First off, I would like to give Gamespot a boot to the ass, not because they will not tell us why they now have 50% less fat on the staff, but because I read their review of Mass Effect.

They clearly state that the “Vehicle navigation and combat are weak” and that there are “A bunch of annoying interface issues”. This reviewer is one of many whom I know and truly believe have never played the complete game or any complete game they ever reviewed before. Well, with that aside the Gamespot criticism referring to the vehicle and interface will I not complain about, because there are problems with the vehicle navigation and the overall crappy design of it, and yes there sure are some issues with the interface, but not so you will never learn? My problem is the general mistakes of their articles. I have listed a few. “However, the Mako’s turret, for whatever reason, can’t move up or down.” This is not true, the turret can be moved up, but not down. The encounters with Thresher Maws “[…] can be really exciting […]” is far from true, it’s an old concept of shooting an enemy which is too stupid and simple to kill as long as you are not standing still. “The problem is that the game doesn’t check on the Mako’s position before respawning the thresher maw. Multiple times, we had the creature emerge from directly underneath us, which either resulted in an unavoidable insta-kill […]” This leaves me to believe that this author [1] was too lousy at steering and at shooting at the same time that he chose to camp (not his fault because it is hard) and [2] did not figure out this simple mechanic. Number three of misunderstandings is “You can’t even deselect a power from the ability wheel in combat once you’ve chosen one.” If you would only put it like that, like there is no way getting around this problem, he is a total dumb-ass. The problem he is having is that he feels he has to use the power he selected at once. This is not true. You simply bind a power to use at another point in time with the x-button. Next, us about the environment in the game, “[…]owe a lot to games and films of the past (much of the game’s look wouldn’t be out of place in a Halo title).” This fourth quote is partially true, it does “owe” a lot from films of the past, series and other games, but I can not see the how it looks like the halo games in any way, sorry, but I feel this is totally untrue, because [1] Halo actually got organics on their planets, something which is rarely seen in ME.

Well, now we are off to a good start, lets get this review on the road!

Mass Effect

+

• Well written storyline
• Dialogue options will keep you constantly engaged in your missions
• Awesome voice acting
• Tactical combat of Mass Effect is a great solution for future RPGs
• Amazing soundtrack, like straight out of Blade runner

-

• Vehicle navigation, a lousy design
• Sideplot missions are overall boring and often forces usage of dumbass vehicle
• Some interface issues
• Not as much “choices that actually will change your path to the end” as they have been pushing. Actually, not much more than two different ends and a few other subplot-things.
• Enervating cut-scenes that are impossible to tell to fuck off
• Difficulty levels seem not to be harder

I’ve played it twice, and here’s why…or…well…

Story

We are nobodies, humanity is a new race within the universe and are very disliked, either because we get too many freebees compared to others, or because we expand to fast, to much, and are referred to as the “plague” of the universe. Though luck, mankind. As you probably know, you take the role as Commander Shepard of the Alliance Fleet and after a little while you become a Spectre and can do anything you want without getting into trouble with the council (the council being the same persons ruling the universe). Then you try to get rid of an evil man, etc. That’s all without getting too specific. The story and dialogs are nicely performed the first time around, but the second time it becomes a bit transparent (this does not make me not want to play it a third time though).

Gameplay

Gameplay reminds me of the tactical turn-based shoot-outs in fallout, but in real-time. Two different buttons control weapon selection and tech-abilities, both which stop time and enables you to think a bit about the situation before you throw yourself into the fight. I truly hope a similar combat gameplay will be implemented in fallout 3. You control your two companions indirectly; you are able to tell them what weapon to use, tech-ability, and where to seek cover. You also manage their leveling, and I urge anyone playing this game, not to let them get “auto-upgraded” because it actually does more harm than good. The tech abilities are the equivalent to magic and some are cool, but useless, and others not cool but useful (that shit is carefully balanced), and there is not much more to say about these. The cover usage is badly executed, and creates a lot of annoyance at times, for example preventing you from being able to shoot at enemies, or getting you stuck. Your companions love to get stuck behind doors which you will realize a couple of times too when you are all alone against a hoard of Geth. Another problem is that at a few places there are cut-scenes before a fight, and guess what – you can not skip past them. However, at a few places you can, but that is because there is a conversation menu available where you will make choices that will have effect on your future…”great, I’ll just make the same fucking selections as last time, and damnit, I choose wrong phrase to say…” this happens a lot when you have to skip parts of an dialog for the 339th time. Why the hell didn’t they implement an autosave directly after the dialogs, everything would be so much easier. The autosave is crap too, it autosave at specific points, like a planet away from you. Now whats up with that? Back to the “make choices that will effect your future”-part. These choices you make are kind of transparent in most cases, and do not effect anything at all, as Shepard quite a lot says “it seems like I have no choice”. Well, here and there it happens and when it actually happens it can take wonderful turns directly, but mostly indirectly as you will gain “paramour” or “renegade” points which results you will see in the end of the game. The game altogether is too easy and I actually cant feel any difference when playing on hardcore.

Graphics

They look great. Well, as long as you concentrate on the actual main quest and even during the main quest you will encounter some uninspiring worlds where no organic materials can be found. It is too bad the Xbox is too crappy for this game; it would run much smoother on a PC. I would not mind seeing it in all of its glory, and it would be awesome not to have to hear the constant loading from the DVD.

Audio etc.

The music is awesome, this one of the few times I have not turned off the music in a game where it has been possible to do so. Love it! Perfect 5 of 5, music-wise.

The game altogether is fun, atmospheric, good-looking and rewarding. Even though it has a few kinks, I’d recommend anyone to play this awesome game. I’ll give this game a solid 4 snakes of 5 possible.

(Solid Snake pictures added by Liquid Squid)