Mass Effect in every way is Awesome, An Amazing RPG which is really addictive
Also, I have only played about 20 hours and have not finished the game. My FPS game skills suck, and I'm relatively new to the console. That being said...
Succinctly put, I would place Mass effect just behind Baldur's gate 2, followed by KOTOR, KOTOR2(okay, maybe not exactly Bioware), Jade empire, the original Baldur's gate, then rounding up with the IWD series. Yes, it's that good.
The reason I placed it behind BG:SoA is simple. I played that game a thousand times in all its mods and glory.
The point is actually why it placed above KOTOR.
Mass effect has its own share of colorful characters, Wrex (ME's Canderous), Tali (ME's Mission), but this is more of a down side. KOTOR has the upper hand when it comes to sidekicks. HK47 and Mission Vao, ME can't beat that. Bioware already stated that even the romance aspect was toned down a notch for gameplay's sake.
The kudos for ME comes with how well the game was executed. This is really really immersive. This essentially shows a near absolution to what Bioware was aiming for in what it means to be an RPG. With all those past experiments with multiple endings, alignments, hammering out the defects in playing evil, romances, bantering, consequence of actions and all. The game feels more mature as an RPG. There are points which I do miss from the previous games such as party dialogue, but as for the central character, Bioware seems to have made up it's mind.
#1 whatever "alignment" you play, the Game itself should be more goal oriented. This may seem a bit of a let down at first, but considering the fact that a limited pile of algorithm as a game cannot truly flesh out all the features of choice and consequence without sacrificing the Game experience, this is the right way. For instance, a choice in life presents itself, there are both good and bad ways to deal with it. And then again, as pointed out in KOTOR2, there are good intentions and actual good results. In the end, is every possible choice "Game worthy"? Bioware answered "No" with ME. It doesn't help the game for Shepard to decide to let the galaxy die a horrible death and make friends with Saren. This game is a statement that Bioware feels tht RPG is more of "How" you experience a story, than "how the story unfolds".
I don't necessarily agree with the self limitations and the philosophy bioware has placed itself behind with this game, but after playing ambitious ventures into RPGs that claim "open ended" while ultimately nose dragging you to an inevitable end (i e Oblivion) I feel that a better game would eventually result with such firm direction.
#2 In such views as stated above, Bioware seems to have spent the rest of its effort on truly making a, as the game reviewers' jingo goes, "cinematic experience". This is truly the highlight of the game. As the game works less without the grain effect. Observe the camera angles as the characters speak. Facial expressions, Hand and eye movement. This is truly the end result of a lot of effort. It's hard to empathize with a talking manequin. Especially if the manequin is so obviously inhuman in its presentations. We people find faults with so many flaws in aspects of deformity that we have eventually conjured up the notion of "beauty" based upon healthy reproductive features, miniscule details that catch our unconsciousness and logs it down as a form of emotion. How such effort of making presentation as natural as possible is decidedly why I placed ME above KOTOR.
I'm an old RPG fan. The days of 100 hour games 200 hour games seem to be over. Such a grand scale game as ME can barely cover the richness of 3 chapters of BG SoA. Yet, content aside, the aim for perfecting the game itself is certainly laudible. I hope the climax is as good as Bioware's previous games.
Mass Effect is Awesome!!