Mass Effect
Set 200 years in the future in an epic universe, Mass Effect places gamers in a vast galactic community in danger of being conquered by a legendary agent gone rogue. A spectacular new vision from legendary developers BioWare, Mass Effect challenges players to lead a squad of freedom fighters as they struggle against threatening armies to restore peace in the land. Mass Effect is the first in a trilogy of games with an overarching story, where the real conflict between organic beings and artificial intelligence comes to life in startling clarity. Intense, in-depth story where the fate of life as you know it depends on you Features six character classes, along with six more unlockable ones – each class contains several talents As each talent is leveled, the character either gains stats (extra health, stamina, etc) or unlocks new abilities. Players can fully customize their appearance, gender, abilities and even military background. Four classes of conventional weapons ESRB Rated M for Mature
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Good,Solid RPG
Mass Effect is a really good RPG and so that being said it does require a lot of time to play. So if you have extra time on your hands and are a fan of RPGs then it is a must buy.
4 Stars It’s no KOTOR, but it’s the next best thing
I’m sure I’m not the only one who passed up Jade Empire because he was waiting for Bioware to make another Knights of the Old Republic. I”m a huge fan of sci-fi and I love RPGs, so naturally I was excited to play Bioware’s first sci-fi RPG since KOTOR. While most RPGs are pretty much a series of turn-based battles followed by long text readings and long cinemas, Mass Effect takes things into a very different direction. At its heart it’s a hybrid of a squad-based third-person shooter and a branching-dialog RPG like Knights of the Old Republic, with plenty of land-vehicle driving around nonsense for good measure. Effect is a totally original story in a brand new universe. Unfortunately, the story and gameplay is not better for it.
First all, the feel of the world in this game might seem a bit tired and run-of-the-mill (especially after the Iraq War cools off and people get over their shaved-head space-marine mania). The back-story of the Mass Effect universe might have been written by Elizabeth Moon or David Weber, except their worlds offer better space-army colonial sci-fi back-story than what you’ll find here. Heck, Firefly is or Outlaw Star is better too (for the TV and anime fans out there). So Star Wars it ain’t.
Then there’s the character generation and trait-building. While it’s nice to be able to totally customize your character’s appearance, Bioware, like so many other game designers these days, goes about it all wrong (Guitar Hero World Tour made the same mistake). You basically can either pick from a dozen or so generic ugly space-marine faces and modify them slightly, or go all-out and change the height and size of eyebrows and ears. As far as I can tell the other game creator who ever got this right was Sega, who in Phantasy Star Online and Virtua Tennis game us around 24 UNIQUE faces, and 24 UNIQUE hair styles, and COMPLETE control of height and weight. I would much rather make my character look like like a lean Luke Skywalker or a tiny elfin chick than space marine old lady number 5, thank you very much.
The branching dialog and RPG elements of KOTOR, while legendary in of themselves, for the most part have NOT been improved here. You’ll still have the same conversation over and over with a character, you’ll still find characters in EXACTLY the same spot in your ship for most of the game. So while admittedly a massive (pun intended) amount of work went into creating the story elements, there are still things that pull you out of the game that should not (if game characters just wandered around the ship like real people would or said nothing if you already had that conversation it would go a long way to making it feel less like a game and more like an experience).
The action gameplay has likewise come under heavy criticism and for good reason. While its great to have a hybrid gameplay attempted, here the execution is clearly not up to snuff compared to other first and third-person shooters. And the special attacks (non-gun attacks), while a nifty idea, in execution are pretty much the same (they knock back, slow down, enemies, ect, and protect your squad). That said, it’s a whole lot of fun! While by the end of the game it starts to get kind of tiresome, but some excellent weapon upgrades (I love the weapon mod that literally freezes enemies solid!) keep things fresh. And it keeps the RPG elements from weighing down on you too heavily but throwing you some action now and then.
The vehicle segments, on the other hand, could have been cut from the game entirely. When you’ve got cartoony games like Jak 3 and Ratchet and Clank 3 that get vehicle control down so perfectly, this kind of loosey-goosey Halo-style control just doesn’t cut it. Add in the fact that nothing you destroy with the stupid vehicle matters anyway (all you have to do is get to your next objective, not destroy anything), and you have recipe for a game element that you’ll likely skip past as often as possible. Fortunately, once you get to your main game planets, you rarely need to use the awful off-road vehicle. You will however, miss out on side-quests if you do just go for the main game.
The graphics in this game are pretty nice. Personally I don’t care for the film-grain effect, but you can easily turn it off. The frame-rate drops pretty low during combat at times, but nothing nearly as bad as KOTOR (to me it felt more like a Ridley-Scott choppy-camera effect that just made the combat feel even cooler). You’ll never see the frame-rate drop to nothing and suddenly find yourself dead not knowing what happened. The music is generic 80’s style synthesizer music for the most part, pretty darn bland, maybe even a little annoying. Thankfully, for the critical points in the game (boss battles, ect) the music far better. Passable overall I would say. The cinemas in the game are likewise passable, but Square/Enix has no reason to worry about competition from Mass Effect.
With all that negative stacked against it, you’d think this would be a 3, or even a 2 star game. But what saves it is the Bioware style, the way the game is played. Because like KOTOR, some of your conversations are wildly entertaining, some of the action scenes are incredibly memorable, the characters are awesome, and despite the bland gameplay world the execution nails all the elements exceptionally for the most part. And of course, with all the classes, branching dialog choices (with moral implications), gender choices, ect, you can play this game multiple times and see things work out multiple ways, which adds a huge amount of replay value. And while the story isn’t exactly the most original in the world, it still manages to pack the classic Bioware plot twist (who the true villains are) and tell it in a very mature way (while there is some rough language and blood, the game is at about the level of a typical PG-13 movie, and it’s maturity is in its more realistic handling of real-world issues instead of cartoonifying things.
While this game isn’t as long, or as good as Knights of the Old Repblic or it’s sequel, it is a bold new direction for RPGs, and very exciting indicator of what they will become in the future (free-roaming action games with RPG elements like the aforementioned Jak and Ratchet series, but with far deeper storylines). If you are craving a new RPG in the style of Bioware’s former triumphs, this is literally the only game in town until Mass Effect 2, the KOTOR MMORPG, or Alpha Protocol (which has me the most excited actually). If you love the new breed of western-style RPGs, and like to play them through multiple times, buy it now. You’ll trip over it’s design flaws, but grow to love the heart of the game, it’s well-story story and great characters. If you’ve never played a Bioware game before give a rent first. You may find yourself becoming a fan and itching for the sequel.
5 Stars AMAZING!!!
This is one of the GREATEST games I have ever played in all my life! It has no multiplayer, it is a third-person shooter but a RPG as well. It’s story is so gripping, the action is intense, and it is overall an amazing game.
The story grips you immediately right from the beginning, and no matter where you go in the game, no matter what path you choose (and trust there’s so many different ways you can play this game) it is always different and always a whole other experience. There is excellent replay value if you really enjoyed it as I did.
The shipping for this game was fast, quick, and the game was in perfect condition. I have never had the game freeze, it wasn’t scratched, it was wrapped in protective plastic. I am very pleased with the both the game, how fast it arrived, and how great of condition this game was in.
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