On the bright side, the bulk of the gameplay does not take place in a vehicle. The most engrossing part of the game is the combat on foot. You can have up to three members in your party at any moment, (including Shepard) and they all have their own personal style. As mentioned earlier, Mass Effect has gameplay sequences that comes from a game such as Gears of War. This entails taking cover and using cover in order to put yourself in an advantageous situation. Although you can use the surroundings as cover, you are unable to blind fire in this game for some reason of another. Giving squad commands is another possibility that is available in the game.

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Regrettably, none of them really work to perfection. Moreover, you can only issue orders to the entire team. You cannot say commands to each member of your team individually. This is somewhat compensated by the fairly respectable artificial intelligence of your teammates but not entirely. You are also somewhat limited in the number of people you can have on a team. The maximum is three; on the contrary, you are allowed to have up to four in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. Those minor flaws should not deter players from enjoying the entire cinematic gaming experience of Mass Effect. The game also features a pause and play gameplay mechanic that was seen in previous BioWare games. Holding the left or right bumper will enable you to pause the game and survey the battlefield. Pausing the game will permit players to methodically decide their next course of action. In addition, Shepard can use precision fire for better accuracy. Your companions earn experience and can also level up along with Commander Shepard. Additionally, your squad mates can also be assigned what weapons and powers to use. The available weapons in the game are standard for a game in the third person shooter genre. There is a sniper rifle, handguns, shotguns, machine guns, grenades, and biotic powers. Biotic powers work much like the force powers in games like Star Wars. There is push, sabotage, and many others. The part of the gameplay that has been receiving the most attention are the countless conversations.

You can choose to play as a Paragon or Renegade character. The Paragon is the Star Wars equivalent to the Light Side; conversely, the Renegade is like the Dark Side. Depending on your responses in the conversations, you will be accumulating Paragon or Renegade points. In a nutshell, acting like a quintessential noble person will earn Paragon points. At the other end, acting like a narcissist will net you Renegade points. The graphics in the game are stunning. There is a considerable amount of detail that is accentuated in the character models and environments. Everything from the flora to the fauna is absolutely exemplary. All of the facial animations are immaculate. Anyone can clearly see the wide range of emotions: pain, elation, exhaustion, regret. Never before in a game has this much attention to animations been given. The audio in the game is truly incredible.

BioWare has recruited actual actors to do many of the voice acting in the game. One of whom is Seth Green from the facetious Austin Powers movies. Even the weapons have a realistic ambiance to them. The live orchestral musical score definitely fit's the tone the game developers were attempting to capture. Overall, Mass Effect is a game that revolutionizes the role playing game genre. Move over Final Fantasy VII and Oblivion. There is a new king of the role playing game genre, and that king is Mass Effect.

Final Verdict: Mass Effect is a near perfect game.
9.8 out of 10