Mass Effect – Bioware strikes back…

By DarkArmada

   Years on, there is only one remaining Xbox game on my shelf – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It’s lasted through countless purges of my collection and has done so because it is probably the best Star Wars branded game released to this date, let alone one of the best Role Playing Games that I’ve ever come across. It is then no surprise that Bioware’s Mass Effect is following in the fairly large footsteps of it’s long lost cousin, and rightly so.

Mass Effect takes you to the year 2183 – you are Commander Shepard, in charge of the Human Systems Alliance ship, SSV Normandy. Your goal is a simple one, although it is not the destination, but the journey that is important. As with many (if not all) Sci-Fi RPG’s available today, you are tasked with saving the universe from an incomprehensible evil. Simple enough? Not entirely so…

It would be wrong of me to label Mass Effect as “just a game” although “interactive story” isn’t all there either. Bioware have been able to combine the best of both worlds, providing a deep story driven experience as well as typical RPG style action and gameplay. With both these concepts applied brilliantly, it is on only the minor faults that I can rest my criticism.

Learning curves are found everywhere and even at the 10 hour mark I was still coming to terms with both the controls and game concepts. There are basically no tutorials found in game and even the manual cannot help you. This made my early experience quite frustrating, but after several private epiphanies, I finally got a hold of some of the more advanced features. One sticky point is the use of your on-planet transportation – the MAKO. It controls very much like Halo’s Warthog, yet is enclosed and sports 6wd. It’s armed with both a cannon and a mounted machine gun as well as a “jump-jet” allowing limited vertical movement. The controls of the MAKO have been a focal point of negativity in response to Mass Effect, but this is one place I felt at home.

My one complaint with the MAKO isn’t really about the MAKO at all – but moreso in the application. Each planet you visit and explore is roughly the same. You will generally have a few points on the map that are waiting to be explored, but all generally will provide you with credits, XP or a pickup and all are the same as each other. Planets become fairly predictable as the game progresses and can get fairly monotonous exploring each one. However, with such flaws, every planet is rendered beautifully and many a time I have found myself taking in the landscape from a rocky outcrop or staring up into the star filled sky. Thankfully, with no lack of side quests to chase, the long drives on distant planets are broken up with encounters from various enemies, from typical space pirates to violent fanatics.

Unfortunately, the issues with control complexity make their way into the combat system where you’re left guessing – even with core concepts like weapon choice and selection. Although it’s not long until you come to terms with the basics and from there, the combat system is closely related to a Third Person Shooter such as Gears of War. Find cover, aim and fire – it’s that simple. More advanced features involve selecting both yours and your party’s Techs (“Technology” based attacks) and Biotics (Similar to “Force” powers), as well as their weapons and team orders. Anyone familiar with KOTOR will instantly recognize the combat style, although Mass Effect has moved away from the turn based system to a more traditional shooter style, but keeping the pause ability to supply team mates with orders.

Unfortunately I can’t say that the AI is the best I’ve seen. Too many times do your team mates stand right in front of you, taking the brunt of fire you were directing at the enemy or run to attack, only do so straight into an oncoming rocket. Other than that, team mate’s behaviour is as expected although I did have difficulty making them do what I wanted them to. Plus, it is up to you to supply your team mates with all their equipment, having you deal with huge lists of weapons, armour and upgrades (limited to 150 items). Thankfully, this was one of my major “OHHH” moments and once you get to that point, the inventory system becomes straight forward and a breeze to use. Once you’ve dispatched sweet justice on your enemy, pickups are automatic so there is no need to “body hunt” to make sure you found every last weapon dropped.

But an RPG isn’t all action and the most engrossing moments in Mass Effect are found within the complex story, in dialogue between you and the various people you meet in your travels as well as the Codex – your “galactic encyclopaedia”, constantly being filled with any and all knowledge you earn along the way. Every planet you visit has a detailed description as well as a wonderfully painted image, all looking lifelike and not out of place in any “space-scape”.

Your interaction with others will ultimately shape who you are as the game progresses, each dialogue choice either pushing you more towards “Renegade” or “Paragon”, the former being the darker more negative trait, whereas the latter being the kinder more positive side. Dialogue choices are not as straight forward as “Yes, please give it to me” or “No, I do not want it”, now you get to choose one of many different “directions” you’d like to take the conversation. Whatever you decide, you then get to see Shepard express the choice you made into words, sometimes quite comically. Following one path or the other takes a lot of commitment, especially with some of the more difficult decisions you are forced to make.

Visually, Mass Effect well, let’s just say that it is amazing once it’s “warmed up”. The visuals are what we’ve come to expect from this generation hardware, even though the game suffers from some pretty bad slow down as well as extensive texture pop-up. This is a symptom of the Unreal engine and having become fairly used to it from past titles, I manage to overlook it. Lighting is utterly breathtaking when you’re exploring the various planets although the shadows casted, especially on character’s faces and bodies, are quite jagged and are not a pleasant sight. It’s hard to look past the various graphical flaws, even loading into and out of elevators causing extensive slowdown, but like I said – once it’s warmed up it’s real easy on the eyes. Voice acting is well done as is basically all the sound effects in game. My only gripe would be a lack of variety in weapon firing samples – but even that isn’t a major flaw. All in all, audio is well done.

When it comes down to it, Mass Effect is a brilliant idea. I say idea as there are some issues I still have with Bioware’s execution. Although only a niggling problem, the graphical issues are very noticeable and if it wasn’t for the deep story and entertaining gameplay, I could have very easily disregarded this title. Thankfully, the epic and addictive nature of Mass Effect speaks volumes about the quality of Bioware’s work and if there is one game for the Xbox 360 that will stay with me into the next generation of gaming, this will be one of them.

© 2007 -8 Lee Edgerton

9.65/10 – The gaming experience of 2007

Filed under: Console gaming, Microsoft Games, Xbox 360 3rd Party Games Tagged: | Bioware, Mass Effect, Microsoft Game Studios, review, Xbox 360 News1