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Thoroughly deserving; hands-down must have.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Let me say up front that this is, without a doubt, the most cinematic game I've ever played. They weren't lying when they said this game boasted "credible digital actors." You won't find a comparable performance out there anywhere. This game has the best voice-acting and direction of any I've yet seen.

If you've seen the previews and some screenshots but still aren't sure what this game will be like, imagine crossing Gears of War with Knights of the Old Republic. Fighting is twitch over-the-shoulder like GoW, but your character's attributes and gear are all menu-based, RPG-style. The items system is highly reminiscient of KOTOR (which is understandable, since Bioware is responsible for both titles).

One thing I'll burst right now, too: this game loves to make a large fact of its many choices and routes. This is not entirely an accurate picture they've painted. You'll still go to the same worlds and complete the same missions as everyone else to win--you just might do it in a different order. And you CAN get a few different outcomes, but they're variations on a theme. There are dozens of conversation choices, but they're also an illusion--most conversations all lead to the same point, and your choice of words only occasionally affects your paragon or renegade points. Most unimportant conversations will have the same answer regardless of how you choose to phrase the question.

There are a couple of dozen systems you can visit that have no real bearing on the main plot: they're there for fun and exploration. Many of these planets can be surveyed for minerals or items, and some can be landed upon. This results in a cool animation of your rover being dropped from the Normandy onto the planet, and sets you loose in a sandbox to muck about for as long as you wish.

There are advantages to exploring. You can find mineral deposits to survey, or you might come across a pirate base or mine. Sometimes you'll find a colony that's been attacked by the Geth, or a rogue VI. Each planet has its own secrets.

The rover you explore the planets in is fun, too, and deserves a mention. If you enjoy any kind of off-roading game, you'll like the rover. It's darn near unstoppable and you can have fun sending it flying off of mountainsides or down steep canyon walls. Mastering the jets on it is a whole other adventure.

Mission-specific locations result in something more linear, but no less enjoyable. You'll have to fight your way through many facilities and colonies trying to track down Saren, a rogue Spectre who wants to help an ancient race of machines called Reapers attack the galaxy's civilizations. These missions are where you'll have to make those tough decisions the previews alluded to. Sometimes you might have to kill an innocent or two. One other--significant--occasion forces you to choose between two party members. The unlucky one perishes. Boy, if only they'd given me a choice between Yuffie and Aeris.

As with many RPG's, there's a romance subplot, but Mass Effect has two firsts: A) an achievement that requires the completion of this subplot and B) let's call it a scene wherein two partymembers get to know one another a lot better. And it's tastefully done, at that.

This game also had something that's been missing from a lot of other ones I've played in my lifetime: a satisfying ending. Sure, they left room for Mass Effect 2 in there, but the plot closes up nicely. And there's one heck of a scene you're treated to, also. If you liked that space battle scene at the end of Return of the Jedi, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

The graphics are amazing, especially the distance shots. The Presidium looks convincing. Planets' weather systems are great. My favorite was one planet that was passing through the debris trail of a comet, so I was treated to views of a meteor shower as I explored the surface.

Shadows get a mention. Mass Effect has the most well-done shadows I've seen yet on a 360 title. They're not only proportionate but they shift based on the light source, and they do it accurately. Haven't found another title yet that's managed to get it right. Really adds to the subconscious sense of realism.

One graphics tic: occasionally enemies will fire through hillsides or objects and hit you. This is frustrating when it happens, but it's not all that often.

The music fits very well. It reminds me of the tracks that play on Carl Sagan's Cosmos documentary, and are evocative of the future. Quicker-paced action music accentuates combat and there's an inspiring heroic theme that picks up here and there as things happen onscreen.

All in all, nearly flawless. Imagine KOTOR, then switch combat to twitch, triple its content, and finally remove a lot of the restrictions on where and when you could travel, and you have Mass Effect. This game is great. It's well worth your money. You'll get lots of playtime out of it, and you'll enjoy every moment.

A great experience

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: February 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

A completely engaging experience. The story is extremely immersive, due in large part to the great voice acting. Gameplay juggles elements from both a third-person shooter and a role-playing game, and as a result isn't a great example of either. However, the grand scale and great presentation of the other aspects of the game more than make up for any shortcomings.

If you didn't like it, you didn't get it.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I love movies. I love sci-fi. By strange happenstance, I like sci-fi movies, as well.

Mass Effect is like interacting with a rich, well thought-out sci-fi movie. The characters are deep, and interactions are rich and detailed, it hearkens back to Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, and that feeling you're watching a quality Star Wars prequel. You come to care for the characters, come to have favorites, and prefer the attitudes of some to others.

I love FPS, i love RPGs. ME is a beautiful partnership between the two. FPS purists, and people who would rather "get to the shootin'" will NOT appreciate this game. As a suggestion, people who would rather "get to the shootin'" should chill out and take some time for this. Savor it like a fine wine, perhaps. Appreciate the finer things, etc., etc.

I'm keeping purposely cursory quite simply because I don't want to spoil the fun, the storyline, and the sense of adventure that permeates the whole game. I'd rather you discover it for yourself.

Does the game have its flaws? Yes. Driving the Mako is awkward, but not "impossible" as some claim. Sometimes the textures load slowly, but it rarely detracts from the gameplay. Overheating is a little annoying, but takes the place of reloads, so it nets out about the same.

All In all a great game. Not without flaws, but if you love cinema, sci-fi, and fps/rpgs, this is highly recommended.

Tedium, thy name is Mako

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 23
Date: March 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect is so close to being great. If it spent a few more months in development it could have been something really, really fun. Sadly this game is unplayable.

Story and Pace - Great, I was sucked in from the begining. It's like playing a really fun and interesting movie.

Foot Combat - at first a little weird, but once you get the hang of it, it's exceptionally fun. Something you'll find your self looking forward to.

Graphics - a few texture pop-ins and rare and non-problematic frame rate issues. Overall just great.

Driving the Mako tank - Here is where I just stopped playing. Controling the tank feels like they took the controls for the warthog in the Halo series and just went out of their way to make them worse. Ok. I can deal.

Combat in the Mako tank - Forget about it.
- Your F***ing torret doesn't move up and down while your fighting enemies on various levels, you you have to physically be on the same level, though they can shoot you from where they are.

- The reticle seems to be the exact same color as the back ground.
- 5 hits and your dead. Yeah, you can heal your tank, but like once, and even then you have sit there imobile by while dudes wail on you.
- You'll be fighting hordes of enimies you can't see until after they've hit you three or four times.
- When you die, and you will die often. You have to watch the same UNINTERUBTIBLE F***ing cinematics instead of just being thrown back in.

I finished Ninja Gaiden and Lost Planet with little difficulty, (OK they were tough as hell) But THIS?! It's not fun. If they made the Mako Tank portions of this game better, then I'm sure this game could be a really great experiance. As is, I can't even F***ing advance in the game, it's just to frustrating and difficult to...um advance in the game.

Just note, the tank is a small portion of the game. But one so frustrating it'll make you want to throw your controller.

Bottom Line
A lot of people love it (and good for them man)
A lot of people hate it
I say rent it. Your saves will still be there if you like it so much you want to own it.

Not Fun

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Impressive in scope and appearance. Not fun to play. It is basically an exercise in making your character walk from multiple choice test to multiple choice test.

Like watching a masterpiece painting burn before your eyes...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I can't express the utter disappointment I have with the latest offering from the proven Bioware team. For some reason, critics and fanboys are willing to forgive the fact that the game is completely unfinished, with a nonexistent caching system, wonky controls, repetitive "dungeons", lackluster battle system and the worst item/inventory lists ever. The saving grace, of course, is the dialog tree system which makes it half bearable to find out what the writers have waiting in their space addled brains. And the story is what keeps the critics happy. But, honestly, I could have enjoyed reading the book instead of punishing myself with hours of boring gameplay to get to a story that had a striking resemblance to another space epic already emulated by Bioware in the past....

Ugh. Why ship it if it ain't fixed?

Mass Effect

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: January 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

graphically detailed visual piece; can spend hours at a time playing this game; sometimes a little unsettling that you have to go so far back in the game if you should sucumb to an untimely demise

Some brilliant moments...but very bland gameplay

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 12 / 62
Date: November 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have been playing video games for years, I was there for the launch of the atari, I saw the same company sink the industry in 83 and I saw the brilliance of Nintendo in 85. I drove to Atlanta Georgia in 97 and 98 to be apart of E3 and met the heavy weights like Bernie Stolar, Howard Lincoln, Shigeru Miyomoto, I chewed out Capcom for taking too long on getting a sequel for Bionic Commando and I was one of the lucky few who got spanked by the hot girls who were there to promote thrill kill (which EA killed for good) and I survived several hours in line on a few occasions to get the newest console the next day.

My qualifications are unmatched and respected, my love and loyalty for video games knows no bounds. My mind is an encyclopedia of video games of which my coworkers constantly refer to.

One of my school collegues works for EA and helps in the sound department for the medal of honor games, I have a friend who is going to school to be a video game programmer and I have another who has perhaps the biggest vintage/rare collection of video games in the western hemisphere. We are talking prototypes of games that never made it to stores. Video games have been a significant part of my life.

When Mass effect was first talked about I got excited. This looked to be awesome. However I was let down..Hard..please proceed to find out why...

When I popped this puppy in my 360 my jaw dropped. I mean the graphics are just beautiful and the sound was perfect. It stopped my wife in her tracks and she just sat there in stunned silence as the game was getting warmed up. I was smiling like joker on steriods, this is it the space adventure I DREAMED about. When I played the actual game I felt my excitement level amp up. It didnt take long for it to level out, drop than bottom out than just out. heres the problem folks. Glitches, lot of them and while the game is breathtaking visually and has a great score I realized that I was talking and wondering around...ALOT. The meat was missing from the hamburger. The combat just seems like an afterthought. There is no doubt in my mind that this game was rushed to meet the holidays. No doubt at all. Also I thought it would get better when I was given command of my own ship and to go out and explore but it never really felt diffrent than the beginning. I didnt feel that rush to do anything really. its just walk around and talk, listen to people complain about thier surroundings and the geth. Also, your team in combat are just useless, they get killed very easily. Your better off running solo.

The game is very pretty and the story seems to be very well thought out but ya know...something is missing...yea..its called FUN..FUN FUN!!

Where is it? I do agree that its not a instant gratification game like Contra or supermario brothers but come on, Mass effect is begging for more life and vibrancy. Everything while pleasing is very bland and just...well dead. Video games should never be seen as a chore, Mass Effect is the equivalent of cleaning your house. Talk, talk, talk, than glitch, talk, glitch, talk, clunky boring combat, teammates die, glitch, talk, talk, glitch.

The story while epic is most definatley incredible, unfortunately the game play cant ahere to the same quality. Thats its biggest weakness that I saw. The glitches didnt help either. And yes I already traded it in for store credit to my dismay.

Gameplay:5
Music:9
Graphics:10

Overall: 6.7

My kids won't let me play!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: January 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

My kids love this game. I've hardly had a chance to play it all. But I've seen them explore worlds, discover new abilities and tap into the incredibly deep story line.

It plays a lot like its KOTOR predecessor, but with a great new graphics engine, a top notch story and some fun new character abilities.

Replay value is pretty high.

MASS EFFECT IS BORING

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 22
Date: December 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The only good thing about this game is the graphic. It is absolutely beautiful. Other than that, it is extremely boring and slow pace. If you love Knights of The Old Republic, then you'll feel at home. Otherwise you have to get to know all the options, equipments, weapons, different alien races, space ships, characters. If you love FPS, this game is very dissapointing. After giving 2 days to try this game, I decided to return it back to Gamestop.

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