Mass Effect is a fun shooter with some depth and good characters. Will do if you're in need of an RPG fix. Not Special.
Mass Effect sees you take the role of Systems Alliance Military officer Commander Shepard, a high ranking member of the greatest ship in the military, the USS Normandy. Humanity are the newest species to join the galaxy and as so are treated pretty badly. Desperate to earn a seat on the council and a man (or woman) of their own in the council's secret weapon the SPECTRES, the story begins with some human officials deciding your fate as protector of the galaxy.
So , let's get to the important part. How does it play? Well, there are two forms of gameplay in Mass Effect, first of all, the conversation wheel. These appear in the majority of cinematics and are the essential way to choose your characters personality and how to progress through the game. The upper half of the wheel is labelled as 'paragon' or good, whereas the bottom is 'renegade' or evil but as I played through I saw no real point to being evil as it offers up a lot less side quests which in essence isn't what you want to do in an RPG. The dialogue, however, can be skipped if you want to jump straight through to the action.
Speaking of action, the combat is pretty basic, standard third person shooter affair, hide behind walls, shoot at things, hide behind walls again. A cool addition is the magic and technic skills although this is done rather simply by holding the right bumper, selecting a skill and watching it go. You also get 4 choices of weapon, pistol, shotgun, assault rifle and sniper rifle although later on the only useful weapon is the assault rifle as the pistol is too weak and the shotgun and sniper rifle have too few shots before they overheat. The combat itself is decent but I feel that the classes restrict the game quite a lot, the only class that can equip all the weapons and the best armour is Soldier and the only thing the rest have to offer are skills that can be accessed through the other characters in your party.
Ok, so the gameplay is pretty average but I must say that Mass Effect is the best SciFi film I have ever played. The story is very well written and well performed, the characters are all very likable, the graphics are generally very good, the animation of the characters is superb and quality of voice acting is amazing, I would say the best voice acting on a game ever. The soundtrack isn't memorable at all and the landscapes, planets and side quests are extremely samey but in general I did have a great time playing Mass Effect , if you don't believe the hype you won't be disappointed but if you are expecting the most in depth amazing and life changing experience, you won't find it here.