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Well...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 21
Date: June 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I find this game to be a "mini-Oblivion", the quests and such without the insane leveling.
Voice acting is superb.
Gameplay is hackneyed(point, shoot, repeat),but I like that "light side" points are separated from the "dark side" points.
Grafix is good, good for a UT3 engine based game(film grain, anyone).
BUT:
terrible excuse for tutorial(ie:NONE).
Assumes too much of gamer, in story and instructions. For example, when you clear out the hot labs, I didn't know until I was killed that you needed to get on the elevator out...I hope I'm not just being a n00b.
AI is not that great.

Oh,and BTW:quit the DRM complaints. This is not slashdot. Not many people in the world care about DRM,and don't even know what it is. Bioware was kind enough to at least tone it down. Admit it, DRM is not going away soon.Only one "mainstream" game has recently come out without some form of DRM,Sins of a Solar Empire,and while its a great game, the lack of DRM is not a selling point that the average human is privy to.
I don't like DRM. I take pride in using FairUse4WM, FairPlay, and I use *nix(BSD too). But I want to play games,and I am willing to compromise and take DRM.

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 14
Date: June 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

If you like KOTOR and sci-fi then you will enjoy this game. Nice mix of fast action and RPG.

Massive Poo

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 15
Date: August 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I almost vomited.
I rather not talk about it anymmore
I am afraid i would become as bad as the game itself.

Some things are better left alone...

A feast for the eyes (and your brain too)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 15
Date: June 03, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It's quite surprising to see so many negative reviews of quite possibly one of the best games of recent memory. One of the main criticisms has obviously been about the copy protection scheme that EA decided to use, and the issue has already been discussed and debated for quite some time now. I don't want to dwell too much on the subject, but I would like to point out that the current scheme does not require you to keep the disc in the drive, which is good enough for me as it saves me the trouble of searching online for a no-cd crack. Bottom line, if the game is good, no amount of copy protection should stop you from showing the developers your support and buying the game.

Now onto the game itself...

I've been eagerly awaiting Mass Effect for PC ever since I saw my friends playing it on the Xbox 360, enough to the point where I seriously considered purchasing a 360 solely for this game. Now that I have it and have played through a significant portion of it, I haven't been disappointed. I'm more of an FPS/action shooter type of guy, but the overall quality of the story (I have also read the prequel novel), voice acting, and gameplay make this an easily accessible title to gamers of all tastes. Some of the choices you make have a profound impact on the outcome of certain plot threads, which encourages the player to play through again to explore the alternate solutions. Few games illicit the emotional turmoil players go through when making a decision that questions one's sense of their own morality.

The game isn't flawless; some technical issues and some minor gameplay annoyances knock a star off the final rating. The game crashed twice to the desktop, but on both occasions it was after an extended play periods. Elevator rides, a common gripe from the 360 version, can be quite long at times. I play the game at 1024x640 resolution with texture detail set to High and typically get ~20-25 fps with the occasional stutter when entering new areas or engaging in firefights. At these settings, the game looks virtually the same as its 360 counterpart. If possible, avoid the low texture detail setting as the degradation in quality detracts from the gaming experience.

Bottom line, if DRM issues don't concern you, and even if they do, Mass Effect is a game worthy of purchase. Regardless of your gaming preference, be it action, role-playing, or even real-time strategy, there is something for everyone in Mass Effect.

Played on:
Asus G1-A1 laptop
Intel Core2 Duo 2.2GHz
2GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB RAM using 175.12 ForceWare drivers
200GB 7200RPM Hitcachi hard drive
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

Big Success

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: August 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First, I need to say that this game is lovely. Lighting is dynamic and the feel of the game is almost surreal. I pre-Ordered this game and had no problems out of the box. I play this cutting edge title on a computer that is almost 4 years old, but it was configured as a gaming machine (XPS gen4). The video card's chip is a an nVidea 7950 w/ 512MB, CPU is 3.25GHz(single core), 3GB RAM, Win XP. I suspect that most folks that are having issues with the game are playing with underpowered machines or vista or both.

Like some reviewers i found the targeting and movement ports from XBox360 a little annoying because it did not fully utilize the mouse. But I quickly adapted to it and it became less irksome as I played.

What makes this game great is the story. It is like a good scifi book--or maybe a movie. The characters are generally likable--or at least engaging. Just like a really good book, I reached the pinnacle of the story late at night, and had to play it through to the end... I love stories that compel you to finish them. When I was done, I eagerly started a new character, with different skills to replay the game making different choices. Replay should be further enhanced by an upcoming expansion for the game (not yet available).

Combat is definitely a large part of the game, but there are many FPS games that send you to the lab to clean up the results of bio-tech experiments gone awry. The thing that makes this game unique is the story, composition, and character development. Your decisions are important and affect future game play and other characters.

Voice acting is great. Although *Chuck Norris* is not listed as a voice actor, the actor providing the voice for the male protagonist sounds just like him. I swear, he must have used a pseudonym. Marina Sirtis (Star Trek TNG; Deanna Troy) does a NPC voice as well. All in all the voice acting is superb!

I think anyone who enjoys sci fi--especially readers--will enjoy this game. I say this because the story line, not because there is lots of reading involved. If you are running a cheaper system, you may want to play close attention to the negative feedback by people that have had problems to determine if you can run the game on your machine. Enjoy!

Mass Addiction

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: June 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm always dumbfounded by so many negative reviews for a game. What in the world do people want for God's sake? Always griping and negative about every little thing that isn't just perfect. Well, I'm sorry, but technology isn't perfect and never will be.

I think Mass Effect is incredible. I'm almost through playing it for the second time and am having a blast. Yes, there are some minor similarities to KOTOR but they are very minor. I have an out of the box Dell XPS 410 with no modifications and it plays great and looks fantastic on my 24" LCD. The story of the game has got to be one of the most original I've ever "played". The ability to make your character look pretty much however you want them to and then to actually see the character you "created" throughout the game is phenomenal. The music is some of the best "sci-fi" music I've ever heard. The voice acting is, without a doubt, the best of any game I've ever played... and I've played almost all of them out there (especially RPG types).

So far, I have only a couple of small gripes... that is decryption (what a pain in the arse) and the rover you get to drive is a pain also. Other than that, Mass Effect will be proudly displayed along side my other prizes.

If you can't find anything good about Mass Effect than you either don't have an imagination, or this just isn't your type of game. Be forewarned: this is pretty much a shooter with RPG elements. It is not a "real" RPG. If you don't like shooters at all, you won't like M.E. If you don't like RPG's at all you won't like it either.

The possibilites for expansion of this game or pretty much endless... would have loved to have seen a toolset for sure.

I do not regret buying this game for one second. Love it.

Need to redeem this game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 24
Date: June 04, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game after reading all the negative reviews. This game, in a word, is awesome. The registration system is not a problem and after installation, a non issue. The graphics are excellent, game play is very entertaining. I have played nothing else since I installed it three days ago. For the Vista user, I have Vista installed also. What worked for me is right clicking on the Mass Effect desktop icon, going into properties and setting it to run as administrator. Hope that helps!

Excellent game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 9
Date: July 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Lots of interesting twists and turns. Action is intense. Graphics is awsome. Lots of side games, too.

Worst game ever!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 17
Date: August 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First of all, if you're buying this game because you think there's nudity in it, DON'T! Because there is NO NUDITY! As for the game mechanics, they are absolutely atrocious. The storyline is sleep-inducing. The controls are almost impossible to get used to. The characters are as uninteresting as they could possibly be. PLEASE don't waste your money on this game!

the future of RPGs?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 10
Date: July 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect is the latest Bioware effort and a sci-fi themed action shooter/rpg. At the start Player has the ability to choose gender and face appearance of the main character and some backstory, which has no effect on further gameplay. The whole game is mission based and follows a linear story with minor cosmetic choices left to the player to determine (which again don't affect gameplay in any way). Final outcomes of the story like in a majority of RPGs can't be changed because they are tied to the fixed mission objectives. The main character can be evil or good. Again being good or evil does absolutely nothing to that fixed story.
... And no, this game is not as good as KOTOR. Far from it

Major Negatives:

Using inventory takes away large chunk of enjoynment from this game. It is crude and lacks functionality. Adding upgrades doesn't change stats on items in the display. You often have to click an overly long series of keys to check some mundane information about your items. You can't even check out what your teammates have on them unless they're in your away party at the time or you're in a lower deck of the ship and have to switch between `lockers'. Neither can you check their stats or skill trees.
This makes things very frustrating when buying stuff from a merchant.. Inventory doesn't have any overall view where you can see all items at once, and you can't easily view items by categories, either. Moving cursor over an item doesn't show its stats, you have to click it and they are displayed in a separate window (an `artefact' from ME being designed for console, I presume).
Every time when you want to sell/buy stuff from a merchant you have to click through the usual dialogue trees for that merchant.

The quests involving gathering tags, discs, surveying minerals, etc. are a big failure of gameplay. Not much else to say about them. The side-quest planets are nothing but a failure to design engaging environments.
The descriptions of various planets are probably a developer's joke. Not because they're unscientific or wrong, etc. but because they're not needed for anything and Player simply doesn't read them.

There is lots of dialogue in the game. Too bad the dialogue which you have chosen for your character to say is not what he/she is going to say. While playing an evil character I was finding him saying goodhearted or silly things even when dialogue option that I chose was totally different.

Lock-hacking minigame is tedious. The `blackjack' minigame is silly.

Minor Negatives:
Elevator rides are a bit too long; your team's AI a bit too stupid; missions are a bit too linear; no actual free-roaming in the cities or on missions; movement is artificially restricted; riding in the vehicle is boring.
You can do majority of missions in any order you want and you can visit the other two outposts (there are 3 altogether)... yes. However, the problem is there is nothing in them to come back for unless you count a couple of merchants with a limited supply of goods.

Positives:
Story is quite long and complex.
Character animations, face generation options, are amazing and as one previous reviewer said most of the time it's a pleasure to look at them talking or moving.
Combat is very kinetic and fun. Foes actually take cover effectively, most of the time.
Leveling is smooth.

P.S. from my perspective this whole DRM security issue is kinda overexaggerated.

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