A game that will knock your block off in story telling!
Bioware has hit a home run with its Space Age RPG called, Mass Effect. A politically charged Storyline with Real time Combat, this is probably going to end up in everyones christmas stockings this year.
Story starts you out as a Space Marine, a member of the alliance military, The main quest is very good, but it is pretty bad in the way its pretty short, but thats only if you concentrate on the main quest, and not do the side quests, there are a good number of side quests you can embark on which are both easy and exciting, taking down criminals, investigating unknown regions of the universe.
The combat is somewhat like Gears of War if you do think about it, it is fast and fun, and there is some considerable tactical elements to consider, you can issue commands using the radial interface they provide you with, but its alot more fun to let them do that themselves personally, and its alot more fun to cut down people with strong guns then to spend your time in the menus micromanaging your teammates. You do get a hand full of weapons at your disposal, the weapons that you want are probably going to be at the C-SEC academy, there are a ton of weapons in the game, but most of them are just different variations of the weapons you are already given in the game, its not necessarily a bad thing, cause its the feel of the weapons that really give you the rush, the Assault Rifle does seem to get you through most of the battles, but the shotgun is very useful in close quarters, the only 2 guns I personally thought were very useless were probably the pistol, and the sniper rifle, the pistol is very weak at its early stages, but even then, it lacks punch, the sniper isn't very steady which actually ends up in alot of missed shots cause Shepard won't keep his hand steady, it would've helped to give the sniper a bipod of sorts, or at least give Shepard the option to prone, but since you spend probably most of your time in the frontlines, the shotgun and assault rifle really do the job.
Characters in Mass Effect are probably the best of Bioware, when you really get to know your crew, it feels like you really are a commander, and you actually do care what happens to your crew, in the event that they die, or do something great, Ashley Williams, Tali, Dr.Liara T'soni, and Wrex are probably the most interesting of the bunch, Kaiden does not talk to you unless you create a female commander. All of which have a very good backstory, Ashley was probably the one character that dragged me into the story since her backstory is pretty long, and because its like you really are talking to a live person when you get to know her, or possibly any of your crew members.
In Mass Effect, the combat is fun, but when you get your teammates, thats when the action gets heated up, you get 6 squad members with you, but 2 of which can accompany you on missions, it is hard to pick who you want to come with you on these missions, but I found that the most effective in combat were Ashley Williams, the Combat Specialist, and Tali, the machinist who specializes in Tech Abilities which come handy in later scenario's since for the most part, you spend your time unlocking storage lockers, weapon lockers, logs, and crashed probes, some of which give you special side missions which you can embark on for extra experience.
Thing about the combat is that the AI is a bit suspect, sometimes your teammates won't follow you into battle, they will just stand there, that usually makes you reload from your last save, it gets annoying, but you will soon adapt to it, the enemy AI is good, but there biotic powers seem to hit you dead on, which is kinda weird, but nothing bad in which cases.
The universe in Mass effect is beautiful to explore, reading up on these planets is also interesting, it sucked me right into the game cause I always liked studying space, galaxies, and this really gave me a sense of what it would be like to be on a space ship, just staring out into the beauties of space. There are not many planets that you can land on, but on the ones you can, you get deployed onto with a Mako, an equivalent to the M2 Bradley that our special forces use today, it isn't the best part about the game since the vehicle is almost impossible to maneuver in, its very hard to move backwards, since they think you are trying to go forward, and if you stare backwards, you have to press forward to go back. Perhaps the most annoying thing about the vehicle, is that balls of energy that the geth colossus throw at you, are very slow, Theoretically the Mako should be able to dodge it, but most of the time, it thinks you are trying to turn around if you are facing side ways, and pressing in left on the left thumbstick. With that aside, landing and exploring the planets is a treat on its own, since they are expansive, and they always have some sort of little surprise on flatlands for you when you travel on them. Thresher maws are probably another annoying thing about the Mako, its impossible to defeat the beast in one play through, since sometimes you will explode because the Thresher Maws spawned right under your Mako, its annoying, but combat in the Mako is even worse, since you can't aim down, even though your crosshair is saying otherwords, resulting in alot of missed hits. A weird thing that Bioware added is the inclusion of Omni-Gel, its a weird addition that bypassed anything that needs decryption, it doesn't get in the way of the gameplay, but I personally thought it was a weird thing that they added.
Biotics in the game are basically magic or force powers in other words, they are fun to pull, but at the same time, you have guns that you can deal with to, its used in the defensive way usually, to sort of push them away, or destroy there guns, I personally didn't care for them since I run-and-gunned most of the game, both ways are satisfying, but if you want the achievements, then I recommend that you use the biotics as much as possible.
Graphically, the game looks stunning, Environments are very interesting to explore, Artistically its FANTASTIC, aliens look believable, they animate superbly, they are really expressive, bump mapping is very well done, and the character models are very detailed, high poly counts all around. Guns look very space age, some actually have unnecessary details on it, but then again, anything is possible in 2183. if there is anything bad about this games visuals is that the framerate gets hammered at the worst possible moments, usually when you equip radioactive, or polonium round, and mow through enemy ranks, than the framerate drops like a drunk guy at a party. The framerate is not a problem, it does run smooth at times, but it doesn't bother you in the game, the game is so much fun that sometimes you just ignore the whole thing and just keep on playing.
A must have if you like RPG's in general, if you hated RPG's in the past, this might be the one game that might tip you over the fence into getting an RPG.
