Mass Effect

It seems that most people believe that if it is called a video game, it has no sense of a good, in-depth story that a book would have. And while regrettably this is the case for many games on the market, there are some very fine exceptions. Like Mass Effect.



Mass Effect is a third-person, over-the-shoulder shooter for the Xbox 360 and PC made by the company BioWare. It is set in the future, in the year 2183 AD. Humans had, thirty-five years prior, discovered a piece of ancient technology left behind by a race called the Protheans, which after studying it launched them into a technologically advanced future of their own. Space travel was now easily possible, and there were many races out there whom also had similar pasts about finding technology and had formed a galactic alliance.

You play as commander Shepard. The last name and rank are the only things unchangeable. The character is then decently customizeable, from being able to choose your gender to making up a first name to changing the facial features with impressive options.

The story for Mass Effect seems simple enough. You get a mission to recover another ancient artifact called a "beacon". As you arrive on the planet, you see that it is/has been under attack by a group that also wants the beacon. The group is led by an alien samed Saren, who has the rank of Spectre (which is a special rank made by the galaxy's presiding council to do the dirty jobs, and do them right with little-to-no laws binding them to a small set of methods). The story shows right off the bat, however, that Saren is betraying the council and is ignoring their orders.

You fight your way to the beacon's location, and right before it blows up it sends a sort-of bloated and broken signal directly to Shepard's brain, nearly knocking them unconcious. After you debrief the council on the situation. After you convince them that Saren has gone rogue, the council makes Shepard a spectre to hunt down and eliminate Saren. After that point, the galaxy is opened up and you are given various missions and tasks that lead you to the typical story end, which is saving the galaxy from certain evil.

But the story is so much more detailed than that. The game has incredibly rich dialogue, with minimal cheesiness. The game even gives you an option in many, many instances where you get to choose what you are going to say to someone in the given situation, with each of the choices available being aligned to good, bad, or morally gray. And in game-affecting situations, you can try to influence someone to do or say what you want them to say, and how effective it is is dependent on how many points you put into a couple of particular categories on your character as you level up.



The gameplay itself is something impressive, too. It doesn't break the norm of typical shoot-em-up games, but it does follow the pattern quite well. There aren't really any puzzles, and although there will be some exploring to do in order to find certain parts of the story to continue on, the paths themselves offer little direct deviation and are easy to get back on to.

Review: 5 out of 5

This game is basically like an interactive movie. The dialogue in the game is so rich, so full, so deep, it feels like you are watching and participating in a near-perfect movie. Add the gameplay that plays so very well, and you get an ideal combination that few games still can't match. The gameplay and story parts are spaced out so well, too, that you aren't really wondering what is going on, and if you get lost, it is because you didn't pay attention.

Not only is the story good, but the voice actors chosen played the parts very well, adding to the movie feel and taking away from the 'this is obviously a game story' feel. Feelings and thoughts are portrayed with striking accuracy. Character interactions are well-built and played very professionally.

Further, if you beat the game you can transfer you character and all of your equipment and stats from your recently completed file to a new game so you can play it all over again with everything you beat it with.



It is a game definitely worth playing at least once or twice. I recommend playing it many times. It is definitely something you won't come across often.

~Koubo