Have we been Mass Effected?

(This is my first attempt at blogging, so don't take it too seriously and freak out. And please forgive any spelling and sentence building misstakes I've done. Comments and constructive criticism are welcome.)

I like Mass Effect. I like it a lot. I would place it in my top 10 best games of all times, maybe even the top 5. No doubt, its a great game. But still, I have a few issues that makes me wonder, is it all its cracked up to be?

While under production, we we're told it would be a sci-fi epic, and it is. We we're told it would rival hollywood blockbusters, and it does. But Is that something to aim for? Games are a relatively new media, that just recently has gained the attention of a mass audience. Gone are the days when you thought yourself lucky when one other kid in the class had a Nintendo, and you had someone to share your hobby with. Today, gamers are legion, and game sales are on par with cinema releases. An example: Spiderman 3 grossed $29.2 million on its first day of release, while Halo 3 grossed $170 million in the U.S. alone on its first 24 hours. So, to sum up, games are big, here to stay, and have a huge expectation on them.

Here we come back to Mass Effect. After such great games as Baldur's Gate series, Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire, I was among those that eagerly awaited the next bit of rpg goodness from Bioware. every article, every screenshot and every preview got a "ooh, awesome" reply from me. There might have been some drooling too.

Then the big day came. Having pre-ordered the game, it waited in my mailbox when I came home from work. I inserted it, and played, and I was in gaming heaven. But then it dawned on me. This really wasn't the rpg-and-squad-based-combat revolution I had hoped it would be. The first I noticed was the removal of the squad management interface they had previewed, where you could pause the game and place your teammates where you wanted them. You still have basic commands, such as attack, move, take cover and regroup, and you can use the their different powers, but that felt like a watered down version compared to what I had seen. this might seem like a small issue, but it

The story was, as they promised, epic, and had me, a rpg veteran, actually suprised at a few moments in the game. It manages to give you ups and downs, action and drama, and a little love in a fair pace, and will keep you wanting to continue to the end. But it does feel like a movie, although you have quite a bit control, I did feel pushed down a certain path towards the end. But they have a golden opportunity to use the choices we made, and give us consecuences to deal with in the sequel, and I do hope they do just that.

The classes really didn't bring much new to the table. You have your highly specialised classes, and your hybrids. It gives a fair amount of choices, however, one thing that bugged me was that only one class, the soldier, can learn to use the assault rifle effectively. If you use a talent enough, it will be unlocked, and you can use it in the next playthrough, even if its not part of the class talents. But to get the assault rifle, you would have to play as a soldier, and miss out on all the tech and biotic powers. Once again, a small thing, but annoying none the less.

There are a lot of these little things. Every game has them. But noone seems to notice them in Mass Effect. I have seen nothing but glowing reviews of the game, and it deserves every one, but it has its flaws. Pointing them out doesn't make it any less epic. It only gives the developer some feedback on what to improve next time.

One cannot deny the huge production value in Mass Effect. The graphics look realy nice, although I noticed more than a few framerate drops, the voicework is unlike anything I have ever heard before. Just the fact that the main protaganist actually talk is a step in the right direction, and I hope others follow. But The great things about it aside, I don't think it lived up to the hype. At least, it didn'ät for me. As I said in the beginning, I really like the game, and the grievances I have with it will not stop me from getting Mass Effect 2 on the release day, and playing it with delight.