When you begin Mass Effect you can chose to be the original Commander Shepard or you can create your own. You can also chose either female or male, depending on which you chose the voice actor will be different. Once you do this you may begin to play one of the best games ever made...
The story of Mass Effect begins right at the core of the action. You are to retrieve an ancient beacon that was found in a planet called Eden Prime. Along with you is a Spectre, which is kinda like the special forces for the Council (the government alien races that run the galaxy). What was to be a simple mission ends the complete opposite. Before even landing at Eden Prime your ship crew receive a message telling them that Eden Prime is under attack. Once you and you land at Eden Prime with your squad you are to retrieve the beacon. Along the way one of your 2 squad members dies, later on you find a survivor human female who tags along with you, she tells you the location of where the beacon might be, but once you get there you only find the Spectre that was along for the mission dead. One survivor tells you he saw the whole thing, he says another Turian (the same alien race as the Spectre) shot him. He also mentions where they took the beacon. Following his directions you end up finding the beacon, but after getting close to it the beacon burns images into Shepard's mind. Later on your team heads for the Council to inform them of everything... there you tell them that Saren (the turian that shot your Spectre ally) was at Eden Prime to steal the beacon and was the one that killed the Spetre. But since Saren is also a Spectre the Council doesn't find him guilty... From there on you have to find out what was Saren really after and to prove the he was behind everything...
The story is Mass Effect is really deep, and it doesn't stop there. You can decide what type of response you want to tell individuals, eventually changing the outcome of the story. You can either decide to be the good guy or the bad guy with your decisions.
The entire game is full of voice acting and there is plenty of it. It's pretty amazing they managed to fit it all in one DVD. The voice acting is also well done for every character... even the aliens, just hear the Turian's talk!
Mass Effect is an action type RPG game. You can build up your characters, improving their attributes, you can also buy new and better weapons and armor. Every time you kill an enemy you get XP that will help you increase your level.
Mass Effect looks great, but suffers from some major slow downs. I guess the 360 can't keep up with the great graphics or the developers didn't do that great of a job. Character model are superb, specially the faces! Once again, just look at the Turian's! They look bad ass!
Slow downs aren't the only down side to this great game. Another problem are the planets that you can explore, they are all very... plain. There are many of them, but once you land on them... there isn't a lot of stuff there... just lots of hills, a box here, more hills, maybe a little bunker here... ect. Also, many bunkers, tunnels, or space ships you explore look to much of the same. They reused textures too much is this game, that's you go into a tunnel and it looks the same as the other 50 you visited.
Mass Effect is a lengthy game, not as much as i expected but pretty long. If you just play the main missions you can beat it pretty fast, exploring other planets and unlocking achievements will have you playing for hours and hours...
Other then some minor problems, Mass Effect is one of the best games ever made. If your looking for a game with a good story or just a good game in general, then get it. Now bring on Mass 2...