My Mass Effect Review!

[averyblund]

Reasonable said:

Mummelmann said:

Reasonable said:

Pretty good review and close to my views. I'm not in the ME is 'one the best camp'. It's very good, but way too flawed with repetitive planet missions, mostly boring side quests and weak shooting mechanics to be in the best of the best camp IMO. I felt ME, like Halo before it, is revered more in terms of that kind of game on a console vs that kind of game in total.

In many ways I found it a step back in pure RPG terms, with limited content around a good core story, with a drive to be more 'action' orientated to appeal to the modern shooter crowd which was hampered with fairly average shooting mechanics.

85% game for me. ME2 does look better though, so I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl as well.

Oh, and you're right, landing on the Moon was quite cool indeed. A nice touch to be sure.

If that's the case, the sequel will disappoint you, the RPG features are either completely gone or watered down into transparency. The dialogue options is the one thing that keeps it from simply being a really long action game in my opinion.

Hmm.  Reading reviews I thought they'd 'streamlined' the poor menus, etc.  That's a note of caution.  Well, I've played 1 so I'll give it a go whatever.  So if the RPG has been dilluted down to make it more of a shooter I wonder what that implies for current trends on PC/360 for titles like this?  Action first, RPG second?

My biggest complaint is actually that combat is a bit too easy at the default setting. Luckily it can be changed in game (at any point), but I suggest bumping it up from the start. The cynic in me thinks that perhaps this is a console decision to help counteract the dual-stick disadvantage. That said ME1 was also too easy on default when I played it on 360. Either way when I bumped up the difficulty I found both titles to be significantly more rewarding. I would be curious what 360 users think of the difficulty levels.

Also anybody who comes into this expecting a true core RPG will be disappointed, it is what it is- a pretty darn good action-RPG.