VideoGame Legendary Edition: The Polish Helps, but the Gameplay is Still Flawed
From a story perspective, Mass Effect is great. It has a few kinks and some Early-Installment Weirdness, but for the most part it holds up. The main storyline is great, filled with exciting ideas, heartbreaking losses, and memorable characters that would go onto define the franchise and help cement Bio Ware's reputation as the king of companion characters in Western RP Gs. The thing is, pretty much everyone already knows that this story is great. That's not what tripped people up with this one. No, what tripped people up was how it felt to actually play the game. And in this regard, the Legendary Edition did make a number of improvements, though it couldn't fix everything.
For those who are unaware, the Legendary Edition is a remastered compilation of the Mass Effect trilogy for Eighth Generation Consoles and PC. It upgraded the graphics to 4K and made some changes to the gameplay, the most major ones being reserved for this entry. It also included almost every piece of DLC for the original trilogy on installation, so if you never bought any of it there is a good reason to try the LE. The only missing piece was actually from ME 1, the Pinnacle Station DLC. The code was lost due to a storage accident, and unfortunately hasn't been recovered. Honestly, if we were to lose any ME DLC, that was probably the best one. Pinnacle Station was mostly just a combat simulator with the bare minimum of a plot and no impact on the greater story. It's not terrible, but it is inconsequential and bland.
Back to the main game, the LE made a number of updates. One of the most obvious is the rearrangement of the HUD to mirror the later games. That part is fine and does the series some good. There's also an updated leveling system that reduces the level cap from 60 to 30, but compensates for this by doubling the skill points you receive from leveling up and increasing the XP thresholds. There's also the option to use the original leveling system if you prefer. I've run both, and personally I don't see much difference either way. Neither one is particularly easier or harder, and the general combat is unaffected.
Inventory management is slightly improved in this version, although it's still not great. There's an expanded max capacity and the ability to tag items as junk to sell or trash all at once, but in practice it means spending only slightly less time junking the piles of items you'll never use. It's not that you'll never find anything useful out in the world, it's just that you'll find so many things that you can't examine until after you've picked them up that the whole thing feels pointless.
The Mako tank also gets some updates. The HUD is changed to more closely resemble the on-foot segments, the speed and weight are a bit more controllable now, and there's a short boost option in addition to the jump jets. You can also see a marker on maps with a thresher maw now too, so if you prefer to avoid them you no longer have to worry about being surprised. Driving the Mako is definitely a smoother experience now, at least in theory.
But here's where we get to the game's biggest returning flaw, and that is the environment/level design. The segments for the main story feel crafted to fit the tone and story of their levels, but the side missions aren't. The planets you explore in the Mako are still the same randomly generated nonsense they were last time. They feel dull to explore at best, and tedious or frustrating at worst. The building and ship interiors all use the same floor plans with some minor variations in where obstacles are placed for you to walk around. I understand the in-universe justifications for this, but it's still mind-numbing after a while. It doesn't help that most missions boil down to either fetching an item, killing all the bad guys, fetching an item after killing all the bad guys, or if you're really lucky, talking down someone after killing all the bad guys. Variety is not this game's forte.
The combat at least is as functional as ever. Very little has changed from the original during the actual firefights. They can be pretty chaotic during the sidequests depending on the environmental obstacles, especially since the enemies in this game love to move around. Pausing to use the power wheel is often very helpful, and on higher difficulties you'll absolutely need crowd control abilities in your squad. Combat's not great, but it does its job and is rarely a bad experience.
Overall, I would say that the LE is the best way currently to experience ME 1. It improves on some of the base game's flaws but maintains the story and characters that we've come to know and love. The added polish is appreciated, especially since they didn't have to make as many changes as they did. The team at Bio Ware wanted to make sure that this game got some TLC before being released, and I appreciate that. It's still flawed, but it is better. The primary highlight remains its story, characters, and the rich world that was built here. If any of that interests you, I heartily recommend this.
VideoGame Legendary Edition: Ten hours of fantastic space-opera and twenty hours of open-world garbage.
Mass Effect 1 is not an easy game to get into. It's one of those awkward seventh-gen titles where the developer throws stuff at the wall to see what sticks. So some parts feel bare-bones and other systems seem pointless, but there is a strong narrative that makes it worth visiting.
GOOD: The story and world has it all: a vast universe full of distinct alien races, a memorable villain, a cast of cool allies, a series of interesting reveals, and towards the end some very hard and heavy choices. The music is excellent too.
MIXED: The combat is functional, but unbalanced. It is possible to gun down two-dozen robots without a scratch, only to be killed by a rocket you didn't see coming.
The RPG mechanics are half-baked. There's a lot of numbers and a lot of items, but little polish. It's telling that the sequel could eject 90% of this busy-work and lose nothing.
BAD: Pretty much everything outside the storyline planets is unmitigated crap. There's over 30 square-miles of barren scenery littered with the same four interior maps. Little voice-acting, a reliance on text-boxes, and no unique assets. This side-content is such a jarring contrast with the main content that it would have been better if it were scaled down or removed completely.
CONCLUSION: I recommend playing the Legendary edition which smooths some of the original game's faults like the UI. If you are not a completionist but do want to play the trilogy then I suggest sticking solely to the story-relevant locales and skipping the sandbox crap. The main campaign of Mass Effect 1 is space-opera at it's finest and something worth witnessing by any player who wants a compelling, memorable story.
VideoGame now this is a story all about how my Mako got flipped-turned upside down
THE GOOD: Driving the Mako was...an experience. A Bethesda experience. I hit a low wall and the Mako flipped and spun like a glitchy Bethesda game object. But this wasn't a glitch, it was intended as part of the game. I am amused. 10/10 driving experience.
THE BAD: I think I skipped 75% of the game content because the side quests were boring. Much as I love driving the Mako, I'm not going to do it just to dig through a pile of rocks on some empty planet at the ass end of nowhere. Much as I liked reading about the details OF the various planets, landing on them was a waste of time.
VideoGame Would've been fine, had it not been for a few things
Good things about Mass Effect; On the surface, it's a story about underdog humanity trying to make a place for itself in a space dominated by alien species. Humanity is new, and is seen as an outsider moving up the ladder far too fast. *SPOILER WARNING* This of course later on becomes a plot point when you get arrested and wind up having to save the very galaxy whose governing body essentially did to you what they did to the Krogan - uplift, then knock down.
Bad:
Start digging a little deeper, and the game world begins to warp. Some of this is due to the gameplay changes between ME 1 and 2, such as the addition of thermal clips. When you consider the reason for moving to thermal chips was because research showed that the one who could put the most rounds downrange faster, won, was something they got from the Geth, you have wonder exactly what kind of thought process they're using here. Consider this - the Geth, being machines, can perform repetitious tasks with far greater precision and speed than an "organic", and as such, can swap out thermal clips from their weapons much faster than any organic.
The other issue is that the whole reason for the Reapers seem to be born from another debate regarding how artificial intelligence and bio-organisms exist, co-exist or don't. It gets even more convoluted when you consider the original reason for the Reapers' existence was because a species of gigantic organisms (Leviathan) tried to find a way to stop the civilizations that paid them tribute from destroying themselves all the time by creating an AI to figure out the answer. The AI's answer is to eliminate all live past a certain point of technology every fifty thousand years. And, the reason these faces kept killing themselves was because they kept developing "synthetics".
See the irony? The game revolves around a superior race trying to stop lesser races from annihilating themselves through the creation of artificial intelligence and life forms, by creating an artificial intelligence to figure out the answer.
If you're looking for gameplay and character development, great. If you're looking for anything deeper than that, the game fails the mark. Badly.
VideoGame Lots of potential, but unrefined.
Finally got around to picking up the Mass Effect trilogy and am playing through all three games. Just finished the first one and thought I'd leave my thoughts.
Basically, what it comes down to is that there are a lot of brilliant concepts at work here, and the world building and characterization are both extremely strong, but the technical implementation of those ideas is... I guess you could call it clunky. It's not bad, but it feels like the game makers put all the effort into the story and setting, but only made the gameplay adequate. Here's a breakdown of the merits and flaws:
The Good:
- The characters are all very interesting and well rounded. In a lot of games the talky segments are boring filler between explosions, but here the conversations with the characters are just as interesting as the action sections. It lets the player feel like they're interacting with the characters rather than just watching things happen.
- The worldbuilding is great; Bioware put a lot of effort into creating a cohesive universe and it really shows. There are lots of interesting little things happening in the background that make the world feel alive. It feels like there's an actual world here.
The average:
- The general gameplay is thoroughly middle-of-the-road. It's not bad, but it's nothing to write home about either. It serves its purpose; no more, no less.
The not-so-good:
- The inventory and equipment systems are a pain; you have to scroll through everything to get anywhere, and it gets clogged with unneeded items really easily if you aren't constantly getting rid of stuff.
- The sidequests get really repetitive. The planets you land on are all very same-y; they don't have any real distinguishing features and they almost feel randomly generated. Almost all the sidequest buildings are one of three designs, which gets a bit old after a while.
Overall, it's a good game and worth playing. There's tons of potential for awesomeness, but the practical execution is a bit lackluster. It's fun, but the mechanics needed a bit more polish. Hopefully Mass Effect 2 will clear up some of those issues.
VideoGame Mass Effect, Replayed
This review is coming from a replay of Mass Effect, after having finished Mass Effect 2 and 3; I haven't played Mass Effect in almost two years now.
Mass Effect is easily my favorite of the three, considering all elements. It isn't perfect, by far, but it's an extremely well-crafted game.
Bad: The driving sections are tedious and sometimes bland, which detracts from the wonderment of exploring previously uncharted planets. They're all fairly similar, too: a scattering of rare elements, some crashed wreckage, the occasional pirate base and Thresher Maw. The inventory system is too convoluted for its own good, and comparing/upgrading items quickly gets to be an annoyance. After a certain point fairly early in the game, 95% of loot is relegated to Vendor Trash. The Spectre weapons, which once unlocked are available to every subsequent playthrough, are game-breakingly powerful (YMMV on this, though; it is quite fun to use them and they are invaluable on higher difficulties). Achievement-hunters will require no less than three COMPLETE playthroughs to unlock everything, which is 75-100 hours of gameplay. Most notably, the side quest locations are all cut-and-paste, with next to no distinguishing features.
Good: The atmosphere is brilliant. The settings are beautifully designed, and the lore is mapped out in excruciating detail via the Codex. The game really gives a sense of wonder and majesty to the galaxy, yet effectively plays with the dark hints of past mysteries. The story is brilliantly executed, giving just enough details to draw the player in before dropping some serious plot twist bombs near the climax. The combat is very enjoyable, despite not being as refined as the later titles. Compared to later titles, the class variance, strengths/weaknesses, and tactics are a lot more obvious due to the number of skill trees available. Enemies use a wider range of powers and weapons, which allows the unique talents to really shine. The Paragon/Renegade system is a nice spin on the morality engine, which allows role players to infuse personal emotions and preferences into the game without being shoehorned into a good/evil dichotomy.
Mass Effect is a great reboot for the Space Opera genre, and a very fun and engrossing game.
VideoGame An excellent Action RPG
Mass Effect manages to combine the action of a shooter with the depth and customization of an RPG while largely avoiding most of the shortcomings of both genres.
Combat is fast-paced, yet also incorporates tactical elements, as different classes will have different weapons and skills, and it is possible to pause the game to use powers or issue orders to your squadmates. Upgrading your gear and abilities accommodates many different builds and play styles.
The world is a standard science fiction society in which humanity is a new arrival to galactic politics, but it is executed quite well. The party members have diverse personalities and values, which are nicely reflected in their conversations. Even the minor characters have compelling stories, such as the conflict between a man who wants to bury his wife's body and a scientist who wants to study it.
The morality system is an interesting twist in that it is not necessarily a choice between good or evil, but often a matter of approaches to problems, such as between gentle persuasion and harsh intimidation. Not only are the decisions less black-and-white than in many games, but in many cases, Paragon and Renegade options can be used to achieve the same goal through different means.
Unfortunately, the dialogue system is considerably more simplistic than many other RP Gs with a Dialogue Tree. In most conversations, only three options move it forward, past choices rarely steer the conversation in a different direction if they do not end it prematurely, and “investigate” rarely yields any concrete benefits.
Unlike other CRP Gs, while there are many moral decisions, there are relatively few choices that impact how you will go about doing the quest (such as fighting your way through or sneaking around enemies), which limits replay value and the impact your class and build have on gameplay.
Some of the side quests can be fairly tedious, such as searching the galaxy for resources. Thankfully, they are not required to advance the story, although it is not admirable for a game to have many parts players would prefer to skip, even if they can choose to do so. The vehicle segments are also often boring in the parts that involve searching planets, although vehicle combat is decent as a mini-game.
Despite these flaws, Mass Effect is an enjoyable game and a good start to the series.
VideoGame Decent, but at times overwhelming
>Has completed one playthrough
Mass Effect is, in a word, enormous. You are Commander Shepard, a space marine with a customizable gender, appearance, class, backstory(?), and personality. There are six classes, three backstories, and three personalities. And that's not even getting into the huge amount of power and equipment management.
The story is as described by the page, and it's fairly decent. I only have two problems with it: For most of the game, we don't see any evidence of Saren's wrongdoings, and there's also no choice to look for the genophage cure on Virmire. Other than that, the game is about its characters, and of the six teammates you get (each representing a class), I only found two to be dull, and even then, the sequel changed my opinion of one of them. The game also has plenty of interesting irrelevant information for pure World Building, though it can help you understand the motivations of some characters or races.
Gameplay doesn't fare so well, though it is still alright. There are three ways to fight: using biotics (magic), technical abilities, or straight up weaponry, and which class you choose affects how you'll fight. Biotics and tech are accessed through a "power wheel", which pauses the game and allows you to target, though after using an ability, you must wait for it to recharge. Your guns have unlimited ammo, though they can overheat if you don't pay attention. This part of the game is fine.
The game goes wrong when you try to select something. The amount of gun and armor types there are is enormous, and you'll be picking up plenty. This is exacerbated when you factor in upgrades for your guns and armor, along with tech and biotic amplifiers. You have a 150 item limit with little means of sorting, which is especially bad in the sell screen.
Sidequests are also generally bad. They almost always involve using a poorly controlled vehicle over an enormous and mostly barren landscape, going into a building you've seen a dozen times over, shooting everything there, and finding something inside. The ones that don't are fun.
The graphics are great when they aren't the boring landscapes, but the music is atmospheric (read: dull).
Mass Effect is ultimately a great game in the main story if you can get around all the micromanagement. Just remember that all the sidequests are optional.
VideoGame Great game, but tedious.
Mass Effect 1 created a very detailed and intricate world, although you only get to explore a small part of it. It tries to lean on the harder side of science fiction, using only one Phlebotinum (the titular Mass Effect) to explain FTL space travel, telekinetic powers, AND a major plot twist/reveal. The character options, dialogue options, and decisions you get to make in the game point to a lot of work in the story, even though a few of the characters are pretty flat.
Unfortunately, I don't think anyone did any long-term playtesting. This game is great for the first few hours, and you'll be amazed with the exploration and combat for those hours. But it probably takes at least 15 hours if you're going to really explore and do all the sidequests, and that's where it gets tedious. The inventory system is fine if you only have a few weapons, but towards the end of the game you start picking up a lot of stuff- and turning them to omni-gel is tedious. Then comes the "exploration" of planets- and the Mako is a very annoying vehicle to pilot, and the terrain usually doesn't help. Lastly, the side-quests are usually about the same- run in, gun things down and/or talk a bit. There's plenty of these but none of them are memorable- really just nothing more but places to grind a little extra EXP and money. Oh, and the elevators. Ugh. The elevators.
That said, the core storyline is pretty compelling. It avoids the Planet Of Hats for most races, and the universe has a lot of detail and backstory for those who enjoy that kind of thing. Combat is interesting- it's quite different from most action games, because although it's technically a shooter, you can pick classes that barely use guns at all. The "overheat" system prevents the frantic spray-bullets-till-the-room-is-clear without making you scrounge for ammo, and makes you use your tech/biotic skills more often. Overall, a very enjoyable game.
VideoGame That Rarest of All Creatures...
A game that demonstrates both what to do and what not to do.
Mass Effect is a Role Playing Game, and the role-playing part is excellent. Every conversation gives you the chance to choose a response (even if they're all variations on "Yeah, so?" or "But I Must!"), and shaping Shepard's every social decision gets The Player really invested in their character. The reduction of answer options to sound-bytes instead of full responses was inspired. And the fact that your decisions actually matter, and present you with new dialogue options later that shape the course of the plot, just seals the deal. This isn't just a story you can experience twice, it's one you want to.
The problem is, Mass Effect is a Role Playing Game, and the game half of it is pretty bad. Name a feature of gameplay, and it's poorly executed. Shooting is as easy as it always is on the PC (X360 players may have a different experience), but controlling your character's movements is sometimes haphazard, especially when running afoul of the context-sensitive cover system. Driving physics are atrocious, without even the benefit of a Hand Wave—which is egregious considering that the game's Applied Phlebotinum, "element zero," could easily provide an explanation for why your APC can drive up 60-degree walls. And the Class And Level System is a waste of Tech Points. Sure, you get a talent tree, but each branch only gives you one skill, with additional points just making it stronger. Why not just have static growth, as in the old Final Fantasy games, and have spells unlock at level-up? It'd almost be no different.
Mass Effect, to me, exemplifies a problem with hybrid games. Its creators set out to make a game that's half action and half RPG... but only had time to make half an action game, resulting in a shoddy Halo or Gears Of War clone with an epic Space Opera plot. The resulting game is not a jack of all trades, it's multi-incompetent. Mass Effect gets along on the strength of its dialogue and worldbuilding—and, to be sure, those features are so good that they elevate the finished product to something approaching true greatness—but take the lesson here. A proper hybrid game has to be two fully-featured games mated together.
VideoGame A Brilliant Experience With a Few Flaws
Mass Effect enjoys being a space opera. From the well-developed characters to the intriguing story, everything shows how much work went into the game, ultimately creating an incredible RPG.
The area that stands out above everything else is the world BioWare has constructed. It's absolutely staggering how much work went into it, especially the Codex.You can learn about how some turians are becoming Confucians. You can learn about krogan biology. You can learn about the Normandy's stealth drive, and why it's not more common. You can learn about why humans are such a big deal on the galactic stage. The world has been suitably polished, and then the polish has been polished. The game also adheres mostly to real-world physics, even in the stuff it makes up, giving it more depth.
The characters are all pretty well-written. They feel real, and the aliens in your crew all give unique insights into their culture. For example, Blood Knight Wrex talks mostly about fighting, and decades of seeing his species ignore the genetic disease that's slowly killing them off has turned him very cynical. Even characters that only appear in a single quest are done well; I usually don't cry during movies or games, but in the "I Remember Me" quest, Talitha's lines had me sobbing in minutes. The characters help move the story along, which starts out a bit cliché, but quickly heads in unique directions, as does each planet's sub-plot.
That said, the game does have some low points. The Mako is a bit of a mixed bag: it's fun to drive along a route in a story mission and blast all your enemies away, somewhat entertaining to explore a small, not-too-steep area of a planet, and downright tedious and annoying to climb mountains. Unfortunately, mountains take up about sixty percent of non-quest planets. The ability to take cover at any wall also has its ups and downs: you can hide behind an arch that the developers didn't think of, but running straight up to a chest-high wall won't let you go into cover; you have to crouch first. It's not too much of a problem, but it might mess you up in a firefight. Combat is decent, and livened up by biotics, but is not as refined as it could be.
With its unique world, entertaining characters, and excellent story, Mass Effect is an experience that should not be missed.
VideoGame Cliche Storm at its Finest
Mass Effect, for those of you who don't know is a choice-centered RPG, akin to... well, most of Bio Ware's other RP Gs. The game entices you with an '80s-style space epic, and pulls you in and never lets go. This says a lot for Bio Ware's storytelling.
The characters in ME 1 are interesting. Though, a few of them fell a bit flat for me. (Tali, most notably. She was basically a walking codex entry. I was pleased when she became fleshed out in ME 2.) However, there are such gems as Wrex, an idealistic krogan merc, who laments the sad fate of his species. Garrus, basically Space!Bat Man, he quits C-Sec because of all the red tape (Sidenote: I've never heard the term "red tape" used more than when playing Mass Effect) and joins Shepard's noble cause.
Speaking of Shepard, the character customization of this game is pretty good. Not the best in the business, but passable. You get to choose your background, face (Though, for some reason, a lot of people choose not to.) and class. With the option of bonus talents unlocked from achievements.
Now onto the gameplay. ME 1's combat is pretty bare-bones. The power system is much more in-depth than it's successor, the RPG system is more fun to manage, and the overheating system is more fun to use than the thermal clip system (Why doesn't my gun eventually cool off in ME 2, anyway? SENSE. THIS DOES NOT MAKE IT.) but the actual shooter mechanics leave much to be desired. The inventory is horrible, the squadmate "AI" is about as intelligent as a toddler, and most of the sidequest worlds are made up entirely of steep mountains. Despite this, the game has managed to keep my attention four years after I bought it. So it's obviously doing something right.
VideoGame DLC: Bring Down the Sky Mini-review
I'll be doing DLC reviews for the whole trilogy, generally condensing them into one review for the game they appeared in. The only exception is Pinnacle Station, which I pretty much said all I needed to back in my base review. Anyway, let's dive into this.
The sole piece of ME 1 DLC on the Legendary Edition, Bring Down the Sky is alright. It was the first time we got to actually see the Batarians after hearing about them as background boogeymen for the Alliance. Gameplaywise they're the same as any other generic enemy, but storywise they do bring something interesting to the table. The basics of their backstory is that they achieved space travel some time before the humans did, and had been trying to settle a region called the Skyllian Verge. Then humanity discovered the mass relays and began setting up their own colonies in the Verge. The batarians didn't like that, but the Council said the humans could stay. The batarians responded by withdrawing from the Citadel and funding several terrorist and pirate groups to attack the human settlements.
This mission involves one such terrorist group hijacking a large asteroid to crash into a human colony and wipe out all life there. As a terrorist plot goes it's certainly effective, although it won't do Batarian colonization efforts any good. But the leader of the terrorists, Balak, is such a zealot that he clearly has lost sight of the point of all this. There's a brief moment where his second-in-command can recognize this and offer to take some of the batarians and leave. You have the choice of either letting him do so or killing them for the XP- I mean, for being slavers and terrorists. The other major moral choice comes at the end when you can either let Balak escape to save some hostages he stuck to a bomb, or let the hostages die in order to kill Balak here and now. It's an interesting dilemma, as Balak is clearly going to kill more people if you let him go, but is sacrificing these people who need help here and now worth the potential lives lost later? That's a tough quandary.
Those are the highlights of this DLC, but I should note that they don't really factor in until the end. Mostly you're just battling through three of the same generic buildings you'd fight through in sidequests and shutting down the rockets moving the asteroid. If you're looking for some variety in gameplay you won't find it here. The story is neat, but feels largely disconnected from the main game, and only mildly impacts the other two. It's worth a playthrough, but I wouldn't call this one of ME's best offerings.