Review - Mass Effect

[TeenageAznBoy]

I got this game on sale from steam a few days ago, and finished the game with the good ending and a romantic relationship with Ashley. I have to say playing this game at 1920x1080 w/ max settings is amazing. I hadn't ran into an crashes or major bugs in the game. I have to say this game is the best. Only problem that really annoyed me was dying and having to start a entire level all over again but I fixed that by making my side mouse button auto-save.

5/5 This game is worth every penny.

[Computergeew]

Mass effect is a great game personally, you can use the same character from your first play through, into the second play through (which means all your weapons/money come with you on your second play through). This makes a lot of aspects of the game extremely easy though. (I defeated a boss within 2 seconds by using explosive rounds on specter shotguns) though I still enjoy it, because of the RPG parts. I can change decisions of my character for different outcomes.

[AshED65]

I have Mass Effect for game is alot of fun but driving is a pain in the ass

[DWTerminator]

Yes, the driving is annoying.

[Clesarie]

Mic control man learn it. Stay at the same distance from the mic. Or normalise your audio.

[DWTerminator]

Actually it was mostly my recording program being stupid.

[bigbadpur3]

Have you thought about doing a Dragon Age review? A great yet overrated game imo, I'd like to hear your opinion on it :P

[DWTerminator]

Of course I have... Only one problem: I don't have it yet. Hard to review a game when you haven't played it yet huh?

[bigbadpur3]

Heh. I know, but I meant on the long run, doesn't have to be anytime soon.

[DWTerminator]

I plan on reviewing it as soon as possible... which is once I've finished the game. Since I don't have it yet it's kinda hard to review it.

[R1DDL3RS]

Hehe thats a good comment, But yeh DA:O would be an amazing review because nobody will want you to but it will get you loads of view! and its a great game and you wont regret buying it!

[DWTerminator]

Just reviewed it, actually.

[Izak80]

How demanding is this game. I have a Gigabyte GTX275, Intel Q9550 and 4Gb of ram. Do you think i will be able to play this game with high setting in resolution 1440x900 (which is the native resolution of my lcd-screen)?

[DWTerminator]

You'll be fine. Considering my Athlon 64 X2, 2GB Ram, and 8800GT can max the game, your system is perfectly fine.

[peterdimitri]

i sould work fine I do know when your OS has corupt files your game wil crash a lot.

i tried the game on 3 difrent OS. XP Vista and win 7. win7 did handle the best i dindt crash till that OS and i allmost finnist the game with no crashes.

[DWTerminator]

It crashed a lot due to graphics card drivers until this year (updated drivers fixed the problem).

Since I've updated my drivers it's run flawlessly apart from slowdown in spots (highly-populated areas).

[peterdimitri]

i am always up to date ;) i got a 295 GTX my self so that wont be the problem togethetr with a core i7 870 an 4 GB hi class corsair memory

[DWTerminator]

Well you don't have to worry about pushing that 295 GTX to the limit right now since nothing will advance beyond the capabilities of the 360 and PS3 (sadly... they never take advantage of the PC's far superior hardware anymore).

I get the feeling ME2 will be a rocky game to play when it's finally released next year... at least it probably will before they release a patch or two.

[peterdimitri]

yhea that the only problem with bioware games. the are awsome with stunning efects but ther engine is fucked xD and about my card yhea every game i ohn i can play full outr and my card will still be sleeping being bored xD

and yett i want the new fermi cards xD

[DWTerminator]

No, the engines are sound, they just haven't worked out the problems with them (esp. Mass Effect since they weren't part of the porting process). ME1 and 2 use the Unreal 3 engine (Unreal Tournament 3, Gears of War), but the PC version of ME1 was ported badly.

I can max Crysis without much difficulty, but it's not a desirable framerate (20-40 avg, while avg in DX9 is 25-50). They really just don't bother to take advantage of PC's like ours anymore.

[Celltypewhatkind]

it will play at max level, i have 4850 and have play at max in 1080pm its a good game u will like it

[bcroger2]

Good review but the whole review was taken in in level and the same environment.

4/5

[DWTerminator]

Uh yeah it's in the same level. It's how I do my reviews (I play the game and just record some footage from one of the first levels or via level selector or something... Just to show a general idea of what the game's like, not its entire diversity.). Anyway...

Glad you liked the review.

[Ashgamemaster]

Mass Effect best Xbox 360 game

[DWTerminator]

I prefer the PC version myself, but the core game itself is great regardless of platform.

[happosai27]

mass effect is really typical bioware quality ^^ i cant wait for part 2

[DWTerminator]

Yeah, if ME2 lives up to what they've billed it as, it should be even better than ME1.

[happosai27]

its made by bioware too right? so i have no doubt it will be at least same good. bioware is really like a guarantee for highest quality gameplay and storytelling. kotor1, neverwinternights, baldursgate and so on were all awesome and are classic today. the moment of kotor1 when you find out that you are revan was jawdropping lol i never saw it coming in a million years but it made sense

[DWTerminator]

Yep it is. BioWare really does a good job with the story aspect of games, though sometimes their gameplay is a bit awkward.

The plot twist in KotOR was epic, that's for sure.

[kedz20xx]

Great game! Combat system kicks ass. I can't wait for ME2!

[DWTerminator]

Yeah, ME2 looks epic from what they've shown so far. Combat looks a lot more fluid in it too (and we get heavy weapons this time!), so hopefully it'll be even better than the first.

[Medatron19]

i foung this game awesome. i liked the voice acting pretty much. the story is great. the only thing that sucked a little was that u had not that much liberty, the quest were pretty short not like oblivion and fallout 3. i dont know why but mass effect kept crashing on my pc(i have nvidia 9500gt 512mb 2GB ram and xp sp3) Also the combat system for an rpg was pretty awesome. Good review Keep it up!!

[DWTerminator]

They fixed the most common crashing issue with the latest nVidia drivers. Glad you liked the review and the game!

[co19crazynathanel]

ok the only rpg i have played is fallout 3 i am no where near completing it( i am trying to do all the quest ) and i have put about 20 hours into it; so how long well it take may to finnish mass effect on the pc?

[DWTerminator]

Well... depends on how much you try to do. If you do every single quest and all the exploration there's probably 20-35+ hours of gameplay. The main story isn't all that long, but it's definitely excellent.

[co19crazynathanel]

ok thanks 20-35 hours is very good for me that should last me a while considring gta san took me over 5 months to finnish

[co19crazynathanel]

also can this be played with the rumble controler for the pc ?

[DWTerminator]

Should be able to be played with that, but I dunno why you'd want to. Mass Effect on 360 was plagued by sluggish controls that a keyboard and mouse fixed.

[co19crazynathanel]

i just like the controerl for games like this

[DWTerminator]

Mass Effect has pretty solid PC controls with the keyboard and mouse, but the 360 controller makes it sluggish. You don't have all the hotkeys that are on the keyboard.

[zebure]

@DWTerminator i wouldt agre on that, becose of that mass effect has an quite simpel control scheme that the 360 are quite good on handle, third person type of control scheme, with some few extra buttons for the "mag/item inventori"

I would agre that games like doa work much better with keyboard and mouse.

[DWTerminator]

Most players will confirm that the controls on PC are much more comfortable than on the console. That doesn't mean 360's controls don't work, but they're just not as robust as the PC's.

[xBrunTechx]

@DWTerminator i have it on both, and i prefer the xbox controls, but hate the framerate issues

[IrishGodThe4th]

ya but what about kotor or fallout 3?

[DWTerminator]

KotOR isn't an action RPG (it's actually closer to NWN and uses the d20 system), and Fallout 3 is basically an open-world FPS with a pretty weak stat system (sorta like STALKER only not as huge and the stats aren't all that game-altering). KotOR is about average length for an RPG at roughly 20 hours. Fallout 3's not much longer unless you explore every nook and cranny of the game world.

[IrishGodThe4th]

yes but what is 10 hours in comparrison with 6 hours?

[DWTerminator]

4 hours more. I said it already: Mass Effect's not supposed to be long. It's got real time combat that can be considered a third-person-shooter perspective. Thus, it appeals to a broader audience than RPG gamers.

You want to play a long game? Try Arcanum. I *still* haven't totally beaten it (I got it in 02) and it's about 50 hours of gameplay *per playthrough*. Then again every time I've tried to play through I had hardware problems or bugs stopped me in my tracks (pre-patch, mind you).

[IrishGodThe4th]

Yes but 4 hours is a long time in a video game especially these days

[DWTerminator]

No it's not. I beat Rainbow Six Vegas 2 in one sitting without even needing a bathroom break. It's 7 hours long (that's about average these days). I don't want to pay much for a short game (unless it's REALLY good).

Average for RPG's is roughly between 20-30 hours if you do all the quests. Shooter average is between 6-8 hours. Strategy games are considerably longer, with often 40+ hours as an average. I've spent weeks (maybe 5 or 6 hours a day total) playing single games of Medieval 2.

[IrishGodThe4th]

yes, what i meant was 4 hours is more than half of your game

[DWTerminator]

Math wins. If the game is 10 hours long, 5 would be half of it. If you meant that the story is more than half the game, you'd be right, but as you've phrased it, you've implied that 4 is greater than 50% of 10, when it's actually 40%.

[IrishGodThe4th]

No the game was 6-8 hours!

[DWTerminator]

No, it's not THAT short. It's 10-20 depending on how much extra stuff you do.

[IrishGodThe4th]

If we are still talking about Mass Effect I beat it in 7 hrs 26 mins. I liked the story a lot though.

[DWTerminator]

The story in Mass Effect isn't all that long, but being an RPG veteran I do all the extra quests and stuff. Thus my game is longer than yours. And yes, the story was excellent (though I liked the characters the most... namely Tali).

[triforceworshiper]

Even so, I have completed the majority of the game (at least 75%) three times and still have only put 60 hours on the game. Compared to really any good RPG Mass Effect is very short. It makes up for it in a well written story, believable and relateable characters, and a plethra (?) of dialogue

[DWTerminator]

Plethora.

[triforceworshiper]

Thanks

[IrishGodThe4th]

I wasn't talking about length, it was just a great story

[ekv4ever]

But good reviews!

[ekv4ever]

I hate when you say something that starts with P

[DWTerminator]

I can understand that one. When I say something that begins with P the mic registers the breath I release to make the sound. It's only like that because my mic is crappy and needs to be really close to my mouth in order to work correctly. Sorry 'bout that.

[3t3rnallight]

wat r u talking about with the crashes on pc? played through it lik 3 times all good love it

[DWTerminator]

Since I made this review nVidia released drivers that fix the constant crashing problem. It's an amazing game, but thanks to that crashing issue it was unplayable (obviously it's playable now).

[sargentnoob]

I know, but how meny of them have freandly npcs on them think about t hat.

[DWTerminator]

You do have a point there. One of the selling points about the game is the exploration though. I will admit that it's kinda lonely in the game as far as friendly NPC's go.

[sargentnoob]

My only  beef with the game, is that there are not many citys and places to buy shit.

[DWTerminator]

That's definitely annoying, but the guy who sells stuff on your ship kinda makes up for that in my opinion.

[sargentnoob]

Like maybe, if they let you go to planets like earth or mars then I would be ok with it, but you can only go on like what, 3 planets that you can stay on for th intier game.

[DWTerminator]

You can actually go to dozens of planets, but only a very small number are actually used in the main plot.

[DiseasedHealthHazard]

Great review. Only problem is it seems your mic goes in and out and it's hard to hear ya sometimes.

[DWTerminator]

Yeah, my headset broke so the mic's been effed up for a while now. Sorry about that, I'll replace the headset when I get the money for it.

[HardWarUK]

(Cont) A simple rule for an RPG is 'do locations have multiple entries for multiple characters. I.e back entrance to 'sneak' into, front guard able to be 'persuaded' to let you in, and good NPC fighting AI to give you a good fight if you are a 'warrior' type. If there's only one way in, and if the set up is just variations on 'warrior', it can't be an RPG.

[DWTerminator]

It's harder to do multiple entries for a futuristic game than say, a medieval game. For instance, look at Knights of the Old Republic. You could hardly get through much of the game without being an über warrior or Force user. If you were one of those diplomacy types, you were screwed.

Like I said, Mass Effect is an action-RPG. I will agree that it is too reliant on the combat aspect of the game, but it's still an RPG technically.

[tamriel462]

Actually I'd say a better test for a game's RPGness is whether you have any choices and if so, how those choices affect the game. Play Mass Effect through a couple of times with different dialog choices and the story really will change a lot. Also, if you choose a different class your approach to combat will change a fair bit too.

[HardWarUK]

Don't think the change is that great. Especially when it comes to just having 3 very slight versions of the same character to play. Compare the guilds and 100's of NPC's and 100's of enemies and the speech options and the armor and weapon options, etc of an Oblivion, with the the same shallow options in Mass Effect. They can't BOTH be RPG's!

[DWTerminator]

Oblivion has three main classes: mage, warrior, and stealth. That's it. All the other classes are slight variations of the others. Your gameplay and speech really don't change much, the gear isn't very customizable, and the enemies end up being repeats of the same old things you fought twelve levels ago.

Technically, Mass Effect is an ACTION-RPG, not an RPG in the typical sense. I can't repeat myself enough, apparently.

[tamriel462]

When I said choice, I was talking more about story choices rather than gameplay choices. Oblivion barely has any story choices with very limited dialog. NPCs are generic. While in ME, you can actually change what kind of character you are. So while ME is an action rpg, it's very much in the rein of traditional CnC RPGs such as Fallout and Planescape. Also, I don;t see why they can't both be RPGs. Half Life 2 is heavily scripted while Crysis is freeform. Does that mean they both can't be FPSs?

[DWTerminator]

Crysis isn't freeform. It's a pretty linear FPS, just like HL2. In fact, I haven't really seen a freeform FPS. Closest that came to it was Far Cry 2, but it's still sorta linear since you have to do story missions to advance the game any further. ME's choices are completely related to dialog and story. Only thing I've noticed between differing characters is that your style of play changes from say charging in guns blazing to sneaking up and sniping.

[IrishGodThe4th]

yes but you can beat this in 6 hours

[DWTerminator]

Yes, the main story can be beaten pretty quickly, but most people don't just play the story mode. They go on the side quests which add a few hours to the gameplay.

[IrishGodThe4th]

the side quests are mainly just looking for things on barren wastelands, not my kind of thing

[DWTerminator]

Then you'll have to get used to short RPG's. That's the way games are these days since gaming went basically mainstream. As much as I hate it, the only long RPG's are likely to come from Japan, and those tend not to be all that great (although the Tales series is excellent and Final Fantasy has its gems).

Besides, Mass Effect wasn't really designed as a long game. It's an action-RPG after all, and those tend to be relatively short (unless they're Dungeon Siege... ugh).

[HardWarUK]

(Cont) This means STALKER should be considered an RPG! Patently, a game that gives multiple conversation routes can be considered an adventure and third person linear tactical shooting is absolutely action, this makes ME an action adventure. By accepting it's an RPG is inviting less deep RPG's and more of these Action Adventures. Up until 5 years ago, everyone knew what an RPG was. Now the term has been bastardized and I am surprised you have bought into this lie by Bioware and gaming media.

[DWTerminator]

Actually ME is considered an action-RPG. It has a pretty effective stat system, but combat is truly the major gameplay element. Action-adventure games don't have character customization like this, nor do they play like RPG's apart from combat.

STALKER's not an RPG. It's an FPS. By your logic Far Cry 2 should be an RPG, and it's not. ME is still an RPG, but it's action-oriented.

[HardWarUK]

I would say that if any of the 'stats' had anything to do with the game I would agree. But you can make your diplomacy 100% in this game and the game will be practically the same. You get an option to 'persuade' one of your enemies, but it always ends in a fight, because the missions are shooters, not RPG's.

[HardWarUK]

Firstly, I have Realtek HD audio, and have had no problems with the game, you might want to update your drivers via your motherboard website.

Secondly, after your NWN and Underhorde I am disappointed that you buy into ME being an RPG. As a long time RPG'er there is no way I see ME as an RPG. It is is an Action Adventure. Even Tomb Raider gave you many ways to reach your target; ME gives you a linear route in every mission! Today, it seems an inventory of weapons and armor means it's an RPG!

[new9876]

i wanted to buy this game but since the tech problems im not gonna buy it any more, does some one know a cool rpg for me?

[DWTerminator]

Depends on your tastes. What games do you normally play?

[new9876]

well i play/played about all genres, games such as guildwars,wow, warcraft COD series.far cry 2,BF series, nfs series but when it comes to RPG's it doesnt really matter the only thing that i whant in RPG's is that the story is good and the combat is not boring and that its just fun and also that the story line is long,

thx in advance.

[DWTerminator]

Well the Tales series (Tales of Phantasia, Symphonia, Vesperia, etc.) is pretty good for combat and long stories. Knights of the Old Republic is an excellent game as well, but it's relatively short compared to other RPG's like Tales and Arcanum (which you're probably hard-pressed to find anymore but ranks at #1 on my best RPG's of all time list).

[new9876]

thx dude

[DWTerminator]

No problem.

[eatkeniii]

Thanks for Heads up on the GenProtection faults. I was planning on gettiing this when i get my new GC. and whats securom?

[DWTerminator]

SecuROM is intrusive DRM that is basically a rootkit. When you install the game, it installs itself deep within your Windows files. If you delete SecuROM, you can't play any games that use it. It usually has install limits (current going rate is 5) so that you can't install the game more than the allotted number of times without buying new activations. Basically it's an attempt to eliminate the resale market, as it serves no anti-piracy purpose whatsoever.

No problem on the heads-up.

[eatkeniii]

Now that is a bunch BS. If i buy a game its mine to install as many times as i want The Home Video Market Tried this a while back by making DVD's that erased themselve after X views. It pissed people off & didnt fly. I doubt this will either. Figures EA would try something similar. They are the gaming equivalent of the Nazi's after all. I have a funy pick of The EA logo Transforming into the Nazi Flag. Hile EA!!!

[MrVersipellis]

Yup, that's about right. But I believe only EA's modified version has limited installs. Some SecuROM games have unlimited installs. I accidently installed some SecuROM games, thinking only EA used it... But I haven't had any trouble with non-EA versions myself. I'm not a pirate (my friend is thought) so it doesn't detect Emulation software. It's a useless but of software!

[DWTerminator]

Well emulation software doesn't conflict with SecuROM... certain disc writing programs do.

But yeah, when I buy a game I want to install it on any PC I own as many times as I want. It's pretty sad when you can't install a game on say... your desktop and laptop without taking up 2 of 5 installs. Then of course if your hard drive crashes or you reformat, too bad! So far my only SecuROM games are Far Cry 2 and Mass Effect (SecuROM is on the Steam version too) and I hope they're the only ones.

[MrVersipellis]

Agreed.

Gosh, they even put SecuROM on Steam versions?! But Steam's already a DRM platform that actually works... Geez...

My understanding was that programs like Alchohol 120% and Daemon Tools were Blackslisted as Emu software and conflicted with SecuROM, as well as certain burners like Nero and perhaps Roxio.

I won't buy any games with limited installs. I buy games with Tages, Steam and Safedisc, and unwilling SecuROM. But like I said a while back, no EA games for me.

[Karakta]

Really ? So if for some reason, I have to reinstall the game 6 times it won't run ??

[DWTerminator]

Yep. You'd have to call tech support, who'd probably bill you as a pirate like they did with a guy who bought Spore back when it had 3 installs.

[MrVersipellis]

Yay! Terminator's back!

Good choice of game to review - BioWare.

Althought EA own them now... :-(

[DWTerminator]

Yeah, sorry about my "absence," but you wouldn't believe how difficult it was to get footage from Mass Effect (it crashes that much). Sucks that EA owns BioWare now... pretty much ruins any more releases.

[MrVersipellis]

Amen to that. D20 RPG's really don't have a possible savior anymore (Black Isle are dead and gone).

[jbuscher09]

good review man but you gotta work on your audio

[DWTerminator]

Yeah, I know. Glad you liked the review though.

[mesidonaa]

your voice gets very quiet at times which is annoying, but good review anyway

[DWTerminator]

Yeah, Audacity kept messing up on me so sorry about that.

[toasterinthetub]

The Xbox version has a lot of glitches too. It ruined the game for me.

[DWTerminator]

Minor glitches, I don't mind. The constant crashing is what kills the experience for me.