Mass Effect (Xbox 360)
If only it used a hard drive The game is a technical masterpiece. Well, most of the time anyway. From the way characters move to how realistic their facial expressions are, Mass Effect is one of the prettiest games out right now. The combat effects are spectacular, as are most of the environmental effects and the locales you visit. Long forgotten ruins, high tech space stations, you name it – it all looks great… once the game has finished loading the scene. In order to avoid minute long loading times Bioware decided to use streaming technology. The result are frequent pauses as you run around, 30 seconds long elevator rides as the game prepares the next area and most annoyingly – texture pop in. You probably saw this phenomenon in Gears of War or other Unreal based games – the game loads the basic geometry of the level and then applies high resolution textures on the fly. The result is ugly ass looking levels for the first few seconds after loading a map or instant travelling there. Sure, a few seconds doesn’t sound like much, but when you add that to the constant hitching and framerate drops the picture is all but nice. At least the audio front makes up for the issues. It seems that Bioware hired a small nation to do the voiceovers for this game – every single conversation you have has its unique voiceover, and even more importantly, the speakers don’t tend to repeat themselves. You will never stumble upon a merchant who has the same (or very similar) voice to another merchant you met a few minutes back – no sir, every one of the hundreds of NPCs sounds unique. To top it off, they all sound real and the lip-synching is perfect. The music is great also. It is reminiscent of 80s synth pieces which made movies like Blade Runner and Terminator so great. There are obviously some more dramatic pieces in there as well, but for the better part of the game the music has that futuristic sound that we all love. ConclusionI might have led you to believe that Mass Effect isn’t a good game. If I have, I’d like to apologize. Mass Effect is a great game. One of the best released this year in fact. But it is not perfect. From various technical difficulties to the slightly lacking combat system, the game could do with another few months of development time. But all of the issues are quickly overshadowed by the amazing experience Bioware managed to deliver. The galaxy is huge and as a result the amount of things to do borders on infinite. As for the core of the game – the story and quests and combat that go with it, the game is top notch, a work of love and dedication. If you are into RPGs even slightly or can the other way when it comes to some of the issues with the combat, you are going to love this game. Just try not to lose yourself in the vastness of space. Scores
If you wish to comment on this review or discuss the game further, then head click right here (registration not required). Mass Effect (Xbox 360) review by Peter Gracar, copyright ©2007 GamingHeaven.net. Article republished with the sole permission of DriverHeaven, home of Driver Cleaner.
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