Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Genre: Action role-playing game
Rating:  M For Mature
Number of Players: 1
Expected Release:  November 20, 2007

Mass Effect Gallery

Fans of games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire are highly anticipating the game: Mass Effect for the 360. Canadian developers, BioWare, have been in the studio working their butts off to release a product known only as Mass Effect. Somehow still a bit overshadowed by Halo 3, the game is anticipated enough to not get shoved under the rug, especially with the new goodies BioWare put in their newest project. With an official release date of November 20th, the game has a lot of potential. You play as Commander Shepard of the SS Normandy, where in your galaxy, everyone is trapped in an endless cycle of extinction. Every 50,000 years, an ancient race invades the galaxy destroying all advanced organic civilization. Leaving behind only scattered ruins of technology, they destroy all evidence of their own existence, thus becoming only a myth. However you, the player, know that this ancient legend is true and it's coming.

You wouldn't have to worry about a boring storyline here, almost every dialogue and interaction will affect how the story goes. BioWare wanted to make this as realistic as possible, so you're playing in real time, through day and night. Casey Hudson stated that they wanted to deliver a great story experience, and a great story contains a great character that you're able to develop in the course of a long story. With the technological advancements the 360 has brought BioWare, you have a whole galaxy to explore, you can navigate every star cluster and nebula that you come across. Although fitting a whole galaxy into one game seems a bit out of proportion, Hudson says they don't actually have to fill the whole galaxy. Instead they built a whole spectrum, with different planets that you could land on, fight or discover things that might be even be important to the story.

You're able to play as the default Commander Shepard, or you can customize him, from looks to armor to weaponry. While playing through the story, you can choose the path of the soldier, the biotics-specialist, or the tech-specialist. All three will give you a unique arsenal to use, all equally powerful. As a soldier, you're able to wield a variety of weapons that allow you to blow hell up. As a biotics-specialist, you unleash Dark Energy similar to what other people call magic attacks in other games. As a tech-specialist, you'll be able to use your technical skills to rewire an enemy machine to attack its allies, or hopefully make it dance around while you try and shoot at it. As you progress through the story you don't necessarily "level up" but you do increase your skills so you're ready to face what lies ahead. Choosing which path will affect the way your story is unfolded.

Mass Effect's combat system is, to say the least, very impressive. Combat takes place in real time and every decision you make will mean life or death for your squad. Making the right one will mean victory, and making a wrong or rash decision might get a member of your squad killed. You're able to pause combat and give orders to your squad members to utilize their special skills and abilities to defeat enemies in battle. During battle, if you decide to give orders, you may tell your squad where to get positioned, who to attack, who not to attack, or can use your tech-specialist to take down an enemies shield defense.


One thing different that BioWare developed to improve Mass Effect from other games was implementing a more in-depth moral choice system. The idea is: what happens if you were presented with a situation where you wouldn't know what to do, but at the same time you're pressured to make a decision? To make it a bit more mature, Hudson says that each situation will have sacrifices to further strengthen the system. Whether you want to bust in a door and make people tell you information through gunpoint, or trick people into thinking you're their friend to get your answers, you're all in command of practically everything you do. Oh yeah, don't forget about the good old saying: money talks.