Mass Effect

Mass Effect is an action-RPG from BioWare, makers of KOTOR and the Baldur's Gate series. Mass Effect has received rave reviews about its greatness in story and game play.

I've played about an hour and a half of Mass Effect. I really never want to play it again.

I was fully expecting a game on par with KOTOR, and well, its not. Let's take the Star Wars out of KOTOR for a second... is it even interesting any more? I would say yes. You have interesting, witty characters and dialog, game play that is interesting, and RPG elements that make the player want to reach the next skill and power (even if we are taking the Star Wars out, there are still powers). So, we still have a pretty fun game.

Not so for me in Mass Effect. First of all, the characters are so uninspiring. They look great in screen shots for sure, but once they start moving around, they seem like they are mannequins. They have no emotion on their faces and they talk like robots. There's no witty conversation like we see from Carth, Atton, and HK-47 in KOTOR.

The story is basically your standard sci-fi fare (i.e. a Star Wars clone). Of course it doesn't have to feel like this with good story telling, but it feels too much like a bad clone. It feels too much like they were trying to make a story as "Star Wars" as possible without actually using the license, and it just doesn't feel quite right. I could care less about any of these characters, or the world that is about to be destroyed.

So the character and story shortcomings could be made up for by great, addictive game play, right? Unfortunately, Mass Effect manages to ruin the game play too. The game plays a lot like Gears of War. Yes, I said Gears of War, a 3rd-person shooter. I wish someone has told me this before I bought the game. It would have changed my expectations a lot. So you spend a lot of time behind cover, waiting to take shots on your enemies. but unlike Gears of War, where enemies have to reload, the enemies in Mass Effect always seem to have ammo and are ready to shot you in the head as soon as you pop out. Its incredibly frustrating. Also, the other members of my party are complete idiots, so they will stand out in the open and die, leaving me to fend for myself against like 10 enemies.
So, what about the "Force Powers", you ask? Well, they have named the "Force" something else, and I forget the dumb name they gave it. So, My half Soldier, half Force-wielder started out with "Force Push" and some other talent. Unfortunately, the genius game designers at BioWare set the button to use your power to the same button as changing your power, where you simply press to use and hold to change. However, the change power threshold is incredibly sensitive, so most of the time you want to use a power, you end up going to the menu to change the power, and then you have to release it and try again, all the while you of course are being shot at by your dead-eye enemies. Also, you have to be right next to your enemy to use force push, you would have to first run straight at it in order use the power, and again you are under fire the whole time. Once again, this is incredibly frustrating.

So, maybe the game gets amazing if you play more than an hour and a half. Maybe not, but I will never know, because I have no desire ever to pick it up again. I know I should, but I'd rather be playing something enjoyable (such as the current MMO or Bioshock again).