Great Game
If you are looking for a game with a great story line, go with this.

Even for beginners, as I am, this game has great game play and even better replay value. This is an amazing game for Veteran players, as I've heard.

Extraordinary RPG.
Well, Bioware certainly has done a remarkably good job with this one. Mass Effect is a third-person action/RPG that combines classic role-playing elements with tactical real-time combat. If you enjoyed Knights of the Old Republic I and II, than you will be delighted by Mass Effect.

There are so many awsome features about this game, but I'll stick to the basics here. First and foremost, Mass Effect is a RPG. The main focus is obviously on character development and the story, but unlike in other RPGs were the action takes a back-seat position to everything else or, worse yet, is some turn-based bore that makes you sleepy, battles in Mass Effect are fought in real time and the game also incorporates features more common to shooters, which makes engaging the enemy enjoyable and entertaining. Despite how fun the combat is in Mass Effect is, however, you will spend more time developing your character and chatting with NPCs than running around with guns blazing.

You are Commander Shepard, a human and a elite special forces soldier of humanity's representative government, the Systems Alliance. You can choose to accept the defult appearence, gender and name for Shepard or you can make your own character through extremely detailed customization. This involves designing a custom apppearence for Shepard; every minute detail is customizable, from iris color to the bone structure of his/her face, Commander Shepard can truly be made to your specifications. You can't customize anything below the neck, such as your shoulder width ect., but that really is not a probelm. After building your own Shepard, or accepting the defult, you get to choose which abilities and powers your Commander specilizes in. There are several different classes to pick from and each one will have different effects on gameplay. For expamle, Soldiers are powerful combatants, can use just about any weapon they come across, and can eventually use heavy armor, but lack in the tech department. Engineers are specialists with electronics and various other technology and are experts with pistols, but are not very impressive in the heat of battle. There are several other Classes to choose from, depending on your own style. Two of these actually combine features from two Classes; I recommend one of these for beginners, since they seem to be the most flexible and can receive additional combat training later in the game.

After picking out your skill set, you can choose your background before joining the military, picking either Earthborn, Spacer, or Colonist. Each of these backgrounds will effect the way NPCs react to you and will alter gameplay slightly. Following this you assemble your psychological profile. You can choose to be a War Hero, making your fellow soldiers and other NPCs who have heared of you typically respect and admire you, if your into that kind of thing, or you can choose to be the sole survivor of your decimated unit, which turns Shepard into a hardened and emotionally scarded individual who has experienced extreme physical/phychological trauma and generally makes most NPCs react to you with respect for managing to walk out of such a nightmare and some sympathy. The third and last choice allows you to assume control of a remorseless, amoral killing machine with a reputation for ruthless efficiency. This choice will make your squadmates wary of you, and other NPCs will generally reguard you as a impulsive yet cunning brute or respect you for your fighting prowess and devotion to completeing the mission, reguardless of the cost. Remember, while these choices will influence the story and dictate how most NPCs react to you, your choices in conversation will ultimately decide how the game plays out and who you actually are in the end.

The dialogue in Mass Effect features some of the best voice acting I have ever seen in a video game. Each character is unique and possesses their own voice and behavioral attributes. This produces a world of infinitely diverse characters. How you speak and act towards characters can either work to your advantage or hinder your progress. For expamle, one person mght be easily intimidated while another might respond better to charm. You can be either aggressive and harsh or friendly and considerate, which will in turn give you different reactions from eveyone. Unlike in Knights of the Old Republic, your character has his/her own voice, but dose not speak the exact lines you chose from the dialogue bar. Rather, Shepard will put voice to your selection in a cinematic manner. In other words, you simply choose the context of what you want Shepard to say, not the actural words he or she will speak. This manner of communicating with NPCs is simple and far more entertaining than the options for conversation in other RPGs. Similar to Knights of the Old Republic, your choices in conversation and your actions earn you points, referred to as Paragon points (good guy) and Renegade points (bad guy). Just like the Light and Dark side choices from KOTOR, you can either walk the path of a respectable do-good soldier or become a unmoral killer whose only concern is credits.

Another notworty feature of Mass Effect is the romance side story. If you choose to pursue this side story, you will have two choices for a possible romance. As a male you can begain a relationship with Ashley Williams, a human soldier of the Alliance, or Liara T'Soni, a humanoid female alien scientist. As a female, your can begain a relationship with Kaiden Alenko, a human soldier, or, interestingly enough, Liara T'Soni. Unlike in Knights of the Old Republic, were the romance bit seemed like a badly done after thought, in Mass Effect the romantic subplot is just as well designed as the other parts of Mass Effect's features. By pursuing a potential romantic partner, you can develop a interesting and realistic relationship with them. This part was done so well that I found myself wanting to make the effort to pursure this option and develop the romantic subplot of the story. However, developing a relationship with one of Shepard's potnetial romantic interests is completely optional and is in no way critical to completion of the game, though you do gain a achievement for doing so. I would recommend completing this subplot simply because it adds to the cinematic entertainment factor of the game and provides a more enjoyable and full experience of the game.

Combat in Mass Effect is fairly simple but well done and entertaining. When you draw a weapon, the camera enters a over-the-shoulder view point similar to that used in Resident Evil 4. Targeting cross hairs show you wwere your rounds will go. A simple and easy to use cover system makes combat more realistic and allows you to avoid incoming fire. Just about anything can be used as cover; crates, walls, vehicles, tables, you name it. Although your squadmates can certainly help in a tight spot and generally do their job in a acceptable fashion, your friends just seem to die alot for the most part, and you will be doing most of the actual fighting. Your squad is mainly only good for flanking the enemy or drawing their attention while you flank them, and providng that extra bit of firepower you need some times to get through a particularly dangerous situation.

The story of Mass Effect is both epic and stunning. I personally felt as though I was playing through a incredible science fiction movie. The music and sound are fantastic as well and truly add that extra bit to the game to make it really memorable. Weapons fire and explosions sound great too. The technology, ships, and alien species of Mass Effect are extremely diverse and interesting. Everything, from guns to your personal starship, the Normandy, to aliens and their individual cultures and customs have all obviously been exhaustively researched and engineered. The Galactic Codex, accessible from the pause screen, provides a detailed and informative description and history of just about everything you encounter in your travels through the Mass Effect galaxy.

Mass Effect also excels in the graphics department as well. You might notice some delay on frame rates or textures might require a few seconds to load when you enter a new section of a level or a new level, but this is generally few and far between. Every environment looks amazing and features little details and exquisitely rendered NPCs who move and behave in as real a manner as I could imagine. Each NPC you encounter has their own face and voice, and will express their feelings on their facial features by arching their eyebrows, smiling or frowning, glaring ect. ect. Never have facial expressions in a video game looked or 'felt' more realistic and well done, at least on the 360.

Well, thats about it. If you are a fan of Star Wars or Star Trek, a science fiction buff, or just a gamer, I believe you will become completely addicted to Mass Effect, I certainly did. Even a casual gamer would love this one. If you have not bought Mass Effect by now, you definitely should, you will not be disappointed.

Phenomenal
This is by far one of the BEST RPG/style games ever released for the 360. Tied, possibly, with Oblivion, Mass Effect takes the player on a galaxy-hopping adventure as the background story unfolds with each new mission. Could it be better? Sure. Allowing training for ANY weapon regardless of class would be nice. Also, the overall learning curve is VERY STEEP. Those few items aside, Mass Effect draws the player in deeper and deeper with each passing gaming episode. Not for everyone, since not everyone is an RPG fan, but for the RPG fan, it is a surefire hit. Recommended!

Too Slow on 360
I think this game would have played better on the PC because the load times for the console really ruined the game. There are great RPG elements to the game in customizing the character and a relatively smart dialog system. The cutscenes are beautifully rendered and the story is as good as sci-fi gets. The gameplay, however, is lacking in action, and the dialog and quests are pretty boring. This is the type of game for someone who likes wandering around a virtual world for hours.

One major pet peeve was the expensive weapon upgrades and not obvious ways of earning cash to buy them.

RPG meets Action/Adventure
This game is a great combination of RPG and Action/Adventure. The graphical presentation is very well done, levels load quickly, the dialogue options and game options are great as well. It has some live action elements of actually allowing full control of characters but also has multiple plot options, character level ups and various strategy that might not be involved in most standard action games. It's a great mix and well worth the price.