Mass Effect Review

Publisher: EA
Creator: Bioware
Genre: Action - RPG
Platform: Xbox 360
Release date: 2007-11-20


Review

Mass Effect is not as advertise a sex filled gun tour of the universe of originality in a sandbox of choices. It is more of a chose your own adventure of a linear story and has few choices with repetitive actions in faults while it treads old water poorly. Now unlike with Jade Empire went where there tread before so they could excel in writing and fun. Biowear goes the route of the masses in having as much writing as a English major and the deep of a box cover.

Now, not to say there isn’t fun to be had as the intergalactic Shaft. With every height of joy, there is something else that gives you the shaft. Starting out you have lots of options in for how scruffy looking or pretty you want your character to be. Problem is that the face is the only thing you can edit, and any chance of immersion by name is shoved under for a quiet end with everyone calling you by the force last name Shepard. You have a one in three choice of where you were from that do little to change things up. Choice are much as that, and unlike in previous ones where you choice what was said you only choice the intent. Things rarely change from the few choices that you do make as you go off to protect the universe even if you are going the evil route. Starting off very small where you go after a distress signal that leads to a beacon the main bad guy is after, setting this up for generic robot soldiers known as the geth and electric zombies they create known as husks. The bad guy kills the tough high ranking rouge special agent while figuring out what the beacon is. So you go revoke the bad guy’s high ranking and become Shaft. Shaft the bad mother watch your mouth of the universe and go about kicking ass with your rag tag team. Gives a lot of promise for what the game could be, but never is.

Now for some this would sound very generic sci fi movie of the week and in many ways it is. There is the race of space sluts, you have the race of angry kill them, and the rest of the races of general stereotypes. It gives the impression that we left earth to find meteoricoicy. Now this and many things may go unnoticed because of the amount of dialogue for everyone. The game gives quantity over quality for writing. Simply because of that you have tons of life stories that it seems like there is a lot. Now to the average first person shooter junkie this may appear to be a masterpiece of writing which Biowear may have made some cuts to appeal for them. A good example is Tori (Marina Sirtis) as the space slut race villain. Each place feels big but if you try to get into every nick and cranny it is just a very big confine space. In Jade Empire there were able to do this and over come it by saying it was a town you were visiting. Each world may have felt a bit confiding but felt larger then it was. Now each planet you go to that is along the storyline feels like this, with the worlds that are off to the side for some sandbox fun aren’t. It might be the fact that you have to transverse these worlds on a tank that moves like a wandering cow. Something which you are forced on many occasions to use and blow shit up. The ice planet you take on the female space slut voiced by Sirtis is the best example of it, and the fun the game has. For Shaft goes around shooting his load, blowing off the heads of geth. Proving you’re a bad ass mother fucker and you’re not taking any shit.

The lack of story is made up time after time by moments where you get to shot the hell out of the dumb asses and feel like you will crush all you oppose. This fun is top notch, but it gets pushed aside by everything in the way. The fun is in bits and pieces but to do a good chunk of it, you have to ride one of the slow ass elevator. This is something that keeps the pacing of the game at a slow crawl of a slug to bad ass of the universe which makes the game a bit of a grind to get the experience by talking to people and the such. Sure it does lead to be more of a bad ass of the universe or the godly knight that saves the universe by slaying the fools of the world. It just happens so slowly it is tough to get the feel of either one.

Conclusion

So you get a grinding for level choice your own adventure. This may be very incomplete and filled with flaws because it is the first of a trilogy, even so the fun you get out of the game is much the same you get out of a Shonen anime. Spewing out boobs, actions, and as much fun as a quality pop corn flick can give. It feels more like the Madden of RPGs where you have a fun product with a lot of flaws like lens flairs that kill many beautiful scenes. Along with the chance of boobies from the PG-13 sex scene which is the only reason for the M with no language or blood heck it seems more like it got a M rating for additional sales. A poor AI where your comrades can’t do anything to help you so you are alone and crappy mechanics which are minded for the fun for kick ass fun.

Since a broken game, is just apart of the challenge, for fans of Maden. This will make it a game to love and own. For anyone else that just enjoys a decent action flick, that can overlook these flaws, it makes a decent rent for the weekend. Even those with some hope that since it is part of a trilogy that the next one might be good, I still say rent it. Though knowing Biowear, this will at most just help you get some small references. Those that are look for a game that has a good anything, I would avoid the game like the plague.

Pros

* Fun of living a sci fi movie
* Shooting stuff up
* Being an intergalactic Shaft

Cons

* Lens flair killing sights
* Crappy AI for allies vs. foes
* You are forced to drive shooting cow

Gameplay 15/25
Fun 20/25
Sound 6/25
Graphics 15/25

Total 56/100