Reviewed by: BobiRoka
Developer: Bioware
Publisher: Microsoft

Bioware's reputation speaks for itself. Having spent most of the past decade redefining Dungeons & Dragons as a PC based endeavour, the Canadian RPG masters found themselves rejuvenating the Star Wars franchise in ways Lucas (and SOE for that matter) could only dream of. If NWN demonstrated explicit mastery of a household brand, Knights of the Old Republic positively affirmed it. And so, rather than produce a sequel, or invest in another existing IP, Bioware decided the time was right to create their own. The first of two original offerings for the Xbox platform, 2005's mystical kung fu juggernaut, Jade Empire, confused the press with it's contemporary mythos and an application of real-time elements which masked the plot driven and numbers-based game it should have expected Bioware to deliver.

Fast forward two years (not to mention a console 'generation') into our present and Mass Effect arrives proclaiming the future of our species, with guns, interstellar travel and an encyclopedic back story and universe. A common misconception might be to put significant faith into Bioware's ability to serve up a contemporary sci-fi adventure simply on account of their award-winning turn with the Star Wars legend, so it's at this point a distinction needs to be made.

Star Wars isn't 'Science' Fiction. There's absolutely nothing 'scientific' about Lightsabers or Lightspeed or The Force or Darth Vader or the size of Yoda's ears. It's a total work of fantasy with more in common with J.R.R. Tolkien, Seven Samurai or erm, The Bible, than what proper Sci-Fi is all about. Mass Effect is Star 'Trek' maybe, but most certainly not 'wars'.

The Instellar part of your journal, which updates itself after almost every conversation you have with an NPC for the first 10-15 hours of the game, goes on at length about every facet of Bioware's painstakingly purpose-built game universe: Each race is detailed, their origins, political motivations, history and mating rituals, spacecraft overheating issues, the rules of engagement in space warfare - suffice it to say that everything, and the reason why, is explained. And it's makes me sad.

It makes me sad, because to those who ignore all of the above, Mass Effect might seems rather like an overly talkative, over serious, sub-halo space shooter with driving bits and a core single player campaign which can be swallowed up and spat out in less than 15 hours. Obscenely short by RPG standards, and a bit of trek compared to most shooters. Yet this unholy union of bookish scene-setting and quasi-rogue-spear squad shooter is sanctified by Bioware's sheer briliance at RPG contruction, a rollercoaster of a plot and a new standard in NPC characterisation and interaction.

You play Commander Shepherd, whose gender, first name, career class, background and appearance can be customised before the game begins proper. You can also choose a generic male/female Shepherd and start the game as a Soldier if the character choices leave you in too much anguish - or if you're too stupid to appreciate the diversity of choice (in which case, please take this game back to shop right now!).

And then the incredibly well judged score fires up (think Blade Runner meets John Williams) and yes! That's your incredibly well motion-capture-animated avatar making his way past crew members onto the Bridge of The Normandy. It's YOUR spaceship. You live there. Well, you're on a mission of sorts at least.

There's not much in the way of hand-holding tutorials, rather you're set down planet-side after a brief (for Mass Effect) NPC exchange. Contextual descriptions pop-up as you navigate the various parts of your journal, which includes everything you might expect: character sheets, inventory, map, codex (see above), mission log, game options etc. Triggers flick between squad mate inventories and character sheets. You can choose which two of your six strong (eventually) cohort roster you take on each mission, allowing you to balance out the abilities of your squad, or take a particular character along with you because it seems the right thing to do for the story.

Anyway, Planet-side. Not the game, obviously.

When you're running and gunning, ammo is irrelevent. The ammo-type can be changed (all equipment, armor and weapons can be 'upgraded' in various ways), but it never runs out. The reason for this is detailed in the Galactic Codex and has something to do with Nano-technology. Rest assured, you never run out of bullets, but your gun may overheat, which stops you firing for a bit. Also whilst on foot, you can move up to any bit of terrain and lock to it as cover - Gears of War style. Also, if you press 'A' whilst running, the depth of field and elevation of the camera change to a kind of documentary/cinematic 'Roadie-run' view - Gears of War style. And there are two 'pause-menu' overlays, for selecting weapons and activitating special biotic/tech actions for your squad respectively - and most definitely NOT, Gears of War style.

It's a shame then, that the overall combat couldn't be a bit more Gears of War style where it really counts. The fire-arms all feel a bit weedy, enemies don't tend to dig in much and the addition of biotics (magic) and some very impressive gear later on makes the provision of cover within environments seems purely aesthetic. It's nice to have all this real-time control in a high level RPG situation, but the honest truth is that it's simply not necessary with all the powers at your disposal. I also noticed, post-completion, that at the default difficulty settings most enemies don't scale to your level, only bosses.

Have MMO's ruined me and turned me into a total power gamer? Or does Mass Effect simply provide too much supplementary material for it's own good? While the core storyline, spread across 6 planetoids (half of which is explorable in any order) is most definitely at the game's heart, the wider vision of the Mass Effect universe - not to mention the character background choices made at the start - is it's soul. Through a fabulously rendered 'Galaxy Map' you are free - whilst not in the middle of primary quest objectives - to explore what looks like a third of the known galaxy. This amounts to about twenty or so systems, each with a bunch stars around which several planets orbit. Each planet is described, some can be surveyed for resources to complete secondary missions and some can be landed upon. This equals a LOT of game-world to explore, or to be more specific, about 40 hours of gameplay, across 50 character levels, and I like to think I was fairly thorough.

It might have been a rumour about a missing research team you heard in the Citadel lift, or a distress signal upon entering the system, or you may have thought you'd stop en route while you were in the area. Regardless of your motivation, you WILL find yourself landing on many diverse worlds in Mass Effect and you WILL drive the Mako. The Mako is an almost indestructible gravity defying beast of a landing vehicle, with an automatic machine gun and a large tank round which can be deployed every so often. After touching down on a planet, your map will mark out a few waypoints of interest, though additional things might reveal themselves en route to one of these locations; like a stockpile of collectable resources, a Geth (killer machine race allied with your Nemesis) Ambush or a Thresher Maw erupting through the ground and spraying you with acid. It's the latter encounters where you can really come unstuck until you get a hold of how to handle the Mako in a fight. Those with Halo reflexes might not suffer as much, but I personally found it difficult to cope with driving in one direction and shooting in another at a worm which can dissapear and then reappear right underneath you (instant death) unless you keep on moving... Likewise, there's only so much enemy ordnance the Mako's shields can take before you have to retreat and use your squad's combined tech skill to fix the damage, leaving you a sitting duck for a few painful seconds.

There's a delightful spirit of adventure to it all though. Even these secondary adventures, which serve up the same environments, enemies and corridors on a bunch of planets with varying levels of hue, terrain and weather effects shine through on account of their hugely diverse quest composition and sometimes, because of your character motivation for being there. Coupled with the top dialogue and voice acting, at times it feels like you're in your own personal Sci-Fi soap opera on the telly. Though I'm sure Bioware would prefer to drop the 'soap' factor, the sheer weight of so much emotionally charged exposition and drama leaves it at the opposite end of the cinematic spectrum to Star Wars as a raw piece of fiction, but no less an adventure than KotOR.

There are some technical issues which possibly highlight the limitations of the host hardware. Some unattractive texture pop-up is a possible concession to load-times, as are some inexplicably long lift rides. There were also some instances where my avatar performed some truly freakish twiches whilst stuck on scenery. However, none of this will matter to those who allow themselves to be thoroughly absorbed in what's set to be an epic space saga in the making.

If you're a Halo fan looking to finish another fight, then you're probably best-off staying in the multiplayer arena for now. If you're a fan of Bioware games or RPGs in general however, you'll be well catered for here.