Mass Effect Small Preview

[Legend of Myth]

Hello everyone!

Ive recently had the chance to sit down with some of my good friends at Bioware and play an early copy of the Canadian made "Mass Effect" from the Edmonton based company Bioware. Ive decided to write down my early thoughts and experiances before you all have a chance to experiance the game in 1 week. Click here to read them! (http://www.readyuplive.com/showthread.php?t=221)

[Legend of Myth]

Preparing for the adventure of a lifetime...

Before I start cutting the game apart, Id like to recommend something to everyone who is at all excited or interested in the game. There is a prequel to the game in the form of a book called "Mass Effect: Revelations". Now I dont want to spoil any of the story (as thats one of the biggest +'s for the game) but its highly entertaining and prepares you for the game.

What is Mass Effect?

ME is a Sci-Fi third person Shooter/RPG that has you take lead of John Shepard, a sole survivor of a violent conflict from the past and humanity's greatest chance of survival. You lead an ever changing squad around the galaxy in search of a rouge Spectre who is hell bent on wiping humans from existence. (Dont want to say much more story wise, but let me reasure you that its one of the best)

Graphics

The Good:
If any of you have ever seen Mass Effect in motion, you would know that this game not only looks amazing, its diverse locations and species of aliens is astronomical. The Bioware staff have spent thousands of hours hand crafting hundreds of different character models and environments that Visualy, it never really becomes repetative. Facial expressions and animations are some of the best ive seen, and it allowed me to better relate myself to the characters I was playing as or dealing with.

The Bad:
With the amount of detail that was put into this game, its not suprising that theres a few graphical glitches here and there. Throughout the game you will notice "pop ins" that can sometimes distract the player from what he/she's doing. The majority of them are found during cutscenes and usually happen quickly. Also, I noticed that when I would finish loading a new area, it wouldnt always load all the textures off the bat, and I would be walking around in a detialess world for as long as 5 seconds. Lastly, the framerate doesnt always hold up, and you may experiance some character jumping or sudden camera jerks during combat.

Handling

The Good:
ME handles *sarcasm* Suprisingly *sarcasm* like Biowares KOTOR and Jade Empire games. The only new thing Id like to comment on right now is the combat. Unlike the KOTOR series, in ME you have full control over the combat. You can switch out your weapon and items as well as your squad members on the fly by holding down the RB and LB buttons. This is the only time the game will stop. Other than that, its all real time and basically becomes a third person shooter (ala GoW) complete with covering system.

The Bad:
The controls work well for what the game is trying to achieve, but at times I find the simplest of actions such as walking forward, not very responsive. Im not quite sure why they have the delay on movement, but it ups the learning curve of the game a little.

Gameplay

The Good:
ME is choc full of missions and side quests, planets to explore, and people to interact with that it should last you a good long time. Its got a lvling system that rivals KOTOR's and allows you to lvl up the skills that you prefer. Theres alot of variety in missions and alot of choices that you can make that will affect the story and outcome of the game. Its a very solid RPG.

The Bad:
One piece of advice going into ME...Chose the hardest difficulty. The game is easy in the beginning, and only gets easier as your character lvls and gets stronger. You wount find any challange on the lower difficultys, and I personally dont want to sit threw a 30+ hour game not being challanged.

Alright everyone, thats it for now...Im working on a video review for the game and hope to finish it by the weekend. Remember, this is just a first impression PREVIEW...not a review. Enjoy and come back this weekend for the video!

[Semper]

Sounds pretty sick, I looking forward to playing it.

[ramrod25]

Sounds not too bad. I'm going to have to try it. If only I could pull myself away from Halo 3.

[Tough Gandhi]

nice a Canadian made game for a change :P

[Legend of Myth]

Alright everyone, Ive just completed the game...Im working on the video review as I type this...hope to have it up in a few hours

[Tough Gandhi]

cool. Legend of myth is going crazy with the reviews
Appreaciate it though

[xXHorrorHippoXx]

Everyone at school is talking about this game and since I am like the Xbox guy at my school, they are all asking me if I have it...BUT I DONT! HURRY XMAS HURRY!

[Semper]

I haven't got it yet, but a few of my friends have, and they all say the same thing. The voice overs/acting make this game amazing.

[Tough Gandhi]

This game looks really awesome and whats even better is that its canadian. The toronto star gave this a great review (3 1/2 out of 4) they said the voiceing and story is AWESOME.
Ps. Hippo is posting like mad to beat me for RUL top poster AHHHHHHHHHHHHh

[rabidhotdog]

I just bought this, and after 10 hours, I say this is definatly GOTY. It is just great, I really don't have anything to complain about. For perspective, I haven't even started the main quest yet, and i'm 10 hours in, thats how deep it is. A must buy for everybody.

[Tough Gandhi]

I recomend the demonstration videos in the marketplace they are awesome and they show you so many great features of the game

[rabidhotdog]

Just finished it last night and I was really impressed with it. Though, the main story seemed a little short.

[havoc_angel7]

I have seen this game. It is sick nasty. Have yet to play it though.

[helldealer29]

I beat mass effect, not so good after you have beaten it 3 or 4 times over. so i'm not going to get the bonus pack.

[Dr Great]

I need to get this game! everyone says it´s so awsome"

[003Halo]

Sounds very interesting maybe I will play it.

[Sibark]

I didn't really like mass effect much in my opinion =/

[BladesofBlood]

Sounds pretty sick, I looking forward to playing it.

who isnt?

[Hero Intern]

That looks good man. I cannot wait for Assassin's Creed 2 or Halo 3 ODST [nja]



- " I'm Mr. Brightside "

[buttsteak]

awesome

[Tough Gandhi]

awesome

Dude you do realize that this game is now well over a year old and you can pick it up for like 20 bucks at EB

[neonium]

LOL

[Negimas]

Cool, I heard of it before I can't remember where though.

[Avengerr]

Cool, I heard of it before I can't remember where though.


You did NOT just say that?!:O Mass Effect has been out for like well over a year, maybe 2, im not sure. If you actually havent heard of it, go to your local EB Games/Gamestop, movie store or SOMETHING, and buy it. Also, download the DLC for it (Bringing Down the Sky) as it is quite fun, and rewarding.

Ultimately you should keep the game, as the sequel is coming out in like Spring 2010 i believe.

[jwcook]

Tried it, didn't like it. The only positive is that it has Seth Green doing a voice over.

[Mongerty]

Tried it, didn't like it. The only positive is that it has Seth Green doing a voice over.


Wow....REALLY? You could have picked a bigger positive than Seth's phoned in performance.

[Negimas]

Cool, I heard of it before I can't remember where though.


You did NOT just say that?!:O Mass Effect has been out for like well over a year, maybe 2, im not sure. If you actually havent heard of it, go to your local EB Games/Gamestop, movie store or SOMETHING, and buy it. Also, download the DLC for it (Bringing Down the Sky) as it is quite fun, and rewarding.

Ultimately you should keep the game, as the sequel is coming out in like Spring 2010 i believe.
I just can't remember it lol.

[Mongerty]

Buy the Platinum edition if you end up getting it. It comes with the DLC for free.

Of course, only buy it if you like wordy RPGs and shooters...... It is such a weird cross of games, but it works so well.

[HEEEEERES LUCKY]

i think ill play this

[Avengerr]

Oh btw, Love Scene FTW. (Sorta) I found it hilarious haha. Especially if you decide to play as a girl ;)

[Negimas]

I haz Mass Effect! Joking lol.

[Hermsen08]

i hope mass effect 2 ur still shepard, or one of the crew based off of ur previous save from mass effect 1

[Mongerty]

It has been confirmed that you are Shepard, and that you can carry over your save game.

[Flamingcats]

Seems like it would be a good game to have.

[Recarbo]

It has been confirmed that you are Shepard, and that you can carry over your save game.

What do you mean by "carry over" being exactly who you were before? I don't have mass effect but i've played it quite alot at a friends house. It's kinda boring at the beginning but those weird zombie like things are the bomb.

[Mongerty]

It has been confirmed that you are Shepard, and that you can carry over your save game.

What do you mean by "carry over" being exactly who you were before? I don't have mass effect but i've played it quite alot at a friends house. It's kinda boring at the beginning but those weird zombie like things are the bomb.

Your physical appearance will be the same, as well as the effects from choices you made in the first game. (going any deeper is spoiler territory). I believe you will get some of the same bonuses and stats too, but they have not gone into too much detail yet.

ME2 is a day one buy for me.