Game of the year? Hands down. Interested in knowing why? Buckle down and I'll explain it all.
I'm left nearly speechless upon completing my first playthrough. This game? What do I think of it? My thoughts are a bit muddy, I'm staggering in the overwhelming glory that is Mass Effect; one thing is clear though, this game is a masterpiece. This game floored me in the most literal sense.
First off, I ought to explain the premise of the game for those of you interested in something a bit more in depth. At the start of the game, you must first design your character, and pick his/her class. After that you're thrown into the game. It starts with Commander Shepherd heading towards a distress call on a human colony. With him is a Specter, an agent of the galaxy's ruling council that is essentially above the law and able to do nearly anything. This Specter is to observe Shepherd on this mission and consider him as a potential Specter canidate. This of course would have significance because Shepherd would be the first human to become one and would herald the introduction of humanity as having a large role in intergalactic politics. From there, the story sets off and will keep you hanging on as new events bring new meaning to situations.
The story is well crafted. The cut sequences rarely have much action in them; typically, they show the arrival of a new enemy in a few brief seconds or are entirely dialog. Dialog is a serious portion of the game as it takes the form of a playable minigame. You choose Shepherd's response, as I'm sure you've heard, from a number of basic one liners that outline what Shepherd would be saying. This keeps the player involved and prevents the dialog and sometimes long cut scenes from becoming excessively boring. Character interaction is a large portion of the game, and its entirely possible to level up just from conversing with crew members.
The rest of the gameplay involves combat and exploring. Mass Effect plays like a tactical, squad based shooter. The significant differences are that there is no reloading, and weapons instead work on a heat system. About 30 shots from the assault rifle will overheat it, thus forcing the user to fire in bursts or suffer the consequences. Grenades are useful, but are mapped to the back button, something unique to Mass Effect. Overall, the slightly unorthodox grenades work well.
Equipment can be customized in a number of ways. Weapons can have such upgrades as recoil buffers which make it easier to aim, heat sinks to increase the amount of shots before overheating, and then another category in which the player selects a type of round such as incendiary or tungsten. The different rounds have differing effects, such as X% damage increase against synthetics, organics, or causing poisoning.
Mass Effect also has a cover system, something few shooters go without. Shepherd is able to put his back against the objects and lean out to take shots at enemies. There is no blindfiring; this isn't Rainbow Six Vegas or Gears of War, as much as it may seem like it. For some strange reason, the player must crouch to take cover against low objects. Why this needs to be done is as unexplained as the lack of a jump button, or why the auto-save function is typically useless (dying on a mission can cause you to need to go through an entire planet again!).
Now, Mass Effect also has a biotics system, much like the magic of other RPGs. Additionally, there are tech abilities as well, which I understand are very useful in Mass Effect because of the game's most common enemy, the self-aware robotic Geth. I can't offer much input on these since my first playthrough was devoid of both abilities since I was a combat only class. My experience with biotics and tech were secondhand, only experienced on the rare occasions where I took control of a squadmate, something that can be done at nearly any time in combat, assuming you don't mind a pause.
Now, for the negatives of the game; there aren't many. The biggest gripe I have with the game is the framerate. If this isn't the first review you've read, you've likely heard about it. The framerate can bog down in spots, but it's usually only for a few seconds. It doesn't break the gameplay as it doesn't ever drop to a stop. The Artificial Intelligence is also a tad spotty, something ironic considering how A.I. is treated in the Mass Effect universe (there are restrictions on advanced A.I. for numerous reasons that are apparent in the plot). Occasionally throughout the game, squadmates would become caught on objects, but this was a rarity. I didn't encounter very much in the way of bad enemy intelligence, but that's something that can be hard to notice when its subtly happening in the middle of combat. There isn't any glaring A.I. deficiency though.
Overall, I don't feel that either of the two issues I outlined detract severely from the game. As someone who pays for Xbox Live and plays games online often, I'm usually not a fan of purchasing single player games at full price. I'm unhappy with my purchase though; I wish I would have forked over the extra 10$ for Limited Edition as it would have been worth every penny. I can safely say that I'm in love with this game (and yes, if it were female, and if it were legal to marry games, I'd be on a knee proposing). The ending of the game was full of edge of the seat action (I was literally on the floor playing) , and although the main mission is somewhat short, it's still intense and the replay value is enormous. There are something like twelve classes (six base, and two branching prestige-style classes chosen around level 20), two genders, numerous character customization options, six standard weapons, and countless worlds to explore that are never touched in the main questline. I completed a number of side missions, but the majority of it was untouched as I became caught up in the intensity of the main story. This is a game that I will be playing for a long time to come and that says a lot; just take a look at my collection. If you're someone that likes RPGs or Shooters, and as long as you're not someone that likes one and can't stand the other, Mass Effect will not let you down. It'll satisfy more than some of the crew members (yes, there are romantic subplots, and yes, that was a dirty joke). Overall, Mass Effect is an enormously pleasing game.