Mass Effect

Taking a gamble on this when browsing through the pre-owned games section was one of the best decisions I've made, it went from a game I'd never heard of to my absolute favourite game (& trilogy of all time), I've played it through several times & just booted it up again ready for ME3. The thing that makes ME great beyond fantastic visuals, soundtrack, deep engrossing storyline, great RPG elements, a brilliant character interaction mechanic & fantastic voice acting (I never found any the diologue tedious, I actually wanted to listen to it) is that your completely immersed in the Mass Effect world, you want to learn & begin to care about your & the other character & genuinely feel your decisions carry weight. ME isn't without faults though...the combat feels clunky a fair bit of the time, texture mapping is blatent (installing to hard-drive on the 360 helps) & the elevators can be an annoyance at times, but nothing stopped me enjoying this masterpeice, buy it & you'll see why...

Never played any Mass Effect game myself, so bought this pre-owned with the intention of going through this and ME2 in anticipation of ME3 next year. I read (and trusted) the reviews of the majority.

My verdict? Pretty pants tbh. The graphics are pretty good considering it's 4 years old now, but the gameplay is far from what I'd hoped for. I wanted freedom, of which there's very little. It feels like an expansive and immersive free-roam environment after an hour or so, but 3 or 4 hours later you realise it's as scripted as your favorite FPS. Oblivion/Fallout it ain't, by a long shot.

Other frustrations? How about realising the character you created is terrible 10 hours in? More and more quests get left open because they're infested with seemingly invulnerable troopers with Energizer Bunny shields. How about having to spoonfeed your squadmates because they can't tie their own shoe laces. There's more.

Massivly dissappointing, and I won't be buying 2 or 3 :-(

this game is brilliant not the best i ever played no but still incredable does get frustrating but when you get frustrated turn of your xbox and come back to it later.

great game defently worth the money

first of all im not saying you will all think game is rubbish, its just me, i dont like it, thats my opinion. My favorite games "OF ALL TIME" are the knights of the old replublic star wars rpgs on the original xbox. so as this game is also made by bioware i thought id absolutely love this game, how wrong i was, its just so boring. I probably havent gotten far enough in to the story on my many attempts to get into this game but it just goes on and on. if im not hooked in half an hour i never will be. im a huge rpg fan and i have loved all the zelda and final fantasy games as well as many other classics like crono trigger and paper mario but i just cant get into mass effect. im getting very choosy in my old age (of 32) perhaps my standards were alot lower in my teens but i have to say (through gritted teeth) that this game is just so over rated compared to the classics i remember so fondly. there we are !!

I love rpg's but this is disappointing mainly from the fact you have no map or objectives....so how are you supposed to get around or know what your doing? The fights are good but they are so short and aren't many of them. Played the game for about 5 hours and all together probably had about 20 minutes of fights.

While I think Oblivion was a shallow, over too quick, poor reflection of Morrowind it makes ME look great. In ME the trees don't sway in the wind the grass is static and the total immersion killer.. you are playing FPS combat looking over the protagonists shoulder so blocking your pov left.. This may be a good RPG'er (I love RPG games) but compared to Unreal, Halo, Quake, Stalker even good old Serious Sam the combat is rubbish. And you can't even jump around on large rocks- you are just herded along the footpaths just like Neverwinter Nights 2- AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

Avoid.

So edit time...

I've subsequently finished this game and am now 3/4 of the way through ME2. In hindsight my review was rather harsh, though the points I made about the environment were correct. This is a solid game, though in my mind it provides little scope for more than one or two play-throughs. It's one piece of utter brilliance is the conversation option wheel and cinematic third person view of the conversation you are having. That is perfection- good it was carried over to ME2!!

First of all, the game is better second time around, like most games, the graphics are great and so are the indivual characters

throughout the game (on your quest to save the galaxy) you'll experience unique dialogue on different planets and different NPC's

the Main Quest is Fantastic, and i'd give that a 5/5 for its plot alone, however its the rest of the game that unfortunately lets it down. When using your 'Rover' (??) can't remember its exact name , but basically its the machine you us to explore planets at times. It's very difficult to drive easily and you'll often find yourself overshooting corners and turns at times, and this will frustrate you.

The lack of other side quest (or the lack of quality in them) is anoying, which is why the title 'Is It Really a true PRG ?' whilst it can be counted as one, you'll find yourself disapointed in the game once the main story line is complete due to the fact there is little else to do.

the Graphics and attention to detail is something Bioware always thrive in, and mass effect is no exception with some really nice efforts that have payed off with the care and consideration put into everyroom everywhere, nice touch boys (Y)

however i found myself sometimes lost within the game an unable to understand what i was supposed to do now, (yes i understand the point of an RPG is to do what you want) a little guidance as to what i want to do next is always nice, and saves the anoyance of time wasting running around then same area for 20minutes

Overall its a good game for its main quest, but the rest of the game lets it down (bar the attention to detail) Fortunately these problems have been solved in Mass Effect 2, which is fantastic, so if your reading this contemplating to get the this game before playing the second, then do so, its dirt cheap now, easy to complete, helps your character in the second (you can play with the same character from first to the second if you wish, giving you a head start) and it will quickly get you in the mood, and with the story line for the second game

Mass Effect is simply amazing, BioWare are true masters of RPGs and they pulled out all the stops with Mass Effect. It has amazing visuals, sound, dialogue and all the other things a great RPG requires. Don't even think about hesitating when buying this game. It is well worth the amount payed.

This is a complex RPG and a shooter. But funnily enough, unlike most games which span 2 genres, it doesnt do either 1 bad. Leveling up your character to level 60, (802,000 exp) is life consuming and so much fun. The armor upgrades and constant weapon upgrades are well balanced and slowly get better as you level up. You make your own choices and are given dialog options to make your character react to things the way you want him to. Good or Bad, its your character. And the choices you make in your interactions with people in the game will impact the way your game turns out at a later point in your playthrough. This aspect of the game is thoroughly satisfying, and gives you a sence of creative freedom on your character, and makes you feel like this guy really is YOU in this space saga. The game is a huge openworld, chock full of planets to explore in the vast dark eternity known as space, You command your own spaceship and travel the galaxy kicking uber alien rectum!!! You kill robots, aliens and any other intelligent life in the galaxy that you wanna blast away, "just cause they gave you a funny look"!!! The story is EPIC, you will feel like your in a movie after a few hours and this is one of the most the most cinematic games ive ever played. There are a few bugs, like going down a mountain in an uncharted planet on foot, on some planets you will just get stuck and have to reload the game, it feels like there was a little too much empty planet exploration, the way the game organises the items you pick up leaves a lot to be desired, and the elevators are slow. However none of these things are frequent or relevant enough to take away from the whole experience, this game is so amazing. When you recieve your copy, do yourself a favour and cancel 2 days off your calander cause you will be sucked into the universe of mass effect . (Did you see what i done there at the end (oooooh yeah thats good "pun" idge)..... RECOMMENDED

By far and away one of the best games I have ever played. Awseome gameplay, awesome graphics and fantastic plot. Best RPG on any system. The mix of RPG elements and combat works brilliantly. The game will suck up hours and hours of your life if you want a proper experience of the game. Absolute brilliant RPG. Must buy for any fan of the genre.