Geth Recon: Advanced Crimefighter

Bioware has done it again with Mass Effect. The latest release in the company’s celebrated heritage and their first Xbox 360 exclusive title, this is the next-gen role-playing game Microsoft fans have been waiting for.

But to label Mass Effect as merely an RPG wouldn’t be doing it justice. It’s an evolution of everything Bioware has done before, refining some of the more flummoxing hardcore elements of its games gone by, adding more action-oriented combat, and laying it all on a bed of oh-so-shiny interstellar HD loveliness.

As an adventure, Mass Effect makes Jade Empire seem small. As a cinematic sci-fi fiction, it makes Knights of the Old Republic look like a Choose Your Own Adventure picture book. And yet as a game, it falls somewhere between the two.

Mass Effect has none of the latter's complex item management, but also delivers deeper character customisation than the rudimentary system of the former. The outer-space setting makes it feel like Star Wars without the lightsabers, and yet Mass Effect’s combat takes Jade Empire's idea of real-time combat and, instead of martial arts, gives you guns.

The story in Mass Effect is pure science fiction melodrama, seeing you create a character and set out on a truly immersive space opera to save all allied worlds from the threat of the invading evil cybernetic space faring Geth, led by a rogue member of the galaxy’s elite law enforcement agents, the Spectre Saren. Playing as John (or whatever you choose his first name to be) Shepard, you’re soon in charge of your own state-of-the-art spaceship and delving into Mass Effect’s engaging mix of action, dialogue and exploration.

Mass Effect’s action takes its cues from Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, with a tactical Bioware twist. On the surface its all-out squad combat, with orders (take cover, fall back, move to a waypoint or attack a specific target) for your two team mates on the D-Pad, aiming on L, firing on R, plus movement and aiming across the two analogue sticks.

Refined to the Nth Degree

Press the bumpers, however, and the game pauses to give you one of two wheels – letting you switch weapons or direct your team to use their magic-like biotic abilities. It’s a fine balance between action and turn-based RPG combat, and proves rewarding if you’re concentrating. Those wanting a more accessible experience, however, will want to knock the difficulty down to easy.

Though combat is a step forward, the dialogue and moral systems in Mass Effect are closer to KoTOR than Bioware would have had us believe, with dialogue choices split between friendly, businesslike and aggressive. What’s delightful is how your background (chosen at the game’s outset), responses and actions throughout Mass Effect shape the way characters interact with you, giving you increased conversation options as the game progresses.

That’s a Bioware staple, and in Mass Effect it’s been refined to the Nth degree. It’s also presented impeccably well. Full recorded speech is of the highest order, with a rousing, epic musical score and visuals up there with Gears of War. This is the new benchmark for RPG titles, make no mistake.

Rip-roaring and radiant Mass Effect might be, but it’s far from flawless. Firstly, having been thrown in at the deep end with no tutorials in the first five hours, you discover that the majority of planets in Mass Effect’s seemingly diverse galaxy are rocky terrain with one single building. And getting across these means controlling the Mako; a Halo Warthog-esque land vechicle with frustratingly floaty controls and a next-to-useless turret weapon. It makes for a deceptively more repetitive experience than we’d have hoped.

The most annoying gripe, however, is that throughout Mass Effect there’s no way to manage your inventory unless you sell things at shops. If you pick up items with a full 150-item inventory, instead of allowing you to drop old, unwanted ones or refuse to take the new items altogether, Mass Effect forces you to reduce your fresh gains to the game’s puzzle-helping aid, omni-gel.

Despite the visual flair, Mass Effect also runs inconsistently at best. Film grain and motion blur activated as default can see proceedings crawl when the going gets hectic, so it’s best to turn them off (it looks shinier, and arguably better without them anyway), but even then the frame rate will clunk out occasionally. That said, Mass Effect’s RPG nature and pausable combat make it less of a problem than that might sound.

Overall, it may have more than a few flaws, but Mass Effect is still nothing less than the 360’s biggest and best adventure, bar none. And as the first chapter in a trilogy, Bioware have two titles to improve the template. Pacing problems and the odd technical glitch aside Mass Effect is rich, absorbing sci-fi fun, and should be regarded as one of the finest titles we’ve seen in 2007.

GAME's Verdict

• A refined half way point between KoTOR and Jade Empire and the best darn next-gen RPG going
• Action-packed combat and genuinely affecting moral choices make Mass Effect a truly polished hybrid
• Looks gorgeous, sounds even better

• Inventory management is awkward and frustrating
• Driving the Mako will make your blood boil, and exploring the galaxy in it isn't as rewarding as it sounds
• Stuttering framerate and the odd graphical glitch here and there

Review by: The 'Mark Effect' Scott
Review Published: 30.11.07

Mark chooses his words carefully...

Back in the early days of the good ol’ Xbox, a small game by the name of Knights of The Old Republic arrived and gave the system a killer RPG that single-handedly made the Star Wars license credible again.

Created by Neverwinter Nights developers Bioware, KoTOR gave us an enthralling interstellar tale with twists aplenty, unique moral conversation choices which dictated whether your character turned out Jedi (good) or Sith (evil), and bags of gameplay, with combat that melded fast-paced real-time action with the slow-paced, turned-based menu-driven attacks of traditional RPGs.

Bioware’s second Xbox RPG, Jade Empire, offered full fluid real-time combat, and together with KoTOR has paved the way for Mass Effect. The company’s most ambitious role-player yet, Mass Effect mixes Knights of the Old Republic, Ghost Recon, Gears of War and Fahrenheit for a uniquely immersive sci-fi experience.

Mass Effect’s conversation system has been the subject of much talk in the games industry since Mass Effect was first announced, with Bioware promising to revolutionise the entire concept of in-game dialogue choices.

Wide open

KoTOR did this to a certain degree, of course; offering four or five responses at a time, each of which would effect how characters reacted – and turning you to either the dark or light side in the process. Mass Effect, however, blows this wide open, with improved character development, more sophisticated interaction with other characters, and a closer relationship between the two features.

In Mass effect, bad and good points – named Renegade and Paragon points respectively – can be accrued side by side; so no more black-and-white moral contrast. In Mass effect, your choices can often be a murky grey. Moreover, Mass Effect gives far more weight to your decisions, with different types of points affecting your character’s conversation skills, and giving you different conversation options – be they blunt, angry, passive or persuasive – as you progress through the game; meaning Mass Effect should have significant replayability.

Conversations themselves are promising to flow with a fluency not unlike Fahrenheit. Instead of waiting for a character to talk and being presented responses a la KoTOR, Mass Effect’s choices will appear as talks actually unfold – giving you the chance to interrupt, and giving you options of not only what your character will say, but the manner in which they say it – leaving you with an improbably large list of ways the game can develop over the course of 30+ hours.

How this will truly work, however, remains to be seen. With conversation set to have such a big impact on the way characters respond, Mass Effect’s plot will need plenty of depth and more than just a couple of endings. Having said that, the outline looks promising; pitting you as an intergalactic law enforcement officer sent to battle the forces of a former agent gone rogue. With a planet-hopping plot, plenty of sidequests and numerous ways to outfit your squad, Mass Effect might just be Bioware’s most captivating fiction yet.

Causing ripples

The key word there is squad. Mass Effect takes Jade Empire’s real-time, RPG-infused combat a step on and gives you guns, letting you run, shoot and take cover with an almost GRAW-esque outlook. Having said that, like Bioware’s past works, you’ll be able to pause Mass Effect’s combat at any time and bring up two wheel menus with L1 and R1 to direct your team’s attacks, cast techniques, and even change weapons on-the-fly; an option previously confined to the equipment menu in other Bioware titles.

Immersive, innovative and incredibly ambitious, Mass Effect is also going to be one great looking videogame. Using the same Unreal Engine 3 which powered Gears of War, Mass Effect has that same gritty, eye-bulging detail and HD shinyness that the Xbox 360 does so very well, and will surely be amongst the best lookers on the system.

Indeed, Mass Effect should itself be the console’s premier adventure. Bioware have rarely let fans down, and with this are upping the ante once again. Probably the most aptly named title of the entire year, Mass effect, like KoTOR before it, could cause ripples in RPG-land for a very long time.

Preview by: Mark Scott
Preview Published: 02.11.07