With
Mass Effect 2 around the corner I decided to finally pick up the first Mass Effect game to see what the deal was. I originally planned to get a 360 for this game, but life distracted me and I got the system much later. Bioware has made some of my favorite games, including what I consider to be the best PC RPG out there:
Baldurs Gate 2 : Shadows of Amn. Another Bioware creation is the Star Wars licensed
Knights of the old Republic (KOTR), probably the best take of this universe in video game form.
Mass Effect seems like a spiritual sequel to
KOTR. Bioware created it's own universe with unique races and history. The future is not so distant, but humanity has progressed at a great pace, especially after finding the Mass Relays that allow fast interstellar travel. The plot and setting are easily the best part of the game; the world is fleshed out, giving the player tons of optional background information on all the known alien races, space battles and space politics. The characters are splendidly voiced, my favourite being the villian Sauren, as performed by the great
Fred Tatasciore. There is plenty to love in this game and it's a nice world to lose yourself in. Rather than gush over it, I'll focus on some of the design weaknesses that I hope will be absent in the sequel.
First problem from the beginning is the action. The game functions as a real time third person shooter pretty poorly. The enemy AI is uninspiring, and the combat tends to come down to run and gun, despite lots of character abilities that made me expect the combat to be more tactical. I would rather see a well implemented turn based strategic system like the one used in
KOTR. The sequel will focus on the action aspect more, and from the looks of it the team is working hard to make it better, much better.
Second issues is the uninspired side quests and locations. I love the idea of exploring the universe and taking on space pirates or rescuing far of research installations. However the planets for all their difference in descriptions and topolgy are far too repetitive and barren. There are about 3 standard preset type of installations on every planet that consist of 4 or 5 rooms. That combined with the weak action left me wanting more. The main story and quests however do not suffer from this.
Last issue and one that actively drove me nuts was the vehicle control of the game. The Mako APC is your primary (and only) method of transportation when you drop on alien planets. The vehicle it self is a mean looking 6 wheeled off-road monster with guns. The vehicle's turret implies that it has good maneuverability and strafe runs will be possible. Sadly this is not the case. The left control stick is mapped to the vehicle control and the right stick turns the camera and turret direction. You can steer the vehicle towards left and right. However if you turn the turret the vehicle will start righting itself so forward goes towards the turret facing. This creates two control schemes that try to steer your vehicle. Pressing up on the stick acts as the accelerator and turning at the same time if you turned your turret. This makes strafing runs while driving in a straight line nearly impossible. When you turn the turret 90 right you essentially have to steer left on the vehicle to keep it going straight. This gets in the way of regular driving and really kills tense situations where you need to control your movement. I hope this gets fixed in the next game.
Despite my focus on things that bothered me, this is an amazing game from a company that I trust to deliver amazing rpg/adventure games. Now is a good time to pick this up in the bargain bin if you haven't tried it yet. It surely left me excited for the sequel.
