Mass Effect

Is this Microsoft's best title all year?

	Version Xbox 360	Developer Mistwalker	Publisher Microsoft	Genre RPG

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Taking down Saren and the Geth isn't a task Shepherd can complete on his own, so in true RPG fashion you'll meet lots of affable characters (and some rather machielvian ones too) who will join your party. Each character brings their own skills, which can be levelled up after gaining experience points. Skills are split across classes, varying from Soldier (I shoot things), to Tech (useful for hacking computers and security) and Biotics (psychics, who absolutely DO NOT have Jedi powers). When on missions powers can be used on enemy by holding down the right bumper and selecting them whilst aiming the cursor over your adversary. By default, the NPCs in your team will only use powers to defend themselves however this can be changed in the menu, and your comrades will bombard enemies with special attacks without the need for you to pause the game in between shooting evil robots.

Did I mention not having to pause the game? Yes, because BioWare have taken their lovely RPG knowledge and bundled it into what plays like a third person squad based shooter. No more waiting for your turn while the enemy attack, it's a case of find cover, throw a grenade, and blast these monsters to bits before they take you down. The firefights are tactical affairs, and this plays much like GRAW2, although with weaker enemy and squad AI. Teammates continually shoot the rocks which harbour enemy behind them, and there were a few instances where rocks saved me until my shields recharged because the Geth didn't realise if they had charged me a hard sneeze would have sealed my fate.

While Mass Effect is superb to look at, texture pop up at new scenes is common. You'll have seen this in Gears of War, however it is considerably worse in Mass Effect and can take up to 5 seconds for the textures load in. Unfortunately the Xbox also struggles to keep up with the action at times, and frame rate drop happens frequently when explosions occur and there are numerous characters on screen. Both these issues will be a major bugbear for many gamers, however the quality of the character design realised so well more than makes up for these shortcomings.

Mass Effect's musical score was something of a surprise to me to. It does seem like BioWare decided to make this game as 80's as possible and while the synth music is compelling it does evoke images of movies like Enemy Mine more than I, Robot or Minority Report. The retro goth song for the end credits reinforces this decision and does absolutely nothing to augment the egomaniac self love you should be experiencing after finishing the game. Voice acting on the other hand is superb, and particularly enjoyable when dealing with some of your crew.

Mass Effect's strength, like the KOTOR games lies in giving the player freedom to customise all aspects of weaponry, armour, and which actions to take when dealing with the games many colourful characters. In ME, good and bad choices are displayed on a Paragon/Renegade scale. Unlike KOTOR, where being a badass Sith lord or holier than though JedI Knight affected which powers your character was best at, in Mass Effect it only makes a difference to the storyline itself. Not being able to access the ability to choke someone by looking at them certainly made it much easier for me to play through the game on the right side of the law. Replaying as a harder and nastier Shepherd did have its good points but also left a bitter taste in the mouth as the ending is not as grandiose as the evil ruler of the galaxy which KOTOR2 saw you become.

Technically flawed as it is, Mass Effect still managed to exhilarate me into fan-boy levels or worship, and although it only takes 15 hours to play through the main story anyone wishing to complete the game fully will be looking at 30-40 hours to finish all the side quests. Completing it also unlocks Hardcore difficulty, then Insane, meaning player will be more than happy to plough through the game again as a different character following different story arcs. Now that I know the Galaxy is saved, I can only wait for downloadable content and pester BioWare with letters and petitions to ensure we don't have as long a wait for Mass Effect 2.

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