The best Sci-Fi RPG game ever

by Kyle LeBlanc

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy

BioWare outdoes itself and creates what is the most detailed, enthralling and polished Action-RPG ever made, and does it so well fans will want to relive this massive experience over and over again.

BioWare, Mass Effect’s creator, must now be considered the greatest sci-fi RPG developer of modern times. It has taken its already critically acclaimed Knights of the Old Republic games, stripped away the Star Wars license, drowned them in a tsunami of next-generation polish and given us what can only be described as one of the finest video game experiences ever.

That is not to say that BioWare’s work with KotOR has been forgotten. Reminders of the series whisper in your mind as the Mass Effect universe takes its hold. From its game mechanics to the way it allows you to mold your experience like virtual clay, Mass Effect is KotOR refined and re-imagined for the masses -- the result of a decision to make the best possible RPG for as many people as possible, even those who might otherwise have passed the genre by.

Epic storytelling for any kind of medium

And the game’s superb plot, told through some of the best voice acting I’ve ever heard (there are some famous voices in here, including the Arbiter from Halo), leads from the front. The game begins aboard the Human Alliance spaceship, the Normandy, where Captain Anderson and the Turian, Nihlus, are debating whether Commander Shepard, aka you, is ready to become the first human Spectre, a kind of all-powerful galaxy commando, not unlike a Jedi. Your first mission is on Eden Prime, a peaceful paradise planet settled by humans. A beacon built by the now extinct Protheans, an alien race responsible for the Citadel, a planet-sized space installation and the Mass relays, which allow travel across the galaxy, has been discovered there. Nihlus, himself a Spectre, wants to experience your skills first hand to see if you’re ready for the role.



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Playing Mass Effect is a bit like watching your favorite sci-fi film - except this time you’re the star and the director.
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Things go wrong pretty quickly. The Normandy receives a distress transmission from Eden Prime detailing an attack by a giant, claw-like space ship. You and two other squad members investigate the dig site, fighting your way past alien robots called the Geth. You finally catch up with Nihlus who has been murdered by a fellow turian Spectre called Saren. It turns out Saren’s gone rogue and is commanding the Geth. He steals the beacon, but not before it imprints in your brain a vision of death and destruction. He escapes in the giant claw-like ship, Sovereign, that you saw in the transmission. It’s now up to you to chase him across the galaxy, reveal his true motives and unravel the mystery behind the vision and the mysterious Prothean beacon. While I won’t spoil the story for you, (relax, the ending is superb) what I will say is that playing Mass Effect is a bit like watching your favorite sci-fi film - except this time you’re the star and the director.

A beast of an Action game with RPG sowed in

Mass Effect is full of brilliant touches that help make it feel less hardcore RPG and more fast-flowing Action game. Example one: the combat is absolute genius. Mass Effect’s combat feels like Epic’s blockbuster Gears of War. You’ve got a third-person camera angle, a targeting reticule, squad commands, a roadie run and even a cover system (doesn’t every game these days?) from which you can pop out, zoom in and hit a space mutant between the eyes with a well placed pulse from your sniper rifle. But don’t be fooled, this isn’t Gears of War. The dice is still being cast, it’s just wonderfully disguised. Your chance to hit is being worked out from behind the camera. The percentage likelihood that your bullet, your tech ability or your biotic power will penetrate your enemy’s shield and score deep into its flesh is the result of countless calculations worked out in real-time behind the scenes. No need to pause, no need to understand the why behind it all.



Example two: the conversation system. Despite the hype, Mass Effect’s conversation system is not revolutionary. It does not allow you to interrupt other game characters mid sentence, nor does it break any boundaries by making possible even remotely realistic dialogue -- it’s still question, answer, question, answer. But what it does do is burn away the inefficiency and fluff of previous efforts, leaving behind a simple, gloriously cinematic and intuitive way of interacting with computer controlled characters. You know you have a special RPG on your hands when you want to talk to people, and in Mass Effect that’s exactly what you’ve got. It is a medium through which you can role-play without hindrance, whether it is as a hard-nosed bitch, one that will do anything to get the job done, or as a do-gooder. And it all looks stunning, with dynamic camera angles, incredibly detailed facial animations and impressive textures.

One of the most thrilling bits of Mass Effect is where you deliver a morale boosting speech to the crew of the Normandy. You get to shape the speech, choosing whether to inspire with warm words of encouragement or demanding threats, all to a suitably heroic score. It’s a superb highlight and something that will probably stick with me for years to come.

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Mass Effect is still an RPG at heart of course - the Gears of War style combat cannot detract from that.
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No revolution, but the story web will ensnare you

Of course, video games have been allowing us to decide between right and wrong for years now. Indeed the KotOR games provided clear indications of what would earn you Light side points and what would earn you Dark side points. The moral decision-making in Mass Effect is not a revolution by any stretch of the imagination, nor does it blur the lines between right and wrong, but it does force you to make some tough decisions and allows you to shape the story more effectively than anything I’ve seen before. A case in point, the game forces you to decide who should live out of two of your compatriots -- characters you’ve spent a great deal of time leveling up and developing an emotional bond to. Most missions will allow you to shape the way in which you tackle them, either subtly with the least amount of death or gung-ho with no care for casualties. Most boss encounters will let you decide what to do with them once you’ve forced them into submission -- whether it is murdering them in cold blood or setting them free, the choice is yours.



And there’s a real sense that your decision-making has an effect on the Mass Effect world and the people who live in it. In fact, one of the first things you need to decide upon if you dump the default Commander Shepard and create your own character is your early history (Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer) and your psychological profile (Ruthless, War Hero or Sole Survivor). These decisions will affect how the game’s characters react to you. One mission presents an opportunity to kill off an alien race for good. If you do, your Codex, an evolving historical record of the galaxy, will mark that species as extinct. In another situation, a journalist asks you for a few comments on your mission to save the universe. Storm off in a childish huff and later in the game you’ll be informed of how public opinion is turning against you back on Earth, and how a PR machine has been put in motion to smooth things over. And there are, of course, a few different love sub-plots which you can pursue. The decisions you make as either a male or a female Commander Shepard will either hinder or help your efforts to get your object of desire into bed (yes, there’s nudity in Mass Effect boys). Its little things like that which give you a sense that deliberating over tough decisions is more than a consideration over Paragon or Renegade points.

A few flaws but overall a massive experience

Mass Effect is not without its flaws -- what game isn’t? Riding around in the Mako rover, an APC/dune buggy hybrid with a cannon, isn’t half as much fun as it ought to be. The driving sections are often drawn out and at worst boring, something I’m sure BioWare will be thinking about as it works on the game’s second installment. Some of the game’s side quests could use a bit of work. One optional quest which sees you investigate rogue AI on the Moon is a monotonous affair involving repeating the same mass destruction of robots in three identical buildings. The problem is, it’s pretty much essential, since completing it allows you to specialize from within your class.

Equipment can be extremely annoying. The game would have benefited to no end from an optimize option, allowing you to quickly and easily kit your squads out in the best possible gear from the giant dustbin that is your inventory. As it is, whenever you loot something of value you have to manually go through everyone’s equipable slots, one for each weapon, for armor, biotics, grenades etc., and work out if it’s better than what you’re currently using. It makes for often long breaks in play that disrupt the flow of combat and exploration. Then two seconds later you open a crate, find something that might be even better and have to do it all over again.

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There are moments of Halo 2 syndrome, where character armor and environment textures take an age to load.
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The game world is perhaps a tad small for your veteran RPG gamer. When you get access to the Galaxy Map for the first time the game can seem gargantuan. You soon realize, however, that you can’t land on most of the planets. This isn’t to say the game is short; I left out about a third of the game’s side quests and it took me just over 20 hours to complete. Some might say that’s short for an RPG. For me though, it feels just right for a first playthrough. But the best thing is I feel compelled to play Mass Effect again, something I rarely get from games these days. I’m going to replay as a different class, as a different gender and with a different play style. The fact that there’s also the option to start again with the same character at the level you finished the first playthrough on, and with all your high-end gear and weapons, makes compulsion to replay even greater.



While Mass Effect’s graphics really are a sight to behold, and the later levels provide some of the most impressive environments the 360 has ever seen, they also cause a few problems. There are moments of Halo 2 syndrome, where character armor and environment textures take an age to load. The game can jerk a bit too, and suffers from regular tearing. And I’m not sure about characters’ eyes -- especially Commander Anderson’s. There was more than one occasion where eyes seemed to be pointing in random directions or looking like they were mimicking WWE Superstar The Undertaker. Perhaps the game suffers from having to be completely accessed from the game DVD -- Mass Effect makes a lot of noise in the disc drive. These are mere niggles, and while you shouldn’t ignore them, you certainly shouldn’t be put off by them.

Summary

Mass Effect is a sci-fi fan’s wet dream, with movie quality presentation, storyline and score that’s a real showcase for the 360. The game is what every sci-fi fan has been anticipating for years, and BioWare has done a stupendous job of creating a world that is not only engaging but completely drenched from head to toe in futuristic cool. You feel it everywhere. It’s in the tremendously effective film grain effect which is washed over everything, giving proceedings a more cinematic feel. It’s in the wonderful 80’s sci-fi inspired score -- a soundtrack surely destined for separate release. It’s in the impressively detailed cut-scenes, whether it be landing the Mako rover on a far away planet or a full scale galactic conflict overlooking an embattled space station. It’s in the game’s physics, which sends enemies spiraling off ledges and slowly floating away in zero gravity environments like rag-dolls on speed. It’s in the plot, a superb tale full of political machinations, mysterious alien races, hidden artifacts, shocking revelations and an evil alien commando gone rogue. It’s in Urdnot Wrex, the tough talking and reclusive Krogan Battlemaster who joins you on your quest. It’s in the game’s sound effects -- the pulse of the sniper rifle, the ripple of space as you invoke a Singularity, the gravitas of simply bringing up your squad’s power wheel.

Despite BioWare’s efforts to disguise the game’s roots it’s still an RPG and will mostly appeal to male hardcore gamers. It’s not an attempt to revolutionize gaming as we know it, but that’s no bad thing. And it sets up the sequel perfectly. I want to know what happens next. I want BioWare to release new planets as DLC. I want online co-op so other people can take control of my squad members. Mass Effect is a triumph. A triumph for the science fiction video game; a triumph for the action RPG and a triumph for next generation gaming…