Mass Effect

I play the remaster but for what i've seen apart from the graphics and the car controls,not a lot has changed.i play vanguard class and i am judging this game on its own,i am not taking in consideration mass effect 2 and 3.and spoilers from this game.

THE GAMEPLAY
I love the combat of this game, even if it is unbalanced, because with the guns it encourage you to use multiple guns because you always have the 4 with you (sniper,shotgun,assault rifle and pistol) and you have infinite ammo,i find myself changing weapon really frequently,and i love that because you never get bored of using the same weapon and it makes from some really rewarding gameplay,the only bad things i find on the gun play is that the pistol kinda doesn't have a purpose and that the assault rifle can become really broken when you get a really good one,since you have the same dps that a shotgun with the range of a pistol and you can fire without stoping for like 10 seconds,this thing basically becomes a laser beam.I love the biotics too, not only they are a really good suplement for the gun play,they can become really strategic with for example adrenaline rush,they can make sick combos too like using singularity and throwing bombs.

The rpg mechanics of this game even if simple they are very effective at puting you at a certain role specifically at the start of the game when you choose a class it will really affect gameplay and i really like this so shepard cant be op at everything.

Basically i love the gameplay of this game,is probably some of the best rpg gameplay i've played.

Story/Characters/Missions
This is were the game kinda falls short for me.The story is just your generic Sci-Fi story,it's not bad but is only decent.

The characters (more specifically from you squad) i mostly dont care about except for Wrex and Garrus,the others one are,

Alenko i dont feel nothing for this character,

Williams your generic strong military female character you seen a thousand times this time is racist (she literally say the other races are like dogs to her) and treats other people like shit if you couldn't tell i dont like this character at all she is just so unlikeable and the game treats her like I care about her no bioware i dont care if she dies or not,

Tali your average quirky mechanic character with strong family bonds and she has like 40 minutes of character presentation and dialogue she will really benefit of more screentime and character development she is the best female character in your squad by a long shot though because the other two ones are just so bad

Liara she is just soooo boring she was right when she say she wasn't interesting,i barely got things to say about her because her only real personality is that she is a geologist and that barely gets expand upon.

the two characters i actually like Wrex and Garrus these two i actually like because they arent just your average sci-fi character they are more unique and interesting and i actually will care if they die,

Wrex for example has a crysis because he can save his race if he lets saren use the cure,but if he lets this happen saren will just use krogan as a tool the player here has two options kill wrex or convice him,if you choice to convice him he realizes that saren will just use them as a tool and thanks shepard for making him enter in reason,if you choose to kill him he dies shoker i know.

Garrus is just a good character not the most unique but he is likeable

The missions are kind of repetitive but the combat and cutscenes make for it,that isn't the case for side missions that 99% of the time are go to point a to b from b to c and come back from point c to point a and most of the time they dont have combat.

The end of the game is kinda abrupt since nothing feels like a finale not the story,the final bossfight,heck i wasn't even max level when i go to the final mission (level 42) and everything was just so easy for a final level/bossfight,the only thing that feels like a finale from this last missions is the credits song that song really feels like a finale and its a banger.

All of these problems comes from the fact that this game without doing nearly any side missions last me 15 hours,that is extremely short for an rpg with this ambition,the run time makes that we barely know this story and specially these characters that some like tali had like 40 minutes character presententation,develompent and dialogue in the whole fricking game a MAIN CHARACTER HAS 40 MINUTES IN TOTAL OF SCREEN TIME (at least it feel like that),the other content that this game has to offer that make the game longer is the side missions that suck,this game will really benefit of more run time.

Basically the story is ok,the characters are mostly generic,the missions are decent and the game is too short.

Conclusion
So,basically i think that this game has good potential and amazing gameplay but is kinda ruined because of the runtime.

This is my first really long review so if you see some spelling errors i try to correct them next time.

This game is getting pretty old at this point. As a matter of fact, it’s as old now as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was when Mass Effect originally released, give or take. It shows in a lot of ways. Combat is stiff. Level design is either short and claustrophobic or wide open and empty, depending on where you’re landing. Most items you pick up will never see the light of day, and serve as a way to make money you will never spend. But hey, they had to start somewhere, and coming off the back of Jade Empire, this was big stuff. It exists in that uncanny purgatory period before third person shooters really started to feel -good-, but a little after they felt mega stiff. A PS2-era hangover period, kind of. Makes sense, given the time. It also arguably feels like the most RPG-ish of the Mass Effect games. Many stat points are doled out to give you meager yet eventually meaningful increases to your abilities, and there are six classes to choose from with different identities. Well, moreso three classes, with three hybrid classes.

Most RPG’s will give you magic. You still kinda get magic in Mass Effect, but now it’s SCIENCE magic. Biotics exist for lifting people around and generally messing with enemies. I’ll say this right now; I played the first game on Insane difficulty, and biotics were absolutely a necessity in surviving. Mass Effect 1 most definitely has the most powerful biotics of the entire original trilogy. Regardless of what your enemy is packing, you can lift them up in the air and just start melting them with whatever weapon you’ve got. As a purely utilitarian form of offense, it’s downright overpowered. As a pure destructive force, however? You admittedly get very few options. The straight offensive ability, Warp, didn’t quite come into its own yet, and feels more like an inconvenient debuff to an enemy rather than a game changer. You’re far better off abusing the Singularity ability. Drop a tiny black hole, and watch your enemies aimlessly float through the air like the world’s laziest clay pigeons. Didn’t pick a biotic character? Wonderful news, your squadmates all have their own abilities, and you can always include a biotic in your party and activate their abilities at will thanks to the super nifty squad wheel.

But what about the rest of the game? The story is of course always mentioned when Mass Effect is the main topic. The first game in particular acts precisely how you would expect the first game in a trilogy to act. It’s the first act. It’s all set-up. The big bad villain, Saren, is barely a blip in the timeline of what will happen in the coming titles. But you need to start small and go from there. There are of course side quests, though most of them are extremely short and feel like little more than a tiny dash of flavor. The worldbuilding is of course what most people fall in love with. No sense in creating an expansive galaxy wide game and only putting humans into it. You get plenty of interactions with many different alien species, many more important than others. Play your cards right, and you might even get to be the propagator of full racial genocide. If you’re into that kind of thing. Yes, the dialogue and lore that happens in between the big moments is almost more exciting and riveting than the overarching story itself. But looking back at the first time I played Mass Effect, there was definitely a turning point where my attention was fully grasped. Yeah. The big reveal.

The soundtrack is great. Very Vangelis-esque at times. The main menu song, Vigil, which replays during the games narrative climax is hauntingly beautiful. Art direction ranges from “a literal featureless rock spanning an entire planet” to lush tropical planets reminiscent of the Silent Cartographer level of Halo. On the note of the featureless planets, you’ll be landing on a lot of them. Just about every star system has a planet you can land on, and you’ll be driving your Mako car-buggy-deathtrap thing around looking for usually 3-4 small things to do per stop. This gets tedious. I suppose you COULD just opt to NOT stop at every single planet, but then you’d be missing out on precious XP, a commodity far more useful than credits. When you finish Mass Effect, you get to transfer Shepard to the next game, and your XP you earned can give you a serious edge.

All in all, yeah, Mass Effect is a great start. I know I sound a little overly critical at times, but come on, everyone knows Mass Effect's pedigree. It can feel rough around the edges at times, but it truly means well and, for the most part, executes on its promises. There's a slight issue with having the illusion of choice rather than real choice, but that's par for the course when it comes to most RPG's. It's absolutely worth playing through at least once - and not just as necessary context for its superior sequels.

Bioware's first attempt at an HD-era shooter-RPG certainly feels like it. Mechanically, it is a clunky turd. In the original 360 version, the constant, interminable loading screen elevators are a colossal drag. But the worst aspect of the game by far are the open-world planets you explore on the Mako vehicle, and the associated side quests, which, aside from the occasionally lovely skybox, are a miserable waste of time; simply egregious filler and length-padding. The writing and voiceovers sometimes veer into intolerable cringe. But the combined effect of its world-building, presentation, music, narrative, etc, even though no single element is anything that remarkable, is more than the sum of its parts, and it's pulled me back in over and over again. It has this sense of adventure that ME2 and 3, despite being more polished and less padded, do not quite capture.

Mass Effect 1 is one of those games that has the ability to open new doors for thought and inspiration. The way you're able to dictate the responses you can give to other characters in this game unlocks a need to want to see what different responses they may have to your choices. There are two paths that you can take with how you respond in this game, Paragon and Renegade. Like a good cop, bad cop type guy, a caring empathetic commander who puts others first or a cold, cocky and conservative individual that doesn't care how a mission gets done, it just gets done. Its the way Shepard embodies how you choose to present them that give them an interesting depth as a character. They could've easily just made them a person to which the player can envision themselves into, but Shepard uplifts that by having a strong, outspoken personality that is easily interwoven with these two dialogue paths.

And speaking of depth, there is a shit ton of it in this game. It was absolutely awe-inspiring how much lore there was to read in the codex. The main ones having narration to signify the importance of these entries and the secondary ones having more information. You gain a lot of these entries not just from playing the game, but talking to people, your squad mates, asking them questions about their culture, certain key events and such. Its not shoehorned onto you on the main story line, but taking the time to talk to your crew, the people walking around the Citadel and on other planets, it immerses you into this universe. It helps that the information comes from characters that have lived to experience these lives, first and second hand. Even from characters like Ashley Williams or Kaiden Alenko, whom I found my personal gripes with on my two playthroughs. One having a miliarial bloodline who harbors xenophobic beliefs and the other, a human biotic, who I thought had the personality of cardboard in the first playthrough, who trained with the alien race, Turians, to refine his abilities, they feel like characters who have lived these stories. Much like how I believe Liara T'Soni is an 106 year old Asari researcher who you can choose to romance, or Tali who is partaking on her species, the Quarians, pilgrimage. I do feel we could've gotten more from Nihlus and Saren. The two clearly had a history and it would've been interesting seeing how the two interact and how they view each other. Granted. killing off Nihlus set off the events of the story by an eyewitness.

I feel exploring the galaxy is the most gratifying feature in this game. Coupled with the amazing, "Unexplored Worlds", going from star to star and reading the biographies of the planets is a treat. However, the sections where you get to explore worlds able to be habited on is underwhelming. See, you get dispatched in this vehicle called the MAKO, which has a machine gun, rocket, boosters and is able to drive on rocky terrain. Sounds fun on paper, but the maps are practically the same. Minerals which you can fine are often in these rocky gorges and its so annoying trying to get to it and then get back out. Sometimes there's a Thresher Maw that you can kill, but there's only a handful. The lack of variety, save for the few shakeups in some of the worlds like monkeys in one and environmental hazard in a couple others, can make these sections sluggish paced.

The planets you have to visit to progress the story are highlights. The music really highlights it. It does an amazing job conveying the mood in each of its settings while forging its own musical identity. "Vigil" is an amazing ambient piece that plays at the menu at a spot in the final area of the game that conveys a sense of awe, melancholy and endearment. Its a truly sentient piece that reflects the galaxy to which it involves. I personally find "Virmire Ride" to be my personal favorite. I love the driving progression, the familiar chords from other tracks in the game, and the sense of urgency, only heightened in the version that plays when you infiltrate the breeding facility.

The combat is alright. It obviously does not compare to the dialogue wheel and the writing, but it holds it own. Despite that, its sort of clunky. Before 2, to get to cover, you walk into the wall, which can be bad if you're trying to storm and end up going into cover instead. I managed to get by my first game without barely using the powers, as it isn't enforced, the opportunities to use them. It doesn't really integrate well in this game, as certain powers take a while to recharge, some have their power realized when you upgraded it enough and some are locked behind others. It doesn't help that there is a class system you can choose from and that dictates what type of powers you'll be using and what weapons you've mastered. That can be a slight issue if the powers aren't to your liking, which can't be remedied by a change. Grenades are weird in this game. In the Legendary Edition, there's two buttons for it. No big deal except its real easy to press these buttons and waste a grenade. But the fact they don't appear like they do again is sad as well.

Mass Effect 1 is like entering a gateway into another star system in the galaxy and learning everything about that system. It is escapism, a vessel to place yourself into. It showcases excellent story-telling, character development, nuance in morality system and such, while balancing out what shortcomings there are for this game.

It might seem unbalanced, but the very first thing to talk about when talking about the first Mass Effect is its flaws. There is a considerable amount of bloat and clunkiness when it comes to the ways a player moves through the game. Discovering planets and side missions, managing your inventory, traversing rocky terrain in a ground vehicle, even getting from one point of a given map to the other—all of these can cause a degree of headache for little or no reward. And though the combat doesn't have any major issues, it's really nothing to write home about.

Mass Effect the First is not about map traversal, though. It's not about perfect game balance. It's an RPG; it's about story; it's about worldbuilding; it's about player choice and who you want your characters to be. This aspect is so good that it engulfs the problems and reduces them to completely surmountable minor annoyances.

The world of Mass Effect is a great sci-fi foundation for storytelling. Though Shepard's mission is straightforward, with its missions completely on-rails and your morality choices often boiled down to a binary, there's a lot that can be wrapped up in such a binary choice. I can't tell you how many dialogue choices I had to stop and think about over the course of this series. That all started here.

One of the most fascinating parts of Mass Effect lore is the fate of the krogan. They saved the galaxy from the rachni, but were infected by the genophage: a species-wide disease inflicted upon them by their allies to control their population. This wasn't done out of hatred, but fear—some would say reasonable fear—that a species as strong and strong-willed as the krogan would overtake the galaxy to everyone else's detriment. Just having that in the lore is cool, but as a player, you might not be able to do anything about the genophage, but you control what others do because of it.

Of course the most enthralling aspect of all these choices is how they affect the sequels. Making a choice to save one life in Mass Effect the First could wind up ballooning into a huge advantage in Mass Effect the Third. A character's death here could mean certain challenges in later games. I'm to understand that these games are not the first to do this, but they were the first for me, and I was blown away by that.

Will it make you hate the concept of motor vehicles? It may. If you don't play the remaster on a better, faster system than the previous era, will it make you equally hate the concept of elevators? Sure. But will it grab you with interactive storytelling? It definitely may.

A IA ruim e as sidequests meio sem graça, casadas com ambientes repetidos, tiram um pouco do brilho da ótima narrativa e personagens.

O universo lotado de detalhes fascina quem gosta de ler cada arquivo e a lore fundamenta um enredo épico e crível na mesma medida.

Pra mim, esses aspectos superam a falta de polimento no gameplay e, no fim, contam mais em um RPG como Mass Effect.