Although we obtained both the Xbox 360 and PC versions of this game, we have decided to review primarily based on the PC version.
Playing Mass Effect was like nothing I have ever experienced before. I can honestly find nothing to equate it too. Mass Effect is a gem of beauty to be marveled and experienced by every gamer at least once. It’s presentation is spectacular. After playing on both the PC and the Xbox 360, I can say that Bioware truly deserves an ovation for what is truthfully one of the greatest projects ever conceived. Mass Effect leads players on one of the greatest and most in depth explorations of the galaxy ever invisioned leading one to new places where every decision made affects your character and your relations with others. The perfect Space opera.
After already playing Mas Effect on the Xbox 360, I was left with a feeling of accomplishment. The Xbox 360 version was nothing short of beautiful and deserves a merit in it’s own right. The PC version, however, solves some issues which were present in the Xbox 360 version and adds new features. The experience, however, is still, for the most part, identical. The PC version offers faster load times, higher resolutions, and of course, nothing wins in a virtual firefight (short of a light gun) like a keyboard and mouse. The Bring Down The Sky DLC add-on is free for PC users so this is a nice bonus as well.
Set in the year 2183, Mass Effect follows the exploits of Commander Shepard, a member of the Alliance military with a background and first name of the player’s choosing. This brings up our first point which we will discuss about how just far how deep down the rabbit hole the story goes and how every decision made can affect it. There are two paths: The Light (Paragon), and the Ruthless (Renegade). Your decisions made will affect which you lean towards which will affect which missions you have access too and how you interact with other individuals as well as the outcomes of certain events. Make no mistake either. Once you have earned a reputation, it will follow. A good action cannot make up for a bad one nor can a bad one make up for a good one. If you are a Paragon, a Renegade move will not detract from your Paragon points. Likewise, a Paragon move will not detract from the points of a Renegade. Each side of the coin has it’s advantages and disadvantages and it is up to the player to decide how they will proceed.
>The story begins aboard the SSV Normandy. A prototype ship commissioned by the Human Systems Alliance military. Now for some reason, the stock version of Commander Shepard – named John by default though this can easily be changed to the players liking – although, based on based on Mark Vanderloo, looks remarkably like Dominic Purcell. Anyway, we changed ours and set out about our adventure with the Earth-born Sole-Survivor background. Aboard the Normandy, we learn of Shepard’s past and get a chance to interact with some of the crew members. Commander Shepard, the XO of the ship, serves under Captain David Anderson, voiced by Keith David. Shepard and his crew are assigned the task of landing on Eden Prime, one of many worlds in the game, in order to recover an ancient beacon and defend an alliance colony against an attacking army of geth: Synthetic lifeforms. In order to assist in this task, the Citadel council, the governing body of the galaxy composed of three alien races: turians, asari, and salarians, send one of their agents, Nihlus, to accompany the player during the mission. Unbeknown to our heroes (or anti-hero depending on the route you choose), a rogue agent of the citadel is leading the attacking geth. Nihlus is murdered and from there ensues one of the best action adventure role-playing games ever.
The vocal talent perceived in the game is excellent if not perfection. From the already tested and experienced Keith David to others including, but not limited too: Mark Meer (Male Shepard), Jennifer Hale (Female Shepard), Kimberly Brooks (Ashley “Ash” Williams), Ali Hillis (T’Soni), and Raphael Sbarge (Alenko), players can expect to hear no-shoddy voice acting. This was put together perfectly with no shortcuts. The acting is fluid as well which goes hand in hand with the decision making abilities. Every statement or action you as the player makes draws a different reaction which ties in perfectly to the situation.
The Tactical interface of Mass Effect is down right outstanding. Players can easily choose what weapon they wish to wield as well as which skill the wish to use or map for easy usage. They can also command their supporting units to switch weapons on the fly or to use a specific skill. The player also has the option of setting it so that during combat, their support will use all skills, defensive skills, or no skills automatically; This gives the player freedom and reach to exercise combative tactics as they see fit. An improvement over the Xbox 360 version here is seen as well with the ability to map multiple skills to the skill bar as well as an ability to give specific instructions to each member of your squad. The game’s physics and graphical engine powered by Unreal take no shortcuts either so you will see every aspect of combat.
You have a multitude of classes to choose from which will impact the way you engage in combat and who you carry on missions with you as your class will present certain limitations you will need to make up for with squad members. An example of this is the Soldier class. The Soldier class is perfect in a firefight though it has no electronic or decryption skill, therefore, you will always need to carry a member of your squad with you who contains these abilities to make up for your lack of them. Likewise, if you are a biotic or tech, you will need to bring along a member of your squad (possibly 2) who excel in Combat to make up for your limitations.
Mass Effect does have it’s short comings however. On the Xbox 360 version, especially if the game is left idle for too long (We have to eat sometime), it can freeze for up to a few minutes especially if a conversation needs to occur. The PC version does not suffer from this though it has its own issue which is not seen on the Xbox 360. The PC version suffers from a bug with the achievements which, after any of 4 specific achievements are unlocked, then an overheating glitch with weapons will occur. This is by no means limited to hand weaponry either. It extends to the Mako as well. It did not seem to affect squad members, however. What this essentially means is that if a weapon overheats, it will not cool down, thus rendering the weapon unusable. This caused problems for me during gameplay, with the only way to fix it would be to save and reload the save and continue. A search on google shows us that there is currently no specific fix for this except to modify your profile to remove those specific achievements, however trolls regularly accuse others of pirating the game and tell them to go buy it. While we won’t disagree with the fact that a lot of people pirated the PC version of the game, many of who declared they would pirate it specifically to avoid DRM, we purchased our copy for both the PC and the Xbox 360. Therefore, we can confirm that this is not limited to persons who pirate the game. Our prior search query seems to turn up the same.
If there is one thing you can truthfully complain about in Mass Effect, – regardless of which platform you choose to play it on – it is the repetitiveness of undertaking missions. The Normandy flies over a planet, drops the Mako, you play Moon Rover 5000 until arriving at your destination, enter, shoot a few guys, maybe have a discussion or two, grab some items, collect your renegade or paragon points at the door, and return to the Normandy. Off to the next planet. While this can be avoided and the sheer amount of interactivity negates it, one cannot deny that this, along with the obvious rehashing of indoor environments detracts from the gameplay, if only a bit.
Speaking of achievements, the same achievements seen in the Xbox 360 version are in the PC version. However, the PC version of Mass Effect is not a Games for Windows title. Therefore, these will not count too your overall gamerscore.
The PC version offers us one more advantage as well. I saw some graphical hiccups on the Xbox 360 version resulting in dropped frames and some problems especially on planets with high winds or snow storms. Not so on the PC version. Our rig, powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo and an nVidia 9700M GT, pumped this thing out with perfectly smooth frames. When we connected our set to the display to attempt 1920×1080, we were able to do so at maximum settings with no frame rate problems. This shows that Bioware truly worked to optimize the engine of the game for playability on the PC, and we commend them for that.
Score Breakdown
Presentation: 10/10
The style and presentation of this game has been heavily cleaned up from it’s prior Xbox 360 release and provides a welcome experience for all persons.
Graphics: 9/10
We were able to play with all settings maxed at our monitors native resolution and still achieve respectable frames with all settings maxed. However, the shadows and colors seemed a bit washed out when observing more minute things as opposed to it’s older brethren.
Sound: 10/10
An excellent voice acting cast coupled with superb sound effects and an eerily sounding musical score along with 5.1 support give us a feeling of happiness with the sounds of this game.
Storyline: 10/10
If there’s a reasonable angle you can think of, it’s probably been covered within Mass Effect. The sheer amount of planets you can visit and character development you can undertake gives one of the most in depth storylines ever achieved.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
I more than appreciate the newly hashed combat interface and the same in depth conversation interface, but the weapon overheating bug is too much to overlook and detracts seriously from gameplay when a player has to rush through battle to get to save their game and reload so they may use their weaponry once more.
Lasting Appeal: 9/10
This game is excellent. There’s no shortage of missions available or angles you can take and with the addition of DLC such as Bring Down The Sky, players will have more than enough to keep them busy. The game is rather short though and Bioware has made no attempts to hide that they’re planning on a Trilogy.
Final Score: 9 out of 10 (*This is not an average)
Editor’s Note: This review comes a bit late. My apologies.
