Mass Effect

Otherwise known as "Gravity".

Yesterday, a package was in the mail. Inside was a game. I started playing said game around 11 am. It was 2 am when I stopped. Not because I was bored or particularly tired, but because I had finished the main storyline. Granted, I did the same thing with Portal 2 a few weeks ago, but it only took until 5 pm. Mass Effect is one heck of a long game. I didn’t even do most of the side missions and in the end racked up no less than twelve and a half hours of game time.

Gameplay

On first sight, a normal third person shooter not unlike Gears of War. But with less blood, obviously. Then again, just about every game would have less blood than Gears, with the possible exception of Dead Space. Erm. Mass Effect also has heavy RPG elements, where experience points are collected and when reaching the next level, skill points can be assigned.

The game is story-driven: At many points, lengthy conversations come up. That’s nice and all, but the second and ninth time through you’d really wish you could skip cutscenes. The main story is about stopping an alien guy named Saren from doing evil stuff. And while you’re on it, you can also screw an alien if you want. I mean that pretty literally. Unless you’re imagining a screwdriver or even a power drill now, then you’re thinking too literal.

As for the titular Mass Effect: That isn’t much of a secret, it’s explained in the opening of the game. That’s the thing they use for FTL travel. Nothing more. They do however insist on showing you that mass effect every time you travel to a different star system. And you’ll do that quite often, take my word for it.

In addition to having your own space marine (which you can even outfit with breasts if you wish) you will always have two more with you, which in more cases than not will be at least fifty per cent alien. Overall, not per person. That would be weird. You can not directly control these two, but issue them commands (which they tend to ignore) and activate their abilities remotely. I found it easier to just let them use these abilities when they see fit, it’s less work for me.

Graphics

Mass Effect uses the well known and often utilised Unreal Engine 3, found in Gears of War, Arkham Asylum, Mirror’s Edge, Unreal Tournament 3 and a whole lot more. By itself this means remarkably little. Let me just say this: It looks good, for the most part. In a few scenes early on it looks a bit odd and the texture loading is pretty slow, but once it’s loaded there’s nothing to moan about. Landscapes look amazing, bases realistically repetitive (because hey, that’s how this is actually done) and it almost seems that no two people look alike. Even the aliens are distinguishable, which is anything but usual in science fiction. For the most part, all weapons (there’s four different kinds of weapons with distinct shapes) of one class look the same except for the paint job. Some weapons do however come with distinct 3D models. Same goes for the armor: Light, Medium and Heavy have distinct models, but practically all of the suits in one category only differ in texture. That’s a wee bit lazy, but considering you usually don’t see them all side by side it’s not very apparent until you actually look into it.

Sound

For obvious reasons, the voices are less unique than the faces. However, I hardly ever had a “talking to yourself” moment. In fact, only once and if you choose a non-breasted player character you won’t even get that one. The music is well chosen for the respective sections and the weapons mostly sound like they do actually pack a punch.

Multiplayer

None.

Controls

The only real downside as far as I’m concerned: The Mako (a car-ish thing which you’ll drive in many missions) steers like a bathtub on marbles. Unless you only and really only push forward, controlling this thing is nearly impossible. Also, grenades are thrown/detonated using Back. Is there any less convenient button than Back? I couldn’t honestly think of one. Drawing and holstering your weapon is done with two distinct buttons, changing that would free either X or B. But grenades are mostly optional, I only used them a handful of times… that is, except for that one mission where the solution for good karma requires you to use them to knock out a bunch of people.

Achievements

In one playthrough and without really trying, I got 14 for 405G. To get all achievements you need at least three playthroughs, and not the short twelve hour kind I did – finishing the majority of the game, as many achievements require, takes two to three times longer.

Other

At several points, auto save spots are so far apart that dying could mean you have to replay over an hour worth of mission. Which is all the more frustrating considering the immersion can make you forget that you have to save manually. Grah! At least you can save anywhere, right? Wrong! Not if there’s an enemy anywhere around you. Anywhere can mean the same room, the same building or, the way it mostly feels like, the same galaxy. Graher! The game also comes with numerous minor glitches which have little to no impact on gameplay. Except for that one where I had to replay most of one mission because my paralyzed character wouldn’t ever stand back up.

Summary

It’s good. But unless you like both science fiction and RPGs, this is not what you are looking for.

Final Rating: