I haven't picked up Lost Odyssey yet, since I'm still playing through Mass Effect for a second time (and Persona 3, and Smash Bros., and now Crisis Core), but it's #1 on my list of games to pick up, so I'm glad to see all the positive feedback it's been getting recently. However, I find it hard to believe that I'll enjoy it more than Mass Effect. Mass Effect has plenty of flaws, of course, but it's got so many things to offset those flaws that I just never really bothered to worry about them.
Let's look at the combat: A little spastic at times, perhaps, and I suppose it could get boring if you just shot everything, over and over (although I love running through enemies with my spectre shotgun; can't beat it). However, the real fun in the game's combat comes in balancing biotics and abilities with weapons. The biotic powers in the game are similar to some of the ones in KotOR: You've got the ability to push things away, to lift them up, and to drain energy from them, among others. In the beginning of the game, I didn't use biotic powers much, as I didn't have very many good ones, and neither did the squad I used (Garrus and Ashley). However, by the end of the game, I was using biotic powers constantly, and supplementing them with the few abilities I found most useful: Unity (although my squad didn't die too often), Adrenaline Rush, and Carnage (which I just enjoyed using). If you judge Mass Effect solely on its shooter mechanics, the combat is a slight failure; this is no Gears of War. However, once you thrown in the KotOR-esque abilities (albeit many fewer of them), the combat is a lot of fun.
Next up, sidequests. I'll admit, the exploration of generic worlds does drag on a bit; I simply didn't mind too much because there was frequently combat waiting for me at the end (which I enjoyed), and every once in a while I'd pick up a useful item. Besides, if you get sick of planetary exploration, just skip it. I found the sidequests on the Citadel to be interesting and fun, because A) you got to explore the Citadel, and B) you feel that the Citadel is much more organic if you talk to its people.
Finally, the main parts of the quest. I'll admit that I was slightly disappointed at how "small" the game felt to me (I remembered KotOR being larger, although that's not entirely true), but I chalked it up to Bioware trying to create a specific narrative (which I'll discuss in a moment). I found all the locations in the game at the very least interesting (Noveria, Feros, Ilos), and I thoroughly enjoyed them all, especially Virmire. To me, the linear-ness of the locations is again a product of the narrativ--the game was set on a specific course, and you were too. I found KotOR less linear, but I also found the story to be less concentrated and satisfying (although still very cool). And even Feros and Noveria have some interesting people to talk to, and things to find out.
In the end, Mass Effect is a WRPG with a JRPG-like tendency towards telling a detailed story at the expense of some of the freedom traditionally associated with the genre. Will you love Mass Effect? That depends on what you think of the story. I personally found the story to be excellent (one of the better ones in a game), and the entire game was essentially me controlling the characters in one of the most interesting sci-fi stores I've seen/read in a while. Even Ilos was extremely interesting to me, because I felt like I was on the verge of making a huge discovery in the world of Mass Effect. When Mass Effect 2 comes out, I ask for 3 things: That they expand on the first game (longer and more detailed), that they allow you to carry over your character from the first game (what's the point of playing through a trilogy as "one" guy, if you play a different guy every game), and that they keep up the narrative quality of the first game. Here's to hoping the wait for all I just asked for isn't too long...
Log in to comment