It's amazing how uneven Mass Effect is.
On one end, the graphics look great while static, the story is compelling, the dialog is well written, and overall is a very good experience.
It's how good some things are that makes the places that were left unpolished or made worse than in previous bioware titles, which IMO include:
Self Shadow Effects that look so bad as to be distracting. Just like the crappy colored lights in Quake II, a nifty effect that is underdeveloped, and ends up being detrimental to the look
The texture pop in effects.
Weak interaction with your companions, reminiscent of the weak Kotor II. Like the conversations tied only to number of missions completed, which only happen if you go looking for the characters in your ship. The romance arcs are really weak. The characters show no chemistry. Interactions between companions are also very weak.
Bad UI choices. The weapon selection UI is full of choices you never want to do, for example. The inventory screen itself is awful. The buy-sale interface is so bad, It took me a while to realize I could actually sell from the same screen.
Why have a bunch of weapon choices, when in the end there are just very few that are worthwhile?
Combat difficulty is very uneven.
The Buggy sections in random planets are not any fun. Why have hills and mountains when the buggy can go through everything anyway?
In the end, the little problems help hide the really great game that's underneath, which is a shame. More polish would have made the game a very serious contender for GOTY. As it is, it's all about Galaxy.
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