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: #305 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 19081
• Released on: 2008-05-27
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: DVD-Video
• Dimensions: .35 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

DRM'd to death
I wanted to love this game. I even tried to love it. But I couldn't, and here is why:

1. DRM that sucks the life out of everything good the game has to offer. We as consumers have got to stop accepting this garbage. It limits playability, prevents legitimate use of the game we purchased, and treats the consumer as "guilty until proven innocent." I really wish I had NOT bought this game for that one reason. Never again will I give my money for a product with DRM.

2. Poorly ported. As many others have noted, the camera that follows Shepherd around is frustrating, and doesn't allow for the immersive quality of a first person view.

3. Control of the rover vehicle thing is clumsy and frustrating. The physics on planet surfaces is so poor that I didn't want to do many of the side quests. You can drive up nearly vertical surfaces, bounce hundreds of feet down the sides of mountains without suffering any damage, all using slippy controls that don't feel right for a bad-*** personnel carrier.

4. Many sound bugs. The processing of sound in this game is horrible. The sound fades out during many of the movie sequences. The only option is to turn on subtitles, which hurts immersion into the game. At other points in game sound glitches cause ambient noise to disappear while shooting a weapon, or the opposite, so that you only hear ambient sound, and muffled or nonexistent weapons fire. I have a extremly high quality sound card, the Auzentech X-Fi Prelude so this is NOT due to my system. Even the recently released patch does not solve this issue.

5. Inconsequential rewards for accomplishing side objectives. There are two levels to this. The first is that if you take the time to find all the rare earths, gases, metals, etc., you are rewarded with nothing more than cash. That would be fine if there was anything worth buying with it. However, once you're level 25+ all of the weapons you can buy are either the same, or inferior to what you already have. The mission based side quests provide little reward also. There are very few bosses, and they never drop weapons or equipment that is specialized or unique. I was hoping that side quests would allow access to weapons and armor that were otherwise unavailable. Unfortunately, that isn't the case. Other than being a completenic, there is no reason to pursue side quests at all.

6. Short main campaign. The main campaign can be completed in 20 hours or less. That would be fine if side quests were more rewarding, but they're not (see #5). I liked the main campaign quite a bit, and thought the story was fairly interesting, but it would have been nice if the story took less of a linear path. What I mean by that (given that you can choose to go to the planets in any order) is it would have been interesting if the game required you to return to planets you had previously visited (other than the Gate) for additional objectives/story arcs. For example, a mission that required you to travel to several different planets. The main campaign would not have been disappointing in the slightest if they had made it less linear.

So all that said, why 3 stars and not 1? Because the game is not a total failure. The storyline is much better than average, the voice acting and writing is of a very high quality, and the combat is pretty fun. This game is not a failure, it is just not that great. It doesn't deserve 1 star anymore than it deserves 5.

Again, the principle reason NOT to buy this game is the awful DRM that infests it. We as gamers and consumers need to show that we will NOT accept crippled games that we are essentially leasing. We need to put our money where our mouths are and avoid these games until their makers start to pay attention. If enough of us refuse to buy games with DRM, eventually they will get rid of it.

The principle reason to buy the game are quality writing and acting, a good storyline, and entertaining combat sequences.

***Whenever I write a review that mentions DRM, I like to give a plug for Amazon. They have DRM free music downloads. If you're going to buy digital music, buy them from Amazon.***

one of the worst games I've ever played
Games I liked for reference: the Total War series, KOTOR series, Fallout 1, Jagged Alliance, Sins of Solar Empire to name a few.

However, this POS is horrible. BORING. Spent way to much time just running around. The inventory management system is annoying. They make it difficult to give the best weapons to the best people. You have to click around every time. Also, you have no idea if a person is really effective with a given weapon. KOTOR had the great idea of allowing you to see the combat log(D&D style).
In everyway this game falls short of a real PC game. I'll be much more careful of buying anything from BioWare in the future.

A great experience and a lot of fun.
A lot of people have complained of bugs and other issues, and I am sure they are telling the truth. I was one of the lucky ones and had literally zero issues or bugs and I replayed this game four times. Although it gives off a sandbox feel at first, it is deceptive as you will quickly discover there are just minor variations to a rather linear plot. You have to accomplish the same objectives on various planets, for example, but you can do them out of order.

Still, the game is of cinematic quality and has great production values. The PC version , if it works ok for you, is astonishing. I really enjoyed it and those I recommended it to also purchased it and had no issues. They also enjoyed it a lot. Great game, a definite A.