Finally got around to playing Mass Effect Spoilers Maybe

Hey all,
Know this is a bit old, but thought I'd throw it up anyways. Just played my copy of Mass Effect this weekend.

Graphics: Good, but buggy as hell. Constant disc reading pauses that would sometimes drag out for 10 seconds or more. Bleh.

Levels: OK. Good variety. Very pretty. Too polished for me though. Would like something a bit grittier... looks like Starship Troopers or something to me. Fonts and colors in general are a bit cheesy. Would have liked some other variety such as gravity differences on levels or things like that.

Characters: OK. Liked that they had the guts to kill off some of the squad. Nice touch. Love interest story line is OK. Some funny lines in there. Would like to see things go further. Like if you have a love triangle going and take them both out in the field they can't work as a team or something. That would be something.

Boss battles: WEAK. I played as a soldier so maybe that makes it easier, but damn those things were weak...as were most of the enemies in general. Hardest part for me was not getting blown up while in the vehicle. I think I died maybe two times in this game and I am not a hard core gamer by any means.

Deep immersion possible... but only if you're a dork. Sorry, but someone has to say it. I tried to justify it to friends and they just looked at me like I was a nerd, and they're right. Who cares about delving into the Codex and reading some back story or vehicle descriptions of made up crap. At least in the Star Wars universe there's some level of nerd credit....but this is just hardcore space nerd stuff. I could give two shakes about made up aliens and what their planet is like. I have no desire at all to do some of the "hidden" side quests and discover more about the universe. Just want to play a game.

Side Quests: Weak. Not much incentive since the bosses and gameplay scale with you. Who cares what your level is. Always a way to get things done.

Ending: OK. Ending Song: Pure Cheese! I'll be super impressed if the save game from this influences the ENTIRE experience of the second one. Who you appoint, who's in charge, etc. That would be fantastic. We'll see.

I did a few side quests and this thing still came in at under 15 hours! That's super short. It was a good playthrough though. Got a love scene. Played for Vanguard. Not really enough there to bring me back. Can't quickly skip a lot of the scenes and don't really want to sift through all the answers time and time again. There should be a "know it all mode" or something when you beat games. It turns off all the helper dialogue and story line crap. You can just run through levels like some all knowing bad a$$ and speed things the crap up. Side rant - this is a big pet peeve in Mario Galaxy doing the Luigi play through. Have to get re-told everything. If you made it to 120 starts...chances are you don't need to be told how to jump.

Paul

Maybe. The last three hours felt cool for sure. Some pace and intensity finally entered the fights. It's just that they've done this game better previously. Plus the "getting deeper" means you have to buy into this whole "space epic" thing which is really, really cheesy in all actuality. It's cool for the game, but go out and talk to a non-gamer and try to sound cool explaining reading dossiers on made up aliens and space craft...just try it

The action parts of the game for me were decent. I'd like an option to have more of that. Maybe your character can skip the Paramount/Renegade stuff and be the "silent hero" that doesn't yammer on for 15 minutes. I mean, GeOW gets raked because of short game play, but you're playing for most of those handful of hours. Mass Effect is "longer" but 50-70% of that is cut scenes or characters yammering on.

I did enjoy the game... I played it through till the end in one weekend... not something I typically do. But I didn't find it to be super duper praise worthy. Lots of annoyances, bugs, stupid story line crap (don't need to understand why the reapers do what they do, just stop them...classic storytelling at it's best), and the sex scene was lame, I was expecting hotter

I personally never said I liked the music. Said the ending song was one of the worst ever I had the volume down for most of the game. That psuedo-inspirational crap gets on my nerves. Also, too easy to know you've cleared an area... music stops and changes. No more suspense.

Paul

I've been in an odd mood lately. Beating way more games than usual. Normally beat like one or two a year. Beat two last week. I took a break from 360 so I'm catching up on the "biggies" I missed.

Going to do COD4, Portal, and Beautiful Katamari next. Then move back to RPG's and crap titles. Actually have a hookup for cheap games here (I "review" them for my magazine ) so get a kick out of picking up everything, crap included.

I don't actually review games so much...but horribly misuse my title of "Deputy Editor" for all kinds of perks . They send them, so I take them. Kind of like when I booked live concerts for my college...actually only booked one, but contacted all the promoters and am still getting sent CD's to this day

Paul

PS - Any level so far (9 in) in COD4 is as good or better than the final 3 hours of ME to me. Even better with the intensity and no stupid alien crap to buy into.

Don't know if I need a second review for COD4. Just finished it. Nothing great, but a fantastic play through. Good intensity. Nice two not so hard core days game. Damn this ending song could possibly be worse than Mass Effect... what "hard gangsta" did a rap for COD4?

I guess what another replier posted is my problem with Mass Effect. If you're not into space the game is lessened. I'm not into plumbing but I enjoy Mario . I'm not into the Crusades, but enjoyed Assassin's Creed. There's still a level to which you can kind of enjoy Mass Effect if not into Sci Fi, but that lasts less than 15 hours! I think 2 or 3 of those on my save were just leaving the controller on while I was on the phone and stuff too.

An enjoyable 7.8 or 8.2 or something. No where near a 9.6 though that's for sure.