Mass Effect Review

Mass Effect Review | February 25, 2013
Xbox, Windows, PlayStation

A 3rd person RPG shooter is not something that is common but after playing Mass Effect if this is how good they can be, there should be more games like this. You are Shepard a member of the Alliance. This male or female lead (it is up to you) is trying to figure out what a Spectre knows about a found beacon and why he killed a fellow comrade after discovering the beacon. A Spectre is given special powers by the Council a galaxy controlling government body to solve any problem any way they want. This is where the good and bad choices come in called being a Paragon (good) or a Renegade (bad).

This is the first game in a trilogy of games that your choices will carry over to the sequels. The storyline is so good either as the Paragon or the Renegade. Voice acting across the board is intelligent, free flowing and reacts differently depend on once again the good or bad choices. There is conflict between people that can be more intense depend on romantic interests and entanglements. You can decide to pursue or not pursue a relationship. The ship interaction between characters is also optional. So, after you first time playing the game you can just focus on the main story but you will want to play the game more than once, it is that good and hard to put down the controller.

Gameplay controls work mostly. There is some chunkiness in some parts when Shepard runs, jogs or walks but this is a 3rd person shooter and that works fine with a few problems here and there. We never had a problem hitting our target. You can also use biotics during combat which is basically the power to throw the bad guys around, make them float in the air and fry out their shields and barriers. It is fun, you can have your squad mates do it for you so you can concentrate on just shooting at your enemies or you can use biotics yourself, it works either way. The main problem with the controls come into play when you are driving the Mako a planet rover vehicle. Steering is slow and non-responsive and aiming the cannon and machine guns takes some getting used to. It is a major part of the game but it is not so bad you want to stop playing.

The game is well planned out. There is great back stories about all the different species that is read to you by voice acting (yeah no reading), the planets have a different fell and look to them, and even the galaxy map you use to travel is engaging and makes you want to explore. Not only is the game so much fun and the replay value is high for different storylines but you can play Shepard as a Solider and just shoot things, or pick from the other classes Engineer, Adept, Infiltrator, Sentinel and Vanguard. They do play differently and are worth trying out. Easily worth the money and the main story is around the 17 hours. There is a huge amount of extra stuff to do that is important since it will carry over to the next games. Easy buy at even regular new games prices. But, Mass Effect goes on sale all of the time for Windows, Xbox and PlayStation.

9.0 out of 10
Worth Your Money

9.0 out of 10
Worth Your Money

Rated
M for Mature

Rated
PEGI 18