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Mass Effect review...
"... By the year 2183, mankind has mastered the ability to travel throughout the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds, bringing them into contact with a host of alien races. Now humanity struggles to find its place in the greater galactic community..." (p. 2, Mass Effect Universe.)
Travel to exotic locations, meet new and interesting people, and then kill them. It was an Army saying I came across in my time on active duty and one that can almost be a tagline (with modification) for the video game Mass Effect. As an active duty soldier in the Systems Alliance Military, your character leads a hodgepodge crew to face an old threat to the universe.
Mass Effect is a third-person science fiction role-playing game, with some neat first-person shooter elements added in to keep things lively. An ample supply of alien and human foes, a dash of biotic (psionic) ability, and a large dose of cinema make for a fun adventure quest spanning several planets and varying locales.
Its hard to pin down which elements on the first play through make it most compelling, its rich story, detailed setting or button mashing shoot ‘em ups. All those taken together keep the player engaged with the game, but on the following replays, their value diminishes.
Interactive Fiction...
“... The top of the wheel typically corresponds to the Paragon path, where your character makes selfless, cooperative decisions. The bottom of the wheel generally correspond to the Renegade path, where your character is more aggressive and hostile ...” (p. 6, Conversation.)
If I were to say how it was playing Mass Effect to someone interested, I would describe it like playing a good book. Yes, it’s very visual (it is a video game, after all) and cinematic, yet the story is immersive like fiction not film. With numerous story branch points to choose from as the game plays out, the player gets to determine the development of the main character as the events around him unfold.
It’s like being able to control the main character of a novel, though with some limitations. You get to set the tone for the character, like good or evil (Paragon or Renegade, to use the game’s terms) but it feels that no matter your choices the main story will end the same.
While the story is rich and compelling, on replay it feels like you’re just going for the next set of gamerscore achievements. Mass Effect’s shooter game play elements keep the game from bogging down while going over familiar ground. Hopefully, BioWare’s downloadable content invigorates the story elements that are currently available.
Playing the game...
"... Missions throughout the Attican Traverse take you to uncharted worlds with mysterious anomalies. To discover the nature of these anomalies you must travel to, land on, and explore these planets..." (p. 21, How to Navigate to an Uncharted World.)
The game is a third-person role-playing game with shooter elements. Using your controller you interact with the game environment in real-time, unless you bring up the weapon or power selection wheels.
Bringing up the mission computer screen (the start button) also pauses the game, allowing you to level your characters, select and upgrade weapons and armor, as well as read your mission tasks and game universe codex. The left bumper button switches weapons from current readied to the previous equipped one with a quick press, while holding it will bring up the weapon selection wheel; the right bumper brings up the power selection wheel allowing you to select which talent your characters will use.
Using the left thumbstick to move your character around and crouch with click; the right thumbstick looks around the environment and helps you select a target when the option’s available. I found using a drawn weapon was good for finding crates and other containers across a map. The left trigger zooms while having a weapon drawn, and the right trigger shoots your weapon. The back button sends grenades towards your enemies, but only while your weapon is drawn.
Moving around and interacting with the game environment is one thing, but combat can be simple or overwhelming. Assault rifles, pistols, shotguns and sniper rifles are standard issue across each character, though training will depend greatly on a character’s class. Each weapon can be fitted with upgrades, with some holding more slots than others. Finding mods for a particular weapon is as easy as shopping or opening a crate. The nice thing about Mass Effect is that you can modify on the fly, even in the midst of combat.
Biotic energy is the Mass Effect universe’s answer to psionic or Force abilities, allowing characters to destroy enemies by throwing them around or hitting them with crushing energies. Certain environmental items, like large boxes for cover, can be moved with biotics and make fighting biotic enemies interesting as things start flying around.
Classes and character...
“... The Soldier is a tough warrior, able to deal with a range of combat situations. The Soldier gets improved health, has the widest selection of weapns, and is eventually able to wear heavy armor. Gameplay focus is on getting into the thick of the fight, picking the right weapon for tactical situations, and outlasting opponents..." (p. 4, Soldier--Combat Specialist)
It’s hard to judge the full scope of Mass Effect’s class system on one playthrough, as I tried to keep the most firepower available to takedown enemies while having enough decryption ability to hack into locked crates.
The classes are based on fighting, biotics and technological aptitude. There are three major classes that focus primarily on those skills: Soldier (combat), Engineer (tech) and Adept (biotics). Three other classes take elements of those first three and mix them with one of the others: Infiltrator (combat/tech), Vanguard (biotic/combat) and Sentinel (biotic/tech). Each class affects the focus of gameplay, such as tactical situations, or heavy use of advantageous cover.
I started with the default male character and completed the game using the soldier class, though a side mission did allow my character an option of a “prestige” class (commando), which overwrote the main skills in soldier and rounded out options for weapon choice and energy shield. This side mission allows various options for the other classes too, but I’m not certain what they are.
One of the things that Mass Effect allows you to do is to fine tune your character’s appearance at the beginning of the game, and fine tune your character’s abilities as the game progresses. With a customizable appearance menu, you can make a wide variety of characters with each playthrough you have. Though the drawback is that it has no effect on how other characters in the game treat you, other than a small choice in origin options.
As your characters level, they gain a number of points to distribute across the various combat, technical and biotic skills. Fine tuning your characters can be fun, but can also be a bit of point pinching when your points dwindle to one a level at the higher end of the spectrum. Each class determines which character has which skill, and these options increase on the various achievements you have on your profile. An option is available to have the game level your characters automatically, but you have to select it to do so.
At your fingertips...
“... The Galaxy Map is located in the center of the Normandy's command deck. To access it, ascend the deck, and select the holographic galaxy image....” (p. 10, Galaxy Map.)
Mass Effect is a fun game, though not without its glitches. It takes time to load textures and some of the lighting on the cut scenes makes the characters look ghastly. Elevators take forever to move your characters, making me think of Marcus’s line from Babylon 5, “With all this technology and it still takes forever to get anywhere.” Another thing about elevators is that you can’t save the game while operating one.
Some spots in the game will have the character standing with nothing around him and he won’t be able to move, thankfully rare, but it’s happened more than twice. I also encountered a glitch where I bolstered my Paragon level by searching a target more than once during a side mission. I hope that there’s a Renegade equivalent.
Dropping in on planets have your scrounging through about three types of bases, even the starships lack variety in their maps. The planets have varying terrain, but it isn’t quite as diverse as one could hope for. Even with its glitches and map issues, Mass Effect is a solid role-playing console game that gamers should think about getting, provided that they have an Xbox 360.
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