With the recent official announcement of Mass Effect 2 for the PC and Xbox 360, Mass Effect officially becomes a series, and expectations are, of course, very high. The original was a show stopper for many critic circles for good reason: it was a testament to the power of videogames as a story-telling medium.

However, I've often slammed Mass Effect for having poor gameplay mechanics overall - Bioware forgot to get the actual gameplay down pat before figuring out how to tell their story. In my opinion, Mass Effect could have been a real killer app weren't it for some large issues, the most pertinent of which I address here.

The Menu System -

My God, this was frustrating.  There is a lot of equipment in Mass Effect, but the equipment management menus were absolutely terrible; there is no adequate layout that intuitively compares characters, their equipment, the spare equipment, and the attributes of all.  And that's not all.  Take, for instance, the fact that certain characters cannot be trained in certain weapons classes, which means that equipping a character with a very powerful weapon when they can’t use it properly would be a waste.  But the only way to know whether a character can use a particular class of weapon is to either memorize that character’s abilities (not likely) or back out completely into real-time gameplay and open up the weapons wheel which advises whether the character is “trained” or “untrained” for that particular weapon.  Moreover, how about the fact that you can't access all of your character’s equipment menus unless you travel to their respective lockers located in only one location, the Normandy?  Ridiculously stupid oversights for a game full of massive complexity, resulting in a time-sucking chore.

Unbalanced Classes - 

If you played the game through as Soldier, you may have had an easier time with the game than those that chose either a strictly biotic class or some hybrid. It was clear that the game favoured the former class, as other classes tended to be weak by comparison. This is a fundamental flaw. If you're going to offer multiple ways to approach the gameplay, each must be play-tested vigorously to ensure that all choices aren't handicapped in relation to one another. In my experience as a Vanguard (weapons and biotics specialization) the biotic powers took a long time to recharge which meant reverting to firearms that you were unable to adequately use given your class. Not well thought out...

Side-Quest Variety (or lack thereof) - 

In the Mass Effect universe, apparently only one company makes buildings, and they have only one model.  For Christ's sake, how is it possible that every planet I visit has the same space-shed with the insides all but identical with the exception of randomly placed crates?  Is it really that hard to build just one more building model?  C'MON!

Slide-Show Visuals -  

Unreal Engine III must be a real bitch to program for, as evidenced in Too Human's lack-luster visuals and Mass Effects' stuttering framerate.  The opening title sequence stuttered; you know when that happens, it doesn't bode well for the actual game.  And it's not as though this happened infrequently, it happens constantly.  Hopefully Epic will get their shit together and help out Bioware on this one, because this franchise deserves better.  (Also, can we please improve load times?  Elevator rides are for work, not playing.)

Messy Real-Time Combat -

There are moments when the combat is just fine, and you’re progressing at a satisfying pace without issue. But that’s not often, and even then there isn’t much that feels really great, if at all. More often than not, you’ll be completely overwhelmed by bad level design, a broken cover mechanic, just god-awful AI, and any number of things too numerous to get into. Enemy AI is the biggest culprit here, and not something that Bioware would have much experience with.  When your pedigree involves RPGs, all the AI behaviour you have to program is which attack a character will use while everyone stands still. Not so in real-time third-person combat. The enemies you faced in Mass Effect were down-right mentally handicapped. They either hung back or charged like an idiot, remaining at point-blank range while they threw any number of biotic or ballistic attacks at you. This is just awful, and results in a needlessly frustrating experience.

Looking Ahead -

Despite the litany of grievous errors that Bioware systematically committed with Mass Effect, it was still one of the most impressively immersive universes of story, presentation, and choice.  But the gameplay - the real gameplay - needs some work.  I, like everyone else, have very high hopes for Mass Effect 2, and I desperately hope that they're spending their time addressing the kinds of concerns and issues noted here.  Should they improve upon these aspects of Mass Effect, then Mass Effect 2 could truly emerge a masterpiece.

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