Mass Effect Throwback
Mass Effect Throwback Review
Mass Effect. What else can be said about a game that is already so highly thought of. A game where almost everything has been talked about and or said. Mass Effect is the first game in the Mass Effect series and the first game in the original Mass Effect series. You play as Commander Shepard, a human part of the Systems Alliance N7, what does that equate to? The galaxy special forces baby. At the start of the game you are given the choice to decide Commander Shepard's background. Where he or she grew up, military background, and prior service. You then get to choose what your Shepard looks like. Hair, face, eyes. All the basic RPG character design options are there, however the options are rather limited here, I felt like my male Shepard always looked almost the same no matter what I picked. After you've made your character you are thrown into your first mission on Eden Prime.
Of course things go wrong on Eden Prime. Here we get our first taste of combat and the BioWare storytelling we've come to know. You get to chose your dialogue options and the way your character reacts to NPC statements. With each character fully voiced and modeled you get to see an interaction between your Shepard and whoever you are talking to. The options are limited to a wheel and I always felt like the option I wanted to pick was there, the option me as a person would've chosen. However, you don't always get to see a deep interaction. The conversations I had with NPCs and members of my party didn't go too deep. You get to learn about each person and a little bit of their history, how they feel about certain situations and such, but it never has a serious affect on how the character perceives you. You can say and do some nasty things, but if they are a permanent member of your ship or party they won't leave you or behave differently. You get your renegade or paragon points to align your Commander, much like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic's dark side/light side alignment, but it won't really change much. I played as a soldier class, the most basic character you can choose. You can choose to play as other classes, some skilled in electronics, biotics (magic) etc. as you go on you get to level your character with new abilities and skills, however it doesn't feel like you make an impact on how powerful you become. I found myself depending on new weapons I found, while pumping XP points into health and armor, while auto leveling up my party members. You can't make a right or wrong choice when it comes to leveling up your character.
The combat in Mass Effect is functional at best. You get a few basic abilities from the start, depending on what class you chose when creating your character. When it comes to shooting weapons the enemies take a lot of bullets and weapons overheat quickly. Later on you can level up your character to be more proficient in certain weapon classes and upgrade weapons to reduce overheating and make them more accurate but it still feels sloppy. The sound during these encounters is rather nice, with biotic abilities going off futuristic weapons being shot around you, you get a sense that these battles mean something, the sound plays a part in making it feel tense. There is also a cover mechanic in the game, where you can walk toward a wall and just snap behind it, but it doesn't change anything about the combat. You can pop out and shoot, but cover is pretty much useless in this game.
The reason this game is great though isn't the combat. It's the story, and the world that BioWare creates. As Commander Shepard you are given the job of taking down Saren. A Turian Spectre gone rouge after Eden Prime. After coming in contact with an ancient beacon Shepard has a vision of the Reapers and Protheans. From then on your main quest is to take down Saren and along the way find out what your vision means. Who are the Protheans and what happened to the extinct race?
After you are given Spectre status you are free to roam the galaxy and find Saren. Throughout your travels you will come across different alien species, planets, creatures, and technology which will have a codex entry you can listen to or read to tell you a bit of info about it. Each planet you reach will have flavor text and a different characteristic to it. It's size, temperature, etc. will be listed for you to see. It really makes the galaxy you are in feel alive and full of exploration. You are learning about everything and it makes you feel invested in the world they so carefully and passionately created. Every environment you come across feels new, the buildings and structures you enter feel relative to their size and have space to explore, however you won't find too many secrets or hidden areas. It's rather cut and dry where you can and cannot go. It is nice these areas are closed off because it keeps you on the path you need to be on in an already expansive world. Even looking at a map of the galaxy while the gentle music, with its twinkling notes and trance like beats, leaves you with a sense of wonder makes you feel like anything is possible.
Traversing these worlds though can be a pain. You are given a Mako on some worlds to drive around on. The Mako is a 6 wheeled vehicle with a machine gun, cannon and, thrusters to sort of jump on the planet surfaces. Driving this tank is a task. The camera is independent from the controls so going where you want to go is confusing and sometimes a chore, especially on bumpy surfaces. On the planet surfaces you will encounter enemies or different debris to collect. It's not much in variety, including the mini-game you play to collect or hack things. It's a sort of Frogger mini-game where you try to get to the center, while dodging red squares around a rotating circle. It's pretty much the same whether you are hacking or surveying minerals. It's on these planet surfaces where you can find side quests, which are either collectible missions or one-off side missions where you might rescue someone. They don't side track you too much which is very welcoming for side missions which, in other games, can sometimes take longer than you would like to complete.
Mass Effect is a well made game. This game still looks great 10 years after it came out. I played it on PC with Ultra-High graphics turned on. The frame rate held up for the most part with only a few drops either coming in or out of a cut scene. Even when there were multiple enemies on screen with particles and explosions going on the game never seemed to chug or slow down. The controls are pretty intuitive and are easy to get a grasp on. Controller support would've been a welcome sight in this game. I played this game on Steam with mouse and keyboard, which works but it was definitely built for controllers. On Steam the overlay and chat windows do not work. It is an EA game on Steam, which is also a rare sight to see. I played Mass Effect when it came out on Xbox 360 back in 2007. At first glimpse I didn't think much of it, but when I rented it for the first time, it was a game that literally made me rethink games. The storytelling, design, and world building BioWare put into this game made it one of my favorite games. It's not a game without it's faults, it definitely has those. But this is a game where you feel like your Shepard is important, without you, the entire galaxy could be flipped on it's head. It's a game where it makes the player feel like they have a purpose. Even though some of the interactions with NPCs fall flat and feel like no matter what you chose the outcome will be the same, they still make you feel like humanities last hope.
This game still holds a special place in my gaming history and in all video game history. Being the bookend of a trilogy and continuing story arc, Mass Effect does a great job as a launching point. It's a game that most people will appreciate and enjoy. I will always enjoy Mass Effect, I just hope that reporter I punched doesn't come back to haunt me.
