If Mass Effect had been fully fleshed out, it may have been considered an all time great. As it was, pretty good.
1. Voice acting: I would agree with the majority that it is very good, if not excellent. Every game has some lulls and hokey moments, but enlisting Seth Green, Lance Henriksen and Keith David were good choices. Good voice acting seperates mediocre from good.
2. Length of the game: This one confuses me. The primary complaint was "too short." I spent nearly 30 hours on the game, often skipping dialogue and not completing all secondary quests...so I'm not sure how it qualifies as "short."
3. Graphics/Sound: Stellar. This is one of a handful of games that has utilized my Dolby Digital Surround system to its full capabilities. If you don't think it makes a difference, it does. Loved hearing sound coming from background speakers as my gun amped through the front central speakers.
4. Story: I'd sit on the fence with this one. Some great, some rather..dull moments. The romance plots are a bit cheesy, and aren't incorporated as well as could have been. I admittedly skipped dialogue because I didn't really care. Inconsistencies abound if you look: "Spectres are above the Law." Then, you have your ship taken away from you. I thought you were above the law, and answered to no one? Ultimately, this game will come down to whether you are a space epic fan or not.
5. "It's Kotor Without Lightsabers" : While the game is made by the same principle company, has some similarities and even a returning voice actor (Carth=Kaiden), I wouldn't go so far as to complain and say it's a "clone" of Knights of the Old Republic. That's a stretch.
6. Combat: I can see how this could be boring to some. The weapons are aplenty, but ultimately fairly generic: assault rifles, pistols, shotguns. Bio and tech abilities are best suited for PC gaming, as they could have several mapped at once, rather than a single, solitary ability quick-mapped. I'm not a fan of "red triangling" the enemy. I already have crosshairs, I don't need a big red blob on top of the thing I want to kill.
Overall, I enjoyed the game, but thought it could've been fleshed out. While you visit multiple planets and clusters, they still seemed rather linear in terms of where you could go and what you could do. The majority of planets weren't landable. Dialogue options had little effect on the ultimate outcome of the story. Final opinion: decent game, but definitely fan-specific. I understand why some hated it, and understand why some loved it.