Quick Review: Mass Effect Galaxy
Have you ever gotten excited about a new title that just came out from a game shop that you admire and love, only to play through the game and think: that’s it?! I got all worked up for THIS?! Well, that just happened to me. It took me all of 3 hours to beat Mass Effect Galaxy. No, I didn’t cheat. No, I didn’t take shortcuts (I actually spent longer than I should have on some parts). And, no, I didn’t skip any cut scenes (tempting as it was). If that isn’t enough reason to refrain from buying EA and Bioware‘s most recent release, keep reading. Otherwise, save yourself the $2.99 and spend it on a Frosty or something.
In Mass Effect Galaxy, you are Jacob Taylor and your mission is to stop a gang of alien terrorists from, well, terrorizing. You spend most of the game walking through a mildly interesting storyline and conversing with various intergalactic friends and foes. In each conversation, you decide what Jacob says: you can be a dick and tell the other person to get out of your way or you’ll blow their head off. Or, you can politely engage with them and dodge a fight altogether. I recommend the former, because you may not get to shoot anyone if you diplomatically avoid confrontation. And the game is short enough as it is; there’s no need to rob yourself of the few times you can actually play it.
The real problem with the controls was that it AUTO-FIRES. Someone once told me that movies use voice-overs because the writer couldn’t come up with an interesting way to tell his story without it. Auto-firing is like the game developer’s voice-over. Unless there is a DAMN good reason for it, games should never have auto-firing (or auto-accelerate/brake for that matter).
Although never intended as a full-fledged iPhone game, Mass Effect Galaxy was still a major disappointment. To EA and Bioware: if you’re going to use it as a marketing vehicle for Mass Effect 2, then make it free (and cut out some of the features), or charge $0.99 for it. Regardless, as our Devin Coldeway predicted, this game simply dilutes the Mass Effect franchise.