Mass Effect Review

Mass Effect is the first game of the now famous trilogy and boy is it something. It blends some amazing storytelling and cutscenes with fun shooting and RPG elements to create something awesome. Flawed, but awesome.

The story in Mass Effect is amazing. You'll want to keep playing just to find out what happens next. It also helps that the story is one that you create. Choice is a very important aspect of Mass Effect as you can dictate the way the story goes and weather to save or kill certain people. Some of the BIG decisions you make you know will have consequences later in the trilogy, even in the small things. The characters are all wonderfully done with enough back story and emotion behind them to make them feel real. The setting is in the future where humans and aliens live together in peace and harmony across galaxies. Mostly. Humans have not yet fully been accepted by the council and must prove themselves. You play as Commander Shepard of the Galactic alliance. The great thing about this is that he/she is your shepard. You can make him/her heroic or ruthless, and choose how he/she looks. I chose male Shepard, but found his voice acting really dull and boring, so I switched to female Shepard and found she was much better. 
The graphics are strong, even for a game of this age which really speaks about how much effort Bioware's put into this game. The game has this whole feeling of being cinematic and epic, which is one of the few times I actually was truly engaged in cutscenes and felt as though I was watching a movie. The voice acting is generally great, except for the Asari who seem to all have the universal power of sounding WEAK!!


Gameplay wise, Mass Effect is a blend of Third Person Shooting and RPG. You can upgrade and change gear anytime with equipment you buy or find around the world and can spend points on talents on specific trees like the power of a weapons or one of you specific talents. At the beginning of the game you choose between a soldier, a biotic, an engineer, an infiltrator, a sentinel or a vanguard, each has different powers and skills. The cover system is good, but there's no button to go into it, so you have to press yourself agains the wall and that takes you in. This works, but it's clunky. Same with activating your powers and changing weapons. You pause the whole game and activate them. As with before, it's a bit clunky, but it functions. Teammates however are beyond frustrating. They rarely listen to your commands, and take cover in inappropriate places and shoot walls. The enemies do this as well, but not as often.
On top of shooting, upgrading and getting new weapons, there are also driving sections which are fun and an interesting distraction. These involve little of the levelling up skills you've used and put the action mainly into shooting and exploration. Overall, combat's fun, but a little awkward. You also have dialogue trees when talking to people to change the outcome of the story and character relationships. This is really fun, and these talks can influence the whole game. Sometimes, it'll be a small thing such as deciding to be nice or mean to a character, or at others, who lives and who dies. You can tell Bioware put a lot of effort into this game with all the different story branches and lines. Some things won't affect the story now, but you know they will in later games. 


Mass Effect is a great game with some flaws the keep it from being amazing. While combat is a tad clunky, so rarely do we see a game with such a movie like experience in every moment. If you want to start the Mass Effect Trilogy, then start with this and you'll have a great time.