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Not done yet but loving it

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bought Mass Effect with the excuse that it was "officially released" (I know the street date was broken) the same day that my son was born. It is a pretty decent game to get while you are taking turns with your significant other watching your children. Has a typical RPG type pace and has been a lot of fun. It's amazing how much detail has been put into the universe. I will most likely buy any DLC that comes out for this game as long as it seems like an appropriate value.

Either way this game is a must buy for xbox 360.

Disappointing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For anyone who has played Bioware's, "Knights of the Old Republic", "Mass Effect" will be somewhat disappointing. Though there are some positive attributes in the game, the many unpolished components really take away from the whole experience. I believe that another 6 months of refinement would have resulted in significant improvement. Also, the decision to design this game as a combination of "Gears of War" with some elements of KOTOR failed. I was also disappointed in the length of the game; finishing it in 30 hours, and that included completing all of the boring side missions. This is certainly not the immersive RPG that was advertised and even reviewed by some game review sites. It do not believe it even has 20% of Oblivion's content and complexity.

Graphics - Mixed bag. The dialog scenes have unprecedented amount of detail in the face models as well as impressive English language lip-synching. However, the in-game details are just decent and quite repetitive. The frame rates come to an almost stand still when there were more than a few non-player characters on the screen during skirmishes. That had a significant negative impact on game-play.

Sound - The best attribute of the game. Great voice-acting, ambient and weapons sounds, and musical score.

Game-play - This aspect basically destroyed the game for me. While trying to be an action game, Mass Effect failed miserably. Horrible frame-rate drops, uninspiring magic (biotic) powers & weapons, and hokey "Halo" vehicle ruined the action elements (Halo's jeep vehicle is hokey even in Halo. I don't know why anyone would want to copy it!) Inability to directly control your partner characters and clunky menu system used to assign weapons & upgrades limited the RPG elements. KOTOR's RPG battle system had a significantly positive impact on other games like Final Fantasy XII (Square Enix basically stole the system and improved it. I am not sure why Bioware would actually destroy their own milestone setting RPG battle system.

Story - Mixed bag here as well. The main story was good, but nothing we haven't heard already. KOTOR's story was superior. The side missions were exceedingly repetitive and boring. The amount of written material was impressive, yet, it doesn't compare to a less detailed, but amazing creative story of the original God of War on the PS2.

Clearly, Bioware was pressured to hand this game into production for the holiday season and it shows. I actually chuckled watching the closing credits on the screen and seeing over a dozen names in the QA department. I believe they could have learned from Rock Star's wisdom (since they delayed GTA IV for next year), and took more time to refine this title. I am wondering if any NPV analyses would have forecasted higher revenues for a first quarter 2008 release being that there would be less competition? I read somewhere that that was Rock Star's strategy for GTA IV.

Mass Effect Has Everything

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect strings a wonderful plotline, letting you decide the fate of the galaxy, the morale code you follow, and the kind of crew under your command. Easier decisions follow, like deciding where to place your proximity grenade for the best ambush, or deciding which rocky formation you can launch your vehicle off of for maximum air. For more added depth, it also offers tons of synthetic aliens to shoot to pieces. Use your squad commands and your capable team will shoot more aliens into more pieces. Massive landscape on a hundred planets allow you stroll about the Milky Way in your own state of the art Earth made Frigate. It drops you and your team off in the most hazardous terrain, but your off-road vehicle can handle the worst of it while blowing synthetic aliens to pieces at the same time.
With all the action and shooting in Mass Effect, it is still an awesome RPG with a well designed story and upgrades galore. It reminded me of the hugely popular SW Knights of the Old Republic games and went beyond it with it's size and scope. It is different from other RPG's with it's fight sequences being so fluid and natural, similar to any great first person shooter.
The background view while running or driving around was always amazing. Scenes of futuristic off-world cities and galactic phenomenon plastered the screen with brilliant color. Interesting settings on all these planets and moons lead to endless exploring and reconnoitering, while characters across the galaxy had things to say and stories to tell. As with any good game, the looking and delving always seemed to pay off. Things around every corner waiting to be discovered, or learned, or used. Packs of med-packs, crates of armor, buckets of upgrades, tablets of glyphs, deposits of gold, and my favorite, the popular boxes of rifles. Even in the dialog and investigation, exploring lead to good things.
Your sarcastic pilot, given voice by Seth Green, nimbly takes your ship through some sweet moves and navigates across dangerous asteroid belts. The graphics are fun to watch, and since you aren't playing a pilot, you can watch your ship "the Normandy" do all kinds a cool things, which is almost as good as doing it yourself.
This game is appealing because of it's broad design and structure. Making decisions transforms Mass Effect into an optional wonderland. Zipping around the galaxy, driving across remarkable planets, conversing with government councils, or shooting synthetic aliens to pieces, this game is whatever you make it. You decide.

A Rainbow Coalition of Fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If I'm not entirely mistaken, 2007 is going to be remembered by us game geeks as the year we couldn't afford to pick-up all the 5-star rated games. What a year..especially if you are an xbox360 owner. Bioshock, Halo3, Orange Box, and now Mass Effect.

Wowie. Mass Effect is a huge, sprawling game that like Bioshock, gets almost everything right. The graphics are off-the-chart, the voice acting (with the curious exception of the female lead)is excellent, the gameplay is smooth as silk, the plot is (for the most part) surprisingly mature and absorbing, and there aren't any significant technical issues.

The sheer scope of this game makes you constantly shake your head in admiration for the voluminous amount of work that must have gone into this thing. I spent the vast majority of my 20+ gaming years on the PC, simply because console games were too "arcady" and simplistic for me. Well Mass Effect is really a complex PC game more than anything else. The console has finally grown-up.

Pros:

Incredibly "cinema-like" experience, without sacrificing interaction and gameplay. No "Dreamfall" syndrome here.

Graphics do matter. The character models are so lifelike, and the voice acting so good, that it renders dramatic scenes eerily believable. Even a cynical old sod like me was able to care about the characters, and believe the scenarios. Most Hollywood films can't manage this anymore.

The gameplay manages to mix shooting, rpg elements, storytelling, and adventure gaming to the point where you feel as if you really went through a journey. I personally was never bored (although as with most rpg's the side quests could get a bit monotonous after awhile, although even these were more interesting and fun than most).

The different moral choices you make in the game really can alter the way some things go, unlike most of these types of games. One particularly clever use of the device happens when your character is ambushed by a news reporter and you are forced to diplomatically answer hot political questions on the fly with a camera in your face. One of the few times in 20 years of gaming that I said "Wow..pretty clever".

Cons: Not much, but no game is perfect.

There are many planets to explore..but there's nothing on them. It would be a great launching pad for an expansion pack though. Put something on those planets and I'll pony up 40 more bucks!

The combat was not as polished or fulfilling as the best shooters, but it was by far the best of any game I can remember that wasn't designed as a shooter. I've played actual fps's that were a lot worse.

50 seconds every time you get in an elevator. Arggghh

All that you've heard about driving the land vehicle is true. It's an excellent DUI simulator though...with no danger to the public.

Politically correct speechifying that would make Oprah look like Charles Bronson. Celebrate diversity...or else you xenophobic, alien hating facist!

Things I learned from playing Mass Effect:

Futuristic Land Rovers can drive-up 90 degree inclines...but not in a straight line.

There are no Caucasians in space. If you decide you want to buy some tanning lotion, Mayonnaise, or a U2 album at the space port...forget it.

Lesbians are hot. Even blue ones with a squid head.

This is the Best Game Ever!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 01, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Finally an adult game for adult minds. Role playing games don't get any better than Mass Effect. It's better than Xenosaga, better than Knights of the Old Republic, better than Elder Scrolls. Mass Effect is so good, it can't even be compared with average, run of the mill RPG's where the player characters run around an imaginary landscape, destroying monsters and collecting treasures, until they finally complete the single goal stated at the beginning of the game.

In Mass Effect, the appearance and the abilities of the protaganist, Commander Shephard, are fully customizable. As play progesses the character of the protaganist develops directly out of his/her choices, and those choices directly influence the outcome of story. As a SPECTRE, Commander Shephard confronts realistic questions of good and evil, of right and wrong. He/she must make difficult decisions which directly affect the lives of those around him/her. Ultimately, the fate of the galaxy comes to ride on his/her shoulders.

I became so emotionally involved in this game that I broke into tears on two occasions--something I have never done before while playing a game. The game ends spectacularly. Mass Effect is an intelligent, enjoyable game. I hope to see more games of this quality in the future.

Best SF Role playing game I've ever played!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: January 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I typically don't have much time to play. Let me rephrase that - I don't get to play as much as I would like. If I had my way, I'd play video games two to four hours a day. But, I've got a family and a full time job. There's housework and yard work that needs to be done, and there are my many other pastimes that I would rather engage in.

My wife being one of them.

Anyhow, I recently rented the game Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. I like to rent before I buy to see how the game plays and to see if I can play it or not. It's that whole motion sickness thing that happens to me on the fairly regular basis when it comes to many games.

When I picked the game up, I thought I was renting a first person shooter. I didn't realize until after I finished the opening sequence that it was in fact, a very elaborate science fiction role playing game that had a first person shooter aspect.

I almost returned it, but since I was bored and didn't feel like playing my usual Everquest 2 on the PC, I decided that I'd give it a shot.

Within two days I ended up returning the rental and I bought a copy for myself. Yes, I enjoyed it that much.

Now, like typical role playing games, you get experience for completing quests and defeating enemies. This allows the character you play to level up, and by doing so, you gain more and more abilities to use, and it unlocks new skills as well.

Starting out the game, you can choose to play the default Character Commander John Sheppard. I discovered however after I finished the game, that you can customize your character. You can choose from six different character classes and you can play both male and female. There's even a female version of Sheppard.

Spare me your mock outrage, lets face it, tons of males out there like to play female characters in games. Look at Tomb Raider or various online multiplayer games.

I stray as I often to do.

To the meat of the review. First of all, the game is quite massive. Secondly, as you start, you have three levels of difficulty to choose from.

Now, you have your primary quest, which is to locate and defeat a character named Saren. He's got a wickedly evil plan to bring back an ancient foe from a bygone era to wipe out all sentient life in the galaxy.

There are literally dozens upon dozens of side quests that you can participate in. These quests range from your typical UPS (get item and deliver it), to search and destroy, collections and investigation. Just to name a few.

Also, you're not limited to a single planet. The quests, including the main one, take you across the entire galaxy.

I personally played out the majority of the side quests that I discovered.

I'm currently playing the game again, in order to finish off all the various quests that I missed.

As game length goes, after I beat the game I had played it for almost twenty-eight hours in total. I ended up getting lucky and I found the bad guy pretty much right off the bat, so that greatly reduced the game play time. Since I'm playing it a second time, I'll see how long it takes me to finish it. After all, I plan on doing all the side quests this time around.

Also, there are `badges' that you can unlock, forty to be exact. My first time through I only unlocked fifteen.

There were several really neat aspects to the game. All the various skills you possessed had special powers that could be used during combat. Some effected organic targets, while others could be used on the various robotic units you fought.

Even better, you could play an Adept, which gives you access to Biotics, or essentially Psionic abilities.

Now, you have all kinds of weapons and armour to choose from. You can use pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, grenades, and sniper rifles. As the game progresses you can find better weapons to swap out.

Also, to make things even better, you can get mods to use for your weapons and armour. Different types of bullets to use against different types of foes, modifications for your armour and even for your biotic abilities.

The game also possesses an economy system that allows you to sell weapons, armour and mods that you no longer use, and you can buy newer and better types depending on the world you are visiting.

Pretty much every item you get in game will come from various locations on the maps. Crates, safe's, etc... they can either be opened, or you can bypass the security on the items if your hacking or electronics is sufficiently high enough.

Even on your ship you can sell and buy. As the NPC says, he rotates the stock every so often so you get new items to choose from.

Travelling is pretty much controlled by your wireless controller, with the exception of travelling from star system to star system.

The combat is pretty much your standard first person shooter. You've got your crosshair to help you target, and depending on your skill level with a particular weapon, you may not even have to have the crosshair centered on the target at all in order to hit it.

You can also crouch, hide behind crates and walls to protect yourself from incoming fire and in some cases use items that are nearby as weapons to incapacitate or kill your targets.

On casual play, you automatically regenerate your health, but on standard or higher play mode, you'll have to be a lot more careful, as you can only heal by getting medi gel, which is found throughout the game or as a reward for finishing quests.

There are plenty of cut-scenes to keep you happy, and it is very dialog heavy. Some encounters with NPC's throughout the game take a great deal of time, especially if you ask all the possible questions.

And, you have two extra skills - Charm and Intimidate, both of which, depending on your skill level, can open up new dialog options.

The graphics are incredible! Well, with one exception. I found several times that the character graphics were a little washed out during dialog cut-scenes. They seemed off to me.

But, that shouldn't be a deterrent to you, the reader, from picking up the game.

Speaking of graphics, one thing that really surprised me was actual nudity near the end of the game. Nothing really major, or naughty, but something I didn't expect. Hey, I'm not complaining - I'm no prude!

The sound-effects were well done. Everything from the gunfire to explosions to the background conversations you could eavesdrop on as you wandered around the various levels and locations.

I even enjoyed the music that was playing in the background. For those of you like me, the soundtrack is available for purchase.

Finally, there were quite a few well known actors who did the vocals for several of the characters in the game. Seth Green, Lance Henricksen, Keith David, and Marina Sirtis - these were the voices I recognized even before checking the manual or reading the endgame credits.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience. The game has to be good in order for me to play it a second, and maybe even a third time down the road. Most of the time when I play a game, I play it once to the end and that's it.

Not the case with this game.

5 out of 5

==> GET THIS GAME<==

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

==>GET THIS GAME<== If you're in to Sci Fi and RPGs this game is for you.

Surprised at how great this game really is.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: March 17, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Mass effect is another reason I am glad to have an Xbox 360. I've played several other RPGs before, but this game really comes to the table with many fresh ideas, innovative gameplay, and a very deep and involving story.

Mass effect allows you so many experiences it's difficult to sum it all up without really writing an overly huge review. I'll try to really explain the main points of why I think you should really buy this game.

Mass Effect's story is huge, it's inspired, and it's interesting. The whole game I was interested in the Galaxy's history, and the many differect species the creators of Mass Effect put in it. Dialogue in the game is extremely well done, with terrific voice acting and one notable innovation: you choose what type of answer you want to give in reply. Some answers will butter people up and allow more side-quest options, some will be brash and rude, cutting the conversation short. It's really all about how you want to be, or how you would react and it actually sways how the game is experienced.

Combat is another honorable mention, it's basically done similar to Gears of War, with the use of cover and weapon selection. Combat is almost an extra game in itself. It's not as cleanly executed as Gears of War but it's similar, with it's close quarters combat, long range sniping, but with jedi-like powers thrown in. You can chose to be a simple soldier using several guns to mow down your enemies, or a crafty Biotic using amazing powers to cripple, throw, stun, or levitate your enemies in the air while your team plugs them full of holes. The combat in Mass Effect leaves the player with some definite memorable shoot-outs and moments, which gladly is a large portion of the gameplay. You'll fight mercenaries, pirates, aliens, and synthetics. Most notably, the Geth, a synthetic race attacking human settlements and a key factor in the plot.

You'll spend a good deal of the time shooting around the galaxy in the Normandy, a huge, sexy, top of the line space cruiser. You'll also be exploring various planets with your six-wheeled, armored death tank: the Mako. It's basically the most capable off-road vehicle ever, with a booster jump ability, machine guns, and a big turret mounted cannon. It's got a great radar sytem to find anomalies, resources to survey for the Alliance, two view modes (3rd and 1st person), and a zoom ability so you can blast an alien or pirate flaming into the air from miles away. You have a large area of a planet's surface to explore and most planets are unique and different in some way. Some you can only be out of the Mako a limited amount of time due to extreme cold/heat/toxins etc. Some are rolling, some jagged, some have an atmosphere, some have huge sub-terrainian worms that try to kill you, it's always fun to check out a planet, be it to find resources and minerals, fallen probes, ancient ruins, mines, camps etc. This is all basically how side-quests are done. Sometimes you get to take down corrupt companies using remote planets to do inhumane experiments, erradicate an infestation, or solve a mystery and learn about things. You can simply bomb through the quests, or you can lolly-gag around to find minerals for extra money, it's all very fun though.

Despite Mass Effect having large portions of combat and driving, it still has plenty of item management, shops, upgrades etc. It's all very well done. Usually, should you start to be bored with a section it will change and you'll be doing something else, keeping everything fresh and fun. There's alot of freedom in Mass Effect, freedom to go where you want, act how you want, choose to kill someone if you want, and treat people how you want. It's like nothing you've ever played before, it's got great writing, great gameplay, and a great feel to it. You really become immersed in the game, which takes about 40 hours to complete. But it's also worth it to play through again and again and make different choices and see what happens, the game can be a different experience each time. You get to roll out with the generic Shepard character or create your own character, name, history, sex, attitude etc. and after only a few hours of gameplay, they take the leash off an you get control of your own ship. In between missions, excursions, plot, you can walk about your ship. You can talk to your crew, see the ship's armorer to buy gear, go to the lockers and equip your crew members, or just talk to people and learn about them or the ship. Then, grab the reigns and go wherever in the galaxy to shop, explore, rescue, kill, and profit.

I have to mention, the game is buggier than a derelict mobile home. Most of the time, the bugs aren't bad, simple glitches, draw-in, short loading pauses and such. It can somewhat detach you from the experience, but I noticed the level of thought and complexity that's going on, I don't care at all. With a game as good as this, it's worth the occasional glitch and draw in. It still plays good, it still looks good and I love it. I know I'm missing alot about it, there's a ton of things going on with this game and I really think they've set a bar with this one. I personally only enjoy those games that are the best at what they do, (COD 4, GOW etc) and this is another of those rare games that put you in awe. If you own a 360, definitely buy this game, it's just another reason I love my 360.

Mass Effect

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

WOW! This game totally rocks! A perfect blend of story-line and combat with some of the most fun shoot-outs I have played in a long time. There are very few "boss scenes" (thank God!) and the ones that did exist were still pretty playable and allowed for a variety of strategies rather than the common "tedious" choices that exist in most games. The freedom to choose story lines was very cool as well and the visuals were amazing! This is not a short game ... be prepaired to invest a good chunk of time if you are a player that likes to earn all the in-game awards. Really fun and worth every penny!

Epic. Amazing. Must-play,

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: February 24, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is a game for the ages. It is a game that makes people buy a system. The fact that it is the first in a trilogy makes it even better.

You are basically playing a Sci-Fi movie with a plot that rivals many on the big screen, immersive experience, awesome powers and weapons, and a fully fleshed out universe with 40-50 hours of gameplay for one playthrough. However, you'll want to play it at least twice, maybe more.

The achievements are well thought out and have in-game effects on your powers, accuracy, etc. The best achievements so far for a 360 game, imo.

The only drawback is ever so slight. In some scenes, it will add more pixels as it loads, making this game a 98/100 instead of a 100/100.

The is Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR), with a new universe, a better plot, and an even more addictive gameplay.

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