This review is only for Mass Effect 1 as I haven't played the others yet.
I was really looking forward to starting Mass Effect 1. I had heard nothing but positive things about the franchise, and I think the high expectations I had for the game ultimately did it — and my overall experience with it — a disservice.
Level Design — 1.5/5
There is an enormous amount of repetition. The locations just keep coming, and unfortunately, they all look more or less the same in terms of design. Considering how bad the gameplay was, its rather basic level design is only made even more obvious.
The Mako was an absolute nightmare, and the uncharted planets were, for the most part, all the same. From the first mission to the very last, the level design never evolved even once.
World Design — 5/5
Nothing to say here, it's perfection. This is mainly what kept me playing for so long: the lore, the worldbuilding, and the world in general are just so interesting to discover.
The game has its flaws, but its world design is nothing less than the standard games should strive for. Throughout my entire experience, I kept wondering how BioWare had managed to create such a coherent and rich world.
Main Character — 5/5
Just like the world design, pure perfection. The roleplaying possibilities with Commander Shepard are simply endless, and the weight of the consequences behind the choices you make can sometimes be extremely significant.
Knowing that the choices I made in the first game will carry over into the second and then the third is all I need to make me want to continue the trilogy. The level of roleplaying should honestly be a standard in every RPG.
Masterclass.
Villain — 3.5/5
It's difficult to talk about the antagonist without getting into spoilers. Overall, I think the villain works very well with what the game is trying to do, and I particularly liked their presence during the final part of the game.
There is still something missing for them to be better, probably because the story is spread across a trilogy.
Cast — 2/5
I was really disappointed by the cast. I expected much more, but it's clear that the focus here isn't really on the supporting characters, which is a shame.
Even when regularly interacting with them on the ship, I didn't find them particularly interesting, and this was even more noticeable with the characters I didn't take with me on missions. This obviously negatively affects the impact of the choices involving them because even when the stakes are high, if you don't feel attached to the characters, those decisions are much easier to make, which is really unfortunate.
I sincerely hope Mass Effect 2 improves this aspect, because this is probably the thing I'm most disappointed by. The potential is clearly there.
Story — 3/5
I will gladly admit that the problem is probably on my end here. On paper, I don't have much to criticize about the story, because its implications and repercussions are genuinely interesting, and the scale of those repercussions is just incredible. The same goes for all the narrative choices presented throughout the story.
Despite that, for some reason I can't really explain, I didn't find the story particularly memorable or fascinating. It didn't resonate with me the way I hoped it would, but I can't really say why.
The side quests were, overall, not great because of how repetitive they were, but some of them still stood out and had some nice surprises.
Ending — 4/5
Very satisfied with the conclusion. The final fight was long and honestly pretty tedious, but the ending itself was genuinely spectacular, and I didn't expect anything less.
It does a great job of laying the foundations for what we can expect from the rest of the trilogy.
Gameplay — 1/5
I'm sorry, but this is clearly the worst gameplay I've experienced so far. More than once, I actually turned the game off because the gameplay was so frustrating, repetitive, and overall unpleasant.
From beginning to end, it's the same thing over and over again: the same enemies (or almost), in the same locations (or almost), doing the same thing again and again.
I sincerely hope there will be some kind of improvement to the gameplay in the next games because my god, this has aged terribly.
Soundtrack — 3/5
Nothing particularly noteworthy here. Most of the music is nice, but nothing incredible.
Special mention to the credits theme, which was by far my favorite.
Art Direction — 4/5
Really good overall, whether it's the design of the different races, locations, outfits, enemies, etc.
It's easily recognizable and honestly very effective with what the game is trying to achieve.
Final Score — 3/5
The average of all my category scores is 3.2/5 which rounds down to a 3/5 final score.
As I said at the beginning of this review, I still feel a little unsatisfied, mainly because I had such high expectations for the game.
My biggest disappointments are definitely the gameplay and the cast, but I have high hopes that these aspects will be improved in the next games.
I completely fell in love with the freedom of roleplaying, and it made me want to explore the genre further. In the same way, I thought I was more drawn to fantasy, but I ended up really loving the sci-fi aspect of the game.
There are some genuinely excellent ideas here, and according to my own criteria, it really isn't missing much to become a truly great game.
Total playtime : 40h37
