Supplier: BioWare
Reviewed By: Rogue5
Price: $59.99 (MSRP)

Almost as if seething with science-fiction, Mass Effect is more than just a textbook example of the genre’s strength, serving more as a reinvention. It’s by no means a classic example since it injects (with vivacity) other tones lacking in classic examples. Things like galactic-wide politics, artificial intelligence, and interspecies relations, while secondary to the action of the game, play a major part in Mass Effect’s story development. These sub-topics really mold Mass Effect’s universe (figuratively and literally) since they are directly affected by the player’s decisions and interaction. As such, ME is propelled to the impossibly hard to reach level of a perfect interactive narrative – the perfect videogame.

While you can be Jack Bower in space if you choose, there’s usually more to it than that. You are representing humanity, which, if you treat the game as the escapism it is, is far more potent. Being a Jack Bower might be cool, and in some cases warranted, but barging into to every room, conflict, and situation like you own it, is as ballsy as it is stupid. Why not indulge an enemy by turning on the charm if it avoids unnecessary bloodshed? Sure, it’s just a game, but when you do take it even just a little seriously it’s a much more immersive experience and a heck of a lot more fun.

The synergy and co-reliance between the different species in the game is incredibly dynamic and one of the standout characteristics of Mass Effect. It’s hard to explain without playing, but after finding out what each species in your squad has to offer you’ll want to use those strengths (or at least keep them around for their distinctive persona.) Some species are easy to read than others – Krogans look, talk, move and act like warriors – but there are quite a few examples of really cool interspecies behavior. Turians and humans, for example, don’t get along because of the Contact War between the two races when humanity first found the Citadel.

That’s another cool aspect about Mass Effect’s fiction; the galactic community was established long before humans arrived. Further, none of the species in the community are actually responsible for the technology that allowed for the advanced space travel method used to unite the far reaching galaxies. The aforementioned Citadel is the hub that connects all the different star clusters and solar systems within our galaxy. Travel to and from the Citadel (and other systems) is handled through the use of devices called Mass Relays located throughout the galaxy (our solar system’s Mass Relay was hidden under the surface of Mars). The theory named to explain this physics phenomenon of travel is ‘Mass Effect’, hence the game’s title.

Combat is real-time and encounters are action packed. Your repertoire of weaponry comes in two main groups – traditional projectiles/explosives, along with telekinetic-style attacks. As with any RPG, the type of person you choose during character creation will affect your various abilities. The beauty of Mass Effect, however, is that you can not only assign weapons and telekinesis abilities to your party members, but during combat you can tell them to use those attacks. So if you’re a soldier who doesn’t have any telekinetic abilities, you can tell one of your telekinesis-strong party members to throw an enemy up into the air while you blast ‘em to hell with a shotgun. All of your abilities (telekinetic or physical) are upgradable, while stronger weapons and armour can be bought throughout the game. There are a lot of combinations to be had and characters can be carried over to your playthrough of the game, so when you’ve leveled up and gotten the best gear you can afford, playing on the hard or insane difficulty suddenly becomes an appealing offer.

The combination of rich story, rich environments, rich interactivity, and rich characters put Mass Effect in a league separate from other RPGs. While you will be leveling up (no grinding necessary, mind you), getting new gear, and meeting new party members like typical RPGs, it’s held together so well by a strong fiction that many games of this type just don’t have (let alone come close to matching). Mass Effect truly is a living, breathing galaxy whose main questline is unparalleled thus far by any other RPG. This stretches beyond just the story telling as well, since the game looks and sounds gorgeous as well.

Mass Effect is probably the most realistic looking UE3.0 powered game to date. Now that doesn’t mean it’s the *best* running (there are a few framerate issues), just that as far is realism is concerned, Bioware used their polygon budget almost perfectly. Characters, even the more extravagant reptilian-type species like the Krogan and Turians, look real and react/move realistically. Some of the most visited areas of the game look absolutely gorgeous, bringing locations to life a just as you’d imagine them. The Citadel is especially delicious, acting as a perfect example of a galactic space station.

To further build on the visuals Mass Effect employs an incredibly fitting cinematic look. Relying on depth-of-field, motion blur, and filmic-style grain to add to the believability of the visuals, Bioware were able to maintain many of limitations that would otherwise cripple a game going for true-to-life graphics. Bottom line is, it works excruciatingly well.

Surprisingly the visuals aren’t the most realistic part of the game, the dialogue is. Dialogue in the game is fully voice-acted with amazing performances and completely interactive. Dialogue trees sometimes have their own story threads, leading to a host of side missions and new characters. As you level-up, you’ll eventually gain access to more even dialogue trees (in the form of charm and intimidation) that make for a much more personalized experience. So what you have is a completely realistic looking protagonist, that sounds completely authentic due to incredible voice-acting, but then, as the player, you get to choose (within reason) what he or she says. Brilliant!

Topping it off is the Sam Hulick/Jack Wall soundtrack, which bitch-slaps any other Sci-Fi OST out there. And I don’t just mean any other Sci-Fi *game* OST; even major Sci-Fi movie soundtracks -- like Bladerunner, The Thing, Alien, Predator, etc. -- barely hold a candle to Mass Effect’s score. It’s ridiculously good and sets the mood just as much as, if not more so, than the outer space setting the game takes place in. I mean, BioShock had a wonderful (original and licensed) soundtrack, but it doesn’t compare to the sheer brilliance of what Mass Effect pumps through your speakers. Like the game itself, the score is not just amazing, it’s genre defining.

After Oblivion and Mass Effect I’d go as far as saying turn-based RPGs are dead. At least for me they are. Mass Effect takes everything that is good with interactive narrative, amps it up with polished gameplay, and gives incredible amounts of choice allowing the player to play the game in the manner they wish. This game is a defining accomplishment of this hardware generation.

Mass Effect is my 2007 game of the year.

By: Rogue5

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Published on: 2008-05-13 (477 reads)