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Mass Effect - Xbox 360; made by Bioware.
The reason I've decided to add in the trailers for the sequel is because i'm as addicted to them as I am to the game itself.... But I may as well get to the review itself.
Okay, so the first two things everyone will notice once you actually get to the game part- meaning after character customization, is the graphics. Few people would actually pay attention to the conversation they can't see, so you'll end up watching and listening to probably your two favorite people during the first VERY epic few seconds of the game, where you encounter a gigantic, stationary machine that looks eerily like a cannon called a Mass Relay. Sadly enough, it IS more or less a cannon... Anywho, at first glance of the game, everything seems to play like a movie. In fact, and I both hate and love saying this, it pretty much IS a movie.Well... a choose-your-own-alignment movie. By that I mean, if you play through the story only, you'll end up playing through six hours of an eleven hour game, not including loading times, map travel, and constantly going back and forth to complete the romance subplot or to the citadel until required... so... It's basically a five hour movie with chunks of game. The game was made to be a visual storybook if you ask me, so seeing it that way means the programmers hit the nail on the head. On the other hand, if you're one of those "100%" nuts, you'll spend a good.... sixty hours getting every little bit in the game. BIG difference.
Speaking of story, if you pay more attention to it rather than leveling up and buffing up your party, you'll notice that it's- at the WORST- one of the very best stories in existence. It's got the tragedy of three-possibly four deaths in the good-guy rank, two of them at least you would probably consider awesome- and the ever-predictable death of the villain. Well... Villains. I may as well spoil it, but for any who have gotten just between Noveria and Eden Prime, the ship, Sovereign, is the REAL baddie, and IT... [spoiler alert!] is a Reaper. Feh! I said I would review, so i'll finish.
Okay, so with visuals, game length, and story... That leaves sound, gameplay and longevity, and possibly a little research hint for the oblivious.
Lets go with... sound. Okay, first off, LISTEN TO THE SOUNDTRACK! Not IN the game, the OST. The best place to look for those who are broke would be Youtube. The music IS basically amazing. There are some bits that you'll hear so many times, though, that your head will start to hurt if you don't try to speed through those sections. Namely the Citadel, Normandy, and Galaxy map. There are 37 tracks total, and only about four repeated at least once. Each one was made specifically for their worlds and areas in the game. All but one was made only for the game, and the one that wasn't is the ending credits theme, M4 part 2, which is over eight minutes long, and worth every second the first few times hearing. The sound EFFECTS occasionally drown out the music itself, specifically the weapons. However, the weapons sound unique to a degree, and fit each weapon and ammo type nicely, but not perfectly. Combined with everything in the game... It's surprisingly not messy and doesn't grind. Even on a small TV with a slightly messed up speaker.
Oooh, gameplay, one of the biggest flamebaits of the game! I have little to complain about, though. Between this game and Resident Evil 4, I say this game beats the other by a mile and a half. Then again, i've played so many shooters like this, i've already mastered the controls. Your two biggest problems will probably be the Sniper Rifle and occasional tech/ Biotic power you just can't quite master. The rest seems easy and smooth. The sniper rifle itself has virtually no stability, but it swerves around just slow enough to manage a shot or two. Very worth it, though. The beginning sniper rifle can take down a Geth Destroyer in oh ... four shots on Normal. The two best weapon types in the game, however, would be the pistol and shotgun. The pistol has about as much accuracy as a Sniper Rifle, but in exchange for the force of the shot, it instead has half the spead of the assault rifle, the heat absorption, and the strength per shot. The shotgun has the power of the sniper, but is almost required far more often. In fact, between the two, the only time the Sniper is better is on a Story-specific planet. The customization of you and your strike squad is rather extensive. Considering how much was put into the game itself and not the menus, I would say it's surprising that they managed to squeeze so much customization. I mean, each suit of armor has its ups and downs in more than just the visual stats and armor class/race without the buffers, as does each weapon. And each piece of equipment can take one buffer, and each weapon can take an ammo modifier. The favorites of which would possibly be high explosive. And by high explosive, I mean A direct shotgun blast can take down one of the tougher enemies, and even the bosses. VERY worth it against a select few, but very NOT against a group, as each type has repercussions, some not mentioned. The buffers, however, don't always, but a select type of weapon buffer is virtually useless if you aren't the one using it... Out of combat, it runs average, with normally long load times. In conversations, they upped the standards a lot. Instead of reading entire statements your character seems to skip saying during most RPG games, this one gives you little annotations of the message, and you get to hear your character SAY the real message. There are only optional quick-time events, none of which that have real repercussions, those that do exist being unable to get items or possibly skip a small section of game.
Ahh, I almost forgot; the initial customization. I haven't counted all of the options available, but I do know there's a hell of a lot. None for your body other than skin color and gender, though. Those for the character's face are vast, but few actually look good depending on your tastes. As for the classes, you have a choice of 3 base classes and 3 mixed. If you're an advanced, you may try taking the role of one of the back players. Those specifically being Adepts [Biotic only] or Engineers [tech]. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. If you're the tech nut, you'll either be the soldier/engineer mix, Infiltrator; Engineer itself, or the tech/biotic mix. If you wanna "Go jedi" on them, you'll have the counterpart to the Tech options. If you're just a gun-nut, however, your best- and possibly only option would be Soldier, as they get all four weapons instead of either 1 or 2. As well as that, you have a "backstory" selection for your character. Each of those house a couple of side-"assignments" and specific dialogue; the most noticeable actually being the beginning mini conversation you hear.
As for the longevity, you'll get a total of.... maybe four playthroughs, extensive or not, before you start getting bored. the achievements seem to be fun to have, though. Each specific weapon and ability has its own achievement and special add-on for getting them.

Ahh, the most INTERESTING part of the game. Some of this isn't even in the game itself. There is actually so much science behind the effects themselves, it's almost scary! No, not the programming! the concept. The FTL traveling, the guns, every little bit of the game. No wonder they have so much hype for the second game! This one has its own planet's worth of information behind the places, objects, etcetera. It's... well... inspiring, almost. Almost. It's enough to get a bored teenager to actually start on developing such stuff.