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Mass Effect

Role Playing Game
Releases: 11.20.07
Bioware
Microsoft Game Studios
ESRB: Mature

Mass Effect

You’re Commander Shepherd and the universe is your oyster.

by Sarah Schutz

I am befuddled by these negative reviews of Mass Effect. Ok, perhaps they are not negative (8.5/10 is by no means a poor showing), but I don’t think they appropriately grasp the epic nature and breakthrough agenda of the game as a whole. Sure, I understand that the game has plenty of flaws, but what there is to relish is so worth the fact that I sometimes get stuck in a glitch and can’t get out without crouching (and thank you to the gaming buddy who gave me that tip). I suppose before I get to my grandiose conclusion of Mass Effect’s greatness, I shall delve (briefly) into its many problems.

The first and most obvious problem is the lack of auto-save points. So, remember to manually save frequently or otherwise you will be stuck repeating long levels and even longer conversations. And if you’re anything like me, the epitome of a "completionist", this will mean that you have to redo every possible avenue of every previous conversation. Or when they do auto-save, you will find yourself stuck at a boss level with zero medi-gels and a squad that’s not doing the trick. (Yes, that was me. Yes, I should have been saving.) The second mega-flaw is the tedious side quests. Reference my previously stated “completionism” (as in I have to do absolutely everything possible in a game) and my frustrations will become clear. Some of these side quests are boring and repetitive: drive Mako (little space car/tank thing) around on desolate planet until you find something (anything) shoot a few guys, quest completed. And don’t even get me started on the Mako. While in theory it is a fun video game element, hopping (and I do mean hopping) around on desolate mountainsides in a difficult-to-navigate tank is just not good game design. And while fighting with the Mako can be fun once you get the hang of it, you can’t upgrade your guns, so at a certain point you are better off jumping out of the vehicle and shooting your enemies yourselves.

OK, my negative ranting is done and it’s on to the good stuff. Everything about the game is customizable, from the appearance of your character and his/her class to the personality your character develops throughout the game. (Mine was bald badass adept renegade.) Your class determines how your character will be able to level up throughout the game and what sorts of weapons, powers and armor she can use. While it does take awhile to get the gist of the combat system (especially without any sort of solid instruction), once you do it is incredibly satisfying because you can tweak your character’s experience, so you perform best at those weapons and skills you like to use. It doesn’t feel like such a leveling-up free-for-all that very often causes difficulties in later levels of RPGs.

The best part of the game is, by far, the storyline. In this game you are Commander Shepherd and in traditional RPG style, you are tasked with saving the futuristic world from its drastic end, but the way in which this archetypal RPG formula is accomplished is so much more intriguing. The plot is complex and the flexibility of gameplay offers many potential outcomes. While the side quest gameplay is limited, many of the side plots expand on the main plot and help you further understand Commander Shepherd as well as other characters. Some of the reviews of the game suggest that you aren’t connected to your character or to the plotline, yet I found the opposite to be true. The mere fact that nearly every step of the game forces a decision on you only further connects you to Commander Shepherd and her team. While some decisions are fairly benign or offer similar outcomes, others are morally based and can change entire sections of gameplay. I personally hope that this is the future of video games: games that wrap as up in their story as well comfortably as a good book and provide us with the ability to make decisions and the culpability when we fail because of those decisions. I will stop so as not to reveal anything, as every step of the game is a new discovery. Mass Effect has, however, brought us a new standard of video game, even if it couldn’t quite provide us with the perfectly polished version. It’s just worthy of a little more praise for accelerating video game evolution.

Brilliant storyline and remarkable interactivity

Mako sucks and the game is still a bit glitchy

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