Mass Effect Review

Finally Mass Effect is here. Actually, it got here quite a few days ago but I wanted to hold up on the review until I had actually finished the game. So how does BioWare’s latest romp fair on Graev’s scale? Read on to find out.

Mass Effect is a Sci-Fi role-playing game with third-person shooter elements. It takes place quite a few years into the future when mankind has made contact with several alien species and are well on their way to joining the galactic community. You play the roll of Commander Shepard, choosing to be either male or female. Mass Effect, like most BioWare games, features quite an interesting story. It quickly draws you in and leaves you waiting on the edge of your seat for that one moment in the game where everything seems to fall into place and make sense.

BioWare seems pretty fond of the double-sided alignment system that offers you choices in certain game decisions. It’s evolved over the ages from games like Knights of the Old Republic’s good/evil way of doing things to Jade Empire’s Open Palm and Closed Fist philosophies. In Mass Effect it’s come down to either paragon or renegade decisions. Do you want to be that straight up, by-the-book military guy or do you want to get things done your own way, no matter the cost. It offers some pretty interesting decisions to the game and works quite well. There is a whole lot of dialogue in this game, which turns some people off, but it really fleshes out the story and is quite interesting. The game has excellent writing and voice work.

Now if you’re thinking, “Hey, this all sounds good so far, but what’s the combat like?” then hold on, I’m getting to it. Mass Effect’s combat system is different and yet similar to past BioWare experiences. It’s similar because it uses that same pause-to-issue-orders type of setup, but other than that the combat is all in real time. It plays out like a third-person shooter and for the most part it works fairly well. At times it can feel kind of odd, but it can actually be pretty fun. I started the game off on the highest difficulty available which offered a bit of a challenge in the beginning, but the difficulty seemed to level off in the middle of the game and from there it only got easier.

Again, like other BioWare titles, you are offered your choice of classes at the beginning of the game, which range from straight up combat, technical, and biotic choices to hybrids of each. The classes differ enough to offer incentive to play again as something else. As you level up you gain points that you can spend on your skills. These range from increasing your accuracy and damage with certain weapons to adding new types of attacks and disable moves. There are a few pretty neat abilities in the game that you’ll have fun using.

So by now even I’m thinking that this sounds a little like every other BioWare game. Mass Effect can feel quite familiar at times. It uses the same type of alignment choice system, pause combat, features a whole lot of dialog, and even has the cliché plot twist in the middle that every other BioWare game has. It’s not that these are bad things, but it would be nice if BioWare tried something a little newer. Throughout my play-through it felt almost like they took their generic game skeletal structure and added a new face to it. I know people are most likely saying “If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it” but it wouldn’t hurt to try a new direction every now and again.

Other than that it sounds like a pretty awesome game, right? That’s because it is. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t suffer from a whole lot of bugs/glitches, but it wouldn’t be a BioWare game without those. The game looks gorgeous, but it can suffer from frame-rate issues and incredibly slow loading textures. Many people also complain of their game freezing, but luckily for me that only happened once. However, on more than one occasion the game dropped to incredibly sluggish speeds that could only be remedied with a system reset. Fortunately this time around there seems to be a lot less bugged quests, or at least I didn’t encounter many or any that were game-breaking.

The game should last you anywhere between 20-35 hours, depending on how much you choose to invest in the side quests. Pretty standard for BioWare games nowadays. With the ability to choose your gender, the dual-alignment system, multiple classes, and TWO unlockable difficulty settings you’ll find this game has a good deal of replay value. And quite a bit more if you want to get all of the achievements.

So if you’re wondering now if Mass Effect is worth purchasing, then wonder no more. Go buy it. Seriously, go get it now. Or add it to your Christmas list. Just make sure that if you own an Xbox 360 you don’t miss out on this great game.

Graev’s Mass Effect Review Score: (4/5)