Watching the first 20 minutes ofMass Effectplayed by a cute BioWare representative, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a ventriloquist I saw onAmerica’s Got Talenta few nights ago. Why I happened to be watchingAmerica’s Got Talentis none of your business, but let it be known that I wasn’t happy about it.
Now, the thing aboutMass Effectis that it seemed, more or less, like a ventriloquist’s dummy. Of course, it was a very nice-modeled, well-rendered dummy with nice textures, but nothing more. The game, much like Pinocchio, lackslife.
The gameplay looks like your standard FPS fare, which is to say that I didn’t see anything great or remarkable. There’s a variety of weapons and abilities to use, but my pants didn’t get wetortight because of them. Gameplay is kind of hard to judge without an actual controller in your hands, so I’m going to reserve judgment on that.
Where the presentation really fell short, however, is in the emotionless voice acting and subpar facial animations. Not only did the conversation lack the natural ebb and flowto which we were all looking forward, but it was as if the voice actor’s took commas, question marks, and exclamations points out of their repertoire. The dialogue has about as much emotional engagement as a grocery list. Even worse, the facial animations match the shoddy voice acting: the mouths move, andthat’s about it. It’d be great for a Joan Rivers botox sim, but it doesn’t really make for a compelling video game.
At worst,Mass Effectis disappointing. The best reaction I’ve heard all day was this: “It wasn’t that bad, just more of the same.” If “not that bad” is all you’ve got going for you …
