Awesome game! One of the only games with a story worthy of a movie!
the Gamestop clerk advised me to get the game over some other game I was going to get (I think it was Assassin's Creed or something), and I am glad I listened to that guy! When I popped it in I didn't think it was such a big deal, but when I continued to play, I just got sucked into the highly immersive world of Mass Effect!
The story is so big, I'm just gonna give a very short synopsis. You are commander John Shepard (you can choose to make your own character, but there last name will be the same), commander of the spacecraft Normandy in the Space Alliance Military. You are sent to investigate a distress call on a planet colonized by other humans, and when you find an ancient alien artifact, you are thrown into a quest to stop an ancient evil alien race bent on eliminating all life as you know it.
The basic gameplay for this game is simple, go to different worlds and complete different missions. You are given five weapons: Pistols, Assault Rifles, Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, and Grenades, as well as a space suit used as armor. You are also accompanied by two bot characters of your choosing from assembled team. You complete story missions to move the story along, but you can choose to do side missions acquired through the game to complete for extra equipment, currency, and other things. And through out the game, you are given a chance to upgrade yourself with other weapons, armor, etc.
One of the greatest things about this game (and possibly the worst depending on if you're impatient and don't care for the story) is the communication feature of the game. A main part of the gameplay involves alot of communication with other characters in the game. this will give you info on anything in the game; whats going on, the history of something, whatever! Sometimes a situation or the conversation its self will sometimes be irrelevant and leave you thinking "What was the point of that!?!" (once again, it depends on perspective, if you are patient enough to listen) You can communicate with everyone in the game, and usually its a good thing because it can give you extra stuff like equipment, missions, and even points to upgrade your personality to give you more options when in a conversation. The combat is okay, there is some new things such as unlimited ammo, the use of different abilities and customizable weapons and armor, but other than that, its just like any third person over the shoulder shooter. The guns are unlimited and recharge with energy, but they tend to overheat with repeated use. All the guns are calibrated for different uses, but be advised, the sniper rifle is the worst gun in the game (sorry fellow snipers) it is only for long range and when using the aiming scope, the character will move alot, refusing to give you a good shot. And of course you is able to buy better guns and armor from stores.
But the best thing about the game is the story. The story, characters, environments, everything has been done well to make it an excellent experience that is worthy of being made into a movie. Not many games that had movies made from them don't deserve it (like Doom, great game, not so great movie), but this one does.
There's more to the game I could get into, but to keep this from turning into 5 volume set (hahaha...yeah...) I'll end it here and let you find the rest on your own. This is an excellent game to play, with the conversation function, you get to choose the story's path, and you'll enjoy the ride with the amazing graphics, fast paced shoot outs, and everything in between! The only complaints I have is there wasn't many controllable vehicles, with the conversations, it can make the game lengthy, and that damn sniper is almost useless! Hopefully, they'll correct this in the future.