My Mass Effect Review

You have been waiting for it, and finally, after a long playthrough, here it is:

My Mass Effect Review.

Mass Effect is an excellent game. No really, it is excellent.

But - there are always buts - it has its flaws. And those can't be neglected, even if I would personally like to do so. As with all reviews, there are two ways to review something: a more subjective way and one where you try to find as much objective things to tell about.

I, personally, am a hardcore RPG-player and thus tend to like most RPGs even if they are not so great. With that out of the way, let's start.

The version played was the German collectors edition.

The translation is generally good, even if there are some things I have to complain about:

• The manual tells me about a biotic power called 'Einzigartigkeit'...WTF? Singularity, yes, and there is a German word for it: 'Singularität'. Why not use it?
• The manual has several spelling mistakes in the credits. Not so big, but hey.
• When I leave the Normandy, a female voice tells me something like: 'Commander went abroad, the command is now with Navigator Presley'. Ok, that's fine. But when I come back, just before beeing decontaminated, that voice says exactly the same. Doesn't make much sense to me. Hello, I'm back?
  
• The combat chatter is mucho messed up. When I've killed the enemies in any, I repeat ANY given area, my companions will give me feedback - that's cool. But why is that feedback 90% of the time: 'AAAARgh', 'My turn! (Wrex's voice, even if he's not in the group)', 'Shields are down!! (even if that's not true)'? Come on. Mistakes of that kind are really not necessary.
• And on a side-note: when playing on a non-HD TV, you will have difficulties reading the text at times.
  

And on to the Gameplay. This is quite fluid, most of the time....until you get command of the Normandy.

• Why, why on Earth are the elevators to slow???
• The disc spinning like crazy in the drive searching for the right place is annoying too, but I can live with it.
• The texture pop-ups are also annoying, but it's been discussed and it's because of those poor guys who bought a core edition Xbox360 without a hard-drive. The Unreal Engine has nothing to do with it.

There are two major points concerning the Gameplay which are really pissing me off.

• The sidequests on the small planets. I have the strong feeling doing the same all over again on planets where the only difference is the texture. THIS IS NOT a good design.

• The deciphering mini-game. First, pressing buttons fast enough to get something done is not generally a bad idea - as long as its not overdone. It can build up tension, it can be something new...but not here. Salvage a drone? Button-Mashing sequence. Open a container? Button-Mashing sequence. Find an element in 4 rocks laying around? Button-Mashing sequence. And the list continues. It gets boring so incredibly fast....

And now that I think of it, there is more, not so bad, but still...

• You have the possibility to scan 'uncharted' worlds and asteroids and what not for your collectioning assignments. Not bad, but since I only have to use 'Y' to do so, I have a look at every planet and if 'Y' is greyed out I just zoom out again. Why bothering making a text for those planets? Why not leave them out alltogether? That doesn't make any sense. I bought a game to play. Repetitive things are always not good, especially in an RPG.
• The inventory. I don't even complain that there's only Armor, Weapons, and Mods...But I DO complain that the descriptions and names are completely useless for the most part (Duelist I - VIII, wow that's creative), and that the pictures are boxes. BOXES. I understand that weapons and such are usually sold in some kind of containers, but when I buy something IN A GAME I want to see it. Even in reality I assume that I could open the box? But No. Boxes. Yellow, red, grey.
• And the micro-management needed to sort out all the stuff you find...it's so incredibly tedious. Again, for a video game - there are better possibilities and this is not a good design.
• Also - why do my comrades only have to say something new after main missions? Yes I understand that it would have been difficult to give them things to say just in between. But it would have been nice nonetheless.

Which brings me to the parts where Mass Effect really shines.
The dialogues are marvelous. The story is really good, and the dialogue wheel is revolutionary.
It makes so much fun to just talk.
You will be playing the game in hope for another one of those sequences, with the most excellent camera work I have seen until now in any game. It's incredibly cinematic. The outcomes of your choices are also very well balanced while still surprising. That's fresh, that's green, this is what makes Mass Effect excellent. And this is what will make you play it again. The roles and the characters are very well developed, and the overall story is much better than what the book foreshadowed (the book was incredibly predictable, and full of clichéed characters, IMHO)
There's not so much character development, but still - Mass Effect tells a great story, which all RPG-Fans are probably going to enjoy.

PS: And Mass Effect needs to get an Award for beeing one of those rare games where a relationship is well (not perfect - well) depicted. The small erotic scenes are gracefully directed, very well done. To show a relation in a game is a very difficult task with lots of mistakes that can easily be done, narrowing it down to pure sex or using stupid clichees all over. Not here. Mass Effect shows the romances in a perfect way. I mean it.

Melpomene + Thalia rating: 9.0/10 (9.0 out of 10)
If you are NOT an RPG-fan, it could be more something like:
Melpomene + Thalia rating: 7.5/10 (7.5 out of 10)