Even though it is the most anticipated role-playing game (RPG) in years, "Mass Effect," released for the Xbox 360 last week, exceeds every expectation. RPG specialist Bioware succeeds in telling an epic space odyssey through superb action-RPG gameplay and epic voice acting.
The game's strength is its custom-tailored experience. From the first minute, the player is faced with choices that will affect the rest of the game. The first of these is the class of the main character, a military officer named Shepard. Each class has different strengths. A soldier will be most effective with weapons, but less so with technology or the mysterious Biotics - the game's equivalent to magic.
After deciding Shepard's class, players have the option of customizing Shepard's appearance and picking a gender. Bioware's attention to detail is evident in the extremely detailed character creation options.
Once the player customizes his or her character, the first chapter of the epic tale begins. First, Shepard is led through a series of small tasks to familiarize the player with the setting. The story starts at the Citadel, the seat of the interstellar Council of the Alliance, the governing body of Earth's part of the Milky Way.
Play in the Citadel introduces Shepard to a variety of alien and human characters. Although most of the quests can be skipped, a full exploration of the bars, hotels and strip clubs of the Citadel reveals the exposition of the game. Bioware rewards the players who seek the extra content by including compelling back stories and excellent voice-actors, such as Seth Green and Keith David.
Before leaving the Citadel, Shepard meets six other characters who join the party. Ranging from the brutish Battle Master, Wrex, to the diminutive student, Liara T'Soni, the followers have a wide array of talents and weaknesses. Since only two party members may be active at one time - creating a force of three characters including Shepard - the player must choose a balanced squad to be effective in each mission.
Once the Council tasks the player with the game's primary assignment - preventing an evil alien from destroying all sapient life - the game's missions begin. Traveling to cities burnt to the ground, icy wastelands and crumbling ruins, Shepard and company search for clues while fighting off a huge variety of hostile aliens.
When Shepard is forced to fight, the game becomes an over-the-shoulder shooter. The weapons' stability, recoil, rate of fire and damage are all functions of Shepard's skill. As the character gains experience, players can assign skill points to different weapons, increasing their effectiveness.
The squad can follow simple commands and generally takes care of itself in a firefight. The A.I. controlling the player's squad allows teammates to help the player out of hard situations, but the emphasis is on the player's ability and not the strength of the teammates.
Once the missions begin, a player is faced with decisions about the morality of his or her character. For instance, a doctor may ask Shepard to risk infection to recover an antidote to a biological weapon. The player may choose to ignore the task or accept it, either graciously or stubbornly. Once the task is completed, Shepard must choose whether to demand payment or simply hand over the antidote as a good deed.
Other games have recorded the player's decisions and traced their morality throughout the story, but "Mass Effect" succeeds at allowing Shepard's choices to affect the game. By navigating through the game's complex conversation options, the player can gain and lose allies, intimidate enemies and unlock storylines.
Considering the game's numerous strengths - a compelling story, deep character development and a few interspecies lesbian romances - it's tough to find faults in "Mass Effect." The primary complaint against Bioware's design is the way they handled loading screens. To give a more seamless gaming experience, loading screens are masked by watching the party ride an elevator between areas. Long loading times and small distances make for some egregiously slow-moving elevators.
Aside from the elevators that defy all logic of technological advancement, "Mass Effect" delivers on every level. The combination of high-action shooting, a deeply customizable RPG element and a brilliant story form one of the best games in years.
