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Nov 27 / Ozymandias

Mass Effect…

… rocks. No, it’s not a perfect game… but it’s certainly as engrossing as Bioshock in my opinion, and well worth your time.

On the good side you have a classic Bioware story, excellent writing, and a fantastic conversation system that really sets a new bar for virtual character conversations. Seriously – it sets a new bar that you’ll see other games follow.

On the bad side, the game’s rule system is quite deep yet you’re thrown into the game with almost no context to help you figure out what powers, weapons, upgrades, and options do. Penny Arcade nailed it as usual:

Nitpicking: Mass Effect, Part Three

The UI is also a bit schizophrenic. It can range from being excellent (such as when you select conversation options, or quick-select a new weapon or biotic power for a team member), to frustrating and dense (such as when you look to upgrade your weapon or change ammo – the latter being something I didn’t even know I could do for several hours of game time, in spite of finding all sorts of tantalizing upgrades).

That said, this all dissolves away as you get sucked into the richly-detailed universe Bioware has created. Over time the combat/biotic system starts making more sense, and suddenly you find yourself playing every little side mission just to experience more of the world. I’ll wrap up yet again with a classic Tycho quote that really sums things up:

That whole interface is something I don’t like, but it’s the price of admission. What I’m trying to say is that Mass Effect is a game from BioWare, which means that (like KOTOR) by the time you are done playing, you remember the emotional topography of the game much more than the technical one. I’m simply trying to remind you. If, as you are playing, you exclaim to yourself that "this isn’t as bad as he said," then good. I wish I’d had someone to adjust my expectations prior to their contact with some grim realities.

Check it out if you haven’t already – definitely one of my top three games of the year.

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  • Skip

    I have it ordered from the company store (one of the benefits of being an ex-blue badge) and it should get here tomorrow or Thursday, so I haven’t played it yet.  But what the PA comic referenced was actually my biggest worry about it.   I never actually finished KOTOR for exactly that reason – I had explicitly not read any spoiler information or FAQs on the game, and just chosen character upgrades that ‘sounded good’, mostly just choosing whatever was suggested to me.  

    And as a result I ended up with a character that was 100% unplayable.   So then I went and read the FAQs and realized that the game was balanced for min-maxers, and by not having done that I was in for a world of hurt.   So I basically only had the choice of rerolling and playing through 15-20 hours of story again, or stopping.   And since I had plenty of games in the pile I chose the less aggravating path.

  • Pete

    It was a tad short for my tastes.  Finished the main campaign in about 12-13 hours, including two side-quests that completely put me off doing any others.  Once or twice the dialog system said something completely unexpected from the concise version that I actually chose (especially once at the ending when I thought I picked the ‘paragon’ option but my character actually went the other way with the full sentence).  

    The vehicle controls are truly awful and the save feature is annoying as hell.  It’s not just the autosave either — you can’t save at all with enemies around, but frequently major encounters start without warning and no autosave… so you can’t save just before one of them unless you already know it’s coming.

    For the combat, it took me ages to realise that I could crouch and make my aim MUCH better by doing so (for no apparent reason).  The team AI is awful too, with them frequently being either suicidal, doing nothing or getting in my way at just the wrong moment.

    I thoroughly enjoyed the story and will play it a second time (forcing myself to do side quests and achievements this time), but I feel like the game is punishing me for enjoying one part of it.  The graphics are good but not great and the animation is very poor (especially the incredibly feminine male running animation that I had to stare at for the entire time).

    On the whole I would conclude that it was a great interactive story with some pretty naff gameplay attached.  Huge potential and hugely disappointing in some respects.  Hope the sequels can improve things.

  • ushman360

    I agree with you and Penny Arcade. Though I haven’t played Mass Effect yet, still playing Assassins Creed. But the line about the "price of admission" can be said about all games and it really is a great line to use for explaining differnet games that aren’t casual. Assassins took me a while to figure out the controls*, Oblivion, and KOTOR as well, but once you get the hang of it you can’t put it down.  I can’t wait to play Mass Effect!

    *when I say controls I mean to take advantage of all the bells and whistles that come with the game.

  • RomeoDude

    I’ve been pretty behind in checking out new games (with the exception of Rockband and Super Mario Galaxy).  I’ve heard so much praise towards Mass Effect that I know I gotta experience it eventually (just like I have to experience Bioshock eventually…).

  • 360 tag: JJS UK

    Mass Effect is simply.. ‘a flawed masterpiece’.

    As mentioned great story, conversation system, sound, scope, graphics but is definatly let down by it’s jumpy framerate, excessive loading screens(doesnt utlize the 360 hardware and extremely poor equipment interface.

    Even with gremlins I’d say Game of the Year, Bioshock next.

    I’m surprised MS quality control let the framerate go and numerous loading screens.. ah well I guess they had to since they no doubt FORCE Bioware not to use the 360 Harddrive.. this does pee me off.

    If I ever see a Microsoft employee say ‘it’s about choice’ I’ll punch him in the face(figurative speaking). It’s not choice merely what MS wants promote to gather as much market share as possible hence why the 360 CORE is the bane of every real 360 gamer, developers have to make games without using HDD, maybe rules will change if the PS3 catches up or overtakes but thats the situation apart from MMO and last gen footie management games.. :O)

  • http://blogs.msdn.com/officeoffline/default.aspx David

    It may be a "flawed masterpiece," but it’s still a masterpiece and my pick for game of the year (so far). I’m about 20 hours into it, and about the only thing I have a problem with is the inventory management. Everything else (the story, the conversation system, the combat, the graphics) I absolutely love. It really does set the bar higher for future games.

    On a different note, I miss your frequent gaming-related posts, Ozy. I hope you post more soon. Your analysis and insight has been missed.

  • http://www.actcfug.com/ AUS Ferrari

    Ozy, you forgot to mention those damn elevators:

    http://www.penny-arcade.com/…/16

    Lol!

  • John-Paul

    Why does everyone keep saying it is a short game?? Jesus, I spent about 5 hours alone just doing the quests on your first Citadel visit.  Now I’m up to 13 hours and a wee baby just begining to peek out into the universe.

    Seriously, sure it’s short if you ignore 80 percent of the game’s content (side quests).

    But I couldn’t agree more on the sink or swim aspect of it.  The first time I went barreling into a hostage situation like John Wayne only to die horribly and realize… okay, guess I need to level up first.  Not like the game could indicate that, oh no.

    I am wishing MS would have made the hard drive mandatory so at least games could benefit from it and we wouldn’t see things like textures popping up halfway through a cutscene.

    I understand why they did what they did but honestly, how many Xboxers are really not using a hard drive.  I’m guessing a very small precentage.

  • Dave

    Having played the game for a few hours at home, I really enjoyed it. The story is engrossing, the game beautiful, and combat enjoyable. However, after returning to school and other console , and receiving my new "refurbished" 360 after the first one broke, Mass Effect killed the new "refurbished" unit in about 3 minutes. I ended up getting a gift out of it, but I will have to wait 3-4 weeks before continuing playing as Commander Shepherd. Though I have to say, I look forward to it.

  • imaginedbug

    "I am wishing MS would have made the hard drive mandatory so at least games could benefit from it and we wouldn’t see things like textures popping up halfway through a cutscene."

    Isn’t that what the new logo that had all the buzz a few months ago is for? To give games (hopefully including GTA 4) the ability to require an HDD.

    I’ve seen way too much pop-in in Assassin’s Creed too, from the occasional shadow and texture pop-in to entire crowds spawning in the distance. The worst was last night when a guard had walked away and didn’t show up again (read: spawn from out of nowhere) until I climbed over a wall I was hanging from to surprise him.

    I’ll give Mass Effect a go in a year, when its price has come down.

  • John-Paul

    "Isn’t that what the new logo that had all the buzz a few months ago is for? To give games (hopefully including GTA 4) the ability to require an HDD."

    I must have missed that.  It would be nice though, but I’m still doubting it.