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There are sometimes a few issues, for instance the texturing can be a little slow at times which causes everything to start off with very little texture and then after a few moments the textures are processed and added to the characters/environment. This is a MUST buy. As usual, bioware has created an excellent RPG.The most important elements in a great RPG are storyline, character development and at least decent voice acting and Mass Effect delivers on all frongs. Though some people have complained about the brief scene, it is tastefully done and doesn't contain anything more graphic than most prime-time television shows.The gampeplay is also good. When I first got it I was practically addicted to it and became immersed in the world and story of the game. Even though the cutscenes contain essential the same level of graphics seen in normal gameplay, they are still very well done and impressive.Overall this is an AMAZING game and is definitely at the very top of my list of all-time favorite games. Perhaps one of the best gameplay features, however, is the use of a conversation wheel during dialogues.
The game has everything anyone could ever want for a story: action, adventure, mystery, suspense, betrayal, romance, loss/sorrow, everything. Facial expressions are amazing and REALLY add to conversations. Like the title of my review says, this is the most amazing game I have ever played. All of those elements are masterfully blended together throughout the game to create an amazing dramatic experience that feels almost like watching an amazing movie.Character development is also a crucial part of any good RPG and throughout the game you get the chance to learn more about your crew and can even go on special missions for some of them. You even have the ability to issue orders to your teammates (although this function is somewhat limited). The story unfolds at a good pace, revealing just enough to grab your attention drive you discover what will happen next. But overall the gaphics are impessive. That relationship will finally culminate (IF properly nurtured) in the characters engaging in a passionate love-making scene.
The wheel pops up before the other character is finished speaking to give the player time to choose from a list of abbreviated discussion options (rather than having to read everything your character might say) which makes conversations flow much more naturally and without excessive pauses.The graphics are also generally very good. Like any RPG you gain experience and levels and can customize your character and his/her skills while also arming yourself from a wide array of weaponry and armor. There is also the chance for romance, but it doesn't just happen, you have to develop the relationship and you can even choose between two different love interests. The player is able to switch weapons and powers/skills relatively easily thanks to specialized selection wheels that can be brought up on screen quickly. I even began to empathize for the characters.
Exploring the surface of worlds primarily involves shooting at giant crab things that you can run over. But you'll have to sit through a lot of elevators to get there. There is a whole pile of scrolling text you can read about the history of the weapon, but the short of it is VII is better than VI which is better than V. * SCIENCE-FICTION ROLE-PLAYING: PERFECTED. EVERY time you get in an elevator, your characters freeze, face forward, and you listen to the sci-fi equivalent of elevator Muzak. It's pretty clear which woman the game would like you to hook up with (or man, if you play a female character, but the alien female retains her faux gender). Almost all the quests involve "go here, get widget, return it to me." Then there's the MAKO, a dune buggy-type roving cannon. Mass Effect uses conversational pathing.
In the world of science fiction, where ships can travel through space and alien races intermingle, we have not yet invented a means around elevators. There's not a fat person among them. Although your best bet in beating this game is as a soldier, Mass Effect is no Halo. The graphics are amazing, the voice acting top notch, the character expressions just as nuanced as promised. Or if you're in a hurry, you click the button and move to the next chat menu. To save on memory, the majority of aliens are the same bodies duplicated multiple times, in the same way Star Trek tended to have every alien be humanoid since that meant less makeup was required.
The main plot line, the one in which you save the universe, is a lot of fun and makes for an interesting game. You can't reload, check equipment, or anything else. And all that dialogue is starting to get old.Allow me to deconstruct the myth that Mass Effect is a supreme role-playing game experience. The only thing you can do is spin the camera around the characters while they stand there.
It hardly makes this a "perfect" role-playing game. At the time, one flaw popped up that really bothered my wife: talking to the aliens ad nauseum meant that certain sound bites were repeated by certain alien races over and over. Even the ship's doctor, a much older woman, is a silver fox with the body of a twenty year old (where was the romantic subplot with HER).* LEAD YOUR SQUAD IN INTENSE, REAL-TIME COMBAT. There are a lot of the blue female aliens throughout the game, and they all look similar. Yes, there's lots of content, but it's not necessarily relevant or interesting. It's useless downtime. Then I bought Jade Empire and to my horror, discovered that it was the exact same game engine.
This is like the world's worst sandbox - it's hard enough to figure out what to do and where to go in a small city. So if you want to be a jerk, you can always pick the rude bottom choice, and if you want to be a nice guy, you can always pick the positive top choice. This is hardly a deep romantic plot, and the ruckus raised over the intimate scene between the two characters is unwarranted; it's far tamer than anything on the Internet. But for reasons I will never understand, there are long elevator sequences. The boxes can be hacked; I'm a sucker for these mini-games, so I confess I enjoyed them. The customizability of equipment and characters, the level up system, it's all the same.
When I first played Knights of the Old Republic (KOTR) I was enthralled. It's the same engine used for Mass Effect. For some reason, the highly advanced civilizations still like to keep their belongings in boxes. The setting is a combination of Star Wars' exotic worlds, Star Trek's ship interiors, and Babylon 5's battle to establish human dominance in an alien world. The graphics are excellent and if you have the time, you can wander the world interrogating every single alien, reading and listening to every path of dialogue, and looting everything on every planet. What this means is you're constantly pausing the game to give your squad commands, which completely ruins the "real-time" combat element.
This is not role-playing, it's a game of multiple choice, and the majority of the time the choices are obvious.This game has more in common with KOTR than the game engine. But really, boxes. There isn't the nail-biting thrill of trying to reload a weapon perfectly like Gears of War, and the ability to use terrain as cover isn't nearly as smooth. So instead of the Force we have "biotics." You can also customize your character's appearance, which is neat. Here was a Star Wars game that was better than the latest Star Wars movies, full of engrossing characters, interesting plots, and aliens true to their roots from the Star Wars universe. Mass Effect is ultimately a giant sandbox that's somewhat different from KOTR, only with none of the cachet of Star Wars.
The third person perspective is difficult to follow, especially when you fight many enemies at once. So you had a lot of "ooka shishka jedi" stuff going on that, while it didn't bother me too much, certainly annoyed the heck out of anyone having to listen to it over and over as I talked to everything that was willing to carry on a conversation. The equipment improvements come down to: Fire Ammo IV and Laser Rifle VII. This subplot involves choosing between a sexy blue alien (reminiscent of Zhaan from Farscape) and a pushy human racist woman. Generally speaking, the top choice is positive, the middle choice is neutral, and the bottom choice is negative.
Like KOTR, you have a ship that you can fly all over the universe. You could get those kinds of power ups in a game of Diablo.* THE VASTNESS OF SPACE BECKONS. There might be other interesting ways of finding equipment, but since this is the same game engine as KOTR, boxes are everywhere.There is also the romantic subplot. In this respect Mass Effect is reminiscent of the Final Fantasy games.* LOSE YOURSELF IN A LIVING GALAXY. However, Xbox's new interactive menus allow the same thing - avatar customization.
It has Seth Green as a voice actor, which rocks. Mass Effect isn't a bad game by any means.
Racial Insensitivity: None.Violence:Violence is against both humans and creatures.
Video game mom provides review specifically for parents.
Most victims disintegrate when killed so there's not much blood.
Reviews are based on an evalation of "SLARV" which is an acronym for:S)exual contentL)anguageA)dditional ComentsR)acial InsensitivityV)iolenceSexual Content:Whether you choose to make your character "Shepherd" a female or male at the beginning of the game, the following sexual situations can occur:You can go to Chora's Den which is essentially a bar where clothed female creatures dance seductively for you.
Language: B**tard, *ss, d*mn.Additional Comments:"Sit your sweet little *ss down and let's see where this goes" is said to a female creature in Chora's Den.
If you choose to be intimate, you will see Shepherd's bare upper body down to his chest (if he's a male), the top of the creature's bare shoulders, her bare hips and a little bit of her bottom.
You can sit down and "watch", or have a private dance.You can choose whether or not to be intimate with an alien female character.
The bodies are reclined and kissing.
Human's are impaled, stabbed and shot in the head at close range.
If you like RPG and FPS (it's third person) game types, then you'll love Mass Effect. Oh, plus the fun of shooting stuff. but, the game's graphics and the intriguing mysteries and coolness of the storyline are enough to get me to play it a few times. The only annoying thing that comes to mind is that you can't skip dialogue. So, if you are playing it over or if you just keep dieing in a boss fight, you have to listen to them yammer on and on. :D
This video game is simply the best made to date overall, maybe some have better graphics, there may be some gliches here and there but take the story, the graphics, the characters, the dialogue, and the action experience and it is not hard to see why this game has won over 80 awards to date, it even beat Halo 3 to win Best Video Game of the Year. I followed the game for two years, chatted with developers online and analyzed every video thrown the fan's way. I've been a video game fan since my brother introduced me to a game called Knights of the Old Republic, when I learned the same company was creating another scifi adventure game I latched on immediatly. After a long wait I was not disappointed. You haven't had the video game experience until you've played Mass Effect.
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