Mass Effect Reviews
Well it's been a long time coming. As many of you may or may not know, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was my favorite game of the last gen, and because of that Mass Effect was easily my most anticipated game this generation (so far at least). So did it live up to my extremely high expectations? Does it deserve to walk to KOTOR's foot steps?
To save you all a little time and drama I am just going to go and tell you... no. Mass Effect is not better, or even as good as KOTOR. However that is not to say that it's not a good game, it's just not as good as I had hoped it would be. I suppose comparing it to KOTOR so much isn't the most practical thing to do. Other than the fact that they're both RPGs set in a Sci-Fi universe made by the same developer, they're completely different games.
The most obvious difference between the two is the team based 3rd person shooter battle engine. This adds a lot more interactivity to the game, compared to past Bioware RPGs (barring Jade Empire), which are really just turn based games made to look like no one's waiting on dice rolls. There are four different types of weapons, pistols, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and shot guns, in addition to grenades, biotic (force) powers, and decryption powers, which come in handy against the robotic Geth, and also assist in open crates with useful items in them.
On my first play through I chose to be a soldier so I could use all weapons in armor. I didn't really miss fake force lifting and throwing my opponents since there will always be other members of your party with Biotic abilities, however I was annoyed that I couldn't always decrypt or open certain items after traveling out of my way to other planets to explore. Weapons can be customized with various different abilities such as adding radiated bullets that poison your enimies (but make your gun over heat faster), and stabilizers that make shooting with your sniper rifle a bit easier.
Controlling your team mates is a bit confusing at first. You can set rally points by hitting up on the D-pad, and call them back by hitting left. However I have experienced times where Ashley decided to not come backa nd I would have to keep setting rally points just to keep her around. Maybe because she's a bitch, skipper...
One thing that annoyed me was that in battle you could hold the A button to run much faster, but otuside of battle it only slightly adjusts the camera angle. This means that most of the time you will be exploring an area at a pretty slow rate, which is just annoying when you're used to being able to run around much faster in previous Bioware RPGs. In the end however I found the new type of battle systems to be rather enjoyable.
Now on to the most obvious part of the game, the graphics, which are, in a word, beautiful. If I weren't so lazy I would upload a picture of the character I created, which looks rather strikingly like myself. A friend even asked if I used the Vision Camera to map my face to my character. Facial animations are top tier, and every character is beautifully rendered. However there is one thing that really annoyied me at first, and that is the film grain filter that is left on by default. At first I thought it was my TV, but a quick glance int he options menu revealed that it was a feature that is easily turned off, and the game looks so much better when you do (or mayeb I've just been spoiled by all the HD movies I've been buying lately, HD film grain sucks). The music, while nothing extraordinary, is subtle and very well composed.
Now on to the bread and butter of any RPG... the story, which is pretty typical for a sci-fi game. There's not revolutionary plot twist like in KOTOR, it's just your basic save the world from the army of robotic menaces. In between all that can have sex with an alien (which has to be the absolute corniest part of the game, I couldn't help but laugh every time I talked to her).
Another issue with this game is its rather short length. The game can easily be beat in under 10 hours if you don't bother doing any of the side missions, and even if you do most of those it can still be done in under 20. Of course since your choices can radically (I hope at least) change the outcome of the game, it's ment ot be played more than once, like every other Bioware RPG. Still one can't help but be disappointed with the underwhleming story and short length.
In the end I can still say it's a fung ame worth playing if you're an RPG, or even a shooter fan who's looking to see what all the fuss about RPGs is, but it leaves me to wonder if Bioware will ever make another game as great as KOTOR. I guess I need to jsut go back and play Bauldur's Gate II...
To save you all a little time and drama I am just going to go and tell you... no. Mass Effect is not better, or even as good as KOTOR. However that is not to say that it's not a good game, it's just not as good as I had hoped it would be. I suppose comparing it to KOTOR so much isn't the most practical thing to do. Other than the fact that they're both RPGs set in a Sci-Fi universe made by the same developer, they're completely different games.
The most obvious difference between the two is the team based 3rd person shooter battle engine. This adds a lot more interactivity to the game, compared to past Bioware RPGs (barring Jade Empire), which are really just turn based games made to look like no one's waiting on dice rolls. There are four different types of weapons, pistols, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and shot guns, in addition to grenades, biotic (force) powers, and decryption powers, which come in handy against the robotic Geth, and also assist in open crates with useful items in them.
On my first play through I chose to be a soldier so I could use all weapons in armor. I didn't really miss fake force lifting and throwing my opponents since there will always be other members of your party with Biotic abilities, however I was annoyed that I couldn't always decrypt or open certain items after traveling out of my way to other planets to explore. Weapons can be customized with various different abilities such as adding radiated bullets that poison your enimies (but make your gun over heat faster), and stabilizers that make shooting with your sniper rifle a bit easier.
Controlling your team mates is a bit confusing at first. You can set rally points by hitting up on the D-pad, and call them back by hitting left. However I have experienced times where Ashley decided to not come backa nd I would have to keep setting rally points just to keep her around. Maybe because she's a bitch, skipper...
One thing that annoyed me was that in battle you could hold the A button to run much faster, but otuside of battle it only slightly adjusts the camera angle. This means that most of the time you will be exploring an area at a pretty slow rate, which is just annoying when you're used to being able to run around much faster in previous Bioware RPGs. In the end however I found the new type of battle systems to be rather enjoyable.
Now on to the most obvious part of the game, the graphics, which are, in a word, beautiful. If I weren't so lazy I would upload a picture of the character I created, which looks rather strikingly like myself. A friend even asked if I used the Vision Camera to map my face to my character. Facial animations are top tier, and every character is beautifully rendered. However there is one thing that really annoyied me at first, and that is the film grain filter that is left on by default. At first I thought it was my TV, but a quick glance int he options menu revealed that it was a feature that is easily turned off, and the game looks so much better when you do (or mayeb I've just been spoiled by all the HD movies I've been buying lately, HD film grain sucks). The music, while nothing extraordinary, is subtle and very well composed.
Now on to the bread and butter of any RPG... the story, which is pretty typical for a sci-fi game. There's not revolutionary plot twist like in KOTOR, it's just your basic save the world from the army of robotic menaces. In between all that can have sex with an alien (which has to be the absolute corniest part of the game, I couldn't help but laugh every time I talked to her).
Another issue with this game is its rather short length. The game can easily be beat in under 10 hours if you don't bother doing any of the side missions, and even if you do most of those it can still be done in under 20. Of course since your choices can radically (I hope at least) change the outcome of the game, it's ment ot be played more than once, like every other Bioware RPG. Still one can't help but be disappointed with the underwhleming story and short length.
In the end I can still say it's a fung ame worth playing if you're an RPG, or even a shooter fan who's looking to see what all the fuss about RPGs is, but it leaves me to wonder if Bioware will ever make another game as great as KOTOR. I guess I need to jsut go back and play Bauldur's Gate II...
Review Comments
Xx Wuch xX said at 01/27/2010 06:37 AM
How can you compare games to KOTOR? The best thing about the game was that it took place in an ancient time of a universe we're already very familiar with.
How can you compare games to KOTOR? The best thing about the game was that it took place in an ancient time of a universe we're already very familiar with.
Top 1 Reviews for this Game
© 2003-2008 GamertagPics.com. All Rights Reserved
