Great story line and overall great game! Nice graphics and player interaction throughout the game.
Mass effect is a sci-fi action RPG that took gamers by storm, with its awesome story and vast universe, setting the bar high in the genre. The game is consisted of quantity and quality, and you will sure get the bang for your buck.
You create your own character, his back-story varies depending on your build, his appearance, class and abilities, but basically you're a combat expert, with the tremendous experience, Commander Shepard, and you're assigned a mission to investigate strange behavior on Eden Prime. Things go bad, teammate Jenkins dies, you find spectre Sarren behind everything, he gets away, but examining a Prothean beacon, Shepard now has knowledge about the end of the galactic cycle and the Reapers. Figuring, it's just a dream, for now exposing Sarren is the primary objective. After a couple of side quests, Sarren gets exposed, and Shepard becomes the first human spectre, a member of an elite task force for the Citadel. While hunting Sarren down that vision Shepard had on Eden Prime starts to make more sense setting up the main story line for the franchise.
By today's standard the look of the game can be a little stiff, but for its time it was top of the line, and it doesn't age that bad at all. Mass effect's gameplay revolves around third person shooter combat and RPG, giving you choice of resolving some issues like a diplomat, or shoot-ask-questions later tactic. Whichever way you choose, the story will stay the same with the exception of the reputation you make for yourself, the game's morality system, where you can choose the path of the Paragon, or the way of the Renegade. While aboard Normandy, your cutting edge stealth recon space vessel, you traverse the galaxy via galaxy map, and you have a vast universe to explore.
Just starting to play Mass Effect can feel a little frightening, because of the content, but everything is paced nicely, and after getting in hang of the world guys from Bioware created, you can expand your knowledge with the in game encyclopedia, and trust us, after a while you will get sucked in and spend at least a little time getting to know details about the Mass Effect universe.
There are only two gripes we have with this game. First is the notorious "oblivion stare", as much as the voice acting is good, the character behavior feels lifeless, and it can be noticed easily in the dialogues with NPCs, the second is the planet exploration, or the driving sections, that feature feels a little tacked on, but as bad as Mako's controls, it's moon physics have a goofy fun element.
We stated enough how the story is great, but it just gets amplified with the game's overall look and feel. The sci-fi soundtrack and background scores just ooze "space adventure", and who doesn't want to have the space adventure, especially, yes I will point out the romance bit, when you can get busy with alien ladies.
Pros:
• Amount of content and quality
• Replay ability
• Story and Universe
Cons:
• Driving sections
• The "Oblivion stare"
You will have fun with this one, and the fact that there's DLC out there and the ability to take your save game to the next installment, despite minor complains, this is a must have title.
Rating: 8.5
-Petar
GameNTrade Ltd.