Despite some minor problems and a slow start - Mass Effect is a fantastic game.
+ Fast and fun combat system
+ Replay value
+ Looks incredible
+ Good talent and upgrade system
+ Engaging story
Negatives
- Occassional bugs
- Sometimes has a bad frame rate at times
- Could be argued the story is too short
Mass Effect is a sci-fi RPG based in 100 years from now- 'Mass Effect' is the technology that allows travel over many planets, humans are in a political battle against other speices to proove themselves politically.
It begins when you create your character- commande Shepherd, in default he's a man, but you can change your details, facial appearence and gender to create some interesting characters.
You also choose your proffession and background- which affects how you will fight during the game- and nothing else.
Unlike your traditional swords and dragons fantasy RPG- Mass Effect is set in the future, so guns and biotech technology come into fights.
At times Mass Effect feels like an FPS game, but the customisation in the upgrades and talents systems- every level up you get from killing enemies and finishing missions you choose which area you upgrade in (depending on your proffession you get to choose different talents)
For example- a soldier can learn about weapons and armour, where as a Vanguard can only learn about light weapons and biotech.
Biotech is like magic, it's used for causing damage to the enemies and includes spells like throw, lift and warp- you don't have a set amount of times you can use them- but there's a respawn time on all biotechs so you don't get carried away.
Weapons are standard, pistols, shotguns, assault rifles and snipers- your world map is a map of the galaxy, goals are clearly pointed out once you become in command of your own ship.
You also have to make decisions in game, like in Bowares other RPGs- you can be a rebel and choose to be negative and rough, or a paragon and be nice and helpful- these affect how other characters react to you, and ultimately how the game ends depending on your own decisions you make during game.
Decisions you make can kill party members- or help them survive, and with good replay value it's worth playing through the game more than once to see the results of making different decisions.
Despite a slow beggening it does pick up, I hated the game for the first level - but my advice is to listen to most dialouge and stick with it- because you wont regret it.
There's also a few technichal glitches- and the autosave dosen't help because it's inconsistent, I died on a boss fight thinking it would have autosaved- but it hadn't done.. so my other peice of advice is to save often.
Overall- if you like RPGs and are willing to grind into the first few hours then Mass Effect is just an amazing experience.