Mass Effect is a Role Playing Game set in a rich, sci-fi setting. Borrowing bits from Star Wars, The Matrix, Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 for inspiration, the game quickly finds its own voice and serves up a gripping story. Add the ability to make elaborate dialog choices during conversations with NPCs, including hard choices affecting the plot, and you have one of the first games where you feel like you are actually playing the role.
It doesn’t hurt that the game has a strong visual design—heavily influenced by the covers of hard sci-fi novels of the 70s and 80s. If you know who Syd Mead is, or if you are bummed out that NASA does not have a base on Mars by now, you will probably eat it up with gusto. It feels like a real place in the future, in a way Star Wars never did, except in A New Hope.
Where the game stumbles somewhat, is its combat. Mass Effect has the appearance of a squad based 3rd person shooter, but is still driven by stats behind the scenes like an RPG. If you keep this in mind, you can adjust to it easily enough, but if you want to play Mass Effect like a traditional Xbox shooter, you will get frustrated. A couple of other common gripes include the slow elevator rides to mask load times and the game’s unwieldy inventory system. Both can be annoying, but neither is a deal breaker.
There are a little over a half dozen main missions depending on how you count, but on top of that you can explore the galaxy once you get access to your spaceship, either by taking on missions from NPCs or by scanning different solar systems and looking for suitable planets to explore. Noodling around in the galactic map is pretty cool in and of itself.
Once you’ve found a suitable planet, you’ll then make a hard landing in the MAKO, an all terrain space buggy that looks, basically, like a giant version of the Big Trax toy from the 70s. The MAKO is a fun, yet slightly unwieldy beast—slow to accelerate, impossible to tip over, with the ability to jump and hover for a second. Some people got frustrated driving it; I had fun for the most part. Learning to hop over incoming enemy missiles is worth your while.
The planets for the minor missions are not “hand crafted” like the major missions. A mathematical algorithm generates the terrain, even if it is “skinned” with different themes (Ice, Lava, Rock, Barren Moon). And once you get to the base, colony or mine, the layouts are pretty much identical for each type. It’s enough to break the suspension of disbelief, yet it kind of reminded me of old PC space exploration games like Starflight, but with HD graphics. For me, the sense of exploration kept these sections fun, even if they were underdeveloped compared to the main game.
So overall, Mass Effect’s execution doesn’t quite meet its lofty ambitions. But I had so much fun playing the game that it did not matter. The dialog/morality system is incredible, allowing you to make Renegade and Paragon choices that—while not good or evil per se—affect the story in all sorts of ways. And the finale is appropriately surprising and spectacular, rivaling the climax of a blockbuster movie.
You may have heard that Mass Effect 2 fixed all the quirks of its predecessor and streamlined the RPG elements to appeal to a wider audience, without losing the core of what makes the Mass Effect universe compelling. And I would have to agree, the sequel is a better game. That said, the first game has its own identity and is nearly as riveting in its own right. Flawed, warts and all, whatever you want to call it, Mass Effect is one of my favorite games and comes highly recommended.
2011 ben langberg, all rights reserved.