Mass Effect (PC)

...game moulds.

Mass Effect is no different; in fact I’d say this was one of the most open-ended games out there.

'''Story'''
The story is what truly drives this game, it’s a bit cliché however, the whole ‘END OF THE UNIVERSE’ type frame, but it’s still a strong somewhat original plot.

The story is somewhat difficult to explain, as you get to choose many aspects of it from the very beginning. You’re commander ...
...the combat! The combat in Mass Effect is actually very impressive. You’re usually with two squad members who whilst you can’t individually order them, will follow your commands as a pair. I personally just liked running in heads first without too much in the way of tactics, but for all you tacticians out there, you’ll love the ability to control your team.

During combat, you may pause the action to change weapons for you and your team-mates, ... more

Introduction
I’m a huge fan of open-ended games. I love how you can make choices and the story line goes down a whole new branch and it makes you feel in charge of how the game moulds.

Mass Effect is no different; in fact I’d say this was one of the most open-ended games out there.

Story
The story is what truly drives this game, it’s a bit cliché however, the whole ‘END OF THE UNIVERSE’ type frame, but it’s still a strong somewhat original plot.

The story is somewhat difficult to explain, as you get to choose many aspects of it from the very beginning. You’re commander Shepard and you’ve somehow survived an extreme disaster in the past and are incredibly respected for what you did in the past. You’re set on a mission to ‘Eden Prime’ which as its name suggests; is a very beautiful, peaceful planet.

You set off with a Turian ‘Spectre’ named Nihlus who goes on ahead as he dislikes working with a team. On arrival, things don’t seem right and soon enough it’s clear that a species known as ‘Geth’ are in control of the planet. Saren, a rogue Turian ‘Sepctre’ finds Nihlus and kills him.

Once Shepard has almost finished investigations, he notices a beacon of some sort. He gets close to the beacon and witnesses a blurred vision of death and destruction of an entire planet.

What did he see? Why did Saren, a respected Turian murder Nihlus? Who are the Geth? I guess you should play and find out the exciting plot twists.

Gameplay
When you first start up the game, you’re given a very advanced character customization screen. Of course, you can use defaults if you’re impatient like me, but it can be very rewarding to see your creation during cut scenes and other amazing moments.

You can give your character a forename and they can either be male or female. If you do have time you can spend hours prodding a character model, changing their ears, nose, eyes, mouth, hair, skin tone etc.

There are six different classes for you to choose from Soldier (Brute strength), Adept (Biotic technology) and Engineer (Omni-tool and tech abilities). There are three other classes but they are merely combinations of the core three.

Now, let me talk about the dialogue sections of the game, which are regular but don’t feel the same as other RPG’s. Everything in this gave is voice-acted, I mean it, every word of text has been spoken. This is a great feat considering there are around a thousand NPC’s. This is impressive in itself, but it gets better, each of these NPC’s have several different conversation branches, depending on how you react.

For example, say you meet ‘Bob’, Bob says he will give you money if you do a shady job for him. You will be given several options; “Yes, okay!”, “No, I’d rather stick to the law” or if you have a high charm/intimidate skill “I’ll do it, but I want more money than you’re offering”

Choosing the morally correct options will most likely not pay you off as well but you’ll gain ‘Paragon’ points, and vice versa would give you ‘Renegade’ points. These points don’t seem to do much in actuality to the game play, but are there more for your information, so you can see how morally correct you are. They sometimes give you perks, for example; reaching 50% Renegade will increase your intimidate skill, and reaching 70% will unlock an achievement.

The most important thing about the moral system is that they’re separate entities, meaning doing a good thing doesn’t deduct from your Renegade bar, simply increases your Paragon. This allows you to sometimes go off track and test out different responses for your own enjoyment without too much risk.

And now the combat! The combat in Mass Effect is actually very impressive. You’re usually with two squad members who whilst you can’t individually order them, will follow your commands as a pair. I personally just liked running in heads first without too much in the way of tactics, but for all you tacticians out there, you’ll love the ability to control your team.

During combat, you may pause the action to change weapons for you and your team-mates, you may also use a similar menu to use special abilities or Biotics which are basically spells and magical attacks.

There are four main weapon types, Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle, each of which can be significantly upgraded with found upgrade parts. The weapons in the game pack a punch and you can find them pretty much everywhere which can often be a bit overwhelming when you try to sell the poorer quality ones.

Everytime you kill an enemy you gain XP which, once you reach the required amount, will allow your characters to level up, enabling you to purchase skill points to increase a wide arrange of available skills. Enemies can also drop credits and upgrades.

Travelling anywhere in the universe has been made somewhat simplified, and there are hundreds of planets, some of which aren’t even possible to land on, and are solely their just to complete their systems. Many of the side-quests you’ll discover will be on uncharted planets.

Graphics
The graphics are amazing although some of the side-quest planets begin to look the same. The graphics can often be rendered a bit slow and only appear mid-cutscene. Whilst traversing outside in your moon buggy you can often experience graphical slowdown and other technical problems which really have the potential to ruin the experience.

And this is a huge shame, the game looks beautiful and very clean. Most worlds are very detailed and you’ll find yourself just exploring places just because they’re aesthetically appealing.

Longevity
Unfortunately, if you only play the main storyline, it can be over within about 8 hours. If you really want the most out of Mass Effect, complete the side missions, they not only give you bonuses, they’re actually usually quite lengthy and enjoyable. The game also has great replay-ability as you can choose a solely evil character to play as next time, or a different class, background story, or even sex...

Overall
One of the better role play games I’ve played in a long time. It’s a mix between ‘Freelancer’ and ‘Deus Ex’.
If you like RPG’s then seriously consider this game.
 

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