Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ Mass Effect DLC

[Garwoofoo]

Mass Effect is a very strange game. I can't think of any game I've ever played that has so many obvious glaring faults yet is overall still completely awesome. As an experience, it's certainly one of the strongest on the 360. As a game, it's often fairly flawed.

The technical issues have been well-documented and although they are slightly improved with an installation to the HDD, they are still pretty prominent. The juddering frame rate in particular undermines the impact of the graphics, which are otherwise excellent. The combat, meanwhile, still seems pretty shit to me but I accept that others like it. I just don't get on with cover shooters – especially ones like this where your character automatically glues itself to the nearest crate, usually when you don't want that to happen – and everything is floaty, scrappy and imprecise. Until I dropped the difficulty down, I was regularly getting killed and had no idea why or even from what direction I was being attacked. It might just be me, but Gears of War this ain't. The mechanics could certainly have been better.

The main problem with the game, though, is its pacing:

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

After a short introduction on Eden Prime, you are essentially left to cool your heels on the Citadel for anything up to four or five hours, as the game turns into an intergalactic Choose Your Own Adventure book and your character becomes an errand boy. It's actually possible to mop up most of the Citadel quests here – as I did – which gives you very little reason to return to the Citadel and makes this whole section a complete anomaly in terms of the pacing of the rest of the game.

After this, you're thrown into the exciting storyline, suddenly the game is very combat heavy, but if you want to do the side quests then you have to ration out the storyline and it's very difficult to actually get invested in the game until it picks up around Virmire. Of the three starter planets, only Artemis Tau is consistent in quality – Feros is very dull until you get to the Thorian battle and Noveria, as already mentioned, spends far too long on the parking permit and the Benezia battle is a mess.

The side quests aren't as bad as some people make out – in fact I found them quite compulsive in a gotta-catch-em-all kind of way – but the main problem with these is that they are almost totally irrelevant. They don't progress the main story. They aren't necessary in terms of loot or character progression. They don't even, for the most part, do much to flesh out the universe or the setting. So the only motivation for doing them at all is if you're going for the achievements – and doing them definitely interrupts the flow of the main game, which would otherwise build quite well in terms of pacing and structure if only the player didn't have to keep disappearing to scan rocks. It's very strange for a story-driven game to have a whole set of achievements that effectively undermines its own storytelling. And don't even get me started on the achievements that require you to have the same team members with you for the entire duration of the game, whose only purpose seems to be to rob the player of variety and tactical options.

That said, there's a massive amount to recommend it. The setting is excellent, the backstory is expertly fleshed out, and the performances of the characters (both in terms of voice acting and general performance capture/facial animation) is uniformly excellent. By the end of the game I'd become so invested in the team that I'd almost forgotten that they were videogame characters and was just enjoying it as I would a good movie. When it kicks off in its final stretch, it really kicks off. I'm also slightly in awe of my Commander Shepherd – slightly chavvy-looking, a bit ginger and mean as a junkyard dog, she's my kind of woman. The fact that I actually cared about the characters and thoroughly enjoyed the plot outweighs almost every other problem I encountered with the game.

I am hugely looking forward to Mass Effect 2 now. I'm going to take a short break to play something else – probably Demon's Souls – but I'll be returning to this universe very soon.

[cavalcade]

Yeah, I think for the full ME treatment you need to play it while concentrating on the main quest for the first game, and then play it again and explore the universe. My question to you Garwoofoo, did you guess what was going to happen ahead of time? (not only the main "twist" but some of the other major plot points)? The clues were there, it's fun playing again and seeing how the game gives you many prods and hints (some obvious in retrospect) well before stuff happens. I guessed virtually nothing - but then I am well known for being surprised by twists happening that others say they guessed in the first 5 minutes of a game (KOTOR being the best example).

I have a bit of a dilemma. My Shepard 1 (goodytwoshoes) is essentially me following the choices I'd follow if I was a real sapceheroman. He's also a bloke, and the sort of guy who'd shag a blue skinned alien on sight rather than save the galaxy. My second Shepard is a manic, psychotic Biotic woman, who would rather spit in the face of a nun than save a drowning kitten. I've really grown to like her, and I want to stay true to her in ME2, but I'd sort of wanted my first playthrough to be a good one which means I have to pick nice Shepard. Annoying. Think I'll go Renegade first, even though people say it doesn't make much of a difference.

[Garwoofoo]

My question to you Garwoofoo, did you guess what was going to happen ahead of time? (not only the main "twist" but some of the other major plot points)?

Yes, thanks to your incredibly obvious comment about "I can't go back to the thingy now I've done a certain planet", at least one of the major plot points was comprehensively spoiled for me a few hours before I got to it, so thanks for that.

Sniping aside - the main twist and most of the plot took me by surprise, so they did a good job. I wasn't actually expecting the plot to get as good as it did.

[CheddarFrenzy]

Last Play

Excellent summary, I agree with everything you said here. I think you'll really enjoy the sequel as (regardless of its own weaknesses) it fixes a lot of the issues you mentioned, especially with the combat and pacing.

In terms of twists and turns in the plot, I didn't spot them at all and I thought the last 5 or 6 hours were absolutely outstanding. I agree with Brian earlier, I can't think of a better build up/finale on the 360.

[JDubYes]

Particularly agree with the comments about pacing. When I first started playing the game, it just didn't grab me, but I went back months later and ended up hugely enjoying it. It was just that any time you weren't focused on the main storyline it all felt a bit lightweight and filler-ish, so it wasn't until it really picked up that I was really pulled in

And I'm one of those people who gets big twists ahead of time more often than not, but I had no idea the twist in Mass Effect was coming*, let alone what it'd be.


* - this is often the problem - if you've no idea a twist is coming, then you're not looking for/guessing at it. In most cases though, once you know there is one, the odds of you having figured it out beforehand increase exponentially. I knew BioShock had a twist, and then had what would otherwise have been a fairly innocuous comment lead me to work it out ahead of time. Without prior knowledge of the existence of the twist, I'd probably never even have been looking for one.

[And]

Yeah, I think for the full ME treatment you need to play it while concentrating on the main quest for the first game, and then play it again and explore the universe. My question to you Garwoofoo, did you guess what was going to happen ahead of time? (not only the main "twist" but some of the other major plot points)? The clues were there, it's fun playing again and seeing how the game gives you many prods and hints (some obvious in retrospect) well before stuff happens. I guessed virtually nothing - but then I am well known for being surprised by twists happening that others say they guessed in the first 5 minutes of a game (KOTOR being the best example).

I did that the other way round, long playthrough first, then direct plot only playthrough

I have a bit of a dilemma. My Shepard 1 (goodytwoshoes) is essentially me following the choices I'd follow if I was a real sapceheroman. He's also a bloke, and the sort of guy who'd shag a blue skinned alien on sight rather than save the galaxy. My second Shepard is a manic, psychotic Biotic woman, who would rather spit in the face of a nun than save a drowning kitten. I've really grown to like her, and I want to stay true to her in ME2, but I'd sort of wanted my first playthrough to be a good one which means I have to pick nice Shepard. Annoying. Think I'll go Renegade first, even though people say it doesn't make much of a difference.

I also had an uber renegade space bitch, will do the quick playthrough second time round with her.

[cavalcade]

Yes, thanks to your incredibly obvious comment about "I can't go back to the thingy now I've done a certain planet"

Give over.

[Garwoofoo]

Give over.

You'd spent two days telling us what planet you were playing, and there was only one place you could have been denied access to that would have cut off a chunk of your available missions. It was an incredibly obvious reference.

[cavalcade]

You'd spent two days telling us what planet you were playing, and there was only one place you could have been denied access to that would have cut off a chunk of your available missions.  It was an incredibly obvious reference.

Well, balance that rather vague non-spoiler against the 7 or 8 I modded into spoiler tags from other people and I think you've come out ahead to be honest.

[Garwoofoo]

I'm not particularly aggrieved, to be honest. Just pointing out that you're not exactly Captain Subtle when it comes to these things.

[cavalcade]

Finished. 1 Ally Achievement, no Complete the Majority or the other Ally. Arse.