A new intellectual property done correctly
by Shabbir Naqvi (http://www.simplegamer.co.uk/)

After playing Mass Effect Galaxy, I decided to return to the original Mass Effect. I'm geared up for the sequel with all the footage coming out from E3, and the various other pieces of information about the game which I won't go into, to stay away from spoilers. Needless to say, it felt like a good time to go back to playing Mass Effect.

A shocking truth is that I never completed Mass Effect. It's a sad truth that has haunted me since I purchased the game. I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition and was wowed by the universe as a whole. It seemed so interesting and full of detail, and incorporated great game-play elements. It wasn't perfect; there were flaws with combat and the inventory system, however it was still a great game regardless.

Despite not finishing it, I did end up going on YouTube and watching videos that played through the whole game. So I knew what happened in the game since I was really interested in the story. However, playing it for myself gave a much more enjoyable experience, and that's why it's a video game - for the experience and interactivity.

I started out with the default character, John Shepard with the default characteristics. So I didn't bother tweaking the character at the beginning and trying different classes, I stuck to the default, which is effectively a soldier. As I played through the game, I concentrated on leveling up my Pistols, Rifles, Charm and Spectre Training and had a decent average on the rest of the skills.

One note about the game's mechanics is the morality choices. Generally, using Charm will give you points on Paragon, and using Intimidate will give you points on Renegade. These are the equivalent to aligning your character to good and evil respectively. It seemed slightly vague however since you may have the choice to do something good using Intimidate, which I would like to think as doing something necessary to do the right thing. Regardless, using Intimidate will negatively affect the alignment of your character. That's not a problem if that's how you want your character to be, but it is if you believe sometimes you must do a bad thing for a

Click to enlarge. We have 5 images

Image 1 of 5. Click to enlarge

good outcome.

The developers said prior to release that this will affect the way your party members will interact with your character, however I never saw an overall effect to reflect this. Other choices you make in the game however certainly have an impact on your party members, who would clearly make their opinions known by speaking their mind throughout the game on different issues. This gives you tough moral choices at times since you hear convincing arguments from two sides.

The main thing that sucked me into Mass Effect was the universe. There are a bunch of planets to travel to and a wide range of side quests. The side quests however don't do a good job at distinguishing themselves from one another - done one and you've done them all. Usually the rewards will just be money and the experience along the way. A lot of critics went so far as to say that there's no point in doing the side quests at all, since they're pointless and repetitive. It's up to you to decide, I went and done as many side quests as I could simply to discover more of the universe and listen to the conversations that take place, revealing more information.

There's a ton of information to take in through the game. There's even a built-in encyclopedia of various things such as different races, technologies, planets, weapons, etc. It's rare to find this level of depth within the game. If you're lucky, fans would make a website with this level of detail, however the game itself has huge amounts of information that makes the game interesting. As a new IP, BioWare have done a fantastic job at creating a universe from scratch. It's easy for us to sit and say a universe such as Star Wars has an incredibly detailed universe with plots everywhere, however BioWare have done this from scratch and pulled it off very well. For fans of sci-fi, Mass Effect will be a great game to play just to take in the lore of the game.

The game isn't very long; you can easily finish it within 12 hours if you stick to the main quests. I took my time and completed almost all the side quests available, and even then it

Click to enlarge. We have 5 images

Image 2 of 5. Click to enlarge

took me 20 hours. Compared to something like a Final Fantasy game, it really isn't long considering it is an RPG. It's difficult to categorise it simply as an RPG however, since it contains a lot of action in third-person. The combat is average yet enjoyable to a certain extent. You are always in a party of three, including yourself, and you can give orders to your party members from a radial menu. This is very easy to do as it pauses the combat, so you can take your time selecting an option. The same also applies for changing weapons, of which you can carry four.

The four types of weapons you can carry as a pistol, rifle, shotgun and sniper rifle. Along with that, you'll have grenades. For each piece of equipment, you can add upgrades which can have varying effects, such as giving toxic damage on each shot, or increasing damage. However, they will tend to also have a side effect, such as increasing heat of your weapon causing it to overheat and stop you from firing for a few seconds. This is very important in combat, since it means you can't run in guns blazing, you must calculate your shots and make them count.

The voice acting in Mass Effect is top notch. Hours of dialogue have been recorded and it adds realism to the game, doing a great job of portraying emotion and adding life to each character that you meet. This is probably why I enjoyed running around at every opportunity and doing every side quest, simply because it gave me a chance to interact with more characters and learn more.

In Mass Effect, you take the role of Shepard, a commander for the Alliance military. Humanity has made huge leaps forward in the future, and have discovered mass relays allowing them to travel to previously undiscovered areas in the universe. Using these relays, new technologies were developed and humanity came into contact with aliens. Unbeknown to humans, there's an entire alien civilisation out there comprised of different species, with a Council to keep things in order. Humanity are constantly pressing forward with their progress and attempt to win a seat on the Council, and also promote one of their soldiers into the role

Click to enlarge. We have 5 images

Image 3 of 5. Click to enlarge

of a Spectre.

Spectres are top agents directly under the Council's orders who are given the privilege to do whatever they deem necessary to accomplish a mission. You learn early on in the game that something else is afoot, the return of a machine-based species and a Spectre gone rogue requires you to investigate further to find out what's going on. You are therefore required to travel to planets to investigate certain incidents which may have a connection to everything else.

Each planet has its own feel and creates a unique atmosphere. Please note that I'm only talking about the main quests here, since the side quests do place you in repetitive areas. The main quests however are well thought out, and each planet demonstrates this very well. Going through the main quests only, the game does not actually take you many places, which is a shame since each place that you do go to is always full of detail. I hope that in the sequel, they give us even more places to explore.

Being able to talk to a large number of people you encounter gives you interesting game-play options. Interacting with different species gives you a feel for the universe, as each specie has its own characteristics and habits. For example, the Hanar, who are floating like jellyfish, always refer to themselves in third person while the Elcor always say their reactions out loud since their expressions are too delicate for other species to understand. A lot of thought has been put into making each of the numerous species are realistic as possible, and backed by the solid voice acting, they have certainly managed to pull it off.

I found Mass Effect to be an extremely enjoyable action RPG. The fact that it is a new IP gives Mass Effect extra credit for being such a polished product first time round. Sure, there are minor flaws, however with a trilogy in mind from the very beginning, I look forward to seeing BioWare ironing out the creases and go for one better next time. It's a tough act to take a great game and make it better, but with the quality at BioWare, I'm sure that they have some surprises in store for us with the sequel.