Mass Effect is a science-fiction action-roleplaying game (RPG) created by BioWare, the acclaimed RPG developer of Jade Empire, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, and the Baldur's Gate series. Mass Effect delivers an immersive story-driven gameplay experience with stunning visual fidelity.
Storyline
The story revolves around an ancient alien prophecy stating that every 50,000 years a portal opens that separates the "normal" universe and a realm beyond, releasing an ancient artificial intelligence that will harvest all organic life, and the time of their return is approaching. As you progress through the storyline, you will meet other characters who you can have in your squad, and each one of them comes with their own set of unique abilities and talents. Every cut-scene and conversation plays out like a movie, with different camera angles and plenty of cuts to keep the scene interesting and the storyline flowing. There are multiple endings based on certain decisions made during the game, and at least 20 hours worth of side-quests which have all been given the same amount of care as the 20 hour long main storyline. Although only the main storyline mode is needed to complete the game, accomplishing the side quests are highly recommended.
Characters
As with any RPG, Mass Effect starts you off in the Character Creation menu. It has a decent enough customisation system, however it is limited to facial characteristic (face, hair, ears, nose, etc). There are three primary character classes in Mass Effect; the solider, the engineer, and the biotic user. Each character class have unique talents and abilities which increase in power as the player progresses through the game. Apart from choosing the look of your character you can also customise their background, military history and combat style.
Character models are beautifully detailed, such as with your Krogan teammate Wrex, whose every wrinkle and ridge is carefully textured and molded. Characters look life-like and the lip-sync is pretty perfect. Characters realistically react to your words; in fact, your conversation choices shape your game from the missions you're offered to enemies you make.
Graphics
At first glance, Mass Effect is an absolutely stunning example of the raw graphical power of the Xbox 360. The graphics are a beauty to behold, however the text on an SDTV is a bit on the small side. From what I've played so far, it really does feel like KOTOR with the updated graphics with a focus on gunplay and a less robotic dialogue system.
Given the chance to create their own world, Bioware has produced an immersive action/RPG with a compelling plot, memorable characters, and entertaining gameplay. The gameplay itself is either first person shooter style with guns blazing, roleplaying where you have to interact with other characters to find out what is going on, or tactical squad based allowing you to bring up a secondary HUD and control other members of your team. While there are some technical issues and awkward gameplay decisions that are hard to ignore, when it comes down to it, Mass Effect is so compelling that most people will be able to push the issues aside and immerse themselves in one of the most detailed game worlds every created. You'll want more from it, but by no means does it hold the experience back, nor does it make you wish you were playing something else.
Nothing is sufficiently amiss here to prevent you from enjoying Mass Effect's class-leading gameplay, and it deserves to be remembered as the first truly great role-playing game of this generation.
