Weight Repercussion

Proving that I'm once again perpetually late to the party, I only just barely finished playing through the first Mass Effect. The timing seems meaningful as the second game came out today, yet I probably won't be playing the second for a while due to the fact I'm currently slogging through Dragon Age.

Mass Effect is a classic style Bioware RPG similar to games like Knights of the Old Republic or even Neverwinter Nights. Like those previous games, you control a single character through an adventure filled with skill trees, dialog, adventure and combat. You pick up compatriots along the way that you schmooze or piss off to your heart's content. While I was basically expecting it to be nothing more that KotOR in a slightly different universe, I'm quite pleased to say that it isn't.

I think it's very accurate to say that at the time of it's launch, it was easily the best Bioware RPG. Here's what I thought:

Loved

• Vocal Protagonist. This is without a doubt my favorite feature in the entire game. It's also the thing I'm most missing while playing through Dragon Age. Mass Effect has what I consider to be the best dialog system in an RPG. Instead of a choosing from a list of predefined lines to say, you select a general idea, such as "Personal question." Your character, Shepherd, then proceeds to ask the NPC a personal question of some kind. It works really well because it makes for conversations that are actually two sided. Instead of feeling like people are talking at you, you actually talk to them. It's also constantly entertaining to see just exactly how Shepherd will interpret the conversation direction you give him. This was a huge step forward as far as Bioware RPGs (or RPGs in general) go, and it was disappointing to see the feature non-existent in Dragon Age.
  
  
• Streamlined Combat. My least favorite feature in other, similar games is the overly tactical combat. While there are probably plenty of people who disagree with me, I'm the kind of person who likes to roleplay a single character and give my companions nothing more than basic directions. Mass Effect excels here. The combat is fun and fast paced, often resembling a shooter more than a traditional RPG. Giving your friends orders is as simple as holding the spacebar and making a few clicks to tell them what to do next. It never interrupts the combat and it works very well.
  
  
• Universe. The Mass Effect universe is amazing. It somehow manages to feel completely original, rather than derivative. While it would be impossible to argue that it wasn't influenced by Star Wars/Trek, Bioware did an amazing job of making a plausible, not too distant space travelling future. The alien races are unique, easily recognizable, and full of history and back story. It's all too common to play a large RPG and get lost in the history of the individual peoples (or just not care), but that wasn't the case for me here. Each group has their own unique struggles, personalities, and even racial quirks. I'm happy to hear that there is plenty planned for the Mass Effect universe in the future.
  
  

Hated

• Haven't I Been Here Before? In typical RPG fashion, Mass Effect contains a decent length amount of "main story" content and a similarly decent amount of "side quest" content. While nearly everything you see and experience in the main story line is unique and interesting, the side quests get repetitive really, really fast. If you ever need proof that there is a God, merely look at the planets in the Mass Effect universe. Apparently, when he was creating the universe, he took some spheres, punched them a couple of times each to make some bumps, then painted them a color representing their climate: green for temperate, white/blue for cold, black/red for hot, etc. Additionally, there are apparently a couple of very wealthy building companies out there, as they have prefabricated 3 different under and above ground installations and then managed to put them everywhere. In all seriousness, the sameness of the side quest worlds, locations, and even the quests was VERY disappointing and a large blemish on this otherwise amazing game.

I could spent a lot more time discussing other various aspects of the game that were great (weapon variety, companion interactions, the dual renegade/paragon "alignment" bars, etc), but suffice it to say that I personally believe that Bioware did nearly everything right here. Even one of the biggest complaints people had with the first game, driving the the MAKO vehicle, I didn't think was all that bad.

Mass Effect is just an amazing game. I'll probably compare it to Dragon Age more when I review it, but so far, I believe Mass Effect to be the superior game. If you haven't played it yet, what are you waiting for? You can probably find it for almost nothing (I've seen it on sale for $5 from at least 3 different vendors).