This totally changed my prejudice against Bioware games with it's great story, tough choices, and dynamic characters.
The first choices that you make are with character development which I totally passed over the first time. However they are great to play around with and can really make a difference with how you play the game as some characters you develop can run into the middle of fire fight and kick butt while others must hang back and hide if they are to succeed. The game has three different types of attach modes with traditional weapons which are ammo-less but do overheat, biotic attacks which can physically effect an enemy, or tech attacks that take down shields and stop abilities.
You are also asked to make a back story for your character which plays into the dialogue of other characters. I found this to be great addition and look forward to see how it carries into Mass Effect 2.
From the opening scene of Shepard (my first two playthroughs were male, and second two female) leave you with the feeling that this is a game of purpose and action. The missions are well balanced but sometimes repetitive in their locations. It seems that in the future their are only two different types of bases of operation that can be used all with same floor plan. Despite this it is still fun to run around planet side and shoot bad guys with the guns on the Mako, a small six wheeled tank.
Despite some small graphic glitches that I saw this game was extremely good looking. The characters, architecture, landscape, ships, and vehicles have been nicely developed and the artists have done a great job making them each unique. Although some areas clearly have influence form other games such as the citadel which has a decidedly Halo-ish habitat ring.
One of my biggest beefs with this game is the auto save locations. Often times the game will save before a long cut scene which will then turn into a battle. Which of course if you die in battle will start you over at the beginning of the cutscene as you cannot save while fighting. My frustration level had me swearing at the top of my lungs after I had witnessed the same cutscene for the 25th time. This only started to happen when I played on intense but non the less it was really ticking me off. I am hoping that new Mass Effect will get rid of this little frustration.
All in all I highly recommend this game and know it will take hours out of your life that you should be spending on more important things.