Mass Effect (2007)

Well this caught me off guard. Having been goaded into going to PC world and having a conversation with someone I thought was American but in fact just had an American accent, I ended up buying this game being assured that it was the best science fiction RPG out there. I’d seen the cover for the game and various advertisements a million times but nothing about it ever particularly caught my eye. Anyway on the advice of two salesmen and a £5 price tag I decided to give it a shot and see what all the hullaballoo was about.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to like it at all but after the introduction cut scenes you end up on Eden Prime, a human colony recently invaded by a sentient race of robots known as the Geth. And from that moment, the vista and music tell you this game is going to be something else. The game really just throws you into the action and initially you have no clue as to the nature of the galaxy you’re in. A complex plot unfolds rapidly though and draws you in very quickly. As to the nature of the plot, I would have to describe it as more or less a space opera a la Babylon 5. In fact the parallels between Mass Effect and Babylon 5 are obvious even from the beginning – a galactic community of races who don’t necessarily get along with each other, complex human politics adding to the problem of galactic relations, the citadel vs the babylon stations, jumpgates vs mass relays, and the most obvious parallel – a first contact war between humans and the most powerful race in the galaxy – the Turians. In Babylon 5, it was the Minbari although in Mass Effect the war wasn’t as one sided and humans were begrudgingly given considerable recognition in the galactic arena after a very short amount of time because they inflicted more casualties upon the Turians than they suffered themselves in this war. This of course leads to resentment amongst the other races who view them as dangerous upstarts already seeking to control everything despite being newcomers. Ultimately though the game takes a turn for the dramatic even with the background of political intrigue as an unknown race known as the Reapers threaten to wipe out all life in the galaxy. Trying to convince the council that one of their own special forces agents is responsible is tricky but this level introduces the citadel which is essentially a giant space station built by an extinct ancient race known as the Protheans. As the game progresses, the fate of the galaxy would seem to rest firmly in your hands and the nature of the RPG allows you to make either renegade or paragon decisions which will ultimately carry over and affect the next two games.

As for the actual RPG mechanics, they’re not perfect and initially seem too complex to get to grips with – in fact it took several hours of gameplay before I fully understand exactly how they worked. Once understood they do however enrich gameplay. But where this game really shines is the graphics and score. The graphics are majestic on every level and planet and this is only further augmented by the haunting score that accompanies the game. Every aspect of it feels very finely crafted right down to the superb script and voice acting. I would even go so far as to say this was the best £5 I ever spent. The game weighed in at about 33 hours gameplay for me which is longer than I suspect it takes most people but I did select my class as vanguard allowing me to use biotic abilities – which feel as though they have limited usefulness. I wouldn’t quite say this was the best RPG I’ve ever played as incarnations of Fallout still beat it but in honesty, it’s damn close and I sincerely wish there were a few more games out there that set the quality bar this high. Of course upon completion, the fun didn’t stop because it took me less than 24 hours to buy the next instalment in the saga which I will review shortly.