Mass Effect 1 (PS3) Review

2007's Mass Effect was the first in a series of cinematic, character-driven, RPG's, but it had only just arrived on the PS3 in December of 2012. With the release of Mass Effect 1 on the the system, PS3 owners can now experience the full scope of the space odyssey. The game is nothing short of grande. The scale of Commander Shepard's first outing is quite epic. From the various star systems and the numerous planets throughout them, it comes as no surprise that I finished the game in over 30hours.


The scale of the game--even if it is padded with retreaded planet and interior skins--is still impressive. It injects a sense of wonder and discovery. The star systems can be charted at your own pace. You can stick to the main storyline and focus on your quest to bring in a rogue Spectre, or you can find the time to save a group of scientists or two, from there own experiments gone wrong. There is, again, a bevy of side questing to be done. They vary in the type of activities that they require. Some missions call for a bit of subtlety, in the form of quick negotiations via the dialogue wheel. Some missions may begrudgingly require you to fetch certain gadgets or devices. Some missions may layout options for you, sometimes resulting in story altering conclusions. Regardless of what kind you're doing,  missions can feed into your characters morality. 



Renegade Shepard starkly contrasts a Paragon Shepard. Some argue that it is pointless to straddle the line; believing it is favorable to stick to a side throughout your journey.  With the nature of bonus content--in the form of extra dialogue or extra branches of narrative--dependent on the stance that the player chooses, I may have to attest to the handicap in favor of either being full-on Paragon/savior or Renegade/psychotic-demon. Yes, the dialogue can come off as binary, with any attempt to stymie the dichotomous inclinations and affinities of the many situations in-game, resulting in a shocking contradiction to any previous actions taken by your Shepard during a present encounter.This, however, does not wholly detract from the overall experience, but can be jarring. 


The opera sees you motoring across the galaxy at light-speeds and ticking, taking on sentient machines and zombie-like drones. The hunt for a rogue Spectre only hits part of the marked experience in the game. The player will want to return to previously visited locations to engage in newly populated areas with pedestrians and passersby requesting aid. Hitting the ground in the Mako land vehicle on uncharted and recorded worlds presents a true sense of space exploration. And, at first, I did greatly enjoy and even go about in search of these experiences--wrapped in numerous missions for context--but, as the game went on the planet surfaces contradicted the great sense of wonder that permeated the first dozen or so landings. The planet environments become recycled wall-papers and carpets. The interiors of many of the locations, to which you travel, are sparse and dull. Devolving to a preset of boxes and cement columns.  

But, what sparks the the magic of the game, is it the combat? No, not the combat. I do love the RPG-heavy elements in Mass Effect 1, but the combat is functional and bearable. It represents an attempt to present the traditional mechanics of an RPG in the form of a player operated third-person shooter. I commend the combat for being an R.P.G, and not a shooter unhinged from the influence of the attributes and skills that should ,"supposedly", govern them. But, in the end, the combat is just not fluid and intuitive, coming off as stiff and too indecisive. The many trees that are available to the player--as you can control your own Shepard and his crews stats and load-outs--are wonderful, in an I love molding my avatars in an RPG kind of way. It doesn't actually take that much to manage the stats of your chosen character builds. There are a few classes that are selected at the start of the game. Soldier, traditional gun-totting brute; Adept, the Mass Effect equivalent of the wizard/magic user; the Engineer, tech wizards, with the ability to control enemy robots; Infiltrator, the stealth/assassin class, comes with the cloaking ability. Then on top of those classes there are a number of variations, which combine the abilities of two of the classes such as the Sentinel class, combining engineer and adept abilities.  Managing gear, on the other hand, is a task in tedium affairs. It only takes a few hours to realize the numerous clones, and assorted junk-piles of rudimentary bobbles and doodads are a constant flow of blurry minutiae, lacking any distinct form or unique qualities. One clunker rifle, is as good as another, and they are barely separated in performance. Plus, the inventory--while not overly straining--is a mess of samey items of samey effect that must be combed through constantly in-order to organize ones wears and ones effectiveness.


The spark that ignites the the flame that is  Mass Effect 1, is the combination of the narrative coefficient that is your Shepard, and the relationships that your choices throughout the narrative foster. The awkward flirtation/court-ship of alien--relative--affection with Liara, who at one point just must examine your Shepard. To the relationships altered by a choice to stay loyal to your mission or heed the cry of a partner. You can, with enough built up influence--in the form of Paragon or Renegade rating, negotiate the impossible or the implausible outcome to a narrative arc that favors your ambitions. The side-conversations with your crew-mates help to endear them to you and establish a rapport that will embellish the moments of heightened
emotional  activity, giving them weight and importance. The story is character driven, no doubt there. With the players empowerment to select dialogue and actions that ,while binary and somewhat weak in major effect, can influence the way that they feel connected to the story and its universe, the game presents a personal epic that can only deliver based on your attachment to your own avatar and the many subsidiary characters surrounding it. 


Overall:

Mass Effect can get repetitive, in terms of its clumsy combat--for example, shooting and aiming abilities are clunky--, and also in terms of its reused environments and plodding pace at which the Mako can explore some of them. The long load-times, represented by elevator rides, are still present in the PS3 version. The graphics are solid, nothing special, but commendable nonetheless. The many stats to tweak and contemplate are a welcomed inclusion. But the management of  equipment is quite the burden. The story is nothing incredible, but there are some twists that can keep you interested. The layering of the branching narrative overall is good, but it comes at the cost of either a one-dimensional Shepard or one that is sporadic and a bit off-kilter. The impact that the player can have on the narrative is not overly apparent, you may have to keep your eyes open and invest in the second and third games in the series. When you do, however, notice the consequences of your own actions/choices/conversations it elicits delight. Overall the experience that you will have in Mass Effect 1 depends on your willingness to overlook some repetition, some clumsy mechanics, poor design choices and enjoy a cinematic RPG experience that lets you--as far as you know-- alter its narrative in a way that compels you to care about its universe or some small part of it. 
       *                I give Mass Effect 1 on the PS3 a:  

8.6/10

 Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more. Also, if you have any comments, questions, thoughts, concerns, etc. let me know.