Mass Effect is easily the best RPG on the 360. The graphics are awesome and the gameplay is superb even though the controls have a slight learning curve. The story is very compelling and interactive. Hopefully the sequel will be just as good.

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For a person who usually plays fantasy RPGs, I could not have been more pleasantly surprised when I played Mass Effect. This game is absolutely fantastic. The gameplay is as simple or as complex as you want it to be. You can combine any number of effects in combat in order to effectively dispatch your enemies. Character creation is simple, yet enjoyable because you can choose from a number of classes that allow your experience to be entirely different, as well as various background stories that effect certain aspects of the game as well. There is a "good" vs "evil" option, which allows you to be either a Paragon or a Renegade character, always choosing the high road or playing dirty. Most of these options come up in dialogue, but they too can affect the outcome of certain situations.

The main problem with the game is that it is bogged down with a ton of dialogue. Every other move brings you into a cinematic situation where you have to pick your way through conversations in order to continue the game. Most of the characters that you talk to are pretty in-depth, which makes this process slightly more bearable, but it does get tedious at times, especially if you play the game more than once.

The in-game world isn't entirely impressive either. Most of it is limited to the planets and stations in which your main quest and a few side quests take place. Other than that, you can fly around the galaxy collecting various minerals and artifacts that get you more money, but serve little purpose otherwise.

The downloadable content for Mass Effect can be done without, really. They don't offer that much in the way of time or story. I would just stick to the main game and get as much out of it as you can. If you play around with different classes, backstories, and romance options, this can actually be a pretty easy thing to do. I've played the game several times over, and I still enjoy playing it. The fact that there is a lot of lore that goes along with the game, such as information on races and wars and planets, is also very cool.

To sum it all up: the story is interesting, the characters are decent, the dialogue is tedious, the combat is great, and the content is pretty solid. I would definitely give this game a try, even if you're an FPS fan. If you like it, there's a sequel that's just as good.

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I've been a video game fan since my brother introduced me to a game called Knights of the Old Republic, when I learned the same company was creating another scifi adventure game I latched on immediatly. I followed the game for two years, chatted with developers online and analyzed every video thrown the fan's way. After a long wait I was not disappointed.

This video game is simply the best made to date overall, maybe some have better graphics, there may be some gliches here and there but take the story, the graphics, the characters, the dialogue, and the action experience and it is not hard to see why this game has won over 80 awards to date, it even beat Halo 3 to win Best Video Game of the Year!!!

You haven't had the video game experience until you've played Mass Effect.

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This game is simply a must buy, and for me a system seller, much as it was ME, ME2 combines RPG and FPS very well, and makes for an original and great game experience. But the best is, as was in the first, the story. Bioware is a genius at making engaging, interesting stories, and this one is no exception. In very few words.... just BUY IT! One of the best games of the year.

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Going to make this quick... Very playable, extremely enjoyable, and so many choices to fine tune your character so he can act as you see fit!

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For 20 dollars, you will get the single best Xbox 360 RPG experience of all time. This may sound a bit exaggerated, but I assure you it's not. All elements are amazing. Firstly, the story line is incredible. You play as Commander Shepard of the Galactic Alliance, in command of a ship called the Normandy. Your task is to go around the galaxy hunting down Seran, an evil "terian" who's only goal is to destroy humanity as we know it. While this sounds generic and admittedly, it is, it's told in an original and deep way that will intrigue you for hours at a time. Secondly, the voice acting is the best ever in a video game. Period. The all-star cast illuminates the crew of the Normandy for you as well as Commander Shepard himself. It completely immerses you in the world of Mass Effect and remains in your mind long after the game is complete. On a technical note, the graphics are some of the best I've seen, at least as far as facial construction is concerned. The characters of Mass Effect come alive and are completely capable of showing every last detail of human emotion, almost surrealistically. All-in-all, Mass Effect is one of the best games I've ever played, and for the unbelievably low price of 20 dollars keep you company on many many enjoyable afternoons.

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I recommend reading the book beforehand to really flesh out the story. Rarely do videogames have such a well thought out story and well fleshed out universe. I'm not a huge sci fi fan but this is a fun one. There are some gameplay/interface issues but nothing that prevented me from getting immersed into the experience and having a fun time. I plan to play it through again soon.

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I bought this xbox game because I had played it on the pc and bought Mass effect 2 for the x box. Since I had a gift certificate to cover the price, I ordered it and am currently playing it. This is an RPG and is absolutely massive. If you have hours to play and like a game with side missions and a lot of work to get all the achievements, this definitely fills the bill. The achievements require at least 3 playthroughs and will take hours of intense playing. Or you can simply play through to the end in less time. There is some good DLC and it is not very expensive. If you have never played an RPG before, I highly recommend trying this one; easy to play, fun, and too many pluses to really list, although the best is that if play through a second time, you get to keep everything you have earned found or bought. One of the best.

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You really can't say enough about this game. It's something you have to experience for yourself. I just finished it about 10 mins ago. It's a perfect mixture of sci-fi, third person shooter & role playing. I can't wait until tomorrow to get started on part two.

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Mass Effect was promoted as a ground-breaking RPG for the Xbox 360. Simply put, it isn't, but that doesn't mean it isn't a great game. Created as a counter to the Star Wars dominated epic space operas, Mass Effect promised much and delivered quite well, but like all AAA titles as of late, what you saw in the demos and read in the previews never made it to the disk.

But this isn't a review based on expectations, but the delivery of a masterfully told story with an roughly polished squad-based RPG. Bioware weaves an interesting tale of political intrigue without weighing things down. You truly feel like you have an impact in the world in a unique way rather than the typical "do X or do Y" choices most RPGs give you. Unfortunately, parts of the story seem like irrelevant side notes that are nothing more but a scribble on the margins of history, even though they are truly world altering events. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING*** In one situation, you are given the chance to save an alien race that was almost responsible for the genocide of the entire universe in the hopes that they have changed their ways, or you can wipe them out for good. The end result of your choice? 1 of 2 dialogs your bosses (The Council) will give you after your mission. "You let them go??? I hope you made the right decision and this doesn't come back to haunt us" or "good job wiping them out". One would assume the moral choice of wiping out a species in a game that promotes choice would have more of an impact than either a golf clap or a finger wag.

Technically speaking, it's superb with a few minor issues of texture pop ins and load times. The load times are usually masked under elevator rides that have a cool little feature of providing radio stories based on your recent actions. Nice touch.

The gameplay is a mixed bag. You have a squad that you can't control on any meaningful level that is totally oblivious to its surroundings. The game promotes a shooting-on-rails-kill-'em-all style of gameplay rather than a nuanced strategic element. Problematically, it gets quite frustrating when your team has a direct line of sight to an enemy, but since there is a metal pole in the way they shoot at the pole rather than around it. Inventory is an absolute pain to navigate around, but weapons are named logically (Striker 3 > Striker 2 > Striker 1). Weapon customization is well done and can allow you to focus on damage, volume of fire, shield bypassing, etc. AI is also incredibly stupid with a "run straight into you and hope for the best" mentality most of the time with the occasional duck into cover. Simply put, this game needs the difficulty ramped up via smarter allies and enemies, not higher damage and lower defense.

Another major disappointment was the exploration part of the game. I was excited that I could travel to dozens, if not hundreds of planets. Unfortunately, exploring is nothing but navigating around the same planet skinned differently as you drive around in your poorly-controlled MAKO ATV getting treasure, killing enemies outside the base, going into their base, killing them in the base, and leaving. This was bar none the biggest failing for me, as a game that promoted exploration shouldn't have been so abysmally repetitive and boring.

I hope that Bioware realizes that they created a pretty good game with some minor and major shortcomings that could easily be avoided in a sequel. Give me real planets to explore. Give me an inventory I can easily manage. Give me a team that uses tactics to kill the enemy and an enemy that uses tactics to kill me. Gamers don't need you to invest $4 million into doubling the amount of chin hairs on your character. The game looks great, sounds great, and plays well with a ton of potential. Until then, this is definitely a game you should pick up when it goes on sale.

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Game: Mass Effect

Genre: Action RPG

If you've ever played Knights of the Old Republic the minute you sit down to play Mass Effect you'll instantly remember the user experience; it's generally the same sort of system with a few improvements on the original.

The general storyline of the game is decent enough and there are plenty of quests to take part in so the casual gamer will enjoy this game but it's nothing spectacular in terms of RPGs.

The gameplay is fairly non-linear; as the user you can choose to put off the main quest as long as you'd like and can visit many of the planets in the galaxy to your hearts content.

Your party consists of you and two others chosen from your crew at any given time but you will only be able to fully control the main character. The other characters respond to general orders, however, and have descent enough AI to help you out from time to time.

As for the RPG aspects of the game, you're given choices of how to respond to dialogs during conversations and depending upon your answer it can push your towards the dark side or the light side... err I mean a renegade or a paragon (very similar to Knights of the Old Republic; same dialog system). Leveling is also very similar where you only need concern yourself with leveling up one character because the others get the experience regardless. This is nice because you don't want to waste time leveling up certain characters but at the same time it trivializes the whole idea of an experience system.

There are some huge flaws which I think this game has (some who play may agree or not here but personally these killed a lot of my enjoyment). The biggest being that while there are tons of side quests and planets to explore... There are barely any enemies on any of the planets. You'll find yourself spending hours in the stupid land rover trying to climb up mountains to get to your destination but never having to fight one living creature most of the time. It's just a huge waste to have a full planet to explore and yet never bumping into any form of life.

The next annoyance is the fact that whenever you want to take an elevator (and the game is loaded with these) you have to spend at least 30 seconds on it each time. Forcing the user to sit and wait to go anywhere. Perhaps this is realistic but it's a trivial and useless thing that just wastes the users time and the developers should have given an easy way to skip these.

That said, you spend a lot of the side quest time driving around or waiting in elevators so it becomes a bit of a hassle and unless you're a completionist you probably will get bored of the lot of them quickly and give up on the side quests altogether.

The main quest, however, is luckily filled with fighting and even the land rover scenes do have a good supply of enemies to fight. The only drawback to the main quest itself is how short it really is. Each main quest area is decent enough but if you remove all the side quests (and the time spent in the elevators) you could finish the game in under a day.

That said, it's worth buying if you're into the Action RPG genre and likely will have some fun with the game. You can always ignore the side quests or complete them over time as needed.

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This game is the best game I have played in years. The story is probably the best ever in any video game. It ranks with the best TV sci-fi plots (BSG but not quite B5). The gameplay is similar to the second KOTOR with the battles being handled entirely differnt. Now everything is in full realtime and the action plays out like a first person shooter. If you have any intrest in RPGS or SCI-Fi then this is the game for you.

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Ok, Bioware. I give up. You win...again.

You had my attention with the KOTOR series. You captivated my heart with Jade Empire. Now this? Really?! Mass Effect just sealed the deal. I'm no expert when it comes to game design but I'll do my best to briefly give you a list of why this is an RPG players' (my) wet dream.

*Sexiness checklist*

+ Space Themed. But it's not Star Wars or Star Trek...how is that even possible!?! I smell a new cinema seris...

+ Gameplay. Third person shooter with "on the fly" abilities.

+ Upgrades. Characters, weapons, armor, biotics (it's sorta like magic for those who don't know) and tech skills. Where to begin?

+ Party selection. Stick with the same characters or switch 'em up.

+ Exploration. To the end of the galaxy. Literally.

+ Morality. Practically every decision you (the gamer) make, will have a karmic effect. Converstions with NPC's (Non Playable Characters) and other decisions play a roll in this. You wanna be Mr. Nice Guy? You wanna be an upset sandy vagina? It's your choice.

+ The script. It's totally a cinematic experience. You can actually get attached to the characters.

+ Graphics. Boner...I mean...eye popping. I sometimes feel bad for my 360 having to push out all that realism. Lucky for me, my Xbox had taken lamaze classes. We now have a brand new graphics baby.

+ Sound. Lasers, spaceships and aliens, oh my! Granted nothing of this caliber exsists (yet), the sounds are authentic.

+ Soundtrack. Sci-Fi to the core. Aptly, it creates an awesome sense of vastness and wonderment.

*The not as sexy but will take on a few dates checklist*

- The Mako. It's extremely resilient and great to get around in but the controls don't always feel like nipplez. Also, unless you have been visited by the spirits of 'Lois and Clark', get ready to do a $#!7 load of exploration in the Mako. It sometimes gets painfully drone.

- Snails. Sometimes during a big firefight, the system bogs down causing a choppy frame rate and a less-fluid gameplay. We need some more lamaze classes.

- Possessed. During a few conversations with NPC's, their eyes would appear to roll up in the back of their head. Someone call an exorcist!

Not 5 stars but 5 galaxies from me. Once again, D@mn you, Bioware!

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This game is on my list as one of the best I have ever played. The story is spectacular, the visuals are great even three years after the release, and the game is well made. I would like to thank the people who made this game for giving me such an entertaining experience and for all of the obvious effort and detail they put into it (that is rare now days). Everyone should play this. With the price that it is at now, there are no excuses. You'll love it.

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For people that love Knights of the old Republic this is the game for you. The last three hours and deciding the fate of one of your allies is the best part of the game. If you have an addictive personality like playing evercrack you might want to skip this game because you will lose about twenty hours of your life playing this game.

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