Mass Effect Galaxy

I'm calling it. It's official, Mass Effect is no longer just a video game. With the release of Mass Effect Galaxy for the iPhone, another game in the Mass Effect universe, Mass Effect is now a video game franchise. This effectively will be massive. Expect the comic books and novels to start rolling out anytime soon, and the toy lines to be out for the Christmas season. Oh wait, they've already been done here and there. So, how does this installment contribute to the franchise?

In full disclosure, I've never played Mass Effect. All I've got for present-day platforms is my Mac and Wii, which Bioware/EA chose to ignore with this game (way to stand behind your commitment to the Mac platform EA, you suck). I have absolutely no idea how immersive the story line is, anything about the character customization, the branching dialog choices that can cause forks in the game play, or the inclusion of NPC teammates. Nope, I know nothing of these things. So, I can't compare this new chapter in the Mass Effect saga against the first. All I've got for a basis is what's currently available on the iPhone platform.

The background behind this game is that you play as Jacob Taylor, an officially "retired" covert ops type pulled into a cold-war-esque standoff between the Batarians (the bad guys) and the united alliance of planets at the Citadel (the good guys). The timeframe is sometime after the first Mass Effect and before the proper sequel. One of the loading screens gives it all away though; this particular game is just part of the hype machine building up to the sequel. It's an interactive advertisement. Both Jacob and Miranda are revealed to be in the upcoming Mass Effect 2.

The game plays simple enough. There are basically two types of game screens, the dialog scenes and the combat screens. The dialog screens show Jacob on the left and whoever he's talking to on the right. On the side of the screen is a "scroll wheel" for you to scroll between the different choices of what to say. The dialog choices can have an impact on the game play. If you choose the correct dialog options you can avoid the impending battle sequence. I was able to avoid fighting a crusty old pirate, yahrrrrrrrr. You can also expedite the conflict. I found this a much more compelling option -- them dialog screens were tedious and not much fun.

The combat screens were a little better. They were a top down view of a room, where you need to kill all the baddies in it to get to the next room. The game auto targets the baddies and fires on the target with the machine gun. You can change targets by touching them on the screen. You move around by tilting the phone in the direction you want to go. I've found this type of interface to be standard faire on the iPhone, and it plays much like Zombie Attack. You also have two special attacks: a grenade launcher and a "biotic" stun, both with cooldowns, and a shield power-up. No customization here, you just get power upgrades to the existing abilities after you complete each chapter of the game.

The story is engaging enough. It's a good little tale with some nice plot twists to it. The transitions from chapter to chapter are handled well with animated scenes I'd compare to a moving comic book. The art style is definitely not leaning toward realism, but more cartoonish. It looks good on the phone. Overall, there are six chapters to the game, depicted as planets in the galaxy map. Each planet has probably 10-20 combat rooms, and probably 20-30 dialog screens. Overall, I'd say it took me about 3-4 hours to complete the game. I could probably have done it faster, but I was looking for nooks and crannies.

Ultimately, I'd have to say pass on this title. It's just not your daddy's Mass Effect. At $2.99 and three hours, you're not really risking an awful lot if you want to try it. But, there are much more fun games with longer replay value for the platform than this one.