Mass Effect Review


Being a loyal Playstation customer, this game passed me by when it came out in 2007. Pesky XBox360 and its exclusive games. The trilogy was released for PS3 in 2012 though and I'm surprised it took me this long to finally experience them. This game was fantastic.

Having been horribly addicted to Destiny, I noticed a lot of similarities. Basically, Bungie wanted to make a FPS/RPG game in the style of Mass Effect. The premise for both games is remarkably similar but Mass Effect has the clear edge for one reason: Detail! The Mass Effect universe is so rich and packed with information. Detailed histories of the plight of humans and introducing other fascinating races. I spent a lot of time on the codex learning about everything. Honestly, it makes the lore of Destiny look like a book for five-year-olds about a dog called Ben.

The third-person perspective appealed to me but I wasn't sure how slick the gameplay would be with it being the first one in the series. I was pleasantly surprised! OK, the sniper mechanic could have been better but overall I thought it played very well. Also, after re-starting the game three times, it's clear the classes give the game I great dynamic and encourage multiple playthroughs. I'm already looking forward to my playthrough as renegade Femshep!

The side-quests were varied in story though I was a tad disappointed with the numerous re-cycled environments. Maybe I was expecting too much but when you've seen one bunker you've seen them all. My completionist nature had me travelling to every available planet where it was a similar story each time. Land, look for materials, investigate probe, clear out bunker, done. I honestly didn't mind too much due to the different terrains but when I was eager to finish the main story it became a little tedious. The main story missions were stellar though. A great mix of action and story-telling.

I loved, loved Liara the relationship with my crew. Yes, I didn't like all of them but they were such diverse characters it made the journey so much more interesting. My opinion changed a few times with a few characters. The person I thought would be my love interest at the start I ended up hating. A character I initially despised on first meet ended up being probably the most interesting of the lot. Fantastic characterisation.

The option to play as Paragon or Renegade gave great diversity to the conversational options. Playing a paragon, I chose the higher road the majority of the time. Although in certain situations, I occasionally chose the renegade response as I felt the situation called for it. I liked having the freedom to do that as it made me feel less like a goody-two-shoes robot. I still easily maxed out my Paragon bar.

The story as a whole was fantastic, especially the end reveal on Virmire and Ilos. It left me eager for more and I'm salivating at the thought of ME2! Especially when I hear nothing but great things about it. Normally if I'm playing a trilogy or series of games back-to-back I need a little break in between games. I haven't had that at all with Mass Effect. I just want to crack on!

So yeah, overall it's one of the best games I've played in a number of years. Stay tuned to this thread as I'll be booting up the second instalment this week!