So this is a Future Fantasy Third Person Shooter RPG, sounds like a full plate right? Well this game does a pretty good job at merging everything together and making a decent narrative. The game takes the best parts of RPG games like a good story and a decent level up mechanic and then a third person shooter that does a very good job at incorporating the two together.
You play as "Insert First Name" Shepard, the commander of the Normandy, a space ship (I mentioned future fantasy right?). Now Commander Shepard is the first Human "spectre" (A select group or soldiers that do the dirty work of the Council (The "rulers" of the known universe). All of this seems like a lot of information, so the game has a codex that goes into farther explanations of the aliens, planets and lore.
That's all I'm going to say about the specifics as I don't want to ruin anything and I could go forever to try to explain the story of this game. Now, what I saw as the biggest downfall of this game was that the main story line only lasts about 5 - 8 hours. However there is about 20+ more hours of exploration and side missions. The exploration deal with a ATV tank styled vehicle that is one of the biggest pains in the ass to drive, as it bounces everywhere and sometimes doesn't go up certain terrain. The exploration can be a bit of a pain to drive around but each planet is different and brings you into the worlds just a bit more. (Not to mention each planet you can see gives you the story of it and certain statistics.)
As most RPG games you get to obtain new outfits and figure out which one fits better and protects you the best. Each race gets its own armor and cannot where other races armor. However once you've picked which two squad mates you want to use, you don't need to worry about equipping the others. Once your played the game through once however, you can unlock the best weapons and armor the game has to offer, however it is not cheap. In the same breath though, I had earned enough money to buy the weapons, armor, get infinite lap dances and probably still have enough money to own my own solar system.
The game bugging out occasionally caused a few issues for me, certain quests either didn't finish right or wouldn't even appear and sometimes dialog would just stop. Nothing major but when it happens it really takes your away form the immersion of the game.
Now besides these small ... oversights ... the game all in all is very well done. The game tries to rely on cover based shooting but its very difficult to attempt, its just easy to run in guns blazing. With different techs and biotic powers its easy to not die and controlling your team mates is a bit of a cock slap, but I didn't have too much of a problem.
The first of the Mass Effect series does very well at establishing the trilogy of Shepard's story and leaves the story at a good part. The fighting, level up system and powers all go well together and the game easily keeps you immersed in it. This game also does something that I have never seen in another game, when you earn a trophy it more than likely will effect your game in a positive way, like a permanent exp boost or extra tech damage.
If you haven't played this game before and want to, remember to try to do everything before you move onto the next game, Almost side story and major story choice effects the next game and even the one after that in some way. This game sets up the massive trilogy, however this is the only one where almost everything effects the next. This game is well worth the play, someone I know once called it "An RPG cleverly hidden in a Future Fantasy setting" and honestly this one does this the best out of the series.
(To bad the Mass Effect style of handling conversations and battle affected the rest of Biowares games *cough* Dragon Age 2 *cough*)
-EDIT- I beat Mass Effect 2 so expect its review to be out soon.
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