Finally got a chance to play this game! It’s very interesting, I played a remaster of it that was fairly recent but it was originally released in 2007. Thinking of other games released then, it was surprisingly like games that would be released recently in its general format.

The visuals are sort of ok and I can see where it has aged. The lore is neat and the overall story is decent, although a little war hero-ey which doesn’t fully jive with my energy but I respect the way to was told for the most part. The branching dialogue is neat conceptually. The Paragon and Renegade system begins to feel a little thin and it would be nice if there was more incentive to try more varied options. Sometimes the dialogue tree makes the conversation take very abrupt turns and it can feel a little rushed.

The actual gameplay is fine, the fighting is pretty good and there are different ways to attack enemies and engage with environments. I enjoyed that I could decrypt things, but the ABXY unlock sequences got repetitive over time and I would have appreciated more variety in puzzles. The game also has some whack bugs that got frustrating at times, particularly with progression or traversal.

Side quests were similar, where there was a lot of driving in the Mako to trailers and compounds that all looked identical on different planets. I think with a bit more variety I would have been more encouraged to try different things.

Generally, a solid first entry I looked forward to playing with a few faults but interesting enough to play the second game.