As huge fans of the Mass Effect trilogy we were drawn to Everreach: Project Eden even though it looked like a budget knock-off with a main protagonist that looks like StarCraft: Ghost's Nova. Imitation is a form of flattery, and there are worse things than copying Mass Effect. So, how bad could it be?

The answer is - very bad.

For all its faults, and there are many to be sure, one need only look at the ‘on-vehicle’ sections in Everrreach: Project Eden to get a measure of its quality. Remember how the Mako in the first Mass Effect was a floaty mess that obeyed its own set of weird physical rules? Well, the hoverbike that protagonist Nora Harwood rides here – is worse. Floaty sure, but even the slightest bump as you ride over a rock or the simple grazing of a tree at low speeds and it’s one scrape away from exploding. Like the Star Wars speeder-bike chase seen in Return of the Jedi, but each time you’re a Stormtrooper. And it plays out in slow-motion along linear corridor-like pathways.

The combat in Everreach is best described as clunky. A catch-all term that you’ve no doubt heard thrown about once or twice in the past, but in Everreach this means enemy AI has one mode - strafe back and forth in a small open area with the ability to down Nora in a couple of hits. Or glitch out. Throw in questionable weapon accuracy and aim sensitivity that even on its lowest setting forced us to lower our mouse’s DPI setting, and combat is barely tolerable. Played with a controller it gets worse.

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