Campaign

By the year 2183, mankind has mastered the ability to travel throughout the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds, bringing them in contact with a host of alien races. Now humanity struggles to find its place in the greater galactic community.

As commander shepard of the Systems Alliance Military, aboard the spacecraft Normandy, you represent humanity's first and last line of defense against the strange wonders of a vast and often dangerous galaxy. Your actions and decisions will determine the fate of the human race, and shape the future of an entire galaxy.
-Mass Effect Instructions Manual

The storyline of Mass Effect is absolutely incredible. It really gets you involved, and gets you thinking like this storyline, these people could actually exist. As you go throughout the storyline, you will meet several different characters (of different alien, and human races), which are both good and bad.

What's really cool about Mass Effect is that there is several different galaxies in the game, which you can travel to at any time (unless on a mission). Inside of these galaxies you can travel to many different planets. While you are not able to land on all of them, it's still a very cool feature, choosing where you want to go.

What is also awesome and unique about this game is that in the cutscenes, you can choose what to say. If someone is pissing you off, you can choose to respond in that way, if you want to suck up to someone, perhaps to get to something in the game, you can do that. It really makes it feel like less of a game, and like you're actually in Commander Shephards boots, making all the decisions, and not like you're on a fixed storyline.

Another neat thing is that at the beginning of the game, you can customize your character, where you came from, and what type of abilities you want. You can select male or female, and adjust things like your hair, eyes, and more.

Overall, the campaign is incredible. The storyline is out of this world (literally), it's very interactive, and let's you do whatever YOU want.

Graphics

Well, it's an unreal game, so you know it's going to look amazing. The game looks amazing in every aspect. The textures, character models, explosions, everything looks amazing.

The only flaw in the graphics is that the textures can sometimes load in slowly, both in gameplay, and cutscenes, although this didn't usually annoy me, and this is a problem in all Unreal Engine games.

Sound

Everything is excellent. The music is great, and fits the mood, the different effects for stuff like the guns, etc. And finally, the voice acting is some of the best you will ever see in a video game. The voices fit the characters incredibly well, and add to the realism of the game, making it seem like these characters and places actually exist.

Gameplay

Again, very fun...and quite unique. This is an action RPG, so their is a lot of fighting, shooting, and action. There is many great things about the gameplay in Mass Effect. The cover system is fantastic, and pretty easy to use.

The weapons in this game are also very well done. There's a shotgun, pistol, sniper, and some other machine gun type thing. And what I like, is that you get unlimited ammo for each weapon. Instead, your weapons overheat. So if you keep firing off bullets non-stop, quite quickly your gun will overheat, and you'll need to let it cool down (Maybe 5-10 seconds).

As said earlier, you also can give your character certain abilities. There is two different kinds: Tech abilities and biotics. Tech abilities include destroying enemy shields, sabotaging enemy weaponry, and hacking robotic enemies to fire on their own squad. Biotic abilities include hurling enemies around with the mind, raising enemy shields, and creating small singularities that cause destructible parts of the environment to fly at enemies.

There is also many parts of the game where you will have to use a vehicle to drive, and kill enemies. Equipped on it is a machine gun, and a rocket launcher type thing. It is fun to use, but it can sometimes be a pain to drive, as the controls could have been a bit better.

Throughout the game, you can also upgrade your weapons and armor, to make the weapons more powerful, and the armor stronger when being shot at by enemy bullets.

The only flaw that can sometimes ruin the gameplay is that the framerate can stutter sometimes in high action moments. Other than that, it is perfect.

Closing Comments

Overall Mass Effect is incredibly fun, and is one of the best RPG's I've ever played. This game will go down in history, and will be remembered years from now. It is a must own for any Xbox 360 owner, and it will amaze even those who aren't to fond of RPG's.