Ambitious, filmic, divisive, maybe. Massively Affecting - definitely.
This review is almost a retrospective. I feel the same way now as i felt when I first started on the ascetic, shimmering path to the Citadel Tower; Mass Effect is a game that requires patience and multiple play throughs to truly appreciate. Having completed the game with three different characters, I finally feel qualified to rate what I consider one of Bioware's finest achievements. Strong praise considering their pedigree, but nevertheless this is a game more innovative and visionary than many people realise, or are prepared to believe.
Allow me to elaborate with an illustration.
The camera pans round to reveal, the scarred, pitted visage of Urdnot Wrex, his reptilian face framed by the neon-blue glow from the C-Sec lighting. You choose your dialogue summation in the midst of his basso growl, so that your reply flows seamlessly into the flow of conversation. Your squad-mates, possessed of their own motives and backgrounds, stare skeptically at your exchange until, finally, you and Wex uncover a common ground; you're both 'taking Fist down'...and so the next quest begins.
And the payoff. This isn't an isolated incident, a pre-rendered cut-scene. This is a common occurance in Mass Effect, and so too are the witty exchanges, the feelings of attachment and emotional investment. The dialogue system, if nothing else, is revolutionary in the way it allows you to watch a scene of definitely filmic quality (enhanced by the 'film grain' option in the graphics menu) unfurl in dramatic real time, whilst maintaining control over your actions, speech and moral compass.
Granted, this is the most obvious area in which the game excels. Other aspects fare less spectacularly. Combat for example, can be a furstrating affair when your erstwhile friends and comrades run blindly into crossfire, and must, perhaps out of some strange childhood trauma, are unable to part from each others company. Conversely, the tactical element, whilst not-so-novel, is preferable to turn based, adds a much needed slick of pace to a genre traditionally mired in laborious combat and stands out when it works as dramatic and involved.
The menu system is another irksome aspect. Grant me this one indulgence; I refuse to care about and comment on a slightly unwieldly menu system when everything else works hunky-dory to say the least. It's like complaining that your wallet has too many compartments; it holds money, so you deal with it.
I am seriously at risk of writing a dissertation on the properties of Mass Effect that make it so worthwhile. That, however, is certainly not while you are here, hypothetical reader, and if you are then Kudos and my apologies. I will, in an effort to buck tradition as much as Mass Effect does, end this review with a dissertation title:
Why does Mass Effect represent a truly profound step forward, despite its flaws, in the genres it spans, and how does it make a giant lizard so damn lovable?
Deeman
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