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The test balloon that flew to the moon

This is the game review. Here you can find the music review of
Mass Effect.

Mass Effect. Rarely before had a role-playing game gripped me as much as the epic sci-fi adventure from Bioware. And I didn't even like it at first. But more on that later. First of all, for all those who have spent the last few years under a rock in the Sol system: Mass Effect is set in the future. Mankind has successfully colonized space, waged war with alien races and uses the so-called Mass Relays for intergalactic travel, which are hubs that launch ships over long distances in a matter of seconds. We play either male or female Commander Shepard (the sane ones play “FemShep”, of course), who is given command of the newest ship in the human armada right at the beginning: the SSV Normandy SR-1.

Together with our crew, we embark on the hunt for the renegade special agent Saren and uncover the secret of the legendary Reapers, an ancient alien race that seeks to destroy the universe. In order to prevent this, we customize our hero to our needs, as is typical of role-playing games. For example, we can change our appearance individually, even if self-created commanders unfortunately never reach the visual quality of the standard heroes. In addition, we choose one of six different classes, such as soldiers, bioticians with psi powers or technicians specializing in gadgets, and diligently collect experience points and allies for our fight against evil. Anyone familiar with games such as Knights of the Old Republic or Dragon Age will feel right at home here - of course, it comes from the same creators after all.

From theory to practice

As we are used to from its close relatives, we do one thing above all else in Mass Effect : talk. We run, shoot and strategize our way through loads of enemies, and in between we talk. The experience we gain is invested in new skills, then we talk. If we want to try to resolve a situation peacefully, we have to talk beforehand, of course. That was the point that bothered me the most at the time. As a fan of Star Trek Elite Force, Half-Life or even the terrible game for the Star Trek: The Next Generation-film, I only really knew science fiction as a shooting orgy from a first-person perspective. And now all of a sudden I was supposed to shoot at aliens from a shoulder view, in pausable battles, and then listen to endless dialog afterwards? It took me a lot of effort to give this new type of game a chance. But I also thought Kotor was great, and Gothic 3... so why not?

At the latest after the second planet I visited with my crew, I knew that I had rightly kept going. Because all the talking is not just an unnecessary extra. It drives the clever story forward and is convincing, at least in English, thanks to the fantastic work of the voice actors. In classic role-playing game style, I can choose from different dialog options, whether I want to act as a radiant hero or an uncompromising egoist. So there is definitely replay value, also because the decisions from part 1 have a significant influence on the two sequels. That's right: everything is carried over, every decision you made somewhere, at some point, for some unknown reason, influences the plot of the direct successor Mass Effect 2 and the final part of the trilogy, Mass Effect 3. We won't talk about Mass Effect Andromeda , it just hurts too much.

What do the critics say?

When I originally wrote this review in about 2010, the point “critics' opinions” was a recurring aspect of my reviews. I'll quote the original text from back then at this point:

Most of the ratings for Mass Effect are in the upper range, e.g. Gamestar 85%, 4players gave it 89% and Amazon (PC) gave it an average rating of 3/5 stars, although this has to do with the copy protection, which I personally haven't had a problem with yet, which is why I'm quite surprised by the poor scores.

My review from almost 10 years ago

Apart from the syntax in the last sentence, I stand by my text from back then and would even like to claim that the reviews of the first part of the Mass Effect-saga have actually only moved further into the positive. I've seen countless reviews of new games that name Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 as examples of outstanding storytelling and milestones in the RPG genre. In my university days, I even had seminars where these games were discussed.

Why I think the game is good/bad:

So what else can I do but agree with these opinions? The universe is exciting, the characters with all their rough edges are mostly likeable, the game design is dusty but bearable. I'll cover the soundtrack in a separate review, but it still sends shivers down my spine today. Listening to it is a must! Of course, the game has aged noticeably in the meantime. If you understandably don't want to play in 2007 despite the graphics mods, you can find numerous explanatory videos for the lore online and can jump straight into part 2. This is actually an improvement on its predecessor in almost every respect and, even if it is similarly dusty, it really is a must-play. However, the first Mass Effect is still fun despite its sometimes dull side missions and long-winded dialog, and the universe invites you to sink into it. And the game is certainly available in a bundle for little money.