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Deep story unfolds in early going, very immersive experience

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 178 / 191
Date: November 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First off, I've been waiting for this game since the previews came out late last year (2006). So far, Bioware has done a great job of pimping out this game. And deliver it does...

STORY: A+
The 'cutscenes' are really not cutscenes at all. The conversations you have are pretty dynamic and integration of the choices of stuff to say is so seamless it seems almost natural. Early on, you get a sense of this when choices of stuff to do in the field enable you to remake your character as a mission-oriented commander or more of a compassionate search-for-survivors kind of guy, among some. The story picks up pretty much where the prequel book left off, and immerses you in the experience. You keep on wanting to learn more. You definitely feel like a part of this epic and that will keep you coming back.

Unlike Halo 3 and Gears of War which launch you into an ongoing war, this game sends you into a very deep, very complex world to explore. Imagine yourself as a hypothetical CIA agent before the war begins. Expect to see yourself running around the world, talking to people and gaining intel on people, and then having fight scenes from time to time. When you get sent on a mission to track someone down and there are lots of enemies between you and the destination, then you begin to see more of the combat-intensive aspects of the game.

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GAMEPLAY: A
Expect to see a third-person shooter with a heavy RPG influence. While out in the field, it's like a Gears of War experience with a basic tactical system. Run. Take cover. Take some guys down. Order your friendlies to flank the enemy or to fall back. Outside of this, the RPG system comes into play when leveling up, when you get to choose abilities to level up, weapons to equip (ie, if you have 3 types of sniper rifles in inventory, which one will you equip?. I will cover this in more detail below). The controls were overall slightly different from control schemes used in comparable third-person shooters. It didn't take me long to get used to the system used here in Mass Effect. You can pretty much figure it all out in the first level.

I had the mistaken view that only snipers and pistols can be trained into an over-the-shoulder Gears of War camera angle when aiming (holding down the left trigger). Apparently, this is because I started off as an Infiltrator class. Different character classes can train different weapons. The soldier class can train all weapons. Sniping took some getting used to. When you first start off, Shepard is very shaky and thus it is very difficult to snipe. Adding points to level up your sniping ability seems to limit this shakiness greatly.

The tactical system is very very bare bones. You can order people to fall back, take on a specific target, regroup, or storm the area. Nothing much to it. Therefore, players can fight with their AI teammates as much of a unit (though I feel the AI tends to die a lot).

You also get to drive vehicles. Much of you have seen the trailers and saw that tank drop out from the Normandy. That tank handles like a Warthog from Halo 3, except with rocket boosters and a repair function. A heads up - repairing means you can't move or fire any of the tank's weapons. Therefore, make sure you're in cover when repairing. I love the rocket boosters as it gives you an extra method of dodging rockets and charged shots from the geth. The big disadvantage is that you have to drive and shoot at the same time. This makes for some very frustrating vehicle fight sequences.

I am a big fan of how the game feels thus far. Having RPG elements yields a lot of control over how your character plays on the field. The shooting system is pretty good, but not flawless. My biggest complaint early on was the many loading pauses you have to go through, but the deeper I went into the game, the less it affected gameplay. Loading pauses don't happen in the middle of the heat of battle, but it definitely wouldn't hurt to possibly fix this up in future patches.

Finally, a decent portion of the game involves going out and doing side missions. This means jumping in the tank and driving from the landing zone to various points on the map. I think driving around like this is the most painful experience of the game. There's almost always nothing but an occasionally frustrating 5-minute drive between the LZ and the destination, and once you get there, after doing a few of the side missions, you realize that the site layout is a recurring theme. Therefore, if anything else, the side missions are a great way to practice and to level up. There's some more of that RPG stuff working for you.

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RPG Elements: A
For weapons and armor, the feel is similar to something like Diablo II, where you pick up random equipment as you go along. Each equipment has a certain class: armor, assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles, shotguns, etc (I haven't seen the other classes!). Depending on the character class you chose at the beginning, you have different combinations of these classes available to you. For example, my character class may allow me to equip an assault rifle and armor only. This means that I can equip only 1 assault rifle at a time and 1 armor. But since I pick up a lot of these in the field, I must choose which assault rifle I want to use and which armor to equip. The equipment select screen where you actually do this shows a lot of equipment data, ie damage of a weapon, 'clip size', so on.

Upgrades for each weapon can also be picked up and installed, including different rounds (ie, shredder rounds that add bonus damage when fighting organics, vs. armor piercing rounds against synthetics) and a wide range of add-ons (ie, heat sinks to decrease gun overheating).

Another big thing is that you gain experience out in the field as you fight more stuff. You earn points this way that you can spend upgrading, say, your ability to snipe or your armor's damage reduction settings. There are definitely a variety of choices to look through while you decide what to level up.

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CHARACTERS: A+
I enjoy interacting with the characters to see what's going on in their heads. The characters are all very multidimensional and very well thought up and implemented in the game. Voice acting and video synchronization was flawless.

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REPLAYABILITY: A
I have played through the story at least 3x by now, amassing more than 60 hours of gameplay. Having 6 character classes to pick from and 6 squad members to choose from, including the ability to choose whether to build your reputation as a ruthless military man or a compassionate and humane leader (or somewhere in between) definitely keeps you coming back to see how you can change the way things play. The different character classes really play differently so have fun with them.

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To sum up, some of you may be looking at this game and wondering whether or not it's worth the $60. And I say it is.

PROS: Deep and immersive storyline that captivates from the beginning, well-made characters, seamless incorporation of dynamic cutscenes, unique integration of 3PS with RPG. This game plays very differently from anything you've tried before. It's no Halo 3 nor Bioshock. It's a very well-made original game.

CONS: Minimap is not intuitive at first, plays too much like a movie at times, driving between points on a map in the Mako can be excruciatingly boring, a lot of recurring layouts with the sites of side missions.

FINAL VERDICT: A+. Very well-made game, well worth that whole wait from June till now. I've been anticipating this game for a while and it delivers an epic storyline of gigantic portions in a way that no others have done. This is definitely for people who want to experience being in an all-new sci-fi epic and building up an altogether new and unique hero.

Epic would be insignificant in comparison.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 78 / 89
Date: November 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

"Mass Effect" is not a video game. Football is a game, checkers is a game, ping pong is a game, "Pac-man" is a game, and yes "Halo" is a game. But this is nothing less than pure, cinematic, interactive fiction containing all of the depth, detail, lore, discovery, and character of the greatest science fiction epics of all time. "Star Wars", "Star Trek", "Battlestar Galactica", "Blade Runner"; this is a story that nearly dwarfs them all in sheer size, scope, and enjoyment while paying homage to them along the way. "Mass Effect" is not an action-based game but a massive story that you help write as you go along based on your personal choices. Sure, there is plenty of very satisfying gunplay along the way, but it is mostly a means to an end rather than the primary focus.

The story of "Mass Effect" is quite possibly the most amazing ever written for a video game, recalling many of the best elements from some of the greatest works of the sci-fi genre and putting you in an almost "Oblivion"-like level of control over the world. You could spend dozens of hours simply exploring unknown worlds and building your fortune that way while shirking the main story altogether if you choose. But if you don't have all the time in the universe to enjoy this one, the main story is not too long. In fact, I honestly wish it were much longer, but that was the sacrifice made for the open-ended freedom of exploration the player is given. One will most likely spend upwards of 50 hours just exploring the galaxies and discovering all of the tiny stories within the story that really flesh this universe out. Plus, there are many different ways to play the game which will command you to replay it over again just to see all of the what-if's and enjoy mastering all of the various class skills. "Mass Effect" also revels in making you face the tough decisions, forcing you to use you own personal morality to make choices that will effect the way characters in the game will look at you. And the many races of the intergalactic Council are watching you closely as a representative of humanity adn this will impact the game. What are the ethics behind genocide of a species that may, in time, become a real threat to civilized life? You decide. How about murder for revenge? Taking bribes? The safety of the intergalactic community against human lives? These are just a few of the issues you may face and have to think about before you press that button and possibly change the universe forever.

Gameplay could not be better. The combat is real-time and apes the realistic feel "Gears of War" while retaining the skill system used in Bioware's previous classic "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic". Speaking of KOTOR, this game plays very closely to that previously untouchable work. All of the familiar gameplay and story elements are present, but almost all are improved, especially the combat. The real time shooting is a little hectic at first, but as you and your character gain experience, you will soon have the skills and savvy to utilize the system and dominate rooms full of enemies. The superhuman abilities include biotics, which are sort of like The Force, and tech skills which can include hacking an enemy's AI to attack it's teammates or overheating an opponent's weapon or shields. The implementation of these skills can be key since many of the enemies are quite resourceful and strong. Shall you use biotics to lift a foe from behind his cover so you can ventilate him at your leisure or just create a vortex to suck them all up into one whirling shooting gallery? Maybe I'll just terrorize the lot of them with my one-shot-one-kill sniping skills while my teammates provide cover. The options are only as limited as your imagination. The only complaints from me is that your squadmates can't be controlled individually (you can't send your heavy gunner forward while keeping your tech expert behind cover; both respond to the same command) and the grenades (while awesome and upgradable) are kind of clunky to use. The characters of KOTOR and Bioware's last game "Jade Empire" also had a lot more charm and humor to them and a lot more to say in between missions, it seems. I guess that's the price to pay for a less linear game. But then again, there is a lot of random dialogue between all of the combinations of characters here that help make up for it. For example, while your party waits in an elevator they will often have brief but personal conversations with one another. The dialogue for cutscenes and missions also changes based on who you brought along. This is a very nice touch. Exploring planets in your Mako ATV is also a blast, reminiscent of driving a Warthog in "Halo" but with much rougher terrain and jet boosters that can send you flying. Awesome.

I could go on and on about the hundreds of things that make this "game" the greatest of it's kind. It's nearly as large but more accessible than "Oblivion", more action-packed than "Knights of the Old Republic", and has an even better story than "Halo" and stands on it's own not as a game but as a definitive sci-fi experience. In my book, that makes this the best next-gen single-player game there is and one of the greatest things I've ever played. The best part? It's the first of a trilogy. The mind boggles at the possibilities. Buy it. Now.

Massive

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 57 / 67
Date: November 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect comes from BioWare. The creators of Knights of the Old Republic. Because of that, it goes without saying that Mass Effect feels very similar in its RPG like approach. This is no clone of Knights of the Old Republic, though. Mass Effect is its own game and it's a very fantastic game at that. This review is pretty long. If need be, you can look to the bottom for a list of pros and cons.

You're John Shepard. The game takes place in the year 2183, and humanity has come to explore the Galaxy like never before. You'll discover a series of races throughout the galaxy and there's a sense of injustice afoot. Tensions between races are also high. You'll come across people who hardly trust a certain character because of their race. Just the same, a Turian (one of the many races in the game) named Saran has betrayed the Galactic council and its up to you to stop him and bring justice to the Galaxy. Mass Effect has a pretty intriguing storyline that grips you from the moment you begin. It's also well written with some fairly interesting characters.

The storyline is told through fantastic cut scenes and some fantastic voice acting. The quality of these scenes is movie like in its execution. The game also looks fantastic. Some of the character models look almost lifelike. In terms of eye candy, Mass Effect is sure to delight. It also sounds really good. There's a lot of great music here. Again, it sounds movie like. Hardly any game sounds better. The music always manages to fit the mood and situation at hand.

You begin by making a character. Much like Knights of the Old Republic, you're allowed to customize what he looks like and here you're also able to give your character a back story. As the game goes on, you'll participate in several conversations. These conversations have a direct impact on the storyline as well as shaping your character. Most times they'll also have an effect on the outcome of certain situations. Not always, but often they do. There's also a light and dark attribute going on much like Knights of the Old Republic.

In terms of Gameplay, Mass Effect is a pretty complex game. It plays a lot like a third person Shooter, but at its core it is definitely an RPG. As you traverse the field you'll have a squad at your command. You control Shepard and can give orders to your troops. Either you can send them ahead to attack, rally them or tell them to keep their distance. You can give these kinds of commands any time you want. Just because it plays like a third person shooter, though doesn't mean you treat the game as such. Mass Effect is not a very easy game. It is important to add strategy to a situation rather than go in with guns blazing. Your enemies have some attacks that can take off a lot of health at any given time. The AI of your characters is sometimes questionable, though. For the most part, they help in battle, but sometimes you'll feel like a one man army.

Throughout the adventure you'll also gather Medi-gels and Omni-gels. Medi-gels heal you while Omni-gels are for using decryption or electronics on devices like locked doors or containers. Speaking of locked doors, you'll come across some of those too. As well as locked containers and other things you'll need to override. You'll do it by entering a series of button presses. This is actually a pretty annoying mini-game. Screw up even once and you lose your chance to override and you'll have to result to using Omni-gels.

There is also a lot of customization to take in. All characters have certain talents. Whenever you level up you can increase a characters rank in a talent. In time they'll be able to do things like open locked doors with ease or be able to better handle certain weapons easier. You can also customize weapons and armor or turn them into Omni-gels. If you turn a weapon into an Omni-gel, though, it's gone forever. For the most part, the game is pretty free in terms of what you can do.

Mass Effect has a couple of glaring problems when it comes to gameplay. As you traverse, for one thing, the game sometimes slows down. So it doesn't always run smoothly. While you have control over the camera, you can't automatically position it behind you. You always have to swivel it around. It's not a huge problem, but it is one that can get you killed when you're surrounded by several enemies at once. It also doesn't help that the camera doesn't swivel fast. Also, much like Knights of the Old Republic, there are a couple of bugs that hinder gameplay. At some points you'll even have to reload or something because of them. There was even an instance where the game froze entirely. In short, the game is good, but there are a lot of little nit-picky technical things that keep it from being as good as it could be. Technical glitches that shouldn't be in the game in the first place.

Mass Effect is a strong game. It's got all the qualities that really make a game good. It's just too bad that it has a few problems in the technical department that keep it from being an overall fantastic game.

Pros:

+Strong storyline
+Excellent voice acting and script
+Very interactive story
+Fantastic looking visuals
+Good strong soundtrack
+Simplistic, yet strategic combat
+Deep customization

Cons:

-A couple of camera issues
-Sometimes there's a slowdown in frame rate
-A few technical bugs and glitches; sometimes these will make you have to reload your game... very annoying

No spoiler here, just my take...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 34 / 41
Date: December 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Played as a pure Soldier.

Ok, so after nearly 40 hours of play this game has been completed. First off, is it for everyone? No. That's how I got my copy. A friend played it for a half hour or so and gave it to me, he hated it.

The game basically breaks down into three pieces.

1. The first half of this game is rather slow and repetitive. Lots of dialog and not too much action. After a while it starts to get grindy (searching planets in grid patterns for minerals comes to mind...repetitive level lay out...yawn) If you are like me you want to get all the assignments done before you jump into the missions. First off the missions will beat you down if you try them too soon. Which is a good thing because there are not many missions...but tons of assignments. You will sort of figure things out after a good many hours of play and hopefully have enough curiosity to push you through. The assignments though do get very repetitive and lame after a while.

2. The latter half of the game is divided in two. The first portion is when you finally get on your feet and have a good understanding of what's going on. Don't expect this until at least 20+ hours into the game. At this point you can hold your own and start gravitating towards the main missions. Unless you rush through the game in which case it may happen sooner...But if you're blowing through dialog in hurry-up mode, then obviously the game is already lagging for you (case in point).

3. The second portion of the last half is when it gets real good. Gone is the repetitiveness of assignments. Now you are into the meat of the story, but this portion of the game is far too short and long in coming. By this time you are so stoked that things actually picked up that you whiz through it. Still very cool.

So in the end I was glad to have finished it but it was a long road. I have zero interest to play it again.

I wish there were real boss battles, I found this part to be very lacking. Yeah you have culminations but only one "boss battle" comes to mind, aside from the end, that was sort of cool but over all it lacked inspiration. There were no "OH MY GOSH!" bosses that you had to fight. Bummer.

Another thing is I wish it gave you things to strive for as a quest/reward system. Basically you get exp and cash. After a while they both don't really matter. A carrot on a stick is needed at times to keep things rolling...And when you catch that carrot, you get a good feeling of accomplishment...Plus you get to eat the carrot (use item). Not in this game. Plus my found stuff blew away anything that could be bought in the game, so there goes that avenue of motivation.

Over all, not too bad. But if you are looking for a true RPG and are a seasoned RPGer, you may be let down. This is more a shooter with a long winded story (cool one, don't get me wrong) with a teeny-tiny bit of puzzle and no real quest/reward system.

80% Story
19% Action
.5% Puzzle
.5% Reward

This is MY review and I'm sticking to it=)

Is There Anything Bioware Can't Do?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: November 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Bioware has a pretty impressive track record for RPGs. Their most famous work to date, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, garnered almost every "Game of the Year" award in the video game industry back when it was released.

Now a few years later, we get 'Mass Effect'. A Sci-Fi adventure that at times can seem as if it has endless choices for you to make. A few examples are things such as your character customization options (including gender and specializations), weapon and armor customization, and your "good or evil" path choices.

Actually, boiling it down to Good or Evil is a mistatement. It isn't that simple with Mass Effect. You are set out to be a 'hero', but how you get there is your choice. You can choose to work with the citizens you encounter to get complete your mission and be a Paragon. You can also choose to be a take-no-prisoners type of character and be a Renegade. If neither of those suit you, play it right down the middle a be a balance of both or neither. Your choice.

The story is Bioware's best plot ever. If you played the original Knights of the Old Republic, that's saying something. I won't give anything away, because the story is one of the main selling points of the game.

The combat is simple. In fact, some might find it overly so. However, I think people are missing the point. This isn't trying to be the greatest Third Person Shooter ever created. It's trying to revolutionize what RPGs can be.

The graphics are beyond stunning. Sometimes you will find yourself staring at your surrondings in awe and completely forget what you were doing. There is a minor buffering issue where all of the textures are loaded a second or two after you regain control of your characters, but it's nothing that really detracts from the games overall beauty.

In my opinion, I think Bioware succeeded in once again showing us the true potential of what the RPG genre can put forth. In fact, if there is one RPG out this year that is a must have, Mass Effect is it. Do not hesitate to order because you won't regret the purchase.

Massively Entertaining

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: November 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Mass Effect is a highly interesting game. I'll get right to the point, and rattle off the pros and cons;

PROS:
Massive, sweeping space opera, with well-fleshed-out races, companies, backstories and storylines,

Well-desigined gameplay, deep intracacies of combat that don't require memorization of complicated information, RPG and Shooter segments mixed together.

Well-developed characters and well-written, convincing dialog. Good voice acting.

Ability to hold a conversation with other characters and moral dilemmas.

Hours of optional backstory that will fascinate some and not draw the attention of those who don't want to read it.

All-around well designed combat.

CONS:

AI teammates are as dumb as bricks. Unable to shoot in a linear fashion. Mysteriously offended by insinuation that they might want to take cover.

Slow pace may upset some gamers. People with short attention spans won't enjoy it.

Biotics are intensely weaker than magic or force powers in Jade Empire or KotOR. Players who don't choose Soldiers will find combat far more complicated.

Shooting is determined by player aim and player's character's stats. Shooting feels wrong, somehow.

Bottom Line: Mass Effect is fun. It's really fun. However, the game has some strange quirks that grow agitating at times. Mass Effect is a must-have for sci-fi afficionados and a good buy for anyone with a 360.

Beautiful, but SLOW and flawed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 19 / 27
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let's get the obvious out of the way. The graphics, specially in dialog are gorgeous. Once you get to combat, they're good, but not gorgeous even thou everything is created using the game's engine. The story is very well done and intriguing. I found myself enjoying the dialog so much I felt I was watching a movie. Now the bad things: The shooting controls are just awkward. It wants to be gears of war in the combat mechanics and fails miserably in the attempt. Another game I'm playing these days, Uncharted Drakes fortune, completely rips off the GOW mechanics as well, but the execution is perfect. So if you're going to rip some game off, at least do it well. The shooting controls and mechanics just feel clunky and uncomfortable. Using the sniper rifle is an exercise in futility. The screen shakes so much you're aiming all over the place and "No diazepam for you!" is the motto of the designer Nazis. The rest of the game just feels S L O W. I found myself constantly wondering which way to go. I just beat Call of duty 4. The difficulty setting in that one was perfect. Want to figure out where to go by yourself? fine. It's your choice. Not a hard core explorer? No problem. They will take you by the hand the whole game. In this one is pretty much a couple of clues on the map, which is like 5 button pushes away if you need it, and pretty much you're on your on. Did I mention S L O W?

If you're an RPG fan, you'll love this game. If any of what I mentioned before makes you hesitate, rent if first. This is a AAA title and there's a lot of quality here. Many people just love it. But in my opinion, some fundamental flaws ruin the execution as a whole. And I just don't have the patience these days a game like this requires.

Great but not perfect

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 02, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Good:
-Great storyline in the tradition of Bioware RPG games
-Good action and a variety of content
-Freedom in what you do: you can be good or evil, multiple ways to solve a problem, and you can choose where, when, what, and who you want to help; this is the way RPGs should be
-Better action than past Bioware RPG games
-Great graphics

The Bad:
-Lots of loading screens
-Graphics are not always great all the time (due to the game having to reload them constantly)
-loss of framerate

The reason for both problems is that Mass Effect does not use the XBox 360's hard drive for anything but save games. This is really annoying when I have close to 110GB of free space. It's nice that Bioware will cater to people without hard drives, but it would be better if they gave an option for people with hard drives to get better performance out of the game; it's really annoying to see things (both characters and the environment) as plain blank blocks....

Conclusion:
This is a great game that you need to play even with its weaknesses

Mass Defect

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: April 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is one of the few games I actually regret spending money on. I tend to read up on games first and getting an idea if I'll like it before I buy it. I was one of those people though that fell victim to reviews and articles that didn't truely reflect the game.

The story line was almost below average and short. In places where you would expect a cut scene there was none and alot of times it was a screen of text to read through. Other times there were oddly placed cut scenes that couldn't been taken out. I realize that 360 games right now tend to be short but this was even shorter than expected. You only visit 4 main story line places before you have access to the end game planet. I played through the game in 24 hours of play time the first time around. After that I decided to play around with the new-game-plus aspect of keeping your level and gear the second time through. Even doing all the things I missed the second around I only spent 24 hours of game time from start to finish.

The game is very linear depsite claims that you have an impact on the world around you. Little things change due to your choices but not enough for you to check out all the various responses to how you reply or how well you did on a mission. Your "good" and "rebel" meter may change but it doesn't change what you can or can not do except for one mission. You have to be 75% good for one mission or 75% rebel to take on it's sister mission.

The game world is small with only one real city for you to visit. One "city" is no more than a small pit stop on your way to the dungeon style base you have to visit in the main story line. Every other place you visit are planets you can land on with your assault vehicle and cruise around. These worlds are bare and bland with the feeling you're driving around in a testing area for the game's driving programming.

I've read reviews that this game is like Knights of the Old Republic and some that claim Mass Effect is even better than KotOR. Far from it. KotOR 2 for instance beats Mass Effect in every category.

Mass Effect came off like a rushed job to get it to market and giving the consumer a bare bones model to tinker around with.

Massive Defect

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 21
Date: November 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let me start by saying that I am a patient gamer. I have played, and enjoyed all manner of sandbox titles, such as Morrowind, Oblivion, Final Fantasy 12, and to a lesser extent, KOTOR. I am an avid gamer, and I delight in customization and detail.

That being said, Mass Effect, is an incredibly flawed title. I went into it expecting KOTOR with polish. A decent shooter, wrapped in a stellar story. What I found was a game that can't decide what type of game it wants to be, and subsequently, fails at most of them in the process.

As previously mentioned, the shooting aspect is tricky and unforgiving. One minute you are plowing down waves of robotic husks, the next, you are getting paralyzed and euthanized time and time again by some Biotic nightmare. I chose the support class, the Infiltrator, hoping for a spec-ops type sniper character, but I discovered that no matter how many ranks I put into sniping (I am currently maxed out) the crosshair still shakes like I've got Parkinson's, and overloads after 2 (usually missed) shots. As far as my technical skills, I found that even though the word 'stealth' is mentioned in conjunction with my character type, I could find no such skill to back such a claim, merely a few weapon/shield overload abilities, and an enhanced sniper shot.

My teammates, with the exception of Wrex's wry one-liners, and Ashley's flirtatious dialogue tree, are utterly utterly useless. The tactical squad commands might as well all have the same function, as no matter what command I dole out (stay, go, rally, attack) they inevitably seem to stand there, usually confounded by the ominous presence of an impeding wall, muttering about how they can't seem to see what I'm pointing at. This, coupled with the aforementioned shooting problems, makes combat an exercise in restraining yourself from spiking your controller on the floor like a touchdown-winning football.

However, the aspect most adept at removing me forcibly from my suspension of disbelief, is the constant, and unwavering texture pop-ins. It seems like every time the game loads a new area, or changes to an in-game movie sequence, I have to wait a good 5-10 seconds (not exaggerating) before Shepard and his colorful cohorts are fully garbed in their detailed armor. I realize that with a game as massive and self-reliant on in-game movies, that something like this tends to be unavoidable (see Bioshock) but this is steadfast in it's persistence, as if it were programmed intentionally into the game's mechanics.

On a similar note, I have found myself the victim of many a strange glitches, including one where my character became pinned onto a crate in a kneeling position, his neck elongating gradually until I resembled some sort of spacefaring giraffeman, and then I was shot. The gameplay can range anywhere from somewhat, to EXTREMELY buggy.

For all of it's myriad flaws, Mass Effect is a really good game; it might even be great, if one is willing to ignore it's formidable technical problems, in favor of it's rich story, and likable characters. In closing, here is a game that could have used a few more months in development, some love for the shooting system, and some more efficient texture mapping, and this might have been everything people are saying it is.

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