Mass Effect - a Review

Pardon my long absence - end of semester, flurry of new games, you know how it is.

Anyway, Mass Effect. Bioware's new big space opera. I've actually played through it and am partway through my new game plus, so I figure I should maybe give it a review.

Visually, it's a pretty beautiful game. There's a lot of texture pop-in, but I hear this is an issue with the Unreal 3 engine the game was built with and as such not something we can complain about too much. The sound is very good as well - they were going for something like Vangelis (is that the right spelling) and other soundtrack provides for 80s scifi, and I think the succeeded very well. Check out the random planet (more on those in a bit) Metgos for some damn creepy ambiance.

Gameplay-wise, it's important to remember this is a third-person shooter as much as it is an RPG. The controls are fairly solid, though there is the Mako (again, more on that in a bit). Special ability use will probably be familiar to anyone who has played an MMORPG - it's entirely cooldown based; I think that worked very well, as it cuts out the need for an "MP meter" and at the same time still lets people much with the efficiency of the spell (by reducing the cooldown). The only downside? Biotics (magic) and engineering skills (more different hacking magic) don't really seem to hold a candle to shooting the hell out of something with a good gun. That said, I've not played as a biotic myself, only with biotic teammates, so maybe it's better when you have active control. If not, classes like the Adept, which are only proficient in the pistol (which is appropriately a very weak weapon, even fairly powered up) and the Engineer could well have a rough time of it.

Speaking of teammates - in *most* cases I like them. In particular, I greatly enjoyed Wrex - think HK-47, but a large frog-man mercenary - and Garrus - a somewhat "renegade" cop. Note that that "renegade" does not mean "turned against" as normal - it refers to the morality system of the game, which I'll get to later. That said, Kaiden, the mixed tech/magic guy and one of the two romance options for female characters, is sort of flat. Truth be told, everyone is - there's only three or four dialogues between your character and each of the supporting cast. This hurts the romances to a degree, as there's not really a lot of time to get to squishy stuff; Liara in particular comes off as "why does she like me so much;" she's the last one to join your group in the "normal" flow of things. It mostly feels like the romance options are the less likable/sensical ones - I got a more natural "there is attraction here" vibe between the main character and the Quarian engineer Tali than I did any of my actual choices, and I've seen a strong following seeing the same between Garrus (that turian cop) and the female incarnation of the main character. I'm also disappointed that there is a "lesbian" pairing (Liara is romanceable despite your gender) but no male/male one - curious considering there was in Jade Empire, it seems backpedaling-ish/"target audience"-y.

That said, Ashley, the female human shooty, is pretty well fleshed out, but she comes off as very strongly xenophobic, even racist - one of her "offhand" comments when you talk to her investigating the main town is something along the lines of "I can't tell the aliens from the animals." It's good that she's interesting, but I'd have preferred "likable and interesting," all told. The kicker is that supposedly the racist slant was accidental; either they are full of it or I'm greatly disappointed in their ability to see past their own notions of how the character is presented.

And now for my big gripe with the game: repetitiveness. The main mission worlds are good. Great, even. The issue is the "sidequests:" you go to random planets, you get into your space ATV and drive around poking minerals and crashed probes and such, you find a base of some sort with some enemies, you kill the enemies and (usually) go in the base to kill more enemies. Look at something, quest complete. Of the twenty-five-odd side missions that don't involve plot planets, that (or "skip the planet, just do the end base because it's a derelict ship") accounts for...probably twenty, with the gather missions being the other five. Yes, you probably don't have to do them to beat the game, but it's irritating for there to be a large amount of content that you feel like you should do...and then it's the same base thing with a new coat of paint each time. I mean, really, there are basically two base floorplans, one cave floorplan, and one ship floorplan. You see it over and over again.

It doesn't help that your main method of traveling these places is the Mako, your space ATV. It is sorta irritating, especially for climbing mountains (which you do constantly on side planets). Most of the challenge there was "how do I get my damn car up this mountain" as opposed to "how do I kill this thing." That said I was pretty okay at using the damn thing...I just wished it was much more optional, and less irritating when you do use it. At least near the end of the game/on new game plus you can pretty much handle all the tank enemies on foot.

Lastly, the morality system. Here, you are either a paragon - by the book - or a renegade - whatever is necessary. But it doesn't *really* work that way all the time. Yes, sometimes you will say "no I won't help you with that, it's against the law even though it would actively hurt bad people," but most of the time it falls down to "good" or "bad." Actually, check that - most of the time it falls down to paragon which is generally always lawful and sometimes/frequently good, or renegade, which is *invariably* "I'll do what I want" and is an asshole about it - usually neutral (possibly chaotic) evil. I would have liked a little more separation on that, thanks. Really a second meter, saint/asshole would have helped...but this is a very common issue in games with "morality." More interesting is that the two meters are separate - being a paragon then a renegade does not put you at net zero, it puts you up both (though not as much as if you'd acted one way both times). I like that - that you can move in more than one direction - but when they are supposedly opposites it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

I think I would like to see something that takes a measure of the character as you present it early on - mandatory choices in the tutorial area, a questionnaire, whatever - and uses that as what your "bents" are, and rewards/penalizes you for sticking or not sticking to it. Extra bonus points if you can change them mid-game with consistent action in another direction.

Anyway, the good and bad!

Good:
-great graphics, sound
-overall tight controls
-interesting story in a well-fleshed-out world
-game mechanics are solid (didn't talk about this much, I was mostly satisfied with how leveling works/power gain)
-achievements actually affect gameplay (or this - basically, many achievements will give benefits to newly-made characters once you have them, which is neat)

Bad:
-highly repetitive sidequests
-not enough interaction with party, flat/inexplicable romance choices/entries
-dialogue is sometimes a little disjointed - there were a couple of occasions where I didn't quite see how a spoken line followed from what the person you were talking to just said, but not too often (I remember this happening in the Council talks early in the game)
-Thresher Maws can one-hit kill you in the Mako with no warning or chance to avoid - specific, but irritating
-possible lack of balance between shooting and casting

In general...I really liked the game. I just wish it was a little more meaty, you know? There's a lot of potential here, and it felt a little like they wanted to get more in but didn't have the time. But hey, ME2 eventually, right?