Mass Effect (XBOX 360) – One geek’s early impression of Bioware’s latest

Mass Effect (XBOX 360) – One geek’s early impression of Bioware’s latest

I’m about 14 hours into Mass Effect and I gotta say it’s very impressive. The story is immense and I get the feeling that I’m probably less than half way thru the game at this point. I’m not one of these “leave no stone unturned” kind of players either. I’ll take a side quest only if it’s convenient or if I feel like it’s worth my time. There are few things that I really love about this game. One is the way the dialogue system is set up. All the conversations in the game give you choices on how you want to reply. You can pull up a menu of responses while the NPC is still talking and make your choice, then when he is finished, your reply comes out very naturally. It really makes the game seem like a movie that you are a part of. This is the first time I’ve played a game that successfully made me feel this way. The story is pretty good and is better than several of the Star Trek movies to be honest. The characters are extremely well developed. There was a scene last night were I had to decide which of my squad members I wanted to leave behind to die, it was tough to decide and I actually felt kinda sad about it, amazing. The controls and menu system are very well done and it’s easy to give your squad simple commands and switch weapons, etc. All the action is real time. I had heard you could queue up moves somehow? This is not the case. Overall, I’m super impressed with the game and plan on finishing it no matter how long it takes me. I’m guessing that with all the choices you are allowed to make there will be multiple endings to the game. (I never did like that feature too much. Who’s got time to play a game 5 times through just to see which ending is the best?) The graphics are some of the best I’ve seen on any system, on par with Gears of War I’d say, and the sound is immersive without being obtrusive. If you are a fan of 3^rd person games and like Sci-Fi stories, you will love it.

Pros:

Great story, acting

Intuitive fighting system/menus

Great dialogue system

Save anywhere (except during battle)

Super fast load times

Awesome graphic/sound

Female squad members in spandex

Cons:

First few hours are almost all story, very little action

Riding in elevators is boring

Selecting an item uses the same button as talking to your team members

so they are in the way a lot.

Final Score: 9/10

Reviewed by El Jbird