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 Post subject: Mass Effect
PostPosted: 23 Nov 2007 14:35 
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I don't know where to begin. This game is incredible. The choices you can make are endless. You'd have to play through a couple dozen times to explore all your options, and even then, you'll probably miss something. There's almost nothing you can't do.

Here's the skinny: It's 2138, humanity has discovered an ancient network of faster-than-light travel relays, capable of transporting ships across the galaxy almost instantly. There are a myriad of other races as well, (none of which are playable, however) and each has their own agenda. You're the first human Spectre (like the CIA on a galactic scale, kinda), tasked with bringing in a rogue agent, Saren. Saren leads the Geth, a race of artificial intelligences who were accidentally created three hundred years ago, driving their creators off their home systems in a bloody war. The Geth serve Saren because they believe he can bring the return of the Reapers, a sentient race of AIs who appear every 50,000 years to harvest and destroy all organic life. As you get deeper into the story, you find out more about the Reapers, and it becomes a desperate race against time to break the cycle.

Now that the story's out of the way, I'm not gunna waste any more time (I wanna get back to the game!). You have an almost infinite amount of options just in creating your character and getting going, and once you're off, you can do whatever you want. Graphics are incredible, sound effects are nice, and combat is incredibly fun. I just beat it last night, after three days of constantly playing it, and I played through as a Soldier class. You don't get any fancy tech or biotic (think psyker) powers, but Soldiers are the only class that can train with assault rifles. No other game has gotten me as emotionally involved as this one. When someone on your team dies, you feel like straight up crap for letting them down. When a deal goes bad and someone stabs you in the back, you want blood. Badly.

Anyhow, if you're still reading this, that means you haven't run off to go buy the game. Do that now!

I recommend the strategy guide, too, since there's so much stuff you can do here. That thing's gotta be bigger than an 8 year old.

_________________
"Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors."


“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.”

"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it."

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."

www.shallowbay.com Best. Band. Ever.


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PostPosted: 27 Nov 2007 09:46 
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dude i know what you mean this game is f****** awsome i cant put it down the world it huge and the graphice aer awsome the combat is a bit odd to get use to with switching weapons and using bionics but onece your use to it the possibilities are endless, also this game has some of the best voice acting ive seen in a wile none of that two worlds crap attempt at voice acting this stuff is good and the way they had it set so that they use your last name in conversation is perfect none of that crap were every one talks accept when there talking to you cause they dont know your name its streight up awsomeness i think this could be the game of the year, cortrarry to so many ppl who are so halo bent halo 3 is a childs play toy compared to this.


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PostPosted: 27 Nov 2007 12:22 
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I was wondering when you were gonna make a review Rob. :bs

Now, since it has one deadly flaw, and I will not purchase it for that reason, fess up a bit more about the story and other details like how combat works and dialogue. You know the drill, a FULL review. :w




Cheers, Þórgrímr

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Benno the Mad Wrote:
man, you gotta realise that thor and bos fell out of the patriot tree (like the ugly tree, but instills patriotism instead of ugly) and hit every branch on the way down.


"Gone now, dispersed by the brutal destruction of this one day, was the belief that the Darkman and his army of the dead were so superior as to be invincible. By attempting to destroy the morale of the Marines, the Darkman had restored it to full vigor. Dia De La Muerto had failed in its objectives."
The Gunny: Stand of the 300

Si vis pacem, para bellum
If you want peace, prepare for war

Gunny's color #FF2400


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PostPosted: 30 Nov 2007 17:51 
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Man I want this game so bad......


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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2007 02:50 
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Would that fatal flaw be real time combat, or a third-person perspective?

SPOILER ALERT....BIG TIME




































































Okay, spoiler road: In your hunt to track down Saren, you can use any tool at your disposal, being good, evil, indifferent, or whatever. Your first mission finds you hunting him down to find a piece of technology from the Protheans, the race that supposedly built all the Mass Relays and such in the galaxy. When you get there, you're too late to stop him, but get sucked into the field of the Beacon, showing you a bunch of random images.

On Feros, you find out that Saren's interested in the mind control properties of a sentient plant there. After defeating it, one of his former allies helps you unlock the visions the Beacon showed you, showing somewhat clearer the first pictures you saw. They tell you that the info is useless without extensive knowledge on the Protheans, however.

On Noveria, you find out he's resurrected a dead race of alien insects, very similar to the arachnids from Starship Troopers. They were bred to be his shock troops, but have gotten out of hand. Turns out they've got a Queen in captivity, the only one still alive, and you can choose to release her, kill her, or let the Council decide. She tells you that her young are out of control because she was separated from them at the time of their hatching, and even asks you to kill them. Whichever you decide, you need to deal with Saren's top aide first. After fighting her, she tells you that he wants her to find a Mass Effect gate that was lost centuries ago when the star it orbited went nova. You also find out that the ship he's using to get around, Sovereign, has mind control powers. Coincidence? Read on.

On the third world, you find the daughter of Saren's ally who you killed on Noveria. She is nothing like her mother, and, indeed, can be romanced by male characters. When you rescue her, she is able to interpret the signals from the Beacon even more, but needs time to figure out what they mean.

The fourth world you come to, whose name escapes me at the moment, reveals something rather startling. Saren has discovered a cure for a bioweapon that was slowly killing the Krogan, (big, tough, badass, with a mercenary mentality) race. You need to blow it up. Problem is, your Krogan party member aint too happy about that. If you've been building your charm and intimidate skills, you can talk him down. Otherwise, you've gotta kill him. You have to split up your team to attack the facility, one person (one of your two human party members) goes with you, the other helps your allies with the distraction. Choose carefully.

When you reach the lab, you find out your nemesis is doing other work there as well. He's doing a lot of mind control research. When you get to the com tower, you find out why. His ship, Sovereign, isn't just the biggest dreadnought in the galaxy. It's a Reaper. A sentient machine, one of the thousands (millions?) responsible for wiping out the Protheans. You find out they built the Mass Effect relay system to make sure that advanced races spread out in directions they can easily predict and cleanse. Before long, Sovereign gets mad at you, and unleashes his minions. You rush to bring down the two AA towers so your ship can deliver a nuke, and just as the bomb gets rolled into position you get a call: The person you sent with the allied group is under heavy attack, and needs you to break them out or they're a goner. You get about halfway there when another call comes in. The bomb site is under attack. You need to choose who lives and who dies. Personally, I went back to the bomb site because my lady friend was there. The other guy died a horrible death. And you feel like straight shit after that.

Either way, you have to fight Saren. He expresses his concerns that Sovereign is controlling him, and has been conducting research here to prevent it. You may be able to talk him down, but I fought him. It's not to the death, and he leaves shortly before you do.

Back at the Citadel, you get stabbed in the back by the ambassador from earth. He relieves you of command of your ship, and keeps it locked down in port. Your former commander (having received similar treatment at the start of the game) offers to break into either the ambassador's office or the Citadel Security HQ to unlock the ship long enough for you to escape and finish the mission. Either way, you're gone, because your friend you rescued on the third planet realizes what the symbols from the Beacon were: A Prothean planet that's been lost for centuries. But you know how to find it now.

On the planet, you're confronted with a rather creepy jungle-infested cityscape, and you're in a desperate race to beat Saren to the controls. But you get stopped on your way by a Prothean AI. It tells you that Saren is indeed controlled by Sovereign, and that the artifact Saren has been hunting for all this time, The Conduit, was built by the Protheans to save the races that would inevitably rise up after them. The Citadel, the massive space station at the heart of the galaxy, was built by the Reapers as a giant Mass Effect Relay, able to teleport every single one of those robotic bastards into the center of civilization all at once. The Protheans on Ilos knew this, and shut their planet off from the rest of civilization while the Reapers depopulated every other planet in the galaxy. After decades of war, Ilos was the only Prothean planet to remain. Or so they assumed. On the off chance others survived, they sent a message through the Beacons, to other Prothean worlds, letting them know that Ilos survived, and they had a way to stop the cycle: The Conduit.

The Reapers created a race of beings to keep the Citadel ready for their return, aptly named the Keepers. When the other races found the station, they didn't much mind the Keepers, and let them go about their business, because they kept the station running. Turns out their primary function was to open up the Citadel Gate when the Reapers were ready to return. The Protheans on Ilos built their own Mass Effect Relay, The Conduit, and teleported back to the Citadel after the Reapers had killed everyone there. They were able to alter it in some way so that when the Keepers sent the next signal to open the Gateway, it would be ignored. The only way to bring the Reapers back is for a Reaper itself to couple with the station and initiate the process. Which is exactly what Saren is trying to do.

You jump through the Conduit, fight hordes of Geth, and get to the control room just as Saren hands over controls of the station to Sovereign. He tells you that the Reaper sensed his anxiety and implanted him with devices to keep him loyal. You can talk him down or fight him here, and I talked him down. He thanks you, and blows his brains out all over the place. You get a call from orbit: The Citadel fleet is getting the crap blown out of it. There's a massive human fleet standing by, but they're waiting on you to make the call: If they come in now, you might not have the firepower to destroy Sovereign and prevent the Reaper's return, but if they delay, the three Council members, the leader of the galaxy, all die. I waited. The Council were kind of douchebags, so I didn't mind.

Whatever you do, what's left of Saren's body has been totally taken over by Sovereign now, and he's not going to let you stop him. After the boss fight there, the Human fleet comes in, and Sovereign's shields go down. BOOOM! The Reaper dies, and most of the Citadel fleet is gone, leaving Humanity the biggest military power in the galaxy.

Afterwards, you're the big hero. Not only is a human going to be on the reformed Council, a human will be LEADING it. You get to pick, your former CO who stood by you through thick and thin, or the bastard of an ambassador who sold you out at the first chance he got. I think it's obvious who I picked.

IMPORTANT: THIS IS ONLY ONE PLAY-THROUGH. THE OTHER ENDINGS ARE VERY, VERY DIFFERENT. I'm in the process of my second go, and I'll let you know what happens then. Also, things will probably turn out differently depending on the order you play the planets in. This story review doesn't even begin to cover side missions, just main quest missions, all 30 hours worth of them. You can go at the planets in any order, except for the last one, Ilos. The first time through, I tried to be as good a guy as possible, ending with a very positive Karma, for the Fallout crowd. This time I'm doing the opposite, so we'll see how I end up. I'll make every choice differently come endgame, except who leads the Council. I hate the Ambassador so much. I think in the next two sequels to this game, you'll be able to have the choices from any completed game start you off (IE, if the Council survived, if you released the Rachni Queen, etc.) If I'm right, and I would put money on it, I encourage everyone to play the hell out of this game until you've got everything covered!

You won the battle, but the Reapers are still out there. They know what happened. They're trying to find a way back. And they're PISSED.

EDIT: Dude, Sorry to be an ass, but I had to remove the freaking size and color.

_________________
"Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors."


“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.”

"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it."

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."

www.shallowbay.com Best. Band. Ever.


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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2007 11:14 
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Sergeant Major of the USMC
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BOS13 wrote:
Would that fatal flaw be real time combat, or a third-person perspective?

SNIP


The one fatal flaw is its only for the X-Brick and with my useless non-feeling right thumb I cannot use an X-Brick control pad. :AM

That was a very good review dude. Bravo and thanks. I would love to play it since I really like the story. The Reapers remind me of the Beserkers from Fred Saberhagen's Beserker series. Sentient machines with one goal, eradication of all organic life.

You did such a good job, why not right up a walkthrough and post it here? It will give you good experience for writing such a thing. And I am sure there are folks who would like a walkthrough on this game. Who knows, maybe we could draw a few more ME fans to discuss the game here to WOTG. :w :bs



Cheers, Þórgrímr

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Benno the Mad Wrote:
man, you gotta realise that thor and bos fell out of the patriot tree (like the ugly tree, but instills patriotism instead of ugly) and hit every branch on the way down.


"Gone now, dispersed by the brutal destruction of this one day, was the belief that the Darkman and his army of the dead were so superior as to be invincible. By attempting to destroy the morale of the Marines, the Darkman had restored it to full vigor. Dia De La Muerto had failed in its objectives."
The Gunny: Stand of the 300

Si vis pacem, para bellum
If you want peace, prepare for war

Gunny's color #FF2400


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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2007 19:12 
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A full-on walkthrough would be an enormous task...but maybe. I can probably get a main quest walkthrough set up in a relatively short amount of time, then start filling in the systems. I haven't even done nearly everything, though part of that's my fault. I'll get to level 20 or so, realize something I could have done better or something and start over.

I'll probably start on the main quest review tonight, it's going to be ginormous.

_________________
"Detail makes the difference between boring and terrific writing. It’s the difference between a pencil sketch and a lush oil painting. As a writer, words are your paint. Use all the colors."


“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.”

"The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it."

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."

www.shallowbay.com Best. Band. Ever.


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PostPosted: 01 Dec 2007 19:47 
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Sergeant Major of the USMC
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BOS13 wrote:
A full-on walkthrough would be an enormous task...but maybe. I can probably get a main quest walkthrough set up in a relatively short amount of time, then start filling in the systems. I haven't even done nearly everything, though part of that's my fault. I'll get to level 20 or so, realize something I could have done better or something and start over.

I'll probably start on the main quest review tonight, it's going to be ginormous.


I look forward to whatever you come up with. And this may be a good excuse for you to try out everything. :bs

If we get enough folks that wish to discuss ME and post things about it, I will create a Mass Effect forum in the World of Gaming category.




Cheers, Þórgrímr

_________________
Benno the Mad Wrote:
man, you gotta realise that thor and bos fell out of the patriot tree (like the ugly tree, but instills patriotism instead of ugly) and hit every branch on the way down.


"Gone now, dispersed by the brutal destruction of this one day, was the belief that the Darkman and his army of the dead were so superior as to be invincible. By attempting to destroy the morale of the Marines, the Darkman had restored it to full vigor. Dia De La Muerto had failed in its objectives."
The Gunny: Stand of the 300

Si vis pacem, para bellum
If you want peace, prepare for war

Gunny's color #FF2400


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