Mass Effect. I’ve never heard of this game before and honestly, I usually know what’s the latest and greatest games in development and waiting in excitement (sometimes to get disappointed because it’s overhyped). After looking at so many 9 out of 10 review scores everywhere on the web, Mass Effect caught my eyes. Not to mention it’s made by Bioware, my favorite RPG development team.

After reading some reviews, watching some trailers and gameplay movies, I decided to grab Mass Effect as I’m so longing for a good RPG after all this FPS (First Person Shooter) era madness!

In one sentence, if you love RPG games, grab this NOW! It’s been a couple of years probably that I can stay up late until 4 a.m in the morning for playing a game (not with this 30-year-old body)

Setting

Mass Effect sets in a distant universe far far away (sounds familiar?). After all, it’s an RPG a la Star Wars. If you have played the Knights of the Old Republic games before, then Mass Effect is like that, but better. Mass Effect is not set in Star Wars universe but if you want to look at it bluntly, it is as if it is based on the Star Wars universe.

However, as long as you are not a Star Wars geek/fan, you’ll find that Mass Effect has a very immerse and believable story and settings. Each race in Mass Effect (human, Turian, Asari, and other alien races) has its own background, its own characteristic, and history to tell (which is available in Codex, or the “Wikipaedia” of the game OR throughout the conversation dialogues).

If you usually take your time playing your RPG games talking to each character and trying to get yourself attached to the character’s history and life, then you won’t get disappointed with Mass Effect universe.

Character Creation

Of course, you start the game by creating your own character. You can create a “He” or a “She” and name it everything you want. However, your surname will always be “Shepard”. The reason of this is because all dialogues are voice acted, so they have to call you something. In this case, characters in Mass Effect usually call you by your surname. No, you cannot change your character’s surname in Mass Effect. Maybe in a few years, when RPG games can “spell out” your name dynamically in-game.

You can also set your character’s history background. This won’t affect the final outcome of the game, but it does have an effect on some conversations in the game, although not much.

Mass Effect has different classes, but they are mainly divided into Biotics (powers using your mind), Tech (technology skills), Combat (using guns and armors effectively), and mixtures of those 3 basic classes.

You CANNOT change your class in Mass Effect once you’ve started the game. I’ve got quite far in the game and realize how I haven’t distributed my points effectively and didn’t like the style of the class I’m using. I either have to start all over again, or just continue on Tough choice.

As for appearance, you can custom-made your hero through the game’s hero customization. Although it’s not as thorough as other games, it does give you some flexibility to customize your eyes, nose, jaws, even your ears!

Create a beauty…. or a beast

My advice, if you need to take an hour to design your Shepard, then DO IT! You’ll see your character’s face on every dialogue, so make sure you do it well! I chose a female, as I’d rather see a cute but tough lookin’ chick than a handsome bloke, heh heh.

Dialogue

Every dialogue is voice-acted, and it is done brilliantly and thoroughly. Your character talks and not deaf mute like some RPG games. The game will cater both male and female hero’s voice, so you don’t have to worry thinking whether your hot looking chick will sound like a dude.

Just like previous Bioware RPG games, you are given some dialogue tree options (you choose one of them with your mouse). You can be the good guy or the bad guy, your choice. Sometimes, choosing a different answer can yield a different result in-game (but it will still maintain the linearity of the main campaign). If you have a high Charm or Intimidation skill, a new dialogue option will appear on some occasions. These Charm and Intimidation skills can be improved when you level up or as a bonus by playing either the good guy or the bad guy all the time.

You can be mean or nice, up to you

For example, someone higher than your rank talks to you like you are one of his pet. You can both stay calm and be the “Yes, boss” person (which will increase your “Paragon” or the good guy slider), or have the “Kick my ***” kind of attitude (which will increase your “Renegade” or the bad guy slider). You’ll get either the Charm bonus point (by getting the Paragon points) or the Intimidation (by getting the Renegade points).

Mass Effect also has an almost perfect facial expressions and gestures that match the conversation. I’m very impressed with the amount of time they spent tweaking and making sure that facial expressions match the dialogues as much as possible. It’s that good.

Immersiveness

If you usually enjoy every bit of the story and conversation in RPG games, you’ll love Mass Effect. The story is deep and as I said before, if you really take your time talking to every possible character in game, you’ll then get the most out of Mass Effect. If that’s not enough, you can always read the Codex that I mentioned earlier, for a more detailed explanation about certain races, ships, technology, and history. Bioware is trying to create a believable story and background, and they’ve succeeded! Honestly I don’t really have the time to read (and hear) through everything, so I usually just skim through the Compendium entries. Luckily you’ll get new entries as you progresses through the game, so you are not being given these massive 100 things at the same time in which you have to read them all to be able to understand the game’s universe and background history!

What I like about Mass Effect is that, you’ll be given a piece of a story through a dialogue in which you’ll find what it means later on. It’s like pieces of puzzles being brought in together. For example, in the first few minutes of the game, you’ll wonder who this guy is or what are you doing in the ship. After some conversation dialogues, you’ll begin to say things like “Ah..I see” or “Oh, so that’s why”. It’s like watching a movie in which the director doesn’t let you know the complete picture in one go.

The Mass Effect’s “Wikipaedia”

Graphics

All cut-scenes are being done with the in-game engine. I won’t mind though, because it looks good. Mass Effect doesn’t support anti-aliasing in game, although I believe you can “force” it through your video card’s control panel in Windows. I don’t bother with this, as I’m already happy with the quality that I’m playing at.

NEXT PAGE: Combat, Inventory System, Leveling, and Conclusion

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