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You don't need to be an Aerospace Engineer to play this game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

...But it helps. You really don't need to have taken a course in orbital mechanics to understand this game or know what the Lagrange position 3 is in order to storm a space station located at L3. You don't have to have a broad understanding of the cosmos to enjoy this game, but there is so much depth to be enjoyed by those who do.

Mass Effect was a bit nostalgic for me. It reminded me that long long ago when I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut and explore distant planets. This game lets you do that.

This is a great way for shooter fans to be introduced to role playing games. I've always been turned off by RPG's because of turn based fighting. It's so boring and unrealistic. "Ok I'll hit you once and stand back and wait for you to strike me." When this game was first announced everyone hyped Knights of the Old Republic, also made by Bioware. Since Mass Effect looked so awesome I had to check out KotOR. It was an excellent game with an excellent plot, however at the very beginning I was so disappointed when I turned the first corner and the game paused for me to queue up my attacks. Mass Effect solves that problem. Third person over the shoulder shooting is what the Next Gen is all about.

Don't be fooled though. At its core this is still more of an RPG than a shooter, which means lots of dialogue. Unlike older RPG's where you have to read through lines and lines of dialogue, the dialogue in Mass Effect plays out like a movie. My only complaint is that you can't pause the game during a conversation. If another character is talking and your phone rings all you can do is mute your TV and miss what is being said.

Mass Effect isn't really an RPG and it's really not a shooter. It isn't defined by any one genre of video games. The best way to describe it is an interactive sci-fi movie.

If you're still unsure about dropping your hard earned cash on this game after reading all of the positive reviews and seeing all of the awards Mass Effect has won, then check out KotOR. You can now get it for a fraction of the price it was originally released for, and it's backwards compatible with Xbox 360. If you do check out KotOR, then do yourself a favor and play the game to completion. You will NOT be disappointed.

Solid but can be a little annoying

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Pros:

Very, very cool atmosphere. There's a codex that you can access throughout the game (and it is updated throughout) that documents, with full voice over work, the history of the game's planets, species, past conflicts, etc etc. Plenty of characters will talk to you and you can probe them for more info. This game easily creates the most convincing atmosphere ever in a videogame.

Voice work is spot on and features actors like Seth Green and the woman who played counselor Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Combat is great, much like the system in Gears of War. You can use cover simply by approaching a wall, crate, etc. You can issue orders to your squadmates, level them up, order them to use specific skills (essentially, "Force-like" abilities that can toss enemies off the ground) and weapons, order them to fall back, attack, follow you, etc etc. While some reviews have faulted these squad commands, I think they work quite well.

The story is fascinating and there's dozens and dozens of side quests. The main quest will take about 15-20 hours to play through, but the side quests will double that length easily. There's a lot to do here, and it really does make you feel like the captain of a ship. The ending is great, and without spoiling anything, it's quite epic. Keep in mind that this is the first game in a planned trilogy..but that doesn't mean there's not closure to this game!

The game's story clearly draws inspiration from tons of sci fi movies. I spotted references/homages to Star Trek 3, Battlestar galactica, Aliens, and obviously Star Wars.

Graphics and sound are amazing. Slowdown will occur, especially during cutscenes and driving sequences, however.

Conversations are a lot of fun, since you can usually select different options. Do you kill everyone in a colony that has been hypnotized, or simply gas them and try to revive them later? Do you give an inspiring speech to your crew, or a pessimistic one? Do you kill X or spare him? You will have several of these choices in the game. Quick tip -- when you level up your character as he gains experience, be sure to invest in either Charm or Intimidate abilities. If you're playing a Paragon (essentially, a good guy), focus on Charm. If you're playing a Renegade, go for the Intimidate skill. This will open up more dialog options that can be critical. In some cases, members of your crew may live or die depending on your negotiation skills and dialog choices.

Cons:

Some of the combat sequences are not so great. I spent about 30 minutes shooting identical looking aliens on my way to destroying some Over-mind like creature on Feros. Very frustrating, very boring.

The Mako (the ATV that you can drive on planet surfaces) is like Halo's warthog. It's very cool in theory, but the controls are very taxing, especially on some of the wintry planets where you're battling worms that can kill you in one hit, or cliffs that are also instant death. Fortunately, the Mako is not too annoying in the main story missions.

The game occassionally grinds to a halt and throws a very lame trial and error puzzle at you that feels like it's from a bad 1990 adventure game (When you get to the core in Noveria, I recommend just going online and finding the solution). Also, many of the side missions are repetitive and involve landing on a planet, driving for 30 minutes, and killing tons of aliens in samey-looking corridors. It kind of kills the immersiveness. This problem plagues the story missions too to some extent, but it's a lot less noticable because you're usually concerned about advancing the plot and don't care so much about the repetition.

Also, while the conversation system offers a lot of choices, many are not really choices and yield the same result. E.g., I was once presented with there choices -- "Yes" "Okay" and "Fine." All of them, I found, do the same thing. Even when they don't seem identical, often times the choices simply result in the same outcome. Bioware DOES have some moments in this game where you influence the dialog but it's MUCH less often than the game lets on. You can also influence the ending, but (without spoiling anything), you don't have quite as much control as you might think.

The map design is not so great. The maps in this game are easily the biggest weakness in the whole thing. I got lost several times, and the in-game compass can be extremely misleading. In one instance, there is a level with what seems like 12 elevators, and most of them just take you in a big long circle. Ugh!

There is some slowdown, and textures can be slow to draw in. But this is a minor trade off for a truly gorgeous game.

Finally, the equipment screen is awful. It's just a mess and I became frustrated with it, which is a problem because it meant I wasn't really selecting the best armor/weapons/etc for me and my crew.

Overall, this is a 4/5 (entered the wrong score!). Definitely fun at points, though the cons really should be ironed out to make the next sequel a more consistent experience.

Excellent!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: November 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

All I can say AWESOME!!!I love how the story unfolds, the characters, the graphics,even the voice overs are not bad -it annoys me when vo are bad coz Im part of that industry....Well Ive read about this game and it got me excited.I dont usually get excited because of a video game but man, this one got me and it is better than watching a scifi movie or series.
I am not a RPG gamer but this one is MY kind of game indeed!!.Hope they make more games like this.

This Is Why I Wait To Review Games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 5
Date: December 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I don't like Amazon reviews as a whole. Most are short, biased, and inaccurate, and the only reason that have any bearing is for every fanboy who gives five stars and only points out good points there's a hater who gives one star. Worst of all, even the people who write thorough reviews don't wait to review it until testing all of the games elements.
I bought the game the day it was released, and completed it for the first time, along with many side quests, a few days back. For the first 12 hours I played, I was convinced it was three star, but I waited. Let me tell you that the end is incredible, a lot of fun, and really ties everything else in so well it really does give it two extra stars. I sound crazy, but buy it and play it yourself and you'll see. The storyline is immersive, but at the end, the climax makes it so much more satisfying. I love the combat system, which works both with or without the use of cover, biotic abilities, though halting gameplay, do not really take away from the atmosphere of gunfights, and the enemies, though mostly from one race, are diverse. Visuals are stunning and audio is odd but appropriate.
I do not like the uncharted worlds. I was looking forward to this. This is with the added detraction of the Mako being no fun to use. Unfortunately, they almost all have the same content, none of which is really worth your time, and you get credits for EVERYTHING you do and money doesn't really matter you end up with so much and use shops so little. That said, like KOTOR, you play through and your done. You want to do something again and you have to start again. Sound rubbish, but I think it adds to the replayability. I'm definately playing it at least once more just to do a few things I wanted to do.
Unlike KOTOR though, something which I miss, is that your squadmates don't have quite as much depth. Not all of them have good stories behind them, and Joker, who has the most detailed, has this Hollywood sob story I didn't care for. That said, the romance subplot broke new ground and at first I thought it was a bit much but I realized its no worst than what you see in movies, its only interactive, which was kind of fun.
BioShock was shooter with RPG elements, but this is an even mix of shooting and RPG elements. Mass Effect is setting its flag in a new sort of hybrid genre of video games just emerging, and I think they've done a fine job, play it through and you'll probably think the same.

Total Rehash of Past Games

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 12
Date: December 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

After playing through most of this game, I just don't get why so many people are raving about it. First of all, the actual name should be something like "Knights of the Old Mass Effect" or "Mass Effect of the Old Republic", because it's almost a complete redo of the KOTOR games down to a lot of small details. A group of galactic peacekeepers/police? Not Jedis, rename them 'Spectres' and yep, you've got them. A trusted and powerful Jedi/Spectre who turns evil and tries to conquer the galaxy with a super-powerful spaceship? Yep, got that too. An overwhelming evil that threatens all life? Yep. Jedi powers? Rename them 'Biotic' effects and yep, there they are. Same squad-type setup, same basic aliens just tweaked slightly (and REALLY non-imaginatively, they're all just basic humanoids who don't even act like aliens - it's the Star Trek method of putting a ridge on a forehead and BOOM! Hey, it's an alien!), potential romances with various party members, on and on and on. It was deja-vu all over again!

I found even the level designs surprisingly disappointing and LAZY - every spaceship you enter, every mine, every underground complex all have the EXACT SAME layout! I mean come on, is it REALLY too much to ask a supposedly 'next gen' game to have unique layouts for different areas??

And a major part of the game is incredibly annoying - the tank like 'MAKO' which you're forced to drive all over super-rugged planet terrains handles like a shopping cart with a busted wheel, and hello bad camera angles. Trying to get from Point A to Point B on these planets is an exercise in frustration and boredom, again NOT what you'd expect from a Next-Gen game with so much hype.

I could go on but really, this game is a 3 at best and certainly not worth the $60, unless you're REALLY desperate for KOTOR 3 and need a fix. Wait for it to go bargain bin, at $29 or so more worth it.

Thats It?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 10
Date: December 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect is a mediocre game at best. Offering retro visuals and soundtrack (circa Logan's Run), it is uniquely stylish and cool. The problem is that the style gets old and you realize the graphics are really, really outdated. The physics engine is just plain silly.

The primary storyline is fun and entertaining, but a little short. The outline of the story is brilliant, but the way it is told is dumbed down for Saturday morning cartoons. While playing the game, I did a lot of the side quests (which get very boring, very quickly) as I was under the impression I needed to gear up for some great free-form adventure, ala Oblivion in space. This is NOT the case.

Overall, this game offers some unique elements and given another 6-8 months in development it could have been one of the great games of all time. As it is, this game doesn't even make the top five games of the year. Lets hope the second release in the franchise gets the time it deserves.

Better than Knights?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Look at the title...Am I going to go out and say that this is better than Knights of the Old Republic? Yes I am! Don't get me wrong, with the exception of Zelda TP for Wii, KOTOR was my favorite game for a long time. Well earlier this week I got Mass Effect, I played it for 30 minutes and I was hooked.

This game has so much more for a fan of this genre (Yes, this game is extremely similar to KOTOR). I have played into it for about 9 hours and I can't put down the controller. In getting rid of the "Force", Bastilla, or wookies, you get Williams, Reapers, and Krogan.

This game has a lot to offer for the gamer, you can fly to different galaxies and do various missions, the vehicle for this game is a lot better than the warthog from Halo fame, and you are forced to make some tough decisions.

From Start to the point where I am this game is great! If you were a fan of KOTOR then this game is a must-have.

Rumor has it that Bioware will be releasing at least 2 more sequels to this game as well as releasing storyline fillers on X-BOX Live in the future. There is also rumor that decisions from your character in this game will carry over to future sequels. How awesome is that?

Do you love sci-fi? You'll LOVE this game.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I recently learned that this game will be part of a trilogy, to be published over the next few years. GENIUS.

This game is awesome. If you really love sci-fi you'll love this game. It mixes a perfect amount of story, dialogue interaction, equipment management, upgrading of skills, and action. I really couldn't ask for more.

I've been playing it non stop the past three days and I think its the best sci-fi game I've ever played. There I said it.

Excellent, almost perfect

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

There are so many things this game does well it is hard to know where to begin. The story is phenomenal but be prepared to be an active participant. Unfolding all of the details depends on your own playing style, patience, and determination. The voice acting... I've never played a game where you can tell each character's personality based almost solely on inflection. I've seen some people rate the game negatively based on the combat system, but I think the reviewers may have been anticipating a completely different game. It is a 3rd person shooter, kinda...well sort of. OK, it's a hybrid of the KOTOR series and squad based shooters (Rainbow six, republic commando etc). The system takes some getting used to as you have to open the command prompt and then target an enemy and give the order, and it probably could have been made more intuitive, an actual tutorial would have been nice...give it a learning curve of about an hour of combat to finally understand how things work. I think not being able to switch to other character's perspectives is fine because the whole concept is based on you becoming Shepard and if that is the case you would never see fights from Wrex's eyes.

Now, this is an RPG story and so you should be prepared for such. The game breaks down to probably 1/3 combat, 1/3 dialogue, 1/3 exploration. You will not be moving from fight to fight in constant action. Also, you won't be able to explore EVERY planet you come across, some are too inhospitable or uninteresting to explore. Again some may be disappointed but personally I found it realistic. Very few worlds would develop into models of Earth.

Is the Game perfect: no. But show me one game that lacks a single flaw and I'll eat my shoe. Overall the game is an A++, those unfamiliar with KOTOR or RPG's in general may do well to rent it first as they may be bored if they aren't involved in the story. Anyone else BUY IT, you WILL play it multiple times.

More than the sum of its parts

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect proves to be far more than the sum of its parts. It may have a few flaws, mostly frame-rate hiccups and a poor inventory interface, but the incredible story-telling, the sheer immersiveness of the experience, the fantastic writing and voice acting, the gripping storyline, the engaging and just plain fun combat... all of these combine to draw a player into the experience. Ultimately, a game has to be viewed as a whole, and while this game has its flaws, it is still one of the best games to grace any platform in years. I will be playing this game for years to come, just as I pick up a favorite novel off my shelf and re-read it, immerse myself in its world again. This is truly "interactive fiction."

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