Mass Effect

[TheMarvell]

anyone playing this? It's ****ing awesome. The number 1 game I bought my 360 for. I'm about 23 hours in, and I think I still have quite a few hours left. It's a classic Bioware RPG, so if you liked their games of the past, particularly KOTOR or Jade Empire, check this one out.

Not really giving a detailed review here, as I haven't finished it yet, but I'm curious if anyone else is playing it.

My only complaints are small ones. First being the auto-save feature being useless. It basically only saves if you're entering a new planet. So if you're playing on a planet for an hour, forget to save, and die from an ambush, you're screwed and have to play that entire section over again. Other complaints include technical framerate issues that are small, and last but not least, the unchartered planets you explore in the Mako are all the same: barren and fairly boring. However, Bioware could REALLY expand on this if they want to with future downloadable content, which could be quite awesome if done right.

story is, as always with Bioware, amazing.

[Mowgli]

I have Mass Effect as well, and I would respectfully disagree. I wouldn't say it was a bad game, but it was a lot less than I was expecting. I'm not trying to put it down, but here are my reasons.

- Jedi Lite?- It seems to bare a strinking resembelance to KOTOR. The story is a little more political, but those parts aren't terribly exciting. It has a group of elite operatives who answer to a higher power than the regular council and you can become part of, kinda like Jedi. You can use weapons and mental (biotic) powers like throw, lift and warp (which damages an enemy)... kinda like a jedi.

- Same Engine- The engine for the game is the same as KOTOR and Jade Empire. I know this happens a lot, but this game is VERY similar to those games. It feels like you are playng a sequel to KOTOR with nicer graphics. The interactions are the same, the way you identify things, get experience and even the combat feels the same. If you've played KOTOR and/or Jade Empire, you have basically played this game.

- Glitches- All games have them, so this is not a fault of this game in particular. But I haven't played as long TheMarvell and I have gotten stuck in walls simply walking around my ship. I also walked into holes (that aren't that steep) on planets and I was simply stuck there, immobile. Once someone starts speaking, you can't skip it. If you accidentally ask a question again, go get a drink because they're going to talk for a while. Elevators are painfully slow (slower than current technology) and there are several places you have to take them.

-Where Am I?- The game has a decent enough story, but it lacks the strong theme of KOTOR or Jade Empire. In KOTOR you can associate with the jedi order and galaxies and places from the movies. It has a very Star Wars feel to it. Jade Empire was cut from every crazy old kung fu movie you have seen. Crazy animal styles of fighting and old maters with fortune cookie like advice among other things make you think you are a character in one of those films. Mass Effect? It seems a rather generic "Humans are latecomers to space and must prove themselves."

I don't hate the game and it's definitely not the worst game I have ever played. The story is decent and there are a lot of places to go and things to do in it. Maybe my own expectations are my problem. I just expected Bioware to really do a great job and give the players something new. This felt like a repeat of KOTOR with a different, and more generic setting.

I would rent it first and see what you think. Each person should judge for themselves. These are just things that I didn't like about the game.

[TheMarvell]

The games aesthetic influence comes from old sci-fi movies of the 70's and 80's. I never really had any problems getting stuck on walls except for once, and that was when I was in the vehicle.

As for conversations, if you accidentally hit the same thing twice, or simply want to skip dialog, all you have to do is hit the X button.

While I agree a lot of it feels like KotOR, especially the "Biotic" powers basically being the same exact thing as "force" powers, I have to completely disagree about the combat. The combat in the 3 Bioware RPG's of this kind (the ones with essentially the same engine, so to speak) have been drastically different. KOTOR had this pseudo real-time/turn-based style of gameplay where you could plan your attacks, put you and your allies attacks into a cache of commands, and watch them fight based off your stats. I believe it used certain rolling rules that D&D uses as well. Jade Empire was almost the complete opposite. That was entirely realtime, even if you could pause the game and think about it for a bit before going on. But there was no cache system, and it made perfect sense given the material of kung-fu. Mass Effect has elements of both games. While you can pause the game and give commands, it's very much a tactical shooter with it's combat. Sure, all three games run on a very similar engine, but to me it's pretty obvious they all have very different combat.

I'm sorry you didn't like the game. While I don't think it's better than KotOR (that game will be hard to beat with it's heavy Star Wars ties) I do think it's slightly better than Jade Empire. I loved JE, but the world and mythos weren't quite as memorable to me. Plus, I think I just like sci-fi better in general, and I think ME has a very good atmosphere going, even if it is heavily influenced by Star Wars. I still think if you liked KOTOR and Jade enough, this one is worth picking up.

I just finished the game today. Definitely one of my favorites, but the main story actually felt a little short, even though I finished just short of 30 hours. The story itself isn't exactly the most original I've seen, but the choices you make throughout the game are part of what make the story so engrossing. I look forward to the sequels (hopefully this EA teamup won't screw things up) and hope they can really expand on an already cool premise. Here's hoping they expand on the planetary exploring and make more planets different from one another.

[TheMarvell]

no one else playing this?

[murs47]

I played it..........just wasn't my cup of tea I guess. It's a good game, strong story, good graphics. But, I just couldn't get into it for some reason. It just felt like an extension of KOTOR instead of the ground breaking RPG it was rumored to be.

[Lycus]

Playing it, but I don't have as much time to dedicate to it as I would like. Overall, I'm enjoying it, though there are a couple of things I hope get changed for the sequels:
MAKO controls: Less 'original' more functional (driving around shouldn't be that complicated), add a 'brake' button so it doesn't go wandering off on its own all the time, and make the thrusters omni-directional so they can actually help you get up those steep hills (even if it's just based on the direction gravity's flowing).
Squad controls: Replace whatever command they put on 'down' with one that orders the team to take cover.
Various technical things: Make the interfaces a bit more user-friendly, use fonts that are read more easily on SDTVs, make use of a hard drive when available for caching to avoid those nasty texture pop-ups.

[Verfall]

You know what makes this game one of the worst new games to come out this year?

Xbox360 exclusivity.

KOTOR for xbox was a POS, but on a PC with a mouse and the ability to make the graphics better, it was fan-freaking-tastic.

To hell with the hype, the story, the gameplay, whatever. You want me to play an RPG of this style with a freaking gamepad?
To hell with it. Bioware lost a lot of my respect when they agreed to do this for the Defectbox.

[TheMarvell]

the game is the reason I got an Xbox 360. While the controls and such worked better on the PC for KOTOR, I feel it's the opposite for Mass Effect. It could still work on the PC, but the combat is like a 3rd person shooter, which I don't think works as well on the PC.