Mass Effect Galaxy

Firstly I have to openly admit that I love Mass Effect and I love the Mass Effect Universe, so this "review" might not be as objective as it should. As the game loaded on my new iPod Touch, I could hear the familiar tones of the original Mass Effect game play in the background, very comforting indeed.


This game is an abstraction of some of the elements that make Mass Effect such a compelling Universe to play in. It takes some of the storytelling, along with some of the dialogue and binds them together with sequences minimally animated in a comic book style along with tactical action based combat in small "single screen" arenas.

Taking each part of the blend in turn:

Story: There seems to be a definite storyline rolling along here, although much of the backstory is assumed (from the original game). New characters are thrown at you, with little reference to any existing ones, but they all have a familiar feel to them - Krogans are krogans, Asari are seductive etc. The arc here is meant to be part of the overall transition from the original Mass Effect game to the sequel Mass Effect 2, although it has yet to mesh into anything presented in the second bridging novel "Ascension".

Dialogue: The dialogue in the game is presented to you as alternatives represented by icons, thumbs up, thumbs down, question or exclamation marks. You drag these iconic options up and down, reading the accompanying text and settling on one to submit as your speech. You have to scroll through all options if you want to know exactly what you are saying, but since they're clustered into broad agree, disagree, or lets do it, you can just use the icons as a guide, but you'll be missing alot of the flavour of the conversational dialogue that way. If you're into Mass Effect at all, you'll know this is one of the pleasures of the game. If there is a chunk of dialogue coming from the NPC you're chatting to, theres often a pause, an elipsis and the need to press the continue icon. This would be fine, if the NPC dialogue remained in the same text box, however, you'll have read half of it, and then it will scroll up a box to present the continue option.. something which can annoy you if you're a bit eager to read the text presented, rather than wait for the scroll and continue to land. I'm not certain whether these dialogue options affect what happens in the game, most of it seems to be geared towards progressing you to the next section regardless, however there was one ocassion where instead of diving into combat I managed to convince the old pirate to surrender and have an easy retirement rather than take the "death or glory" option.


Comic Book Sequences: Some of the comic book sequences are really well animated conveying atmosphere and action without many frames being spent. The art is stylised, but fits the Mass Effect Universe perfectly. Some of the detail on the characters really shows through, and snipping it all up, it would make an excellent comic book on its own. I did notice one or two sections that were used again, some of the fight scenes, and the Mass Relay sequence for instance, but overall its enjoyable to see this stuff come to life in another media style.

Combat Action: Combat is presented as fixed packets of top down action, fighting in an arena with obstacles, destroyable items (crates), explosive items (power units), and several weapon toting enemies, often with differing strength. Each screen sized battleground is laid out with specific set paths and bottlenecks, with cover and removable cover. The object being to clear the area of enemies, and then advance through a doorway. There can be power ups (shields and health mainly) littered around the map at key places, or the enemies can drop power ups when they fall. You navigate your character through the area, using the iPod's Accelerometer, so tilting the device gently in a direction will cause your character to begin moving in that direction, tilting it more will make him run. Even though this sounds awkward it works remarkably well, since your fellow will auto fire at any enemy targetted, it becomes a game of movement, cover and line of sight angles.


You have three additional abilities at your disposal, a Biotic Hold, a Grenade launcher, and a Tech Shield sabotager, along with this you can pause the action at any time, to take stock, reset your current target and apply one of the specials. Depending upon the movements and reactions of the enemy in the level, you may have to switch targets to prioritise the kill, this is done by simply tapping on the enemy you want. You can also tap and target on crates and explodable power units, providing you with a useful ability to carve a different path through or to lure enemies into an area like a trap and detonate the environment for maximum damage. Your targetting reticule shows up thicker when you have a much tougher enemy, so you can prioritise your targets and eliminate the weaker ones first. Whilst dispatching the enemy, its always wise to have an escape route, or cover point handy as well as know where the shield and health power ups are.. the early combat levels are quite easy, but later on you will rely on environmental placements of cover, explosives and power ups to make it through. Whilst not providing exactly the same combat experience, this delivers an action based tactical burst requiring some thought to attain success. The Tech and Biotic powers are severely limited to one of each, and their use seemed more circumstantial, whereas I was always spamming the grenade whenever I could. The characters cautious fluid movement along with the gun effects do make it feel like a Mass Effect game despite its top down appearance. Since all combat takes place in a screen sized area, its often fast and furious, but bite size enough to make you want a bit more. Some encounters are a chain of a number of these "rooms", whereas one or two were just a single room.

The storyline does lead you off into the galaxy, and there is a 2d flat galaxy map you traverse in the order you want, but its little more than a number of locations, that you select, and then press the travel button. A part of the game that does feel lacking somewhat, is the absence of any RPG tweaking or party play. You do meet others whilst out on a mission, and you have your sidekick holographically jump in for some dialogue now and then, but you are all alone on the battlefield.

For a short mobile game, giving you bursts of Mass Effect mythos it doesn't do a bad job. For me, its definitely worth the couple of quid, simply to glimpse some more of the Mass Effect Universe.