Product Details
 | Mass Effect |
| List Price: | $19.99 |
| Price: | $12.64 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details |
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Average customer review:
Product Description
You take the role of Commander Shepard starship Normandy, the last hope for all life in the Galaxy. Saren, a rogue member of the elite and untouchable Spectre agents, has discovered the secret to unleashing an apocalyptic force upon the galaxy, and only you stand in his way. To save the lives of billions, you must do whatever it takes to stop Saren and prevent the return of an ancient force bent on the destruction of all organic life.Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #404 in Video Games
- Brand: Electronic Arts
- Model: 19081
- Released on: 2008-05-27
- ESRB Rating: Mature
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: DVD-ROM
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 1.00" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .44 pounds
Features
- Experience a rich and engrossing story where your choices decide the fate of galaxy
- Engage in emotionally charged interactions with the most realistic digital actors ever seen in a video game, using an innovative new dialog system
- Immerse yourself in an incredible new adventure from world-famous masters of the RPG; BioWare
- Stunning high resolution graphics, optimized GUI and controls for PC gamers
- Dominate the battlefield with new individual squad member command system
Customer Reviews
Immersive fun universe
One of the best RPGs of the
year. This game is incredibly imersive. There is a long deep main story
line that really keeps the game moving along and tons of side quests to
bring the universe to life. With any RPG its the details that kill
games. Not Mass Effect. The developers focused on every aspect of the
game play and really polished it to a high shine. The biggest downfall
is that it was developed for the Xbox and so the graphics aren't as good
as you would expect from a game this incredible well put together.
Battle
Scenes:
Overall the scenes are a lot of fun. there are so many
different ways to approach battle that its hard to get bored too
quickly. The two problems I had were first in all the side quests the
building layouts are incredibly repetitive. Its almost exactly the same
except that furniture has been moved around. Second the AI can be a bit
annoying and aggressive. The easiest tactic to win any battle is to sit
back and wait for them to come to you. That's fine and all but i expect
more out of my battles then sniper frag fests.
Side Quests:
there
are tons of side quests and tons of places to explore. the side quests
even intermingle among one another and some of the moral choices are
very ambiguous making the decisions you make much much more interesting.
The only problem is that unless your physically writing down where you
have explored you often get confused and end up revisiting the same
planets over and over again.
Main Story:
The funny thing is
for the most part I completely ignored the main story line and just had
fun traveling the universe and doing side quests but when you get bored
its always fun to go back and continue along the main story line
Unit
Selection:
This has got to be the most annoying thing about the
game. I tend to choose two people for every single mission. I wish it
was somehow more interactive and more were each member is needed for
different kinds of missions.
Graphics:
My biggest sore point
with the game. There are some very pretty scenes but for the most part
things can get a little bland and blocky.
Copyright protection:
Beware
this game is highly encrypted and requires a internet connection to
work. Also i have heard endless horror stories about EA's customer
support.
Rental versus purchase:
Beware
I am not reviewing the
content of the game except to say that Bioware has previously never
disappointed me with its RPG's, and I expect Mass Effect is no
different. I was highly excited to buy this game.
However, I like
many others, canceled my pre-order when I discovered that I was not
actually going to be buying the game, even though I was going to be
spending $50 on it.
The truth is that this game comes with a new
generation of digital rights management software called SecuROM. This
DRM system does many things.
First, if your gaming computer does
not have internet access then you cannot activate and play the game at
all. Bioware/EA does not want your business.
Second, Bioware
allows you three 'activations' only. Activations are tied to your
computer's hardware and operating system configuration. If you ever
reinstall windows, or upgrade a videocard, or add a new hard-drive, or
even a simple cooling fan, you will need to use up another activation to
keep playing mass effect on your computer. Several customers used up
all three activations within a couple of weeks of buying the game as
they tried reinstalling windows, or upgrading hardware, to overcome
technical difficulties. Once you run out of activations and try to play
the game again, you get a message informing you that you have no more
activations left and that you should buy another copy of the game to get
more. If you do some searching, you will find out that EA says that
they may provide you more activations, on a case by case basis, if you
contact them. They refuse to state what circumstances will be considered
acceptable to them before allowing you more activations. At a minimum,
you may need to provide a copy of your purchase receipt. You do actually
keep your purchase receipts for $50 games right?
Third, SecuROM
is a highly controversial piece of software. Its existence is not
disclosed on the box, nor do you get notified that it is being installed
on your machine. SecuROM installs registry keys that are not deleted
when you uninstall the game. And these registry keys use illegal
characters to prevent the user from being able to delete them manually.
You must use third-party software to do so.
Fourth, SecuROM can
include a module that provides 'information' to the game publisher.
Bioware claims it is not using that module to do so, but there is no way
to verify this.
Fifth, Bioware cancelled the re-validate online
every 5-10 days policy that they originally stated the game would have.
Expect to see this return in future games.
Lastly, Bioware/EA
provides no method to de-activate a computer once it has been activated.
Uninstalling the game from one computer does not free up that
activation. Therefore, your ability to sell your copy of the game
second-hand, guaranteed in the Copyright Act (Doctrine of First Sale)
has been violated by Bioware/EA. Expect to see some lawsuits before too
much longer.
If you think I'm blowing up the DRM issue out of
proportion then, by all means, go ahead and buy this game. While you are
able to play it I'm sure you'll be very happy with it. However, do not
expect to be able to keep playing it years into the future without
paying extra for more activations.
The same DRM system is also
intended for use on EA games like Spore, and likely also Dragonage, plus
many others.
If you are concerned about this kind of practice
becoming the industry standard, then I urge you not to spend your money
on this game or any other titles from EA until they abandon this DRM
fiasco. There are games publishers who take a different approach (for
example, the game Sins of a Solar Empire is DRM free) and who are much
more appreciative of your custom.
DRM'd
to death
I wanted to love this game. I
even tried to love it. But I couldn't, and here is why:
1. DRM
that sucks the life out of everything good the game has to offer. We as
consumers have got to stop accepting this garbage. It limits
playability, prevents legitimate use of the game we purchased, and
treats the consumer as "guilty until proven innocent." I really wish I
had NOT bought this game for that one reason. Never again will I give my
money for a product with DRM.
2. Poorly ported. As many others
have noted, the camera that follows Shepherd around is frustrating, and
doesn't allow for the immersive quality of a first person view.
3.
Control of the rover vehicle thing is clumsy and frustrating. The
physics on planet surfaces is so poor that I didn't want to do many of
the side quests. You can drive up nearly vertical surfaces, bounce
hundreds of feet down the sides of mountains without suffering any
damage, all using slippy controls that don't feel right for a bad-***
personnel carrier.
4. Many sound bugs. The processing of sound in
this game is horrible. The sound fades out during many of the movie
sequences. The only option is to turn on subtitles, which hurts
immersion into the game. At other points in game sound glitches cause
ambient noise to disappear while shooting a weapon, or the opposite, so
that you only hear ambient sound, and muffled or nonexistent weapons
fire. I have a extremly high quality sound card, the Auzentech X-Fi
Prelude so this is NOT due to my system. Even the recently released
patch does not solve this issue.
5. Inconsequential rewards for
accomplishing side objectives. There are two levels to this. The first
is that if you take the time to find all the rare earths, gases, metals,
etc., you are rewarded with nothing more than cash. That would be fine
if there was anything worth buying with it. However, once you're level
25+ all of the weapons you can buy are either the same, or inferior to
what you already have. The mission based side quests provide little
reward also. There are very few bosses, and they never drop weapons or
equipment that is specialized or unique. I was hoping that side quests
would allow access to weapons and armor that were otherwise unavailable.
Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Other than being a completenic,
there is no reason to pursue side quests at all.
6. Short main
campaign. The main campaign can be completed in 20 hours or less. That
would be fine if side quests were more rewarding, but they're not (see
#5). I liked the main campaign quite a bit, and thought the story was
fairly interesting, but it would have been nice if the story took less
of a linear path. What I mean by that (given that you can choose to go
to the planets in any order) is it would have been interesting if the
game required you to return to planets you had previously visited (other
than the Gate) for additional objectives/story arcs. For example, a
mission that required you to travel to several different planets. The
main campaign would not have been disappointing in the slightest if they
had made it less linear.
So all that said, why 3 stars and not
1? Because the game is not a total failure. The storyline is much better
than average, the voice acting and writing is of a very high quality,
and the combat is pretty fun. This game is not a failure, it is just not
that great. It doesn't deserve 1 star anymore than it deserves 5.
Again,
the principle reason NOT to buy this game is the awful DRM that infests
it. We as gamers and consumers need to show that we will NOT accept
crippled games that we are essentially leasing. We need to put our money
where our mouths are and avoid these games until their makers start to
pay attention. If enough of us refuse to buy games with DRM, eventually
they will get rid of it.
The principle reason to buy the game are
quality writing and acting, a good storyline, and entertaining combat
sequences.
***Whenever I write a review that mentions DRM, I like
to give a plug for Amazon. They have DRM free music downloads. If
you're going to buy digital music, buy them from Amazon.***
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