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Mass Effect Review - Take on thus far | ||
Discussion by Herbert with 6 Replies.
Last Update: June 12, 2008, 1:46 am | |||
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Well, I picked up Mass Effect a couple of days ago for the PC despite all the complaining people were doing about the anti-piracy implementations they had attached to it. Circuit City had it $10 cheaper, so I had Best Buy compare prices and got Reward Zone points for it 
Got it home, installation took awhile since it's about 10 gigs of game, but overall no trouble. Typical serial key, and it's supposed to have some software built into it to activate it, but once I never even noticed it do anything (which is why people are probably nervous... if it's doing stuff you can't see it doing). Anyway, I don't need the DVD to play, which is always a good thing, and it doesn't even involve cracking it.
So as far as all people were worried about, I've had no trouble with it. There is supposedly a 3 time activation limit, but I'm sure they're either going to change that, or someone will crack it.
As far as gameplay, I am impressed they've come out with another console release that is well done being ported to the PC... For a couple of years probably starting out around when Deus Ex 2 and Thief: DS came out (deadly shadows, not as in the Nintendo ds
) there had been a string of poorly ported pc games that were originally made for console (resident evil 4 comes to mind).
The controls and graphics are very smooth. As with Assassin's Creed, load times aren't very long (as compared to The Witcher). Graphics themselves are very well done, and textures make the people and aliens look as real as can be. The sounds and voice acting are well done, though the main character Commander Shepard sometimes seems a bit dry.
There are a lot of cutscenes and dialog scenes to play out the story. There are also a lot of side missions available to help you get XP points. Overall the basic layout of the game and plot is set up like Knights of the Old Republic. The layout of levels is totally similar. You start off on a space ship and have some combat to get you warmed up. Then they put you on a place called "The Citadel" which is equivalent to Talos in kotor. Then once you get through the plot there, you get to go back onto the space ship and fly around to several planets, though I am just at that point and haven't made it past that to see how much freedom we get in terms of flying around. With Kotor, we were limited to I believe 4 planets.... I've heard Mass Effect is much larger. Will report more as I play.
Combat is a third person shooter, and not turn-based like Kotor was. If you don't take cover, you'll quickly get taken down if you're not quick enough. Combat skills come with XP points and upgrades. Everytime you level up, you can put in 2 or 3 upgrades in different skill areas, such as Sniper, Charm, Intimidate, etc. Once you unlock a certain amount in 1 area, you can unlock other areas and work on upgrading those talents.
There are some mini-game puzzles for hacking, but they're not hard. Hacking into boxes is almost like a game of frogger with a little arrow having to go into the center of a bunch of concentric circles, with little blocks spinning around that will reset the game if you touch them.
Overall a very enjoyable experience. I've had some troubles with shadows being jagged, but that was fixed by turning off dynamic shadows.
Got it home, installation took awhile since it's about 10 gigs of game, but overall no trouble. Typical serial key, and it's supposed to have some software built into it to activate it, but once I never even noticed it do anything (which is why people are probably nervous... if it's doing stuff you can't see it doing). Anyway, I don't need the DVD to play, which is always a good thing, and it doesn't even involve cracking it.
So as far as all people were worried about, I've had no trouble with it. There is supposedly a 3 time activation limit, but I'm sure they're either going to change that, or someone will crack it.
As far as gameplay, I am impressed they've come out with another console release that is well done being ported to the PC... For a couple of years probably starting out around when Deus Ex 2 and Thief: DS came out (deadly shadows, not as in the Nintendo ds
) there had been a string of poorly ported pc games that were originally made for console (resident evil 4 comes to mind).The controls and graphics are very smooth. As with Assassin's Creed, load times aren't very long (as compared to The Witcher). Graphics themselves are very well done, and textures make the people and aliens look as real as can be. The sounds and voice acting are well done, though the main character Commander Shepard sometimes seems a bit dry.
There are a lot of cutscenes and dialog scenes to play out the story. There are also a lot of side missions available to help you get XP points. Overall the basic layout of the game and plot is set up like Knights of the Old Republic. The layout of levels is totally similar. You start off on a space ship and have some combat to get you warmed up. Then they put you on a place called "The Citadel" which is equivalent to Talos in kotor. Then once you get through the plot there, you get to go back onto the space ship and fly around to several planets, though I am just at that point and haven't made it past that to see how much freedom we get in terms of flying around. With Kotor, we were limited to I believe 4 planets.... I've heard Mass Effect is much larger. Will report more as I play.
Combat is a third person shooter, and not turn-based like Kotor was. If you don't take cover, you'll quickly get taken down if you're not quick enough. Combat skills come with XP points and upgrades. Everytime you level up, you can put in 2 or 3 upgrades in different skill areas, such as Sniper, Charm, Intimidate, etc. Once you unlock a certain amount in 1 area, you can unlock other areas and work on upgrading those talents.
There are some mini-game puzzles for hacking, but they're not hard. Hacking into boxes is almost like a game of frogger with a little arrow having to go into the center of a bunch of concentric circles, with little blocks spinning around that will reset the game if you touch them.
Overall a very enjoyable experience. I've had some troubles with shadows being jagged, but that was fixed by turning off dynamic shadows.
Sun Jun 1, 2008 Reply New Discussion
I recently purchased a PS3 instead of a 360 and I must say, this game is really the only one I regretted not being able to play. Sure the 360 had some other games that were not offered on the ps3 but this one was the only one I had not played at all that I reeeeally had been hoping to. I'm pretty sure my computer would be incapable of running it well enough to warrant getting it so I guess I'm out of luck, but from what I've seen of it in reviews and at friends places I'd say you're review seems spot on.
Sun Jun 1, 2008 Reply New Discussion
I so want to play this game.. like you say, and some friends say, this is like KOTOR 3 haha, and those kotor games are reaaaally really amazing, so yeah, I hope to play this game soon!
Thanks for the review
Thanks for the review
Mon Jun 2, 2008 Reply New Discussion
Further along in the game... More impressions.
Yes, this game runs a lot like Knights of the Old Republic, but it's quite refreshing. Just like Assassin's Creed, though, they have "achievements" in finding stuff around the galaxy which sort of ruins the experience. Let me elaborate.... In Assassin's Creed, they want you to find 100 flags.... They serve no purpose other than to make you feel like less of a man for not finding them all. The Xbox 360 community gets something out of doing all this so good for them... Meanwhile the PC people don't even unlock concept art or anything....
With Mass Effect, you'll wander around the galaxy and enter solar systems... These solar systems typically consist of about 4-7 planets. Not all of these planets can be landed on, but you can "survey" some of them and essentially "unlock" a mineral, or some rare object that you can't use other than to unlock achievements. The GOOD thing about Mass Effect, is that you DO get XP points and Cash for finding this stuff, which means they actually did a better job of implementing achievements than previous games have.... It makes sense that you get 1400 credits for mining copper or plutonium... So at least you get something for exploring. When you do land on a planet, you'll check the map and see several points of interest where you can navigate to and look for minerals or artifacts, but if you explore the whole map, there are typically 2-3 other spots not marked on the map that you would have otherwise missed. So explore explore explore.... which leads me to the next point:
Exploration ... it's boring. You basically land on a planet in your pimped out futuristic Hummer, and drive around till you find something. In games like Oblivion, there were varied locations, trees, lakes, etc.... In Mass Effect, in all the side quests I've done so far, every planet is virtually the same in terms of Terrain. NOW, the colors of the dirt are varied, and the climate can vary from cold to hot and everything in between.... and the sky can have WONDERFUL planets and scenic views... but the gameplay itself gets rather repetitive and boring, where you hop in your car, find the "main objective" of the planet, shoot its defenses, enter the building, take out a wave of bad guys, and you're done.
Over....
And over again.
The only thing really is the story, which gives you motivation to go into these random planets killing everyone you come in contact with. There are instances where you can talk your way out of a fire fight, but those are rare, since most of the people you are dealing with are doing illegal things that don't like it when space marines shoot out their turrets and take out all of their men.
Combat can be overwhelming, and may take a few tries due to the fact that enemies always seem to be about 3 levels higher than you are. Maybe I don't have good enough armor yet....
One of the game breaking bugs I've found is with a character you start out playing with, Kaidan (sp?). Once you get back onto the space ship Normandy you use, there is an option to talk to Kaidan (who's voice sounds like he may or may not be the same voice actor who played Carth Onassi in KoTOR)...
When you talk to Kaidan... instead of a dialog box showing up for talking to him, the interface disappears and you are unable to talk to him, or save your game... or exit the conversation unless you reload a game...
I'm really wondering how they let this bug get through play testing.... I mean it's not some random NPC that it's buggy with, it's one of your party members you can't talk to! I really hope they patch that ASAP.
The story is moving along, but I've been stuck doing side-quests... My philosophy of RPG games is to play every possible side mission the first time I play it.... Because those darn games are too long, I'll probably never have the time to replay them
More to come as it happens.
Yes, this game runs a lot like Knights of the Old Republic, but it's quite refreshing. Just like Assassin's Creed, though, they have "achievements" in finding stuff around the galaxy which sort of ruins the experience. Let me elaborate.... In Assassin's Creed, they want you to find 100 flags.... They serve no purpose other than to make you feel like less of a man for not finding them all. The Xbox 360 community gets something out of doing all this so good for them... Meanwhile the PC people don't even unlock concept art or anything....
With Mass Effect, you'll wander around the galaxy and enter solar systems... These solar systems typically consist of about 4-7 planets. Not all of these planets can be landed on, but you can "survey" some of them and essentially "unlock" a mineral, or some rare object that you can't use other than to unlock achievements. The GOOD thing about Mass Effect, is that you DO get XP points and Cash for finding this stuff, which means they actually did a better job of implementing achievements than previous games have.... It makes sense that you get 1400 credits for mining copper or plutonium... So at least you get something for exploring. When you do land on a planet, you'll check the map and see several points of interest where you can navigate to and look for minerals or artifacts, but if you explore the whole map, there are typically 2-3 other spots not marked on the map that you would have otherwise missed. So explore explore explore.... which leads me to the next point:
Exploration ... it's boring. You basically land on a planet in your pimped out futuristic Hummer, and drive around till you find something. In games like Oblivion, there were varied locations, trees, lakes, etc.... In Mass Effect, in all the side quests I've done so far, every planet is virtually the same in terms of Terrain. NOW, the colors of the dirt are varied, and the climate can vary from cold to hot and everything in between.... and the sky can have WONDERFUL planets and scenic views... but the gameplay itself gets rather repetitive and boring, where you hop in your car, find the "main objective" of the planet, shoot its defenses, enter the building, take out a wave of bad guys, and you're done.
Over....
And over again.
The only thing really is the story, which gives you motivation to go into these random planets killing everyone you come in contact with. There are instances where you can talk your way out of a fire fight, but those are rare, since most of the people you are dealing with are doing illegal things that don't like it when space marines shoot out their turrets and take out all of their men.
Combat can be overwhelming, and may take a few tries due to the fact that enemies always seem to be about 3 levels higher than you are. Maybe I don't have good enough armor yet....
One of the game breaking bugs I've found is with a character you start out playing with, Kaidan (sp?). Once you get back onto the space ship Normandy you use, there is an option to talk to Kaidan (who's voice sounds like he may or may not be the same voice actor who played Carth Onassi in KoTOR)...
When you talk to Kaidan... instead of a dialog box showing up for talking to him, the interface disappears and you are unable to talk to him, or save your game... or exit the conversation unless you reload a game...
I'm really wondering how they let this bug get through play testing.... I mean it's not some random NPC that it's buggy with, it's one of your party members you can't talk to! I really hope they patch that ASAP.
The story is moving along, but I've been stuck doing side-quests... My philosophy of RPG games is to play every possible side mission the first time I play it.... Because those darn games are too long, I'll probably never have the time to replay them
More to come as it happens.
Wed Jun 4, 2008 Reply New Discussion
Well, I just beat Mass Effect.... for the second time!
Yes I don't think I've ever played a game that I wanted to go back and play again as soon as I beat it.
Let the final review commence.
Ok, so looking up in forums about that speech bug I had encountered, if you press the secondary button for interaction (the letter 'e' in my case) it would not bug out like it did when I pressed enter.
Overall a very good plot, though it reminds me a lot of the Matrix Trilogy with the cycle of machines wiping out all life as we know it every x number of years. They didn't go into why so much, though you don't feel unsatisfied when you figure out a bunch of stuff towards the end.
The first playthrough probably took me something like 20-30 hours because I went on every side mission I could get. I had the difficulty set on "normal" which wasn't too hard, but it was a challenge.. There are Hard, and Impossible modes ( I believe one other but can't recall at this time) which must be crazy hard.
The first playthrough I played as a nice upstanding citizen male character, trying to help and please everyone because it's in my good nature. Played as a tech guy with some pistol and sniper experience. Wasn't bad.
The second playthrough, though, I went totally opposite trying out a badass female character that would stomp Santa Claus's nuts to get her presents earlier.
Playing as either for paragon or renegade points is much like light/dark sides in Knights of the Old Republic. When playing a badass renegade type, you don't turn gray and veiny like KoTOR, but your eyebrows will often be down and you just generally look pissed off all the time. I was surprised at the changes in other characters too as I played through a second time. It was almost a different game because some dialog choices went right out into left field.
For example, I knew that you could "get it on" with an alien towards the end of the game if you flirted with her the whole time (as well you could with two other characters depending on your sex). But there was a female alien I did a mission for as a male early on my first playthrough, and she just gave me some advice and sent me on my way... The second time I did it, I played as a "I don't have time for your crap missions, I'm saving the galaxy" type attitude the whole way, and as a female, the next thing I know, I'm experiencing another sex cutscene (though much more watered down than the later scene with your crewmember (which in itself is quite watered down to begin with)) that I hadn't experienced when trying to flirt with her as a male....
The first time I played, I stuck with two of the aliens mostly, and was friends with all my crewmates after talking and listening to them and getting their background story... But once I figured out where those sub plots went and such, on my second playthrough as the b*tch character, I totally put down all aliens, not trusting them and just generally making them feel bad (Like I said, total 180). I almost felt bad when they start telling me about their homeworld and I promptly say "I don't have time for this..." and they respond with a modest and quiet.... "oh.... ok." And used only humans in my squad.
Playing through a second time, you can also skip past a lot of side dialog you might have gone through before, which makes playing a lot quicker. The second playthrough probably only took me a day and a half, as opposed to several days, since I only did the meat and potatoes missions (ie. just the main quest and very small side missions.)
But even on my second playthrough, I would get these random transmissions from our admiral with sub missions I never had before, which was a nice change of pace because it made playing the game a second time not stale.
The only graphical issue I'm still working on is the shadows on characters... Looks a bit pixelated. I guess people are still working on it. Other than that, with the game maxed out it looks beautiful. The characters aren't perfect, but darn close. The skin looks absolutely real, and it's amazing how far we've come.
Overall a fun game with at least 2 playthroughs for replay value. You can plow through this game in about 15 hours easy if you stick to the main missions, but you're missing out on so much.
Once you beat the game, you can start a new game but this time use your same character and keep all your weapons.... Sort of like Chrono Trigger.
The only downside of this is that you can't make a new character and keep all your skills and weapons. Like going from an engineer guy to a biotic woman, I had to start from scratch playing again. But it was well worth it, as I probably had more fun with her anyway.
Overall rating : 9/10
The only reason it doesn't get a 10/10 is because they recycle a lot of the bases you find on planets, and exploring planets can be repetitive and boring. The rest is awesome though. Great audio, voice acting, awesome graphics, pretty solid plot. Much more fun than Assassin's Creed, and better than Knights of the Old Republic. Only problem there is that with KoTOR, if you know star wars stuff, you're good, where with Mass Effect, it's a whole new universe of characters, aliens, and technology you have to figure out, but what a trip.
They leave it open for a sequel, but not in the sh*tty cliffhanger way they did with Crysis and Assassin's Creed (or Halo 2 as I've been told).
No, this has closure like the first Back To The Future. The adventure is over, but we've only just begun.
Yes I don't think I've ever played a game that I wanted to go back and play again as soon as I beat it.
Let the final review commence.
Ok, so looking up in forums about that speech bug I had encountered, if you press the secondary button for interaction (the letter 'e' in my case) it would not bug out like it did when I pressed enter.
Overall a very good plot, though it reminds me a lot of the Matrix Trilogy with the cycle of machines wiping out all life as we know it every x number of years. They didn't go into why so much, though you don't feel unsatisfied when you figure out a bunch of stuff towards the end.
The first playthrough probably took me something like 20-30 hours because I went on every side mission I could get. I had the difficulty set on "normal" which wasn't too hard, but it was a challenge.. There are Hard, and Impossible modes ( I believe one other but can't recall at this time) which must be crazy hard.
The first playthrough I played as a nice upstanding citizen male character, trying to help and please everyone because it's in my good nature. Played as a tech guy with some pistol and sniper experience. Wasn't bad.
The second playthrough, though, I went totally opposite trying out a badass female character that would stomp Santa Claus's nuts to get her presents earlier.
Playing as either for paragon or renegade points is much like light/dark sides in Knights of the Old Republic. When playing a badass renegade type, you don't turn gray and veiny like KoTOR, but your eyebrows will often be down and you just generally look pissed off all the time. I was surprised at the changes in other characters too as I played through a second time. It was almost a different game because some dialog choices went right out into left field.
For example, I knew that you could "get it on" with an alien towards the end of the game if you flirted with her the whole time (as well you could with two other characters depending on your sex). But there was a female alien I did a mission for as a male early on my first playthrough, and she just gave me some advice and sent me on my way... The second time I did it, I played as a "I don't have time for your crap missions, I'm saving the galaxy" type attitude the whole way, and as a female, the next thing I know, I'm experiencing another sex cutscene (though much more watered down than the later scene with your crewmember (which in itself is quite watered down to begin with)) that I hadn't experienced when trying to flirt with her as a male....
The first time I played, I stuck with two of the aliens mostly, and was friends with all my crewmates after talking and listening to them and getting their background story... But once I figured out where those sub plots went and such, on my second playthrough as the b*tch character, I totally put down all aliens, not trusting them and just generally making them feel bad (Like I said, total 180). I almost felt bad when they start telling me about their homeworld and I promptly say "I don't have time for this..." and they respond with a modest and quiet.... "oh.... ok." And used only humans in my squad.
Playing through a second time, you can also skip past a lot of side dialog you might have gone through before, which makes playing a lot quicker. The second playthrough probably only took me a day and a half, as opposed to several days, since I only did the meat and potatoes missions (ie. just the main quest and very small side missions.)
But even on my second playthrough, I would get these random transmissions from our admiral with sub missions I never had before, which was a nice change of pace because it made playing the game a second time not stale.
The only graphical issue I'm still working on is the shadows on characters... Looks a bit pixelated. I guess people are still working on it. Other than that, with the game maxed out it looks beautiful. The characters aren't perfect, but darn close. The skin looks absolutely real, and it's amazing how far we've come.
Overall a fun game with at least 2 playthroughs for replay value. You can plow through this game in about 15 hours easy if you stick to the main missions, but you're missing out on so much.
Once you beat the game, you can start a new game but this time use your same character and keep all your weapons.... Sort of like Chrono Trigger.
The only downside of this is that you can't make a new character and keep all your skills and weapons. Like going from an engineer guy to a biotic woman, I had to start from scratch playing again. But it was well worth it, as I probably had more fun with her anyway.
Overall rating : 9/10
The only reason it doesn't get a 10/10 is because they recycle a lot of the bases you find on planets, and exploring planets can be repetitive and boring. The rest is awesome though. Great audio, voice acting, awesome graphics, pretty solid plot. Much more fun than Assassin's Creed, and better than Knights of the Old Republic. Only problem there is that with KoTOR, if you know star wars stuff, you're good, where with Mass Effect, it's a whole new universe of characters, aliens, and technology you have to figure out, but what a trip.
They leave it open for a sequel, but not in the sh*tty cliffhanger way they did with Crysis and Assassin's Creed (or Halo 2 as I've been told).
No, this has closure like the first Back To The Future. The adventure is over, but we've only just begun.
Mon Jun 9, 2008 Reply New Discussion
I remember when this release was on the 360. It was incredible looking that made me almost get it, but what prevented me from the purchase was that it looked like bioware was testing the waters with the new gameplay for maybe their next Knights of the Old Republic sequel for the next generation systems. And it all they succeeded, hopefully they will be making the sequel to that game soon. But for Mass effect, I heard that he game will be a trilogy leading up to 2 more games before you really get the real endning to the story that its very well brought to life in the game. My friend recently purchased the game on PC, and I tested it out and it definitely got some potential of being a franchise game that will go far. There were some nit pick points that I did not like in the game and that is mainly the graphical issues. The running animations of the male counterpart looks rather odd, and there was not much in depth gameplay in close combat. Seems like all the gameplay is done through range play. I guess bioware neglected the target audience that are more all about melee than shooting from afar. The tactical aspect is very interesting I didnt get to deep into the tactical part where you control each of your members but I did notice that they did have issues following you and such. As for space exploration, through the 100s of planets that you can supposedly explore you really dont really do much but find things, and those things are little things, sometimes you cant even land on the planet. Although this is coming from playing just 20% of the game, so thats just my gripe with it at that completetion rate. But overall its still a good game and graphically detailed with the exception with the animation issues. But for me, I would pass on it and wait on the real masterpiece that is Knights of the Old Republic.
Tue Jun 10, 2008 Reply New Discussion
There is some hand to hand combat you can do, but no swords or light saber-like weapons. You can bulk up on physical stats and knock a guy over with a pistol whip or butt with an assault rifle.
I'd compare Mass Effect to the Matrix in terms of being part of a trilogy.... They closed the plot and settle everything, but it's still open for a sequel. Like in the first Matrix. They could have ended it all there, but they decided to make it a trilogy, (and ruined it I might add). Mass Effect is the same way, where they could probably just end the series there, but they won't because there is one issue left, and people love it so much and want to keep playing to find out what happens.
It is NOT a cliffhanger like Crysis... Crysis is also set to be a trilogy, but they totally leave you hanging at the end. Mass Effect does not leave you feeling like that at all.
Not only that, but Mass Effect has replay value. Assassin's Creed is so damned repetitive, you are sick of it by the time you reach the end... And Crysis is so linear, you really don't feel like replaying because there won't be any surprises. Mass Effect actually plays out like a different game if you choose to make even the smallest decisions. I played it a second time immediately after I beat it the first time, just because I wanted to see what I missed.... Past 2 times, though, you may find yourself looking for something new... I might re-install Crysis
I'd compare Mass Effect to the Matrix in terms of being part of a trilogy.... They closed the plot and settle everything, but it's still open for a sequel. Like in the first Matrix. They could have ended it all there, but they decided to make it a trilogy, (and ruined it I might add). Mass Effect is the same way, where they could probably just end the series there, but they won't because there is one issue left, and people love it so much and want to keep playing to find out what happens.
It is NOT a cliffhanger like Crysis... Crysis is also set to be a trilogy, but they totally leave you hanging at the end. Mass Effect does not leave you feeling like that at all.
Not only that, but Mass Effect has replay value. Assassin's Creed is so damned repetitive, you are sick of it by the time you reach the end... And Crysis is so linear, you really don't feel like replaying because there won't be any surprises. Mass Effect actually plays out like a different game if you choose to make even the smallest decisions. I played it a second time immediately after I beat it the first time, just because I wanted to see what I missed.... Past 2 times, though, you may find yourself looking for something new... I might re-install Crysis
Thu Jun 12, 2008 Reply New Discussion
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