Mass Effect (PC) Review

PC Box Cover

Mass Effect was developed by BioWare studios. BioWare developers are well known for their RPG console game legacy: Star Wars KOTOR and Jade Empire. They also have some PC RPGs under their belt, such as Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate. I am very confident this team is able to create a masterpiece RPG, but we will see if Mass Effect is it.

Before release the game had massive following and high expectations. This was greatly due to Bioware's open ambition to create a game that actually allowed the player to make meaningful story decisions. Mass Effect is not particularly ground breaking since there are other games that have previously used this idea, such as Oblivion and even Jade Empire. The stories for this type of game, however, tend to lean towards D&D-like fantasy with magic, and prophecies. Mass Effect, however, managed to stay innovative by applying this blueprint to a Sci-Fi story line. In the other hand, Mass Effect also created some discord because it seemed to appeal to bigger masses by having a slightly dumb down feel to it, especially when compared with Oblivion.

This game is the start of a currently well-known RPG trilogy, but is it a worthy start to the journey? Or a massive fail? Did BioWare manage to create the masterpiece they promised with an innovative Sci-Fi universe?


Story: 
SCORE: 9/10

NPC Dialog menu

Mass Effect's story feels like it is right out of the SciFi channel repertoire, but with a bigger production budget and better writers. The story is set in 2183; we, humanity, obtained advanced technology from ruins of an extinct intergalactic race, called the Protheans, found on mars about thirty years before the game begins. This discovery led to the development of technology that allowed humans to travel outside of the solar system. Humans managed to colonize several other planets and harvest materials from many others. In one expedition humans found a Mass Relay, used for instant travel between vast distances. As humans tried to turn it on, a scouting troop of turian ships, one of the many alien races, found them and fired on humans because opening a Mass Relay connection is considered an impertinent and precarious action by the Citadel Council, the galactic government currently in place. This leads to the "First Contact War" (Surprisingly no acronyms...lol), but more importantly it leads to first contact with the Citadel and the rest of the alien races.

Salarian's camp

The story is very believable; it almost seems as if it was an obvious future for human kind. The game quickly places you on the shoes of a hero, with a background of your choosing, in charge of saving the Galaxy from a mechanical race, called Reapers, that plans to annihilate all organic-sapient life forms. Shepard, main character's last name, is part of the Alliance, the human military corps and front face of intergalactic relations, and serves in a state of the art stealth-prototype ship named, Normandy. From there you become more powerful and well known around the galaxy giving you more influence and difficult missions. Although the story is engaging and interesting it's hardly the story itself where the game shines brightest. The best part your experience the story. There are plenty of traditional cut-scenes and "codex" entries to read about the galaxy, technology and alien races. But interactive conversations with NPCs are what critically enhance the narrative. This is because it does not feel as if you are watching a movie that you are helping unveil; it feels as if you are truly controlling the way the story unfolds. These interactive dialogs are controlled via a circular dialog menu. The dialog menu has a setup that stays consistent through the game; thus, it is quite easy to decide what attitude you want to take in each matter. Although the selection tree is straight forward sometimes it is hard to anticipate NPC's reaction, but this hardly becomes a problem because the game is extremely clear when confronted with critical decisions that affect your game considerably.

Krogan: Urdnot Wrex

In the end, the combination of cut-scenes, written entries, and NPC dialogs successfully create a future for humanity that makes you feel like you are in control of what happens next. Although there is only one ending, Mass Effect's story is extremely rewarding. It is great to see how the game truly pays attention to your mood and attitudes towards characters and creates consequences in a decisive and sometimes crudely realistic way. 


Gameplay and Design:
SCORE: 8/10

Mass Effect's gameplay can be described as a third-person shooter sprinkled with elements of squad commands and strategy, and role-playing decisions, which at times may affect who is friend and foe. Conversation queries, as previously discussed, add a completely new variable to the typical third-person shooter. If a conversation is executed appropriately confrontations can be avoided or created out of nowhere. Again, dialog is the most influential aspect of the whole game; however, not every encounter can be solved with talks. Confrontations tend be divided into quick-pace firefights from cover spots. However, they do not get old as the enemies are decent at flanking and have great aim. The overall design of the game is quite logical and easy to comprehend and follow. The game asks you to select a character class at the beginning of the game, you level up after gaining experience, and experience is gained by completing missions, killing enemies, finding hidden equipment, etc. However, it is not spotless; there is plenty of room for improvements on the equipment management and galaxy navigation systems. Also... elevator loading scenes get old very quick.

Galaxy map on Normandy's bridge

Mako

Navigating galaxy map interface

Shepard is usually sent to specific locations with a mission explaining the situation on the surface of the planet, your objectives and hints about the consequences of your actions. To access these locations you go to the Galaxy Map interface located on Normandy's bridge area. Although it is easy to manipulate it is annoyingly difficult to keep track of which planets you've previously visited and which are important quest locations without memorizing or checking mission logs. Before landing on a planet, you pick the members in your landing squad. Once your squad members are chosen one of two things will happen: The Normandy will either dock and let you out through the side door, or drop you on a controllable vehicle called Mako to the surface of the planet; the former option occurs mostly on main-quest sites while the latter on most side-quest sites. The Mako, however, makes appearances on certain main-quest segments; Mako has two weapons, a machine gun turret and central cannon, that quickly decimate enemies, and it is extremely versatile and resistant. When on foot all squad members have four types of weapons: Pistol, Assault Rifle, Shotgun, and Sniper Rifle. None of them require ammunition, but if weapons are shot repeatedly for too long they overheat, which creates a pretty good pace for cover and shoot gameplay. Each weapon type has stronger models that can be found and obvious pros and cons: Shotguns are best at close-quarters combat, sniper rifles are impossible to aim in small rooms, etc. In addition, there are different mods and ammunition that can be applied to weapons and armor to enhance them. This type customizing is fairly simple, but it is mostly necessary when playing harder difficulties. Characters are not limited, however, to weapons. Some Characters have psychic powers due to exposure to a certain kind of radiation; they are called biotics. Biotics are able to lift, trow, and stun enemies among other things. Other characters can use "tech" powers like instant shield regeneration, weapon or shield sabotage, etc. Biotic and tech powers are great addons that shift the pace of firefights, but only become crucial in harder difficulties.

Item interface

Equipment/power talk brings me to the biggest design letdown of the game: Item management. Exchanging equipment between squad members, and trade can become frustrating fast. First of all, characters must always carry one weapon for each weapon-type; thus, if you wish to exchange one character's weapons for another character's you must carry spares for each weapon-type. Second, even with weapon type filtering it is easy to lose items because the menu does not group exact copies together. Once this problem becomes obvious it is only natural to decide to use the same two squad members throughout the whole game. This makes the experience one sided as each character reacts differently to your role-playing decisions while in your squad.

Squad commands interface

On top of controlling Shepard, you also have the ability to issue general commands to squad members, such as attack, change weapons, move, hold position, or use specific powers. Overall AI is good enough to minimize the need of commands, but the option gives enough room to plan ahead and create minor ambushes or save teammates from imminent danger. This aspect is not too deep, but it gives the sense that you are in charge; thus, helping the role-play aspect of the game.

Leveling interface

The leveling system also applies to all teammates; this makes it possible to make a decently balanced squad with pretty much any combination of characters. Talent points are awarded after leveling up; those talent points can then be applied to an ability of your choosing. Keep in mind that not all characters have biotic or tech abilities; there is a range of things each can do, but it is not too limited. The problem is that leveling up doesn't seem to make much difference; very few powers feel influential. I didn't use half of them because I forgot they actually did something (like sabotage and shield overload). In addition, the difference between a power's first and second level is almost unnoticeable. In the long run it does matter, but the immediate satisfaction of gaining a level is just lacking.

In the end, Mass Effect brings a mixture of successful gameplay genres to a higher level with the addition of conversation queries, appropriate consequences for your actions and a good story. It is obvious that there is plenty room for improvement in design, and some tweaks should be done with the leveling system. However, gameplay is so varied and paced between conversations and action that you will be distracted enough to overlook those few problems with ease. It is extremely easy to have fun with this game and play it all night without stopping... at least that is what I did a couple nights in a row.


Presentation:
SCORE: 8/10

Mass Effect obviously shoots for realist visuals, and it gets real close. Facial animations during dialogs are incredibly detailed and feel as if you were watching a movie. When a character is upset with you it shows on their face (even in some alien races), but the change between moods is not always fluid; there are times where you see programming suddenly kick in, but it is rare and brief enough to ignore or not even acknowledge. Cut-scenes are well designed; they use good angles that focus on the action and feel of the situation; there are some clunky camera shots here and there, but nothing to worry about. Camera during gameplay is easy to control (it moves with your mouse and it is always behind you), and it is rarely, if ever, obstructed by objects or characters. Corpse physics have their clunky moments, but they are rare and funny instead of annoying (there are bodies that should have fallen off a ledge and did not because of invisible walls, but nothing like floating corpses in midair). Although overall graphics are high quality and have great detail I think the best part of the presentation in Mass Effect has to be the voice acting. (Disclaimer: I only played as a female!). The voice acting does not feel like prerecorded messages at all; it is as if they recorded each conversation as the actors actually talked to each other, and this is not how they did it. There are plenty of codex entries that have a voiced reader who is great at setting the perfect tone for each. This reader does a great job in luring player into the story effortlessly (I mean common you don't even have to read to get involved). There are some grammatical errors on some silent codex, but most people won't notice or will just chuckle.

Enemy stuck on wall after affected by a biotic power

My biggest let down on the presentation category is actually a combination of gameplay and graphics mistake in regards to biotic powers. Biotics powers worked fine in ample spaces with enough room for people to float around in the air, but inside of ships and small rooms they tend to trigger glitches. I had to repeat a biotic boss battle about 15 times (no kidding) because the enemy's biotic powers would send get me stuck between immobile graphic frames or just propel me out of the scene completely (this last one happened at least twice.... I was just floating away from the fight infinitely while my teammates fought incessantly; I had to reboot my computer in order to try again). Now this could be a gameplay only mistake, but I attribute it to graphic and physics because the power was doing what it was supposed to do while the graphic frames programming did not have enough rules to stop biotic programing from overriding it (or at least that is how I imagine the coding behind it).

I think the overall presentation of the game is beautiful and incredibly satisfying, but there is significant room for improvement considering the polished state of most aspects of the game. I know there is a sequel and I hope that there is plenty of work done to biotics powers and physics because I really do not want to be traveling through walls anymore.


Lasting Appeal:
SCORE: 9/10

Mass Effect has a re-playability value similar to that of Oblivion or other massive RPG titles. A single play-through can easily last anywhere between 40-60 hours and if you play this game only once you will surely miss at least a quarter of the full game. This game features plenty of situations where your decisions make the game change course. Although most decisions are either evil or good there is plenty of reasons why you'd want to experience the other side as well. In addition, there is enough incentive to want to try out the other character classes for yourself. Your strategies will change dramatically!

I am not going into much detail about the forks in story because I do not want to spoil the game, but this is the main reason why you want to repeat the game. I think anyone who does not play it again is not getting their money's worth. Bioware made those forks because they wanted people to see how tone of voice and attitude can change everything around you.


Overall Score: 8.5/10

Going back to my review tone questions:
Is Mass Effect a worthy start to a trilogy? Or a massive fail? Did BioWare manage to create the masterpiece they promised with an innovative Sci-Fi universe?
It is a perfect start! But it is not the great masterpiece promised, yet. This is an amazing game that deserves a lot of credit, but there is too much that needs improvement. Hopefully these problems are tackled in the well deserved sequels, but you will not be disappointing to start at the beginning of the journey.

Again thanks for reading!!