Story & Graphics
Mass Effect is a sci-fi role playing game that uses a third person perspective. The game is a combination of a RPG and a shooter. Typically I don’t like third person perspective game, but Mass Effect pulls it off flawlessly.

Mass Effect has a very, very in depth and deep storyline that plays like an interactive movie more than your typically video game. When other games are winding down and nearing the end of the fun and action, Mass Effect is just warming up. Mass Effect doesn’t give you a city, country or even a planet to explore—you get an entire galaxy.

Graphics for the game are very detailed and photo realistic. The only part of the game I found lacking graphically was the way shadows played across the face of the characters. Otherwise the characters in the game are fantastically rendered right down to the puckered scars, pores and other features on a real human face. This game is graphically right up there with Crysis and any other high-end game.

Squad & AI
You don’t go it alone in Mass Effect; you have a squad of two other characters with you at all times. As you progress through the game you can add other characters to your squad pool, but you always have no more than two with you at any given time.

One of the updates in the PC version is the ability to control your squad using the arrow keys without having to enter into a command menu like you do on most squad combat games. You can also mostly just forget about the squad if you want to focus on your play alone. Squad mates will automatically engage targets when you draw your weapon and fire.

The squad AI works pretty well, though I did notice a few quirks. For instance I found that when fighting from a corridor where my squad was behind me that squad mates often shot my character when trying to engage a target in front of me. I also found that squad mates were apt to get hung on NPCs and tight areas at times. Wrex got stuck behind a rock for a bit in one level of the game.

I also found on the very first level of the game that you can slip off some rises in the game and get stuck behind boulders. The game has no jump command and I would up wedged behind rocks I couldn’t climb over. To continue playing I had to start from a saved game.

Classes
In addition to shooting bad guys you also get to explore the galaxy with multiple stars and planets to search and land on. You can’t land your ship on all planets, though you can survey many of them for elements as part of missions in the game.

The game also allows you to choose from several different player classes that give access to different weapons and abilities. Playing with a different character class open such a different experience in the game it’s almost like a new game.

Final Thoughts
You could literally write a book about Mass Effect giving away plot details as you go along. If you are a fan of sci-fi role playing or shooter games you simply must add Mass Effect to your library. Mass Effect is simply one of the best PC games I have ever played.