An interesting and in depth Sci Fi universe with a fresh feel to it's RPG style of gaming.
The story for Mass Effect is how humanity discovered alien technology on Mars,copied the technology so they could explore the galaxy and join the intergalactic community of alien races.Humanity are an emerging power and it makes the intergalactic community a bit uneasy and humanity have already been in a war against an alien race known as the Turians who have the most powerful army and humanity was on the verge of being annihilated until the Citadel Council(a council of various alien races who try to maintain peace within the galaxy)stepped in and prevented the Turians from doing so.
A Turian who hates humanity and who has an army of robots referred to as 'geth' is up to something and in the story every 10 000 or so years,a race known as the reapers show up and try to destroy all life in the galaxy.
The game has a lot of backstories and sidestories which can be read in the games's codex.The codex gives in-depth information on historical events,races,planets etc. and it can be interesting to learn about the history of the galaxy and about the alien races and planets.I like how loading screens give information about the planet you're visiting such as it's population,size and beautiful images of it.
However,I can't help to feel Mass Effect's story feels a bit too similar to Babylon 5 for it to feel fresh and original for me because a lot of Mass Effect's story drive comes from the fact humanity are an emerging power,got into a war with a much more powerful race and nearly got annihilated until other races stopped it form happening and from the fact a race of sentient,organic starships show up every few thousand years and try to destroy/conquer all life all happens in Babylon 5.I still enjoyed ME's story nonetheless.
What makes the story a little more appealing is you can make story decisions and create romance.
The gameplay is much like a third person shooter with some RPG elements such as being able to level up your characters and you can use the game's version of magic called 'biotics' which allow your squad members to manipulate gravity or to do certain things to eliminate enemies.
I'm not a big fan of shooter games but a good thing about the gameplay is it feels fresh and battles don't drag on like they do in other RPGs.You can gun down enemies quickly but sometimes shootouts can be long and tense.You will need to take advantage of cover mechanics at times just like in normal shooters.You have a squad with you and you can select 2 party members to accompany your character.
In the game you play as a human character named Shepard but you can select the gender and and certain story backgrounds to use for the character which have an effect on your character's story,romance possibilities etc. later in the game.
For a bit of Bioware style dialogue fun,you can choose to be rude or to be polite to people you talk to in the game and as you'd expect being rude will result in angry reactions from party members and being able to create romance or not with other characters depends on what you say to them.
I like the futuristic environments in the game.I like the futuristic societies and massive,beautiful alien structures and how some places have redlight style clubs with aliens whom wear revealing clothing and doing sexy dances in front of you.I like the use of colors for some of the alien worlds,especially how some alien planets have a purplish-tinge to them,it looks very alien but beautiful.
Overall I think Mass Effect is a great game and it has a fresh feel to it.