Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Bioware is a developer I had very little knowledge of before the xbox 360/playstation 3 generation of consoles. My first taste of Bioware’s impressive library was Dragon Age: Origins. A very impressive game that brought old school RPG elements back into modern titles, while keeping the gameplay unique and entertaining. Soon after, I discovered the Mass Effect series, which at the time, only had one title in the series. I have played the entire series both seperatly and together in this bundle. For this review, I will break it down into the 3 games it includes: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3. The trilogy of Commander Shepard. This is part one of three.
The game that started it all. Originally released in late 2007, Mass Effect was a unique game combining 3rd person shooters and RPG elements, with storytelling that would change based on how you played it. You are a soldier in the alliance at the start of the series. Events happen early that establish the story and what you must do. You can choose between different classes, allowing you to play in a multitude of different ways. You can choose to be a heroic and selfless Paragon, or you can be a ruthless and selfish Renegade. How you play is up to you. You are able to decide how your character goes about talking to others. Be careful however! These choices will make an impact on the story and the characters in the world.
Just do your job, Pressly.
Visually, the game still holds up today. In the trilogy edition of the game, I noticed slowdown in some situations where there was a lot of action going on. This happened quite a few times towards the final parts of the game. It started to get frustrating after the 6th or 7th time, but it was in no means a deal breaker. Minus the slowdown hiccups, the game looks great even today. Voice acting is well done. Every character that can be talked to has a voice actor. The voice acting itself is well done and does sound like you are holding an actual conversation. However there’s some scenes where the character is flailing their arms around a little too much. While not perfect, it gets the job done just fine. Thankfully, it would be improved upon further in the later games. Something about a person pointing and using their hands too much made it seem a little off.
Even in 2007, the visuals were quite good and hold up well today.
One of the main things that Mass Effect 1 did different compared to the later games in the series is in how it viewed ammo. In this version, you have no ammo, but your gun can overheat from overuse. When it overheats, you cannot fire your gun until you let it cool down. If you look around the internet you will find people who either like this system, or dislike it. I am in the dislike camp. It just seems like their way to combat over-firing can be avoided simply by switching your gun as soon as one overheats, and as soon as the other gun overheats, you can switch back. Rinse and repeat until the enemies are dead. You can find upgrades to your armor and weapons, as well as new armor and weapons in general. This leads into my second problem with the game: inventory. After collecting enough items, you are not allowed to pick up anything else. The problem with this is, if you are in the middle of a mission, you have no options on being able to sell the items, giving you solely the option to convert it to Omni-gel. Omni-gel is used mainly for the vehicle portions of the game, but they are so few and far between that you will rarely need Omni-gel. This would be corrected in the later games, where inventory doesn’t become an issue.
Inventory system can be quite overwhelming sometimes to manage.
Overall the game is a good introduction to the series, but it does have some quirks that can dampen your enjoyment. The story is well done and if you do not play the first game, you will not understand a few things in the 2nd and 3rd installments. It is still a good game however, and worth your time. Plus you get the option to bring your character from your save game to Mass Effect 2, allowing you to keep your story as you made it. Coming back and playing it years later, I have come to appreciate it a lot more. I don’t know if it was just me being impatient years ago, but I truly think it is a solid starting point to the series. They would definitely improve upon it with it’s sequel 3 years later.
Dance on, Shepard. Dance on.
Recommended
