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Forums > Submission Feedback > JANUS2's Mass Effect review

This thread is in response to a review for Mass Effect on the Xbox 360. You are encouraged to view the review in a new window before reading this thread.

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Author: disco1960
Posted: January 28, 2009 (05:18 PM)
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...Overload is a tech power, not biotic.


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Author: Halon
Posted: January 28, 2009 (06:50 PM)
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Great review! Hopefully I'll write my own soon. I agree with pretty much every point you made minus the combat though I would emphasize other areas.


IF YOU WANT MORE BEATS FOR YOUR BUCK THERE'S NO LUCK.

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Author: Lewis
Posted: January 29, 2009 (01:13 AM)
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...a really strong argument. Which means I'll just have to resort to calling you a grumpy bastard.

Maybe it does come down to the suspension of disbelief thing. And maybe you're right about the mundanity of life outside the main quest. It's almost the opposite of Fallout 3 in that respect: in Mass Effect, it sometimes is best to just chug through the main game. Personally, I never try to do everything in a game like Mass Effect. I just try to play it honestly. That's what I did - and it became one of my favourite games in ages.

With regards to it being short... I went through in 22 hours. I don't know how much of that was main plot and how much was side quests, but not for a second (after the dull opening) did it stagnate. I thought it was a perfect length. I know you didn't criticise that, but I thought I'd say that anyway.

The only flaw I can find with your argument is that you failed to mention the extraordinary facial animation system, brilliant script and film-quality voice acting (I played as a deliciously sexy female Shepard, who was voiced much better than the male version...). These really lifted Mass Effect to a new level of drama, for me. Honestly. Second best game of 2007.


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Author: JANUS2
Posted: January 29, 2009 (01:14 PM)
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Which means I'll just have to resort to calling you a grumpy bastard.

I shall take this as a compliment!

I know you didn't mean it as a criticism, but I'm not going to apologise for the way I played Mass Effect. I didn't set out to complete everything with military precision. But I do expect games like this to deliver beyond the main quest. If they're promising that sort of depth then I don't expect to feel like I've wasted my time after putting the required effort in. BioWare could have made a 12 hour shooter if that really was the priority for them.

As for the script and voice acting, perhaps I should play as a female Shepherd next time because the male romance subplot was cringe-worthy.

Did you not find it a little bit of a stretch to believe that the main bad guy would stay around for a good ten to fifteen minutes telling Shepherd all about his evil plan? Especially when he considers humans to be a waste of space. He even lets Shepherd ask him questions! I guess this was necessary but it just seemed a bit convoluted.


"fuck yeah oblivion" - Jihad

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Author: Lewis
Posted: January 30, 2009 (01:03 AM)
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Yep, it is a stretch to believe that. But then it's also a stretch to believe that we'll all end up flying around the entire universe, being instantaneously transported from galaxy to galaxy via an enormous slingshot in the sky.

It's just Star Wars for grown-ups.


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Author: disco1960
Posted: January 30, 2009 (02:12 AM)
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Those damn elevators really do undermine the pretense of advanced alien technology, though.


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Author: Suskie
Posted: October 04, 2009 (03:00 AM)
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Having just beaten this game for the millionth time (more like the fifth), I was actually going to address the relatively popular, and fairly accurate, criticism that the game's side quests are dull and repetitive. You could ignore such aspects of the game and focus on the main story, as I just did, and still thoroughly enjoy the experience. It seems this issue has already been discussed, though, and you make a fair point about wanting a game to live up to its ambitions.

Mass Effect is a weird game for me, because it's got a number of glaring flaws, yet I'm so blown away by certain aspects of the game that I'm really not bothered by any of its shortcomings. So while I heavily disagree with this review, I still think it's excellently written and perfectly fair for the most part. Convincing enough that I'm glad I played the game before it was written!

(Although your issues with the dialog system don't ring true at all. You mean to tell me you played this game for 30 hours and never figured out that Paragon responses are on top, Renegade responses are on the bottom, neutral responses are in the middle? Took me about ten seconds.)


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