Mass Effect (PC Games, 2008)

This is possibly the best game I've played in recent years. The role-playing experience is fantastic, all NPCs have full personalities, and I don't mean your teammates (although some of them do too; more on that later). Every person that you can talk to is different from the next one. The combat system is great as well, especially for me as I'm not all that great at full on shooters. You can seamlessly pause the game during combat and give your two teammates commands, although sometimes their AI can leave you wanting. However, they can turn the scales in your favor in a seemingly hopeless battle. You just need to use them right. A lot of games tend to let you down a bit when it comes to the ending. This game does not. It ends very well and although this is only the first in a trilogy it also has a definite ending to a singular story.
On to the bad. The graphics, while beautiful, do not mean a thing when the animators can't make humans look like humans. The lips (as in all Bioware games) do not move like human lips which detracts quite a lot. Plus the way NPCs end a dialog is so unnerving, it's looks as if they have to excuse themselves so they can use the toliet. And to me the most horrifying experience is this: I love when there is a romance in games. Baldur's gate and KOTOR got it right. Mass Effect did not. Sure they had a sex scene (and I'm not for or against this; it is simply part of the game to me), but really there was no lead up to it. You can only really have four or five conversations with your love interest before all of a sudden you're in love or lust or whatever and then you get down and dirty. This was an unforgivable atrocity and BioWare should be ashamed. I felt a greater connection with the Hanar who wanted to preach about the Enkindlers (a side quest NPC) than with any of the love interests (main NPCs). Normally my favorite character in RPGs is the love interest because they actually have character. Jaheria and Viconia in Baldur's Gate, Bastila in KOTOR where my favorite characters from their respective games, simply because I felt I knew them. Not so in Mass Effect. Wrex was by far the coolest character in this game, which is not a bad thing as he was fraking awesome! However, my point is there wasn't enough time to get to know the love interest to actually care. And we'll end that there.
Despite my cons taking up more space, I still give Mass Effect an excellent score. I have never, ever played a game through twice in a row. I spent almost five days straight playing this game through twice and I doubt I'll ever find another game like that. Unless Mass Effect 2 is better, cause Dragon Age certainly doesn't look like it. So yes, this game is awesome. Buy it. Love it. And if you don't, you're probably not even human. Maybe a Krogan.
Oh and on a psuedo related note to BioWare personnel should they read this: Mass Effect 2 better be a direct continuation with the same main character with the ability to import old characters a la the old Quest For Glory games. KOTOR2 pissed me off something fierce. (These two sentences actually correlate if you've played this game. You might not agree but it does make sense;)
Thanks for reading, and support more great games by buying this one! ie, don't try to justify the pirating of this game because it has a ridiculous three time install only and an activation thingy (not a real activation thingy, by the way). Oops, I'm about out of space.

PRO: Another excellent RPG from BioWare! Deep and engaging story, exceptional voice-acting and great all-around production values.

CON: Beware draconian DRM! SecuROM, virtual drive blacklisting, Internet authentication (though it is a single-player game only), and worst of all: you are only allowed to install this title 3 times maximum -- it will not authenticate installation if you have used up your 3 installs. This means that this game may not be playable for as many years as other PC games, since you will likely have different PC configurations over time. Any major configuration change to your PC and re-installing Mass Effect will use up another of your 3 installs.

MINOR: Game inventory and buy/sell screens are unnecessarily difficult to navigate due to complete lack of sorting and categorizing options of the many, many different game items. Game items are multitudinous and detailed with interesting art and descriptions, but disappointingly lack much practical difference between them during game use. Also, unlike other BioWare RPGs, this one is a console port and is more "streamlined" (read: dumbed-down) for "accessibility" to console players. Many may find this a positive, but as an old-time computer RPG junkie, and big fan of previous BioWare titles, this is an unfortunate turn of events. Still, the game is good enough that with all that, I still give it 4/5.

it didnt work in my pc because my video card was not supported :(
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Let's start with the good points:
1) great voice acting and lipsync
2) great storyline and moments of 'epicness'
3) fun, challenging fights - It's great how you can pause the action and plan your moves. It actually becomes very necessary as the fights get more challenging.
4) interesting open-ended galaxy - go anywhere and explore every system. you never know what you'll find.
5) RPG level-up elements are balanced
6) good visuals - not great compared to today's standard, but still really good.
7) the ATV is the most AT I've ever seen - It makes driving and exploring worlds really fun (especially with a good sound system).
8) The music score fits the moods really well. Some of them go overboard actually. Really good music for moments that don't really deserve it. My opinion on that one.

Now for the bad points:
1) Shadow rendering stinks - turned it off
2) 5.1 surround sound disabled - you have to manually inable it through the ini.
3) A lot of diversity, but can definitely seem to get repetitive and predictable.
4) The AI in fights works very well for close combat. Stinks at distance combat (sniping, long range canons)
5) You have to set it to "veteran" and "low" targeting assistance for a decent challenge. Any less and it would be fairly easy for the average gamer.
6) Not like "Gears of War" but about half way there. If the action moments were coupled with elements of GoW and Resident Evil 4, this game would be excellent, but you can jump over boxes, through windows, and the like. You can take cover easily enough, but no quick dodges and rolling across the floor make for some pretty lacking action scenes.


It's always easier to pick apart the bad stuff, but all in all, it was worth the money I paid for it. Be sure to enable 5.1 speakers if you have them, disable dynamic shadows, and enjoy your game.

There are already countless reviews written about Mass Effect, most of which were published when the console version was released. Suffice it to say that Mass Effect is an outstanding game on any platform, and so instead I will focus on the improvements that the PC version offers over the original.

Many PC gamers, myself included, were disappointed to hear that Bioware would be releasing its newest RPG on consoles first. Though it would certainly come to PC as the Star Wars KOTOR games did, I was worried that it would be a half-baked port. Well, I was sure wrong.

The PC version of ME has received updated visuals and graphics optimization to make it look better than its XBox 360 counterpart (no anti-aliasing, unfortunately), menus have been slightly streamlined, and the first DLC pack is free. However, the main draw of PC Mass Effect is the change of pace in gameplay thanks to Bioware completely redoing the combat interface to suit the mouse and keyboard. In the console version, the player would have to pause the game to order party members to attack and/or use biotics (spells). In the PC version, however, powers can be hotkeyed to the number keys, and the option to turn off aim assist lets PC gamers feel like they are really in the midst of a battle in which skill rather than "active pause" decides the winner.

In short, if you opted out of buying Mass Effect when it was first released, you have no reason to do so now.

I'm always on the lookout for a good game and when I heard about Mass Effect from fellow gamers I went out and got it. It starts out a little talky at first but once the action picks up it's non-stop. One of the most fun things in this game is driving the Mako all-terrain vehicle around. It responds well to controls. Overall I rate this game a 9.5, the only reason it's not a 10 is it really needs a high end computer, I actually went out and purchased a new video card, now it's smooth sailing. Gameplay involves making choices and decisions when speaking with other characters which will take you into exploring different worlds and strange races. Not to mention the love interest!! Enjoy this game, it's good and it's different.

Bioware. Amazing. Real-time 3rd person shooter Sci-Fi RPG. If the mention of that description has you intrigued, buy this game right now.

Graphics:
The graphics are amazing, if your computer can support the requirements. I have an 8800GT and it plays on highest settings with no hitches.

Sound:
Great ambiance, scores and sound effects are well done and fit the theme of the game.

Gameplay:
If you like shooters or RPGs, give this game a look. The combat is reminiscent of Gears of War style 3rd person game play, and is actually quite in depth. The RPG aspects are what defines this game. This isn't a shooter with RPG elements, its and RPG that uses a shooter combat system. True to their other RPGs, there are countless possibilities, customization, side quests and mini-games to supplement the main story line, and trust me, the main story line is really quite good on its own.

This game is for everyone who enjoys shooters and RPGs, if your PC can handle the system requirements.

I've played through 10% of the game (long game). So far the story seems like starwars + halo + startrek. The sound and graphics are good.

The ability to communicate and make choices make this game.

Be sure to save often.

Could not find game locally so went on eBay and started bidding on this particular game. Won at a price I was willing to pay and transaction went very smoothly: games is new as described and shipping was excellent - both in price and receiving item in the time frame noted in ad.

As many others, I had some trouble getting the graphics to work properly (I'm running the game on Windows 7 RC) but after a bit of reading and tweaking ini-files etc it now looks quite brilliant :) The gameplay is quite complicated at first, but easy to learn during the first hours of the game. The story is very interesting and the Mass Effect universe is worth while exploring :) I would gladly recommend this game to anyone who likes RPG-based/sci-fi games, and/or people who have previously enjoyed games like KoToR / Fallout etc.

It's been awhile since I've enjoyed a game this much. The characters are interesting, the graphics detailed, and the story pulls you in for the duration. If you have a life already, don't buy this game... it will suck you in at the expense of your friends and family! If you have no life, this game will give you meaning (if but for a short time).

The Game is in awesome condition took maybe 25 min to set up and it didnt cost a fortune thank alot!

The disc inside and manual were in great condition, but the box itself was moderately worn and just sorta looked like it had had a lot of handling. Thumbs up overall.

WELL -- I LOVE THE GAME ON XBOX 360 BUT CANT GET IT TO WORK ON MY PC AND I HAVE A GAMING SYSTEM THAT I USE FOR WOW AND MASS EFFECT WILL NOT WORK -- THE VIDEO IS CHOPPY.

This game has a rich story and comes with a free downloadable expansion mission. I am recommending it because it works well on my computer (64-bit Vista) and the music is very spacey.

Perfect sale.. great delivery... product was 100% as advertised,,, I'm in heaven... buy from this guy/person seller

The game is very detailed in both graphic and story, but the game crashes at least once every thirty minutes making it very time consuming to play (you will often have to restart your computer). The game feels and functions like Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, except that the action parts don't have a pause feature. The game would be excellent if it was not for the many crashes and black screens (the screen gets stuck as black) causing you to reboot your computer. I played the game with the 1.01a patch (the latest patch at the moment) so I can only hope that the 1.02 patch will fix all the crashing issues.

I really loved the game, probably because I am a gamer. Thank you very much on selling me a very good game.

It is a fun game with choices like kotr. But it crashes often even at low settings on a 2.2 ghz amd with 4 gig of ram.

The game had a great advertising campaign, which makes you want it as much as Halo3,GoW2,Fable2,etc. But only after paying $30-40 you find out that if you have a PC that qualifies for the minimum requirements, you want get to enjoy the game as it was meant to be played (and now you can't even return it). The requirements for the game are ridiculously high, so if you want to actually enjoy it, make sure to buy it on 360 or if you want to spend $1000+ and get yourself a killing PC, well then on PC as well.

Mass Effect is an excellent RPG game, one of (if not the best) i've played.
If you like RPGs, this is one of the best choices.

Everything arrived as promised and much faster than I expected. I will definitely use this Seller again.

So far so good. We shall see the overall once I am done playing with it. The game recieved a very high rating for game play. The price was the other consideration. This game normally sells for 45.00 or more. So I was very pleased with the price and shipping.