Mass Effect Preview

TeamXbox has kicked up their second Mass Effect diary, this time taking a very close look at the game’s combat and waxing philosophically about whether it’s “an action-RPG or an RPG with action elements”.

While the majority of Mass Effect’s combat takes place in real-time, the game does have a bit of a throwback mechanic to BioWare’s previous games. At any point during combat, you can hold down the right bumper to bring up a circular menu. This menu is broken up into three segments for each of the characters in the party, with Commander Shepard’s section on the bottom. There are a variety of icons in these segments, some of which are offensive, some defensive, and some support.

To use the offensive powers, all you’ve got to is target an enemy (while still holding down the right bumper) and use the left analog stick to select the power. After you hit the A button to select it, you only need to let go of the right bumper to unleash it. My character’s early offensive powers were Warp and Throw, with the former tying up and enemy in an energy field and the latter pushing them and knocking them down. Once they were stunned or hurt, I was able to unload on them with my weapon. After you use a power, however, you won’t be able to use it again until it recharges (unless you’ve got the awesome Adrenaline Burst power, which instantly recharges any powers that need it).

The defensive and support powers, on the other hand, don’t need to be aimed at all. All you need to do is hold down the right bumper to bring up the circular menu, then select the power you want to use. The one that I’ve been using most often is the Marksman power, which allows you to fire your weapon much more rapidly without the risk of overheating. It’ll also deal more damage and be a lot more accurate, and you can upgrade to higher levels for more benefits. This is the case for nearly all of these powers, as you’ll be able to spend your experience points to upgrade your existing powers or unlock new ones.