The KOTOR of this generation: Minus Star Wars; Plus aiming guns.
The story line and plots are sure to grip just about anyone that has an interest in Sci-fi, the reason is because most of it is pulled from the best franchises in the sci-fi world and packaged as ME. I am of course using 'best' as a relative term based on my own experiences. It is hard to defend my stand on this because it will spoil most of the plot points. Though I don't spell out exactly what points are ripped from other franchises, if you are at all worried skip the next paragraph.
What I can say is: Humans are in the situation equivalent of Star Trek: Enterprise; The main plot line revolves around that of Star Control 2 and 3; The galaxy is ran by a blind council, like the Jedi Council from Star Wars, and even has its Jedi... I mean specters, out handling the situations; Pulled elements from the Ender series from Orson Scott Card; and more... If you can overlook these similarities or haven't experienced these stories before, the world of ME will amaze you. For me, it was still good to experience as these are the best elements from these different franchises and work well together as a whole.
The game play is similar to a 3rd person shooter. You have four types of weapons: Sniper Rifles, Pistols, Assault Guns (automatics), and Shotguns. There are also two other types of classes the equivalent of a hacking specialist and a biotics user (or 'force' enabled for lack of a better description. Hacking specialists let you break into things or perform operations on computers that will make your life easier. The biotics let you throw things, lift things, put things in statis, put up force fields, that sort of thing.
ME has a 'cover' mechanic that doesn't work very well to add to the game play. In fact it causes more problems than it solves. While you are in cover you can still get hit, so all it really does it make it difficult to reposition your aiming reticule every time you pop-out of cover to shoot. Strafing in and out of cover is a much better tactic. Unfortunately if you strafe to close to something that could be used as cover the game will automatically throw you into cover mode.
You traverse the galaxy alongside two companions that you can only control as one supplemental unit. You can trade out party members depending on the mission, but that will have a negative effect on achievements. For the most part the AI can take care of themselves and on the easier modes just act as a distraction for gunfire or AI controlled people that 'steal your kills' (see why in the achievement section). They also chime in on occasion with their opinion on the situations you run into, which adds depth to the experience and motivation beyond your own to want to 'resolve' a situation a certain way.
Along the course of your travels you will find all sorts of items to equip your party with, unfortunately the equipment screen has a very poor limit of items you can carry (only 150) and an even poorer method of deciding what is good and what isn't. What is worse is if you ever acquire more than the limit you can carry you get no option to drop other items in trade for those that you picked up, so you find yourself unable to pick up that shiny new Sniper rifle because you are already carrying a crappy sniper rifle. The only way to continue from this point is to turn the good sniper rifle into 'omni-gel' so you can open the rest of the equipment screen to turn that crappy rifle into 'omni-gel' so you don't get bit the next time.
The equipment problem tries to warn you that you are getting close on the item limit, but even if you clean it out every time you start a new mission I found myself hitting the limit by the end every time. And most times you will end up picking up items from killing enemies, which add themselves to your inventory automatically for pick-up the next time you try to open the equipment screen. All in all, the equipment portion is the weakest and most annoying part of this whole game.
Aside from the negatives though all the elements tape themselves together fairly well and provide a good experience overall. The way the designers worked in how 'specters' have the ability to choose how best to handle the situation make it so you can either charismatically handle things or just go in guns blazing. It is a good method for making it able to travel the galaxy yet still be part of the alliance you are trying to protect.
Achievements help you experience the game in different ways and range from use a certain skill or weapon numerous times, to replay the game with different party members to see how the dialog and decisions will change. The achievements also chain themselves together via replaying the game. Once you have beat the game you can start over, keeping the bonuses unlocked from a prior play through. This allows your character, and even new characters, a boost when playing on the harder difficulty levels. The achievements were well thought-out to help gamers that 'find one way that works and rehash it for the whole game' to branch out.
There are some annoying achievements though. The 'play the majority of the game with...' achievements for example. You never quite know how much 'most' means. I get the idea that they are trying to get you to play the game with those specific companions in mind, but they should have added a way to know how much more you have to go, like a game completion percentage... Maybe there is one, but I couldn't find it. Another achievement I also disliked the fact I needed to kill 150 enemies with my sniper rifle and my companions kept getting in the way or picking off the people I nearly killed on the first shot.
I played this on an extended 'borrow' from a family member and would still say that I want to replay it at least two more times, which with all the negatives, still speaks volumes about how much was done right. Personally I had a hard time with the story line being so similar to what I had already played or read about in other fiction and the cover and equipment mechanics. Those that can overlook the story similarities should add at least another point to my score. Which puts this game in 'great' status.
Like I said in my summary, this is the KOTOR of this generation. Which means you should play it despite its flaws if any of the subject material appeals to you. Unless of course you aren't a big fan of WJRPGs or RPGs in general.