Mass Effect: Review (PC)

Context:

I have to apologise in advance as I look at my notes and just know this is going to be a lengthy review. There is no short way to summarise this experience. Mass Effect is a beast of a game; in so many different ways do I mean that.

I tried so many times to tackle the beast in the past before this final (and successful) attempt. I tried once when the game came out on 360, I had an instant distaste for it but alas months later I tried again, then again, then again. All as the heroic male Sheppard. I realised this time. If I was going to get serious about playing Mass Effect, I had to mix things up. I changed to female Sheppard. I had to make that first world I played over and over seem new and fresh, as best I could. Also this time, I played it on PC. Which I have no regrets about.

Preface:

There are so many reasons to hate this game. Poor controls, insane amounts of loading. The way objects pop into the world is like a mole hunt game. Textures load around you like you have walked into a malfunctioning holodeck. Also

This game was far too easy. Please don’t get me wrong, I did die, I died plenty of times. But always from something I didn’t see, something I didn’t know was happening to me, or because the vehicle was vaulted off the edge into an abyss for some reason completely out of my control.

I have to say though; I derived enjoyment from dyeing in this game. Watching Sheppard collapse into a ragdoll heap on the ground all of a sudden. Clutching whatever weapon was equipped while her back arches like she had taken one to many magic mushrooms. It always made me laugh.

Story:

Mass Effect is filled with characters, and these characters are your foes or comrades, there are no people (save the council) that harbour mixed emotions for the protagonist. And from what I found, there is nothing I could say to them that would change this base pre-determined feeling. That’s not to say the dialogue trees were ineffective. I definitely made choices in Mass Effect, some I regret and some I still wonder about. The story for Mass Effect is immense. There is so much going on in this world, it is all painstakingly thought out. The writers seemingly have an answer to every question. At any time the player is able to bring up the game’s codex, which is the compilation of all information the player has come across. You can read up on any species, planet, company or ship you want. All layering the story perfectly in your mind.

Through conversations and missions the story expands depending on your actions. Sheppard drives the story and it is very easy to buy into it because the characters seem real. This is what makes the story work for me, the characters make the situation not seem silly. I felt like the story was revolving around me and what I was doing in the game. I didn’t just feel like I was just walking around being told a story, I felt like I was the reason the story was being told.

Voice acting for all the main cast of the game is pretty darn good, occasionally you will come across a side character that doesn’t speak their lines organically, all you can do is laugh and move on with the game.

The story here is the saving grace, without it Mass Effect would be nothing but a complete shambles because people sure aren’t playing it to drive the cars and shoot the guns.

Gameplay:

The Mass Effect franchise is a 3^rd person action game. You run around, take cover, you shoot things, all with great difficulty. By the end of the game I was used to the controls, how it felt to shoot using a mouse and keyboard. For some reason Bioware decided not to include controller support. But for the PC version of the game they included a tactics pause menu. Similar to what is in Dragon Age. I found myself using this menu frequently by the end of the game, commanding my group with skills, objectives and weapon switching.

Aiming in this game is a pain. I always thought the reticule for every gun was far too large. When lining up a shot you just have to aim so the circle is around the enemy as much as possible, then fire.

When in a gun battle I became frustrated by the large cross hair and the constant unintentional snapping to cover, it made the combat a stressful mess.

There is a looting an inventory system in Mass Effect 1. You raid crates, lockers and packs, searching for better versions of what you already have. If you have too much stuff you can sell your gear or reduce it to Omni-Gel. Omni-Gel is a kind of mechanical substance that can be used to upgrades weapons, armour or hack devices. I never (ever) had a need for money or Omni-Gel. I always opted to turn my loot into the gel though. Because I always had less of than I had money.

For some reason I just can’t get past the entire Omni-Gel and money aspect of the game. While playing I was always waiting for a moment where I would have to buy something, or modify a crucial component with the gel. But it just never happened. I’m sure if I go back into the game, do a few more side missions I could go out of my way to find a use for money and gel. There just is no looking past it, you don’t need either of the two things to finish the game.

The vehicle controls are an abomination; I hope that it was the indented way for the vehicle to control. There is no way that it was an oversight. The controls are laggy, muddy and inaccurate. When first leaning to drive I was constantly driving off cliffs, into objects or running into walls. The car even has a jump feature (when your player can’t jump might I add), which has no purpose. Never was I required get the vehicle over an obstacle or up onto a ledge. I am going to assume the jump was added when they realised there was no way to prevent players from getting stuck on the world geometry when in the car.

Presentation:

Mass Effect 1 was released late 2007. Back when the UT3 engine was still going through growing pains. This game shows a lot of those pains. Sometimes you will come across a planet that looks incredibly dull. Lacking objects or anything other then Wall-floor-Wall. Other times you come to a room or planet that looks fantastic for a 4-year-old game. I was always happy to be in the world of Mass Effect. I could tell that each environment was thought out. Although it does suffer from the old sci-fi problem of each planet only being one biome e.g. Ice planet, lava planet or tropical paradise planet. I just found it really disappointing that not all environments had the same amount of time and detail put into them.

Much like the environments the character models suffer from the same inconsistencies. Most of the main characters look great, and so do most of the suits they choose to don. However eyelids often clip into the face of characters during close ups, textures pop in on faces and sometimes their walking animation wasn’t paced right. Doing a kind of forward moonwalk while they move faster then they appear to be walking. While all these things sound rather nit picky on my part, Mass Effect relies heavily on its characters I couldn’t help but be taken out of the experience by these minor issues.

Mass Effect has a neon style to it, almost J.J. Abrams like. With light bursts or lens flair coming across the screen and plenty of hyper-real colours. I found this pleasant and not distracting. Mass Effect has a very well defined style that was consistent throughout the universe, even in varying environments.

Conclusion:

I felt an unspoken pressure from the gaming community to play this game. It’s hailed it as a gem, a game that validates the existence of this current generation of consoles.

I am going to have a tough time recommending this game, I liked it in the end, and I do want to experience more of the Mass Effect universe. It is such a tough game though. None of the challenges of the game are intentional; you have to battle your way through poor controls and inconsistent environments to get to the good parts, which is the story. I found myself getting up from this game constantly after getting fed up with how it played. But I always came back; I wanted to see what happened, so I pressed on. In the end when I finished the game all I thought about was how I wish I didn’t let someone die or I wondered what would have happened if I made a different choice. There is a great depth to the story here, and it simply outweighs all of Mass Effects problems.

@jarradfrench