The whole mass Effect trilogy is already out and I've already played them all, but recently I went back and replayed the first one. This game came out in november 2007 and it received very good critical reception back then, but how does it hold up today? Since the game is already older than 6 years, so in this review I will introduce the game to you like I normally would and I will tell you if the game has aged well or not.
Mass Effect is a sci-fi 3rd person action adventure RPG. Tho story takes place in the year 2183 where humanity has already discovered Mass Relays. Mass Relays are like a quick teleportation device that lets you travel to different clusters in space and with Relays we have discovered many races and the Citadel which is a very advanced space-ship which is a home of many different races and the center of space politics. There is also so-called the Council which is 3 selected members each of different alien race who live on the Citadel. The Council are politicians and also peace keepers and their job is to make decisions for every race to prevent wars and keep the balance. The Council also has the job to choose Specters. Specters are like space agents. The rules don’t apply to them and they have a free will. They are chosen to wander around space and solve conflicts. And with humanity being the youngest race to be discovered, they have yet to earn trust of other races.
You play a human solider, which you can create yourself named (you can add a first name) Sheppard (that is also how they call you in the game). The story begins with a mission, to investigate a colony on a planet called Eden Prime. You arrive there to discover that a spectre named Saren has gone rogue and has come to this planet to find some kind of a beacon. Saren finds the beacon and leaves with his super advanced ship, unlike no one have ever seen before called Sovrreing. You later find the beacon and learn that Saren has the intension to bring back the Reapers. Reapers are long forgotten civilization who wiped out the earlier civilization the Prothean. That happen 50.000 years ago and is considered a myth. After that the reapers haven’t been seen again. Sheppard goes to the Council and tell them what he saw, but they don’t believe him and he has to prove himself. After they find out that Saren is really a traitor, Sheppard is granted a rank of a Spectre and he’s mission is to eliminate Saren. But Sheppard knows that this is much more important and that the galaxy is at stake. So you have to collect your crew and this is where the adventure really begins.
This amazing story is told mostly through cinematics and through the revolutionary dialogue wheel which lets you chose what you will say and let you make important decisions. The story is really deep and is told wonderfully, but with the addition to make decisions and choose what you’ll say, it makes the game much more personal. Sometimes you decide who lives or die and you can make your crew like you or hate you. Keep in mind that based on what your say it also changes how the game ends. To addition to one of the coolest story you can experience the game this also makes for a really personal experience.
Though story itself is nothing with a support of a kick-ass characters. The stars of the show are mostly your companions that you recruit on board. So let me just introduce you to them. The first one is Kaidan. He's an Alliance solider and your trust worthy friend. Ashley, which you meet on the first mission on Eden Prime. She is stubborn and has a problem with aliens. She always cheers you with a sense of humor and her personal opinions on the non-human crew. Liara T'Sony is a sexy blue alien scientist. She is interested in archeology, is very kind and peaceful. You also meet Wrex. He's a brute, a former mercenary, a guy you don't want to mess around with. He's also quick-tempered and he doesn't ask twice, but if you get his respect, he becomes a great friend. Tali. A technician, hacker and a girl who is always ready for action. She is on a quest that is assigned to all members of her species called the pilgrimage. Her species lives on a ship colony and their population is only 17 million and they are running out of resources. So her mission is to bring something important to the colony and she joins you because she thinks that saving the galaxy is the most she can do. Ant the last but definitely not least...Garrus. Garuus is the kind of guy you always want to have around. He is working on a C-sec (it’s like Citadel police) and doesn’t like the rules there which limits him, but likes to bring justice. He isn't afraid to break the rules, and that's why he joins you. He hates Saren and wants to bring justice to him, but C-sec does not allow him, so with you he feels more free. He kick ass, and is one of the most likeable characters. It's a roster you can really get behind and makes the game more lively.
So I Described how is the story and the characters, which is by far the best part of the game and enough of a reason to play it, but how does the game actually play?
Well core mechanic of the game and the thing you are going to be doing about half of the game is shooting. At the beginning you choose one of 6 different classes. Each class comes with unique abilities called biotics and with different selection of weapons. I played a Solider. Solider gets to use all the weapons: pistols, snipers, shotguns and assault rifles, but does not get to use any biotic powers. Biotic powers are like force from Star Wars. You can lift enemies, throw them, pull and or warp their shields, but every class other than Solider can use only 2 selected weapons. Shooting in Mass effect is a little bit dated though. Weapons don't feel effective the cover mechanic is clunky and instead of heaving ammo your weapons overheat. There is a bar in the bottom left corner, which fills as you shoot, and if you shoot in long bursts the weapon overheats and you have to wait a few seconds. You get used to it and it's not necessarily bad, but it feels dated and sometimes it's annoying to wait before you can shoot. The gameplay for its time was solid, but it falls short in comparison to some other 3rd person shooter nowadays.
But luckily this game is an RPG, which means there is much more exploration and customization which makes up for the average shooting mechanic. In missions there are a lot of place for exploration. You find different loot and more information on the mission. But aside from that you can also travel to the Citadel and walk on freely. Citadel is very big. Big to the point where you can get lost. But luckily there are fast travel points to get around the city faster. There is where you get a lot of side quests. Side quests consist of helping people with their problems and sometimes they request to find a person and talk to them and sometimes to travel to another planet and investigate something. Quests are nothing we haven’t seen yet, and sometimes they feel like a chore. Sometimes it seems like an interesting side plot, but in the end you always feel a little but disappointed. And I said you can travel to different planets, yes you can do that and buy are there places to travel, but I can't help but feel that are the most boring part of the experience. Planets are interesting with different atmospheres, from blizzard planets to red planets, to very rocky ones, and they are very big but feel bland. You get dropped on them with a vehicle called Mako. Make is a 6 wheeled tank like vehicle and can get almost through every obstacle, from enemies to high mountains, but traversing the planets while at fir interesting, gets old really fast. Lucky to advance the story, you don't have to do any of that and I also wouldn't recommend doing so. It's just a waste of your time and the rewards you get are not worth it. The only problem is, that not doing so, makes the main missions harder, as you get you are not leveled up enough, and you don't have the good armors and weapons, that you can get from the side quests. Customizing Sheppard and your crew and tweaking their stats is a big part of the game and a lot of it you get from side quests. You can get different weapons armors and weapon mods and they look different, but feel the same. Besides, after some time everything starts to repeat, for example: you get an armor called Onyx – I, and then you get some different armor with mark »I«, but then armors start to repeat...Onyx – II and then Onyx – XII and so on. The same is with everything. This is not a big complaint as tweaking your stats is fun, but it could be more.
On every mission you are accompanied by 2 of your AI partners which you get to choose at the start of the mission. You can choose them by abilities that you think you are going to need in the mission or like I did, by likeness. They are just a dumb Ai that sometimes gets in your way, and provide some support. They can die, but are revived after the encounter, but you can also heal them or review them yourself.
They are not the smartest bunch but they do their job. Same can be said for the enemies. Sometimes they can’t decide if they want to go to cover or charge, but they are pretty good and sometimes they can provide a challenge. Mostly you are going to be fighting robot like creatures called the Geth, sometimes accompanied by rushing shotgun wielding Krogans, which are a pain up close or biotic oriented aliens Asari. Enemies are alright but at the end I felt like they were running out of ideas and so the game felt easier for me, because I already knew how to take them out.
Tis pretty much covers the gameplay but you probably want to know how the game looks and sounds too.
Well let me tell you, that especially for its time the game is very sharp and the textures especially on character which look really good are are pretty solid. Unfortunately the game suffers from constant texture po-in and frame rate issues, which shows, because elevator rides which are sort of a loading screens take a long time (up to 40 seconds) to load a small part of the game. But the environment is pretty good and there is a lot of variation, so the game never feels like you've been on certain place before.
Bioware made sure that the game feels atmospheric, so you really feel like you're not on earth.
Mass Effect lives up to nowadays standards in terms of looks, but has some technical issues that cannot be forgiven.
In terms of sound effects the game is nothing special, in fact guns sound like kind of lame. Sometimes I got a feeling I'm shooting a toy, but thy kind of grow on you and you start to embrace space gun sounds.
Music in tho other hand is really good. Each area has it's unique soundtrack , and the missions feel intense with theexcellent music scores. Where the game really shine in terms of sound though is voice acting. Voice acting in this game is exceptional and there is a lot of it, making very interesting characters even more interesting.
If you are looking for a lot of content there is plenty to be found in Mass Effect. I finished the game on hard and I've done the majority of side quests and it took me about 27 hours, but if you only want to experience the story, which I would recommend it will take you about 10 hours. Sure the game repeats itself a lot, main missions always feel fresh with some cool dialogue and story moments.
Cnclusion Sure the game has it's downsides and is very far from perfect, but I think the game holds up »ok« to today standards. The story makes this game. Gameplay takes time getting used to, but with an interesting plot and with excellentcharacter support this makes the game worth playing. And the game makes you make very hard decisions, making you feel like the story is in your hands. In the end you will walk away feeling like a space bad-ass.