Mediocre Effect

I am not blown away by Mass Effect.

I'm only a couple hours into it, and it feels to me exactly like Knights of the Old Republic. In fact, the stage I'm on, the Citadel, is pretty much an exact copy of the port you arrive art early on in KOTOR. I've spent over an hour running errands for people and walking into the occasional ambush and intimidating people for fun. Same ol, same ol.

Not to say it's not fun or intriguing. There is more dialogue in these Bioware games than in some novels. And it is all voiced, which is especially nice. But even though you have lots of choices to make, it still feels way too scripted.

And I especially do not like the fact that you have six characters that can eventually join your crew, but only two of them will actually be there at a time. A common annoyance in pretty much all RPGs. I want a large posse! What's the point of having these people if they're not there to back you up at all times? And it would be nice to at least have more of a variety of crewmates to choose from. The first time you pick your squad members, you will see the silhouettes of everyone you can eventually have... sorta ruins the surprise. I want to be able to recruit some drunk in the bar, or at least the table dancer he's with. (Where's that game? The recruit-anybody game where it's more about surrounding yourself with human shields and live-wire testers.)

I gave Bioshock a four-out-of-four star rating, even though I lamented on how it failed to progress the genre or do anything really new. It just did the same old stuff well. At this point in Mass Effect, I'm leaning towards a 3 star rating, because as good as the storytelling and the character detail is... there are many problem issues. Excruciatingly long elevator rides and long empty hallways... and still there are game freezes to load some areas. There are occasionally some annoying jitters and popups in the graphics. And the combat isn't very smooth (Speaking of which, my character is a military commander and a war hero who single-handedly held off an invading squadron... yet she only starts with one pistol stat point?).

Another weird point with the game: I received an Achievement for completing Eden Prime (first level) when I killed the final enemy on the stage... however, I had not found & deactivated one of the bombs, which was the actual objective, so twenty seconds later I failed the stage and had to do it over. I unfortunately did not receive a duplicate achievement.