So, I have a much better standpoint from which to make a few realistically based opinions, now.
Mass Effect is basically a giant space opera. If that turns you on, then stop reading this and go buy it
right now. You won't be disappointed. The game's primary strength is its ability to tell a fascinating story that you won't want to put down, and tell it better than any other game on the market. The characters are incredibly compelling, very well detailed, and the voice acting is definitely top notch.
If you're buying it for the graphics - you need to know a few things. Mass Effect is an absolutely stunning game in a lot of places, but it also has a large number of technical issues. Oddly - terrain pop-up/fog isn't a problem at all... but when you load a new character/scene - the game loads a 'preview' texture of
very low quality, with no bump mapping or advanced shading. After approximately a second or two, the real texture will just pop in, and this is very jarring. I understand Bioware was working within the technical constraints of the system, and they made a technical decision to reduce overall loading time by streaming this content in, but the issue IS noticeable, and it is surprisingly common... it even happens in cut-scenes.
The audio design is fantastic. The soundtrack either is or isn't going to be your cup of tea, it features a lot of synthetic-sounding space pads as their main instrument of choice, but the music generally fits the ambiance of the environments really well. When appropriate, the game will really start pumping some epic music with orchestral arrangements, and they perfectly match the action on-screen.
If there's one word that can be aptly used to describe Mass Effect, it's probably
cinematic. It's hard to relay exactly the kind of emotional impact the story has on you. You
will[/u] be forced to make difficult decisions, and the game constantly puts you in a state of morally gray where there really isn't a 'correct' decision. If you were hoping to play a game where you could save everybody without consequence - you're not playing the right game. People will die, colonies will be extinguished, and the fate of the galaxy literally rests in your hands... and it will move you.
A good example of this is during a certain mission of the game, where you are essentially trapped behind enemy lines with only a detachment of soldiers and allied commandos. The only way to escape is to attempt a raid on an enemy base, but the base is very heavily fortified. The commandos come up with a plan to split into three groups and distract the bulk of the defenses while you sneak in and complete your objectives. So you sneak into the base, and tap into the security controls for the base... and you are quickly faced with a difficult decision.
You can disable the alarm, and you will be forced to fight any guards posted in the area of your objective... or you can set a false alarm at the commandos positions - clearing the path for you, but ensuring that they will be completely wiped out - including the crew member you have assigned to them as logistical support.
The combat is also satisfying, although it's not handled quite as well as other segments of the game. The combat is fast-paced and satisfying, effectively marrying a third party shooter to real-time RPG, allowing you to temporarily pause combat to issue orders and select weapons/abilities. In practice, this works very well. Mass Effect suffers from a problem most other Bioware games have, however - the difficulty is all over the place. You will be forced to autosave every 10 minutes, or replay
hours of work if you accidentally turn the wrong corner and get wiped out before you can react. Mass Effect offers multiple difficulty options, and this can be changed at any time - but doing so flags your game as 'altered' and you can't unlock several achievements. This wouldn't be so bad if you weren't relying on spotty AI to assist you. Your teammates are somewhat effective at choosing when to use their abilities, usually targeting the biggest threats to your team. Although they're smart enough to take cover, however, they don't take into account your relative position when doing so, so they can often cut off your line of fire. Which is another problem. They can't line up a taget for shit, and will often have problems targeting someone on the other side of a wall.
That said, it's not the individual pieces of Mass Effect that make it work. When you put everything together, you have what is truly an
epic game that will have you feeling like you're playing a movie. Very few games manage to pull that off successfully, and even fewer do it as well as Mass Effect.
...So... go buy it.
