Mass Effect -- Final Opinion.

My first playthrough of Mass Effect took an even forty hours to complete. There will be further playthroughs of the game but not immediately. There were roughly eight to twelve months between my light and dark side playthroughs in Knights of the Old Republic and I'll follow the same pattern with Mass Effect. Mass Effect is a great game in spite of serious technical issues. What's wrong with Mass Effect? It follows the tradition of BioWare titles being about as glitchy as they come. From invisible Keepers to reloading saves into rooms you can't exit to glitched achievements among others there's surely going to be something you're going to run into. It's not a question of if, but a question of what, and how many. I was able to escape the room via the game's auto save being separate from my main save but I lost thirty minutes or so. Also on the technical side of things you'll have a horrible frame rate. It just chugs along. You'll also have textures taking a few seconds or more to draw in. And you'll have some annoying shadows that seem alive on the character's faces in cutscenes. You have the option of playing the game with motion blur and grain filters turned on. In fact, these are on by default at the start of the game. They're designed to hide most of the aforementioned issues. But they create their own issues you might not care for. You'll most likely end up turning them off. Everyone I've talked to that has been playing the game ended up turning them off. As I said before Mass Effect is a great game in spite of its technical flaws. How can that be? Because everything else it does it does right, and well enough to make the technical issues worth suffering through. Mass Effect's greatest aspect is all aspects of its story. The story itself, the characterization of the characters, and voice acting come together perfectly to make an otherwise standard science fiction story fascinating. Most impressive about the story is the detective vibe it gave me. Very much in line with games like Phantasy Star 2 and Snatcher. Where there is something dark and sinister just beneath the surface of a universe going about its daily routines and every step through the main story missions brings you closer to discovery. And said story comes to a very satisfying conclusion given it's act one of three. The game also furthers BioWare's standard deal of light and dark paths. Only this time it is a bit more fleshed out. A bit more involved. You can still walk in the light, dark, or middle of the road if you choose, but this time around non-player characters in the game will react based on your chosen history. I went with being a war hero. So for example some characters respected me and some characters resented me. And because of my history I was able to speak from the heart or commiserate with certain characters. In other words I was able to reach and get reactions from certain characters I might not have been able to otherwise. All of this comes into play. Your sex, your history, and your light or dark actions bring about potentially different reactions and prospective dialog paths for you to explore. It provides a more substantial amount of depth compared to Knights of the Old Republic. Also providing more depth is the combat system. The game's real time combat is much improved over Knights of the Old Republic as well. Again you're able to fool with the classes in the game and potential squad combinations to give you a wide variety of possible solutions out of any given situation. Want to run and gun? It's entirely possible. Want to play stop and pop? Want to snipe the guy? Want to use your biotic to throw someone into a wall? Or lift them off the ground where they're defenseless? Want to hack a robotic enemy into attacking its own allies? Are you going to use explosive rounds or freezing? Which upgrades are you going to use on your armor? Which upgrades do you want to use with the pistol? There are a lot of possibilities to be messed with allowing you to find your own style in playing the game.  I really liked Mass Effect. Its great story and characters leave me wanting more. The graphics are all over the place from glitchy to gorgeous. The sound design is great and truly varied. Big operatic film score composition in some spots, experimental and tonal in others, and goofy and fun in still others. Great voice acting all around. Fun combat and a more robust light and dark path system employed. Mass Effect really is worth suffering the technical issues. I really liked it. And I can't wait to find out what happens next. I'm giving Mass Effect a 9.