Chris Priestly
Community Coordinator
Joined: 17 Oct 2001
From: Behind an Evil desk in Marketing |
 Posted: Friday, 06 June 2008 03:55PM |
As more and more people play Mass Effect for the PC they are coming to the forums and posting their impressions of the game. What they liked, what they didn't like, and their scores for the game. We had a thread open for fan reviews that mostly focussed on the Xbox 360 version, now we're making one for the PC. You can read the previous feedbacks here: Click Here
So please post your fan review of Mass Effect for the PC here. Please follow the basic guidelines below.
Fan review rules:
A) Give it a score out of 10. 10/10, 2/10, 8.5/10 whatever you think the game deserves.
B) Do NOT post any spoilers in your review. Saying "I liked playing on Ferros" is fine. Saying "I liked playing on Ferros because when I was doing the X mission..." is not fine.
C) This is not the place to debate a persons review. If they liked or disliked something you felt differently about, that is their opinion.
D) The more detail in your reviews the better. Posting "I give it 10/10" is very nice, but saying why you give it 10/10 (or why you dislike it) is even better. Yes, disliking Mass Effect is fine as long as you explain why. Simply saying "0/10! It suxx!" is not valid.
e) Please obey all standard forum rules.
So let us hear back from you and tell us what you think. Thanks everyone. 
_________________
Like a great predatory piano, I sit silent in the darkness. Until it is time to attack and then I strike in a cacophony of violence and ivory keys. | 
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JeffNichols
Game Owner
 Jade Empire:SE
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 30 May 2008 |
Posted: Saturday, 07 June 2008 10:09PM |
I'll start off bluntly: people are overreacting to the DRM. You're allowed 3 activations and if you need more than that, you can call EA customer support and explain your situation. Given what a PR disaster the DRM has been, I doubt they'll be anything but accommodating. Moreover, after a certain amount of time activations will automatically free up for you to use. The online activation was, for me, completely unnoticed. I had the game installed and running well faster than most other PC games.
Tragically overshadowed by the DRM is one of the greatest games to hit the PC in years. Anyone who loved Knights of the Old Republic or Jade Empire will be in heaven when playing Mass Effect. There is something in this game for everyone, and I cannot praise it enough. I wholeheartedly recommend you stop reading now and buy it. If you need more proof, read on.
Visuals/ performance: My system consists of an AMD 6400+, an 8800 GTS 640 MB, and 2 gigs of RAM, using the 175.12 drivers. Not the best system, but far from the worst. Throughout the entire game performance exceeded 60 FPS with settings maxed at 1680 x 1050, with 8X CSAA. Bioware truly did a great job optimizing the game for PC and for choosing when to minimize and maximize details.
(If you're experiencing performance problems on decent systems, make sure you have the latest video and audio drivers, along with the latest version of direct X. This game is exceptionally stable and well-performing-- if not, odds are the problem is on your end.)
The graphics are certainly above average. Character models and faces look nearly as good as those in Crysis, and for the most part the environment textures are pretty good. You will, sadly, see some extremely low poly trees off in the distance, or perhaps a low-resolution background texture. Thankfully, These weaknesses are hidden by liberal use of depth of field, motion blur, and bloom effects. In short, the game does a great job of choosing where to spend your system's power. The end result is a game that is absolutely beautiful with amazing performance.
Unlike most recent PC games, I experienced NO random crashes or glitches while playing, even with overclocks. It's worth noting that there is a "film grain" effect that is on by default. It makes the game look somewhat more like a movie, but I personally hated it. I've noticed some other reviewers complaining about the "grainy, ugly, textures". Odds are they just didn't figure out how to disable "film grain" under video settings.
The gameplay is immensely fun and satisfying. You get a pretty standard set of weapons: a pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, and sniper rifle. All are useful and enjoyable; I was particularly a fan of the sniper rifle. The cover system is very similar to Gears of War, minus all the crazy dodging: you can take cover against a wall, rock, etc, and then shoot out around it. Simple, but fun. I turned the aim assist completely off, and I was impressed at how good Mass Effect was at being a shooter. Usually when RPG and shooter mix, both are weakened; in Mass Effect, I found the opposite. For RPG-fans who may not be as keen to shooters, you can turn the aim assist all the way up and hardly have to worry about aiming.
The RPG aspects, in my opinion, are very well developed. Instead of using a more standard RPG system (Fortitude, Strength, Endurance...), you get a simple chart featuring each skill or ability that you can level up. Everything is explained in detail, and it is a very simple system. I imagine those who are new to RPGs would have no problem with it, while there is still tons of depth for those of us who are keen to it.
The story is simply amazing. It lives up to its label as a "science-fiction epic". The dialogue system is the best ever created, hands down, and keeps you paying more attention to the story, the characters, and your own choices than you have ever before. I obviously can't go into too much detail, but rest assured that it is at least as good as the first Knights of the Old Republic.
Morality choices have been popular for a while now, but BioWare makes things a bit more serious. You are given choices that have no clear good or bad choice-- I actually had to stop a few times and think about what I was going to do. Other times, of course, there is a good thing to do, and a bad thing to do-- as there should be. There is black and white, but more importantly, there is gray. The ending, I will say, is not a cliffhanger or some other garbage. It is well done in the way that A New Hope is well done. It leaves room for the sequels, but does not set it up frustratingly (like Crysis, for example, or BioShock).
The people moaning that this is "an obvious port" are looking for an excuse to complain. I can honestly say that I don't think this game would be any different had it been designed exclusively for PC. It takes a bit to get used to because it is a very unique game, but the UI is great for PC, and you have all the settings and video options you would expect. It performs and looks very good... people will just complain about anything. Bioware is already working on a patch, preparing to provide us with free downloadable content, and promising to support this game for years to come like they've done with all of their games in the past (Neverwinter nights is getting a new patch soon and its 6 years old. Have some faith in a great developer!). This is a better PC game than most that are developed exclusively for PC. The UI adjustments, ability to select hot keys, and improved squad management and inventory really make this a better game than the 360 version, and a game suited perfectly to the PC.
Now I will briefly describe the things that kept this game from being absolutely perfect. These issues are small, and honestly did not make the game any worse while playing-- just minor things that I'd like to see corrected via patches. 1) It took a bit of a hassle to set up hot-keys other than 1-8, which I prefer to keep my weapons on. 2) I'd like to be able to use WASD and the mouse on the galaxy map; not just the mouse. 3) We can already select anisotropic filtering, but allow us to change it from the default of 4. We already can by going into the config file (my documents/ bioware/ masseffect/ bioengine.cfg) same goes for trilinear filtering. 4) an option to automatically equip Shephard and the squad with the best weapons/mods available for those that don't feel like worrying about the RPG aspects. 5) The Mako has some terrible physics. doesn't really detract from gameplay, but its a bit funny to watch. 6) Self-shadowing is a bit blocky. I'd like an option to disable self-shadowing and only leave other dynamic shadows, along with an option to increase shadow-filtering quality to get rid of blockiness. You can also already do this by editing config files.
The last major reason to buy this game, I'd argue, is the replayability. There are 3 very different classes in Mass Effect-- the soldier, tech specialist, and biotic, and 3 classes that offer a mixture of each. Every one offers a totally different experience. More over, various achievements you unlock allow you to start the game with different skills than would normally be allowed. For example, if you get 150 kills with a sniper rifle, you get an achievement. You can then start a game with a character that wouldn't normally be able to use a sniper rifle and unlock the ability. This applies to all sorts of skills and talents, along with armor and weapons. You can also choose to replay the game with a character you already beat the game with, allowing you to keep your equipment, skills, and levels. Enemies will be scaled to your difficulty, allowing you to keep playing with a particularly fun character, or to take one to the max level of 60. Mass Effect is an extremely replayable game. With the first set of downloadable content coming out for free soon, and other content coming later (and the promise of continued support and updates from BioWare), the deal is only getting better.
I'll say it one last time: this is a game that you should buy, play, and love. If you let some silly DRM sway you, or a bunch of idiots who reviewed the game without playing it themselves: your loss.
Overall:
9/10 for enjoyable gameplay, amazing story, and great graphics.Edited By JeffNichols on 06/07/08 22:10 | |
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Trackah123
Game Owner
 Mass Effect PC
Joined: 04 Jun 2008 |
Posted: Sunday, 08 June 2008 12:15AM |
After finishing the game i have to admit, out of a score of 0 - 10 i give it a 20!!
This is simply the best game i ever played, its like playing a realtime cgi-movie or something, because it feels so big and it felt like i was really in that game myself, something i dont have often. Last time i had this feeling a bit was in the game "Crysis"
MEPC Sounds/Graphics/Storyline everything is really great. Character graphics are one of the best i ever seen.
Anyway besides all of this at the bottom of my heart i say and i mean this, SUPERB GAME  Bioware and everyone else that made this game possible congrats. This game is definately worth every single penny.
_________________
Mass Effect PC OMG great game Edited By Trackah123 on 06/08/08 00:21 | |
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Mazuk79
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 28 May 2008 |
Posted: Sunday, 08 June 2008 05:14AM |
I have played alot of games in my life and I love this game. I would have to give it a 9/10 and the only reason it lost some was cause it was kinda of short. I am just hoping that the downloadable content will keep the game going. I have beaten it already and will more and likely be playing it again as something else.
I wish there was more to do as in like assignments and stuff and I wish after the main story was over you could keep going for different assignments and stuff but all in all its an awesome game. I bout it the day it come out just haven't had much time but a couple of hours a night to play.
Keep up the good work and thanks for an awesome game and please give me more content I need to play lol.. | |
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moogleii
Game Owner
 Mass Effect PC
Joined: 19 Oct 2005 |
Posted: Sunday, 08 June 2008 08:31AM |
Overall, 9 out of 10. I had a lot of issues at first (GPF's, black screen crashes, stuttering audio) that drove me nuts for the first hours of gameplay, but after updating drivers and directx, it improved significantly (still got the stuttering audio occasionally).
Originally I was going to fault the game for what I felt was jagged story development (no spoilers, don't worry). I thought it was just moving way too quickly, even if each segment was nicely detailed and voice acted. I had fond memories of Baldur's Gate II, which seemed to be much more smooth (but that could be just biased nostalgia). But in the end, I just finished Mass Effect, and man, pretty epic, almost like a movie, actually.
While I still think the story was jagged, I think if it had been any smoother, Mass Effect would have been ridiculously long. And these days, I just don't have that much time to sink into a game. Ah, to be a student again. It was actually pretty close to the perfect amount of game time for me, and with the good relevant story to gameplay ratio, I was always kept interested (and insanely addicted, productivity totally disappeared this past week). In comparison, I haven't even bothered finishing the last few Final Fantasy games, even when I get to near the end. By then, I've totally lost interest, and I fear the same would have happened with Mass Effect had it been significantly longer. Well, unless you guys could maintain the story to game play ratio as well as you guys did, but I imagine dev time would have been increased too greatly. It helps that Mass Effect's combat actually requires having a pulse. I used to be a huge Final Fantasy fan, but these days, the combat just doesn't interest me. And the last iteration I played seemed like it was heading towards basic SQL management or small case statement scripts.
I should mention that I did play several side missions. It's possible that if I hadn't, the game would have been too short. I think there could have been more effort to tie in side missions into the main storyline (I'm not sure how one would do that though). In the spirit of the main story, I wasn't originally going to do any side missions because of the sense of urgency. The side missions seemed to have the moral equivalency of stopping by a Starbucks to get a coffee before heading over and saving your friend from his burning house. Also, not a big deal, but the M35 driving mechanics could be greatly improved. It felt like a tank that handled like a squirrely sports car.
Anyway, to wrap things up, Mass Effect is probably one of the best game I've played in recent memory (but I haven't played too many lately). The last AAA single-player title I played was probably Half Life 2: Episode 1, and unfortunately, FPS's like that are too played out in my book. The unengaging mechanics resulted in me just running and gunning through the game to extract story ASAP, and I found myself not really entertained. It definitely didn't have as good of a story to game ratio (and it was a pretty short game). I'm eagerly looking forward to Mass Effect 2 (assuming you guys haven't handed it off).
Oh yeah, I also wanted to give props to the music, voice acting, audio effects, graphics...dang, pretty much everything and everyone behind it.Edited By moogleii on 06/08/08 08:52 | |
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Kazutoyo
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Jade Empire:SE
NWN 2
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 18 Nov 2002 |
Posted: Sunday, 08 June 2008 01:58PM |
Been playing it thru twice now.
First, some technical talk.
The game isn't particulary demanding. I have an (almost) 4 year old AMD 3500+ and a Radeon X1600 Pro (below minimum requirements) and the game is very playable for me in 1024x768. Some texture popping here and there, but not annoying or anything.
There is, however, some issues with the sound stuttering during dialogues sometimes, which has been reported on these forums as well. I tried a Bioengine.ini fix for it, as recommended by someone on this forum, but it didn't help. It doesn't really distract much from the whole game experience, though, so I don't mind, that much, even if it is annoying.
As for the DRM, I'm still peeved about the limited activations, even if I haven't experienced it yet. But I've had some issues with SecuROM. Sometimes when I launch the game I get a "A required security module cannot be activated. This program cannot be executed (6000)" error, which is quite annoying. But I just keep launching the game until that error doesn't pop up, which takes about 2-5 tries.
Right, that's the technical stuff. On to the actual game.
The combat is quite fun and exciting. I think it works really well, even if the combat AI can do less intelligent things now and then. Fortunately, that doesn't happen particulary often.
The story, the writing, the characters, the voice actors and the dialogues (and their choices) are all excellent. No complaints there.
When I first read about Wrex in the game codex, my reaction was "no way I'm gonna walk around with a meanie like that in my party!", but when I met him he was really cool, and I kept using him for the rest of the game. While not all characters are as cool as Wrex, they are fleshed out and have a nice depth to them.
The music is very good too, but there are moments when the music can become a bit too monotonous and boring, like a certain battle song. Infact, can't think of any non-battle song I didn't like. Some combat area songs would have benefited greatly if they offered more variation.
The biggest fault of the game is the side-quests and the planet exploring. While the main quest of the game got me hooked thru the game, the side quests are often boring and exploring the planets is very boring. When I first saw the star map I was excited about exploring and visiting the places, but it didn't take very long until that changed, as I felt all the planets seemed to be pretty much the same. Now with my 2nd character I've forced myself thru all the planets and side quests, and the only one worth doing is the spoiler thanks to the reward. There's simply not anything to motivate the player to explore them, unless the player is dumb like me and decides to finish all the collect quests.
It would have been nicer if more effort had been made into making another detailed main quest planet, or maybe another city planet. Cause that's another thing I found a bit dissapointing, there aren't many cities in the game besides the Citadel.
The main quest alone, despite it's greatness, is also fairly short, especially compared to the older Bioware titles. So fleshing it out with another planet or two would have given it a more desirable lenght.
Two other minor nitpicks. It's impossible to skip the cutscenes. Why? After playing thru the game once, I found myself pressing Esc to skip several cutscenes, but it never happened.
The space key is used to skip dialogue. The space key is also used to pick a dialogue choice. This is a bad setup as it can easily make the player to make undesirable dialogue choices. If the player had to use the mouse button to pick a dialogue choice, this would not happen.
Right, maybe it looks like I'm nitpicking on the bad stuff, but since most things are so good, it's easier to focus on the bad stuff 
Overall it's a very good game, which gives the player a fair chunk of entertainment. I give it 8.5 of 10. Great game, but the uninteresting side quests and the boring planet exploring takes it down slightly. | |
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NecrontyrXV
Game Owner
 Mass Effect PC
Joined: 20 May 2008 |
Posted: Sunday, 08 June 2008 04:51PM |
Technical aspects
This game runs very well on my lower end PC, with Tectures almost on full and at 1024x768 it runs smoothly with textures only taking a second to load when the game is started. There are some occasional dialogue break downs but these are infrequent. The only bugs I've found have been at the end of mini cut-scenes where the game does not fully start back again and reloading is required.
9/10
Graphics
Two things:
Brilliant textures
The graphical options fully immerse you in the game
I think that's about it
10/10
Sound
An amazing soundtrack coupled with very good sound effects and voice acting
10/10
Gameplay
This is where my few complaints surface, the combat system works well, the tactical controls are good but they don't seem necessary, I forget about using the spacebar to pause the game for about 5 hours until I hit it by accident . The saving controls aren't overly brilliant, some combats have turned out to be suprisingly hard and it is difficult to judge what's through a door. The Mako is not as difficult to drive as others have made out, I enjoy using it and it's entertaining to watch it fly around over rocks. The galaxy map is another minor issue, having to travel to a system before being allowed to examine what planets are in it becomes tedious when not knowing which system to travel to.Otherwise, everything works well.
7/10
Storyline
The Storyline is incredibly well written, emotional and a heck of a lot better than any other game I've played, ever. I had literally just completed a sidequest before writing this review which turned out to be one of the most tragic idequests I've ever done despite being quite short. The main quest is enthralling,all the little things in it combine well although I'm only partway through, I'm looking forward to seeing how it ends. The massive amount of dialogue options supplement everything well and it makes the game incredibly immersive, I've never known a game when I haven't just skipped the dialogue options
10/10
Overall
Mass Effect is one of the best games I've ever played and definately the best RPG I've played, I look forward to the future content.
9.5/10 | |
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casadechrisso
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
Jade Empire:SE
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 01 Jun 2005 |
Posted: Monday, 09 June 2008 03:25AM |
Time to lower the score a little. Mind that I just finished the game a few hours ago and I'm still a little "shaken".
Let's start with the technical stuff (or, the praise first):
The game s not too demanding and runs smooth as silk at 1600x1200, highest settings (using a Mac Pro with 2x2Ghz Xeon and GF 8800GT - Xeons are not much faster, if any, than a normal Core 2 Duo, so I guess that makes it an average gaming PC). The game crashed just two times, which is almost perfect, and gave me no other difficulties either.
The graphics are not the latest and greatest, but more than satisfying. Textures are wonderful, only some armor and clothing could've been a little higher-res. Got some very minor shadow glitches, mostly on faces, and some minor clipping issues with hair in some scenes, all barely noticeable. Sadly, a lot of the interiors were not on par with the rest (I guess hat falls under "area design"). They looked quite boring and outdated and could've been from a 6 year old game.
As for the DRM, we'll see how it turns out. I'm one of those people who reinstall their system quite often, especially Windows always seems to behave like a chain smoker who's constantly ruining his health... I'd say, 6 months until I first have to re-activate the game, and if I choose to install it on my laptop too, it won't take much longer than a year until I'll constantly call EA - and boy I'll be p*ssed if that's not a free call!
The positive aspect though: No DVD required to play. Finally. I've been waiting for this day too long.
Now let's get started with the gameplay:
Character creation: Very very nice. I can spend an hour or longer on that part alone, it's fun and gives a lot of freedom. Just one minute in the game and already a great start. The backstory options though... well, they fit into the storyline, and I'll get to that part later.
Anyway, the game starts, the first cutscenes come up and I'm amazed. Wonderful cinematics, good voice acting, great animations, lipsync... perfect.
The way the player is tought the game mechanics is good, although, for a complete newbie who hasn't played KOTOR etc. it's a little overwhelming. I actually played KOTOR, but it was very long ago and I can't even find my copy anymore, so it took me a while to get used to all of it. Maybe that's why the first fights were so frustrating.
Yeah, first fights. The first real drawback. Until I got used to all the options and tactical stuff, I was already close to throw the game into the bin. Every encounter was an orgy of reloads. Maybe that was also due to the freedom of traveling. I think I picked out some heavy fights way too soon. Later in the game the whole thing turned around and every fight was a cakewalk... maybe I should've followed the main storyline first and do the side quests later, but how am I supposed to know?
I think there are some serious balancing issues nevertheless. My first game hours were horrible, while later the toughest bossfights rarely required a reload anymore - I think the final one got me two times, but it wasn't really bad either.
That brings me to the AI. Now that is horrible. Watching Ashley stupidly firing into a big rock instead of taking one step left and hitting here target was just sad. Squad members are absolutely dumb without detailed micromanagement. Enemies are worse. Stupidly rushing in and ganging up on you, standing in a long row in front of you waiting for the first in the line to fall so they can be next, barely considering taking cover or jumping around mindlessly... frustrating and absolutely not immersive.
Now to the quests and story, and that's where I probably disagree with most others.
To sum it up in one sentence - I was really disappointed.
The details: I don't even know where to start first, especially without spoilers. Let's start with a few thoughts I had during the game.
1. Noah Gordon, Ken Follet and Bioware. What's the point? Oh, yes...If you've ever read those authors you might have an idea... you write one book that is highly entertaining and a great success, and you simply rewrite the same book with a few minor alterations (setting, names, type of plot twists) and the fans will buy and praise it. You read it and run from one Dejà-vu to the next, and at some points you think there could've been a little more effort in hiding the older version.
I can't point my fingers on specific scenes, but throughout the whole game I had those dejà-vues. Especially with my squad members and their storylines. I've been through the same old "find out more about my henchies" dialogues, with all the "wait until next chapter until I answer that question" in each and every Bioware (and Obsidian and followers) game and it's getting kinda old. Especially because those characters are always the same bunch anyway. Going through that felt like I was playing Mass Effect for the 6th time already, I just knew exactly how it works and when would be the best point to try again. And the stories, even though slightly altered, are no surprise either... there's that dark spot in this PC's past, oh, let's talk about it, but later... No surprises at all, and no real character depth, just RPG clichées slighly altered for the setting. The only thing that saved them was the superb acting.
2. Roland Emmerich and Bioware. Easy to understand I guess, and I mean the main storyline, or better, the way it's told. A plot so full of clichées it hurts. Taken from various blockbusters and with some cream on top. Oh well, I guess there's a huge audience who still loves the whole "I'm just doing my duty" brave soldier story. I got used to the fact that most games do that, but this one tops a lot of them again - unless you go the "stupid evil" way of course, known from so many older DnD games... totally black and white, either you run around saying ridiculous things like "let them all die, I don't care", or you go the holier than a saint way. Either way, a lot of the dialogues and cutscenes made me cringe and I was ready to deliver the game to the next US Army base (or Star Trek convention) to give it someone who might like it.
I have no problem with soldier stories and playing war games, but in movies it is usually Roland Emmerich who makes it unbearable, and this story was on the same level on a large part, mainly during cutscenes. I don't even know where to start... small details like Joker, who could be taken out of a hundred of 2nd class military movies, over the general and the ambassador, over a huge load of dialogues up to the very end that was sooo Emmerich I couldn't even laugh anymore. Actually, the end, and I mean not the end of the storyline, but just the final cutscene, is what made me write all this. It was way too bad to be left uncommented.
Now that this part is done, some final things about stories and quests.
First off, the *presentation* of the main storyline was still good. Despite all the clichées, it was still entertaining enough and fun to play, although way too short.
What makes the game longer is the sheer amount of sidequests, and sorry, but after a while those became a major annoyance. I have no real problem with the Mako, but after 5 planets it's getting old and after 10 annoying. The quests are cheap fillers, the areas all look the same, you always get to do the exact same stuff and the fighting is repetitive.
Well, I bet I still only covered half of my thoughts about the storyline in this long rant. My conclusion would be: In Mass Effect 2 I wish the technical presentation (acting, cutscenes, etc) would be on the same artistic level, while the storyline should really be a little bit less stereotypical. A few less deja-vues, a little more for those of us who don't believe a medal of honor is the greatest achievement in life, a longer main storyline and less sidequest annoyance, more shades of grey instead of simple black and white. I should mention the Witcher maybe, since Bioware should be aware of it... in that game decisions are not as simple, you don't have that stupid alignment thing you can check right after clicking on a dialogue option and reload if you don't like it, and outcomes are much less predictable. I really want to see more of that.
So, ratings....
Stabilty, technical aspects:
10/10
Graphics:
8/10
Gameplay:
7/10
Presentation (cinematics, voice acting, animations etc):
10/10
Storyline:
6/10
Hard to make an overall rating, but since the storyline weights so much I can't go higher than
7.5/10
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Mists over Middleforest | |
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sirandar
Game Owner
 NWN
Jade Empire:SE
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 02 Mar 2003 |
Posted: Monday, 09 June 2008 03:46PM |
Summary: 7 of 10 where 5 is just playable.
This game is playable for me and outstanding in some ways. I may even finish it. Considering that the last 4 games I paid for ended up sold or in the trash 1/4 way through, 7 of 10 is quite a complement.
What is great:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
1) The story is an interesting mismash from about a dozen sources. In some ways Neverwinter in Space. Not very original but it is well done and interesting
2) Character/enviroment/story integration and interaction is superb and flows beautifully. It fit together like a real chain of events. Standing ovation
3) There was general attention to story detail. Not even close to perfect but other games are so terrible in this aspect that this game comes out shining.
4) The game was linear but this was masked well .... Bravo
5) Many developers are very tricky and make the game easy except for one or two super-hard spots. This makes players go to the company web site to search for a solution where they see all the other games they want you to buy. Also gives a obsessive complusive artifical sense of accomplishment to the player and promotes addiction. Thankfully Bioware has always avoided this and the difficulty was thoughtful, even and appropriate.
6) There is too much emphasis on combat but basically it is way better than most games in this aspect. Combat is very glichy at times but overall it works and is satisfying.
7) The scale of game feels expansive even though it really isn't. Bravo
Missed Opportunites
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
With such a great story and characters it is a great shame that Bioware didn't go for excellence and spend another year or 2 on the game. Now this story is "used up" and will block development of anything like it. Bascially they made a game good enough to sell big which is all we will ever get from now on. That said, they did way better than most and for that I applaud them.
1) The whole game focused on the 2 ancient races and their artifacts and this aspect of the game was handled only at the barest minimum when it could have been a showpiece. Collecting nondescript artifacts and entering bases to shoot up more aliens is hardly appropiate for this type of story. This is where every developer falls down and why gaming can't evolve past "shoot em-up". If you have ever played Myst Revelation or to a much lesser extent "Myst End of Ages" you might have captured the feeling of exploring an alien enviroment and artifact trying to understand their cultre and technology. Imagine captain Shepard exploring Spire or Haven seaching and trying to understand thier cultures and technologies. Imagine Shepard finding the moon in Myst End of Ages with the astro-navagation system and him/her using to find the space station in the astroid belt and the technolology there.
The take home message is that developers need to make alliances with companies that know a certain area of development. The puzzles and artifact aspects of ME were terrible so why not hire somebody who does OR just leave it out. Few people like filler.
Exploration was very dry and simplistic ... do it right or leave it out.
Another problem with this game was there was quite alot of bland filler to make the game appear more expansive than it actually is. Much of the combat was like this, shooting the nodes of the massive "plant" creature is one example, planet exploration is another.
Combat was glitchy and it was hard to tell the glitches from jamming. Perhaps the worst was the cover system that worked great in some areas but left you pinned to a wall unable to shoot, move or do anything in others. Hand to hand combat was also poorly implemented and hard to control. If you are paralyzed or blocked it should be obvious why. Many times I couldn't move, couldn't shoot and had no clue why and this was generally associated with the cover system
ME also cheated in quite a few areas of the game. There were quite a few enemies that you could stand right beside but couldn't shoot until the appropriate event was triggered (husks and plant men) Very cheap and immersion breaking. There were also magically appearing enemies that attacked on when you are on the way out. Sometimes this was handled OK sometimes it was unrealistic and filler.
I am 1/2 way through and have a whole bunch of omni tools but they don't show up in my inventory .... glitch
SirandarEdited By sirandar on 06/09/08 15:51 | |
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RangerFish
Game Owner
 Mass Effect PC
Joined: 28 Jul 2003 |
Posted: Monday, 09 June 2008 04:48PM |
Ok, not having read any of the previous reviews, and only having played for 5 hours...
Dialogues
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Mass Effect's big hype factor was the conversation system, and I have to say I love it. It's not perfect, but I think it's the closest we've seen in any RPG, PC or otherwise. It's fluid, the characters are brilliantly animated and well-acted.
The only criticism is that the dialogue choices sometimes lead to... unexpected results in terms of what Shepard says. He sometimes appears more aggressive / diplomatic / inquisitive / whatever than the option in the menu would suggest, which leads me to suspect that the large number of options in the tree actually resolves to a very limited set of dialogue routes.
Environments
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The environments are all well-drawn, in particular the Normandy which has a great line in console screen effects. However, many of the environments are rather sparse, not really interactive and don't really give the sense of a living, breathing world. In addition, some of the environments seem very similar - swap snow for sand, change the layout, and otherwise everything seems the same. Perhaps I've been spoilt by Oblivion, but I like a little life in my game worlds.
Combat
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Mass Effect is a mix of shooter and RPG, and generally the mix works well. Combat is quick and exciting, and the weapon effects are satisfying. The effect is reduced somewhat after completing a few missions (which often resolve to driving the Mako around a map, shooting some bad guys, talking to an NPC, then more driving). There also seems to be little tactical flexibility and most of the missions are quite linear.
The inventory system is basic at best. It will only show me what un-equipped weapons I have in a particular weapon class, and if I want to see upgrades then I have to open a weapon upgrade slot. Having to open a weapon upgrade slot just to reduce the upgrades to omni-gel just smacks of bad interface design to me. Not a fatal issue by any means, just could (and should) be better.
Similarly, the weapon choices are fairly limited. Each character lugs around one of each class of weapon (pistol, shotgun, assault rifle, and sniper rifle) even if they can't use that weapon effectively. Many classes are quite limited in what weapons they can use, and weapons within a class are only differentiated by a few basic stats, and what upgrades you choose to install. And on top of that, the Mako isn't upgradeable at all.
Furthermore, upgrades don't affect the weapon's appearance in any way - in other games with customisable weapons, a silencer will appear on the front and a sight will appear on top, but not so here. There's no rocket launchers, flamers or sub-machine guns either. This limitation makes the combat seem a little staid at times. However, a little spice is added where biotic powers come into play. These serve as the game's magic system, and while the number of powers is small, they do work quite well.
The tactical system is also a weak point - you take two squad members with you, and you can order them individually using the tactical overlay (hold the spacebar) or as a team using the arrow keys. There doesn't seem to be a way to assign cover arcs, and when you place a sniper to cover your advance, they'll only stay there for a minute or two before moving up to rejoin you. This makes sure you don't forget them, but means that your plans aren't always followed, which is intensely fustrating. The tactics system could learn a lot from the likes of Hidden & Dangerous, Brothers In Arms, Star Wars Republic Commando and SWAT4.
Hopefully, at least, I won't run into the issue that plagued KOTOR2 where my party would vanish for no reason when I fought a boss.
Bugs
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Throw a rock on the community forums and you'll hit someone experiencing a bug. It's not the first buggy release we've seen in games, and it won't be the last, but it's never a good experience when it happens. Bugs include attempting to write to the "local machine" registry hive when the user is a non-admin user (also known as the Vista UAC bug even though it's not really related to Vista or UAC as such), poor character textures and graphical glitches because of bad default settings, and getting stuck in lifts and rooms with no way out other than to quit and go to an earlier save.
Hopefully, a patch will fix most of these issues, but judging on the current quality of the game, I think I have to knock a couple of points off.
Conclusion
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Mass Effect had the potential to be a game that would define the next step for CRPGs and would keep people talking for decades. I don't think it'll achieve that without some fairly major design changes (including a revamping of the tactical system), but it still has the potential to be an excellent game as long as the major issues are solved.
Score: 7/10 (predicting a score of 8.5 if a good patch is released).Edited By RangerFish on 06/09/08 16:50 | |
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LdyShayna
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR Xbox
SW: KotOR PC
Jade Empire
Jade Empire:SE
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Mass Effect PC
Sonic DS
Joined: 18 Oct 2001
From: Colorado |
Posted: Monday, 09 June 2008 05:23PM |
I may be a little long winded. My apologies.
I make no bones about being a long time BioWare fan. I’ve liked all of their games since Baldur’s Gate, though some more than others. When I first started reading about Mass Effect, I was somewhat disappointed. I’m not much of an action gamer (see my notes on combat below for more foam-flecked detail), and it seemed to me that they were moving away from the sweet spot that I liked with both this and Jade Empire. So, I passed on getting a 360, and was going to wait a while to get this for PC. However, it’s been a long time since I had a good RPG, and I found myself getting twitchy and itchy fingered whenever I went into my local gaming store…or walked by the electronics section at WalMart…well, OK…when I was sitting at home within hearing range of my computer. So, when my daughter traded in a bunch of her stuff and got me what I had obviously been drooling over, I wasn’t one to complain. I have a lot of opinions on stuff, so I thought I’d share. You know, even more than I already do.
Story and characters:
I expect great characters and interactions with NPCs, and I wasn’t disappointed in this regard. I liked all of my party members, which is a real treat. I’m used to being able to chat with my companions, so not being able to outside of the ship was a tad disappointing. However, I learned that they usually had comments about where we were at if it was something other than a random mission. Indeed, I took all of my companions out with me on the Citadel just to go different places and see what they had to say about it, and what they might say to each other in the elevators. That’s right – the filler conversations for the elevators caused me to use the elevators when mass transit would have gotten me places much quicker. Ah, the irony.
The conversations with my companions on the Normandy were fun and interesting, and I always looked forward to getting their tactical and personal opinions on the last mission. The companions’ personal stories and interactions were nicely integrated with the main plot. At no time did I feel they were tacked on, nor did I spend time wondering, “Why would I keep this person with me at all?” even when I wasn’t quite Renegade enough for them. The use of facial expressions, body language, and good voice acting brought them alive very well, and adding good emphasis to the writing. The romance with Kaiden was well done, and I actually felt very bad about embarrassing poor Liara. “I was just curious how an all female species like the Asari reproduced! I didn’t mean to lead you on! I swear.” Ah, well.
The story over all was gripping, sufficiently so that I did play until 3 AM on Saturday ‘night’ and then get up at 7 AM to continue. It’s not uncommon with BioWare games for me to do this, but I was rather surprised Mass Effect did. Indeed, the main story was a tad too pressing to justify all of the side quests I did, and I felt I was forced to metagame a bit to do all of the questing I like to do. That’s hardly an uncommon complaint, though, and I know that doing otherwise runs the risk of making the story incoherent and uninteresting.
There were several quests I (uncharacteristically) left undone. One or two was because I just wasn’t interested in helping someone cheat at gambling or do some corporate espionage while the fate of the galaxy was on the line. Mostly, though, they were the uncharted world quests where the only way to do it is by driving back and forth in a pattern on every world you can land on, and surveying stuff. There’s only so long I can cartwheel the Mako down mountains yelling, “Physics is for the weak!” before even it gets tiresome. Once I got the quests with NPCs done (to me, the interesting quests) I would leave the planet, likely never to return. The Alliance can send their miners out to find more minerals, really. Go. Go mine or something.
Aside from the occasional texture pop (which generally lasted less than a second, and I saw I tonly in the character screens) and slightly harsh shadows, I had no technical issues with the game: no crashes or bugs were noticed. Pretty impressive on that score, really.
Combat and Mechanics:
And now on to why I didn’t think I would like Mass Effect. I deeply dislike shooters. I don’t have any beef with people who DO like them, but I vastly prefer character skills to take care of hitting, dodging, and such while I take care of power activation, location, and high level tactical commands. Just a preference of mine. Even with the new pause HUD, the learning curve was STEEP and very painful. I spent the first ten hours of this game dying every couple of minutes whenever I was in combat, cursing over limited medi-gel supplies, cursing over having to put my PC in the line of fire to get the field of vision I wanted, cursing over having to aim, and generally running out of curse words. Ten HOURS of this was very unpleasant, and I came very close to shelving the game for a while. All props to the writing and design staff, though (and with a mildly embarrassing nod to my rather unbending pride), I pushed on. At some point something clicked: I’m not certain if I finally got good gear, or if my character’s powers finally got powerful enough to do what I wanted, or if my personal skills with dealing with the combat systems improved. I imagine it was a combination of all three, along with liberal use of the spacebar to take a breather and look around. Regardless, I reached a point where the combat went much more smoothly, and I was dying one an hour instead of once every five minutes. This was reasonable, in my opinion, since usually it was due to a tactical error on my part, which I would address on reload. Liberal use of the Lift abilities allowed me to worry less about enemies in cover or dashing around, and short circuiting their shields and weapons was a great alternative to just blasting through. Indeed, careful, tactical use of the Lift ability (alternating between Kaiden and my PC) got me through the final battle utterly unscathed on my first try. In the end, I was combat neutral: I still don’t like shooter combat, but the HUD and special abilities did indeed allow me to eventually play in the tactical way I’d hope for…by and large. I’m not going to go out and buy any shooter games based on this experience, but I may eventually replay THIS game. Trust me, given my preferences about combat, that’s fairly high praise.
The mini-game for unlocking things was pretty good, but I eventually got tired of it. It was very helpful when I realized I could move the arrow side to side with the keyboard keys instead of with the mouse (much like the turrets in KotOR were easier once I realized I could shoot with the space bar). Still about half way through the game I started omni-gelling half my stuff so I would have to worry about it. Like shooter combat, such mini-games just aren’t my thing, and they did include a way to bypass.
I would prefer to be able to point and click more with my mouse. I don’t like having to wait until I maneuver so the auto-select thing activates. This is a hold-over from the gamepad controls, no doubt.
Leveling was intuitive to this long time RPG player, by and large. I do think the descriptions to your NPC’s First Aid skill should have said how it added to your PC’s use of the skill AND specified that they couldn’t use the skill on their own. Also, any cumulative effects of the Electronics skill should have likewise been noted. Otherwise, the descriptions were very useful in determining what skills to apply points to (Max Charm! Max Charm! Max Charm!).
For the dialog wheel, I will say that I put a lot of effort into putting my biases against it aside and giving it a shot. I can’t say if I was successful. The shape is fine. I understand, as well, with the paraphrasing that the placement of Paragon-Neutral-Renegade was needed for additional information. I also acknowledge that Mass Effect was meant to have a very cinematic feel to it, and the PC voice-overs were necessary by this point of view. For what the design needs were for THIS game, I think it did a good job. I, however, still really REALLY like to know what exactly my PC will say before she says it. I don’t enjoy being surprised by what my character says and does. I know. Personal peccadillo, but it’s a powerful lone for me. There were times when the mismatch between the summary that I found myself reloading before the conversation started to replay it differently because I objected so strongly. (For example, there was a low life creep you talk to in a certain disreputable bar. When he made his little proposition to me and I chose Paragon, NO WAY would she have said essentially, “Maybe later”. No way. Don’t make me go all Renegade on you writers to force her to not say that. ). Hey, I know why it was designed the way it was, and it worked for the design goals of Mass Effect, but I wouldn’t want it to replace exact phrasing dialogue trees across the board.
Summary:
I liked this game a lot more than I thought I would. After wiping the rabid foam from my mouth at the combat learning curve, I was able to enjoy the characters, plots , and beautiful visuals relatively unimpeded. I want to know what goes on after the final events of this game, both with my Shepard’s companions and with the fate of the galaxy. If they keep the ability to play more tactically with the HUD and special abilities, I’ll look forward to the next installment. I’m going to pick up the next book, and here’s to hoping they port the next one to the PC as well.
_________________
I'm a lone wolf. Arooo! Yip! Yip! | |
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becky2007
Game Owner
 Mass Effect PC
Joined: 03 Jun 2008 |
Posted: Monday, 09 June 2008 10:12PM |
Overall scores:
As a RPG 5/10
As a shooter 6/10
This game falls between the chairs of two great genres, RPGs and FPS'. It succeeds as neither because it tries to be both. That said, my feelings are mixed. On one hand, this is neither as enjoyable as the great RPGs of the recent past (KOTOR, Oblivion and Gothic 3) or the great shooters (Half Life 2, Bioshock). On the other hand, the main story is immersive enough that I have enjoyed playing that.
The things that make the game immersive are the great graphics and sound. Everything is voiced, and the characters are beautifully detailed. The environment works 90%. The main shortcoming is physics -- there's little climbing and no jumping. Few objects can be moved. That was ok in a 2001 game. But not in a 2008 game.
The main story works well. We are taken through different scenarios, and it plays much like a good shooter. I would give this 80%. The shortcomings here is mainly that there is no choice in action. Yes, dialogue can vary, with some minor impacts on a few outcomes. But there is almost no choice in how to solve the actual quests: they all lead to the same places, using similar means. That works for a shooter, but NOT for a RPG.
One critical hallmark of a great RPG is the ability to roam in the world, shaping your character while experiencing adventures that feel different from one another. There is no doubt that ME opens itself to that potential. Numerous worlds and a spacecraft promise to deliver spectacular varieties. But ME does not come close to delivering on the potential. Instead, Bioware uses almost identical settings for EVERY side quest. The game is very shallow compared to recent, good RPGs. 3/10.
In sum, this game succeeds in immersing the player in the main quest. All other aspects of the game are half-baked. I did enjoy the main quest, but the thought of another trip in the MAKO makes me nauseous.Edited By becky2007 on 06/09/08 22:31 | |
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B_Michael
Game Owner
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 02 Jun 2008 |
Posted: Monday, 09 June 2008 11:51PM |
10/10!
That's for sure! Most fine example of what sci-fi games should be like!Creating your own character adds more reality to virtual entertainment. Looking forward for the next part!
I've got just one suggestion: let there be an option to choose from major races or - most likely - just to switch between characters in your party! | |
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Mithdradates
Game Owner
 NWN
NWN: SoU
NWN: HotU
SW: KotOR PC
Jade Empire:SE
NWN 2
NWN 2: MotB
NWN 2: SoZ
Joined: 04 Jul 2002 |
Posted: Tuesday, 10 June 2008 03:44AM |
Overall Score: 7.25/10
- Graphics 8/10. The characters and vfx were top notch (except for the Husk lightning attack which looked really bad), but the backgrounds and textures left something to be desired. When I played the Witcher and even NWN2 (not to mention crysis) at max settings there were areas where I had to stop and look at the scenery and go, "Wow!" there were no similar moments in Mass Effect, even the scenic view in the Citadel was dull by PC standards. It's to be expected in 360 port, anything made to run on the 360 will be sub-par graphically to a modern PC game. As a console game it would be a 9/10 but not as a PC game. Part of the problem is also the graphical style. The interior areas were very sparse and dull. Also, the graphics in the Mako scenes and on uncharted worlds where very sub par. The textures were really poor and the lack of trees and shrubs on worlds with flora and fauna was noticeable. The polygon count was also low enough in these areas that you could make out the triangles that the terain was composed of. The use of repeated locations in these missions doesn't help that score either.
- Sound 10/10. Sound doesn't really matter to me, everything was voice acted and the music was good enough. Since it's the first entirely voice acted game and what I heard of the voice acting was good enough I'm giving it a 10/10. After a while I turned off the volume, put on my mp3 player and read the subtitles. I'm not sure voicing everything is a good idea. You can read through text much faster than you can listen to it, and in a game with so much text the voicing probably adds an extra 3-5 hours to the game.
- Gameplay 5/10 This is the area I have the biggest problem with. First off, is the decryption mini-game. It pops up everywhere (not just decryption but surveying minerals, recovering articles, etc.) and it gets old really fast. There should have been a way to avoid it without burning omni-gel. E.g. make an achievement that would let you auto-succeed after beating it enough times or have your character's decryption skill take care of it (i.e. regardless of your skill you could play the mini-game to bypass decryption, but as your character's skill got higher you wouldn't have to play the easy game, the average game would become easy and the hard game would become average etc.). Now the combat was effectively the same as Gears of War except that cover doesn't work nearly as well and the enemies and allies are dumber. You can command your squad, but if they are behind cover (which they should be), good luck getting them to use their abilities on your enemies. This is where the console controls really show thier limitation on the game. A tighter over the shoulder or first person perspective would have really helped to control your character. Having the game switch to a rotatable isometric perspective where you could survey the battlefield when paused and then select your team mates with a mouse, select their targets and que up commands for them (like puppet mode commands for your companions in NWN2) would have really enhanced the strategic portion of combat. This is the kind of mouse and keyboard scheme which works on a PC but isn't possible on a console, and why, like many PC gamers, I hold that consoles just aren't suited to the RPG genre. I felt I spent as much time fighting the controls as I did fighting the enemies and eventually gave up on my companions and played the game as a shooter. It wasn't a bad shooter except for the previously mentioned trouble with cover and kamakaze AI. The tech powers were fine, but I had some trouble with using biotic powers indoors, lift and throw sometimes sent enemies through walls and ceilings where I couldn't target them anymore. The physics on the mako were beyond messed up, sometimes the vehicle would do barrel rolls and backflips if it hit a crate and other times it could climb up a 90 degree incline. It was a bit skittish going over bumpy ground as well. I will also add that there was far too much time spent in the mako. There are also many cutscenes and no way to skip through them, since this game has unlockable difficulty levels that require complete playthroughs to unlock, this is a big pain.
- Storyline 6/10 The story was very uninsipired, you have the cliched RPG plot of, "Ancient evil that returns every x years returns to destroy life as we know it." coupled with the equally cliched Sci-Fi plot of "man vs. machine," i.e. "Ancient evil machines return every x years to destroy organic life in the universe." On top of that there aren't really any plot twists, you know what's going to happen in every scene before it plays out. The first time you face the bad guy you know he's going to get away etc. The story, what there is of it, is well told, but that doesn't hide the overall lack of content. The side quests don't mesh with the main game and they take away from the sense of urgency of the main plot. The universe itself is beautifully fleshed out with lots of background information, but it follows a Star Wars style of sci-fi that ignores physics (e.g. when your ship docks at the citadel it enters bow first and slows to stop instead of rotating with manoeuvring thrusters and firing its engines until it's forward momentum is killed) and I think that the gaming audience is science savvy enough to spot things like this now. There are also a few areas where the plot contradicts the source material, which is bound to happen with a setting this detailed. The plot also borrows heavily from other sci-fi sources: the Geth troopers look like the robot troopers from the first 3 Star Wars movies, the Thresher Maws are straight from Dune and then there are the Weyland-Yutani.. erm Binary Helix labs on Noveria. The whole resource gathering was also reminiscent of the StarCon games. Lastly I should mention the plot was really short, about half the length of KotOR which wasn't that long to begin with. They should have cut half the uncharted worlds and put that effort into the main plot. Feros and Therum in particular seemed very short, even Illos could have been a bit longer.
Edited By Mithdradates on 06/10/08 04:01 | |
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catherder
Game Owner
Mass Effect PC
Joined: 10 Jun 2008 |
Posted: Tuesday, 10 June 2008 07:45AM |
First, this forum needs a way to have a wider display or I need to figure out a way to have the forum display wider than taller (hello, this is 2008, 1992 wants it's forum settings back)
Second, the game. It's amazing. This isn't as much of an user review as it is a brief feedback.
The game is almost as good as (although different and similar in many ways) as the original Deus Ex, the Elder Scrolls series.
The gameplay is pretty engaging for a good amount of the time although the grind factor does set in after a few hours. Thankfully the game doesnt force you to do any of the side missions and the grind factor is mostly self-inflicted. The dialogue and music is pretty engaging and at times, inspiring.
The storyline is incredibly fresh, the plot and sub-plots are very well thought out, written, directed and implemented. Great job there! The game feels like it was made for the PC and not a shabby port with a crappy interface or unoptimized (*cough* Halo for PC *cough*). Great job again!
Now for my issues with the game. Game regularly crashes very 90-120mins (Blah blah general fault blah blah blah that error). The graphics are a touch glitchy but not as annoying. The sound (forget hardware mode) in software mode is glitchy and I had to turn on subtitles since crucial lines were missed from the buggy sound support (horrible in my opinion). The elevator rides are long and annoying. I don't mind the loading screens but getting stuck in the elevators isn't fun either.
Also some of the quests are bugged and did I mention that the f'ing client crashes regularly?
I have issues with inventory management as well (especially while starting off the game as a high level). Overall it's been a well worth 50$ and I usually play my games through the crashes and bugs (waiting for patches isn't my cup of tea).
I am glad to have stumbled across the game. It's fun, it's buggy at times but which software isn't .
PS: I try not to give numbers out for reviews/feedback because there are 3 kinds of lies: lies, "it's sunny in Seattle" and statistics. Throwing out a 10/10 or a 5.93/10 doesn't mean squat in my opinion. It's a little offtopic but when GTAIV came out and everyone and their mom gave the game a 10/10 and 100% and thousands couldn't load their save or had multiple crashes, I vowed never to read their reviews again.Edited By catherder on 06/10/08 07:54 | |
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