This is my first post out of blogging hiatus, so I'll make it a good one. Lately I've been getting through plenty of school work and other activities, but I still save a little time for gaming. Mass Effect was a safe respite from the outside world where I could enjoy a great game that has so much playability that even after beating it once, I still feel like I missed so very much of it. This is the true beauty of Mass Effect.At first, I'll admit, I hated the game. Most of the controls were not identified (no tutorial) and I had to either look them up or use trial and error to find the correct keys. Also, I found screens such as the equipment (inventory) menu and the character abilities (level, experience, ability progress, etc.) menu to be terribly difficult to understand initially. Once I had overcome these obstacles, the game was mine to enjoy.
The most noticeable thing first off was the ability to choose what I wanted to say in dialogues. This made for spectacular cinematics in which I could control the outcome. If you level your "charm" and "intimidate" abilities high enough, then you are able to select new dialogue options that unlock even better outcomes (which you can also decide from!). For example, when confronted with a would-be enemy I can convince the enemy that I am not worth their time and avoid combat altogether (or shoot them before they have the chance to fight back). This creates an interesting storyline that, due to the dialogue options, has many varying conclusions.
Combat was made somewhat interesting by the varying weapons, ammunitions, and modifications that one could find and equip. I especially enjoyed creating combinations of munitions and mods; for example, if I was fighting the "geth" (a robot species) then I could equip armor piercing rounds on my shotgun and combine that with a "heat sink" that would lower the amount of heat generated by the weapon and allow me to fire off more shots.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Mass Effect was the paragon/renegade relationship. Certain dialogue options and combat actions would cause one's renegade or paragon status to increase; the former being one's "evil" side and the latter being the "good" side. With my first character I chose to be a renegade for sheer enjoyment of playing the "bad guy" who actually ended up saving lives while being incredibly trigger happy and shooting first asking questions later. Mass Effect, unlike previous BioWare games, encourages having a balanced paragon/renegade status (or simply choosing one), which contrasted earlier titles who encouraged the user to choose good or evil (if you're familiar with Knights of the Old Republic, a game which I wasn't a fan of).
Mass Effect was an excellent game. Creating a character, changing the character, and molding him to your will or making him exemplary of your own ideas is just too much damn fun.
Review: 9 out of 10
Pros: Innovative dialogue options (although not the first appearance of these in a BioWare title)
Good/Evil relationship chosen by the user
Excellent graphics
Addicting (or is that a con?)
Merits many replays
Cons: Steep learning curve at first, but this gets better as one plays the game more
Elevator rides take FOREVER
Occasional gameplay glitches (my computer bluescreened once)
Final: Definitely worth buying. Mass Effect was a lot of fun and even after beating it once I am still making new characters and enjoying this game. You simply can't say that about many other single-player games.
