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Words By Ghrem
System: Xbox 360
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Developer: BioWare
Release Date: 11/20/2007
Players: One
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BioWare is a well-regarded Canadian software development house that has created numerous PC role-playing games, as well as two Xbox titles: Star Wars - Knights of the Old Republic (KoTOR) and Jade Empire. Both XBox RPG releases were positively reviewed, and I personally enjoyed them. BioWare’s forte is character and story, and in these areas, the two XBox RPGs delivered a compelling experience.
BioWare’s latest effort, an estimated 40-hour action RPG named Mass Effect, will take its place in the XBox 360’s mostly empty RPG field when it is released during Q2 2007 (rumors currently place the release date in mid to late May). As for the other XBox 360 RPGs, the list is short: Oblivion was a graphically brilliant, massive Western RPG, but it came out a whole year ago. Enchanted Arms, a Japanese RPG, received adequate but not stellar reviews, prompting me to skip its purchase. When Mass Effect joins this small group, it is expected to be an outstanding RPG; in fact, one of the outstanding XBox 360 titles in any genre.
Mass Effect features an epic (what else?) science fiction story taking place in the year 2183. Humanity has discovered ancient ruins on Mars that impart the secret of faster-than-light travel; this has lead mankind to discover a network of ancient interstellar highway on-ramps, called Mass Relays, that enable it to colonize the stars. Humans initially encountered another galactic species, and after a brief war, peace is brokered by the Citadel Council—the multi-species government that rules the galaxy.
Now, humanity wants to join the Council, and stands a good chance of gaining membership. Commander Shepard, your character, is an experienced soldier, and the first human to join the Spectres, the Citadel Council’s police force. Traveling in your advanced starship, the SS Normandy, you are tasked with stopping an imminent galactic invasion by an ancient machine race that recurs every 50,000 years and destroys all advanced organic civilizations. In addition, you must battle a rival Spectre who opposes humanity’s efforts to join the Citadel Council.
The titular phrase, “mass effect,” refers to a physics phenomenon that is still new to humans in the year 2183. The mass effect principle is a force that some people have the natural ability to control, using a power called “biotics;” this biotics power can be augmented using implants that are found throughout the game. Humans gifted with the biotics power can control “dark energy” to lift heavy objects, create force fields, and shoot energy blasts. BioWare explicitly stated that the biotics power is nothing at all like the Force in Star Wars, but this statement is a little hard to believe; “mass effect” seems to be nothing more than an analog for the Force in Star Wars fiction and magic in the fantasy genre.
Mass Effect’s most touted game design evolution is the dialog system and the corresponding expressiveness of the conversation target’s face. When you engage in dialog, the background snaps out of focus, leaving you to concentrate on the detailed, beautifully rendered face of your target. In order to keep conversation fluid and natural, you’re given brief paraphrases to select from in order to further the conversation. When selected, these paraphrases—such as “threats might work”—are fleshed-out as complete, context-relevant sentences, spoken by voice actors.
In BioWare’s previous two console efforts, combat was a dissatisfying element for me. KoTOR’s combat was challenging until I discovered that I could apply healing kits as much as I wanted while combat was paused; after that, the challenge disappeared. There were also problems with weapon balancing; projectile weapons were so underpowered, compared with melee weapons, that they were useless. Jade Empire, with its arcade-style combat, had no middle ground between the too-easy Medium difficulty and the punishing (and, not far into the game, impossible for me) Hard difficulty, forcing me to play through on Medium, without much challenge.
Despite BioWare’s track record, I am cautiously hopeful that Mass Effect’s combat will be an improvement. Combat is radically different than in past BioWare console games. In a battle, you can take control of any party member in order to engage in real-time combat. The camera, possibly inspired by Resident Evil 4, looks over your character’s shoulder. The cover system, reminiscent of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, lets you press characters up against walls. A target reticle is used to direct your fire; the size of the reticle, and hence your firing accuracy, is governed by your character’s stats. In addition to the real-time combat, you can pause the action and direct your party members; for example, you can pause and then make them move to cover, or to a good vantage point for attack.
Although you do not pilot the Normandy (you have an NPC crew to do that), the designers at BioWare thought that exploration of alien worlds was essential to a good science fiction story. When you wish to take a break from the main storyline, you can fly to numerous uncharted alien worlds and explore them using the Normandy’s all-terrain rover, the Mako. The Mako can be customized and is armed for combat. It is equipped with down-firing jets for hard landings on planetary surfaces, and it can make use of those jets to jump, for extra agility in combat.
Mass Effect is based on a customized version of the Unreal 3 engine. This game is going to be graphically beautiful…possibly better looking than anything released previously on the XBox 360 platform. The glowing praise from reviewers who have seen the game in action, as well as the two gorgeous trailers on XBox Live that claim to consist solely of in-engine visuals, leave no doubt of this.
Mass Effect is planned as the first chapter in a trilogy that will span the life of the XBox 360 console. Sequels will, of course, be dependent on the game’s financial success. I think it’s safe to say that the game will merit its sequels.
Despite what I consider to be flawed balancing in the combat systems of its previous console efforts, BioWare has a brilliant track record when it comes to story and characters, and the artwork and animation for Mass Effect appears to be on a par with, or better than, anything else the XBox 360 has to offer. I will be pre-ordering this game, and I’m more excited about this title than I have been about any game since Oblivion.
For the X06 and E3 demo videos, see http://masseffect.bioware.com/gallery/, or go to XBox Live.
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