Years later and Bioware is back with Mass Effect, an original property that at first glance seems to borrow a lot from Knights. Yet as you delve deeper into the game you realize that the similarities are superficial, for better or for worse.

I'll start with the bad, to get it out of the way. The menus aren't horrible, but they're not the best. This isn't really a big deal, but it ties into something that is: Inventory management. This has to be the worst excuse for an inventory system that I've seen in a long time and it borders on being embarrassing. I've seen the archives in thirteen-year-old girl's blogs organized more coherently. Imagine every item you ever picked up in a game (RPG's in particular). Imagine they aren't organized by type, rank, rarity, or anything at all. Imagine trying to dig through that to weed out the crap. It's a damned chore.

Next up are the games sidequests. A lot of them are fun and in depth, and involve hunting down rogue military groups across multiple planets. Unfortunately, they happen to involve traveling to the game's multiple planets. While there are several dozen different planets, some hot, some cold, some with different pressures and hazards, aside from differing color schemes and varying visibility, the planets don't feel distinct. They all have annoying mountains and you navigate them all in the Mako, which is a neat idea but the vehicle can be a chore to drive sometimes. They should've just copy pasted the Halo Warthog control scheme and called it good. Also, its cannon won't aim beyond a certain point which is never mentioned or explicitly stated, so you could be firing round after round at an enemy wondering where this immortal robot came from, before realizing you were parked on an incline and your gun doesn't aim that far down, despite the crosshair being dead center on him.

Another thing worth mentioning is the game lacks a comprehensive tutorial. Aside from a fairly obscured message at the bottom of the screen the first time you try to equip something, I had no idea how to swap the different bits and pieces I was collecting that serve as upgrades and replacement ammo for your weapons. I had to look online to figure it out (you hit X in the equipment screen). This helped make a part of the game giving me a lot of trouble significantly easier.

Now for the good. Mass Effect has an epic story that will sweep you away and having played it through twice, the choices you make in the game make a difference. You can play it through as a Paragon, a force of uncompromising good. Or you can play as a Renegade, who won't let anything get in the way of completing your mission. The game's two endings are distinct and serve these two play styles well. Will you help someone out of the kindness in your heart? Or will you exploit them and milk them for all they're worth? Will you take the time to save a colony or cite them as the few who died to save the many?

The game's battles are a lot of fun, but kind of a breeze on the normal difficulty. Anyone with experience with Halo or any other shooter could probably handle this game on Veteran, but you can adjust the game's difficulty at any time. The differences feel about right, and the game can be pretty challenging on the higher difficulties. The cover system is a nice touch, but clearly added at the last minute because someone played Gears of War or Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Balance is important when picking your squad. There are three basic types of classes in the game, Tech based ones, Biotic based ones, and combat based ones. There are also classes that combine up to two of these areas. Having someone with good tech is essential for salvaging crashed probes and malfunctioning objects for loot, as well as decrypting computers and opening lockers. Trying to play without a skilled biotic (the game's version of magic) in your squad on the higher difficulties would be an exercise in frustration. Few things are as satisfying as watching two of my squad mates juggle an enemy capable of one shot killing any of us in the air with the biotic ability lift (they had both maxed the skill out). As a matter of fact, this enemy was the final boss of the game. While it made defeating him fairly easy, the fact that I had done every sidequest in the game in order to deck these characters out in the best gear in the galaxy didn't make it feel cheep.

Which brings us to your squadmates, and believe me they aren't all for show. They all have distinct personalities, and talking to them between missions yields bits of character development, potential romances, and additional sidequests. You can spend a solid half hour between missions talking to your buddies, which might be a bad thing for some people, but the conversations are optional. They chime in randomly too, while exploring or in an elevator, which helps break up the monotony a bit.

The game's universe is robust, filled with distinct races with unique cultures that feel organic. The game features an in depth codex that goes into nearly every aspect of the game in more detail, provide you've accessed a computer or conversation path that touches on that piece of information. Reading the codex is optional, but can be very informative. Nevertheless, reading it is never essential.

There's a lot to do in Mass Effect, but compared to some other RPGs out there it's a little on the short side. It took me about thirty hours to beat it on the first play through, doing everything I could and maxing out my character's levels. Still, those thirty hours never delved into the relentless grinding that some longer RPGs are guilty of, so it's give and take.

It's not hard to recommend Mass Effect to anyone. It's got a great story, great action, a great exploration system, and great characters. A few technical hiccups aren't enough to hold it back from greatness, and one expects some of these will be ironed out in the sequel, if not a patch. Unfortunately, these hiccups are enough to hold it back from an A, which is sad because I want to overlook all the flaws and give it one. But, the flaws are too significant.