Review: Mass Effect: The Best RPG of 2007 (Page 4 of 7)
These gruesome creatures play a small role in the mystery that you will eventually uncover
Intelligent Life?
During battle, you can give your squad mates complete autonomy, but holding down the left or right bumper lets you dictate which weapon or skill they should use at key moments. You'll also find a couple of upgrade slots on most equipment, and a huge library of enhancements to plug into them.
Adding special effects to weapons is awesome and you'll be constantly tweaking your layout to get the best results. The game's automatic cover system also works remarkably well, but the crappy AI behavior is a glaring fault. You'll easily survive most skirmishes against alien dipsticks unless you bump the difficulty to hard but don't expect your squad mates to lend much of a handeven the most rudimentary tasks seem to utterly baffle them. I lost track of all the times I got shot in the back of the head by a buddy or had a teammate walk right into my line of fire. Your boneheaded mates resurrect as soon as the encounter is over, but this level of stupidity is hard to accept from a game that does everything else so damn well.
The remaining quibbles, like the indefensible use of the back button for grenade tossing, and the ridiculously long elevator rides, pale in comparison to this one conspicuous problem.
The Final Frontier
And yet, these issues, which would have been enough to cripple a lesser game, cannot take the shine off of a title like Mass Effect. The title's greatest strength is the way it completely wraps you in the main protagonist's skin, which is something more RPG games should strive to do. The game's staggering depth and complexity is also impressive, as is its accessibility. If you are an RPG fan, you should definitely give this game a look; it is good enough that you'll find yourself disappearing deeper into Mass Effect each time you play and demanding the inevitable sequel long before it's due.--Cameron Lewis
The game's dynamic cover system works well and can often be the difference between a successful mission and complete disaster
Careful management of your allies' weapons and skills is also important, so it's a good thing that they are easy to access and use in the heat of battle
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