Mass Effect immerses players in an epic adventure with its incredible open-ended storyline, real-time character interaction and exciting tactical combat.

Mass Effect most certainly deserved winning Spike TV’s Video Game Awards for Best RPG of 2007. Never have I played a game that kept a game controller in my hands for 18 hours straight stopping only because the Xbox 360 overheated. Mass Effect, developed by BioWare (Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Forgotten Realms: Neverwinter Nights), is exciting and thrilling but most of all, addictive. I think I’m suffering from withdrawal having to write this review.

What makes Mass Effect so hard to put down is its immense, interactive storyline. With games ranging from $60-$70 and offering barely eight to ten hours of offline gameplay it’s hard to justify spending that kind of cash which makes it tough on gamers to “pick” which game to purchase. With Mass Effect I logged a whopping 42 hours of gameplay and immediately started another campaign. Mass Effect is a must-have for owners of the Xbox 360 video game system.

Game Summary

Mass Effect is a science fiction role-paying game (RPG) where gamers play as Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance Military and commands an elite squad throughout the galaxy. Along the way players will piece together clues to discover an ancient threat and battle Saren, a traitor, and his deadly army. Players will decide the fate of civilization by the choices they make throughout the game. Will you be a Paragon or a Renegade?

Game Features

In Mass Effect players can customize their character (gender and face) and choose from six base classes: the soldier (combat specialist), the engineer (tech specialist), the adept (biotic specialist), the sentinel (biotic/tech), the vanguard (biotic/combat) and the infiltrator (combat/tech). As with any RPG players also advance levels by accumulating experience points (XP) by defeating enemies, using a variety of skills and of course completing missions. Leveling up can be done manually or automatically.

Located in the center of the command deck of the Normandy, Commander Shepard’s spacecraft, lies the galaxy map which projects a holographic image of the galaxy. There are four levels to the map: galaxy, cluster, system and planetary. When you decide which planet to land on you will travel from point to point by way of the Mako, an infantry fighting vehicle (IFV). The IFV is equipped with a machine gun and cannon. Also, there’s a HUD that displays the shield levels, squad health and weapons and equipment for the Mako.

There are varying types of armor: light, medium and heavy as well as equipment: assault rifle, grenades, bio-amps, omni-tools, pistols, shotguns and my favorite, sniper rifles and again typical of an RPG it depends on which class you pick as to which armor you can wear and equipment to use. Players can upgrade each piece of their equipment by assigning them to specific upgrade slots.

And what would any good RPG from BioWare be without a gauge for good and evil. True to form there is a Paragon and Renegade meter. These meters track your decisions throughout the game. The Paragon meter will increase each time you choose to do what is right. The Renegade meter will increase each time you choose to be ruthless or selfish. Think Jedi/Sith.

Gameplay

There are a couple of issues with the controls, the location of the grenades and ineffective squad commands. For some reason, the select button controls your grenades and the left bumper to assigning you and your squad’s weapons. Many times you’ll need to throw a grenade, or two, while in the heat of combat and you may find yourself hitting the Xbox 360 button instead of select. The select button would have better served to assign weapons since players are likely to throw more grenades than to change weapons several times in the middle of a fight.

The squad commands (move, rally, target and take cover) aren’t very effective and can cause players to become frustrated enough to stop using them, To command your squad of two, players must use the directional pad (d-pad) which would be a great feature had the commands actually worked more often than not. What saves this is your squads’ artificial intelligence (AI). Unlike many games where the non-player characters AI have you wondering why they’re even tagging along, the squads AI in Mass Effect has them reacting in ways that actually help you along your mission. As you gain points and assign them to their experience, skills and upgrade their weapons they become more and more useful. Aside from these two issues everything else about Mass Effect is easy to learn and control.

Entertainment

Mass Effect is certainly one of the more entertaining games of 2007. There’s so much to do in Mass Effect from the main missions to the side missions including some human on alien romance and if that doesn’t entertain a player who knows what will.

Replay

With literally thousands of choices to make, missions and assignments to complete Mass Effect gives players a massive amount of reasons to re-visit it. Besides, killing the geth never gets old.

Bottom Line

Mass Effect is by far the best RPG of 2007 and with prices as they are this one is well worth the money. Mass Effect is pure entertainment.

Rating 1-10 (10 being the best)

9.75

If you enjoyed this article be sure to read more video game reviews on Suite 101.