounter other beings the character faces, expressions and body language are simply the best I've ever seen. During interactions you will see eye contact, blinking, shoulder shrugging and rapid hand movement while speaking. The animations were very human and lifelike. During conversations the lip-syncing is a little off but with the sheer amount of customizable facial options, I can understand the delay. The attention to detail in texture, lighting and special effects is awesome! The animation is very smooth with the exception of loading and running at the same time. I did experience a slight skipping, but it is to be expected. I even got a "hung up" glitch and could not get off of a certain spot. But I just save the game, shut down and re-load...

The camera movements during certain cinematics are incredible. An excellent example is the planet landings. Your starship flies in fast and low to drop you down with the landing craft, the Mako. It is a sweet six-wheel tank you can drive. But the camera zooms in, shakes when in windstorms and moves around to show you the most dynamic view possible. It's almost like you are in a movie!


Bottom line is Mass Effect is an excellent game to showcase the powerful abilities of the Xbox 360. And because I enjoy customizing my characters, missions and alignment, this game excels in pure entertainment! If you like Science Fiction Role Playing Games, this game is for you! I will score it 9 out of 10.

Take from: Mass Effect: Limited Edition

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I will simply say this game is awesome! It's intensly epic and if you're a fan of the RPG format, this is a must play. There are naturally some comparisons being made to the two Knights of the Old Republic video games. I think these comparisons are very appropriate because the general game design is a fairly similar, though I'm sure many Star Wars fans are disappointed to not see laser swords in this game. Anyway, both games are very epic in scale, however, I think Mass Effect improved and built on from some areas.

Now anyone who plays RPG styled games HAS to realize that the screen view offers quite a bit design limitations. For example you're not going to have super high-detailed characters that look life-like all the time, though Mass Effect does a damn good job. People have to remember you're not seeing things through a first person view, so those who complain that it's not as "detailed" need to get over themselves, I grew up with Diablo, which I still think has a pretty good design. The screen interface to me is one of the most important, however, Mass Effect is a little hard to figure out at first. Such as when you want to change weapons quickly or use your special abilities. After having gone through the game, I realize now that it is by far the absolutely most logical control development for the user to interface with the screen.

Everything is in 3rd person view so the user is sitting sort of "far away" in perspective, aside from video sequences of course. Despite this, I think the graphic design is very well done. I see people complain about things not being "Next Gen" on a Next Gen console, seriously, what do these people expect to see? Graphic design wise Mass Effect is probably comparable to Half Life 2, and really, is that such a bad thing? I'd rather have developers spend their time developing a really epic game with an awesome story line than spend all their time amping up the graphics to the point where systems can't process all the detail so they have to shorten the game to compensate for data overflow. Which, is something I will complain about in Halo 3, because it was far too short, despite how beautifully designed the game was.

Another thing that was really interesting was the weapon designs. You get new weapons as the game goes on, but they're energy based weapons so you have unlimited ammo. I thought this was a really interesting way to treat the weapons, granted I enjoyed the unlimited ammo because running out of ammo in a game really sucks. You basically have access to all the weapons from the start of the game, but you have to put points into being trained on them to actually get good at using them. If you don't have access to build up points for the Sniper Rifle your character will always be really bad at using that weapon, but each character has the ability to build up at least one of the options!

The real part to focus on in Mass Effect is the highly original world and engrossing story line! You're thrust into a future universe of humanity where we have contact with other alien cultures and we are trying to work our way into the politics of the situation. I would say the story line is somewhat influenced by Carl Sagan's "Contact" because it starts with teh discovery of something called a Mass Relay, which can send vehicles far into distant reaches very quickly... yeah, kind of like "Contact, but this takes place long after that initial contact. I found the story-line very intelligent and very well thought out, to the point where it's believable in that situation. I haven't played through that many excellent Science Fiction RPG's, but this is probably my favorite as much as I liked Knights of the Old Republic. The story line does have a serious shock ending that I really didn't predict in the least, whereas I found Knights of the Old Republic II's story line slightly predictable.

Mass Effect really shines in my book. I was one of the lucky few to pick up the Limited Edition version and it comes with a bonus disc, which I haven't watched yet, but I will add to this review when I see it. It also comes with an added booklet with extra information about the historical time-line, which I thought was a really cool game addition.

As anyone can see, this game is VERY highly rated by users and I personally have no complaints about this game whatsoever. I found it to be challenging and intriguing. I don't have a lot of time to play games and this thing kept me occupied for two months (I do spend most of my day at work and only can play like an hour or two a night). Most games I can beat pretty quickly, but the grand scale took me as long as Knights of the Old Republic. Seriously, get this game!

Amazing Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Played through this game once, playing through again. It is absolutely unreal the level of detail the developers put into the game. Kudos to BioWare on all their hard work and if you are considering a video game for your next purchase make this one it!

Best Game of the Year

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

In my opinion, this is the best game of the year (2007) and one of the best XBOX360 games ever. The RPG elements of the game are excellent, and unlike many Action-RPG's out here the combat system leaves little to be desired.

No game is perfect - the Mako (the vehicle that you drive on planets) takes getting used to and some of the planets start to look the same. However, the rest of the game is simply so much fun to play through that I can't bring myself to deduct a star.

The game also has a very high replay value. My first playthrough was about 33 hours, and that was as a morally good character of one of six character classes. This game would be a huge addition to anyone's game library.

Fourteen hours of unrivaled gameplay

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

As a fan of both bioware's Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, I had extremely high expectations for Mass Effect, their latest RPG for the console. Although skeptical at first, I found that it surpassed either of the latter two games, and achieved something no other RPG had on the console.

Mass Effect revamps every aspect of bioware's typical games, improving it vastly, without changing their unique gameplay style. Rather then duplicating Knights of the Old Republic again, bioware has decided to branch off in a unique and interesting direction. The result of this is a game that will surely stand the test of time through the ages, being for the Xbox 360 what Morrowind was for the Xbox or Zelda for the Nintendo.

The combat system is probably the greatest change, taking away any codified system, and allowing it to become a third person shooter. This allows a lot more skill to develop over the course of the game; the AI is quite good, and you'll have to think about tactics. On any difficulty aside from easy you will probably die a lot getting the hang of it, but once you are accustomed, it is much more rewarding than any of the previous games systems. The weapon variation is a bit lacking, but this is balanced out by the biotics system, similar to force powers in KoTOR. However, rather than having good and evil powers, a character specializing in them has access to all of them. I found that the leveling system in relation to these powers was very well thought out, and improvements made were very obvious upon combat.

The class you choose, whether it be exclusively weapons, powers or mechanics, or a mix of two is very important in deciding the balance between weapons and powers you will be using. As a first time player the most obvious choice is a mix, but the game is flexible to accommodate anyone who gets the hang of their chosen gameplay style. I found that the character creation was much more developed and sophisticated compared to the latter two releases.

Another, and by far my favorite change, is the good/evil bar. Rather than make it a moral system, with clear definition of good and evil, bioware has introduced a system that is removed from moral reality. Every choice is just that, a choice, with given consequences you must live with for better and for worse. You can opt for a Machiavellian pragmatists style character, with consequences of your ruthlessness, or a humanitarian with just as many disadvantages for the more sympathetic choices. This is ideal for allowing the game to encompass a level of realism, and attaches deeper feelings for characters. Certainly a lot trickier than a simple good/evil bar, but bioware pulled it off, and the result is fantastic.

Overall I thought that Mass Effect succeeded with its characters (character development), storyline and combat system. The graphics are wonderful and the gameplay is easily up to the standard of any typical RPG. I found very few flaws, except the seemingly short length, and frankly didn't find any of it less than enjoyable. Give it a try, and savor bioware's newest gift to the console.

Hands Down Best Game Ever on XBox360

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have played many XBox360 games. Halo series, Extreme Planet, Bioshock, you name it...

This game is the best game I have ever played to date. The graphics are great (a few glitches but no big deal), the gameplay is intelligent and fun with a great plot. Like BioShock, you can make moral choices. The world is vast and you can spend days in this thing.

This is the only game I have played over again and again. The replay value on this game is incredible. Well worth the money. Blows Halo3 out of the water in plot and game play.

If you don't own it, buy it!

great game. stupid mako.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

ok. this game is great. i bought it and basically played it for 30 hours straight and not even close to done yet. i'm just exploring and such. and will definitely play this game over and over again (to unlock the achievements and to experience different character modes and such). four stars because driving/attacking in the mako sucks. i didn't realize the other reviewers really meant it when they said that driving this machine sucked. now i realize how annoying it gets. anyways, overall, it's a great game. but i dropped one star because you do spend a lot of time in the mako driving around worlds and such. i would suggest though getting out to attack rather than using the canon/guns on the mako.

Another must have game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Wow - I love this game. I've played BioWare's Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2, and this takes those games to a whole new level. It can best be described as FPS RPG: the best of both worlds. As usual, the story is better than most sci-fi movies or TV out there with inventive new twists to keep you guessing what's really going on. You don't always know what the right or best choice should be. Your team is interesting and balanced. Shepard is nicely customizable both in look and ability (I always appreciate being able to play as a girl). The combat system is fluid and inventive. The controls are intuitive. On the negative side, it does take some time to get the ball rolling and into combat - there can be a lot of wandering around required. The buying system can be a little tedious and could use better structure. After playing Oblivion, I'd expect an RPG to have more random, non-main quest side missions too. The engine also can slow down in the larger battles and there is the occasional freeze. And elevators will apparently move at the speed of molasses in the future. The positives so outweigh the negatives though. This is one of the best game experiences I've had since KOTOR 1, and that includes Oblivion, Halo3 & Gears. You should buy this game. Just click the "add to cart" now! You'll thank me later.

For the explorers.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game does a great job of letting you roam and do your own thing while still keeping the main story theme and atmosphere going. When you get your ship roughly 3-4 hrs into the game its a great feeling to be able to explore the entire universe as you uncover treasure, quests, new species, artifacts, and information. The characters are fairly well developed and you have a hard time picking the 2 you want to take with you because you like so many of them equally. The combat is intuitive and fast paced and require you to take cover at times and use the various abilities that you can learn when you level up your characters. I dont like science fiction rpg's but i really enjoy this game. It also does a great job of letting each character use any weapon they want while still having a particular 'class' approach that makes them experts with a certain kind. As a gamer for 18 years i strongly recommend this game to any rpg fan that enjoys a good story which you control.

SAFE FOR WORK

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game has ZERO graphic sexual images, and is totally recommendable for anyone this game is rated for.

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