I've got a friend who reviews for a small New Zealand gaming magazine and I've spent about 4-5 hours with the game (give or take a bit). My copy arrives tommorow, but I can cover a few of the issues that Matt raises.
save for the old "multiple-different-endings" shtick developers have been trotting out like a reward for enduring linear gameplay for decades, choosing different responses in Mass Effect merely unlocks alternative dialogue choices that shape the narrative tone but virtually none of the game mechanics. Play Mass Effect more than once and, while you can unlock tougher difficulty settings that make the abbreviated action sequences more punitive, you'll still have the same story experience, start to finish.
This is probably correct from what I have played thus far. I'm not sure what has an effect on the ending of the game though, but generally what you do doesn't seem to actually do anything much until much later in the game from my understanding. Quests do seem to have ok resolutions, with generally there being a light side like option and one that's generally just being a dick option. So you can be a goodie good or a general dick, though the game does work out much better than some of Biowares previous games in this regard IMO.
This is a problem in Mass Effect, where talky sections unfold like dull, flat sine waves, punctuated by sawtooth-style segments of manic action.
The dialogue in the game is well done. Sometimes I feel the dialogue system is too ambiguous and there have been two separate occasions each where I felt every response made my character seem like an abject dumbass and where I got an undesired result from what I thought the response was. In general however, the dialogue is well voice acted and actually does work pretty well. Conversations feel organic and I don't quite get what Matt is gibbering about here. It's almost as if he expects every conversation to involve collar grabbing, slapping and pointing weaponry in someones face.
Many conversations do lead to the same overall result though, but this is something in a game as big and complex as Mass Effect can be (somewhat) forgiven. Improvement in this area is very desirable but the amount of dialogue and voicing that would be required (all dialogue in Mass Effect is voiced from what I've played) would be tremendous. But there are some conversations, particularly the options allowing you to be a real military jerk off, which are pretty entertaining and provide for the promised EXTREME that Bioware have claimed (sticking guns in peoples faces woo!).
It's difficult for me to say a lot more about this without having played through the whole game, but from what I have played I get the impression the dialogue and such is generally fairly well done (and there is a good amount of it). It's definitely not the disaster I think many were predicting here. Don't expect Planescape or Mask of the Betrayer depth here though.
Now the technical issues I can comment on because they make themselves apparent immediately:
1) There are clipping issues, particularly on the planets with some free roaming in the tank. The tank is particularly good at getting stuck and if you're not careful, you can bury your teammates in some ditch they can never get out of. Additionally, those worm things can clip into your tank with either an instant death or a reset because you get stuck in the worm. Generally, this isn't as much of an issue and will tend to affect you pretty rarely. If this gets worse as the games goes on I don't know.
2) Enemy AI sometimes appears turned off. They sit there and allow you to do horrible things to them with a shotgun without complaint. Again, this seems to happen sometimes and not all the time, but is noticeable.
3) So far, I know of no game breaking and similar bugs. I didn't encounter bugs with any quest resolutions or anything similar.
4) He is right when he says some planets are horrible. The open planets designed for the tank are diabolical and really seem like some tacked on afterthought. The planets related to the story are very well done and are pretty detailed. I suppose if this is going to be an issue will depend on how you view the game to a degree. The extra planets provide for more loot, killing things and the occasional side quest. They aren't actually required to finish the game and the amount of work in them IMO somewhat reflects that. Personally, I didn't find them too aggravating or poorly done, because they are certainly useful (levelling up, acquiring new items etc) but then again, 5 hours in vs. 30 hours in the repetitiveness of them might change my mind.
Essentially, it isn't like the games quality as a whole suffers from this, because the main areas are all well thought out and are sometimes really spectacular to look at. But the side mission planets do somewhat feel like an afterthought and a quick way of increasing the games content. Personally, I would rather have them there than not and I do appreciate the ability to run around exploring various planets: even if it's just an illusion.
5) The force power system is horrible. You have to constantly pause and change power to use more than one at a time. In the end, I actually gave up the 'force power' class and just played a soldier, which was much more playable.
And such forth, but let me just state for the record that I think Mass Effect (like other RPGs in the past like Fallout, Fallout 2, Planescape Torment, Bloodlines [until the end 1/4] and such) raises above the issues and technical problems that the game has. It's certainly not a buggy immensely unplayable mess and it IS fun. It's got some well thought out and crafted interactions with NPCs, the plot in my opinion seems to be developing well, the combat is better off for being fully real time with 3rd person shooter elements than being some half assed hybrid system, it IS fun to act like you're some futuristic Jack Bauer whose a complete jerk and will do anything for humanities safe future.
In general, the game is good enough to live with the crappy secondary planets and some of the games technical issues, because it tends to do more things right than it gets wrong. I don't think that, in the end, Mass Effect will have much in the way of choices and consequences, because from what I've played little I've done has any effect on anything except that immediate quest. I've heard that you can make an entire race permanently extinct and the game recognises this though, but that's well beyond where I am in the game and hopefully it's not one "let's do something evil to determine the end 5 seconds before the game ends" thing Bioware loves to do.
Really, the game does not deserve a score of 60, but I don't feel it deserves a score over 90 either, but a mid 80s score would suit it very well. What amazes me is that Matt continues to be able to write absolute rubbish and get away with it.
, in the same way as Oblivion, so I'm unlikely to accept his opinion on any RPG.
