Mass Effect (2007) is Great Fun!

Mass Effect was a game that had been on my radar for a while and, back in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, I managed to get the whole series at a steal - Steam games were on 70, 80, and sometimes 90% discounts at the time.

Since I recently started replaying the series, I thought I'd share my thoughts on this phenomenal title.

Development

I won't go into the full development history but pre-production started shortly after the release of Knights of the Old Republic. The development team consisted of 130 people and they spent the first eight-ish months working on the way the world would look.

Unlike with Knights of the Old Republic where you controlled a blank protagonist, the devs wanted players to have a specific character that had to make specific choices - I'm going to come back to this in a bit.

All the effort that went into the game, paid off in the end as, upon its release in 2007, Mass Effect was met with critical acclaim pretty much everywhere.

The Story

Far off in the future, technology has advanced significantly and the galaxy has been colonized rather extensively. You play as Commander Shepard, a military veteran who, after a mission goes bad, is inducted into a special team - the SPECTREs - to chase down and capture or kill a rogue SPECTRE operative named Saren who's trying to resurrect an ancient race of sentient machines called Reapers.

The Good Stuff

Visually, the game is absolutely gorgeous and the sound design and music are great! Story-wise, it's sort of your typical cat-and-mouse story where the hero goes after a traitor. That said, it's well-written and the tone and pace are steady throughout. There's also a lot to do here with side quests on top of side quests, which makes for a great time if you're looking for a long game!

The characters are all great and the relationships you develop make this game very interesting - especially in the romance department. There's also so much fun banter between characters that you can't help laughing. The voice performances are phenomenal, Seth Green's role as Joker (the pilot) is perfect.

I loved the morality point system implemented in this game - it's essentially the same as the Light/Dark side point system in Knights of the Old Republic, just with a different name.

The combat mechanics are just shy of perfect - I have a few issues which I'll get to in a bit - but combat itself is very satisfying. I'm probably going to upset a few people, but I'd say it's more satisfying than the combat in Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic.

*Dives for cover*

What doesn't Work so Well?

*Peeks out from under the desk* Is it safe to come out of hiding yet? Has the angry mob dispersed?

Okay, before the angry Star Wars fans get back; there are a few things that don't work as well as they should. The commands (rally up, take cover, etc.) have different buttons to the movement controls.

The inventory setup is limited to 150 items, now that's not really a problem but the items that you get are often the same. Things also get a bit hard to keep track of - especially with all the upgrades, ammo types and. The fact that certain pieces of gear are limited to specific characters is also quite frustrating.

I also had a significant problem, although, this could just be my PC's hardware. There were several instances where I had to hit the Windows key and re-launch the game because it kept freezing.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Mass Effect is a great sci-fi game that will keep you hooked from the get-go. It's well-written, visually striking, and a lot of fun to play. I've played it a couple of times now and I've enjoyed it every time. If you haven't played this one yet, I highly recommend giving it a try.

With all that said, I want to know what you guys and gals think about this one. Have you played it? If so, what did you think? If you haven't played it, are you likely to play it? Why or why not?