Mass Effect 1 Review: Don't Fear The Reaper

(ME1 Part 63)

Ah, Mass Effect. A treasure of gaming. One of the very few titles that is a true space opera, with all the melodrama, action, violence, relationships, and romance, minus fat ladies singing. I couldn't get enough of this series when these games came out in about 2007-ish and it was a weekend treat for me and my friends after a working all week. I will now go through my Big 4 important aspects of this masterpiece.

To start off with, the gameplay start to finish is heavy and a little clunky. There is no way around the fact that this is not a game designed to be a modern cover-based shooter, even though that's what it is. This isn't Gears of War or even Army of Two in terms of smoothness, this is downright rough. Despite that fact, every combat encounter is fun and intense, without exception. The fight with Fist in Chora's Den near the beginning of the game shows how nearly every enemy encounter goes. The sprint function is really cool and kind of a new feature to gaming at this time in history, but not well-implemented because Shepard doesn't have enough endurance and can only run like 10 yards without breathing hard, even though she's this legendary soldier. The RPG (role-playing game) stat screens and decision-based character development is pretty cool. Not really what I'm in a game like this for, but I am glad it is there. The skill menus are quite extensive and allow for a bit of variety, but you will more than likely maxing out nearly everything like I did. Everything else I have about gameplay is probably nitpicking, so, average gameplay with a ton of wiggle room to play around with tech and biotic powers, even though I didn't.

The art style is evergreen, in my opinion, timeless. Without my new reshader program this game oozes style, with the reshader this is a phenomenal looking game. Truly jaw-dropping visuals during gameplay, and the cutscenes are masterfully choreographed and directed. Every color pops, the bright colors are directly in your face and the dark colors sink back, deep into the background. I'd like to say that every species and creature in this game look wonderful. Some planetary environments could use a little polish, but the indoor corridors and the insides of buildings and whatnot look great. I'm not the reviewer that will stare at a wall of a game and tell you how bad it looks if that's not what I do during standard gameplay. I'm not a micromanager and I don't enjoy nitpicking when I don't have to. For as clunky as Shepard moves through each landscape, the framerate is smooth, and the framerate will only dip slightly during very demanding portions of action, like explosions or there there is a lot of characters moving quickly, which is almost to be expected. The art style itself draws upon elements of Heidegger and H.P. Lovecraft (which we don't see nearly enough of in my opinion). Organic life mixed together with a little advanced technology is very "Aliens" film to me, but the Reapers are about the most Lovecraftian evil villain you will ever see in a videogame, moreso than even some titles with Lovecraft right there in the name. At the very least, the Reapers are presented the best of any Lovecraftian thing in any videogame and have the looks to match. The Reapers look like a combination of a scarab beetle, a scorpion, a spider, and a hand (which I personally find terrifying, except the hand I guess, but I had to mention that). An armored exoskeleton, a predator, and a dangerous object, all of these listed items have that in common and those are all things the Reapers embody. The Reapers are superbly-designed enemies. Saren slowly succumbing to more and more powerful Indoctrination is also fantastic design because Saren's degeneration is as much storytelling as anything else. Saren could say nothing each time you meet, and you as the player would immediately know what is going on with him and how far his Indoctrination has landed him, if you pay attention. That is attention to detail, that is incredible craftsmanship, and that is art.

Onto story and writing, now. At the very beginning, Mass Effect 1 is simply put, an above average Star Trek episode, that is until the Reapers are introduced. There are so many unnerving things happening at once when the Reapers show up. The fact that Saren, being a Council Spectre, would be formidable enough as an opponent without help from the Reapers was a great touch. Also, the Reaper reveal being dragged out for so freaking long during the plot until you speak to Sovereign face-to-face over a facetime-type situation was a great writing technique, perfectly paced, and perfectly placed. The reveal comes out of nowhere, no one sees it coming, and it's such a horrifying discovery that this enemy is superior to any sentient lifeform in nearly every conceivable way. Terrifyingly intelligent, gigantic in size, can fly, made of crazily strong metal armor, computerized, cold, calculated, mechanical, murderous, and with experience carrying out a plan the for total annihilation of everyone in the galaxy. This is a true enemy that would make even Lovecraft's sick mind swell with pride. Not to mention the ability for these things to Indoctrinate those unlucky enough to get near them, with horrifying results. This startling realization changes Saren from being the main bad guy of the story, to the sense of urgency ramping up dramatically to stop Saren from assisting the real main bad guy, Sovereign. The Reapers are perhaps the best villain in gaming.

I will be quick here and say the audio design is among the best in this genre, maybe even in all of gaming. Every track is exactly what it's supposed to be within the game. The ambient tracks are relaxing and calm. The combat music is exhilarating and pulse-pounding. The dramatic scores have synth strings swell with orchestral walls of sound, and can even be a tad overwhelming at certain key times. The music is in a league of its own, the ambient tracks are especially pleasant during downtime, and every other non-music sound blends perfectly into the experience of the game. Footsteps sound present but not distracting, winded breathing is at a great volume when compared to everything else going on. The whispers, heavy traffic, and industrial noise of the Citadel sounds just as good as the slightly windy, yet creepily quiet of some of the empty, unexplored planets. Every gunshot and explosion is impactful and forceful, making combat all the more enjoyable to the player.

To conclude, I value gameplay over all else when talking about videogames. And that is a weird thing to bring up because I can't describe this title's gameplay any more accurately than "average." So, a game with average gameplay is one of my favorite game of all time, but how? While this game isn't quite as underrated or unknown as some games I will play through, the first game in the series is and there is a certain amount of people that would have been turned away because of a controversy. The controversy is that you can romance some of your companions in the game and have sex with them. It was bad y'all, the game was getting badmouthed on the news, and copies were getting pulled from store shelves, I remember it was bad. I didn't romance anyone during this playthrough, which is weird because it's really difficult to actually not do that in this game. But somehow, I accidently avoided any romance, lucky me. When I played through this game originally in 2007 or 2008 I romanced Ashley because she's tough and no nonsense and Christian, and I like all of that. Liara isn't a bad choice either because she's really shy, and sweet, and smart. Anyway, everything except the gameplay is at an incredibly high level of quality in this game. So much so that even with the most important aspect of the game, gameplay, just being average, the quality of every single other thing in the title elevates this game to one of the best of all time. The other titles in this series are not like this one, so enjoy ME1 while it lasts.