Mass Effect

[LOOON]

Played it and beat it. It's decent, but not great.

As far as Sci-Fi RPG's go, it don't even come close to KOTOR 1 & 2.

Great visuals though. Damn great graphics.

[The Green Guy]

I'm playing it, I haven't played it much (4-5hrs). I don't think the graphics are that great from what I've seen. I had to turn off the film grain effect and motion blur because I didn't care for it. Its a game with very deep dialog thats for sure. So far so good, I look forward to doing lots of side quests and taking my time with the game. You beat it in no time at all, did you rush through the story mode or take your time and enjoy it. Taking time to explore and enjoy things like when playing through KOTOR is what makes this game more fun.

I'm curious why you used the word decent and not good. I can understand that a game may not be great, but it should at least be good right? I mean I would call Blue Dragon decent, but I would definately call this game good at least. I reserve the word decent for things that are barely acceptable. If I was playing something I thought was decent I probably wouldn't even put the time in to beat it. Just my two cents on that one.

I still haven't played an RPG that I've enjoyed as much as the ones I played during the 16-bit era. (Although Final Fantasy X was awesome!) I'm playing through Phantasy Star IV right now, its pretty good. I never played any RPG's on the Sega Genesis before this one.

[LOOON]

How about "good, but not great".

[Wobbly Goblin]

Originally Posted by The Green Guy

I'm curious why you used the word decent and not good.

Hum...the LOOON that I know would have said "This Fucking Game Sucks!!!" if it was only decent.

Armed with that knowledge, I figured he thought it was a pretty good. Apparently I was right.

[danielOut]

I love Mass Effect. Right now I'm trying to get through all the side-quests before finishing up the main story, and I've put a good 30 hours of gameplay in to it. Also, the depth of the story, along with the wonderfully written dialog and character modeling, really keeps me entertained while I'm playing.

It does suffer from some technical problems, however. The AI is really terrible, running randomly from cover to cover or just attempted to swarm you and kill you from point blank range (even the snipers!). Also, in the cut scenes you will sometimes experience the "texture-pop" that plagued Halo2. Long and frequent loading times mean you'll want a snack or something nearby while playing, but for the beautiful character models and textures, it is worth it.

The cookie-cutter combat spaces can be kind of obnoxious (who knew every space ship in the future would have the exact same interior layout?!) and detract from the realism, along with the brightly painted weaponry. I mean, nothing says "Hey, look at me!" like a bright red assault rifle.

That being said, the weapon models are awesome. The animations when you swap weapons is also really neat. It was a great idea to have the weapons use a "compact" mode when stored, and then expand to their full size when used. Of course, the fact that all the races store their guns in the exact same pattern (armor designers must apparently follow very rigid industry standards in the future as well) is a little odd, but easily overlooked.

The depth to which the universe, the technology, and the various races are fleshed out and explained is very interesting. If you don't talk to all the members of your party frequently between missions, and explore all the dialog options, you're really missing out on how deep this game can be.

In my opinion, this game beats the KOTOR series (to use a previous comparison) hands down. The characters are much more likable, the story less cliched, and it manages to feel fresh and new, which is really surprising in a sci-fi game today. And I don't find myself trying to rush through overdone dialogs as fast as I can.

If you expect Halo or COD4 level of perfection out of the FPS aspects, prepare to be let down. However, for being a hybrid-genre game it really shines. If the combat was more like what they did in Shadowrun, it would be Game of the Year in my book. However, the tech problems and the sometimes-clunky combat are going to put Mass Effect somewhere in the top5, but not number one. If you haven't picked up Assassin's Creed or COD4, then those should be first, but if you are looking for another single-player game that will consume a lot of your time with a wonderful story, get Mass Effect.

4.5/5

[The Green Guy]

Originally Posted by LOOON

Played it and beat it. It's decent, but not great.

Okay, I agree with ya now Looon. It's decent, but not great.

I don't know why so many games journalists think this game is so awesome. I don't even have any desire to step back in another slow ass elevator as long as I live! For some reason this game pisses me off on so many levels now because I have a better understanding of how good this game could have been, but instead its cookie cutter cut screens and some of the worst texture pop up I've ever seen. I don't think the story is that great either, I mean if this was modern times it would be like watching CNN: so and so goes to the UN, he gets permission to investigate, he ends up killing a bunch of people, yada yada yada. I'm putting this thing up on ebay asap. I'm 6-7hours and have no desire to put up with the games flaws anymore. It's decent, it is playable, but my time is too valuable.

[LOOON]

Originally Posted by The Green Guy

Okay, I agree with ya now Looon. It's decent, but not great.

I recently started playing Oblivion. Mass effect isn't 1/10 of what Oblivion is.

[The Green Guy]

I enjoyed Oblivion a million times more. I'm thinking of picking it up for the PS3, its cheap and runs a little better than the 360 version.