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Review GameBanshee gives Mass Effect an 8.5

El Dee

Scholar
Joined
Jan 25, 2006
Messages
461
Tags: BioWare; Mass Effect

Here is yet another <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/reviews/software/masseffect1.php">Mass Effect review</a> this time from <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/">GameBanshee</a>:
<br>
<blockquote>Combat is also fun. Despite the game taking place hundreds of years in the future, people still only use regular guns (pistols, shotguns, automatic rifles, and sniper rifles) for combat, and so all battles take place at range. In a nice touch, characters can use cover (such as doorways and crates) to hide from enemies, and only expose themselves when they fire their weapons. The interface even handles this effectively. For example, if you hide at the edge of a doorway, then the camera changes its focus to the doorway rather than your character, giving you a good view of your enemies. On the downside, since combat only involves guns firing bullets, it’s not especially fun to watch the battles, and sometimes it’s difficult to tell what’s going on. Also, the game uses level scaling to match enemies to your character, but the algorithm for this doesn’t work very well, and the game gets easier the further you get into it.</blockquote>
<br>
You mean there is no lasers plus it has level scaling?
 

Shannow

Waster of Time
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There is no "Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation"s? What a shitty sci-fi game. At least it has Alien boobs(?) scaled to huge levels.
 

Claw

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Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
07.07.08, Mass Effect (PC version): 8.5
Review by Steven "Westlake" Carter


<blockquote>01.21.08, Hellgate: London: 8.2
Review by Steven "Westlake" Carter

11.09.06, Neverwinter Nights 2: 8.7
Review by Steven "Westlake" Carter
</blockquote>
I see.


Relly loved the first example of the "well-written dialogue" I saw on GB:

screenshot3.jpg
 

Vaarna_Aarne

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MCA Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2
Claw said:
07.07.08, Mass Effect (PC version): 8.5
Review by Steven "Westlake" Carter


<blockquote>01.21.08, Hellgate: London: 8.2
Review by Steven "Westlake" Carter

11.09.06, Neverwinter Nights 2: 8.7
Review by Steven "Westlake" Carter
</blockquote>
I see.


Relly loved the first example of the "well-written dialogue" I saw on GB:
Such phenomenal writing! [/sarcasm]

Though his scores are inflated (with the obvious oddity of Hellgate getting a good score), I still sorta agree. NWN2 is definately better than ME and most other mainstream "light" RPGs. I myself would give it something around 8.0, which is the same I'd give to BG2.
 

Badgermaster

Educated
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Apr 28, 2008
Messages
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Despite the game taking place hundreds of years in the future, people still only use regular guns (pistols, shotguns, automatic rifles, and sniper rifles) for combat, and so all battles take place at range.

A) All those weapon types can be laser weapons as well. I can only assume he meant to point out that the game used projectile weapons rather than lasers.

B) Using projectile weapons instead "lasers" is not anachronistic. There's no reason to assume we'll abandon projectile weapons in the future. Personally, I'd rather toss a hyper-penetrating round out of a railgun at something as (presumably) armored as a Geth, instead of a "laser".

C) There are tons of technological anachronisms in the game, but the weaponry isn't one of them. Mostly it's in the area of nano- and biotech somehow regressing to the level of the 1990s by the 2200s, the notion that AIs are just weak metal people with no greater mental or (in the case of their killdroids, physical either) capacity, and the inclusion of magic powers.

In a nice touch, characters can use cover (such as doorways and crates) to hide from enemies, and only expose themselves when they fire their weapons.

I found that the game's AI normally used cover as target practice during combat.

On the downside, since combat only involves guns firing bullets, it’s not especially fun to watch the battles, and sometimes it’s difficult to tell what’s going on. Also, the game uses level scaling to match enemies to your character, but the algorithm for this doesn’t work very well, and the game gets easier the further you get into it.

Bullets != Projectiles. Nowhere in the game were the weapons described as chemically-propelled slug-throwers. In fact, since the weapons had a recharge rate, it seems to be obvious that they weren't. Chemical propellant doesn't need to be recharged.

Also, why would bullets make battles less fun to watch or harder to understand? This makes no sense at all. Does he mean that if you replaced all bullets with lasers, keeping everything else the same, it would make battles exciting and comprehensible (especially if weaponized lasers were portrayed realistically for a change and didn't use the visible light spectrum)?

Bleh.
 

Lumpy

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Sep 11, 2005
Messages
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The lasers in KotOR 2 fucking sucked. There was no reaction when being hit - they might as well have been toy lasers and visually it would've looked the same.
 

Claw

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Project: Eternity Divinity: Original Sin 2
I loved the Phaser in Elite Force. I used it most of the time, and not just to conserve ammo. I loved disintegrating my enemies.


Ah, I gotta reinstall Elite Force.
 

Chefe

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Decline of the Codex
 

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