What can I say about Mass Effect? It's truly brilliant!
The basic story behind Mass Effect is that you are Commander John Shepard and you lead a team from different races (Human, Asari, Salarian, Turian etc).
You and your team are in race against time to stop a rogue Spectre called Saren, he has a army of these creatures called Geth at his command and you have to stop before he finds a way to destory the universe and all that lives.
In Mass Effect there are several key points that i will go through, firstly when you are in converation with another character, you can choose different options (These are called Paragon and Renegade) Good and Evil, these determine the way the other character responses to you, whether he or she likes you or dislikes you and whether you will be able to get information from them quicker.
Next is the biotic powers which you are given, these range from Lift, Throw, Warp, Barrier etc. Finally is Omni-Tools which are multipurpose diagnostic and minifacturing tools used for a variety of battlefield tasks, such as hacking, decryption or repair.
You can control your three man squad when you land on a planet to take cover, retreat, attack etc. Also you can command your teammates to use their biotics.
On to the weapons and armour, through out the game you can collect or pick up new weapons, armour and upgrades for them as well. All the weapons and armour have ratings for their key features. The weapons are the Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle and Pistol. You have different types of armour due to your class, Light, Medium and Heavy Armour can only be worn by certain classes. These classes are Soldier, Engineer, Adept, Infiltrator, Sentinel and Vanguard.
You can customise the way your characters face looks and the first name of Shepard. (Ok it isn't as great as Oblivion, but at least Bioware tried). As you roam uncharted planets in your MAKO, finding lost treasures and artifacts you realise this is just one of those games that has been so well prepared. The visual is outstanding and one of the best for the Xbox 360, though there are framerate issues where the textures seem to take about 5 seconds to load. The sound and voice acting is excellent, done by true profeesionals.
To be honest, I can recommend this to anyone who likes action-adventures, RPG's and shooters because this has to be up there along side Bioshock and Oblivion as one of the best RPG's for the Xbox 360 and is a must buy!
