Mass Effect

[Psygnal]

I somehow managed to miss the Mass Effect phenomenon first time around - this game bears a striking similarity - albeit rather more sophisticated - to Knights of the Old Republic. As it's a Bioware game, this is perhaps understandable.

They've taken the basic premise - lead a group of people around a bunch of locations completing quests and fighting bad guys - added a lot of extra details, and some remarkably good graphics - combined the whole lot with a detailed and fun sci-fi backstory, and have produced a game that is well worth playing.

The KOTR turn-based combat has been replaced with small squad level First Person Shooter mechanics, but it works nicely.

You play Shepard, XO on the spacecraft Normandy, as he tries to track down Saren, the enemy agent who is hell-bent on causing mayhem throughout the galaxy.

Graphically, it's beautiful. The audio is very good - but some of the quests are a bit irritating. Some of the descriptions of locations don't match up 100% with the names of locations on maps, leaving you wandering around wondering what's going on.

There's not much schlepping from A to B like there was in KOTR, and I'm very glad to report that you don't have to go back and forth from NPC to NPC delivering messages when they could comfortably just pick up a damn phone... a pet peeve of mine.

You can download the game from Steam now, and I'd recommend it. It's an awful lot of fun.

Psyg'

[Cruin]

I was on the initial train for this. I still enjoy them and very much looking forward to the 3rd, and final game revolving around Shepard; though Bioware said they intend to still use the universe for other projects.

Like you say, they do hold quite a resemblance to KOTOR in the overall layout; just updated with more goodies and a bit more streamlined (roughly the same could be said for Dragon Age: Origins as well).

The use of conversation choices to set the tone of the character you played was certainly one of the initial highlights. It's hardly a new concept, though probably one of the best available even a few years later. But I think what I really enjoyed upon playing ME2 was the impact of the ME1 story choices carrying over to the ME2 storyline (obviously via savegames). Now I'm looking forward to the 3rd installment as it will incorporate all those choices from ME1 and ME2 into it's world. And it's fixing some of the poorly implemented gameplay changes they made in ME2.

I would note as well that the voice acting is also pretty high caliber for the most part. The only voice I was not fond of was the male version of Shepard; the voice actor they hired, a comedy actor/writer (who had done other bit work for Bioware in the past) I never found that he brought the proper level of intensity I would expect out of an intergalactic hero, as opposed to the female Shepard who hit all the right notes for either alignment choice (the female voice actor is also much more seasoned and it shows). So Mass Effect is one of the few games where I willing chose to play the female hero instead of the male.

Cruin

[Psygnal]

Just finished this game, about 10 minutes ago. Whew... what a ride. I love this game.
Having had a play with a few of the choices along the way, it's a bit more linear than I had hoped, but it is a quality game that, at first play-through at least, really kept my attention.

I may replay the female character, as everyone seems to say it's worth the effort... but I may have to buy the sequel - assuming Wife(tm) doesn't mind. :)

It took me less than two weeks of mainly an hour a night, so I'd have to say I'm glad I didn't pay full price for the game - it did seem a smidge easy - particularly the no-brainer boss fight at the end - but it was the storyline that kept me coming back.

I could see this as a movie, truth be told.

Psyg'

[Psygnal]

Hmmm... just noticed this rather convenient similarity...

The Drej from Titan AE


The Geth from Mass Effect


Psyg'