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The Character of Its Convictions

Nothing about Mass Effect gets second looks like its visual engine. But, while it does an acceptable job rendering cold, clinical interiors and light on the insides of spaceships or from alien stars with the sort of exotic lens flare that directors like John Carpenter celebrate in movies like "The Thing," its exteriors are often generic to the point of ugly. You can tell where the design team's gameplay emphasis was, when the character models are this highly developed, and it certainly makes sense when the camera spends most of its time zoomed on chatty heads. While not as brilliantly articulated and emotive as Andy Serkis's directorial work on Heavenly Sword for the PS3, the character models in Mass Effect are something to behold when motionless.