Mass Effect is kind of a huge game. Pretty much everything about that game is huge. The
size, the scale, the sales...the budget...the ladies. So if you�re trying to do a game
like Mass Effect, size is a good place to start. It�s got to be big in all the same
areas.
All, the same areas.
Might need some alien implants, is what I�m saying.
And you know, Mars: War Logs actually gets off to a good start. It has the setting, the
backstory...and it certainly has an impact. We start by meeting Innocence, a young man
torn from his family and forced into war. And as he rides in a truck, transporting captive
soldiers like cattle, he gives a surprisingly vivid description of life in the trenches.
Turns out war is hell no matter what planet you�re on.
So the game already has your attention when it starts.
Then it squeezes it, until your face turns blue. See, as soon as Innocence arrives at
the prisoner camp, his nightmare gets worse. And suddenly, the horrors of war...don�t
seem quite as horrific. Fortunately, you pick a great time to show up.
You also pick a great wardrobe. That coat�s fantastic.
Mars: War Logs doesn�t start slow. It starts dramatic. It start big, like it needs to.
From there, though...that drama falls off a cliff. And you start to see that, for all
its ambition to be big, this is actually a very small game. The world is small, the scope
is small...the characters are small.
And worst of all, so is the gameplay.
And speaking of which, War Logs is pretty much Mass Effect if Mass Effect wasn�t a
shooter. I mean, you can shoot things, but...it�s not really the focus. This game is more like
a beat �em up. And while the combat can be kind of button-mashy, in terms of its mechanics,
it�s actually made interesting thanks to its scavenging system.
Just about every weapon you use, you have to craft. You can turn a broken piece of trash
into something pretty wicked with just a little scrap metal and leather, and you can also
upgrade your stuff that way, too.
So that�s a lot of fun, right? Finding stuff, making stuff...and then using it. Again, the
problem is what you�re doing with them. It�s sort of repetitive stuff, and what�s
worse, the controls suddenly become stiff as soon as you have to fight. So you can target
enemies, but strafing is really choppy and awkward, for some reason. And then, once in
a while, the game just started randomly bringing up menus during combat.
Like I was pushing buttons I didn�t even push.
It�s kind of weird. Like, there�s a good game here, somewhere. And sometimes, it�s
as clear as day. As clear as the days get on Mars. But too often, the game�s shortcomings
just cloud things back up. There are lots of missions, but...they�re almost always
fetch quests. And there�s a morality system with dialogue choices, but it�s never really
as tangible or consequential as the games it�s emulating.
So even though there are some awesome parts here�especially the crafting and its really
sweet levelling system�War Logs never quite manages to craft it together, itself.
It might not be fair, but...it�s kind of unavoidable.
If you try to do Mass Effect, you�re going to be compared to Mass Effect. Or any game,
for that matter. There are a few games on this one�s checklist, but try as it might,
it�s just a smaller scale, a smaller scope...and especially, a smaller budget.
War Dogs has plenty of strengths, but unfortunately, size isn�t one of them.