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Opposable Thumbs / Gaming & Entertainment

Game Review: Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

Mass Effect is an ambitious title with an unrivaled narrative experience, but …

Mass Effect is not the game of the year. I'm not quite sure what game deserves that designation but, unfortunately, BioWare's recently released epic just doesn't match the caliber of this year's other big releases. That said, go buy this game. Don't think about it; just buy it. There has never been  (and there likely won't be again until the game's sequel) a narrative experience so well-conceived, so well-constructed, so dense and diverse that you'll likely never experience everything it has to offer.

When it comes to a game presenting a fully-fleshed out world that exists before and after the player enters and exits, Mass Effect is in a class of its own. The Milky Way Galaxy as envisioned by Drew Karpyshyn and the rest of the writing team at BioWare is as expansive as its real-life counterpart, and just as full of mysteries.

Though the game's core story missions take you to, at most, five or six different planets in five or six different star systems, there are over a hundred different planets to encounter. While some will merely serve to give you background information about the system itself, there are quite a few that you can land on for side missions and even more that are just open planets beckoning to an explorer. Countless factions, artifacts, races, and stories collide to form an intricate tapestry of game lore woven right into the fabric of the experience; you won't need an outside source to dig deep behind the layers of the main story arc. An anthology's worth of text awaits for intrepid players who uncover the hidden notes strewn about the galaxy that fill out the game's encyclopedia.

Perhaps more amazing about this collection of raw, untamed information and the galaxy-sized number of quests to pursue and people to talk to is the fact that, aside from some of the codex entries, everything in the game is realized in fully-voiced conversations with some of the best voice acting in modern gaming. There are literally dozens of hours of conversation from a team of over a hundred different actors, including some big Hollywood names. And surprisingly, the "most lifelike digital actors" that the game employs avoid the uncanny valley thanks to some clever angles and unparalleled facial animation.

These encounters are driven by the phenomenal conversation engine. BioWare's games have always boasted intricate conversation trees that allow the user to make specific choices and create a personality for their character that impacts other elements of the game. However, Mass Effect features one of the most seamless and well integrated of them all. A radial menu with simple, short options that lead to long, well-written conversations makes for an immersive experience that is heightened by the game's excellent musical score. Play with the subtitles off and the sound up, and you'll find yourself in the midst of a cinematic masterpiece.

It's when you look past the near perfection of the narrative and the incredibly expansive universe provided to you that you'll realize there are many fundamental presentation and gameplay flaws that pull the game down. Throughout my 23 hour initial play-through of the title, I was constantly reminded of the fact that BioWare may have bit off more than it could chew; the company known for supreme polish and benchmark-setting performance has created a game with numerous, unavoidable problems. It's like I was promised a trip to the circus only to find that my parents had taken me to the dentist's office.

The most noticeable problem is the framerate, which has been an issue since the closed-door showings at E3 this year. Mass Effect suffers from some serious bouts of slow-down, and they occur with frustrating frequency. In any large area or any large gunfight, the team's implementation of the Unreal Engine comes grinding to an earth-shattering halt. At more than a few occasions, I actually thought the game was going to freeze. It's really that bad. Even the end-game credits stutter and struggle.

To make matters worse, the streaming loads and attempted transparency of the environmental caching is also poor. In an age where presentation is largely being improved by reducing the amount of archaic "game"-centric presentation cracks, Mass Effect feels dated. Though elevator rides largely mask bigger loads, you'll find the game freezing periodically with a static and immersion-shattering disc icon next to "loading game" that appears in the middle of the screen. 

There are other presentation foibles too, including some rather horrendous shadowing on facial models during the cinematic scenes that prove distracting.  All of this could have easily been overlooked were it not for the fact that even the core gameplay suffers from some fairly rudimentary problems. Simply put, towards the beginning of the game combat just isn't fun; it's a tough, arduous chore. It does get better later on, but it's hard to forget during the game's more active encounters. Whether this is a result of the encounter design or not is up for debate, but it's clear that the combat engine itself is flawed.

When I first saw Mass Effect, it sported a fairly complex tactical shooter engine that prioritized moving units around and commanding them individually over straight twitch gameplay. But BioWare was steadfast in describing the game as an RPG first. The end result is a dumbed-down system that suffers from some simple flaws. The command you have over your team is limited, and the A.I. makes even remedial battles challenging at times. The cover system also sucks; it's basically the same as the one used in Kane and Lynch, and we know how that turned out. The actual shooter engine is much more twitch-focused than you might think, and taking cover is paramount as your shields will be depleted quickly and your health will be gone faster. Even on normal, Mass Effect is a challenging game once you get into combat—especially in the game's unforgiving boss encounters.

The game's character development system also falters, even in comparison to BioWare's previous products. The Paragon and Renegade system used here makes sense logically, as it's less a sliding scale and more an individual measure of your personality. But going down one path or another doesn't unlock new abilities—it only affects the ultimate ending, the use of the charm and intimidate skills during conversation, and how people react to you in very select circumstances. In other words, it feels like there's no real development. The same holds for the game's skill selection, which feels limited. The typical class divide between casters and shooters exists but, given that all classes have to ultimately kill things with guns (there's no real offensively damaging biotics, the game's magic system), hybrid classes become the most playable.

Even simple interface problems are prevalent. Organizing inventory is next to impossible, and should you need to sell your worst items, you'll have to repeatedly scroll down the list with each successive sale. While there's a nice variety to the armor selection, weapons are all but identical aside from some simple stats. The general expansiveness of the game in general seems to have been suspended for the game's equipment.

I'm going to do something I rarely do and conclude with a personal message. I love Mass Effect; I'm a sucker for BioWare games, and this particular one won't leave my disc tray for very long over the next six months or so. Part of me loves this game to no end for providing such an immersive world, one that not only warrants multiple playthroughs but demands them. But part of me can't get over the many problems. I love it half the time; I hate it half the time.

Many people I've talked to regard this game with an unrealistic level of respect, and I feel the need to deflate that hype a bit. The game is unrivaled in so many capacities that the flaws are all the more apparent. Some have chosen to completely, perhaps irrationally, ignore these flaws. I still give a hearty recommendation that you buy this game, but you need to go in with the right mindset: Mass Effect is a flawed gem.

Verdict: Buy 
Price: $59.99
Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft
ESRB Rating: Mature
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