Mass Effect

The Good
Mass Effect, for the Xbox 360, is the latest game from Bioware. Planned as a trilogy many fans are already clambering that this is the studio’s best game. But with KOTOR, Jade Empire, and Baldur’s Gate under their belts, can this be possible?

The year is 2183, and humanity has made great strides in the universe. Yet to the older and more advanced species, humans are still considered children. They are brash and impatient. And are not treated like they belong. Yet trouble is brewing, an ancient threat is coming, when it does it will wipe out all life in the galaxy. It is time for humanity to prove their worth to the galactic community.

In Mass Effect you play as Commander Shepherd, whom is fully customizable, from the basics male\female, to very small details like visible scars. You also get to choose his\her back story.(This feature is kind of similar to that in Arcanum.-MM-) And as in the Bioware tradition you can play the character any way you want. Which will have a noticeable change in the game as a whole NOT just the ending as in so many other games.

The game begins with a simple but crucial mission. Shepherd, is tasked with recovering an artifact from an alien world, recently colonized by humans, he will be joined by a Spectre. They are an elite force of agents that a responsible for any number tasks. They answer only to the council. They are given free range to finish a mission by whatever means necessary.

Something goes terribly wrong and, the mission is compromised. It seems that a Spectre, called Saren, has gone rouge. Shepherd must now finish the mission, or what is left of it anyway. It is here when Shepherd comes into contact with a beacon. It sends strange images into his mind, he sees death, destruction, the end to all life in the galaxy.

Shepherd is named a Spectre, the first human to get the honor. Shepherd’s ultimate goal is to track down Saren, and stop his deadly machinations, before it is too late.

Your main point of extraction or “hub” if you will, is, The Citadel. Which is a huge spaceport/city. It was built long ago, by whom or what no one knows for certain. It is a home away from home for all the different species of the galaxy. And is maintained by the mysterious, “keepers”. The Citadel is large and beautiful, with tons on details and graphical tricks possible only on the Xbox 360.

And there are two main part of it. The topside area is reserved for dignitaries, wealthy socialites and the lot. The lower area or “wards” are for the working class. With breathtaking port views of space. (The top area has an artificial view of blue skies.-MM-) As well as shops and bars.

From here you can travel to distant worlds. Aside from the main quests, there are tons of secondary tasks to undertake. From a galactic survey, taking readings from worlds to find what if any resources they have. To fighting space-pirates, and battling Thresher Maws. Which are gigantic sand worm type creatures.

Not all the worlds in Mass Effect can be explored. There would simply be to many for that, furthermore, just as in our solar system, many of the planets are just gas giants, or made of a thin lair of ice. Speaking or our system, you can travel to our own system!

For the planets that you can land on, there are two ways to explore them. Via, “The Mako”, an all terrain vehicle. You can also fight in The Mako, it fires a machine gun, and has missiles. And you can explore on foot. However some planets are to dangerous to stay out on for extended periods. They may be too hot or too cold, or any other number of things. The emphasis on exploration and discovery are somewhat reminiscent if the Dreamcast game, “Skies Of Arcadia”.

Well, Mass Effect, certainly has a great story. But many an RPG has been killed, in my mind anyhow, by bland and uninteresting characters. Mass Effect excels here as well. Each and every character that can join your party is unique, and has their own personality. From fellow solider and potential love interest, Ashley Williams, to the badass mercenary, Urdnot Wrex.

And as in previous Bioware titles, you can converse with your crew and learn more about them, and can often help them if not in a quest, then you can help them in other ways. And yes there is a romance subplot. And yes there is a sex scene, but it is done very tastefully and not at all the filthy thing some, jackass “news” channels try to make it out to be.

There is also a part that the fate of two main characters is in the balance. You cannot save them both, so the loss of one feels more real.( I have not been this moved by the death of a game character since Phantasy Star IV-MM-)

The supporting characters are also handled well. This is often overlooked in RPGS. Captain Anderson, and “Joker” in particular come to mind.

The conversations are laid out a bit differently than in most RPGS. Firstly all the dialog choices are displayed on a ring, And the conversations all flow more naturally. And as we have come to expect from Bioware, the dialog is incredibly well written.

Parties are formed of three members. For exploration, and eventually combat.

The combat system is Mass Effect, is refined and great fun. It plays basically like a squad based tactical game, Rainbow Six, for example. When I first read about it I was dumbstruck. But once you get into the game and start using the system, you will wonder how you ever played any other.

You directly control Shepherd, and indirectly control your other squad members. The A.I. does the rest. You can fire your weapons, pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, and sniper rifles. Each weapon has it’s own strengths and weakness. Furthermore some classes can only master certain types of guns. There are also various grenade types. As well as Biotics. This is basically the games magic system, mixed with bio-mods from Deus Ex. Only the Adept class can utilize these. They can be quite fun to play with particularly the levitate ability. This allows you to lift and project enemies.

You can heal, give orders to your squad via the D-pad. And use Powers. Not unlike those seen in KOTOR, powers are learned by leveling up. They range from rapid fire, to projectile shields, and the like. Each class has a unique set of these, and using them can often get you out of a tight spot.

I briefly mentioned the alignment system earlier. Now I will explain it in more detail. In Mass Effect, there is Paragon, or Renegade. Someone whom is Paragon follows procedure, and does things by the book. A Renegade on the other hand believes that any means are justified to get to job done. Unlike most games with a morality system, that, of Mass Effect does not just change the ending. It also changes how others react to you, including party members. Some quests may not be offered to you if you are a renegade for example. Yet most quests have both a Paragon and a Renegade resolution.

Mass Effect is easily above par in the graphics and audio departments. The visuals are absolutely stunning. From the realistic character designs, their real-time facial expressions every human and alien looks real. The lighting effects have to be seen to be believed.

And the areas will blow you away! From the beautiful alien architecture of, The Citadel, to quiet glory of Earth’s moon, with a stunning view of planet Earth to boot. All the alien planets have unique look. Some have an Earth like beauty, while others will have you in awe of their alien majesty. Now this is eye-candy!

The music is Mass Effect, has a very spacey feel to it. I enjoyed it very much. From the wonderful title theme. To the adrenaline pumping battle music. Especially the end boss music.

The voice-acting is superb as we have come to expect from Bioware. I would say that is Hollywood quality, but I fell that it even surpasses that. This is simply some of the best voice acting I have ever heard.

Great sci-fi sound effects as well. From bop-guns, to space ships, it’s all good.

The Bad
I almost want to put: NOTHING, in the “bad” section. Of course that would not be entirely true so here goes.

The targeting system is battle can feel off at times. One part in particular, where you have to be careful not to hurt any civilians, if you want the Paragon bonus. The auto-target always tried to target the innocents, that was quite frustrating.

This game has lots of untapped potential. I realise that when making a game, the designers cannot fit in EVERYTHING, but a lot of the game had me wanting more. Of course there will be sequels. For example some space-ship combat would have been nice.

The Bottom Line
Mass Effect is a killer app for the Xbox 360. I would list is as a reason to own one. And in answer to my earlier question: Is Mass Effect, Bioware’s best game?(You didn’t just skip to this part did you?-MM-) This reviewer can answer an ecstatic, yes!

The Good
Mass Effect really propels certain elements of the Action-RPG to new heights. First off, the ability to create an avatar of either sex and any facial type and ethnicity is a welcome ability. Too many games make you play as the same old chiseled/effeminate white dude. Any variety is a very good thing.

The conversation aspects of the game couldn’t be discussed without talking about the plot and voice acting, so let me address all of them at once. This game is based around talking; the combat is really just a way to get to the next conversation, but these are conversations which I love, and couldn’t be happier with. Unlike most Western RPGs that involve a customizable main character, your hero will speak every line of dialogue (there are two voices for your character, one male, one female).

As is often the case with Bioware, the main character and the other characters are all well acted. The dialogue is pretty good, for the most part, and even minor characters have well thought out lines of dialogue, delivered with care. The thing that really sets all this apart from other RPGs is how you conduct conversations. Instead of dialogue trees, you have a wheel. Instead of full sentences, you have the gist of the intended remark. Select the appropriate part of the wheel (maybe it says “no way”) and you character will say “Absolutely not, there has to be another way.”

Luckily, the facial animations in-game are up to the task of conveying emotion, and every conversation has camera angles like those in a movie. You’ll want to listen to every line of dialogue. The plot of Mass Effect is satisfying, and once it gets going, you’ll be drawn into this new world that Bioware has created. You can act in both self-sacrificing (“paragon”) or reckless (“renegade”) ways, and both provide interesting results. This time around, they don’t have to Star Wars license to help support their game, but with th next game in the series, I can see the world of Mass Effect becoming more and more compelling.

As far as exploration and combat goes, I enjoyed the combat, leveling and “magic” (biotics) elements. There are plenty of ways to develop your three character party, and 6 characters to choose for each mission (along with your own character, Commander Shepard). Combat is difficult at first, but you quickly get used to it. It may not have to slick feel of Drake’s Fortune, but it serves the story section of the game well enough.

Again, the plotline of Mass Effect is extremely intriguing, and the fact that your character is always working to save the galaxy makes the game intriguing. You might be committing murders and other horrible acts, but your character will always feel that their actions are necessary. Controlling a dangerous, violent, short-fused vigilante is invigorating and terrifying. You’ll be surprised and frightened as your avatar calmly explains how she had to kill those innocent people. She’s saving the galaxy, after all.

The problem is, you’ll see how she could be right, every time. From a technical standpoint, Mass Effect succeeds and fails. The characters look amazing, the effects are pretty, and the world is fully realized and very detailed. This is a new world, a new galaxy, and you won’t have a problem believing in it.

The Bad
When I said that the combat was enjoyable, I didn’t mean it was great, just that I tolerated it in my odd way. Some parts of combat feel awkward (sniping!), and your teammates are pretty stupid. Why even bother with squad control if it doesn’t help in any way? Your teammates provide gunfire, healing and some biotic attacks, but they never rise past the level of barely adequate.

Even worse, Mass Effect “boasts” an entire galaxy to explore. Sadly, each system has maybe 3 or 4 planets that can actually be landed on. The rest are either blank (save a text description) or “scannable.” Most scans lead to the exciting discovery of different ores, gases or minerals. Wonderful.

Planetside, the average planet looks like a Brice 3D creation. No foliage, no rivers, no animals, nothing. You’ll pilot your space buggy (which is actually fun) to various locations, most of which provide you with anomalies or crashed space probes… for you to scan. From time to time, you’ll be ambushed by Geth (hive mind AI robots), giant underground worms, or space pirates, but for the most part, planets are very boring.

True, the game provides you with many side quests, mostly involving mining facilities, abandoned spacecraft, or science facilities, but each of these interiors looks the same, with only a few different enemies. Boredom eventually sets in. Finally, the inventory system could use some work. You’ll pick up a lot of weapons and items from enemies, but you do this automatically. Yes, you can break unwanted items into omni-gel (which allows you to hack items), but eventually this process will annoy you.

As I mentioned before, the graphics aren’t up to everything Mass Effect demands of them. Pretty they may be, but there are hideous (and slow) draw-ins when you enter a level. There are also elevators that take 3 to 4 minutes to get to their destination. Excuse me? Just give me a loading screen.

The Bottom Line
Mass Effect is hugely flawed. It has egregious load times, hugely boring planet exploration, and an infuriating inventory system. Yet at the same time, I have never been so invested in the outcome of a game. It also made me feel more strongly about my own decisions than any other game ever has. The characters in this game are so real (special thanks go to Keith David, who voices Captain Anderson), and your own character’s reaction to them is so believable, you won’t want to stop playing. Plus, the decisions Bioware asks you to make become meaningful and scary, quickly. Like I said before, this game gives you tough decisions, and shows you the brutal consequences of every single decision. Have fun saving the galaxy.

The Good
The spirit of the game was definitely inspired by Star Wars. You can visit strange planets and fend off attacks from bad guys. The story unwinds in a way that's easy to follow and continually intriguing. You can customize your weapons and armor to suit the fights you may face. You fight in 3rd and 1st person against a collection of bad guys. You also have several jaunts in a space age tank that seems to magically right itself, no matter what terrain you drive over.

Its easy to compare what ordnance you have in comparison to what you can trade in your inventory. You can upgrade your guns and armor with brands and models that give you and your characters a fighting chance.

The voice acting and music were above par and the characters were interesting enough. I really liked some of the interaction with other characters.

The gameplay required learning by mistakes, and going back again. Once you get the hang of it, It becomes a lot more fun and a lot less discouraging.

Cut scenes were great, and strongly contributed to the storyline instead of distracting from the gameplay. And the ending, Wow....

The Bad
I mentioned the cut scenes. I didn't mention that you can't exit out of them. It's terrible if you get a long one just before a tough fight.

There's only one location in the game that I found that doesn't involve shooting. For an exotic place, I would have liked to seen other places where you can trade and complete quests.

Leveling of your characters isn't as clear a process as I would have preferred. A greater assortment of bad guys would have been nice too. Heck, More aliens with odd quests would have cool too.

And good lord, It's talky...

The Bottom Line
Lots of exposition and talking. The shooting is good, but probably much better on a PC.

But the story is the real gem of the game.

The Good

• Mass Effect has not only a fantastic story in terms of its scope and imagination, but the structure, pacing, and general presentation of the story to the player is truly superb. This game plays out more like a really well-written novel than a video game or (as some may be tempted to say) a movie. There is an incredibly detailed backstory, intertwining narrative threads, and a plot twist near the end of the game that caught me completely off-guard, yet turned out to be perfectly logical. This aspect alone makes the game worth playing, and sci-fi junkies will walk away extremely satisfied.
• Likewise, the game's characterization is fantastic. The myriad dialogue options allow you as the player to delve as much or as little as you wish into individuals' backgrounds. As a result, the player can become very emotionally invested in certain characters, and this does nothing but increase the game's immersion.
• There are often a number of dialogue choices in the game which can affect your character's good/evil alignment. Although this is by no means an original implementation, the ability to mold your character in such a way is always a welcome addition, and thanks to the game's brilliant writers, there are a number of different dialogue paths you can take through almost any given encounter.
• The voice acting in the game is mostly well-done. There are a few voice actors who noticeably overact occasionally (Ashley Williams tends to sound a little too passionate most of the time), but a greater number do the job very well (Garrus is probably the best example). In no cases is the voice acting stiff or monotone - it is well-balanced from beginning to end, and helps to make the dialogue portions of the game as interesting as any action part.
• The action elements in the game are top-to-bottom fantastic. Going into gunfights is simply fun, and the entertainment really doesn't wear off. There's also an interesting strategy element to such portions; your characters have biotic and tech abilities (the sci-fi analogue to magic in fantasy RPGs), some of which are offensive and others defensive, that can be used at any time in a battle. Although in many cases it's simple enough to just run in and blast everything that moves, just as often it's beneficial to take battles slower and use these abilities to maximize your squad's effectiveness. This gives combat a certain depth that enhances the game's replay value and keeps firefights from getting stale.
• There's a huge number of sidequests, all of which help flesh out the game's universe. Although many of the sidequests differ little from one another, they are a pleasant distraction that allow for extra experience and opportunities to find extra items. Most importantly, these sidequests can provide the player with abundant additional information on the Mass Effect universe, which gives the game significantly more depth.
• Mass Effect has an absolutely killer soundtrack. Most of the music in the game is of the spacey, electronic sort, but it fits the atmosphere splendidly, and often moderates the mood better than anything else. Also, the song played during the closing credits could not have been better-chosen.
• The game's graphics are gorgeous. Although the colors tend to be on the vivid side, I think the game's setting allows for it compared to a duller, more "realistic" color palette. Character designs are all well done, as are ship designs and cinematic sequences.

**The Bad**

• The gameplay tends to focus too much on an exploration mechanic that quickly wears out its welcome. Whenever you land on a planet, you are dropped in an all-terrain vehicle known as the Mako, which you can drive around on the surface. The map is typically marked at objects of interest, the variety of which is unfortunately small - crashed probes, mummified corpses, abandoned bases, that sort of thing. Visit five planets at random, explore them, and you'll have seen just about everything you'll encounter throughout the Galaxy, with few exceptions. Although you get different things when you scan these anomalies, it's a little disappointing to constantly run across the same objects over and over.
• There is distinct evidence of laziness on the developers' part with certain aspects of the game. Planets don't really look all that different from one another, other than different terrain shape and color. There's never any vegetation, rarely alien animal life, and never any cities or anything of the sort, except in storyline missions. Beyond this, it seems that all bases and underground mines established on planets throughout the Galaxy have the exact same layout. You can go across light-years of space to the other side of the Galaxy, and whatever rogue base that you're trying to take down on whatever obscure planet it's on will have the exact same shape and size as a completely unrelated base elsewhere. Besides simply smacking of laziness, it makes the game much more boring, because now you can't even enjoy the scenery.
• Sidequests are all mostly the same. They're either fetch-quests or mercenary ones, where you simply go to a planet and wipe out the bad guys, and few stray very far from here. Although the combat is fun, going through the motions gets rather stale, and near the end I found myself getting frustrated with doing them.
• Absolutely horrendous inventory management. There is no way to organize any of the items you get, making scrolling through them to get to what you want a pain, more often than not. Although there is a basic organization feature built in to the game (all your items are divided by type), a simple "alphabetize" option would have helped enormously, especially because many weapons have the same name, but a different number after them (i.e. a Stiletto VI pistol, which is better than the Stiletto III). Adding upgrades to armor and weapons just complicates the inventory screen further, and as it is it's mostly a huge mess.
• Item overload. There are too many crates, too many secure boxes, too many weapons lockers, etc. that you come across in the game. When you open these (or hack them), you tend to get weapons and upgrades. It's nice, especially in the beginning of the game when you don't have much, but in the mid-to-late game, you find this stuff EVERYwhere, and it gets to be a hassle to manage, especially because you tend to get duplicates and it's hard to remember which guns you have and which you don't. I spent a LOT of time near the end of the game going through all my weapons and discarding what I didn't need, which was almost everything. There are simply too many versions of weapons, and the developers could have reduced the number such that coming across a new weapon was actually a big deal; instead, getting a new weapon is an entirely trivialized event that you'll eventually just get annoyed with.
• The game tends to suffer from occasional slowdown, something I feel should be absent from console gaming altogether. Although this only tends to happen right after entering a new area (i.e. the game is still loading when you begin) or right after autosaving, there were several instances where there was simply too much on the screen and the game slowed down. This is hardly a major issue, but it happened enough to be aggravating.
• The AI is not great. Although I did die several times through my play on Normal difficulty (which was otherwise a cakewalk), such instances were due more to my own stupidity or impatience than because the AI did something particularly clever. Most of the time, enemies will just rush at you and you can simply blast them away, or they'll hide in the same spot behind cover until you come up behind them and kill them.
• Elevators. These "loading screens" take forever - up to a minute or more on the worst occasions. Especially in the beginning of the game, when you're on Citadel, you have to use elevators frequently and too much time is spent in them.

**The Bottom Line**
Overall, Mass Effect is a game worth playing for most, and there are a number of people out there who will play through it multiple times. It's a game that succeeds mostly on its writing and its design, less on its gameplay, and not at all in its organization. Ultimately, its a bipolar game in the sense that most people are going to be enjoying themselves most either when they're learning about the rich and detailed history of Galactic civilization, or when they're blasting enemies away with their Assault Rifles. Even though the game is filled with a significant amount of filler material, the game is incredibly fun. I just finished and I already want to play through again, even in spite of the large amount of complaints I have. When the game gets it right, it gets it right, and the result is an uneven but ultimately satisfying experience.

The Good
The story is pretty well-written, and to me, it seemed to be adequately wondrous and science-fiction-like enough. Even when the main plot is relatively simple and ordinary, it made me think about stuff and think about the characters - this is always a good sign. I also appreciate the fact that the game is definitely more of a "science-fiction" game than a "space opera" game; the designers put a lot of effort into writing a backstory and a bunch of technobabble that sounds plausible and well-thought-out. It's not just "it's got spaceship and ray-guns in it".

Graphics and music are top-notch, and the character art and animation is very good. Voice acting never really gets jarring, dialogue works surprisingly well.

This game is also one of the few games I really wanted to pick up for a second playthrough almost immediately afterwards. The game is not too long, yet not too short either.

The Bad
The planets you can land on are quite fun to explore, and the sidequest missions are interesting enough, but the problem is that the planets are rather bland and the sidequests are set in The Mine or The Base or The Other Kind of Base or The Spaceship - there's literally one map for each submission, with the interior objects slightly changed. This doesn't allow for much variation, and you can pretty much figure out a single strategy for them and then just say "Okay, now we're raiding The Base, here's my tried-and-true plan".

The firefights are chaotic to say the least. The enemies have absolutely no strategy, and they just run around a lot, usually scurrying around just as you're about to aim at them. This is compounded by the fact that your squadmates have no strategy either, and when these enemies scurry out of your line of fire, your squadmates offer to put their heads on the line of fire, instead, just as you pull the trigger.

Some of the game mechanics remain obscure. I was half-way through the game until I finally "got" some of the subtleties of the game - and could have played through without really getting them.

Yet, none of this is all that big. Even when blandness sometimes shows, the main plot definitely makes up for it.

The Bottom Line
Welcome to an epic science-fiction tale where the humanity has uncovered mysterious alien technology to allow faster-than-light jumping around the galaxy, and met several interesting alien species. Humankind is just about to be admitted to the greater galactic bureaucracy as one of the prominent races. And we, on the other hand, have to go examine the exploits of the crew of humanity's most advanced spaceship. The first call is to examine a rather mysterious conflict that is quickly unfolding in a rather sleepy planet; this immediately leads to the trail of a new threat to all sentient organic races.

The humankind, of course, does what it does best, as far as fiction is to be believed: kicking butt. Mass Effect is a tactical third-person shooter... and a RPG... and you get to drive around in an APC too... oh, and you have a starship and you get to conduct some exploration too. Dialogue is a heavy part of the game: situations can be often solved with guns or through eloquent or threatening speech. The character is given choice between acting nicely and heroically ("Paragon"), or just getting the job done no matter what it takes ("Renegade"). Not really a good vs. evil system, but close. These choices award points which are tracked independently; the better you are at either, you also get the chance to be more persuasive or intimidating.

The player controls a squad of up to three people; each character has unique talents and strengths. The player character, Shepard, can be customised as well. At your disposal you have a bunch of different weapons (grenades, assault rifles, pistols, shotguns and sniper rifles) that come in different makes and models and can be customised with various kinds of mods. Different character types can use different weapons to their advantage. When the characters level up, they learn new powers. Aside of conventional weaponry, there's a bunch of biotic powers that are extremely handy. When you land on planets, you also have at your disposal an armoured vehicle, called Mako, that has the necessary big guns.

In short, Mass Effect is a really well-done science fiction RPG, with only minor flaws that don't really take away too much from fun. It has tons of engaging dialogue, has a well-crafted milieu, and enough interesting plot twists to keep you busy.

The Good
The core of any Bioware RPG is made by three factors: the story, the characters and the game world. Strangely enough, even though the story is standard action movie fare, the characters aren't anything you haven't seen before and the world is outright clichéd, everything still works perfectly. There is a LOT of dialogue, all of it entertaining, with brilliant voice acting. The fact that Shepard, the protagonist, has a voice of his/her own, is also great, since most BioWare PC's are mute.

Speaking of the dialogue, the dialogue wheel is a great idea. Even though the choices aren't always to your liking, I still prefer the wheel over the system in older BioWare games.

The story is entertaining, with enough twists and turns to keep you interested. The characters, including Shepard, are all interesting. Though Tali, Liara and Wrex sometimes feel like they were just designed to tell tidbits about their species, they still feel stunningly real. I especially like Wrex's cynical comments.

The actual gameplay is good enough, at least the shooting. Unlike most people, I really enjoyed the Mako-parts. Not so much in sidequests, but in story missions like Virmire, the Mako is a nice change: running over geth is much more satisfying than shooting them on foot.

The Bad
The sidequests all have interesting stories behind them, but gameplay-wise, they're infuriatingly similar. It basically boils down to this: drive the Mako to a place, go inside place, shoot a lot of enemies inside a space station identical to the ones you already visited a million times, some dialogue, the end. The level architecture in particular is dull, with the cut- and paste-levels. Even the story missions, like Therum, suffer from unimaginative design. Not all the worlds are bad, though: the Citadel and especially Virmire are great.

And the inventory... without a doubt, the worst part in the game. Who at Bioware thought it was a good idea that you pick up new stuff and new guns every five seconds? Still, at least it has an inventory, but it's just so bad you never really get used to it.

The shooting segments, while passable, don't really shine, especially when fighting human enemies. Hearing "ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!" a gazillion times may seem funny in retrospect, but during the gameplay it made me feel like crying.

Funnily enough, even though the game has plenty of design flaws, they never really make the game bad or even mediocre. The good parts are just that good.

The Bottom Line
An Action-RPG with emphasis on the action. Unless sci-fi makes you hurl, the story is absolutely fantastic and worth experiencing. Like in all BioWare games, there will be lengthy conversations, so if you're the kind of guy or gal who skips cutscenes and ignores the dialogue, this game is not for you. To anyone who appreciates good RPG's and storylines, get it. The first one is easily the best.