I just beat the game mere moments ago. I took me approximately 30hrs but about 3hr of that game time the game was probably paused or I walked away.

I figure I would take my time to post my final thoughts on this game. I guess it's kinda a review. I will try not to include any spoilers.

Mass Effect is a great game. It's story and universe is immersive. The dialogue system is almost like watching a movie where you have control of the script selection for your character.

I am not going to lie this game combines alot of sci-fi elements into one and the game seems to draw heavily from roots of KoTOR and star wars. But what Mass Effect does is just borrow these concepts and remakes them into their own to fit in their universe.

The graphics use the reknowned Unreal 3 engine (Gears of War) and are breath taking but after awhile you take advantage of the display. Just stop and look around now and again and you will be amazed.

The combat system is fantastic. I wasnt sure how they could make an RPG that was real-time combat with guns. Kinda blew my mind when I saw it all come together. The speed of the combat is something between Gears of War and Halo 3. You can pause in combat to issue orders or use powers/biotics (lets just call it the force) but that does not detract from the action only enhances it.

However, mass effect isnt the perfect game. Infact, I think it fell short in a few aspects. First off the main quest can be completed in 12-15 hrs. So if you dont do any side quests (called assignments) then it can be a very short game. I thought I did a majority of the assignments and I only logged in 30 hrs (but I did not get the achievement for completing a majority of the game so I guess I did only a fraction of these side quests).

There also seems to be a lack of heavily colonized planets to explore. I think there are roughly 5 or 6 planets you can dock on where you can walk around talk to people explore the citie etc. The rest of the planets (all of which are not part of the main quest) you explore in your mako (something like a 6 wheeled warthog with a missile launcher). Riding around in the mako was fun at first, you could traverse the planets, find abandon mines, space pirates, abandoned colonies, distress beacons, etc. But after awhile it got tiring. I just wanted to land in a spaceport full of people. Then again if that was the case this game would be massive if every planet was as detailed as the planets for the main quest. Not to mention it seems like every planet not part of the main quest was the same mountainous terrain. The only difference was the dirt was a different color.

That was really my largest complaint. And even then once you were doing the actual assignment you forgot all about having to drive the warthog for five minutes to get to your destination. But the game was not as massive as the developers alluded too (just like fable 1 for the xbox we all know how that game ended up...). But Mass Effect still had a good amount of detail and because it's not very linear the player can choose what type of experience they will have. Which is kind of rewarding after you complete the game.

Although the game ends, it was announced that there would be two sequels awhile backt. What I would like to see in the next Mass Effect game is more immersive planets. The planets you could dock on for the main quest (roughly 5 or 6) were so detailed with their cities and people, while all the ones for the assignments were streamlined. I guess it's expected the game could not be delayed any longer, but I would like to see 12 planets you could dock on and 6 would be for the main quest while the others just for assignments.

The combat system should stay the same but the classes need to be adjusted. Some of the classes just suck since they cannot upgrade their weapons. Without putting you skill level points towards one of the 4 weapons class your character is doomed to be shooting inaccurate nerf arrows at enemies.

The character and AI was great overall and any adjustments fro the sequel would be minor. I also wonder how they would do the sequel since there are multiple endings to this game. Not to mention there are moments when you choose which of your crew members you wish to save or which ones you wish to die...

Overall this is a 9/10 game.

Thoughts from anyone else who completed the game (Corona and Fresh)

My roomate has it and I've watched him play it alot. Not sure how far in he is, but I can say that the game looks good enough that it is officially the first game for the 360 that I'm actually intrigued by.

Play on hardcore now, and get the Spectre weapons.

I also with the main story was longer and there were more colonized planets.

Just out of curiosity, who did you choose? I'm sure you know what I mean. PM me or make it invisible with spoiler tages or something.

I bought the game and have beaten it twice. Fantastic game, one of the best iv ever played.
They do give out too much money for kills though, lol monsters are super rich in the higher lvls.

I totally agree with your assessment. I loved Mass Effect. It has a great immersing story, awesome graphics and great gameplay. The assignment planets were definitely too similar and boring. I would have rather had less planets with more depth than the ones in the game. I also have to say that the teammate AI was kinda dumb at times, but was good overall. I can't wait for the sequel.

I still need to beat the game.Haven't had time over the past year due to my Mother,and Grandmother passing.I will get back to it sometime soon.

Punching the reporter was the funniest video game moment I'd been blessed with for some time and I'll remember ME affectionately almost for that alone.

1st Post


I generally agree with this review, although I think the combat AI possibly left something to be desired at times. The story was fantastic with flawless character interaction, with the voice acting some of the very best. I think it's a great comparison with KoTOR, and yet subtly different, and clearly very well designed, from the guns, to the alien species(Although the mystic jellyfish people i find slightly ridiculous) It's a well put together game, and I support the 9 out of 10 this received.

A quick footnote on Mass Effect 2: It was recently announced that EA would be picking up where Bioware left off, and have bought the rights to the series and it looks good for Winter 09. I am not a fan of EA and their serious games normally, but Dead Space was fantastic, and I'm hoping its the start of something new and I'm excited to see what they do with it.

Mass effect is amazing, i'm around 9 hours into it, only problem I have is that the graphics engine sucks,badly, it looks good, performs terrible, clips and freezes every 10 seconds if your running around,bad use of the unreal engine, installing the game fixes some of the " loading " parts, but thats about it.

I can see myself playing mass effect around 5 times over though, just to play different classes. I love it.