For a games journalist, sitting down to review a game like Mass Effect is something of a nightmare. And before you panic, don’t worry – it’s not because it’s crap. Far from it. The problem is, with a game as immense as Mass Effect, there’s so much to cover, you’ll be forced to miss something out. If we had enough paper to destroy an entire Brazilian rainforest, we could still probably find some aspect of Mass Effect that we haven’t had the appropriate length of space to rave about. And that is a good thing.

Whether it’s the open-ended galaxy, the intricately penned characters, the novel-worthy storyline, or the infamous alien/lesbian sex scene, Mass Effect is a real ‘one of a kind’ game. It’s the kind that defines a generation of RPGs to come after – kind of like Neverwinter Nights before it, and Planescape Torment before that. This is a game your grandchildren can play, and see how cool life was before their virtual-reality headsets and hover cars. This is quite possibly, one of the most ground-breaking role-playing games of all time.

Even within the first 15 seconds of playing Mass Effect, it’s obvious you’re experiencing something special. Rather than just having a character-creation scheme pop-up, instead the game pretends it’s trying to connect to a military database to download your personnel file. If you choose to create your own character, the file magically becomes corrupted, and the game asks you a series of questions, to establish your background, before letting you make your own Commander Shepard.

And interestingly, the choices you make in the character creation will have a real impact on the way characters view you in the game. Depending on your choice of background (you can be a street kid, a colonist, a military hero and so on), characters will have a pre-disposed liking or disliking of you, and it’s a real weird feeling to have aliens mumbling, discussing your character’s past as you walk past them. Although it doesn’t make any major changes to the way the game plays, this is just one of the touches of attention to detail that BioWare has lovingly smothered Mass Effect with and, believe us, it shows.

If you’re looking to come into Mass Effect without knowing anything about the story, we’d suggest you skip this paragraph. Once you’ve finished creating your character, you’re inserted onto the deck of the Normandy, the game’s main spacecraft. Playing as your very own Commander Shepard (your surname is constant – you only get to choose your first name), your first mission sees you landing on a humancolonised planet, which has recently discovered a mysterious Prothean beacon that has been left behind by a highly advanced alien race. As the artefacts are of such valuable importance, the galactic council have sent along a Spectre, one of the galaxy’s elite security force, to accompany you on the mission. However, things (as always) aren’t what they seem, and it’s quickly revealed that the planet’s been attacked by a mechanoid alien race called the Geth who are also looking to get their hands on the technology. What began as a routine retrieval mission quickly plunges you into a world of galactic politics, espionage, and betrayal, ending with you joining the Spectre, and taking command of the Normandy yourself, to go on a galaxy-wide pursuit of a rogue agent and stop the Geth invasion. Phew.

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