Which developer made the best games on the original Xbox? For me, that’s a question with an easy answer. BioWare. The two games they made for that system,”Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic” and “Jade Empire,” represent some of (if not “the”) best storytelling, writing, and voice acting of the last console generation. If you’re looking for pure action, then the “Halo” games have it beat; but, if you’re like me and you prize storytelling over action, then these games were as good as it got. So when their first Xbox 360 project was announced as “Mass Effect,” I knew that this would be a game worth getting.After playing it, I can say that it is.

JASON GLICK

“Mass Effect” is an extremely ambitious game. Instead of having the fate of the planet rest on the efforts of your characters, the well-being of the entire universe hinges on your party. What’s more is that you’ll actually be able to explore a good portion of this universe over the course of the game. You’ll encounter many different alien species, each with their own cultures and histories that you can find out about should you choose to do so. All this is wrapped up in a technical package that’s designed to show you what the 360 is capable of.

The game starts off with your character, Shepherd, being recruited to be the first human Specter in the Galactic Council. The Council is the ruling body for all civilized species in the galaxy, and the Specters are their “problem solving” arm with nearly limitless freedom and resources to get their job done. Humans are newcomers to galactic civilization, and there’s been a big push on their part to have one of their own made a part of this elite organization. This doesn’t sit well with some of the other species, but that soon becomes the least of everyone’s problems.

After a relic from the mysterious Prothean race is uncovered on the human colony of Eden Prime, Shepherd is tasked with recovering it with this mission also doubling as a test of his qualifications for Specter-hood. Needless to say, it goes badly when a rogue Specter known as Saren gets involved. His plans for the artifact extend well beyond simple thievery, and his status as a Specter makes him nearly untouchable. Of course, once you’ve reavealed his treachery, you’ll find out that exposing him was only the tip of the iceberg as his plans stand to endanger the entire galaxy.

What I’ve summarized of the story so far comprises the first 4-5 hours of the game. From there, you’re then given free reign to explore the galaxy and pursue leads regarding Saren’s activities. Before that, some players might start to feel a bit restless at being confined to only one large area to explore. They’ll also notice that the game feels very “BioWare-ish” for most of this time.

That “BioWare-ish” feeling is both the game’s biggest asset and its biggest weakness. You see, BioWare’s previous games followed a simple yet reliable pattern of dropping your character into an unfamiliar area and leaving you to talk to the people around you to get quests and find out what’s up. That’s the same setup they follow for “Mass Effect” as well, so you’d better be set for lots and lots of talking with NPCs throughought the course of the game.

Now the reason BioWare gets away having their games play out in the exact same way every time is because they do it really, really well. You generally won’t mind all the talking because just about everyone you talk to has something interesting to say, and the side quests they send you on are usually very entertaining in and of themselves. In lesser hands, this could’ve been a complete disaster, but the writers at BioWare are skilled enough to make you interested in what these people have to say.

The developers have taken some steps to make the conversations in the game flow a bit better than they have in the past. Rather than selecting from several given responses, you’re given a “ring” of options to select from that pops up right before the other person stops talking. The options on this ring generally represent the “gist” of what you’re going to say, allowing you to determine the tone of your response rather than its actual words. Also, since the ring pops up before your character starts speaking, you can select your response while the other person is still speaking, allowing for an (almost) seamless transition from them to you in the conversation.

Of course, the game isn’t all talking, as you’ll be doing plenty of exploring and fighting on each of the planets you’ll visit on your quest. Every galaxy has one or two solar systems you can explore, with at least one place you can disembark on and explore within those systems. Sometimes you’ll be led to these planets by an NPC or a message you found, or you could just explore them for the heck of it, just to see what’s there. There’s also plenty of fun to be had with just driving around in the “Mako,” your all-terrain personnel carrier, with its floaty physics and jump jets.

As you explore the game, while pursuing the main quest or for fun, you’ll unavoidably encounter lots of things that want to kill you. Combat in “Mass Effect” is handled in real-time and probably owes more to games like “Gears of War” and “Rainbow Six: Vegas” with their fast-paced, squad-based gameplay than BioWare’s previous efforts. You’re still able to pause the game to command your partners to use their special abilities, but that’s the only RPG-style concession to combat that you’ll see.

Is it fun? When you’re on the winning side, it’s very fun. Most of the time you’ll be able to blaze through any of the enemies the game puts in front of you, with minimal use of your skills. Then there are other encounters that will have you reloading your last saved game until you decide that it isn’t worth it, and need to come back to the area at a later point. That’s not too bad, but there are other times when this will happen on the main story path, and then it becomes much more frustrating. It’s not that these parts aren’t unbeatable, but they seem to require just as much luck as they do tactical planning.

Technically, the game looks great… when everything’s working correctly. While all of the character models look great and the environments are frequently awe-inspring in their design, there are some issues that prevent it from being a true technical showcase for the 360. First of all is that there is a LOT of texture pop-in whenever there’s a transition in the game. Whenever the game starts loading, or transitions to a cutscene, expect to see the textures take their time to show up. The framerate is also choppy in places where there’s a lot going on, which is most often when you’re in combat. I don’t think I need to explain why that’s a very bad thing.

Sadly, there are also some glitches with the quests as well. In one area, I had to gain access to an official’s office after the administrator of the area had him kicked out after the official found proof of the administrator’s corruption. The official’s place was crawling with guards, and after an encounter with the ones at the entrance, I convinced them that their presence there was illegal, so they decided to leave. Problem was that only the entrance guards left. The other ones were still there, and more than willing to fight me. Hopefully there will be a patch to fix glitches like this later on.

Even with these issues, the game is still immensely enjoyable. Not only does the game spin a satisfying story where the fate of the universe rests in your hands, but it convincingly fleshes out that universe to the point where you do care about its fate. That’s an achievement in and of itself, and it’s even more remarkable that the gameplay works well enough that you’ll enjoy exploring this universe to your heart’s content.

Pros: Fantastic writing, incredible voice acting, lots of places that you’ll want to explore because the game just sucks you in.

Cons: Technical issues with the (otherwise great) graphics, bugs, slight sense of “been there, done that” with the execution.