This is the first review I shall be doing in this blog (for education purposes ^_^") , and somehow the first game I had in mind is "Mass Effect" .
A brief introduction, Mass Effect is a mature themed science fiction based third person shooter role playing game for both the Xbox 360 and PC. The game is highly rated among game reviewers (90.71 % , based on 96 reviews, source : http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox360/930279-mass-effect/index.html)
I shall start with the setting of the game, the highly story driven plot takes place in a very distant future, when humans already started colonizing outer space and made contact, befriended, as well as coexist with the extraterrestrials. There is some serious reading material accessible in the game menu that is like an encyclopedia for hardcore fans who wish to know the foundation.
The plot of the story puts you in the shoes of Commander Shepard, a human male or female as to your preferences with a tragic past, again you can choose the character background story (eg. Sole survivor of a tragic war).
Commander Shepard was chosen as a candidate to be a SPECTER, agent of the Council to preserve the peace of the universe, and has to undergo a secret mission under the observation of an actual SPECTER, Nihlus. Shepard's first task is to recover an artifact called the Prothean Beacon, which is believed to hold the secrets of the highly advanced Prothean technology. However things go awry when Nihlus was killed by a fellow SPECTER, Saren, and the destruction of the Protean Beacon. Due to the low influence the Humans have in the council, Shepard was unable to prove that Saren had become a traitor and is leading the annialation of all life of the universe. And thus, Shepard sets out across the vast outer space with his crewmates to find evidence to convict Saren and stop his plans.
The beauty of Mass effect is that the story is highly interactive, players can engage in the conversations in real time and make morally engaging choices which will ultimately affect the ending of the game.
To me, it felt like I was the director of a movie. The Cinematography is top-notch accompanied by excellent voice acting. However in some of the cutscenes, the character animations felt stiff which probably is not motion captured.
The Gameplay in mass involves transversing around 3D environments with in a third person view, combat can take place practically anywhere and your characters will ready their weapons to signal you that there is a conflict going on. On first impression, It plays like a typical third person shooter. However players will soon realise that the combat mechanics are much deeper. The Combat mechanics revolve around three components, Assault, Biotics, and Tech . Assault is the specialization of weapon usage and skills(etc, Shoot without recoil), Biotics is the specialization of psychic powers(etc, lift enemies in the air) and lastly, Tech is the specialization of well ... technology(etc, Hack security systems, disable the enemies' shields) .Each Character posses their specialty in a mixture of these components as well as their racial specialty.
These skills are highly accessible during the action packed combat with simple controls, and of course you can set the AI to use the skills of your party members automatically. In conclusion, combat is practically shooting enemies, using skills to gain a upperhand, and exploiting the enviroment(eg, exploding barrels).
Outside combat, you would be engaging in conversations, getting quests from the people you talk to, managing your party(assigning skill points, changing equipment etc), and exploring the vast universe.Most of the time, I would be doing the main quest, mainly because I feel that most of the side quests kinda make you become an errand boy, doing alot of backtracking and exploration though they are usually highly rewarding.
The graphics of this game is very impressive, character models are detailed and are usually animated well, the environments are immersive and vast, the special effects are just alright.
The game by default uses the film grain image filter that gives it a kinda 'retro' look like in science fiction movies. Therefore in my opinion, the visuals blend together really well.
The Audio experience is satisfying enough, as mentioned above, the voice acting is really good but what disappoints me is the lack of variety for the background music and combat sound effects even though they are of high quality, hearing similar sounds and tunes over and over can get boring.
With this I would like to conclude that Mass effect is an awesome game even with some of it's minor flaws. What I found ironic is that the setting is very deep and vast yet the game play last for roughly 10 - 15 hrs (without sidequests) which to me is very short as the game leaves you wanting more.
The verdict : Cher Shen Approves :D
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