Product Description

You take the role of Commander Shepard starship Normandy, 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 upon 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #468 in Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 19081
• Released on: 2008-05-27
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: DVD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 5.50" w x 7.50" l, .36 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

Rental versus purchase: Beware
I am not reviewing the content of the game except to say that Bioware has previously never disappointed me with its RPG's, and I expect Mass Effect is no different. I was highly excited to buy this game.

However, I like many others, canceled my pre-order when I discovered that I was not actually going to be buying the game, even though I was going to be spending $50 on it.

The truth is that this game comes with a new generation of digital rights management software called SecuROM. This DRM system does many things.

First, if your gaming computer does not have internet access then you cannot activate and play the game at all. Bioware/EA does not want your business.

Second, Bioware allows you three 'activations' only. Activations are tied to your computer's hardware and operating system configuration. If you ever reinstall windows, or upgrade a videocard, or add a new hard-drive, or even a simple cooling fan, you will need to use up another activation to keep playing mass effect on your computer. Several customers used up all three activations within a couple of weeks of buying the game as they tried reinstalling windows, or upgrading hardware, to overcome technical difficulties. Once you run out of activations and try to play the game again, you get a message informing you that you have no more activations left and that you should buy another copy of the game to get more. If you do some searching, you will find out that EA says that they may provide you more activations, on a case by case basis, if you contact them. They refuse to state what circumstances will be considered acceptable to them before allowing you more activations. At a minimum, you may need to provide a copy of your purchase receipt. You do actually keep your purchase receipts for $50 games right?

Third, SecuROM is a highly controversial piece of software. Its existence is not disclosed on the box, nor do you get notified that it is being installed on your machine. SecuROM installs registry keys that are not deleted when you uninstall the game. And these registry keys use illegal characters to prevent the user from being able to delete them manually. You must use third-party software to do so.

Fourth, SecuROM can include a module that provides 'information' to the game publisher. Bioware claims it is not using that module to do so, but there is no way to verify this.

Fifth, Bioware cancelled the re-validate online every 5-10 days policy that they originally stated the game would have. Expect to see this return in future games.

Lastly, Bioware/EA provides no method to de-activate a computer once it has been activated. Uninstalling the game from one computer does not free up that activation. Therefore, your ability to sell your copy of the game second-hand, guaranteed in the Copyright Act (Doctrine of First Sale) has been violated by Bioware/EA. Expect to see some lawsuits before too much longer.

If you think I'm blowing up the DRM issue out of proportion then, by all means, go ahead and buy this game. While you are able to play it I'm sure you'll be very happy with it. However, do not expect to be able to keep playing it years into the future without paying extra for more activations.

The same DRM system is also intended for use on EA games like Spore, and likely also Dragonage, plus many others.

If you are concerned about this kind of practice becoming the industry standard, then I urge you not to spend your money on this game or any other titles from EA until they abandon this DRM fiasco. There are games publishers who take a different approach (for example, the game Sins of a Solar Empire is DRM free) and who are much more appreciative of your custom.

Sad disapointment - Update
I pre-ordered this game two months ago, and this is a first-day review for the PC version.

All I can say is, what a profound disappointment, on multiple levels.

First and foremost, despite all the talk from BioWare, from minute one of the game it's clearly a console port. This is most notable in the wonky camera swing that follows the player somewhat haphazardly. And one doesn't even have the option of escaping this by going to a first-person mode (even though the game was promoted as having one up until a few weeks ago.)

Video on my system, which is in the mid - to upper- range for a gaming PC, was choppy and grainy, even using the "ultra High" definition textures. I could honestly barely tell the difference between the very high-end and low-end graphic settings.

The game did install easily, and did not have any issues running on my Vista PC .. to be fair, BioWare changed the DMR scheme prior to realease, and it was a change for the better.

But even that smart move by BioWare didn't make up for what has overall been a real disappointment for me.

UPDATE: [June 4, 2008]
I originally wasn't concerned about the DRM stuff after BioWare changed the periodic 'phone home' plan. HOWEVER - I'VE CHANGED MY MIND.

To me, it is now obvious WHY the DRM stuff matters - even to those of us who were not overly concerned and pre-ordered the game. The BioWare forum currently has *thousands* of posts, less than a week after release, of people w/ game issues. My armchair survey is about 40%-60% are related to activation issues & other bugs with the DRM.

Dealing with the DRM has become the black hole sucking up time & resources from BioWare tech support, leaving people w/ the garden variety issues that most games have on launch (to some extent) to fend for ourselves. Count me as newly joined to the "No DRM now, no DRM ever!" camp.

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.***