Mass Effect Review (X360)

Combat

Combat is the other major area of the game, and this is where Mass Effect falters a bit. Depending on what class you choose at the beginning of the game – soldier, engineer, biotic user, or hybrids of those three – the game will play very differently. You have different skills and weapons and abilities depending on your class, and what you pick makes a huge difference which adds even more to Mass Effects replay value. The problem comes in the fact that the combat itself is a kind of clunky and middle of the road third-person-shooter. You target and shoot enemies just like a normal TPS, but your accuracy and damage is determined by dice rolls paired with your skill and weapon level. It gives the combat a really disconnected feel because, unlike KoTOR which was pseudo turn based and you gave your character commands and they went and executed them, Mass Effect is all in real time. It will throw shooter fans through a loop when they first start playing and can’t seem to hit anything despite the fact it seems like you have control over it all. With all of that said, however, Mass Effect is not really meant to be played as a shooter. It is an RPG through and through, and if you play it for the role playing elements and not the shooting, it is hard not to absolutely love it.

Glitches, Bugs, and Annoyances

Unfortunately, there are some little glitches and hiccups here and there that sour the experience somewhat. Nothing major or game breaking, but definitely annoying. Immediately noticeable when you first start playing is a very unstable framerate, particularly during combat. In smaller battles, it doesn’t hurt you too bad, but when there are a lot of enemies around it can get pretty choppy. Another issue comes from textures popping in during cutscenes. It is pretty jarring when you enter a cutscene in a flat gray jumper and then “poof” your clothes suddenly are covered in detail. Not a bug, per se, but the AI is also pretty questionable. Enemies just stand around and wait to get shot, and friendly characters get in your way constantly and will even occasionally push you out of cover. There are some other issues with clipping through walls, not being able to access terminals or doors or other things that ask for a button input to use, and the whole game just seems kind of unstable. We put up with this in KoTOR, and complained about it in KoTOR II, but I really expected it to be smoothed out on a “next-gen” system. Another issue comes in the form of load times. Most of the time, they are pretty quick although still annoying since they come in the middle of a long hallway or somewhere where you don’t expect it. Getting into an elevator, however, is basically an invitation to take a bathroom break and grab a snack while you wait because they take forever.

Graphics and Sound

Visually, Mass Effect is going to absolutely blow you away. The characters are incredibly detailed, and all of the alien species look really, really good. The facial animations are also noteworthy because the dialogue is synced to the lip movement very well, and the overall facial movement really makes the characters seem alive. The environments are just realistic and slick looking all around. This game looks fantastic. One slight complaint is the grain effect filter that is on by default that is meant to make the game look like a classic sci-fi film, or something. Personally, I think it makes the game look hideous and I turned it off in the options menu as soon as I could.

Mass Effect also sounds as fantastic as it looks. The voice acting is very well done all around which really helps to sell the story. I also really enjoyed the music and sound effects as they were appropriately sci-fi but distinctive enough to not be confused with what we have already heard in the “Star” franchises.

Bottom Line

Even with some complaints and nitpicks, there is no question that Mass Effect is a fantastic game that is among the best the Xbox 360 has to offer. Some elements could be better, absolutely, but this is a role-playing-game and the RPG elements are very, very good. The story is spectacular, and the conversation wheel, particularly the sometimes unexpected results of your decisions within the conversation wheel, really draw you in and give you an emotional attachment to your character and your objectives. The main storyline is fairly short, only 10-12 hours, but there is 15+ hours of sidequests to dig into as well. And the replay value is also exceptional with Mass Effect thanks to the different results you can get through your decisions as well as the different classes of characters you have to choose from. Mass Effect is an excellent game that is highly recommended for Xbox 360 RPG fans.