Can BioWare ever do wrong?
The first part of a promised trilogy sets you as Commander Shepard who is fully customisable both male and female Shepard's are available both with a wide set of customisation options heck, you can even change the back story for your character which however limited (3 options) is still impressive considering the impact it will have on other characters in the game.
The story gets off to a great start. You and your team have been sent to one of Earths new colonies in search of ancient technology although as always with RPG's nowadays things go disastrously wrong the events leading to a hunt across the galaxy for an enemy bent on releasing a catastrophe.
I would love to go into more detail but I would hate to ruin the experience but the story is great. Unfortunately however it is short-lived the main storyline (side-quests aside) will take 10 hours, 12 tops which considering this is predominantly an RPG is slightly disappointing.
The side-quests are much bigger than most you would expect also sending you to a variety of planets. Most of these assignments are minor trivialities compared with the main story but are still entertaining however small in scope.
The game promises a huge galaxy to explore and it delivers. The large areas you visit are wonderful to explore however the huge areas are limited. Most of the planets not used for the main story and instead are only used for side quests and are just fairly generic 'jungle planet', 'volcano planet' and are not terribly interesting.
The role-playing elements work fantastically, the game is incredibly cinematic experience with every single line of dialogue spoken aloud with truly amazing sound quality. The voice actors aren't cheap either they all do a brilliant job really immersing you in the world. Calling the games sound quality amazing would be an understatement. Every piece of music also suits each area and looking back at the game I can't think of one track that sounded silly or out of place.
If you come to Mass Effect expecting a shooter, you are playing the game wrong. The shooting elements work well it is third person based similar to how Gears of War worked but the similarity stops there. You can shoot a gun at enemies that's it. As far as I can tell there is no extra damage taken into account for headshots or wherever else you shoot. The whole shooting system is fairly generic but it's by no means bad. It works well considering the game is meant to be played as an RPG and not a shooter.
Mass Effect looks great although you won't be blown away if you've played other high profile games recently but it looks great and has that sci-fi feel that will keep that kind of audience happy. Often the game will play before the textures have fully loaded so characters will look kind of bland for a few seconds it's annoying but doesn't really hurt the game but it is a shame as it takes you out of what is otherwise an engrossing game.
Overall Mass Effect is a quality game that will be remembered for many years to come a few technical issues here and there coupled with the main storyline's short length upset what is otherwise an amazing game. It is easily the best RPG currently available for the Xbox 360.