With the whole media buzz on the big-hit sequel, Mass Effect 2 released not too long ago. I go back to it’s original release on the very first, Mass Effect for Windows.

The Story
The game begins at your soon to own ship SSV Normandy commanded by Captain Anderson and his executive officer, Commander Shepard(this is you).

The Normandy is sent to the human colony world of Eden Prime to recover an unearthed Prothean beacon. To assist in recovering the beacon, the Citadel Council, the galaxy’s primary governing body has sent one of their top agents, a turian “Spectre”, named Nihlus.

A small team consisting of Nihlus, Shepard, biotic Kaidan Alenko, and the quickly-killed Corporal Jenkins, who is replaced by Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, discover that the Eden Prime colony is under attack by alien synthetic life-forms known as the geth, led by a rogue turian Spectre named Saren Arterius, who kills Nihlus. After the battle ends, Shepard locates the beacon and receives a vision. While initially struggling to understand the vision, it turns out to be images of biological creatures being slaughtered by machines.

Recovered in Citadel(a gigantic space station considered to be the center of galactic civilization), you are become a Spectre after proving Saren connected with the Geth. From here on, you are given the opportunity to choose where to begin your adventure in space…

The Graphics
The graphics are outstanding for my own Personal Computer to be running it. Since it’s run by Unreal Engine it’s not difficult to understand why the performance is greater. In comparison to Mass Effect 2, still great but not that great now lol!

The Sound
Deep Surround Sound At It’s Finest! BioWare keeps the game top-notch with it’s oustanding Original Soundtrack filled with out-of-this-world sound fit perfectly for the world of Sci-Fi.

The Voice Acting is recorded at it’s professional level like any previous BioWare game. Although with some minor few actors crying to be removed from the game completely, those who have played it will know exactly what I mean.

The Gameplay
The game is much more free based than I expected. You can go to any star system available to you to do any missions in any order. You can choose not to do certain missions or missions where you have or haven’t been before. Almost all missions are plot based if not plot advancing, meaning that almost every mission you do will contribute to the plot in some way.

Gameplay consists of exploring systems, and planets. Once you find a system you’ll search around for anything you may be able to survey. If you find a planet you can land on you will actually be dropped off in a land-rover type vehicle. Exploring planets is tremendous fun. The rover also has a machine gun and canon that you will have a good time with.

The Combat is not Bioware’s typical “pause to direct you companions and continue.” This is a third-person shooter very similar to Gears of War, from the view to being able to use obstacles to shoot around and use for cover. Of course you can pause the combat to issue orders which can be a cheat at times during a struggling battle.

Opinion So Far….
Although the game is fully controlled by side-quests from start to finish – BioWare knows how to balance it out to create an outstanding sci-fi video game for everyone. Have yet to invite the last member available to join which is turning out to be a little hard with the massive worlds…. you can get lost if you don’t know how to search the galaxy XD lol!