2007. A simpler time. I wasn't out of college. My gaming life consisted of World of Warcraft...and World of Warcraft. Playstation 2 was still alive and well. Guitar Hero/Rock Band were new and exciting. Ah...nostalgia.
I hear you out there. "But Oz, you are always on the cutting edge of gaming news and play everything as it comes out?" Oh wait no one's saying that. Why? I'm a Jew folks. I can't buy a game for 60 dollars unless its pretty much guaranteed I'm going to love it. I pay full price for Madden (because by the time it gets cheap I'm usually sick of it), and occasional franchise games (Marvel Vs Capcom). That's it. Everything else? Pre-owned bargain bin at the chain we all hate to love and love to hate at the same time. "Oz! You're killing the game industry!" Yeah, yeah. Tell EA to start releasing stuff for 20 dollars not on Origin and I'll start giving them their cut. But this isn't a review on the state of the gaming industry.
It may have been 5 years in coming, but I finally played Mass Effect the way it was meant to be played. I say this because I had played part of it before on a Mac port. Oddly enough, I don't remember being that impressed. I think I was playing mostly at school during class though so I may have had sound and things turned off. Not the best tribute to this game. Recently, I had some money to spend. Nothing was really catching my eye at the store. NBA2k13? Still full price. Bioshock? Ehhh maybe, its finally pretty cheap. GTAIV with DLC. I didn't like GTAIV all that much. Then in a box all together "Mass Effect Trilogy" for a quite reasonable price. I added up the three separately (they had copies of all 3 surrounding it). Same price. Yup going with the box set.
Nifty.
So anyway, I haven't come up with a format for game reviews and I will TRY to put less spoilers but as always, I may slip up so be forewarned. Here's what I'm going to do: the stereotypical breakdowns. Then after that, I may mention a few things I really liked and a few things I didn't. Also another disclaimer: i've only played through once as Male Shep Paragon. More playthroughs are coming but I don't know when.
Graphics
Honestly? I'm playing on a standard definition TV. I cant really evaluate graphics to an insane degree.
But for 2007? It looks good. The worlds are interesting, beautiful sky/space shots, spaceships look awesome, and the other species look great. Some of the armor, weapon, and terrain textures look flat but that could be my lack of HD. The characters look pretty real for the time it was made and have decent facial expressiveness based on what's going on around them. Graphics Score: 8/10
Gameplay
So here's the deal. You know what genre I hate and am terrible at? FPS. You see me on your team in anything other than TF2 as a Heavy, you can pretty much know we're gonna lose. You know what genre I like but don't usually have the patience to finish and from what I know am also terrible at? RPGs. So lets think about that: We have my two worst genre's in gaming. Combined. And I'm playing it. Honestly though? I loved it. This game actually made cover based combat not feel like a clusterfuck like Gears of War. The upgrades are easy to find and as the enemies increase in level, your bullets start cutting through them like hot butter. Its immensely satisfying. I ran through as a soldier and found myself primarily using the assault rifle and shotgun. I loved when wave after of robot would be charging at me and my team and I'd just mow them down in short bursts. Also, the overheating mechanism of the guns makes it not a "conserve" ammo insanity like fallout or other roaming FPSRPGs. How would you pronounce that? But combat is only a portion of the game.
As I said it is an RPG, so you are constantly upgrading your characters and your guns with mods and other elements to increase your effectiveness. The character upgrading is pretty basic: XP gives you levels, levels give you skill points to spend on the skills you use most. The gun customization is more interesting. You can get upgrades that give you more shields, more resistance to certain weapons maneuvers, and a plethora of other things. These are also often upgraded. Did I mention every character can be equipped at any time from your ship? That's pretty cool. You can choose to break down old upgrades/guns into "omni-gel" that helps you unlock things without having to play a button mashing mini-game or you can save them to sell. Be forewarned, you only have 150 slots for inventory total and it fills up rather fast.
Possibly the most interesting element of the gameplay is the conversations with NPCs and moral choice system. As you go through the game helping people, there are breaks in the conversation you get to pick your response. The responses are either "Paragon" (Good guy for the vocabulary impaired), Neutral, or "Renegade" (Bad/Shady guy who does some good). By getting points as paragon or renegade, you open up other options that can help you avoid fights or start them. I'd love to see this expanded further and have 9 conversation options at these decision points with the classic Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic breakdowns.
My one beef with the the gameplay? While the combat controls are pretty easy and intuitive, the menu/map controls are brutal. I was constantly fucking up and thank god for confirmation screens or I would've melted down several of my best weapons. I spent a good bit of time on the first playthrough 20+ hours and still fuck up the menus. The upgrade/equipping menu is impossible when you start having alot of stuff and takes forever to get to the weaker things on the bottom to get rid of them.
Gameplay Score: 9/10 Few tweaks would've made it a 10. Damn Menus.
Story
While not particularly revolutionary or anything, They've made a fantastic sci-fi universe here. Races at war in space! And you can have sex with people! what more do you want? My only beef is much of the story is revealed in the codex and nobody has the time to read all of that. I know its too much to just present in the game, but I feel like there may have been a better way.
Story: 8/10
Sound
The music, sound effects, and voice acting are all pretty top notch. Not so good you say "Wow listen to that" but each element contributing to creating the diverse universe of the game. I love the aliens all having a particular speaking style (especially the Elcor Delighted Greeting Hello Shephard makes me lose my shit laughing). I dig it.
Sound: 9/10
What I Really Liked
-Moral Choice System giving multiple paths to quests.
-Missions while repetitive are relatively fun and engaging. You are exploring space.
-Character relationships and interactions stay true to established traits, even with NPCs.
-Those Spectre weapons
What I Didn't Like
-Too much Mako. It makes it almost too easy when you can take out the camp using just the Mako guns and missiles. Not the easiest thing to drive and you're in it a lot.
-The fucking menus
-Some of the guns are too overpowered while others are way too weak.
-Romances can only be done with specific characters.
So overall: I give it a 9/10 sex scenes with an alien. Definitely something you should play if you like sci-fi at all. Its got a great combat system, a cool moral choice dynamic, and the annoyances dont break the game like they do so often in other games.
Had sex with the alien chick because I could
-Oz
Graphics
Honestly? I'm playing on a standard definition TV. I cant really evaluate graphics to an insane degree.
But for 2007? It looks good. The worlds are interesting, beautiful sky/space shots, spaceships look awesome, and the other species look great. Some of the armor, weapon, and terrain textures look flat but that could be my lack of HD. The characters look pretty real for the time it was made and have decent facial expressiveness based on what's going on around them. Graphics Score: 8/10
Gameplay
So here's the deal. You know what genre I hate and am terrible at? FPS. You see me on your team in anything other than TF2 as a Heavy, you can pretty much know we're gonna lose. You know what genre I like but don't usually have the patience to finish and from what I know am also terrible at? RPGs. So lets think about that: We have my two worst genre's in gaming. Combined. And I'm playing it. Honestly though? I loved it. This game actually made cover based combat not feel like a clusterfuck like Gears of War. The upgrades are easy to find and as the enemies increase in level, your bullets start cutting through them like hot butter. Its immensely satisfying. I ran through as a soldier and found myself primarily using the assault rifle and shotgun. I loved when wave after of robot would be charging at me and my team and I'd just mow them down in short bursts. Also, the overheating mechanism of the guns makes it not a "conserve" ammo insanity like fallout or other roaming FPSRPGs. How would you pronounce that? But combat is only a portion of the game.
As I said it is an RPG, so you are constantly upgrading your characters and your guns with mods and other elements to increase your effectiveness. The character upgrading is pretty basic: XP gives you levels, levels give you skill points to spend on the skills you use most. The gun customization is more interesting. You can get upgrades that give you more shields, more resistance to certain weapons maneuvers, and a plethora of other things. These are also often upgraded. Did I mention every character can be equipped at any time from your ship? That's pretty cool. You can choose to break down old upgrades/guns into "omni-gel" that helps you unlock things without having to play a button mashing mini-game or you can save them to sell. Be forewarned, you only have 150 slots for inventory total and it fills up rather fast.
Possibly the most interesting element of the gameplay is the conversations with NPCs and moral choice system. As you go through the game helping people, there are breaks in the conversation you get to pick your response. The responses are either "Paragon" (Good guy for the vocabulary impaired), Neutral, or "Renegade" (Bad/Shady guy who does some good). By getting points as paragon or renegade, you open up other options that can help you avoid fights or start them. I'd love to see this expanded further and have 9 conversation options at these decision points with the classic Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic breakdowns.
My one beef with the the gameplay? While the combat controls are pretty easy and intuitive, the menu/map controls are brutal. I was constantly fucking up and thank god for confirmation screens or I would've melted down several of my best weapons. I spent a good bit of time on the first playthrough 20+ hours and still fuck up the menus. The upgrade/equipping menu is impossible when you start having alot of stuff and takes forever to get to the weaker things on the bottom to get rid of them.
Gameplay Score: 9/10 Few tweaks would've made it a 10. Damn Menus.
Story
While not particularly revolutionary or anything, They've made a fantastic sci-fi universe here. Races at war in space! And you can have sex with people! what more do you want? My only beef is much of the story is revealed in the codex and nobody has the time to read all of that. I know its too much to just present in the game, but I feel like there may have been a better way.
Story: 8/10
Sound
The music, sound effects, and voice acting are all pretty top notch. Not so good you say "Wow listen to that" but each element contributing to creating the diverse universe of the game. I love the aliens all having a particular speaking style (especially the Elcor Delighted Greeting Hello Shephard makes me lose my shit laughing). I dig it.
Sound: 9/10
What I Really Liked
-Moral Choice System giving multiple paths to quests.
-Missions while repetitive are relatively fun and engaging. You are exploring space.
-Character relationships and interactions stay true to established traits, even with NPCs.
-Those Spectre weapons
What I Didn't Like
-Too much Mako. It makes it almost too easy when you can take out the camp using just the Mako guns and missiles. Not the easiest thing to drive and you're in it a lot.
-The fucking menus
-Some of the guns are too overpowered while others are way too weak.
-Romances can only be done with specific characters.
So overall: I give it a 9/10 sex scenes with an alien. Definitely something you should play if you like sci-fi at all. Its got a great combat system, a cool moral choice dynamic, and the annoyances dont break the game like they do so often in other games.
Had sex with the alien chick because I could
-Oz
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