Micro Reviews; everything you need to know in less than 500 words.
Reviewing: Mass Effect For the Xbox 360/PC.

Gameplay:
You play Commander Shepard, a human who is investigating a strange attack on the colony world of new Eden. The feces hit the fan, and soon you are charged with saving the entire galaxy (was there every any question?). To help you along your way, you recruit strange and interesting characters from various alien races, and pick up equipment and clues to help you find and kill anything that’s even remotely a threat.

Game play is third person, with occasional vehicle sections, and feels very similar to Knights of the old republic. There’s less emphasis on stat monkeying though. You can have the best stat line in the game, but if you can’t aim your weapon you will fail miserably. However, this doesn’t mean the RPG element isn’t important. If you don’t keep your skills up, expect to have to load often. Options are available to turn on assisted targeting for people not used to FPS games. Combat is well balanced and is forgiving of small tactical mistakes, but you can’t stand out in the open unless you want to be Swiss cheese. Victory will not be handed to you on a platter. Your allies make themselves useful, but in the end if you don’t make the effort, you will not prevail.

Character dialogue is well written and well acted, with only the lead character sounding artificial, which given that you have to select your responses, is forgivable. The setting’s background and the character’s back stories are very well written, and are reveled slowly but surely. A lot of effort has gone into the ‘little things’ to make the world and character seem more believable. Everyone has a story, there’s an explanation for everything and the world still ticks when you’re not there to make it move.

My Opinion
Oh hell yes. I’ve been waiting a long time for a decent RPG on the 360, and now it has arrived.

It feels a lot like knights of the old republic, meets gears of war, with a dash of halo for spice. The best features are taken from each of them. You have KoTOR’s RPG style leveling and gameplay, Gears’ cover system for combat, and halo’s ‘high heroic sci fi’ attitude. It tries to be both and RPG, and a third person shooter, and somehow pulls it off very well.

Combat can be very annoying if you are not high enough level for the area, but that is usually easily remedied. Squad orders system is sleek and useful. The exploration element of the game is fun, although controlling the Mako IFV can be annoying. The game needs a quick save system, to prevent the player from needing to save very few minutes incase they cack it while exploring a new planet. Equipment screen is very convoluted and complex, I barely use it. These are more nitpickings than serious issues though.

In Closing:
Gameplay: 9/10 Rock solid. Some balance issues with some enemies, especially biotics and bosses. Needs a quick save.
Graphics: 9/10. Looks great.
Sound: 7/10. Some music fails to create the desired mood. Lead character is a little wooden.
Fun rating: 9/10. Very well structured, well very executed.
Overall: 9/10. A must have for RPG fans.
-Evis T.
http://www.xomba.com/user/evis_t

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