doombot » Short Game Review: Mass Effect

Mass Effect is a videogame RPG with real-time (not turn-based) combat, so I’m actually willing to play it. Yes, some of the vehicle-based combat is pretty tedious, some of the side missions are repetitive and dull, and there’s a lot to learn before you really get the hang of not dying and not having an inventory full of crap. The core of the game, though, is pretty great. The major missions feel like a cross between new “dark and gritty” sci-fi and old “weird and pulpy” sci-fi; I especially appreciate that some of the armor/uniforms looks straight out of Voltron. Overall, it’s mind-blowing in its depth of world and character design (enough bonus “codec” info for even the most hardcore nerds), the sheer amount of lip-synched dialog recorded (by decent voice actors), and the unusually coherent and complete plot (because you should be able to tell one complete story in a multi-hour game). I beat it pretty quickly, opting to ditch a lot of the optional material and just dodge a lot of the enemies. Now I’ve started again on a harder difficulty level with a customized character (and a bonus downloadable mission installed). As it turns out, I think I actually like my own “Erin Shepard” (a psionic, or “biotic”) better than the default “John Shepard” (a soldier); she’s looks like less of a meathead, and is definitely less of an ass (so that I can see different conversation trees).

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Hey, I’d be curious to hear how the DLC is. I wanted to try it, but I guess you can’t if you’ve beaten the game. Or something like that.

I’ll let you know—though I think my plan is to do a bunch of the side missions first, then do the DLC thing as late in the game as possible. It’s a lot more fun to play when you’re not constantly running and hiding for fear of being shot. If I play through this a third time, I’m not going straight engineer, but engineer/soldier combo so that I can wear better armor…

Okay, I played through the Mass Effect DLC, “Bring Down the Sky,” last night. I was glad to have an extra mission to play through, but it was kind of less involved than I hoped, and so it left me feeling like it was a bit overpriced for what it was.

It does capitalize on some of what makes the game great (like a no-right-answer choice), and the world itself looks cool, but it’s basically just one of the generally skippable optional side-missions with slightly more animated dialog than usual. I had kind of been expecting it to be just shy of the length of (and share something of the narrative tone with) one of the major story levels from the game, like Feros. I guess it is cool, though, that you get to pick up some pretty cool equipment here that you can use elsewhere in the game.

Anyway, I’m blathering. Long story short: I don’t regret buying it, but I hope some of the later DLC feels a little more fleshed out.

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Short Game Review: Mass Effect

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