Cid Highwind
December 30th, 2007, 18:48
Mass Effect - Xbox 360
I'm sure any serious gamer has heard of this game, it's been hyped up as THE RPG for the 360. To quote Wikipedia:
Mass Effect is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare exclusively for the Xbox 360, which was released worldwide in November, 2007. The game takes place in the year 2183, with the player assuming the role of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard, set out to explore a vast universe on his/her ship, the SSV Normandy.[7]
Besides plans for a trilogy—which BioWare claims "will cover the Xbox 360's five-plus year cycle"—there are plans for episodic content to be uploaded to Xbox Live that will fill in the story between each game, though these episodes are not essential for understanding the story of the main games.
My setup for this game:
Xbox 360: VGA cable on a 24" PC monitor. 720p for aspect ratio preservation.
Note: It does support 1080p, but visually there's no difference. This is a 720p game without AA
Estimated Total Playing Time: 30 hours (assuming you take your time exploring and complete >50% of the sidequests)
----------------------------------------------
So I got my hands on a 360, thanks to a friend of mine, and I finally got to play Mass Effect. This was one of the few reasons for me to ask for his 360, I've always loved the depth of Bioware games, and this one couldn't be any different. When the game starts you're welcomed by a nice intro video about a space colony being overrun, all in realtime, which leads me to the graphics.
This is one beautiful game, but it has some rough edges. The game runs on the Unreal Engine 3, just to give an indication. The models are really nice, there's a lot of closeups in conversations and the detail is remarkable. Very nice facial animations, frowning and all, it really shows all the details. There's self-shadowing as well, which also brings one downside: Some of the facial shadows look like they've been sprayed on by the Paint spraycan.
The game has some nice textures in places, nothing remarkably stunning but well above the standard in general. What I noticed is that they have put in some good texture filtering, so you don't have to bother looking at rough mip-map transitions. Your eyes will already be strained by the jaggies anyway ;) There's no HDR in this game, though it makes good use of Bloom effects, creating some really nice scenes. My biggest complaint about the graphics in this game is not about the jaggies, but about the constant framedrops. Yes, it really is the 360's Shenmue :p I don't mind the occassional stuttering in towns, but when you are forced to pause the game during battle in order to stay alive they've done something wrong. Weird, since this engine powers more intense games with larger fights.
As for Art and level design this game passes. If you stick with the main quests it will be a visual treat. The main base is very impressive, with great use of colours and special effects. The water is rendered very nicely as well, though it has become the standard for now, just like the trees, which Oblivion and TDU players should recognize. There's a very nice futuristic atmosphere in this game, and it manages to stay very believable, which is perhaps one of the hardest things to achieve.
However, going on several subquests you'll visit other planets and land there using your vehicle the Mako. That's where things get very bland. Even though the main city was Phantasy Star Online reincarnated, these sidequests are just like this, but in a bad way. The outposts are all the same, heck they didn't even bother to change the layout. While the backstory of these sidequest is nice, it's clear that the execution has been a rushing job to get some filler material.
As for the controls, I found them working out really well. It's the default FPS setup, and you can use the left button to pause the game and select your weapon (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, sniper), and the right button to select a skill to use. Pausing the game isn't a luxury, it makes it easier to get a good oversight, and to use the skill properly. A heat meter makes it impossible to shoot constantly, though this can be influenced by your weapons and the upgrades you put in its two slots. This gives some really nice variety allowing for different strategies. Still, most strategy comes from the special skills you can use.
There's three classes you can choose from, and combinations of all of them. There's the Soldier, which is what you expect: No special skill other than fighting skills. The Technician allows you to use Decryption and Electronics. These skills allow you to open containers and make life easier in general, so it's recommended you have at least one person with these skills maxed. In battle they can disable enemies' weapons, and their shields, respectively. Finally there's the "Adept", which means you can use altering skills, kinda like psionics, so making enemies fly up in the air, or throwing them back, sticking them to the floor. Or creating barriers to protect oneself. Needless to say you will need a balanced team if you want to succeed. You can manage with brute firepower, but it's not even fun that way.
The targeting works pretty well, and there's some covering system, it all feels like a very dumbed down Gears of War engine with nice special power put into it. It gets the job done, and the AI companions do their job pretty well. I enjoyed most of the combat, with the only note that the entire game is too easy. You will get a harder mode later on, but you'll have to finish the game first. There just isn't a great deal of variety in enemy strategies and combat situations.
Easily the best part of this game is the story and background. The entire world of Mass Effect is very well crafted, taking place in the entire Milky Way, with a large variety of races represented. Encountering each one is a great deal, and they all have a very interesting background and society. Unfortunately you won't be able to see them in their own world, which is what I missed most. Usually visiting towns offer the biggest share of fun in explorations, but this time you have most of these races in the capital. Still, they all have their unique personal traits, and everything can be read in the ingame codex. So plenty of lore to read here, which will probably bore all of the action oriented gamers ;)
The game starts slowly, mainly because it's a big introduction to the entire world of Mass Effect with the races. Once you've acquainted with the capital things start going and you'll meet all sorts of interesting NPCs. You are Commander Sheperd. You'll end up in a conflict with a certain Spectre, spectres being special officers of the intergalactic goverment, who basically stand above the law, as long as they get their assignments done. Of course it all escalates to a large scale conflict, and I have to say that it's been worked out really well. Along the way constantly have to decide whether or not to cooperate with the said goverment, or to go your own way. There's no good or evil here, but for those familiar with RPGs in general, the system only has decisions between lawful and chaotic. It works out really well, though I had hoped for more conversations that would go very in depth. You have the ocassional meeting with the council, but that's it. There's nothing in there like the trial from NWN2, unfortunately. Still, any player would do well to put points in either Charm or Intimidate, or both. Not doing so will certainly make your game experience less pleasant.
As for the sound and music I can be short: Brilliant! The voice acting is done very well, lip sync is spot on. Everything is spoken, as how it should be. And you won't be bothered by having to hear the same voices, unlike Oblivion, for example. The music is very well composed and fitting as well, some bombastic orchestrated parts mixed with the futuristic techno parts, which really works out well. One of the best OSTs of the year, done by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick, previously unknown by me. Richard Jaqcues helped out a bit as well, which is noticeable if you've played Headhunter.
Concluding I have to say that this game is one epic ride. Easily one of the better games I've played and if you have the patience to digest the background information of several alien species, this really is the game for you. It never gets overly difficult, but provides nice challenges. It's long enough to warrant a purchase, and short enough to keep a good pace and to keep it interesting. The game looks very good, the downsides are forgiveable given the nice art design and music to support it. "Gameplay" is varied, with nice conversations, a romance, and some pretty tough decisions to make, that really have an emotional impact. The entire atmosphere this game breathes makes it one very nice experience. I'm looking forward to the next 2 episodes... and PC ports.
I'd give it an 8.5
+ Graphics and Art
+ Great main story line
+ Very well written dialogues and personalities
+ Moral decision
+ Music and voiceacting
+ Epic and cinematic
- Slowdown and jaggies
- Filler content
- Lack of combat variety (overly straightforward missions)
- A slow start, due to having to digest lots of background info
-
I'm sure any serious gamer has heard of this game, it's been hyped up as THE RPG for the 360. To quote Wikipedia:
Mass Effect is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare exclusively for the Xbox 360, which was released worldwide in November, 2007. The game takes place in the year 2183, with the player assuming the role of an elite human soldier named Commander Shepard, set out to explore a vast universe on his/her ship, the SSV Normandy.[7]
Besides plans for a trilogy—which BioWare claims "will cover the Xbox 360's five-plus year cycle"—there are plans for episodic content to be uploaded to Xbox Live that will fill in the story between each game, though these episodes are not essential for understanding the story of the main games.
My setup for this game:
Xbox 360: VGA cable on a 24" PC monitor. 720p for aspect ratio preservation.
Note: It does support 1080p, but visually there's no difference. This is a 720p game without AA
Estimated Total Playing Time: 30 hours (assuming you take your time exploring and complete >50% of the sidequests)
----------------------------------------------
So I got my hands on a 360, thanks to a friend of mine, and I finally got to play Mass Effect. This was one of the few reasons for me to ask for his 360, I've always loved the depth of Bioware games, and this one couldn't be any different. When the game starts you're welcomed by a nice intro video about a space colony being overrun, all in realtime, which leads me to the graphics.
This is one beautiful game, but it has some rough edges. The game runs on the Unreal Engine 3, just to give an indication. The models are really nice, there's a lot of closeups in conversations and the detail is remarkable. Very nice facial animations, frowning and all, it really shows all the details. There's self-shadowing as well, which also brings one downside: Some of the facial shadows look like they've been sprayed on by the Paint spraycan.
The game has some nice textures in places, nothing remarkably stunning but well above the standard in general. What I noticed is that they have put in some good texture filtering, so you don't have to bother looking at rough mip-map transitions. Your eyes will already be strained by the jaggies anyway ;) There's no HDR in this game, though it makes good use of Bloom effects, creating some really nice scenes. My biggest complaint about the graphics in this game is not about the jaggies, but about the constant framedrops. Yes, it really is the 360's Shenmue :p I don't mind the occassional stuttering in towns, but when you are forced to pause the game during battle in order to stay alive they've done something wrong. Weird, since this engine powers more intense games with larger fights.
As for Art and level design this game passes. If you stick with the main quests it will be a visual treat. The main base is very impressive, with great use of colours and special effects. The water is rendered very nicely as well, though it has become the standard for now, just like the trees, which Oblivion and TDU players should recognize. There's a very nice futuristic atmosphere in this game, and it manages to stay very believable, which is perhaps one of the hardest things to achieve.
However, going on several subquests you'll visit other planets and land there using your vehicle the Mako. That's where things get very bland. Even though the main city was Phantasy Star Online reincarnated, these sidequests are just like this, but in a bad way. The outposts are all the same, heck they didn't even bother to change the layout. While the backstory of these sidequest is nice, it's clear that the execution has been a rushing job to get some filler material.
As for the controls, I found them working out really well. It's the default FPS setup, and you can use the left button to pause the game and select your weapon (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, sniper), and the right button to select a skill to use. Pausing the game isn't a luxury, it makes it easier to get a good oversight, and to use the skill properly. A heat meter makes it impossible to shoot constantly, though this can be influenced by your weapons and the upgrades you put in its two slots. This gives some really nice variety allowing for different strategies. Still, most strategy comes from the special skills you can use.
There's three classes you can choose from, and combinations of all of them. There's the Soldier, which is what you expect: No special skill other than fighting skills. The Technician allows you to use Decryption and Electronics. These skills allow you to open containers and make life easier in general, so it's recommended you have at least one person with these skills maxed. In battle they can disable enemies' weapons, and their shields, respectively. Finally there's the "Adept", which means you can use altering skills, kinda like psionics, so making enemies fly up in the air, or throwing them back, sticking them to the floor. Or creating barriers to protect oneself. Needless to say you will need a balanced team if you want to succeed. You can manage with brute firepower, but it's not even fun that way.
The targeting works pretty well, and there's some covering system, it all feels like a very dumbed down Gears of War engine with nice special power put into it. It gets the job done, and the AI companions do their job pretty well. I enjoyed most of the combat, with the only note that the entire game is too easy. You will get a harder mode later on, but you'll have to finish the game first. There just isn't a great deal of variety in enemy strategies and combat situations.
Easily the best part of this game is the story and background. The entire world of Mass Effect is very well crafted, taking place in the entire Milky Way, with a large variety of races represented. Encountering each one is a great deal, and they all have a very interesting background and society. Unfortunately you won't be able to see them in their own world, which is what I missed most. Usually visiting towns offer the biggest share of fun in explorations, but this time you have most of these races in the capital. Still, they all have their unique personal traits, and everything can be read in the ingame codex. So plenty of lore to read here, which will probably bore all of the action oriented gamers ;)
The game starts slowly, mainly because it's a big introduction to the entire world of Mass Effect with the races. Once you've acquainted with the capital things start going and you'll meet all sorts of interesting NPCs. You are Commander Sheperd. You'll end up in a conflict with a certain Spectre, spectres being special officers of the intergalactic goverment, who basically stand above the law, as long as they get their assignments done. Of course it all escalates to a large scale conflict, and I have to say that it's been worked out really well. Along the way constantly have to decide whether or not to cooperate with the said goverment, or to go your own way. There's no good or evil here, but for those familiar with RPGs in general, the system only has decisions between lawful and chaotic. It works out really well, though I had hoped for more conversations that would go very in depth. You have the ocassional meeting with the council, but that's it. There's nothing in there like the trial from NWN2, unfortunately. Still, any player would do well to put points in either Charm or Intimidate, or both. Not doing so will certainly make your game experience less pleasant.
As for the sound and music I can be short: Brilliant! The voice acting is done very well, lip sync is spot on. Everything is spoken, as how it should be. And you won't be bothered by having to hear the same voices, unlike Oblivion, for example. The music is very well composed and fitting as well, some bombastic orchestrated parts mixed with the futuristic techno parts, which really works out well. One of the best OSTs of the year, done by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick, previously unknown by me. Richard Jaqcues helped out a bit as well, which is noticeable if you've played Headhunter.
Concluding I have to say that this game is one epic ride. Easily one of the better games I've played and if you have the patience to digest the background information of several alien species, this really is the game for you. It never gets overly difficult, but provides nice challenges. It's long enough to warrant a purchase, and short enough to keep a good pace and to keep it interesting. The game looks very good, the downsides are forgiveable given the nice art design and music to support it. "Gameplay" is varied, with nice conversations, a romance, and some pretty tough decisions to make, that really have an emotional impact. The entire atmosphere this game breathes makes it one very nice experience. I'm looking forward to the next 2 episodes... and PC ports.
I'd give it an 8.5
+ Graphics and Art
+ Great main story line
+ Very well written dialogues and personalities
+ Moral decision
+ Music and voiceacting
+ Epic and cinematic
- Slowdown and jaggies
- Filler content
- Lack of combat variety (overly straightforward missions)
- A slow start, due to having to digest lots of background info
-