Product Description

You are Commander Shepard of the starship Normandy and you are the last hope for all life in the Galaxy. Saren, a rogue member of the elite and untouchable Spectre agents, has discovered the secret to unleashing an apocalyptic force on the galaxy, and only you stand in his way. To save the lives of billions, you must do whatever it takes to stop Saren and prevent the return of an ancient force bent on the destruction of all organic life.

High resolution visuals - highly detailed textures, characters and environments Fully customizable controls - you can re-map the control scheme any way you like Run & Gun Control - You can assign biotic powers or skills to 'hot keys' allowing you to play Mass Effect with a heavier focus on action Decryption mini-game New inventory screen GUI and functionality - The enhanced inventory system makes it easier for you to equip and modify your weapons and armor

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #435 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 19081
• Released on: 2008-05-27
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Dimensions: .44 pounds

Features

• Experience a rich and engrossing story where your choices decide the fate of galaxy
• Engage in emotionally charged interactions with the most realistic digital actors ever seen in a video game, using an innovative new dialog system
• Immerse yourself in an incredible new adventure from world-famous masters of the RPG; BioWare
• Stunning high resolution graphics, optimized GUI and controls for PC gamers
• Dominate the battlefield with new individual squad member command system

Customer Reviews

Great gameplay and story. But needs more depth.
So it throws this huge universe at you. You can pick which planets to travel to on the universe map and then go there. However on the planets that are aside from the main quests, you won't find very much excitement. The planets usually consist of a lazy displacement map with cookie cutter buildings. A couple of planets will have events like dropships fly down and drop off more enemies, but for the most part they're not very interesting at all, and your exploration vehicle is extremely easy to use. just aim at the enemies from across the planet with your cannon, and boom, they're dead in 1-5 shots depending on the size of the enemy. The only thing that is interesting about the planets are their appearance and descriptions. I enjoyed reading about how certain planets exhibit "pre-garden of eden" type conditions, and others have unique characteristics and weather patterns. The small descriptions of the planets along with the catchy theme song that plays with the map made this a positive experience. Also if you're into visual aesthetics like myself, I found it pleasing to go down to the planets and just truck around and look at artful skies and landscapes. It was very serene and peaceful, something I haven't experienced much of from many video games.

Gameplay. This game is awesome. Its a third person shooter, you cling to cover, and the gunfights play out like good old western shootem-ups as opposing forces pop in and out of cover to exchange fire. Squadmates are pretty useful, at least when I gave them all extremely powerful sniper rifles or bio-something abilities (sci fi magical powers, essentially), at which point I would see enemies suddenly burst into the air and dissolve when I needed it most because my buddies decided to actually give me a hand. For the PC version, the interface is different, but you can bind special powers to number keys, which makes the process very speedy and simple. If I wanted my friend to use here throw ability, I would bind it to a key, then aim at an enemy and push that key... wham the enemy is hurled through the air. Its that fast and simple.

Role playing game elements. This part is both rewarding and frustrating. The game allows you to customize your squadmates like nothing else I've experienced. You give them their armor, their weapon, their weapon/armor mods, grenades, tools etc. They are completely customizable, and each character gains experience which you use to upgrade their stats, such as weapon accuracy and special abilities.
Now the frustrating part. There are so many mods and items that you pick up and get thrown at you, or maybe I did that to myself because I felt a huge need to carry every single item I picked up with the feeling that "I'll need it for later." Maybe that's just me, but if you're the same way too, this will be a problem. These items take up lots of space. You'll have twelve different versions of the same scope or ammunition, and you hold onto it when you sell it or discard it. They're usually a good way to make money though, so I tended to keep them and sell them. Each item has a certain effect ie: 2% increase in armor hardening, 3% weapon cooldown rate... half of this stuff you probably will never even notice, and I feel like it was more trouble than it was worth trying to decide if I should choose the mod that gives 5% cooldown rate or 4% hardening + 1% shield recharge rate etc. It gets rediculous. No human being can notice these small differences. I suppose if you add in multiple of the same mods it'll do something, but your weapons usually only have 3 slots AT MOST.

Story. The story is excellent. I won't spoil anything, but the final stages, the environments, the back stories of the aliens, the stories of the planets, they're very enjoyable. The story isn't very intuitive or complex, but it is properly executed. Its simplicity somewhat detracts from the experience, but the way you learn about every element is very enjoyable and creates a desire to learn more. Plus, if you really felt like learning more, there is an encyclopedia in the game to tell you about all the different types of aliens and things. As I said earlier, the exploration of the planets can be fun in its own right. Oh by the way, you better enjoy the story... there is a lot of talking.

Graphics and Art. The art is phenominal. As far as typical science fiction goes, these guys actually made architecture and art that made sense, and held meaning. I actually feel the art grew exponentially cooler as the game progressed, the peak being Ilos which I LOVED. I'll try not to spoil anything, but the art draws you in to the worlds and emotions felt by the civilizations that inhabit those areas.
Graphics are pretty good, check out the screenshots if you want more details. They weren't stunning, but they were crisp, clear, and meaningful. I have no complaints.

Audio. Music and sounds were pretty good. The gun noises were sci-fi-ish. Don't expect any big explosions or action packed cursing fests. The music is cheesy electronic stuff, but its pretty good. Nothing too memorable though (except for that universe map song, that song was pretty cool for some reason). There is one song in the credits that has actual words and might have a production value. But for the most part the music and sound do a good job of portraying whats on screen.

Overall, not too bad. Just wasn't enough depth to the universe that they claimed to have. The story was really good, and the enemies are viewed as very terrible enemies, while good guys are portrayed as such. Voice acting is very good, some of the best I've seen. Other than these cons, and a few occasional bugs, Its worth the buy.

Good Game, Bad Product.
THE GOOD:
The game was one of the most enjoyable games i've ever played. Great universe, story, gameplay... The game WOULD have been given a 5 star review from me if it wern't for one thing.

THE BAD:

DRM (Digital Rights Management)

I've installed the game on my laptop twice. Original time...played through and beat it. Saved the Bioware documents folder to a flash drive(so my character and progress wouldn't be lost) before re-formating my hard drive.... re-installed the game a second time... no problems yet...

Well now i have a faster, larger hard drive for my laptop, but i can't install it a third time on my new hard drive, or i'll use the last of my 3 activations (you can only install the game 3 times, then you're told to "Buy another copy" if you want to install it again. [Uninstalling the game doesn't give you an activation back])

So if i have any hope of playing this game in the future, i have to save that last activation for my next computer. If i want to play the game in the present, i have to tediously unscrew my laptop, remove the new hard drive, insert the old hard drive, then screw everything back in before i can start up the game. And of course when im done playing, i have to do it all over again to get back to the better hard drive where everything else is installed.

Unless you -really- want this game, spend your cash elsewhere, on a game you can install whenever you want to play it.

I'll give this game a better review if they give me my activations back when i uninstall or remove activation limits altogether.

Can't put it to work
Technical Support from Bioware has been really really awfull, their forums are full of issues and nobody answers.
The game crashes miserably on my computer, which is not a old computer, i recently played Bioshock, Assasins Creed, Call of Duty without any issues.