Mass Effect is the definition of the phrase "more than the sum of it's parts" to me. It's easily one of my favorite games of all time despite having glaring flaws that I'd probably be quite a lot harder on reviewing any other game.
It's strengths absolutely lie in the universe, races and atmosphere Bioware managed to create unlike almost any other game before or after it. I soaked up every bit of the lore, the history, information on races religion, military, politics and culture. I read every planet description, the details of how the technology worked and even on my replay of the game 13 years later on the Legendary Edition I am getting that exact same feeling of wonder and immersion as I did when I first played it. What really stuck with me though I think is some of the cast. The voice acting for the characters in your party (Liara, Tali, Wrex and Garrus) is just absolutely stellar. Their personalities and stories they tell about themselves and their past I loved hearing.
The writing, art, voice acting and characters absolutely make this game shine brighter than it should as frankly the gameplay is pretty mediocre. The combat is pretty obviously made by a team who hasn't had much third person shooter experience before (L3 as crouch and X as sprint? Really?) and the Mako APC you explore planets with handles like a fat man on a unicycle trying to go up a wall but these are small and still functional complaints to me that can't get in the way of the fantastic experience Bioware managed to craft.
Playing the Legendary edition and EA/Bioware really put a lot of effort in. the original Xbox 360 release was rough on performance with slow down, frame skips, and general performance issues. The Legendary Edition fixes most of that to make it surprisingly smooth playing. They have also improved the visuals a lot with better lighting, more detailed textures, importing character models from Mass Effect 3 for higher fidelity etc. It's really quite a big improvement.
Highly recommended.
+ Love the universe Bioware created.
+ Fantastic voice acting.
+ Great writing.
+ Excellent art design.
- Combat and Mako exploration are rough at best.
It's strengths absolutely lie in the universe, races and atmosphere Bioware managed to create unlike almost any other game before or after it. I soaked up every bit of the lore, the history, information on races religion, military, politics and culture. I read every planet description, the details of how the technology worked and even on my replay of the game 13 years later on the Legendary Edition I am getting that exact same feeling of wonder and immersion as I did when I first played it. What really stuck with me though I think is some of the cast. The voice acting for the characters in your party (Liara, Tali, Wrex and Garrus) is just absolutely stellar. Their personalities and stories they tell about themselves and their past I loved hearing.
The writing, art, voice acting and characters absolutely make this game shine brighter than it should as frankly the gameplay is pretty mediocre. The combat is pretty obviously made by a team who hasn't had much third person shooter experience before (L3 as crouch and X as sprint? Really?) and the Mako APC you explore planets with handles like a fat man on a unicycle trying to go up a wall but these are small and still functional complaints to me that can't get in the way of the fantastic experience Bioware managed to craft.
Playing the Legendary edition and EA/Bioware really put a lot of effort in. the original Xbox 360 release was rough on performance with slow down, frame skips, and general performance issues. The Legendary Edition fixes most of that to make it surprisingly smooth playing. They have also improved the visuals a lot with better lighting, more detailed textures, importing character models from Mass Effect 3 for higher fidelity etc. It's really quite a big improvement.
Highly recommended.
+ Love the universe Bioware created.
+ Fantastic voice acting.
+ Great writing.
+ Excellent art design.
- Combat and Mako exploration are rough at best.