When comparing Mass Effect vs Gears of War 4, the Slant community recommends Mass Effect for most people. In the question“What are the best sci-fi PC games?” Mass Effect is ranked 2nd while Gears of War 4 is ranked 26th. The most important reason people chose Mass Effect is:
Your choices have direct consequences on how the story plays out, not only in this game but also across the rest of the Mass Effect trilogy. You get to choose between options like sparing or killing off an entire race of potentially dangerous enemies, saving or sacrificing one of your own squad members to finish an operation, and dealing with an enraged teammate who feels betrayed by your actions. How you handle certain side objectives during story missions can also have an impact on how the galaxy at large reacts to you. Each of your decisions, big and small, carry over through your save files to Mass Effect 2 and 3, opening things up for many different playthroughs to see how things turn out with other choices.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Your choices have true consequences on the story
Your choices have direct consequences on how the story plays out, not only in this game but also across the rest of the Mass Effect trilogy. You get to choose between options like sparing or killing off an entire race of potentially dangerous enemies, saving or sacrificing one of your own squad members to finish an operation, and dealing with an enraged teammate who feels betrayed by your actions. How you handle certain side objectives during story missions can also have an impact on how the galaxy at large reacts to you. Each of your decisions, big and small, carry over through your save files to Mass Effect 2 and 3, opening things up for many different playthroughs to see how things turn out with other choices.
Pro Memorable cast of authentic characters
Mass Effect has an amazing cast of both human and alien characters who feel like real people. While just about any NPC you meet is fantastic, your squad members are the ones that stand out the most. They all have backstories and traits that are believable and natural.
Ashley is a human soldier who joins your team early on. As you chat with her in between missions, you get to learn about her history with her family and religious faith back on Earth. But then as you explore the Citadel, the game's main hub area, she makes snide comments about all the aliens around, keying you in on her true feelings about non-humans. By contrast, your scientist team member Liara is an asari: Mass Effect's species of blue female-only aliens. Despite being reserved and shy, Liara often jumps at the chance to gush about her research. Talking to her gives you the chance to learn more about the asari and why exactly she's so devoted to her academic studies.
Getting to know everyone through dialogue and squad banter is a lot of fun, making it easy to grow attached to your favorite characters.
Pro Calm and thoughtful atmosphere
There's something calming about Mass Effect's atmosphere that really gives you the space to think and reflect. Exploring places like the indoor trade port Noveria feels special because of the cool blue color scheme, the blizzard blowing outside the full pane windows, and the ambient, yet quietly emotional synth music looping in the background. Even the title screen has a thoughtful song playing over the beautiful sight of Earth from orbit. The atmosphere is wonderful in a way that's almost nostalgic, making you feel right at home each time you start up the game.
Pro You can customize your protagonist Commander Shepard
There are lots of ways to make Commander Shepard feel like your own character. The character creator at the start of a new game lets you change all sorts of options, from your hair, to your skin color, the shape of your nose, mouth, and ears, and so much more. Or, if you prefer, you can simply stick with the default male or female Shepard. You also get to pick which class you want to be for combat: soldier, infiltrator, vanguard, adept, or sentinel, each with their own unique abilities, like the adept's helpful "magic spells" and the infiltrator's specialty with sniper rifles. You can role-play as Shepard however you want, with plenty of options to customize your looks and your combat specialties for whichever role suits you the most.
Pro Good romance subplots
The romance subplots in Mass Effect are great. Playing as male Shepard, you can romance either Liara or Ashley, while female Shepard can romance Liara or Kaidan, your human male squadmate. There are certain consequences for being unfaithful where your partner will confront you or the person you're cheating with in a heated showdown. Sticking with one person for the whole game rewards you with a romantic scene near the end of the story. A lot of care and attention went into these subplots, giving you the chance to see each of the characters in a new light.
Pro Local splitscreen multiplayer
Nowadays, some titles tend to exclude local multiplayer, focusing primarily on online play but Gears of War 4 is an exception. You can play both the campaign and all multiplayer modes with your friends via splitscreen.
Pro Really fun horde mode
Horde mode is a multiplayer co-op mode where up to 5 players try to survive against waves of enemies. It features regular combat and allows you to build fortifications, which you can do by collecting resources from killed enemies and using the fabricator. This allows you to build blockades, sentries, and various other defenses, giving it a very tower defense-esque feel, which is also a lot of fun.
You can also choose between 5 classes with each class being better at something different. For example, the Engineer can build and repair defenses much faster than others and the Heavy uses stronger weapons that allow him to kill large enemies much faster. As a result, teamwork is very important, so when your squad is co-operating like a well-oiled machine, it just feels incredibly satisfying.
Pro Exciting gameplay
In Gears of War you and a squad of several other soldiers fight against the enemies of humanity, using various weapons such as rifles, a shotgun, and even a weapon that fires saw blades. It's very fast paced and a lot of fun, rewarding not only effective use of cover and accurate shooting, but also quick decision making on when to charge your enemy and take them out with your knife or your chainsaw bayonet. This leads to a lot of very intense, sometimes brutal, and always satisfying battles, making Gears of War 4 a really enjoyable ride.
Pro Excellent visuals
Gears of War 4 has some really outstanding visuals with high quality textures, great lighting, and excellent shadow mapping. This makes all of the armored human characters, monstrous lizard-like enemies, and the various lush landscapes filled with ruins look especially good. All of this is turned up a notch with the help of excellent weather effects, such as rain, lighting, and gusts of heavy wind that carry massive objects over your head, giving Gears of War 4 a very cinematic feel.
Cons
Con Vehicle controls with the Mako are absolutely terrible
Driving around on planets to get from place to place in the Mako is awful. Controls aren't as responsive as they should be and the vehicle's physics are all over the place. Just trying to make basic turns is bad enough; roving up a rocky mountain, for example, makes the Mako bounce and spin around like it's in zero gravity. These driving parts are mandatory and unskippable, so there's no way around them. It's so bad that the developers got rid of the Mako in Mass Effect 2 and 3, but you unfortunately still have to deal with it here.
Con Tedious inventory management
The game overloads your inventory with weapon upgrades, modifiers, equipment, and all sorts of duplicates of those items. Clearing out your inventory can take several minutes at a time since there's no quick way to select the things you don't want and get rid of them. If you're diligent enough to trek to a store to sell things off every single time you're low on inventory space, you can make quite a bit of money, but it's not always convenient to do this, like when you're out in the middle of a remote planet. It takes a lot of patience to not get annoyed with managing all of your items and components.
Con Clunky third-person shooting combat
The third-person shooting part of Mass Effect isn't that fun because of how janky it is. Your character gets glued to cover whenever you're close to a wall instead of letting you press a button to enter cover whenever you want. The actual shooting mechanics are slow and heavy, and with guns that overheat if you keep firing them for too long. Suicidal squadmates run around getting killed unless you remember to keep directing them to hide behind cover everywhere you go. The combat is just unsatisfying, clearly taking a backseat to the game's story and characters.
Con Poorly done story
The story has some cool moments, but it mostly focuses on pointless drama and issues that end up feeling like filler because they have no real impact on the story or character building. This coupled with a few plot holes will make you want to press the skip button and just get back into the action.