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Excellent game...but some near fatal flaws

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First off this game has some serious potential. Many of the design aspects are just plain wondrous while others fail so miserably I just wanted to cry.

First the good stuff...If you like sci-fi and enjoy great Role Playing this game is a must have. The story arc is just amazing. Deep, immersive and so well played out, you think you're watching a movie. The characters are very well scripted and the voice acting is top notch. The graphics and graphic design in the game makes you just say "WOW". So much so that you will stop in mid game to look around and get lost in the sites. Immersion to the core! I found that if you chat with many of the NPCs in the Citadel and onboard your ship the back story of the game is there, but if you rally want to know what's going on and have a liking for good Sci-Fi reading, do yourself a favor and go read the prequel book before starting the game. It really helps set the stage for what's to come. As a rule, RPGs are more about story and character development, and with this in mind, this game blows any other RPG out of the water. BUT...

Certain things really hold this game back form achieving the excellence it really should have attained. There is really no excuse for a game that took this long to develop to be released with so many glitches. Bad frame rates (at the worst possible times btw), poor draw in, crashes, save bugs and even certain occasions when your controller becomes ineffective and won't relay the message...for example you press the right trigger to fire and no gun goes off...at all. These issue start becoming really annoying after about the third or fourth incident and pull you right out of the game immersion wise.

Combat is a mixed bag. I love the system so far, but it can get bogged down and really detracts from the fluidity of the game. After every action you really need to pause game and think about the next move. I really like it, but I can see how others wouldn't. And there is no tutorial on how this works either. We should have been given a tutorial on the sytem in the beginning of the game to familiarize ourselves with the system before being faced with countless deaths while learning.

Probably the worst thing ingame for me is the vehicle areas. The Mako is impossible to control well enough to really be an asset in the game. The gun turret isn't as flexible as it should be and there is no real way to aim your missile effectively enough to really be put to good use. I found myself exiting the vehicle a lot and killing things on foot rather than have to deal with the frustration of using the Mako. The problem with that is that you are put in toxic environments so you HAVE to use the tank/jeep, because if you stray too far away from it for to long, you die from exposure to the environment.

All in all I really love this game for its excellent rpg elements, immersive story, and interesting characters and development. I really like the cmbat system, but it can get bogged down during longer fights.

The glitches and technical issues are inexcusable. As is the horrible interface for the Mako. It makes me wonder if the folks at Bioware even played through the areas they force you to use the Mako with.

A great RPG experience as long as you didn't buy into the hype.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect was promoted as a ground-breaking RPG for the Xbox 360. Simply put, it isn't, but that doesn't mean it isn't a great game. Created as a counter to the Star Wars dominated epic space operas, Mass Effect promised much and delivered quite well, but like all AAA titles as of late, what you saw in the demos and read in the previews never made it to the disk.

But this isn't a review based on expectations, but the delivery of a masterfully told story with an roughly polished squad-based RPG. Bioware weaves an interesting tale of political intrigue without weighing things down. You truly feel like you have an impact in the world in a unique way rather than the typical "do X or do Y" choices most RPGs give you. Unfortunately, parts of the story seem like irrelevant side notes that are nothing more but a scribble on the margins of history, even though they are truly world altering events. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING*** In one situation, you are given the chance to save an alien race that was almost responsible for the genocide of the entire universe in the hopes that they have changed their ways, or you can wipe them out for good. The end result of your choice? 1 of 2 dialogs your bosses (The Council) will give you after your mission. "You let them go??? I hope you made the right decision and this doesn't come back to haunt us" or "good job wiping them out". One would assume the moral choice of wiping out a species in a game that promotes choice would have more of an impact than either a golf clap or a finger wag.

Technically speaking, it's superb with a few minor issues of texture pop ins and load times. The load times are usually masked under elevator rides that have a cool little feature of providing radio stories based on your recent actions. Nice touch.

The gameplay is a mixed bag. You have a squad that you can't control on any meaningful level that is totally oblivious to its surroundings. The game promotes a shooting-on-rails-kill-'em-all style of gameplay rather than a nuanced strategic element. Problematically, it gets quite frustrating when your team has a direct line of sight to an enemy, but since there is a metal pole in the way they shoot at the pole rather than around it. Inventory is an absolute pain to navigate around, but weapons are named logically (Striker 3 > Striker 2 > Striker 1). Weapon customization is well done and can allow you to focus on damage, volume of fire, shield bypassing, etc. AI is also incredibly stupid with a "run straight into you and hope for the best" mentality most of the time with the occasional duck into cover. Simply put, this game needs the difficulty ramped up via smarter allies and enemies, not higher damage and lower defense.

Another major disappointment was the exploration part of the game. I was excited that I could travel to dozens, if not hundreds of planets. Unfortunately, exploring is nothing but navigating around the same planet skinned differently as you drive around in your poorly-controlled MAKO ATV getting treasure, killing enemies outside the base, going into their base, killing them in the base, and leaving. This was bar none the biggest failing for me, as a game that promoted exploration shouldn't have been so abysmally repetitive and boring.

I hope that Bioware realizes that they created a pretty good game with some minor and major shortcomings that could easily be avoided in a sequel. Give me real planets to explore. Give me an inventory I can easily manage. Give me a team that uses tactics to kill the enemy and an enemy that uses tactics to kill me. Gamers don't need you to invest $4 million into doubling the amount of chin hairs on your character. The game looks great, sounds great, and plays well with a ton of potential. Until then, this is definitely a game you should pick up when it goes on sale.

I wanted to give this 5 stars...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

...but I couldn't. Overall, the game was absolutely amazing. The depth of the story was amazing, the graphics were phenomenal, excellent voice acting, and a very fun combat system. There just seemed to be something missing from making it one for the record books.

One item that comes to mind was the length of the game. I procrastinated immensely, and still only squeezed about 26 hours out of the game. Too bad content had to be lost due to the game looking amazing.

Another quirk is that for what combat there is, the bulk comes near the end of the title. Before you get to that point, it's just a lot of rinse and repeat. Petty courier missions and the like made the game just feel...thrown together a bit. Lots of filler here. There are tons of galaxies and planets to explore, but unfortunately every system is basically the same. Look at each planet, some let you survey them, and you can only land on planets that has an active mission on them for the most part. Lame.

It's possible that my expectations were set too high. After playing KOTOR and it's sequel more times than can be counted, I wanted something almost exactly like them, just prettier. While for the most part the same feel was there, it just wasn't the same. Understandably, of course. It would be suicide for the company to only make games exactly the same way. But I digress.

Overall, it's a great buy and has a lot of replay value, but it's not quite the king of rpg's. That title in my mind is still held by KOTOR.
...and Shining Force II on good ol' Genesis.

A fantastic open-ended romp through the known galaxy!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

It never ceases to amaze me how some people can't get their heads out of one specific genre of gaming, and continue to compare every game to that one genre they're interested in. The current flavor of the week is obviously FPS games. They're generally the most popular and generally the "biggest" releases. However, that is only one style of game. There are still action games, platform-style games, RPGs, and yes, even Adventure games. Some reviews of this (and other) games miss this point.

Combat is not the focus of this game, but it handles combat admirably. To try to compare its combat system to Halo 3 or COD 4 is silly - they're totally different games. If the aforementioned games do not have superior combat systems, shame on them - that's pretty much all they are.

I've even read reviews of the excellent adventure game Dreamfall: The Longest Journey complaining that it was mostly story and its combat was terrible. Of course! It's an adventure game!

Anyway, enough making fun of the terminally one-dimensional. This is a FANTASTIC game. This is a FANTASTIC game. I'll say it again. Fantastic. BioWare hit a home run. Yes, there are minor technical glitches. Most ambitious games have them. They're not serious enough to prevent finishing or enjoying the game. No big deal.

Your first play-though could take 40-50 hours of gameplay.

The universe is vast, the story is excellent - compelling, believable, drawing, compelling, and immersive. It brings you in - and makes you feel for the characters. The storyline is so good, in fact, that this would make for an excellent novel or three (I think it has!), or a great movie/TV serial. The controls are intuitive and easy to learn, the combat is fun even for folks like me who prefer games that aren't combat focused, and the side quests are enough to keep you going.

Because this is a science fiction game, people tend to compare it to games like Halo 3. Do not do that - this game is most effectively compared to the sublime Elder Scrolls: Morrowind (Game of the Year) and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition games. Open-ended, exploration-focused, quest-driven, character developing role playing experience.

If you're only interested in shooting and killing things in new and innovative ways, avoid this game. It's too intelligent and creative for you.

If you're interested in a compelling story, a heck of an adventure, open-ended non-linear gaming (the main quest is, of course, linear, but you don't have to progress in it until you're ready) that has a vast game world for you to explore, BUY THIS GAME.

This is the first game to have me this excited since the Elder Scrolls games.

I can't wait for the next two installments in the trilogy.

Note: BioWare is also responsible for the excellent RPGs Jade Empire and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

Massively Frustrating

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect has one of the better stories in video game history. That gets it four stars. I would watch this as movie for sure.

However the game has 4 major problems.

1. The gameplay ruins the experience. It may have been the class that I was, infiltrator, but the battles were frustrating and quiet frankly I did not know how be effect due to the clunky controls. The cover system sucks and never works quiet the way you had hoped. I am sure you heard about the horror of the Mako so I will spare describing that further.

2. As other people mentioned all the worlds are the same outside the main story and even those are lame. This game could be so interesting we could visit great galactic cities and homeworlds of various races and investigate to get to the bottom on Sarens plot and side quest could have been much more interesting and gripping. Basically, the Mass Effect universe is one dimensional, barren planets. Specifically rocky barren planets. And on the main worlds its basically driving the mako on paths carved out of the sides of the mountains, feels like we seen this a million times before. Want to explore a rich interesting galaxy? You got the wrong game.

3. I just finished GTA4 and I realized something, when I was playing it I was not constantly reminded I playing a video game. I was invested in the experience and and there weren't those little bugs that remind you you are in a game. Mass Effect reminds you your in a video game constantly; every building looks the same, the formula of combat and cutscenes is utterly predictable, there are areas that you cannot walk to and you aren't sure why. And this leads to the biggest culpurate of #3 LOADING...

I just wonder why rockstar can render an entire rich city without constantly loading while Bioware in Mass Effect cannot manage to load a level that is usually much smaller and much less rich. There attempts to cover up the loading with elevator rides is just annoying and makes you want to stop playing the game down all the more.

4. Technical issues, if you read reviews for Mass Effect you've heard this before but it is bad and at time almost unplayable. You are in the middle of a battle and you drop frames like crazy, end up facing the floor or something and promptly get killed by some geth. I feel like I am trying to play Half-Life 2 on a Pentium II or something. But oh yea Mass Effect was an Xbox exclusive I just don't understand how it could be this bad.

I spend hours trying to love this game. I wanted to. I loved the story. I loved the potential of what the Mass Effect world could be, and I kept waiting for its realization. In the end we get a great story and great graphics wrapped around a game that otherwise feels like it belongs on previous Gen console. Okay, well maybe we will get better luck in ME2.

What is the big deal?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: February 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game based on the fact that it was one of the highest-rated 360 games on Metacritic (91). I can't say I agree. Mass Effect is definitely top-notch as far as graphics and depth and voice acting goes, but the gameplay just didn't seem all that interesting to me.

The third-person combat system is not very impressive and the action sequences seem very brief. I felt like I spent a lot of time just walking around and talking to people, standing in elevators, and driving my APC around generic planets looking for combat. When I'd finally get in combat, I would get relatively far and then die and have to start all the way back at the beginning.

I've probably played the game for at least 10 hours and don't feel like I've really accomplished all that much. Maybe it gets better as you play further but I'm not willing to invest any more time in it to find out. Great concept and production values but the action wasn't done well enough to keep me interested.

The era of the DVD disc is over...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is amazing to say the least, however While going through this game i'm starting to see that the DVD disc hit it's limit with this title because there could of been so much more added to the game if they had say a HD-dvd disc.

I just wish xbox 360 used HD-dvd discs.
If we got this big of a game with a 9 gigabyte DVD disc, imagine what could of been done with a HD-dvd disc.

[They have to use alot of repeat geometry and all the free explore planets really do just look the same with different hills.(kind of bland)]

However, Mass effect is the best game the xbox 360 will probably ever have in terms of size and graphics, that being said the game is also limited by the 9 gigabyte dvd disc and that will limit future titles; we truly have seen the next-gen with this title,

The only way we will get a better game than mass effect is if developers use HD-dvd discs.

Anyhow:

I give mass effect:

10/10 graphics
10/10 sound
10/10 story, characters
9/10 combat

I really do love the size of this game, the graphics are great, and the characters awesome, I just wish xbox 360 used HD-dvd discs.
If we got this big of a game with a 9 gigabyte DVD disc, imagine what could of been done with a HD-dvd disc.

Enjoying the Challenge

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: November 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I walked into the perfect ambush on my first real boss battle. After a half hour of frustration I slowly got better at controlling the action so I could survive.

It is the challenges that make this game such a treat to play. You will find that you need to develop your colleagues and keep your vehicle safe during missions. Now I liked Oblivion but I had to retool my character 10 times before I got one that matched my playing style. I have a character I like on the first go in Mass Effect, I probably would have returned with a new character but I am having so much fun that I can't bring myself to start over again, yet.

I like RPG's because with them I feel that I get the best use of my money compared to FPS games that get stale before they end. This game reminds me of the movie Outland starring Sean Connery. I think the overall feel that you know there is something wrong in Denmark and that you basically have to fight the bad guys on your own fits the games style. Just here it is on a grander scale with Earthlings as the Sheriff and a few aliens as the doc in the movie. I play at night after work with the lights off because this game runs like a great Sci-Fi movie. So far I have clocked about 20 hours of entertainment and look forward to getting much more out of it. Hey, 20 times the price of a movie ticket and I'll still have some cash left over for an extension. Oh life is good!!!

Sad, But I Don't Miss My Life

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was invited to a party tonight where booze and beautiful women would abound, but I don't know if I'll go. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those poor schlubs that spend all his time in a virtual world, cursing out people on the net from the safety of a computer desk. I enjoy a healthy social life, and engage in as much fun as the law will allow. Meeting new people is fun, and forming relationships has always come easy for me. And though I generally don't like talking on the phone, I never screen my calls. I figure if someone took the time to call me, then who am I to ignore them.

I hate answering the phone now. Commander Shepherd just stands there in silence awaiting a command while I have to endure mind-numbing chatter about events I could care less about from the other end of the line. Didn't I tell the other person when they asked what I was up to that I was playing Mass Effect? Did that not imply that I would rather be playing a game than helping you decide what color you should dye your hair? And, no, I don't want to come over and watch a movie when I'm practically playing one now.

Now I'm sure that the novelty of the game will wear off eventually, and by eventually I mean probably after Christmas. Which is good, because I would like to overcome the addiction by New Year's, but for now I'm going to live the life of a malnourished sleep-deprived hermit? I just hate explaining to my friends that it's a video game that is doing this to me and not depression (something they can sympathize with), even though the outward signs are similar.

Speaking of outward signs, it looks like it might rain. I certainly don't want to get caught out in a storm leaving a party. Looks like I have to cancel and stay in for the night. Darn shame.

Oh, I almost forgot:
Pros:
Story: A+
Graphics: A
Gameplay: B+ (but a harsh C when it comes to getting out from behind cover)

Cons:
Framerate loss: B- (but it still doesn't distract from the overall experience)

Better than average but has serious flaws

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effects is better than average but has some serious flaws. The strongest positive is the production values (graphics, sound, voice acting) were well done. Next to that is the main story. I found the story complex and interesting. I thought the converstations trees were also well done. There are many things I did not like about Mass Effects. I would divide these into two areas, major and minor. The first major problem is the secondary mission (assignments) display a disturbing lack of imagination or creatiity. One reviewer has described them as boring and repetitive and he/she is right on the money. The cynic in me thinks these Assignments were just used as filler for a short primary mission. The second major problem is concerning vehicles, both the Normandy (your spaceship) and the Mako. First the Normandy. The Normandy serves as nothing but a taxi cab and it should have been a lot more. The Normandy should have offered, as a minimum fire support while you were on a planet. Additionally satellite imagery or some other type of "intelligence" should be provided. Finally, we should be allowed to upgrade the Normandy. The Normandy was a wasted chance. Now to some minor points about the Mako. It's in the far future and we are driving around in a vehicle that looks like a refugee from the Warsaw Pact of the 1980's. Give me a vehicle that looks like the future, perhaps a hovercraft. Just like the Normandy the Mako should be upgradeable. I should have the option to lock the turrent in place. Finally after making KOTOR, Jade Empire and now Mass Effects we need to take the two dimensional personality model to the next level. For the next game let us go beyond dark side vs good side, open palm vs closed fist, or paragon vs renegade. I want more complex personalties. More than likely there will be a next game. I belive that is why the primary mission was so short, the other parts are being saved for the follow on game. I have heard that Bioware was sold to EA. If so, I am pessimistic that any possible sequel will break new ground. More likely it will rely on the tried and true Mass Effect formula.

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