And the review score for Mass Effect is...

Just got my November issue of Game Informer (wasn't expecting it this early and I also wasn't expecting Tim Schafer's new game on the cover: "Brutal Legend") and low and behold, Mass Effect is reviewed!

9.75

Concept: One of the greatest science fictions stories ever told, and a new benchmark for video game storytelling

Sound: One of the most memorable and unique soundtracks in gaming. It's inspired by '80s sci-fi, yet sound like nothing you've heard before. The game also features an amazing ensemble of voice actors.

Playibility: Functional and fun, but something always seems to be an amiss with the AI and balancing

Entertainment: An expansive quest (18-30 hours) that toys with your emotions, and keeps you engaged

GFX: Every second of gameplay offers the visual quality you have come to expect from Final Fantasy cutscenes

Replay Value: High

I do agree, it feels a bit short.

I think for any RPG at least 40 hours minimum is a good length.

Please oh please port to the PC :(selbie

Don't worry, it's BioWare. This is coming to PC next year - mark my words.

While Game Informer isn't the best source for reviews, this is still a good indicator. Begone, oh ye of little faith!

I do agree, it feels a bit short.

I think for any RPG at least 40 hours minimum is a good length.

ASK_Story

Quality > Quantity.

GI isn't a reviewer whose reviews I hang my hat on, but what did they claim were ME's 'AI and balancing' issues?

EDIT: Also, how much exploring can one do? How many worlds are there and how big are they?

wow,18-30 hours looks really long,it'll take ages to finish.WTF?It's supposed to be an action rpg not a FPS(even though from the trailer it seemed 100% action to me) why is it that short.But we all know the ratings today.When a game scores more than 9 it's bound to be a disappointment and surely not to live up to its hype.Maybe this game will prove me wrong but I really doubt itHate_Squad

Awesome. Should be the first of many reviews praising what should be a fantastic open-ended sci-fi game.

I think, or at least I hope, the main campaign and the side quests you get from characters is 18-30 hours, and hopefully there's additional content and quests available throughout the galaxy that extend that gameplay time to something over 40 hours.

Hopefully there's new content released in later months too. That'd be great :D

I do agree, it feels a bit short.

I think for any RPG at least 40 hours minimum is a good length.

ASK_Story

Like I've said before, I don't worry about arbitrary minimums. There was a time I was willing and able to slog through lengthy boring parts that one finds in many jrpgs, but nowadays I just find myself unwilling to do that. Most reviewers said that many hours in Suikoden 3 got really epic (and the opening cinema contained some really interesting stuff), but during that initial slog I realized I wasn't having fun, so I stopped S3 a little more than a dozen hours in. On the other hand, I put 150 hours into FF12, which I found entertaining throughout.

Length is a good thing, but quality is more important. If ME is a fun game throughout, I can look past its length.

[QUOTE="ASK_Story"]

I do agree, it feels a bit short.

I think for any RPG at least 40 hours minimum is a good length.

CarnageHeart

Like I've said before, I don't worry about arbitrary minimums. There was a time I was willing and able to slog through lengthy boring parts that one finds in many jrpgs, but nowadays I just find myself unwilling to do that. Most reviewers said that many hours in Suikoden 3 got really epic (and the opening cinema contained some really interesting stuff), but during that initial slog I realized I wasn't having fun, so I stopped S3 a little more than a dozen hours in. On the other hand, I put 150 hours into FF12, which I found entertaining throughout.

Length is a good thing, but quality is more important. If ME is a fun game throughout, I can look past its length.

I totally agree with you, but I guess I'm talking about good quality games being too short. A game like Mass Effect, IMO, would be much better if it was longer, only because the game is probably good that I wouldn't want it to end. Like your example, FFXII, how since it's so good you could pour a ton of hours into it and still keep playing it. I'm sure Mass Effect has a solid story so that's why it may be told in that specific amount of time. But still, sometimes I feel letdown by the short length of good games and wonder what could've been done to lengthen the experience.

And I can't believe you didn't like Suikoden III. To each his own, but I really enjoyed Suikoden III and I think it was one of the JRPGs that I truly liked last-gen, the other being DQVIII. I looked past the sluggishness of Suikoden III and really thought the story was good, definitely unlike the other last-gen JRPGs with crazy storylines and plots that absolutely make no sense whatsoever.

Anyway, that's my point on Mass Effect. If a game is really good, shorter length feels like a letdown...to me it kind of does. So that's when my preference in length comes in. And like you said, if the game stinks than all the hours in history would never make me play through a terrible game.

A game has to last as long as the designers can keep up the quality. If it feels like it could last more without getting tiresome, then it's too short. Otherwise, it's too long. Mass Effect sounds great, but GI has a tendency to give out high marks in it's reviews. Anyway, I usually love Bioware games, so this should make me happy.

Jeff will give ME a 3.5. His chief complaint will be that the release of ME didn't prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons, didn't get Kim Jong-il out of office, and didn't correctly predict the outcome of Dancing with the Stars.GalvatronType_R

[QUOTE="ASK_Story"]

I do agree, it feels a bit short.

I think for any RPG at least 40 hours minimum is a good length.

CarnageHeart

Like I've said before, I don't worry about arbitrary minimums. There was a time I was willing and able to slog through lengthy boring parts that one finds in many jrpgs, but nowadays I just find myself unwilling to do that. Most reviewers said that many hours in Suikoden 3 got really epic (and the opening cinema contained some really interesting stuff), but during that initial slog I realized I wasn't having fun, so I stopped S3 a little more than a dozen hours in. On the other hand, I put 150 hours into FF12, which I found entertaining throughout.

Length is a good thing, but quality is more important. If ME is a fun game throughout, I can look past its length.

It depends on how you interpret a good story. I loved every second of Suikoden III because I enjoyed all the settings and gameplay. I liked how each story progressed, and the pacing. On the other hand, I kept losing sight of FF XII's story because I would take the extra time to run around and do other things...something I couldn't really do in SIII, but something I also didn't really WANT to do, because I liked the stories. I put about 130 hours into FF XII myself (did everything), but I put a good 65 into Suikoden III and always wanted to play it again...especially for the story. FF XII had a great story, but as I'm not really a fan of political-based plotlines, it didn't interest me as much. The ending was fantastic, though.

As for Mass Effect, I'm getting it. I've no doubt it's great, and I do agree that we shouldn't worry about arbitrary minimum lengths. Like I said with Heavenly Sword, if the developer's full story and vision fits nicely into the span of time it takes for the player to complete the adventure, that's a great thing. If it feels rushed or drawn out, than it's a problem, but developers should completely ignore length "requirements" and simply make the best game they can with the ideas they have.

Am I the only one that typically takes longer with a game than the estimates of these reviewers?

Anyway, review sounds pretty much exactly like I expected. Good news.

Am I the only one that typically takes longer with a game than the estimates of these reviewers?

Darth_Tigris

Always takes longer for me, but I'm assuming that reviewers are much better players than I am and that I'm making many more stops along the way than they are to look for secrets, play minigames, etc. But even without those, the main quest always takes me longer. I usually go about 25-50% longerthan the amount of hours that reviews or packages state are in the game.

Very excited about this review, can't wait for this game :D

Game Informer. And a whole month before release. Yeah, that's a credible review.Alaris83

Mass Effect looking interesting, however I can't entirely trust an early review from Game Informer.

After all, Game Informer also gave Jade Empire on Xbox a 9.5.....while Gamespot gave it an 8.4.

It'll be interesting to see how Gamespot views it, especially if the game happens to be as short for an RPG as Game Informer claims....which was one of the shortcoming Gamespot held against Jade Empire.

Does this not bother anyone else?

One of the greatest stories ever told!

One of the most memorable soundtracks in gaming!

Amazing visuals!

Gameplay isFunctional and fun, but something always seems to be an amiss with the AI and balancing

9.75!!!!! :? Sooo indicative of so many games and reviews these days.

Mass Effect is one of the very rare games that I'm buying with absolutely zero regard to what any review or player has to say about it.

I've found myself leaning away from conventional JRPGs due to the way some of them are designed (with the idea that the player has a hint book on hand), the grinding (there IS a reason why it's referred to as grinding -- because it's a ******* GRIND), and the ham-fisted storytelling. KOTOR had none of that BS, and that's why I'm giving Bioware the honor of buying their game sight unseen/unplayed. I hope they don't abuse this trust.

Does anyone else think Mass Effect should be the last of its kind, just like Twilight Princess should be the last Zelda of its kind? Do youthink BioWare's formula is getting old now and they should find new ways to make their games more innovative? I really like BioWare games. I play NeverWinter Nights and Star Wars KotoR on my PC still and I really enjoy them, but I do tend to feel that their formula has remained similaras their past games. Even Jade Empire and Mass Effect seems to play the same.

But these are RPGs so maybe it's a little bit more difficult and a risk to change a formula. I guess for RPGs, a similar formula is the way to go just like all those countless JRPGs that come out every time.

But I think BioWare should try out new things for their next game, maybe a more innovative RPG or a FPS-styled RPG or something. While working on KotoR III of course! ;)

Does anyone else think Mass Effect should be the last of its kind, just like Twilight Princess should be the last Zelda of its kind? Do youthink BioWare's formula is getting old now and they should find new ways to make their games more innovative? I really like BioWare games. I play NeverWinter Nights and Star Wars KotoR on my PC still and I really enjoy them, but I do tend to feel that their formula has remained similaras their past games. Even Jade Empire and Mass Effect seems to play the same.

But these are RPGs so maybe it's a little bit more difficult and a risk to change a formula. I guess for RPGs, a similar formula is the way to go just like all those countless JRPGs that come out every time.

But I think BioWare should try out new things for their next game, maybe a more innovative RPG or a FPS-styled RPG or something. While working on KotoR III of course! ;)

ASK_Story

Not if trying something new means another Jade Empire instead of a KOTOR.

I will buy anything from Bioware regardless of any review because I have enjoyed every game that they've

had a hand in.

Take this, do something with this, I don't know what it is tho

Mass Effect Review

Game Informer is GameStop's evil propaganda magazine designed to sell games, so I wouldn't trust it entirely, but it's still a pretty good indicator of a great game.LordAndrew

Not true.

GI has been around a long time. Theysimply made a deal with EB/Gamestop to sell subscriptions to their magazine along with membership in the Edge card program.

As credibility goes, I'd rank them considerably higher than EGM.

Just got my November issue of Game Informer (wasn't expecting it this early and I also wasn't expecting Tim Schafer's new game on the cover: "Brutal Legend") and low and behold, Mass Effect is reviewed!

9.75

Concept: One of the greatest science fictions stories ever told, and a new benchmark for video game storytelling

Sound: One of the most memorable and unique soundtracks in gaming. It's inspired by '80s sci-fi, yet sound like nothing you've heard before. The game also features an amazing ensemble of voice actors.

Playibility: Functional and fun, but something always seems to be an amiss with the AI and balancing

Entertainment: An expansive quest (18-30 hours) that toys with your emotions, and keeps you engaged

GFX: Every second of gameplay offers the visual quality you have come to expect from Final Fantasy cutscenes

Replay Value: High

mattm025

Looks pwnage. Just remember that Game Informer isn't Gamespot, so they're a lot less harsh when it comes to rating games.

Day 1 purchase.

Not because of this Review, but because I have been anticipating and have been excited about Mass Effect for a long time now!!! ...soon it's finally here! XD