REVIEW: Mass Effect

Developer: BioWare | Publisher: Microsoft | For: Xbox 360

Reviewer: Cian Ginty
Mass Effect, a science fiction action-RPG, has been one of the Xbox
360’s most anticipated titles, but it’s hard to distinguish fact
from hype.

BioWare, better known recently for Star Wars: Knights of the Old
Republic, wanted to move away from the Star Wars universe and create
their own world, but you just can’t help feeling the loss of a lightsaber.

While there is an earth, and you are human, the game centres around
a galactic alliance with a rogue agent who brakes off to join with an
army of machines with artificial intelligence (sound familiar?). Humans
have yet to prove themselves and as the galaxy is plunged into war you
are made fix it.

The combat system has been tweaked and is more like a team-based
third person shooter then the average role-playing game. Some of the
miserable camera angles in the Old Republic are also avoided.

However, make no mistake the game is story based. For those of you
who aren’t familiar with RPGs that means lots of talking between
shooting.

Both the characters that join your team and those that you meet
along your mission – from the cynical, to the
straightforward soldiers, from the diplomats to the desperate
colonists – all add to game. Detailed facial graphics and first-rate voice acting help
this experience.

One graphics let down we noticed was text appearing unreadable
without sitting up out of comfort. This broke the flow of gameplay – it feels as if it is caused by too many developers presuming everybody now has HD TVs.   

The developers are – for the most part –
successful in creating a rich universe and story of their own, but
elements feels stretched at times leaving this writer feeing that it
could have been so much better. It’s still a must for anybody who’s a
fan of the genre.