How it all works isn’t too hard to predict most of the time, but some situations may be hard to decide what's right to do. Stealing from a store owner who offers you money to sneak illegal equipment to him and selling it to the buyer directly? Who’s to say it's just a little wrong, very wrong, or that you're actually doing good police work?

Combat, which is all done in real time but with pauses, can work one of two ways depending on the abilities your Shepherd has. If Shepherd is a full-on soldier and your team is mainly soldier0based, then it plays like a third-person action shooter, and a good one at that. There are simple squad commands and abilities that can be activated pretty easily by pausing the battle and selecting from a large scroll wheel that functions like the dialog wheel.

Or, if you're the kind of player that likes to take things slow or doesn't use shooting weapons so much, battle can end up being slow and sophisticated. Select different abilities for you and your teammates, move them around to strategic positions and unleash different tech or biotic attacks on them tactically. However you do it, the fighting system is tremendous.

As is the galaxy, which houses at least a hundred worlds, though maybe 15 of them are explorable. Still, that's quite a bit of real estate to go through, so driving the six-wheeled Mako through slight and extremely horrid terrain is necessary. The driving, however, is sad, as the Mako maneuvers awfully, driving like vehicles in Crysis using the 360 controller. It's just painful, though perhaps a keyboard would have done better.

What's worse is that there aren't just opportunities, but times where players are forced to fight from the safety of the Mako, so learning to drive it well is demanded. And driving it is an utter pain most of the time. Don't think you can get through a battle meant for the Mako on foot, because none of the firepower you pack can take the damage or dish out what the Mako can. If the terrain is rough, bite down on something hard to ensure you don't pop a vein.

One major complaint has been the elevators, and how slow they are. This is a moot point, mainly because elevators are rarely used and 90% of the time they are around, you don't actually need to use them to get around. Just once per elevator (generally), that's all. The rest of the elevators take some time...so what? Grab a cup of coffee, because you'll be up playing late anyways.

Throughout the entire experience, the visuals and audio are spectacular. Characters have facial expressions that you ca read, they move with purpose, and the music and sound effects go along with everything perfectly. The world has a futuristic look, something developer BioWare looked back to 70's sci-fi to mimic, and it looks fresh and crisp.

What more is there to say about Mass Effect? It isn't a space opera; it's a space masterpiece. With only a few nagging issues, Mass Effect is unequivocally one of the games of the year for 2007, and is an amazing start for any series. It’s one of the few games of this entire decade that has not only excellent gameplay and real innovation, but a gripping tale to boot. With two more Mass Effect titles planned out for the course for the 360's 5+ year cycle and two of those years already up, we should expect to see more RPG greatness very soon.

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