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DRM is a farce

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 18
Date: June 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Sorry as Much as I love Bioware and their series of RPGs. EA and their support of DRM is a nightmare. Restricting your ability to resell the game, giving you a limited amount of activations when not even your OS will put limits on. It's rediculus and will only kill PC gaming as we know it. EA should go the way of 1983 Atari and crash.

Utterly Amazing

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 18
Date: July 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I understand the issues that reviewers have with the DRM and I share their concerns. I was uncertain as to whether I would purchase the game until EA made the decision to tone it down--and that should be noted, that it was EA and not BioWare who put the DRM there in the first place. At any rate, while I do sympathize, I do not think that all the reviews knocking the game because of the DRM are fair.

I've long been a faithful and devoted BioWare fan. My first game was the outstanding Knights of the Old Republic and I've rabidly devoured BioWare's every subsequent game--with the exception of Jade Empire. I wasn't sure, however, that I really wanted to play this game. I've never really been into shooters and I was a bit worried that the combat would be so taxing for me as to render the game completely unenjoyable. However, I heard a lot of good things about it and decided to give it a go. Am I ever glad I did.

First off, a discussion of the combat is a must. I do know female gamers who enjoy shooters but I also know it's not uncommon for women, like me, to have some misgivings about this particular genre. It did take me a while to get used to the combat and there were times when I was very frustrated but I am so glad I persevered. I've always enjoyed RPGs and RTSes but this game has shown me that the shooter-style combat is more engaging and more fun overall than the point, click, kill style of your typical RPG. I sometimes find that the combat in a typical RPG seems to get in the way of the story, in that I am impatient for the combat to be over so that I can find out more about the plot. With this game, it was sometimes the opposite. The combat was so enjoyable that I sometimes wanted some of the more long-winded characters to finish up so that I could get back to it.

That's not meant to be a criticism of the RPG elements of the game--far from it. I can say without reservation that I believe this to be BioWare's finest game yet. When it comes to the party members, there wasn't one that I did not like. In fact, I was surprised by how much I liked Ashley as I usually tend to find the male PC's potential love interest to be annoying (Bastila cheesed me off to no end when I played KotOR). However, Ashley was like my female Shepard's best friend. She was extraordinarily well-written and often made me laugh with her brassy and sometimes outrageous comments. She was so good that I think the other potential party members got short shrift as I refused to go anywhere without her and Kaidan. As for Kaidan, he made for a pretty nice romance interest, though the romance itself was a bit thin. Still, as this is the first installment in a planned trilogy, I hope that the romance is one of many elements that will be more fully fleshed out over time. The alien crew members are very interesting as well and generate some compelling side quests.

The real strength of this game, though, comes from the choices that you, as Shepard, are forced to make. While it's easy enough to determine which conversation options are the goody two shoes options and which are the jerk options, it's still very unclear just whether the outcome is good or bad. I found myself spending a good deal of time mulling over the choices I had to make and agonizing about their long-term effects. The game is very gray and so even when I felt that my Paragon Shepard was doing what was best, I was often unsettled by the choice I had to make. There is one in particular which I will not cover in detail as it would be a major spoiler. Suffice it to say that it was a really difficult decision that left me feeling very unsatisfied--and that's good. Real life isn't tied up in pretty bows so having to make difficult choices in the game just lends it even more realism.

Further enhancing the realism is the subject matter. By setting things in the future and using aliens, BioWare has cleverly created a very mature game that has a lot to say about such heavy topics as racism, politics, and the ills of major corporations. A lot of the issues in the game hold a great deal of real-world relevance.

Overall, this is a very adult game and that in and of itself is refreshing. I'm thrilled to have a game that challenges me intellectually, so that it is more than mere passive entertainment. Like many BioWare fans, the past several years have provided a great deal of torment as I've waited and hoped for a release date for Dragon Age. However, after having played ME, I find that I would now rather have ME 2 than the long-anticipated DA.

DRM'd to death

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: August 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I wanted to love this game. I even tried to love it. But I couldn't, and here is why:

1. DRM that sucks the life out of everything good the game has to offer. We as consumers have got to stop accepting this garbage. It limits playability, prevents legitimate use of the game we purchased, and treats the consumer as "guilty until proven innocent." I really wish I had NOT bought this game for that one reason. Never again will I give my money for a product with DRM.

2. Poorly ported. As many others have noted, the camera that follows Shepherd around is frustrating, and doesn't allow for the immersive quality of a first person view.

3. Control of the rover vehicle thing is clumsy and frustrating. The physics on planet surfaces is so poor that I didn't want to do many of the side quests. You can drive up nearly vertical surfaces, bounce hundreds of feet down the sides of mountains without suffering any damage, all using slippy controls that don't feel right for a bad-*** personnel carrier.

4. Many sound bugs. The processing of sound in this game is horrible. The sound fades out during many of the movie sequences. The only option is to turn on subtitles, which hurts immersion into the game. At other points in game sound glitches cause ambient noise to disappear while shooting a weapon, or the opposite, so that you only hear ambient sound, and muffled or nonexistent weapons fire. I have a extremly high quality sound card, the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude so this is NOT due to my system. Even the recently released patch does not solve this issue.

5. Inconsequential rewards for accomplishing side objectives. There are two levels to this. The first is that if you take the time to find all the rare earths, gases, metals, etc., you are rewarded with nothing more than cash. That would be fine if there was anything worth buying with it. However, once you're level 25+ all of the weapons you can buy are either the same, or inferior to what you already have. The mission based side quests provide little reward also. There are very few bosses, and they never drop weapons or equipment that is specialized or unique. I was hoping that side quests would allow access to weapons and armor that were otherwise unavailable. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Other than being a completenic, there is no reason to pursue side quests at all.

6. Short main campaign. The main campaign can be completed in 20 hours or less. That would be fine if side quests were more rewarding, but they're not (see #5). I liked the main campaign quite a bit, and thought the story was fairly interesting, but it would have been nice if the story took less of a linear path. What I mean by that (given that you can choose to go to the planets in any order) is it would have been interesting if the game required you to return to planets you had previously visited (other than the Gate) for additional objectives/story arcs. For example, a mission that required you to travel to several different planets. The main campaign would not have been disappointing in the slightest if they had made it less linear.

So all that said, why 3 stars and not 1? Because the game is not a total failure. The storyline is much better than average, the voice acting and writing is of a very high quality, and the combat is pretty fun. This game is not a failure, it is just not that great. It doesn't deserve 1 star anymore than it deserves 5.

Again, the principle reason NOT to buy this game is the awful DRM that infests it. We as gamers and consumers need to show that we will NOT accept crippled games that we are essentially leasing. We need to put our money where our mouths are and avoid these games until their makers start to pay attention. If enough of us refuse to buy games with DRM, eventually they will get rid of it.

The principle reason to buy the game are quality writing and acting, a good storyline, and entertaining combat sequences.

***Whenever I write a review that mentions DRM, I like to give a plug for Amazon. They have DRM free music downloads. If you're going to buy digital music, buy them from Amazon.***

Won't Run - google forums; many are having serious problems

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 19
Date: June 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I just bought the game for PC and installed on a brand-new gaming rig that is definitely pumped up enough to run it (using Vista 32-bit). When I select "play" all that happens is the error message "Mass Effect has stopped working and must close." I can't even get the game to start.

I went online to Google mutiple forums to see if I could figure out the problem. Well, perhaps if I was willing to waste literally days trying all kinds of possible things, which most people say didn't work for them. Apparently this or that occasionally works for a person. But obviously this game was in no condition to be released for the PC market as it stands.

So I am posting this review to warn other shoppers. Please go online and decide for yourself before ordering this PC game. It appears that very few people have actually been able to get it to run at all, and those that can complain of various quality issues, not being able to save games etc.

Read the warnings.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: August 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I wouldn't have known about the trojan program attached with Mass Effect if it wasn't for all the one star reviews posted to Amazon. I was going to buy the PC version for the added content but due to DRM I absolutely won't. I encourage you to boycott DRM as so many other users have suggested.

Mass Effect

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 17
Date: July 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I thought I would be one of the lucky ones who would have no problems with the DRM and in Effect, play a fun game. DON'T MAKE MY MISTAKE! It's not that rare of a problem and now I have a problem that nobody will help me fix. Bioware says its either a DELL or Microsoft Software issue, maybe a corrupt registry or something else I have installed (Its a brand new PC with only 2 other games on it!) DELL says there PC and the OS are fine, it's a known problem with the DRM software, maybe try Microsoft's help with the error's (as in more then one) Im getting. Microsoft say's there operating system is fine, its the 3rd party software that has messed up my computer. I need to completly uninstall or rebuild with my emergency restore disk or I need to have BioWare Helpdesk fix it and help me remove the DRM and all of it's tenticles that have currupted my machine with its virus spycode.
You will wish you never installed this game and any software with DRM. If there is a class action suit anywhere, Im in!

Released to soon

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 12
Date: June 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Well ive been playing this game for a week now with a ATI X1900 card which is within the requirements for the game. The game play is better then the previous titles of this genra, Kotor I and II, mainly the switch to a shooter rather then D&D style skill combat. The dialogue between characters is much better as you dont replay entire conversations with many previous games. The only big negative is the Ally and Enemy AI, both stand around and shoot each other instead of looking for cover sometimes even standing around when ordered to find cover. The Enemy is very predictable, they will almost never charge or use tatics opting to remain where they spawn or near it. Of course even with there flaws they can still kill.

Graphics is where this game goes down hill, it may look pretty on the cover but its not after installation. Screen Tearing (Where the texture will appear to ripe from the character or object and stretch to into a point away from them), pixilated lighting, low quality texture. After purchasing the game, a text file states, along with several other issues that:

The ATI X1950, and X1650 have a known issue with minor pixilation of some visual effects in Mass Effect. An upcoming Catalyst 8.6 video driver from ATI update will address this issue.

The 8.6 driver renders the game useless causing continual crashing and VPU Recoverys. Nvidia has its own share of similar problems. For now, and the next month or two Avoid this game. Watch the bioware forums for a fix if any.

This game is a lot of fun though if you use outdated drivers and can put up with pixilization, and the occassional crash. The plot line is interesting and I look forward to this games development.

Remember Save early and save often.

Failure

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 19
Date: June 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I looked forward to another amazing story from Bioware with the gameplay I've come to expect from them. This wasn't.

Mass Effect wasn't ready for the PC. There are numerous show-stopping errors that any reasonable quality assurance team should have found. The story may be spectacular, but the engine is so glitchy that it's almost impossible to find out.

Many would immediately dismiss this review saying "oh, of course you just don't have enough hardware," so here's a quick list:
Dual-core 3ghz Processor
nVidia GeForce 8800
2GB Ram
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro

I could continue but that should be sufficient.

Plain and simple, don't buy it till they've patched it.

Loved the Game, but...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: July 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I bought this game when it was released for PC. I've played it through four times now. That in itself should attest to how much I enjoy it. It's similar to KotOR, but with more shooter mixed in, which makes for a better, more engaging game in my opinion.

Originally, I was disappointed with the AI. The first time I played through, the enemies were dumber than a box of rocks for the most part, almost standing around and waiting for me to shoot them full of bullets. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the game actually did become more challenging when the difficulty was increased, though. Party AI was decent. Enemy level scales with your character level, so you are (almost) never presented with a ridiculously difficult fight too early.

The skills in the game are a mixed bag. Most of them are quite useful. However, about a quarter of them need to be unlocked by putting X number of skill points into some other skill. In several cases, this winds up being a horrible waste. Why on earth would I want to put a bunch of skill points into a damage over time effect when the vast majority of fights are over long before the effect can finish? And yet I must in order to unlock a much more useful skill. It's frustrating to need just one more skill point to get some fancy ability and have a dozen or more wasted skill points mocking you from where they sit gathering dust.

Level design is mostly pretty good, but I do have one question: who on Earth is going to pack their cargo into their freighter such that it forms a claustrophobia-inducing maze full of places where evil mechano-zombies, biotic terrorists, or giant bugs can hide, only to jump out and try to eat people's faces?

I really enjoyed the character development. A frequent failing of this type of game is to have very boring characters; e.g. someone who is always evil or someone who always does the right thing, both of whom have the personality of a particularly boring cardboard box. Thankfully, Mass Effect mostly steers clear of this. Most of the party members are actually interesting characters with distinctive personalities, and some of the intra-party character moments (generally while standing in some elevator) are hilarious.

However...

My least-favorite part of the game by far: the rubber geckomobile, AKA the Mako. As a combat vehicle, it works well, though by the end of the game I found it to be faster to actually get out and have my squad shoot most enemies themselves. The real issue I had with this was the endless driving back and forth on the frillions of mostly-empty planets looking for points of interest. It's a real (boring) timesink. On the other hand, there are giant man-eating worms that pop out of the ground. Those seem to come standard with futuristic planet-based games nowadays. Who knew Arrakis exported more than just the spice?

This game is obviously a console port. UI, camera, and character controls all attest to this. If this didn't bother you in KotOR, it probably won't bother you here. It's a minor issue (and it obviously didn't stop me from enjoying the game), but I would have preferred a slightly more PC feel to the game.

I haven't had the crash issues some people have; in the four times I've played through the game, it has crashed three times. That said, it does not handle being minimized well. At all. If you alt-tab to a different application, then it's over. I couldn't get back to the game. Annoying to say the least.

I'll let people who know more about the DRM issues grouse about them.

Too soon to buy - wait for the patches

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: August 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I hate to have to say it but there are major problems with this game and I am not referring to the drm silliness. My own copy won't play after the initial screen and that was >after< installing the latest patch (weirdly enough, I could get it started before the patch). Prior to that the game forums have tons of complaints about multiple in-game crashes and they have not gotten any less with the patch. While some people are reporting no problems, so many are that it suggests something fundamental is wrong. As much of a fan of Bioware and RPG games as I am, I strongly urge you to wait a couple of months before trying this one out.

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