Mass Effect

Mass Effect is easily in my top 5 video games of all time. It's easily the top game I've yet played for XBOX 360 (And that includes Mass Effect 2). I look forward to playing it over and over and over again. My biggest regret is that it didn't have more DLC.

Rating: 10/10

Expected Rating: 10/10

Pros: Great story, amazing sound track, very good voice acting, Decent graphics with interesting landscapes, good blend of RPG/Shooter genres, really makes you feel like your choices make a difference unlike any game I've ever encountered.

Cons: The Mako tank does not drive as easily as it might have been, Saren is a relatively aloof villain, team mates don't have enough interaction.


Mass Effect was the second game I ever played on XBOX 360, but it was the first one I bought and it was one of, if not the reason I bought the console. I was first introduced to Mass Effect when I went to see a Video Games Live concert (conducted by none other than Jack Wall, one of the primary composers for the Mass Effect Soundtrack) and they performed the Mass Effect theme song. As I sat listening to that song I realized it was probably my favorite theme I'd ever heard for a video game. Better than Final Fantasy X, Halo, Kingdom Hearts, Advent Rising or any others I could name. I had to play this game. As soon as I got home I looked it up to see what console it was on, and I was disappointed to realize it was the XBOX 360. However, when the opportunity arose for me to purchase that console, I bought Mass Effect the week before so I would have it.

I had heard almost nothing about Mass Effect before I played the game. It came out before the XBOX 360 was even on my radar, given my status as a poor college student I knew I couldn't afford to get the newest generation of consoles as they came out, and I also knew that avoiding XBOX 360 information was in my best interest, because it would only make me want more what I could not have. When I first discovered that Mass Effect had a good theme, but was on the XBOX 360, I didn't seek any more information on the subject. Again, I didn't want to know more about something I knew I couldn't have.

Even so, when I went to put that game in the console for the first time, I was worried it would not live up to the Hype my mind had created for it based solely on that theme song I had heard at VGL. It's safe to say that it did.

There are many complaints about the game I've heard and read, I'd like to address them one by one here.

Elevator rides: Many people complain about the long elevator rides present in the game. From my perspective, these elevator rides are present mostly as a screen to cover load screens. I found these mostly entertaining trips to be far more preferable to a dull loading screen. I also think it's important to note that elevator rides only occur in three varieties, those found on the Citadel (By far the vast majority), one elevator on the Normandy and elevators on major plot worlds. The ones of the worlds and the ship are quite short, and the ones on the Citadel are filled with cheesy elevator music, news reports and interesting conversations between squad members. Perhaps once those conversations and news reports start repeating themselves, it becomes less fun, but by that time you can use the fast transport network built in to the Citadel to jump from place to place without the elevators, only requiring the one from the station to where your ship is docked.

Mako handling: I read many reports of bugs where the Mako would become undrivable or get stuck in terrain or some such. I never experienced a problem, I suppose if I had I would have been upset by such things. My only concern was that the Mako was not always really easy to steer, but as a veteran of the Halo series, I find it far easier to control than a Warthog.

Saren's lack of visibility: Saren is the main villain in the game, but you don't see him after the prologue missions until near the end. I know I complained about not seeing major villains in Dragon Age, but I feel the difference here is that while you're not directly confronting Saren on a regular basis, you are at least learning more about him and his goals. In Dragon Age, I felt like you never actually grew to understand the motivations behind your villain, or what he was trying to accomplish. In Mass Effect, you're racing around the galaxy trying to get ahead of the bad guy. In Dragon Age, you're running in a hamster wheel while the villain sits back and waits for you to show up, content to do almost nothing.

Repetitive scenery: I actually feel that the indoor scenery should be repetitive. Mass production is always cheaper than individualization. So it only makes sense that as humans attempt to expand across the galaxy as fast as they can that they would do everything they could to speed the process by saving money and mass producing standardized structures. That the mercenaries of the universe seem to have the same technology is easily explained in that the humans are expanding into territory controlled by mercs, who then steal the stuff.

I didn't find the outdoor scenery to be all that repetitive. Especially when I looked to the sky. The sky was almost always a different color, with a different colored sun. There were clouds of various kinds, starscapes looked different. I felt it was pretty amazing that without trying to start from scratch with every different planet they made them look as different as they did. My one complain would be to note that the non-mission-critical planets were mostly devoid of wild-life and fauna. It appears that every planet you land on had only grass and/or rocks to it's name.

Flawed inventory system: This one I'll give to the complainers. The inventory system could be very hard to work with, it was not user friendly. But I enjoyed that after every fight I could look through and see if there were any new weapons or armor or mods I could use to improve myself or my team. Many people also complain about the inventory filling up too easily, only holding 150 items. However, by the time this really became a problem for me, I already had the maximum allowed amount of credits in my bank and could convert everything to omni-gel. All I had to do was clean up my inventory after every major plot world, or after 7-10 non-plot worlds.

Mass Effect has easily the best soundtrack I've ever heard, it might possibly tie with Mass Effect 2 but that's it. There are games I greatly enjoy the music on. Kingdom Hearts, Halo and World of Warcraft to name a few. But none of those soundtracks reaches the benchmark that Mass Effect does. Each of them has at least one track that I either can't stand, or at least don't care for. There isn't a single song in Mass Effect that I don't love, and I find that to be amazing.

The DLC for Mass Effect was a bit weak, despite what developers had originally intimated to the fans. It took a year for the first release and there were only 2 in the end.

Bring Down the Sky was an interesting mission and introduced us to another major species in Mass Effect, the Batarians. However, even doing all of the side missions it took less than an hour to complete.

Pinnacle Station takes a bit longer to complete, at least if you're a shooter noob like myself. However, there is very little story on the station. It is in effect, a futuristic holographic shooting challenge with 4 modes offering 3 terrain variations each. Some reviews have cited the missions to be incredibly easy. If that's so, I'm glad for it. I've never been good at shooters and it took me quite some time to get the top score in all 12 missions. Once you complete those 12, you are permitted to take on a bonus mission in which you must survive for 5 minutes against endless waves of Turians, a re-creation of an important mission from the First Contact War. If you can survive that mission however, the rewards are great. The Admiral of the station gives you his retirement place on a mostly deserted planet. Once you get there, with a little patience and a lot of money or saves, you can buy some of the most advanced gear in the game. On my last playthrough I went to the station fairly early on and was able to make the rest of the game a breeze because I had the best weapons and armor in the game.

If you own an XBOX 360, Mass Effect is worth at least renting. If you enjoy the game, and own it, the DLC is even worth playing. If you like video game music, or synthesized orchestral music, you should buy the soundtrack.