Mass Effect

[Betsy Speicher 0]

Mass Effect.

Game suggested for rating by Michael Jenkinson.

[jordanz 0]

Not a great game, but very good fun game. I played through to the end.

[styg50 0]

Not a great game, but very good fun game. I played through to the end.

I wonder if you could please elaborate a little on what you have said here?

I haven't played the game, so I can't give it a review per se, but I have played almost all of BioWare's other major releases, and I feel that they have some of the highest standards in the industry.

When Mass Effect came out, I figure there could only be two reviews it could garner: 1. This isn't up to Bioware's standards, and 2. Bioware has done it again. By "Done it again," I mean create a game along the lines of "Baldur's Gate 2" which may be one of the best video games ever made. They are one of the few video game companies to capitalize on the Star Wars license, with their epic release of "Knights of the Old Republic", and by far they have done the best work creating new standards for, and new fans of, the Dungeons and Dragons license as well.

To my knowledge, Mass Efect was to be their first attempt at a Sci-Fi themed game, and I have to wonder where they dropped the ball. From your comment, I can guess a few things:

Fun= Game mechanics and control are solid? If someone has never played a game from Bioware's stable they may not notice if the gameplay is "stale," but I would notice something like that in particular, though I would still immensely enjoy their "stale" way of doing things.

Good not Great= Story was present but not grounded on solid principles? One of the great things I enjoyed about the previous efforts from Bioware was how they could have immense 40+ hour storylines, yet not spend any time telling you what you should think about it. They were definitely storytellers (and a storyteller used to be quite rare in video games) of the show don't tell, variety (doubly rare). Part of the reason they were successful at this, I think, may be because of the unique fantasy settings they were working in, which were so foreign as to require show don't tell. When word of Mass Effect's sci-fi theme hit the streets, I remember being quite worried that they were going to tackle some philosophical problem that they simply weren't equipped to do justice to (they have, at times, tried to deal with questions of ethics in particular, and they (the writers) obviously subscribed to one or another subjective school of thought. No surprise, really.)

[jordanz 0]

Not a great game, but very good fun game. I played through to the end.

I wonder if you could please elaborate a little on what you have said here?

For me, a great game is original in story, gameplay, visuals, etc. Mass Effect isn't original. It plays a lot like KoTR and similar games. That said, it's a very fun game. My only complaints: it's repetitive; some of the controls are a bit clunky; it's much too similar to KoTR; the side-missions aren't that interesting. I'd give it an 8.9 out 10. FYI - I played on XBOX 360.

[R.M.Alger 0]

A very good game; though I was expecting much more out of it. Many aspects of the game I found disappointing.

I liked choosing how my character looked , it adds a great sense of choice to the game; But the dialoge system was not done very well (no matter what choices you make, you unusually end up in the same place.)

I also didn’t get the sense of freedom I wanted from the game, though the sheer scale of this game is pretty impressive; as well as the sense of design.

More care could have gone into constructing a story. The genre has improved greatly in recent years; with games like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and Halo sporting relatively strong stories and characters. This game, while no light-weight in this department, could have been stronger.

Overall, it was a great experience. I gave it an 8.

- Ryan

- I played the game on the X-Box 360; but I hear that the computer version fixed many of the flaws in the game-play.