Eurogamer's Top 50 Games of 2008: 50-41
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Alec Meer: It's BioWare's best game since KOTOR, but there's this unavoidable sense of complacency to it - they've worked out how to do a specific thing that pleases specific people, and are so comfortable in that that they're not as compelled as they should be to tinker with their own formula. It's a fine universe with some characteristically fascinating quests, but next time they attempt this sort of game they really need to tear down some of the older foundations. I know it's the de rigueur nitpick, but really - the guy in the ship's basement who sells weapons to his own superior officer is endemic for how BioWare's narrative and world-building prowess is critically held back by this bizarre refusal to address the core mechanics of their chosen genre.
Simon Parkin: It's the sense that you can set down on any random passing planet in search of a side-quest that makes this universe feel, for once, like a universe: huge, intricate and bursting with mini-narratives. But in many ways it was this promise of adventure rather than its reality that made the journey compelling. Mass Effect is tension without much release. Beyond that, the technical creaks and groans bespeak either a game prematurely squeezed out for release or, worse still, one whose ambition outstripped its hardware's capabilities. Either way, it's a game that points to bright futures amongst BioWare's stars.
