A Good Solid Game, Just A Little Too Much To Take In
I was glad to see the game development has progressed so far to creating such in depth characters, improved graphics and a general new way of stylising an RPG, shooting with 3rd-person aiming rather than mathematical statistics.
Having said that however, the game upon first presentation seems to me personally, a little too futuristic. We are presented with a lot of new information and a lot of dark rifts in the context of the Mass Effect world to not spoil future plot elements. Once you get your head around the intense, new storyline you are greeted with a unique RPG gameplay style. 3rd-person shooting for an RPG is both interesting and difficult. I personally am a classic RPG player, your Final Fantasys, KOTORs and World of Warcrafts do me fine. Adjusting to a shooter was a bit of a big jump for me.
Additionally, dealing with the performance of my CPU not being able to smooth out gameplay due to graphical system demands I assume that the shooting would work fine and is therefore a pat on the back to BioWare for coming up with such a unique mechanic.
What is also nice to see is that you no longer play as a quirky, dorky preset-face character but you can make your own. (Nothing wrong with the original Male & Female Shepards). Being a perfectionist, this part of the game took up 10 minutes of my actual playtime, which isn't a complaint, just a compliment at BioWare's extensive customisation mechanic. (I had to download a Bastila Face mod to get through KOTOR II :) )
The game sucks you in until you get to a certain point in the game, after you disembark from your ship and after the events of Eden Prime, you're left wondering what to do. The world seems pretty open until you discover the very linear paths forged in the game area. Shepard's motions are also limited to a simple jog, there's no jumping, rolling, but there is a nice Cover mechanic which is again a first for RPGs.
On the whole, the game performs like a 3rd person shooter, the storyline and the exposure to the Mass Effect world can do your head in sometimes, but once you get passed that aspect of the game, you can enjoy the unique game mechanics, excellent voice acting and hard dedication of the BioWare team.