20 November 2007
Mass Effect
For what it achieves in delivering a compelling narrative and wonderful atmosphere, BioWare deserves a huge amount of credit, as there are few games that come anywhere near it in this regard. The dialogue system, and the impact it has on individual missions and the game as a whole is exceptional, adding greatly to the potential replay value. Where it doesn’t quite hit the mark for me is in the action stakes. Although it underpins the game with all sorts of excellent ideas that ought to make it a deeper, more intelligent and immersive experience, the simple truth is that the minute-to-minute combat simply isn’t as intense and involving as you’d expect from a game in 2007. Throw in some grumbles about the somewhat unoptimised state of the frame-rate, texture pop-in and v-syncing terrors, and it’s a game that just falls short of our expectations. An eight, then, but a good one…
(Eurogamer, 8/10)
Mass Effect is a giant leap forward for videogames in terms of storytelling and it’s probably the biggest, most sophisticated game on Xbox 360. But with combat requiring you to dip into menus every few seconds, it isn’t likely to win over the Halo brigade – and with this much dialogue, it’s not going to be your bag if you’re the guy who hits ‘start’ every second in an effort to get characters to stop talking.
(IGN, 9.1)
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