Review One of the best games Bioware has ever crafted

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Mass Effect

I am of course talking about Mass Effect. <a href="http://www.hookedgamers.com/articles/review/577/mass_effect/1">Hooked Gamers have their preview of the PC version up</a>. To save you the time, here's their summary:
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<blockquote>Mass Effect is one of the best games Bioware has ever crafted. The combat is solid but not without its issues, something that has become almost standardized for them. Luckily for us, dialogue and an overall dramatic, epic, cinematic tone of the story more than make up for it. Add to that achievements, two higher difficulty settings, romance subplots, Paragon/Renegade parallelism, dozens of uncharted planets to explore, background dependant side quests and free downloadable content and you’ve got a significant amount of Mass Effect to play again and again. Unlike the nowadays trends of cliffhanger endings, Mass Effect does close the first chapter of the saga, initially believed to be a trilogy, now with further sequels on mind. The game leaves trouble unresolved but delivers that feeling of closure that more and more games are lacking these days, without even mentioning how explosive and intense the ending is.
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Comparison enthusiasts might appreciate the revamped graphics, redone interface and “new” frogger minigames but Mass Effect hasn’t derived all that much from its past form. In any case, that is not a bad thing at all and RPG fans should be pleased with this conversion. It might not beat Gears of War in the third person shooter genre but then again, who asked for that?</blockquote>
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That's a mighty good question. Who did ask for that?
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPGDot</a>

 

[Herbert West]

cinematic tone of the story

pulp, c-class sci-fi copypasta cinema, but cinema nonetheless

dozens of uncharted planets to explore

copypasta, nom nom nom, tastes good!

The game leaves trouble unresolved

uh, will the blue chick i fucked get pregnant??

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Not if you pay Wrex to kick her in the stomach when the symptoms starts showing.

 

[Jasede]

Garrus is way hotter though.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Mass Effect is one of the best games Bioware has ever crafted. The combat is solid but not without its issues, something that has become almost standardized for them.
Lol?

Luckily for us, dialogue and an overall dramatic, epic, cinematic tone of the story more than make up for it.

YOU'RE A LOOSE CANNON, SHEPARD! YOU'RE OFF THE CASE!

Add to that achievements

YAY!!!

two higher difficulty settings

If only you could feel my pants right now. Let me tell you, they are WET! WET I TELLS YA!

romance subplots

Let's do it again!

Paragon/Renegade

Hi, I'm the good/evil status bar. You might remember me from such titles like KOTOR and Jade Empire. Well, this time you don't have to choose between good or evil. You can be both as long as you don't think about maxing one side out completely! Neat!

parallelism

No idea what to make of this one. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm just not that intelligent.

dozens of uncharted planets to explore

What Herbert West said. Damn, it tastes good!

background dependant side quests

One at a time, dude.

and free downloadable content

Bringeth downeth the skyeth, dudeth!

and you’ve got a significant amount of Mass Effect to play again and again.

Let's think about this for a second. Your incentive to replay ME again and again and again and again and again and again and, yeah, is nothing. I completed all of Mass Effect on the first playthrough. Second time I fucked Carth Onasi. The only thing I haven't done is getting down and dirty with Bruce Campbell, which is kinda odd now that I think about it.

Mass Effect is a game you can play twice if you really like it. Otherwise you'll only play it once, run through all the uninhabited planets (there's only like one of those in every system) and fuck the crew member of your choice (sorry, no Wrex romances, guys) and that's it.

 

[Longshanks]

pulp, c-class sci-fi copypasta cinema, but cinema nonetheless

I think it should be copy-paste, not copypasta.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

pulp, c-class sci-fi copypasta cinema, but cinema nonetheless

I think it should be copy-paste, not copypasta.

This guy has a talent for nitpicking.

 

[The Vanished One]

You can find anything on the Internet nowadays. Good that I looked on Google before doing this myself:

 

[Nicolai]

sup guys

 

[Dgaider]

Garrus is way hotter though.

I am forever scarred.

:shock:

 

[Kingston]

Good ol' Rule 34.

 

[Balor]

Well, if you hate RPGs, but like Shooters and Hollywood 'cinema' - it IS 'teh bestest' game Bioware ever made, indeed.
If you do... let me humbly disagree.
I've downloaded it, and made a promise to myself to buy it if I'll like it after an hour of play.
Well, after playing for an hour I already got an idea how the game would progress and how it would end. (Reading the reviews and commends proved me 100% right).
I hated the interface, combat system, meaningless dialogue choices, stupid minigames and game in general. I was even lucky that I didn't see that "Mako" everyone seem to love, along with copypasta.
Uninstalled it and I will NOT support such blatant slackery from game developer that used to make good RPGs. Not to mention that I don't really like ARPGs with lack of consequences, purely cosmetic choices and lackluster dialogues (I do NOT consider HAWT collar-grabbing action a hugely redeeming factor - it's good at times, but nothing PS:T managed to do with just a few paragraphs of extra text)

 

[xedoc gpr]

I disagree, I still think that the tabbed features are still way ahead of even the new version. Plus, it's just much faster, and the blocking feature is better. Sorry, I just don't buy it.

 

[MetalCraze]

Add to that achievements

finally - PC games always lacked them

two higher difficulty settings

wow! can you believe that?! a PC game that has more than "easy" difficulty setting nowadays!

romance subplots, Paragon/Renegade parallelism, dozens of uncharted planets to explore, background dependant side quests

that's so... boring?

 

[Gragt]

Garrus is way hotter though.

I am forever scarred.

:shock:

You really never expected that?

 

[Badgermaster]

Garrus is way hotter though.

I am forever scarred.

:shock:

You and me both.

As for the original article...

Comparison enthusiasts might appreciate the revamped graphics, redone interface and “new” frogger minigames but Mass Effect hasn’t derived all that much from its past form.

It seems to me that they meant "diverged" rather than "derived". It doesn't make sense to say that PC Mass Effect hasn't derived much from the console version...

 

[Dandelion]

Well, if you hate RPGs, but like Shooters and Hollywood 'cinema' - it IS 'teh bestest' game Bioware ever made, indeed.
If you do... let me humbly disagree.
I've downloaded it, and made a promise to myself to buy it if I'll like it after an hour of play.
Well, after playing for an hour I already got an idea how the game would progress and how it would end. (Reading the reviews and commends proved me 100% right).
I hated the interface, combat system, meaningless dialogue choices, stupid minigames and game in general. I was even lucky that I didn't see that "Mako" everyone seem to love, along with copypasta.
Uninstalled it and I will NOT support such blatant slackery from game developer that used to make good RPGs. Not to mention that I don't really like ARPGs with lack of consequences, purely cosmetic choices and lackluster dialogues (I do NOT consider HAWT collar-grabbing action a hugely redeeming factor - it's good at times, but nothing PS:T managed to do with just a few paragraphs of extra text)

IDEM

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

GameBanshee has first screenshots and a concept art piece. The Imperial City and Xardas are in.

 

[Kingston]

Ugh, I hate these scifi time travel plots.

Payeth more attention to where thou posteth, Lestat.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Damn, I have no idea how I posted it here.

 

[Dark Matter]

Paragon/Renegade

Hi, I'm the good/evil status bar. You might remember me from such titles like KOTOR and Jade Empire. Well, this time you don't have to choose between good or evil. You can be both as long as you don't think about maxing one side out completely! Neat!

Don't lie noob. Renegade path in ME is nothing like the dark side/closed fist paths in KOTOR/JE, unless you're too stupid to comprehend the morally gray aspect of it and simply assume it's "zomg ebil" just cause it happens to be on the opposite end of the spectrum from the paragon path. Pathetic. I'm beginning to think ME might be too complex for the average codex mind to handle, which is funny since it's actually pretty simple.

 

[Texas Red]

Paragon/Renegade

Hi, I'm the good/evil status bar. You might remember me from such titles like KOTOR and Jade Empire. Well, this time you don't have to choose between good or evil. You can be both as long as you don't think about maxing one side out completely! Neat!

Don't lie noob. Renegade path in ME is nothing like the dark side/closed fist paths in KOTOR/JE, unless you're too stupid to comprehend the morally gray aspect of it and simply assume it's "zomg ebil" just cause it happens to be on the opposite end of the spectrum from the paragon path. Pathetic. I'm beginning to think ME might be too complex for the average codex mind to handle, which is funny since it's actually pretty simple.

Don't you understand that dividing all of the morality in to only 2 parts is inherently retarded?

 

[Jasede]

 

[Shannow]

This needs more :honourblade: and less whine.

 

[Black_Willow]

GameBanshee has first screenshots and a concept art piece. The Imperial City and Xardas are in.

That's the most original sci-fi setting I've ever seen!