By the year 2183, mankind has mastered the ability to travel throughout the galaxy at faster-than-light speeds, bringing them in contact with a host of alien races. Now humanity struggles to find its place in the greater galactic community.
As Commander Shepard of the Systems Alliance Military, aboard the spacecraft Normandy, you represent humanity’s first and last line of defense against the strange wonders of a vast and often dangerous galaxy. Your actions and decisions will determine the fate of the human race … and shape the future of an entire galaxy.
This game from BioWare has many great features, aside from the graphics which I’ll get to later, the voice acting and character creation is amazing. You could choose to get right into the game by using the pre-made character, or you can customize the look and personal history of your character, including gender and name. As I mentioned before, this game has voice acting, and lots of it, you’re not allowed to change the last name of your character so that all the voices have something to call you.
The game-play feels a lot like Gears of War meets Bioshock. All your weapons are stored on your back, and you also have telekinetic powers that are easily accessible during combat.
The story is very good, but the voice acting and conversation wheel make for an enjoyable cinematic experience. While another character is still talking, different dialogue choices appear, allowing you to continue the conversation seamlessly. Each dialogue choice is represented with a short message that has the general idea of what to say, like it’s the thought of the character before the real meat of the topic is added.
Just like the Knights of the Old Republic games from BioWare’s past, you have three characters in your landing party including yourself, but you can make those combinations from six different characters before you leave the ship. You can upgrade all the characters yourself, or have the AI characters auto upgrade. For those that played the KotOR games, the menu system will feel very familiar. Equipping weapons and armor is a bit different, but still has a similar enhancement slot for fine tuning your equipment. Luckily this time around, the extra enhancement is easy to switch out when you’re on a planet.
After finishing the game, you have an option to start over with the same character you created. All the weapons equipped, and same level. You do get to re-upgrade yourself, which could be tedious if you got to a higher level, but allows for a player to learn what worked well and focus on certain things. This was the first of a planned trilogy, so I’ll be awaiting further adventures with Commander Shepard and crew.
