With appealing graphics and accessible gameplay, Mass Effect is like a thriving planet amidst a sea of barren worlds.
The sky's the limit in Mass Effect, literally, as you command the finest crew in the alliance fleet, on a mission to take down a deadly officer who's suddenly gone rogue. Entire star systems are at your disposal as you travel between planets, on the trail to stop him and uncover his sinister plans. The scope of the game is immense, and its handled pretty well, as there are a variety of planets you can land on and explore, even though the out of the way ones that aren't central to the main story aren't nearly as developed, they are home to various side missions.
You play as Commander Shepard, and can select one of a few basic backgrounds for the character, the only difference being that they pop up in conversations now and again. You can also choose your class at the beginning of the game. These range from soldier, to biotic (expert with powers like throw and lift), to engineer (expert tech user), to any combination of the above. Each of these main classes is quite different in combat, as each class has their own skills that can be learned, and arms that they can use, as the soldier class can use pretty much any weapon/armor you find, while the engineer is a more crowd control type class, and can only use light armor and is only trained in pistols.
But you aren't alone in your quest. Without spoiling anything, you'll come across six others to round out your team, from a variety of races, with a variety of skills, each one having different motives for joining up and seeing your mission succeed. You can have three members in your immediate party at one time and swapping them out is as easy as returning to your ship and selecting a different away team.
You drop down on planets in the Mako, a four wheeled all terrain vehicle that sports a rapid fire gun and a much stronger roof mounted cannon that can be fired only every few seconds. Combat in the Mako is pretty straightforward, you move using the left stick and rotate the cannon with the right stick, using the shoulder buttons for firing. The Mako can tackle all but the steepest of steep terrain without tipping over, making Earth's Lunar Rover look like a Pinto. Like you and your squad, the Mako has a limited supply of shields, once exhausted, will start to take bodily damage, enough of which will cause it to start to burn and eventually be destroyed. Combat in the Mako is effective and while you can become a master of strafing eventually and this is almost certainly required on the higher levels of the game, it isn't the most user friendly vehicular combat ever.
Thankfully, you don't have to cruise around in the Mako at all, you can hoof it around the various planet surfaces, and while this is quite a bit slower, you also gain much more experience for foes taken down without the aid of a roof mounted cannon. Combat on the ground is much more accessible, the right trigger fires, the left trigger zooms in, and the two shoulder buttons switch between the various weapons and powers you've acquired or have equipped, while pushing the left stick in lets you crouch, and almost any object in the game is fair game for providing cover or the advantageous corner cover.
The enemies aren't particularly difficult on the easiest setting, however, on the unlockable hardcore and insanity levels, they will use powers and skills to their full extent, and take down your hit points before you know it, while you will have to wittle down their hit points. There is a new game plus, which lets you start over with all the skills and powers and weapons you've found up to completing the game. This new game plus, however, uses your original character, so you cannot change classes, but its still a worthwhile playthrough on a more advanced difficulty, if only to experience dialog choices you may have avoided the first time, or finish quests you missed on your first trip through the game.
In between the combat sections of the game, you'll be able to engage in conversations with a wide variety of people, many will offer quests and most you can converse with in a helpful, generally good way, earning paragon points, and you can also be a real mean son of a , well you know, earning renegade points. You can also take a middle ground approach, more or less, but this earns you little in the way of extra money or items for completing quests, so its much better if you take to one extreme or the other.
The graphics for the most part are a treat to look at. The game may be nearing the ripe old age of two, but certainly looks none the worse for wear. You'll see moons and suns on the horizon, ripples of light shining off water, and planets off in the distance that seem much closer than they really are and it all looks quite nice. The close-ups of those people you converse with are particularly well done, and you get a real feel for each race by the way they look.
The sound effects are nice enough, and the music is subdued, without being too overpowering, as there is a lot of conversation in the game. The voice acting is very well done and if you're something of a television aficionado, you'll probably recognize a few of the voices here.
With an engaging story, impressive graphics, terrific voice acting and combat that's accessible to almost anyone, and a universe that's filled with history and lore begging to be discovered by intrepid explorers, you don't need to bring down the sky to enjoy all of what Mass Effect has to offer.