The video-game company BioWare has been known for great RPGs (role-playing game) such as Knights of the Old Republic, Never Winter Knights andJade Empire; its latest title, Mass Effect, is no exception. Mass Effect is a third-person shooter set in your ordinary space-age atmosphere. Laden with interesting characters, an enormous world (well, more like universe) to explore and tons of political undertones, this futuristic gaming experience is one of the best yet.

As with any game, the story is essential. Mass Effect took your standard "chase the bad guy around the universe" plot and turned it into a unique experience.

As either Commander Shepard or any other character you decide to create, your task is salvaging of the universe, making humanity look good and to either help or terrorize the residents of the galaxy.

Your task was supposed to be simple: Conduct a short recon mission and test out a prototype ship. Naturally, to make things more interesting, the planet where you are stationed is invaded and it is up to you to stop the attack. After some heroics and a sample of the game's combat and morality systems, you save the planet, but then your simple mission gets more difficult: You're forced to become a politician.

Political opponents of humanity (other species) call your actions criminal and cause chaos within the galactic system. This brings your people skills into play for the perfect balance of sucking up, recklessness and fun to make the things different for everyone who plays the game.

Players use a modified version of the standard third-person, over-the-shoulder camera to navigate the massively large areas of mass effect. This is complimented with a combat system similar to that of GRAW (Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter), where you are given a heads up on how many enemies you are fighting. Generally, you just shoot them until they don't get back up, but you're able to use your biotech powers or you can order your squad to attack anything they see. This make things more interesting.

In addition to the combat systems, you'll notice that your squad plays a huge role in the game. Not only do they help you in combat, but between battles, you are able to talk to each of them for hours (literally), making them your friends or enemies and quite possibly your significant other (It's a game, people; deal with it). Each will have their own set of quests and enough back story.

With all those fancy new features aside, we reach the new morality system that has been added, which forces you into decision-making that affects the course of the game. Seemingly harmless actions might come back to bite you, and doing someone a small favor may pay out later both morally and financially.

Your actions will judge your character's personality and how the character will react to you in the future.

However, this is no Star Wars game where you can shoot lightning out of your hands. Mass Effect pays off in the way other characters treat and react to you, whether out of fear, admiration or disgust.

With tasks to complete for money, items and experience points, the game is lengthy. BioWare plans to increase the game's play — which is already over 40 hours — with downloadable content that contains everything from new planets and weapons to new characters and quests.

However, despite all this futuristic goodness, the game is not without its faults.

Slight graphical glitches and getting your squad stuck on invisible ground gets pretty annoying after awhile, not to mention some abrupt endings to the quests.

Hopefully the update will fix this. But once you look past its shortcomings, you will see that Mass Effect is an excellent game for any fans of shooters, or RPGs and its high-quality feel is a plus for pretty much anyone who wants to play it.

Francis Trujillo is a freshman
at the Academy for Technology and the Classics. You can reach him at
fx-trujillo@hotmail.com.