I was just thinking of buying mass effect and read all the reviews and stuff and they all say that the game rocks and is one of the best RPGs ever... but we all know not to trust those reviews. for all we know they can be paid to write some good stuff about the game. remember Crysis? Well, I bought it (yes, you can slap me:) ) and the game SUCKED HORSE D**K). My friend says it's the best game ever, but you can guess how smart he is, or how he values a game
so, I wanted to hear some thoughts about Mass Effect from the real people and if it is actually worth buying...
and please, don't just say yes or no, write both the good stuff and the bad...
thanks in advance....
I've discussed this game at great lengths. Some here as well. But I wouldn't mind reiterating some it in order to convinced you to try this game. That's right. I'm advocating you play this game.
There are several things I loved about the game. One was the character customization. It's not like you can be really super detailed when creating your character, but at least you get to see your character constantly interact with others in cutscenes, unlike Oblivion where you can take all the time creating a face for your guy and it really makes no difference cause they'll never say a word throughout the whole game. But in Mass Effect, it's just great watching the character you create go through the game in these great cinematics. And if you work hard enough at it, you really can create a fairly unique looking character. Mine was hot. I sort of fell in love with her. It's better to be a female in that game because the actor who does the voice for her does a way better job than the guy actor.
You also get to create a bit of a psych profile as well as identify your place of origin. For each of these categories, there is one out of three choices you can make. Depending on your choices, there will be different side quests available as well as different dialogue when people talk to or about you. I kind of wished they had done a bit more with this feature though and tried to include more ways of your character reflecting her psych profile and origins in the game. But it's interesting enough to play through more than once and try your char on a different type of profile.
Aesthetic wise, I thought the game was magnificent. At first I thought the armor looked kind of lame, but once you learn more about the technology and combat in the game, I justifies more why everything looks the way it does. I thought it did anyway. The graphics are rather stunning. The different locations on the game look great, although every planet is pretty much identical except for that they change the color of the terrain and make the sky look different. But places like the Citadel, Feros, Noveria, they look really amazing and it gets you more into the game. This is good I think because there isn't a lot of fast travel options in the game. Such as with the Citadel (the main hub of the galaxy) where you have to take a lot of elevators and corridors to get to certain locations. But at least you can admire the scenery while taking the long way to places. I also really like the look of the weapons and the style of the tech and biotic combat. I guess you could compare biotics to the force in terms of what you can do with them. But biotics has no great mystical background. It's more like implants in the body that works with the brain and muscles to enhance strength and agility while allowing the user to manipulate the mass effect fields that most technology in the game is based on.
I even liked the film grain option that you could turn on and off. I don't know what made them even think of this, but you can turn on this grainy filter over everything and it makes everything appear more like it is done on film. It's pretty neat.
The combat is okay. I wished it was a bit more challenging. You may find it plenty challenging at first, but this is more due to the game's learning curve. Once you figure stuff out, it actually becomes very easy. There are some parts in the game that are genuinely challenging, and in a good way. But too many other parts of the game that were way too easy. I recommend tweaking the difficulty level even on your first time through. It will be tough at first, but in retrospect makes it all worthwhile.
The story is one of my favorites in a sci-fi RPG game. It's pretty epic in proportion, yet very typical in some aspects. But throughout the game you have a clear understanding of what you're trying to do and with each mission, why. So paying attention to dialogue as well as reading the codex entries is pretty important to appreciating and understanding the game's story. And not just the overall story that drives your character, but the background story that shapes the game's universe and gives it depth. There is a lot of history between all the races in the game which includes several animosities, hatreds, debt. The political backdrop was really interesting for me. I found myself really sympathizing with other races (especially the Volus) who weren't on the Citadel council, while understanding everyone's wariness of humans. So even when I was having issues with gameplay, I was still enjoying the game overall because it felt like everything had a purpose. The sidequests are really fun too, in some ways more fun than the mainquests.
The mainquests themselves, or the overall campaign is somewhat short. But if you're taking the time to do all the sidequests in between, you'll still get plenty of gameplay out of it. Plus, when you play it a second time through, you can do it with a different character class and psych profile and even make different decisions in the game as it is very open ended and provides different outcomes of missions based on your decisions.
Mass Effect was a great sci-fi game. It had a really great story and I loved the gameplay (albeit they could've made it more challenging). And it wasn't even a first person shooter which was refreshing.
Mass Effect is fun, don't get me wrong, but I'm getting thoroughly sick of all of these sci-fi games lately. It seems like they can't manage to make a decent fantasy/medieval one (although I loved Oblivion, but that seems to be controversial.)
That's funny. Cause I feel like there aren't nearly enough sci-fi games out there. Most of them these days typically take place in the early 21st century though and are FPS.
There are several things I loved about the game. One was the character customization. It's not like you can be really super detailed when creating your character, but at least you get to see your character constantly interact with others in cutscenes, unlike Oblivion where you can take all the time creating a face for your guy and it really makes no difference cause they'll never say a word throughout the whole game. But in Mass Effect, it's just great watching the character you create go through the game in these great cinematics. And if you work hard enough at it, you really can create a fairly unique looking character. Mine was hot. I sort of fell in love with her. It's better to be a female in that game because the actor who does the voice for her does a way better job than the guy actor.
You also get to create a bit of a psych profile as well as identify your place of origin. For each of these categories, there is one out of three choices you can make. Depending on your choices, there will be different side quests available as well as different dialogue when people talk to or about you. I kind of wished they had done a bit more with this feature though and tried to include more ways of your character reflecting her psych profile and origins in the game. But it's interesting enough to play through more than once and try your char on a different type of profile.
Aesthetic wise, I thought the game was magnificent. At first I thought the armor looked kind of lame, but once you learn more about the technology and combat in the game, I justifies more why everything looks the way it does. I thought it did anyway. The graphics are rather stunning. The different locations on the game look great, although every planet is pretty much identical except for that they change the color of the terrain and make the sky look different. But places like the Citadel, Feros, Noveria, they look really amazing and it gets you more into the game. This is good I think because there isn't a lot of fast travel options in the game. Such as with the Citadel (the main hub of the galaxy) where you have to take a lot of elevators and corridors to get to certain locations. But at least you can admire the scenery while taking the long way to places. I also really like the look of the weapons and the style of the tech and biotic combat. I guess you could compare biotics to the force in terms of what you can do with them. But biotics has no great mystical background. It's more like implants in the body that works with the brain and muscles to enhance strength and agility while allowing the user to manipulate the mass effect fields that most technology in the game is based on.
I even liked the film grain option that you could turn on and off. I don't know what made them even think of this, but you can turn on this grainy filter over everything and it makes everything appear more like it is done on film. It's pretty neat.
The combat is okay. I wished it was a bit more challenging. You may find it plenty challenging at first, but this is more due to the game's learning curve. Once you figure stuff out, it actually becomes very easy. There are some parts in the game that are genuinely challenging, and in a good way. But too many other parts of the game that were way too easy. I recommend tweaking the difficulty level even on your first time through. It will be tough at first, but in retrospect makes it all worthwhile.
The story is one of my favorites in a sci-fi RPG game. It's pretty epic in proportion, yet very typical in some aspects. But throughout the game you have a clear understanding of what you're trying to do and with each mission, why. So paying attention to dialogue as well as reading the codex entries is pretty important to appreciating and understanding the game's story. And not just the overall story that drives your character, but the background story that shapes the game's universe and gives it depth. There is a lot of history between all the races in the game which includes several animosities, hatreds, debt. The political backdrop was really interesting for me. I found myself really sympathizing with other races (especially the Volus) who weren't on the Citadel council, while understanding everyone's wariness of humans. So even when I was having issues with gameplay, I was still enjoying the game overall because it felt like everything had a purpose. The sidequests are really fun too, in some ways more fun than the mainquests.
The mainquests themselves, or the overall campaign is somewhat short. But if you're taking the time to do all the sidequests in between, you'll still get plenty of gameplay out of it. Plus, when you play it a second time through, you can do it with a different character class and psych profile and even make different decisions in the game as it is very open ended and provides different outcomes of missions based on your decisions.
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq's Playthroughs
Siaynoq's Playthroughs