Mass Effect

November 19,2007 - With the shipping of some of the year’s biggest titles, including Assassin’s Creed, Halo 3, and Crysis, it’s almost understandable that Mass Effect’s release date snuck up on some gamers. And with the recent news of Electronic Arts’ purchase of BioWare (along with Pandemic), the developer’s name has seemingly been tossed around more in executive interviews than in hype surrounding the impending launch of their hotly anticipated original IP.

Although it didn’t receive nearly as large of a tickertape parade as its fellow Microsoft published brother, Halo 3, Mass Effect does well to stand on its own two feet; offering up solid production values as well as an immense level of scope never before achieved in a game. Although it doesn’t come without its faults, Mass Effect is surely one of BioWare’s finest achievements and with the help of beefed up hardware, eclipses Knights of the Old Republic in some areas, offering everything and more.

What Mass Effect does well, and what was expected from BioWare, is its story. You fill the role of Commander Shepard, whose first name you can change to your liking. As the first human Spectre, there are high hopes for your success. A fellow Spectre, Seran, has gone rogue, bent on bringing an end to humanity, and the task falls upon you to bring him to justice. That’s the crude version of it, and without sounding too much like a fact sheet, or giving too much away, BioWare has crafted one hell of a galaxy. There is an amazing amount of effort invested in the depth of the setting; that is perhaps where the game shines brightest.

Knights of the Old Republic worked towards the same ideals, but Mass Effect simply takes it to a whole new level, providing information on just about everything, from the description of your ship’s stealth generator to the detailed histories of each alien species. Everything is provided to you in your Codex, a galactic encyclopedia of sorts that records all the information you come across during your travels.

In short, humanity, although respected by most, attracts its fair share of challengers who believe that the species receives preferential treatment by the Citadel Council. The Citadel is a political coalition of species from throughout the galaxy. Think of it as the United Nations of the galaxy. There are three council species; the Turians, the Salarians, and the Asari. Other species can apply to become associate members and establish an embassy at the Citadel Station, but approval can take up to a century to pass. Many individuals believe humans rose to prominence too fast, while there are older races still fighting to receive the same level of attention from the Council. Humanity is for once the underdog, detested by many, with everything to prove.

The story is so deep and engrossing that a review would do it no justice, merely being able to skim the surface of what is easily one of the largest self-contained storylines seen in a game. The amount of backdrop provided rivals that of book series and can only properly be experienced first hand.

What pushes the hugely arcing story (Mass Effect is the first of a trilogy) is the use of phenomenally scripted dialogue. The level of cinematic quality presented in the near life-like conversations forces you to think of how much work must have been put into the production. Characters appear and sound so genuine that it makes the thousands of lines of spoken dialogue enjoyable to listen to. And unlike Knights of the Old Republic, your character can be referred to in conversation and has a voice, which makes the experience a little more personal, despite always being referred to as Shepard.

As is expected, what you say in your conversations play a role in your moral alignment, winning you either Paragon or Renegade points. You gain Paragon points by performing heroic or kindhearted actions. Conversely, Renegade points are won by making callous decisions. This is a staple feature of BioWare’s games and although it doesn’t act as a hindrance at all, it doesn’t come as a surprise either.

Freedom of choice has always been a mainstay of their games, and Mass Effect drives that point further than any of their previous games. Sure, you have always had the choice to say and do the right or wrong things. But the choice to pick from dozens of locations within the galaxy to explore is completely new. There are only a handful of places you have to visit to complete the game, but there are plenty of unrelated and uncharted locations ripe for exploration. Knowing this adds extra value to the game, because you realize the bare minimum wasn’t the goal.

After flying your ship, the SSV Normandy, throughout the confines of space, you can opt to touch ground on one of these foreign planets using the Mako, an all-terrain vehicle used to travel planet surfaces. This is where things start to fall apart for Mass Effect. Simply put, there’s a reason why BioWare doesn’t make a lot of games with vehicular combat: they’re just not good at it. We’ve experienced worse of course, but the Mako handles like a wild hog and using the onboard cannon in firefights is almost futile when attempting to drive simultaneously. It simply handles too wildly.

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