Nomin's Mass Effect Review
Bioware's next generation RPG is a grand space opera action romp with its requisite sweeping and epic plot and twists that will wrap your head around and suck you into their extensively constructed world full of wonder and wasted potential.
The premise of the game has been to meld action elements catering to the masses weaned on Halo with the RPG elements particular to Bioware and polish it until you get the sense that you're playing a Jack Bauer in space. For the most part, the aim of this potpourri project seems to meld these genres almost seamlessly, behind the sheen of its graphical sheen and polish; but the game ends up not doing justice to either of them.
Part of the problem is how Bioware opted to forego the normal conventions of RPG that tend to often be associated with obtuse nature of turn based combat or boring relics of D&D yesteryear. One of these 'features' to supposedly turn the RPG mechanics on its head is the 'conversation wheel', in which one chooses the general outline of what he or she wishes to convey in dialogues. It is at its best a spontaneous mimicry of how one's entire character reacts, both in words and posture, that adds to the cinematic flair to the often 'tiresome' dialogue scenes. It is a its worst an unnecessary veil that blocks one from truly being in control of the role of one's character in delivering lines that are meant to be delivered. The dialogue choices are laid bare unambiguously that conform to the 'good', 'neutral', and 'hostile' responses one could take but often the delivered lines are redundant, especially between the 'good' and 'neutral' lines, with the former activating some script's flags in romance subplot or one's Paragon rating.
The glossing over the traditional RPG mechanics continues in the 'good' and 'evil' dichotomy that any RPG is essentially beholden to and which is not as clear cut in Mass Effect. The rating that dictates this trait is represented in 'Paragon' and 'Renegade' scores that are not mutually exclusive and rise according to the responses chosen that delineate the good natured or the dastardliness of one's character. The ratings do not effect the plot so much as it gives you a lowdown how good or nasty you have been over the course of the game. They do not confer any privileges or alter any perception of your role in the Mass Effect world aside from a few acknowledgements.
In the equipment section, too, has the simplification of gameplay left some odd results. The damage rating affixed to each weapon is numerical, and since the roll of dice is thrown out of the game for more direct hitbox damage calculation, aside from that higher the number means more the damage, one is left wandering how it exactly translates to its firepower potential and lethality. This kind of abstract descriptions extend to the rest, including armor, modifications and upgrades, etc. The grenades, which is not free of the odd damage properties, deserve some special mention; there is simply no means of replenishing them aside from scourging for loot.
The game also leaves some to be desired in its plot and pacing as an ostensible RPG. The main plot flows well, but linearly and with no lasting consequences are expected from anything you encounter or matters that require your decision. What it does is that the game holds its 'surprise' or revelation cards rather closely. The resulting effect is that of grand and urgent space drama as one travels from star system to stars clusters in what amounts to an intragalactic chase strung over twenty hours or so. The effort to design the world around the plot deserves some appreciation aside from detecting heavy 'influences' from every other Sci-Fi fiction in universe (especially Starship Troopers). The wealth of information is almost all relegated to the 'Codex' section of encyclopedic articles, and not much of what it describes materialize in any real gameplay opportunities but makes for a light reading (or listening) in between those exhausting and intractable planet excursions.
The real gameplay flaw stems in the numerous planets or worlds where almost all of the side missions lie in wait, none of which are memorable and does not reflect good upon the game's overall design. The environment that one encounters on these various planets is one marked with extremely narrow diversity, not the least of which are recycled placeholder buildings and objects with exactly identical dimensions and atmosphere, with little variances here or there that feel more like half-hearted attempt to insult the attention span of the players than anything. When considering the fact that these missions occupy the bulk of gameplay content, a lot of Mass Effect are pure monotonous loitering in stupor rolling around in a vehicle called Mako that drives like a lungfish in mud sludge in monsoon season African savanna. If the universe is as boring and barren as Mass Effect makes it out to be, there would no need to boldly go further where no humans had gone aside from relishing in occasional UFO sightings.
The combat is one this game should absolutely excel at to compensate for the shortcomings in its RPG aspirations. The enemy does scale to your level, but the plot does limit progress in timely manner to prevent any level one character going up against supposed ultimate combat monstrosities. It is basically watered-down Unreal Tournament III with cover mechanic with light squad mechanic and no jumping. The game is purportedly set at a time where FTL drives can propel spaceships light years leapfrogging between star systems and 'adepts' act just like Star Wars Jedis, yet the characters cannot scale anything other than general inclined slopes or stairs. Looks like the ancient Protheans or any other species for that matter didn't get its technology advances priority straight, and neither does Mass Effect apparently.
BTW, Bioware, where the heck is our downloadable content?
