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Oooh! Shiny!
Mass Effect uses Unreal Engine 3, and the graphics are suitably impressive, but not up there with the likes of Gears of War. Each of the races you’ll meet looks the part, and thankfully they’re not just variations on the human model. Each location you visit has its own feel, whether it’s the lavish structures of the Citadel, the functionality of a trading outpost or the violence of a volcanic world.What lets the game down though is that the graphics engine often finishes loading textures some time after everything else. This causes an annoying texture pop-up, and is most noticeable during cutscenes where it can distract from what’s going on.
As you’d expect from a game that has so much dialogue, there are plenty of cutscenes and close-ups and the graphics engine redeems itself here. Lip movements are almost, but not quite, realistic and are accentuated by facial expressions and hand gestures. In addition to this, Shepard’s scars look so good up close you’ll wonder why other games don’t have more scarred characters.
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At the end of the day, though, the graphics are really just the icing on the cake, and a few glitches here and there are almost forgiveable given the epic storyline and massively involving sense of atmosphere.
Conclusion
It’s difficult not to use superlatives and become all effusive when writing about a game like Mass Effect, but in this case it’s well deserved.I’m not saying that the game is perfect: it’s not, and there are still a few little spanners in the works. The graphical glitches and awkward load points aren’t major points, and it’s a testament to the quality of the game that I’m essentially forced to nitpick to find something wrong with the game.
Mass Effect is huge too, both in terms of the area the game covers and the amount of playing time. There are enough side quests and achievements to keep even the most obsessive gamer happy for a year and BioWare has said that once the main game is finished, it’s still possible to start again using the same character to complete any side quests that you may have missed and get even more achievements in the process.
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Add on top of that the chance to replay the game with different dialogue decisions and the additional episodic gaming that BioWare has promised, and Mass Effect goes from being a huge game to being a mind-cripplingly massive game. It’s the type of game which gives ‘100 percent Complete Perfectionists’ nightmares.
If BioWare manages to carry on the quality of the storytelling for another two games, plus the interim episodes, it will have done something the likes of which hasn’t been seen in computer gaming before. If you are at all interested in video game storytelling or simply want to play a Shooter/RPG which offers colossal replayability without becoming a grind-fest then buy Mass Effect. You won’t regret it.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, the galaxy needs saving.
