Six. That is the number of playthroughs I have completed for Mass Effect alone. For as many times as I have tried to break away from this game, I always get the sudden urge to go ahead and start up a fresh playthrough to begin a new trilogy. I always tell myself, "Okay. You have just completed the trilogy once more. Now it is time to finally focus on the rest of the ever increasing back-log that you have". Three days later, I just say, "Screw it". This very first game in the series is the only one that really has that profound effect on me, and not just because I cannot play through ME2 or ME3 by themselves for story purposes, but because Mass Effect here just has this strange ability of pulling me back into the experience. An experience that I admit was not fond of at first. After the first four hours of playing the first time through, I just lost interest. Nowadays, however, I spend up to about 30 hours or so per playthrough. It's flawed to be sure, especially the PS3 version that I am reviewing, but you know that a game is truly special when you just tend to ignore such obvious issues and just sit on your butt having a gay old time saving the galaxy.
Rather than typing this out as trying to be more "professional" as I have attempted to do in the past, I am going to simply lay out my thoughts of whatever peaked my interest (good or otherwise).
I might as well go ahead and get my biggest gripes out of the way right here and now. First and foremost: the Mako. I truly do enjoy the concept of this tank. I love the idea of being able to explore the great unknown, battling fierce new creatures and discovering hidden artifacts. It is a system I would love to see in future installments in the franchise.....just be sure to include a more maneuverable vehicle. The way the physics work for this tank doesn't make it a very good exploration vehicle. For every moment you go over rather bumpy hills and ridges you end up hopping all over the place and you are having to constantly reposition yourself. Some of the terrain can be outright obnoxious with its incline, so having to climb through certain planets is a much more frustrating experience than it needs to be. There are also moments when you have to engage in combat with the Mako. The turret you are given can only shoot at an even angle. You can have your aiming reticule right on an enemy, but if you are having to shoot on some sort of angled terrain you are going to have to be positioned just right, otherwise you will just be making craters.
As far as technical problems are concerned, the PS3 version that I own is sadly the worst of the three options given to you. In addition to the game's already stuttering framerate (mainly in combat), long load times, and texture issues, the PS3 version also has lip de-sync during some conversations.
And....that's really about it as far as issues that really bothered me are concerned. Now let's get to the good parts.
One of the tings that immediately intrigued me about Mass Effect was it's character creation system. I've always appreciated companies that give players the option to customize his or her own character (especially when it is as well put as this), giving one the chance to truly be a part of the experience. That is pretty much the mindset I had when I spent about fifteen minutes just getting my Shepard to look as close to me as possible. It didn't turn out too great, but it held a sort of sentimental value. To this day, I have never bothered to use the default faces that had been built in the game engine, and I probably never will.
The way Commander Shepard's conversation tree worked out in this game is my personal favorite of the series. The reason being that 99% of Shepard's dialog in the game was entirely dependent on what I had to choose. In a game like ME3, cutscenes began to play out what Shepard had to say. This isn't necessarily a game breaker for ME3 since pretty much what pre-recorded lines were being spoken automatically made sense for what ever allegiance I happened to side on, but it all comes back to that personalized feeling I established with the character creation system: giving the player as much opportunity to take part of the experience as much as you can. This dialog tree was made all the better by really giving much of the decisions you make some real weight to the story. Entire lives would be under the mercy of what call had to be made out. What classified as a right or wrong answer didn't really matter, because in the end you are ultimately you are just trying to do what you think is best. There is no good or evil, just "good cop" and "bad cop". What ever choice you made was entirely dependent on your view point; do you side with a party member simply because you happened to like the character, or outright reject him/her because of prejudice (Wrex is an excellent example of this kind of character trait you can have). There are countless little nuances and plot changes throughout the game just based on this concept alone, making for great replay value (I am a walking example when it comes to this game).
The combat in this game is easily the "worst" of the three games, but it has never really given me a lot of grievance. It is a really effective blend of 3rd-Person shooting, RPG elements, and strategy. I feel that you really get the best use of this system when you play as a biotic class. Being able to pause at any time is a great way to asses a combat scenario and see what each of your team members can pull off. Combining squad power usage to obliterate enemies is perhaps the best part of combat. As you progress, get stronger, and learn new abilities, being able to completely blow through every enemy force in your path is just oh so satisfying. It's good that such a system is implemented, because when stripped down to its most basic shooting components it is lackluster in comparison to much more effect shooters similar to this (Gears of War comes to mind).
The overall story for this game is probably my favorite of the trilogy. It comes down to two points: Discovery and Scale. With this being the first in the series we are introduced to the many familiar faces and alien races that we will grow to love or hate from here on. The primary hub of the game, the Citadel, immediately throws that in your face. You are able to learn much of the galaxy just by looking around and seeing how they interact; What do you normally find them doing? What are there personalities like? How do they talk? I know this is all incredibly basic stuff, but for me they are a sure fire way of getting me invested in this galaxy. If that wasn't enough you are given a codex that pretty much gives you every bit of back story you can hope to imagine. The overall feeling of discovery in this game, even with subsequent playthroughs, has always been its biggest draw. Now how about the scale of this game? What I mean by this is the size of the threat. Without giving anything away, it just felt like the stakes were really at their high point (a little more so than ME3 even).
Perhaps the best thing that Mass Effect does incredibly well is your interactions with your squadmates. What makes them incredibly interesting is how fundamentally different they are from everyone else of their kind and how they even get to the point where they begin to feel "real". They also tend to serve as your primary exposure to each species. When you compare these characters to what you have learned from the races they belong to, you will see just how fundamentally different they are, and why that makes them so much more relateable. For example, Garrus Vakarian, your turian squad member, is very much different from the rest of his species, almost like an outcast of sorts. The Turians are primarily seen as incredibly military and "by-the-books". Garrus just couldn't get behind that. He joins up with Commander Shepard for the opportunity to go and do his on thing. He is not one to be held by by regulations, rather he wants to be able to do the most amount of good, no matter what it takes to get things done. How you interact with him can either encourage him to go along with this ideal, or perhaps you feel he should think things through about it more. These NPCs on your ship stop being coding and start being seen as more "human" for lack of a better term. We see them as if they are actually real, and major props have to be given to the game's writers for being one of the few to be able to pull this off.
So with all of this said, I think I can safely recommend this game. It is easy to be mindful of this game's technical faults, but really begin to peel the layers to get to the really good parts. It is a game that I am glad I gave a second chance to, and it is easily one of my all time favorite games. Now if you excuse me, it is time for that inevitable seventh playthrough.