1PStart Review: Mass Effect

1PStart's JW finally got his hands on Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. After playing through it, to say he was slightly pleased would be a massive understatement.

"Not only is this the best product BioWare has released, but this ranks up there among the best role playing games ever. If you own an Xbox 360, then you have no excuse to not own Mass Effect. It's the best RPG on the market. It's one of the best shooters on the market. It's one of the best GAMES on the market. It's my pick for Game of the Year. It's just a hair short of absolute perfection, and I'm going to play some more right now."

[Gahigiddy]

Forget the f@g's review, read the mothaf***ing comments at the bottom. Sums up the game nicely.

[razer]

This game is great. You are off-topic and a troll..

[367 To Your Ass]

the graphics in this game are some of the best i've seen on the 360 besides gears and bioshock.

i started two new save files, one with the default male character (john shepard), and one with a female custom character.

there both given an extreme amount of detail for custom and default characters.

[7ero H3LL]

although i still like the default character (john shepard).
but in terms of default female character (jane shepard) i like yours better.

however it's a great thing they added custom characters, you can start the game over as many times you like with different looks, different futures, different choices, and different personal states in combat.

[Grinchy]

i am somewhat of a bioware fanboy, having loved all their rpgs, but, and forgive me if I am wrong, because I dont yet own a 360, how does a game that suffers MASSIVE framerate drops and texture loading get a 5/5? I am not hating on the game, because this might be the one that makes me get a 360. I have seen numerous ps3 reviews where points get deducted because of framerate issues, so why is it not the issue here? A legitimate question, please dont flame me, because I will openly admit this game looks AWESOME.

[razer]

do not out-weigh the fun and epic qualities of this game. The only thing I can relate it to is Oblivion, which suffered some of the same issues but still had such engaging gameplay that it really didn't bother anyone. I'm about 15 hours into it and I am loving it.

[jaja1434]

Hmm because people exaggerate. Having played the game I can tell you that yes there are frame rates drops from time to times. Is it massive or game impeding? No not really.

As for why the PS3 gets it bad for frame rates. *shrug*
I assume that most people think it gets a 4/5 or whatever solely because of the frame rate and would refuse to admit that the gameplay itself is not worthy of a higher score. This in turn just makes other problems stand out more. Kind of like when a hot girl has a less than great personality you may be willing to overlook it for a while where as if she was only good looking, as opposed to hot, then that little personality flaw comes glaring out. But thats just an assumption.

[mesh1]

WOW MASS EFFECT IS AN AMAZING GAME im about 20hrs played and have only done 1 planet main plot quest and im lvl 18 so im taken my time this game is sooooooooooooooooooooooo big its amazing not to mention ive seen only 25% of the gam ewow at the buggy and the planets ive been to about 5 for randon siode wuest killing drugs lords and what not the planets all have amazing weather effect and detail for a game of this size wow ther eare fps drops a a bit but nothing below 20fps which is perfect for this type of game man u can do anything in thso game and the combat is very very amazing its extremly tatical and im playing on veteran and have not met any enemys i cant handle with liek 3 treis using different tactics and cover THIS GAME IS AMAZING the stiory dialogue is amazing the character detail of enemys /part members is amazing every single time mass effect is indeed GOTY to think iv eplayed this game for th elenght i have and done about 15% of the game is amazing the world is sooo massive and soo detailed the story from the start to where i am now is amazing . what games offers this this year none the depth in this game the armour/pistol/shoty/sniper/rif le/greanades/ everything can be upgraded and cusonized o give deffrent effect to enemys ur facing as in mass effect u dface organic/humaniod foes not to mention the dialogue is so beutifull intwined with gameplay it seems liek ur playing a cgi bladerunner.startrk movei and yess the in game walkign around facial aninamtion is astonishing if u zoom in to ur face it looks amazing the story line is amazing 1 that actually makes sense in some game su play u don tknow what going on in mass effect u actulaly do this game is epic

[Genuine]

Those "issues" aren't that big of a deal, they are more like minor annoyances. The game plays just fine.

[jaja1434]

@ mesh

I don't think I'm asking for much. Just a period now and then. Pretty please. For me. :)

[CPTN MITCHELL]

same crap with different name is the only sh1t ms is good @. mass gear halo are all the same lame ass games real boring sh1t. p.s i do hate dumbox360 and ms fanboys...............NO I GOT MORE MOVIES THAN U HAVE FRIENDS UR A GEEK MS ASS KISSER SO F/U AND THEY R THE SAME FORMULA ALL 3 GAMES SAME BS ALL OVER AGAIN

[razer]

The fact that you say ME, Gears and Halo are all the same games makes you look foolish. Is this really the intelligent level of the average PS3 owner?? I'm starting to think it is..

Did you run out of Blu-ray movies to watch?

[Method]

The insecurity of PS3 fanboys on N4G is hilarious, eventually they will realize what a mistake it was spending $500 on a machine that only plays DVD's and an 8 hour tomb raider clone.

[xplosneer]

Average of PS3 FANBOYS on this site.

[CPTN MITCHELL]

jump out of the RROD AND PLAYB3YOND..........RAZER GET OUT OF BILL GATES A$$ U MORON ALL 3 GAMES ARE THE SAME, SAVE MY WORLD TYPE OF SH1T BORING. DO THE SAME CRAP ALL OVER AGAIN....METHOD I SPEND 637.00 ON MY PS3 ON 06 AND STILL RUNNING PLUS TALKING ABOUT CLONES HALO GEAR MASS ARE THE SAME CRAP PLUS HALO IS ONLY 6 HRS LONG SO GET YOUR FACT RIGHT B4 TALKING SMACK, PLUS MY PS3 IS RROD FREE AND NOT ONLY THAT IS SCRATCH FREE SYS NOT LIKE THE DUMBBOX.............SO METHOD PLAYB3YOND AND JUMP OUT OF THE RROD.EVERY PENNY IS WORTH I CAN DOWNLOAD FREE MUSIC FREE PORN ON MY PS3 CAN U DO THAT ON THE DUMBOX.MMMMMMMMMMMM NOT

[Daxx]

http://i19.photobucket.com/...

[Daxx]

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[367 To Your Ass]

sure N4G is a democracy....but it's udder arrogance that we must make savages of are selves, nit-picking and arguing about small things are symptoms of being one sided fanatics.

in this case your ether in this post or your out of this post and into a post that suites your savage ways.

[7ero H3LL]

it's going to sell millions.............like it hasn't already.

[toughNAME]

well im quite sure it hasnt

but according to my scientific research (my LIVE friends list) not too many people are buying Mass Effect

im 15 hours in and loving it

[bioshock]

The insecurity of PS3 fanboys on N4G is hilarious, eventually they will realize what a mistake it was spending $500 on a machine that only plays DVD's and an 8 hour tomb raider clone.

ur a perfect example of sandbox fanboy....
if you havent played the game thn shut up u dont got rite to say anything...everybody knw 360 got potential why keep upcoming and yelling it.i got it too, ME is an ok game not by anymeans GOTY, ma pick bioshock and uncharted coz they made this game for everybody thts the best thing bout the game plus gfx surpass gears..u can easily get involved inthe tht climate....just as when gears came out it was breathtaking ill say uncharted is best game out this year.... when ull play it, ull belv me....

[Method]

Hey douchebag,

[power of Green]

Read the god dam reviews or buy the game #3!. Those PS3 games were not good enough to overcome flaws they have. ME is a game so ahead of its time its greatness is realized and flaws that many great games have are not enough to to lower the score due to envyous fanboys wants. I doubt you would buy a 360 reading some of your post.

Lieing fuc read the god dam reviews and find out why. Did you have the same beef when Assassin's Creed got perfect scores despite its issues on the PS3?.

[Grinchy]

hey pog, if asscreed is crap i will admit it. it definately doesnt deserve a perfect score - i would go with maybe 3/5. However, there is no need to insult someone because they ask a question. I am not talking sh!t when I ask why? How would you know what I would buy? If you looked at my posts then you could see in my bio that the 360 is prob the ONLY system which I havent owned. Now, maybe it is your own insecurity which makes you insult me, all I have done is say I think Mass Effect looks awesome, but if it has issues why the perfect score.

To others, the reason I ask is because I am hearing so many conflicting stories about the framerate, textures. Is it that bad or is it fanboys blowing things out of proportion to try and hate on the 360? (much the sameway the fanboys the other way do). I consider myself a fan of games, and if as an adult, I cant ask genuine questions without being insulted then this site is getting ridiculous.

[Lord Cheese]

In answer to your query about the frame rates, its noticable, but probably doesnt detract from the game, basically because the game isnt really paced in a way that means they impact it much. Its certainly not in the action sequences (strangely) as they move quite smoothly (in my experiences thus far) It does wrangle a bit that such a generally high quality game has such issues, but at the same time, the quality of the whole experience is high enough to mean such issues are forgivable.

To be honest anyone that decides to jump on the game and criticise it off the back of a few comments in reviews that are generally positive is clutching at straws. Im pretty sure much of it is fanboy hate - which if you think about it a bit is just people desperately annoyed the game isnt available for the console they chose - afterall, if the game is rubbish, why would it even be a consideration for them? :O)

[gnothe1]

for the guy saying that drakes uncharted is the best game out this year, thats an opinion all your own!! that game will not get GOTY nor will it even be in the running for GOTY!! a game like that has never won it plus that game hasnt sold at a rate that says it should be considered for the GOTY!! the game is ok I played it, not my thing, but I am waiting on KZ2.

[BLaZiN PRopHeT]

really cant wait to see what the sales numbers for this game are going to be. my personal GOTY

[FirstknighT]

Just another game that completely destroys anything available on the ps3.

Jump in already!

[R M Spender]

yo all i can say is any sony ok ps3 fanboy really doesnt know or care about games. people that dis the xbox...come on. i own a ps2 because it has lots of good games, i however did not run right out and buy a ps3 like a fool because i did my research. and i did buy my xbox well after the ps3 launch. there is not one ps3 exclusive to date that is worth buying a ps3 for and none of the multi plat games are better on ps3!! better textures...maybe but i go for frame rate. its no wonder there are so many sony trolls on this site, they nothing else to do. you can only watch spiderman so many times. and to who said uncharted would be game of the year...why? i can just hear my bubbles popping. watch how many dum dums disagree with me for being realistic.

[Genuine]

I agree. The ps3 has been a ripoff. If it wasn't for the HD movie playback, I would have sold mine already. I'm really starting to believe that the ps3 is just a scam to help sony's other hardware and movie divisions. As a game machine, it's d*mn sure not worth what I paid for it.

[Gahigiddy]

He is killed and you can kill or save the council and appoint a new human leader.

There f***wits. Your precious story is ruined.

I'll wait for you feedback. Remember to clear that cache or get a PS3 if you don't want insane load times or stuttering while you type like on Mass Effect.

[Genuine]

You about a worthless son of a b*tch. I'd like to run into your a*s out in the real world.

[Lord Cheese]

what a complete loser.

[Lord Cheese]

You definately notice the texture loading and the frame rate glitches, but because of the nature of the game (not particularly fast pacing etc) it doesn't detract from it. To be honest i'm not a fan of western RPG's as they tend to focus too much on stats improvement rather than the narrative, but i'm totally hooked on ME. Its a superb game. I've only played about 8 hours, and i'm even obssessing about the darn thing when i'm at work. The combat could be improved slightly (i picked infiltrator which with hindsight isnt the best) and biotics seem a little too uber compared to the rest of the combat options you get, but otherwise its very good.

I think any ps3 fanboys slating the game need to wake up. Why are you so desperate to find fault with anything on the 360? Is it impossible for you to accept that both consoles have some good games, and just play the ones you enjoy and ignore the rest? Theres no point whatsoever in criticising a game you've not played, bu focusing on some minor issues that nearly every review has stated do not detract from the quality of the experience - it just makes you sound ridiculous.