Mass Effect is a Space-oriented RPG set in the year 2183. The player takes the role of a Human commander; Commander Shepard. Mass Effect is the first in a trilogy, and has episodic content that fills in parts of the story between each of the main games. I have read, however, that these are not required to understand the main plot line.
Players take position of Commander Shepard and are able to customise them, using a number of feature editors in the character creation screen. Players may also opt to be a male or female Shepard. Once you have created your character, players see themselves aboard the SSV Normandy, under command of Captain Anderson.
The game, if all side quests are completed, takes about 40 hours and throws players through a roller coaster of emotions. Its in-depth storyline and decision making process help to engross you into the action, and become attached to the characters. When you see the choices you make, making a positive or negative impact on the people around you, including crew members, you start to realise how well this game keeps you on your toes.
The following paragraph contains elements of the plot line and will spoil the game, should you read (highlight) it:
At one point in the game, I had a short space in time in which to decide between two of my crew members, and one was destined to die. In effect, the dialogue options available showed how little choice I had in saving both of them. In the end I bit-the-bullet and saved Ashley Williams, the human woman that Commander Shepard can fall in love with. Half of me says I saved her because of one of the achievements, however, at the end of my game when I was frowning at the screen thinking, “They better not kill her… Wait, they better not kill me either”, started me wondering; Did I just get attached to pieces of code? After the loss of Kaiden Alenko, there was a definite emptiness on the ship. I got back after that mission and, after talking to Kaiden about his view after each mission so far, you can definitely feel that loss. It was oddly saddening.
It was that experience that made me realise just how believable the characters were, and what an awesome job BioWare had done into making you have emotion toward them. I got annoyed at the high council, and their consistency in distrusting everything Shepard would say, I was slightly saddened by the death of a new recruit in his first mission and I felt a immense sense of victory at the conclusion of the plot line (Although at times, this victory sense was wavering at my uncertainty of “What will happen next?”)
I wanted the full Mass Effect experience, so I took the effort to complete all of the side quests and the main quests. The side quests did start to get a little repetitive however, and in the end I was just doing them to get the achievements on Xbox Live.
Overall, I think the game is a piece of art. The story is plausible (in a science-fiction sense), the characters are realistic, believable; their dialogue convincing and the visuals are pretty top notch too.
Mass Effect’s average score is 91 on MetaCritic, and I think it’s safe to say that the score is about right. I would give it a slightly higher 93, due to how immersed I was from the game experience. The only negative points I have are the side quests becoming slightly tedious near the end and the inability to skip certain (repetitive) cutscenes.
Here is a trailer I found:
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