Mass Effect (Xbox 360) | 
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| From: Microsoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: £44.99
Buy New: £16.45
You Save: £28.54 (63%)
New (15) Used (22) from £15.75
Rating:  120 reviews
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: role-playing-games
Rating: To Be Announced
Media: Video Game
Number Of Items: 1
Age: 11 - 18 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: M59-00067
UPC: 882224512145
EAN: 0882224449427
ASIN: B000F6Y5IM
Release Date: November 23, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New - SAMEDAY DESPATCH - Insured Delivery and 12 months Warranty
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Product Description
In Mass Effect, you'll be assuming the role of commander Shepard, the leader of an elite commando unit, and going on a breathtaking adventure through infinite space. You can add personal touches to your hero while you explore this interplanetary universe and play a game where the ending is never the same!
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| Customer Reviews:
 This is the future of gaming... December 9, 2007
Owain (Dyserth, Wales)
43 out of 47 found this review helpful
Ladies and gentlemen, I must admit, I am very disturbed. To know why anyone could give Mass Effect a negative review is beyond me. A game as good as Mass Effect deserves better than to have people babbling on, claiming that it's boring, that there's too many technical issues, and so on and so forth. Mass Effect is far from boring, in fact it's far from exciting, it's even beyond that. It would be impossible for me to explain how hooked I was playing this game, and how memorable some of the experiences I had on it were. It's more than JUST a game. It's no surprise really that people are now instead of calling it a game are calling it interactive storytelling. It's unforgettable plot line, mesmerizing characters and beautiful graphics are only a small fraction of what the game has to offer.
If you disagree with me with what I said then, I suggest you stop reading, because I'll only carry on with how good a game Mass Effect truly is. The conversation system for instance, feels so much more advanced than previous Bioware games, that it puts disgrace on all other RPG's on the market (Yup, that also includes Oblivion, which had a rubbish dialog system anyway). I think the reason for why the dialog system works so well in Mass Effect is that you're never too sure what shepherd's going to say, even if you have the basic idea, and that you're character (shepherd) speaks. This is a breakthrough in gaming, never in any RPG's I've played on (except for the witcher), can you hear you character speak. It's so simple but it works very effectively. All the emotional moments now have you talking, and sometimes cause a tear in your eye.
There are some bad points in Mass Effect, but they're hardly noticeable. Yes, there are some technical issues, but nothing too serious, and nothing that hasn't been included into any other game. The textures take time to load, but don't worry, it's never too slow, and sometimes some irritating jams happen. But these Jams only happened twice with me. I dunno, maybe I'm lucky. But the main problem with Mass Effect is that it's too damn short! For a game as good as this, why did it all have to end so fast?! It took me 15 hours to complete the main plot line, and a couple more hours to do some of the side quests, come on Bioware! It's just not enough!
But just because it's short, it doesn't mean that the plot doesn't reach the standard. Like I've mentioned before, the story is beyond brilliant. And the ending for me was just WOW!!! Oh, and if you think that because I said it's short, that it's not worth the money, think again. It's got high replayability value since you can change your choices you've made before the second time you go through Mass Effect. The game also includes some absorbing music (no surprise, since Bioware always delivers with this point), that just suits the game perfectly. The decisions you make in the game feel huge, and sometimes, it can take a couple of minutes for you to make your mind up about something.
Mass Effect is an emotional masterpiece, and was obviously difficult to make. It includes the best story, the best graphics and some of the best gameplay (I haven't mentioned about that, but I don't want to make this review too long, so I'll just say that it's really good once you get the hang of it) that ever included in a game. Just because there's a couple of technical issues around in this game, people shouldn't give bad reviews because of it. I mean, name one game that hasn't got technical issues. There are none, and as for these slow texture loading times, there'll surely be a patch to sort this out soon enough. So if you thought nothing could beat Star Wars, and that no game could make you weep, play this game. It WILL prove you wrong.
And with that, I can assure you.
Are you sure this is a game November 23, 2007
Jebus
22 out of 28 found this review helpful
Ok, so I'm the first person to write a review on this game and i do not understand why because it is so good.
If you are looking for a very detailed review that sadly i can not help you your best going to IGN, and its not like i can be bothered to write one but i would literally be here all day there is so much to say about this game and i am only 50 minutes into it!
Mass Effect is a RPG/FPS which works very very well indeed. It is set into the future and humans are just starting to explore deep space which is inhabited with all kinds of alien races. You play as Commander Sheppard who can either be a Male or Female but the name has to stay as Sheppard because of the voice acting. How your player looks though is upto you and with graphics as realistic as a movie your character truly comes to life.
On board your very own spaceship the Normandy you can explore the galaxy and uncharted planets at your will while advancing through a very good story line, as i said im just 1 hour into it but already i can see the foundations of a plot worthy of a movie.
The graphics and sound as i mentioned really are amazing to witness, by far the best ever on the xbox 360, it really does show that there is still juice to be squeezed from the console.
As for gameplay it fuses a first person shooter with an RPG element very similar to Biowares previous titles and this fusion works brilliantly. Your character gains experience in many different manners whether its from combat or simply by talking in depth to other characters. Mass Effect promises an open story line which can be advanced in so many different ways and that is evident from the start. Yes you can rush through the dialog but if you take your time and explore the many different options its very rewarding.
Mass Effect's story progress's solely on the choices you make as Commander Sheppard and what you choose does not only effect you as the main character, but also the Crew of the Normandy and all life in the universe.
I would recommend Mass Effect to anyone who is looking for a totally engrossing experience or anyone who is a fan of RPGS.
mass effect = mass entertainment December 3, 2007
G. Tagg
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
Good
* story. engaging from start to finish with thoroughly convincing characters. absolutely superb.
* real tangible ramifications with decisions made mean multiple endings and outcomes. a breath of fresh air.
* impressive scope and freedom.
* good balance between combat and story.
* excellent replay value and longevity. First run through took me 24hrs.
Bad
* occasional glitches. my character got stuck in the environment several times meaning i had to reload and it also froze once.
* loads and redraw are a constant reminder that this is just a game.
* you cant go back and explore the universe/ complete side quests post completion a'la GTA so you better see all there is to see pre Ilos mission. shame.
The Game of the Year December 4, 2007
A. Rowe (Cardiff, UK)
13 out of 19 found this review helpful
Mass Effect is awful. Truly terrible. God, how it burns me up. Grrrr.
The problems are countless; actually, I'm lying, I counted them up last night. There's twenty-four, with numerous more sub-problems and micro-problems that all come together to form one giant unholy problematic flow chart.
You are Commander Shepard, but beyond that you initially customise the protagonist with the help of a few options concerning your personal background and, undoubtedly the best thing about every RPG, facial feature sliders (I maintain that The Saga of Ryzom still wins to this day thanks to its hilarious breast size slider). You are tasked with saving the galaxy (oh wait, spoiler there). To do so, you must bumble around in your ship, the Normandy, and explore Space As We Know It.
Exploration, it turns out, involves skimming around a map of the Milky Way. You know those spy movies that start out with a satellite picture, and progressively zoom in from a picture of the globe to some bloke sitting on a park bench picking his nose? This is the interstellar version of that. *ka-chhkzzzoom!* Inside The Galaxie of One Thousand Surprises there are star clusters. *ka-chhkzzzoom!* Each cluster contains several solar systems. *ka-chhkzzzoom!* Each system (stay with me) contains several pretty planets, exactly one of which will always be a landing site.
*ka-chhkzzzoom!* You'll be able to land in your "Mako", which is a space-age buggy that looks like a tonka toy and is almost as indestructable. On your map you will see exactly one "anomaly", one piece of "debris", and one building that conforms to one of three rather dull layouts and is stocked with bad men with guns. The issue I take here is that exploring is pointless when there's nothing new to find. How much of a let down would it have been for Columbus to have reached the new world to find that it was just Spain painted a slightly different colour?
The other way in which Mass Effect grievously offended me is in its mini-games. For the sake of clarity, I'm going to draw comparison with Knights of the Old Republic (it was bound to happen). The mini-games there consisted primarily of three things: Pazaak, Swoop Bike Racing and manning your ship's gun turret. Now, Swoop Bike Racing was, apart from one incident, purely an optional endeavour (and only lasted about twenty seconds per race anyway), as was Pazaak. The space-shootin' was, admittedly, quite awful as well as mandatory, but lasted all of two minutes and didn't happen more than a half-dozen times throughout the game. Mass Effect's mini-games can't hide behind such excuses. The Mako is one big mini-game. There's very little to the driving mechanics and it's a great departure of game play styles: it's a mini-game. It's also essential for much of the main story quest and pretty much every side-quest in the game. You'll spend almost as much time bouncing over rocks on depressingly uninteresting worlds as you will doing anything else. Secondly, Mass Effect presents Dance Dance Revolution for your right thumb. Every time you try to open a box with a bolted lock or a sliver of sticky tape over the lid you'll be presented with a pop-up showing the four face buttons of the 360 pad, which will light up in sequence for you to match. When you do so, the lid magically pops free. Fun for all of the first five minutes of the ninety or so you'll spend just doing it. Even the gambling game is a throwback. Unlike Pazaak, where the keen players were able to build a formidable deck throughout the game and could always find an opponent in the grimiest dives in the galaxy, Quasar is limited to one bar in the entire game and is about as complex as snap played with beer coasters.
I would go on, but Amazon throws me out on my ear after a thousand words. There are huge problems with Mass Effect. It is, I thought as the credits rolled, truly terrible.
Only it's not. It's the sweetest, most moreish slice of video game pie that you'll stuff your face with for a long while. Only a game so great can cause so many people I've met to tear at their faces while wailing about its faults and how they wish they weren't there. Anything lesser will be dismissed without the hissy fits and heavy sighs, filed away in the gaming sites' review archives without too much comment. Mass Effect is full of problems, yes, but I only care so damn much about their existence because I love this game so.
Other problems include the conversation system; it's simply not the real-time interactive playground promised. You won't care. It's still beautiful. The characters are close to alive; the camera captures emotion wonderfully through physical acts both large and small, all with Epic's impressive Unreal 3 tech. Half the game is pure conversation, and I didn't skip a single line of it. Additionally, your party is shallower than in any previous BioWare game; you can only meaningfully interact with party members on your ship, decrypting your choice of whom to take ashore with you to a simple numbers game of which character is best for the job. A shame - one of the finest affirmations of BioWare's gift for characterisation was that people would choose their party based on which of members they were fondest of. You won't complain until it's over, because the great writing is still present. The inventory and menu systems often frustrate, combining the right amount of illogic design and lack of functionality to eat away at you, so after a significant amount of time you'll suddenly find you're screaming at the top of your lungs.
Mass Effect is riddled with problems, the greatest of which is not being the perfect game. And I hate it for it. Five stars.
WARNING: Time will fly by when you are in this game November 27, 2007
*-[ROB]-* (UK)
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
Mass Effect is advertised as a Role Playing Game (look this up if you are not sure what it means), and since most games billed as RPGs are invariably FPS's with just vague role-play element (such as skill upgrades), I felt blessed to behold Mass Effect. It's like being in a CGI movie like "Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within", except that you are in control of the main character and the story is actually interesting. And just when you think that's it, you realize that combat engine is inspired from "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter".
Make sure you have a handle on the position of the sun when you play this game, as my quick little half-hour session yesterday was actually 4 hours without me even realizing.
On a further note, girlfriends/boyfriends/flatmates may not mind you hogging the lounge TV with this title, as they will probably find it entertaining to watch like some new anime movie (mine did). You'll need them to supply you with fluids anyway (mine did).
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