Hostile Gamers

Mass Effect came out in November of 2007. It was a highly anticipated game and brought a lot of new concepts to the gaming table with its morality and conversation system.



The first thing you do in the game is create your own Commander Shepard. The character customization at the beginning of the game is pretty good, and you can search the internet for famous people who have been recreated using the Mass Effect character creation which is a pretty neat way to make your character. The amount of depth you can put into your character is great. You must remember that your character is in the military though, so you are going to have to stick to a military hair cut. Ladies included, as all the hair is shoulder length and shorter. There are some problems during the games conversations where the shading and character models are a bit off, but other than that the game has really solid graphics and cinematics. You can give your character a first name, but that’s really just for save file information, as everyone in the game will refer to you as Commander, Shepard, or Commander Shepard. You choose your character class and a background story for your character. The background stories really set up a good starting point for whether you are good, neutral, or evil. This leads you into the game and you’re ready to begin your mission to Eden Prime. You also get to meet the awesome character voiced by Seth Green, “Jeff ‘Joker’ Moreau”.

The controls in the game aren’t hard to get used to, but you will probably end up getting annoyed with your squad mates as well as the MAKO. Your squad will run out from behind cover at the most inopportune moments and leave you alone against an army of Geth. If you need to get away fast though, you have adrenaline when you are in combat which allows you to run by holding the A button and if you're behind an object you can use A to take cover. The MAKO is just kind of awkward to drive, and doesn't really add anything to the game that couldn't have been done with you just running around. The left stick moves you while the right stick aims you and turns you around, and the d-pad tells your teammates where to go or what to do. The right bumper opens up your guns list while the left bumper opens up your list of powers to be used. The powers are incredibly useful and they vary from class to class, so playing through with different classes is a good way to change the way the game with each different playthrough. When playing through the game, you’ll come across new guns and armor, as well as credits which is the games currency. Use credits to buy the elite spectre armor or new guns, omnitools, or upgrades.

The story of the game is where you’ll probably get into the game the most. It’s such an immersive story that will keep you wondering what’s going to happen next. Since all the characters have such detailed back stories and you make your own choices in the conversations, it really is up to you on how the game turns out and who is able to return in Mass Effect 2. The story follows Commander Shepard on his quest to bring a rogue Spectre, named Saren, to justice. This will lead you through the universe to stop Saren and the Reaper Sovereign from destroying all life as we know it. Over the course of your journey, you’ll gain many valuable allies who have different character classes and have different opinions on how to handle the many challenges you face in the course of the game. Characters will also be influenced by the way you choose to handle the situations that arise. Conversations between you and your teammates while out on missions will change based on who is in your current party and will make for some interesting dialogue. The two characters I loved to take with me the most were Wrex and Garrus. I felt like having a diverse team was the way for me to go so that’s what I went with. There really is no wrong or right squad choice, however.

While playing the game, be sure to check out your missions often for any minor assignments you get while riding in an elevator such as saving a space station or shutting down an insane alliance training station. These will help you level up and get you experience that you need to reach the max level of 60. You’ll also want to listen to the amazing music in the game and think about how you want your choices to carry over into Mass Effect 2.

For my time spent playing Mass Effect, I'm going to give it a 9.5/10. I loved the game, but it seems like some of the playability was hindered with the MAKO and your squad mates made you want to yell at your TV sometime. I would still suggest this game to anyone who has a 360, and if you have a PC capable of running this game, then you may enjoy it there as well.

-Jeff Toler