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Xbox 360 | RPG | Mass Effect

Boxart for Mass Effect
Mass Effect 134 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.25
  • SOUND: 4.00
  • CONTROL: 3.75
  • FUN FACTOR 4.75
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.8
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.8
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Preview: Mass Effect (Page 2 of 3)

Preview by Chris Morell | 09/25/2007 | 11:43:04 AM PST

How do the battles play out in the game? Will the choices made during battle have them same resonance in the game as the conversation system?

We're really happy with how the combat system turned out. It has the intuitive controls of a 3rd-person shooter, but also allows you to easily coordinate the huge amount of tactical options available to your team. The central innovation is what we call the Power Wheel - you hold the right shoulder button and the action pauses, showing you all the combat abilities of the characters in your squad.

From there you can target various enemies and command your squad mates to use specific attacks on them. Then you release the button and your squad mates fire their attacks as you return to real-time combat. Over the course of the game, you develop your characters to gain new combat abilities, and the Power Wheel fills up with new and more powerful abilities.

You quickly realize how these amazing combat abilities really shape each battle, and are developing as a result of the decisions you've made in developing your characters. The overall result is something that has the tactical fun of KOTOR, but through a familiar interface and with chaotic real-time physics.

Moving to a more real-time combat system feels like a big departure. How do you respond to gamers concerned with having to utilize fast-twitch reflexes?

One really nice thing about the combat system is that players can easily adapt it to their own comfort level in terms of twitch skill. There are a number of ways that this happens, but the big one is the Power Wheel itself, which players can use as much or as little as they want.

Players who don't like having to use real-time twitch skills can literally hit the Power Wheel every few seconds, commanding their squad to fire a salvo of attacks, letting them play out, then hitting the Power Wheel again to line up a new combo - thus inching forward through the battle in an extremely tactical way that doesn't require fast twitch skill.

On the other hand, you can be Soldier class and generally play the game like a pure shooter, tapping the Power Wheel button to instantly fire a mapped power (such as a massive shotgun attack called Carnage) instead of actually opening up the wheel interface. Your squad will back you up with their own A.I., and you'll have real-time command of their movement through the D-Pad.

There are a few other things to help players balance the experience to their play style. Your choice of your character's class and which squad members you take with you will allow you to either be the juggernaut that storms ahead or the tactician that hangs back and provides support.

You can also set your squad to use aggressive A.I. (for when you don't want to issue orders to them) or to wait until your orders before doing anything (for players that want complete control).

Mass Effect also has an excellent difficulty system. In addition to the Normal difficulty setting, Casual difficulty lets players enjoy the story experience without combat being too difficult, while players who enjoy an intense challenge will be able to unlock Hardcore and Insanity difficulty levels, which are extremely fun despite being brutally hard.


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