Hello and welcome to my second review, or specifically second video game review. This time around I'll review a brilliant game, Mass Effect, by BioWare, the creators of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the upcoming game, Star Wars: The Old Republic. During this review, I shall grade Mass Effect based on graphics, gameplay, and setting.
Setting:
Mass Effect takes place in the distant future (in the year 2183) and the actual land that you can play on spans throughout the whole galaxy. As you progress through the game, you will eventually get your own space ship and travel to other places in the galaxy. For example, I could travel to the Local Cluster and visit, oh lets say... our moon, and land on it. Normally, there will be a side mission you can do on the planet (but there is an exception for the moon) such as retrieving a data card, killing intergalactic crime-lords and mercs, or explore mine shafts killing fearsome, robotic creatures, a.k.a the Geth. The place which you will probably spend most of your time is at the Citadel, a massive human-alien relay station. The Citadel is run by the Council, a 3 member group made of 3 different aliens (Salarian, Asari, and Turian).
Rating of Setting: 9.5
Gameplay:
Mass Effect is a squad based, semi-tactical shooter in which you can control your teammates (limited controlling). Though the shooting in the game doesn't feel as natural as other shooters which are a lot more fluid (eg, Call of Duty), it does have a cover system which is a big up when fighting enemies.
Mass Effect is an RPG, which BioWare has lots of experience with, so you would expect the RPG-elements of this game to be near-perfect, right? Well, it is! Though it isn't nearly as detailed as other games, like Fallout 3, it is perfect for ME. Every time you or your squad mates level up, you/they get two points to add to there upgrade sheet. You can upgrade your different weapons (both in how good you are using them and physical upgrades such as incendiary bullets or un-jammable radar), endurance, power, and much more.
The damage system in this game is also very good (not the best, but still, it's very good). Grenades, even though they get to there target, they oddly don't work well. The weapons (other than the sniper rifle) also have a problem. Although you shoot mostly at a persons head, they don't seem to take any more damage than if they would've gotten shot in the leg or upper body.
Another problem with the game that some people have is that they feel like the game is "too much talk, not enough action" which I found only somewhat true. Som
e also say ME " is just an interactive movie" which seems like an up to me. I personally think changing the course and ending of a movie would be awesome. But that's just me...Rating of Gameplay: 8.7
Graphics:
My, oh my, the graphic in this game are amazing. Explosions in this game aren't the best, but damn, they are good! The sky, the rocks, the water, the galaxy, it all looks straight-up beautiful (note: please excuse my gangsta talk in the previous sentences). The whole world is so detailed and intricate (not as detailed as Gears of War though) which actually does lead to a problem.
As I stated above, the graphics in this game do lead to a big problem which people who play GoW also deal with... graphic pop-ins. Since the world is all detailed and what-not, the details themselves take a second or two for it to load, specially in cut scenes.
Rating of Graphics: 8.5
Ups, Downs, and Overall:
+ Graphics are amazing
+ RPG-element is made near-perfect
+ Great game overall
(+ Also, it's a Platinum Hit)
<> You could say it is an interactive movie, which isn't bad, but some say it is.
- Graphic pop-ins
- Side mission planets are small
- The AI could be better
Overall: 8.9//10
So, you've read my review, now go out and buy ME (or at least rent it since it is a bit old and ME2 is going to be released in Q1 of 2010)!
I am about to buy this game. Also you are wrinting like CRAZY! It's been one day and you have 5 substantial posts! Keep it up! Liking the new colours. Also, do you write straight into the little box? Or do you use a word processor.
ReplyDeleteI use Microsoft Word because I often use a computer with no internet access. But that causes some formatting issues...
Yeah, I just go ahead and type into the blog's typing page. As you said, when you use MS Word, and try to Copy+Paste into another page, it creates some formatting issues.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the compliment! :D
One more thing, so far your posts are brief so you don't have to worry about it, but you might want to think about a picture or two.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is that if the picture is too big or there are too many, it is distracting from the writing. That is the last thing you want. Also, you're layout has some designs so that reduces the need for images.
But if you start wrting insanely long reviews like me you are going to want a picture or two. I usually put one picture for every 1000 words (if you're counting, MS word counts for me).
Pictures are annoying on blogger though. Screws up formatting.