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One of the best games of all time.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Simply brilliant. Mass Effect has loads of appeal to any Science Fiction fan, let alone any video game enthusiast. The graphics are outstanding, but you will see textures pop in from time to time if you have things running in 1080i or 1080p. Although more time is spent exploring and talking to people, there is still plenty of great combat. The gameplay feels like a cross between Gears of War and KOTOR, and user interface and controls have a few kinks, but everything still manages to be a lot of fun and you forget about any minor anoyances quickly. The most important things about Mass Effect though are its great story telling, rich setting, and memorable characters. Anyway, do yourself a favor and buy it now.

Has earned a spot on my list of all-time favorites!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I-LOVE-THIS-GAME. I wish I could give it 10 stars.

This game alone validates my 360 purchase. I've played once through as a female paragon and am currently playing through again as a male renegade. I can confidently say the experience has been of equal quality both times.

There are SO many great things about this game:

1) first and foremost, because it's an RPG, the story. superb. grabbed hold and didn't let go till the very end, and when it was over I was left wishing there more more =) The last 3-4 hours of the game were so immersive and I was literally glued to the TV.

In addition to the main plot-line, there is also an incredibly rich background of information all about the various alien races, their history, homelands, governments, cultures, technology, etc, as well as info on mankind/earth, technology and spaceships, battle and warfare, and more. The best part is that except when it's essential to the story, the game gives you the option of whether or not you want to read/hear about it (through the Codex or just talking to people).

2) visuals. the entire game is beautiful; the environments, the atmosphere, the character models are some of the best I've seen anywhere.

3) the animation is some of the most life-like I have seen in a game.

4) in a movie, what I'm thinking of would be called direction/editing/cinematography. Well, whatever you call that in a game, it was done fantastically in Mass Effect. The combined result of #'s 2, 3, and 4 is that you often feel more like you're watching a movie than playing a game, yet all the fun interaction you get with a
game is still there!

5) hands down the best voice acting I've ever encountered in a game.

6) music: beautiful, emotional, really sets the mood and matches what's happening in the game and contributes a lot to engaging you in the story or battle.

7) The paragon/renegade/neutral elements actually work, and quite well. There were several "wow" moments in this game where, even though deep inside I knew it was "just a game", I had to stop and think hard about what choice I was about to make. And Bioware did a good job of writing it so that no matter what you decide, the experience is still fun and satisfying.

8) and yes, again considering that this is an *RPG*, the combat was, for me, fun and engaging once I got the hang of it. Sure beats "random battles".

Some of the things people have criticized about Mass Effect:

1) glitches/bugs: the only one I ever really noticed was when sometimes textures take a while to get written in when you start a cut scene or enter a new area. As for dropped frame rates and such, it didn't personally hinder my experience in the slightest, though I'm not saying it won't happen for other people.

2) Uncharted worlds exploration/side quests: In general I agree with the common complaints that exploring uncharted worlds gets pretty old after a while, once you realize each one is basically the same thing in a different color, and there are only about 3 "dungeon" layouts, and most of the side quests (on the planets that is; those in the citadel are much more varied and interesting) follow the same general pattern. So, that it is a weakness for this game.

However, for the first few hours before you've done enough SQs to be bored, it's still pretty fun. And the game does a great job of making the basis for the quests so compelling that you'll probably do them all anyway (I did).

3) long elevator rides. hint: they're loading screens, and you can pick up SQs along the way.

4) your squad AI sucks: eh, yes and no. It could definitely be better, but I set mine on the highest level and generally had very few of the problems I see others write about with their allies making suicide runs into the line of fire and dying or just simply not contributing. For the most part my squad members stayed alive but after a while I stopped trying to utilize the features where you can send them forward to attack or cover you and just kept them by my side as the outcome seemed the same either way.

***
The good so vastly outweighs the bad in this game, though, that I still give it 5 stars with NO reservations. And chances are they will have addressed some of these complaints in the next installment, which makes me even MORE excited for it.

Bottom line: worth every penny. You won't regret it.

Loading...Boring.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 40
Date: February 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It seems half-baked. It's a bad shooter, bad driver, and the story is blah. Where's the excitement? Long loading times walking around exploring make it even more boring. Cut scenes and long loading times before every battle make you want to put the game down after a few deaths.

I get a spaceship!...oh wait, I just point and click on a planet : (

I get a gun!...oh wait, I have to level up instead of just getting better with it : (

There's something exciting I get to do in a city!...oh wait, I have to talk to him, go here, go back, go back to the first place, go back to talk to him, and go back again...Loading...wow I got 10 XP : (

I realize some people like this genre, and overlook its flaws, but a game should make you want to play the game instead having to fantasize about what you think it could be.

If I had to say good things about this game, I would say the talking system is innovative, and the idea of exploring planets and shooting the place up is intriguing, but it doesn't quite come through in this game.

Young and the restless in space!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 10
Date: December 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I once read in a bioware dev blog that the player would never know what they might encounter on each planet, well after playing for 20 hours let me say that every planet is a completely barren, bumpy, dull volcanic, ice, desert environment, with either a base or mine setup, THAT LOOKS THE SAME ON EVERY PLANET?!

I don't care if they have a thousand planets to explore, whats the point when they all look and feel almost exactly the SAME?! Do you remember how the caves and dungeons in oblivion looked the same with some small differences? Well then you know what I'm talking about with Mass Effects planets, theres no alien plants, trees, or anything remotely interesting on any of these planets, which really disappoints me. The story is about the only thing to keep some one playing this game, and even that isn't very good.

I can't believe how disappointing this game is to me, I had it preordered for months and eagerly awaited its arrival in hopes of an oblivion sized space opera, only to get shafted...

The galaxy map lets us hop from one barren lifeless planet immediately to the next barren lifeless planet, so basically theres no open-ended space exploration. Sure we get to drive and explore around on the bumpy planet surfaces in the mako vehicle, which ends up doing more crazy jumps and flips than the general lee from the dukes of hazzard but the mako adds absolutely nothing to this game, infact it makes the smallish planet sized maps feel even smaller.

If you thought this game would let you explore space, then forget it.

If you wanted to explore uncharted planets in search of exotic alien life or lost treasures then nope not in this game, some un-named mining/base building company has already been there.

If you wanted to unwind after a long day at the office and kill off hordes of nasty alien creatures that will give you a at least a little challenge, then NO not this game. I've seen better AI in european assault, If you like a whole lotta talking, and a whole lotta multiple choice answers to choose from then bingo! This games for you!

I highly recommend this game in your preparation for the multiple choice parts of the SAT exam... Actually sitting through the SAT's could be more exciting than this game, don't believe all the hype about this game.

Boring, poorly designed story

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 11
Date: April 20, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The graphics are beautiful. Now that is out of the way, there are too many problems with this game to give it a good rating.

You will sit through copious dialogue that you cannot skip through. At one point, after rescuing a scientist in a mine, you encounter a standoff with the enemy geth and a krogon. You will die here. Many times. There's no cover and if you are not playing as a soldier you really have no resources to defend yourself. I can handle dying in a game, it happens all the time. Problem is, in this game you have to sit through about 3 minutes of dialogue to get to the spot where you will die. Do that ten times! Yeah, 30 minutes of the same dialogue over and over will bore you. The developers made some very poor decisions about save point/load point placement.

Another problem is the idea that your character cannot use certain weapons because you are "untrained." Untrained to weild a shotgun? Are you kidding? Your character is a career fighter, but never spent a day learning to aim a rifle or shotgun? This forces you to select the soldier character class, a wasted opportunity. The sniper rifle function has its problems, too; specifically it fails to register hits from certain distances as though the enemy target is not distinguished from the background it's standing against.

While this game gives the impression of a vast, open-ended, sandbox type of game, it is actually very linear. Most of the choices available to you are false choices with no impact on the outcome or direction of the story. The story is going to go where it will, regardless of what your character says or does.

Mass Effect is basically a boring, frustrating game. There are tons of RPG and third person shooters that are better than this one.

Fantastic Sci-fi RPG!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect is one of the greatest RPGs ever created for consoles. What sets this apart from other RPG is that the story behind it is written well and it is a pretty original story. Bioware has done a great job creating a unique universe that rivals that of Star Wars (this coming from a person that's read about 30 Star Wars books and is a fanatic for Star Wars).

From an action standpoint, the 3rd person shooter aspect of the game is executed well. My only nit-pick with the game revolves around the Mako. The Mako is your "tank." Unfortunately, the Mako is not easy to steer or target enemies with.

The graphics in the game are fantastic as well.

I can only hope that there are future games released by Bioware set in the Mass Effect universe.

Bottom line, if you like RPGs, you MUST buy this game for the Xbox 360.

Beautiful game in many ways

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is absolutely a beautiful game for a number of reasons. First off, it reminds me of KOTR which used to be my favorite game (but now this is). The conversations are awesome (I've never been a huge fan of the conversations in many games, but this game I look forward to them.), the gameplay is challenging (maybe a little too much at times...) the game is huge! I know there are a few issues with framerate, I actually talked with someone who worked on this game and they said that Bioware refused to fix the framerate because they wanted to relsease the game before the holidays, but there will be a patch, so that should help. Finally, I just hooked up the HDMI to my 360 and the graphics are unbeatable. Enjoy this game, I am.

Great Game... I hope there is more

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Finished the book this morning on my commute. I'm about 9 hours into the game and have really enjoy playing it. Some of the assignments are boring, but the story is fantastic. I'm glad I read the book because if leads right into the game.

Make sure you play around with the menu. There is a lot going on in there. Using your teams biotics and other powers is key to getting past many of the levels. I took me awhile to catch on to this. It does make the game a bit choppy, but once you understand, the game opens up.

There is a lot to this game. If you have an FPS background don't treat this game like it is one. This is a very fun RPG. I'm stoke I have more than 30hrs left in the game.

Great core game, but not the greatest of all time like most of these reviews are proclaiming

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect is a great game--everyone can agree with that statement--but it's not perfect. It is an epic game with quite a few glaring flaws. However if you've never played a Bioware game, and you loved Fable despite all of its flaws, you will absolutely love this game and may think greater of it than I do. Basically it's about how you, Commander [insert name here] Shepard, save the galaxy from a rogue alien who wants to bring about the apocalyptic rapture of all organic life, using machines called geth to do his bidding. Themes you can expect to be explored include your own humanity, artificial intelligence, and genocide, among many others including the side missions.

The first thing you'll notice when playing this game is the kicka ss graphics. From the absolute start of the game when you're creating your character (if you wish to) you can see the amount of detail Bioware put into Mass Effect. For the most part the game looks fantastic on a good HDTV. You won't be impressed by the lighting and shadows on character faces all the time though, or the real time texture loading.

The characters of Mass Effect are also, for the most part, very good. They are very well acted on behalf of the digital characters and the people who voice them. The lip syncing is so good you'd think it was all pre-rendered, and you are convinced of the emotions the NPCs (non-playable characters) are conveying. The down side is that the characters simply aren't as interesting as the ones found in previous Bioware games, namely Jade Empire (my favorite game by them) and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The only time you can have a conversation with any of them is when you are on board of the Normandy, which feels like a downgrade considering a convo could happen anywhere anytime in previous games. If you care about the romances you will be disappointed in that area as well. You can have sex with a character near the end of the game, but you don't feel like you've earned it. Back on topic, to the conversations in this game, they are more intuitive and flow easier than in any other game. The dialogue trees appear near the end of an NPC's spoken thought, and let you select immediate emotions to what the NPC is saying, after which your character elaborates into sentences, just like in real life.

The story of Mass Effect, perhaps its biggest draw, will not disappoint. Just sticking to the main plot lines throughout the game you will feel like you're playing a 15-20 hour sci-fi epic. You will make meaningful moral decisions, and think twice about them and what consequences could follow. You will also experience some interesting twists, but unfortunately no headspinners like in KotOR. The soundtrack, too, is good, but not as good as KotOR's and definitely not Jade Empire's.

Now on to the most important aspect of Mass Effect, the combat gameplay. Quite simply, the gameplay rules. In typical RPG style you can upgrade all your weapon and power abilities to be the most powerful mofo in the galaxy, and all it takes is some time and effort. The twist is that the whole game is played like a third person shooter. Just do yourself a favor by not trying to compare it to the latest squad-based tactical TPS, because it wouldn't be fair considering that's not what this game is trying to be. In Mass Effect you can approach a battle in any variety of ways. If you're a techie, instead of directly killing synthetic enemies with weapons you can disable their shields and/or weapons, hack them to make them shoot their own, or simply blow them up with mines. As a Biotic specialist you can destroy things with blasts of energy, send them flying, warp (poison) them, paralyze them, or smash them into each other if you want. Lastly, if you're a soldier, you can just plow your way through your enemies with sheer firepower and brutality. You can also combine any of these three classes if you want tastes of what both have to offer, gameplay-wise.

Another feature of this game is galactic exploration. There are a ton of clusters with their own solar systems and planets to explore with your warthog-like vehicle, the Mako. You will end up exploring all of them if you complete all the side missions. Unfortunately, per solar system, there is only one landable planet. This is probably to leave room for future downloadable content, but still it sucks. Also the exploration itself isn't really fun. It's just necessary if you want to get to where you need to, like a base for some crazy biotic cultist or a geth fortress. When not exploring a boring and featureless planet though, driving around in the Mako is actually really fun. Like the warthog in Halo, you can run over stuff, shoot stuff, and blow stuff up with it.

A final random bit of Mass Effect that you should know about is how annoying the inventory system is. You get a lot of crap when you are a tech specialist or have one or two in your party, and getting rid of the crap you don't need or will never use is a pain in the arse. There are many more problems with it, but since it's such a minor part of the game and you can avoid dealing with them by simply avoiding the urge to open every single crate or supply box you see, I won't elaborate.

Overall, like I said in the beginning, Mass Effect is a great game with lots of minor flaws. You will enjoy it without a doubt and it's one of the best games of the year--just not of all time.

The RPG for people who hate RPGs

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have never enjoyed an RPG before this. I didn't like Fable, Knights of the Old Republic, Morrowind, Oblivion--none of them.

I reluctantly bought this game and boy am I glad I did. I've played through the main storyline 4 times and plan do to it at least one more time. This coming from a guy who normally likes Gears of War and Halo type games instead. Not many games earn their $59 price tag, but this one does.

It's a perfect balance of story and RPG elements on one half, and a great action game on the other. It looks terrific. It's fun to play. I'm already looking forward to the sequel.

There are some frame rate issues, some texture "popins", but I've experienced that on almost every game, so I don't hold it against the game. They're relatively minor and forgivable in a game this good.

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