MASS EFFECT (banned in Singapore for lesbian romance)

I just got Mass Effect (Xbox 360) finally the other day.

I've now completed it (final save file: 26 hours, but I didn't deviate much from the missions or explore much), and I have to say it's the best RPG I've ever played. By the developers of the original KOTOR, it has a very similar style, with main hub worlds where you can go around a do side-missions for people, and other planets you can freely go to and zoom around in the Mako (a 6-wheeled vehicle with awesome physics, reminiscent of Halo's warthog).

Basically, if you liked KOTOR, you'll love Mass Effect.

It uses the Unreal Engine 3, which was previously used on Gears of War, Bioshock and Strangehold, so visually it's flawless. The real achievement is creating the most detailed faces ever seen in a game. You can see the individual pores and imperfections in their skin, and their facial expressions even out-do Half-Life 2. You'll be blown away by it.

The dialogue and full voice-acting is equally flawless, you could really believe it was live-acted with the realism and flow of the character animations. Like KOTOR, you have many dialogue options so you can be as good or evil as you want to the highly-believable humans and alien species in the game. It's actually so real I felt incredibly guilty acting mean or abusing characters in the game.

The combat is real-time third person shooter, very similar to Gears of War (hold trigger for more precise aim, back against walls and cover, etc), but with "biotic" powers (just like bioshock plasmids or force powers) that let you throw people backwards or lift them into the air or whatever you want. It's really amazing how an RPG can have combat comparable to a good third-person shooter.

When you first create a character, you have lots of facial options similar to Oblivion, and like KOTOR characters responses change slightly depending on whether you're male or female.

Story-wise, the plot starts off very focused and character-oriented before getting larger-scale and truly epic towards the massive conclusion. You'll definitely be sticking this out to the end. There are a fair few twists and turns in the story arc, and you can delve as deep into understanding the various alien species, politics, and problems in the galaxy as you wish. Humans are the newcomers, and are still quite distrusted.

No game is perfect, so here's what could have used some polish:

1) Stream-loading. Like Gears and Halo 3, there are no loading screens as you make your way through the world unless you use a rapid-transit (warp) system or jump between planets. However, you will come across some unusually long elevator rides fairly regularly as the game loads the next area. Not a big deal, but it accompanies the next problem:

2) Texture load-in. As is common in Unreal Engine 3 games, after loading you will be able to start playing BEFORE all the textures have loaded. It'll take about 5 seconds after you start playing before all the obscenely high-resolution textures finish loading in. It can ruin the immersion a little bit, but not too big a deal.

3) Empty planets. There are a huge number of planets to visit, but most are just a large terrain with a ground texture on it, and the occasional random resources or crashed satellites dotted around. It's fun bombing around in the Mako, but the planets can still feel very empty sometimes.

4) The story ends. :tears: I wish it had gone on forever.

Right, so if you haven't gotten the point yet, GO AND GET MASS EFFECT RIGHT NOW and enjoy Bioware's best RPG yet.

Finally, the lesbian sex-scene controversy:
It's now widely known that Mass Effect has been banned in Singapore because it is possible to develop a relationship and have sex with an alien that looks and sounds female (an Asari known as Liara). Remember: the player can choose to play as a female, which leads to this appearing to be a lesbian romance (a first for a videogame ). However, in actuality you learn that the Asari species do not have a gender, and all are born fertile. They reproduce by joining their mind telepathically with any sentient being of any species of any gender. It does not need to involve physical contact. I never actually developed that relationship when I was playing (I was developing a romance with another human crew-member instead), but since I'm playing through again I'm going to see exactly what the relationship involves.

So there you have it. Mass Effect is awesome. BUY IT NOW. If you don't have a 360, buy it then buy Mass Effect.:eusa_clap

 

Ah well.

It's a brilliant game anyway. =D This time I'm being an asshole to the girl I romanced the first time I finished the game.

When you play through as a guy you can romance the main female character in your team in the game if you want, so I wonder if I play as a girl whether I can romance the main guy in my team...who incidentally has the same voice actor as Carth in KOTOR (I find his voice strangely sexy).