What Have You Done for the Galaxy Today?
I finished my first round of Mass Effect Friday night and began a subsequent game immediately afterwards. I think it's a very good game with a few annoying quirks.
Ah, quirks.
The most glaring issue is the combat. It feels a bit off, especially after playing incredibly good shooters like Bioshock and Halo 3. Bioware implemented a cover system that isn't particularly useful. For starters, it automatically activates when you press against a wall (unlike using A in Gears of War), so occasionally I'd accidentally get stuck in the middle of a fight. Furthermore, the AI runs around like they have no concept of tactics. Therefore, being immobile and stuck behind a wall when an enemy may run right in front of you isn't ideal. It just doesn't feel like the cover system was a part of the game from day one.
The targeting reticule didn't get very sticky around enemies, making running and gunning quite difficult. I have no idea what grenades do, as I don't think I've ever caused damage with them, and the special abilities like sabotage and shield overload seem to be worthless until they are near maxed out.
Bioware also made the same mistake that Real Time Worlds made with cars, only now it's on the sniper rifle. Until it is almost completely upgraded, and unless you are immobile and crouched, the sniper rifle is impossible to use. It's just not very fun or satisfying if it feels like you are a drunk every time you pick it up. To make matters worse, there are very few scenarios where you can use the sniper rifle. The game is full of narrow corridors and hab modules -- not good for snipers, or the sniper based Infiltrator class I played.
The game's inventory system is incredibly frustrating. You pick up hundreds of identical weapons and upgrades (weapon, ammo, armor). For example, there are six types of sniper rifle, then, each one goes from level 1 to level 10 and up. So, you could get the Hammer I shot gun, then the Hammer II, etc. The UI isn't really ideal for sorting through tons of items, plus it's even more frustrating that the majority of the weapons are just awful. It's really strange that the level VII version of one brand is ALWAYS worse than the Level III version of every other brand. As a player, why the hell would I want that? I would think that fewer drops that are more significant would be much better.
The game features a large number of side missions, but they are largely forgettable. Other than XP, there's little reason to play them. The vast majority of them are found on lifeless, blah rocky crag planets. You drive the Mako vehicle to the crash probe for gear, the anomaly to get the alien disk or artifact, find all the resources to survey them, then go to the same hab module to kill whatever rogue faction has stirred up trouble. Not even the boxes were moved around! Very rarely do you witness an incredible story, obtain unique, special gear or really get something worth your time. It really feels like a huge grind...like an MMO. How much of a grind? I had to find 13 Turian Insignias, and approximately 80 different resources. I guess that's great for Bioware's Austin MMO project, not so great for a single player universe.
A lot of identical content was provided to the player. I honestly think it would have been much better to provide far fewer hours worth of unique side quests instead of more that were not only generic, but identical.
Last, but not least is the games long load times. Penny Arcade was spot on with their nitpick of the elevators. They are too long and too frequent. When games like Oblivion or Metroid Prime handle loading times mostly elegantly, seeing so many is frustrating. The Unreal 3 Engine also rears its ugly head with some nasty texture popping. Textures are constantly popping -- in conversations, cinematic sequences. It's a problem with the engine, or perhaps with the way people use it. I wish it could be fixed as it's a feature I don't recall from last generations games.
The game's main story line is really fun and enjoyable. It doesn't quite have the twist of KOTOR, but it does have a great "oh shit!" when you figure everything out and race to the dramatic conclusion. The conversation portion of the game is really fun, especially once you figure out you can hit "x" to skip the more verbose sequences. Developers throughout the industry need to realize they are making an interactive experience, not a movie, so listening to a guy say three lines of text when one would have sufficed is very frustrating and boring.
The length of the game is great, especially if you skip the side quests. This makes a second or even third play through of the game inviting. I'm playing a renegade soldier now and I fully intend to play a third time as an adept before I put the game down for good. The unique worlds they created for the story missions were well done and the geth enemies look excellent. In fact, all the aliens look believable and well-crafted. Bioware has masterfully created yet another universe I want to explore. Voice acting is strong throughout. It's really good stuff.
I think a lot of the issues I encountered with Mass Effect can be tied to them learning a new engine, developing their first game for the Xbox 360 and making an action based RPG. Bioware is great at making more tactical, turn based RPGs. Action games are very new to them. I think the second and third games will be more incredible -- these guys know what they are doing and I think it's impressive that they are trying such new, ambitious designs.
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