Mass Effect really showed me what a sci-fi RPG can be, and consequently made me fall in love with the genre. The original presentation at e3 2006 was what drew me in initially, starting with the intro and BioWare's choice of style of futuristic soundtrack.

Similar to Knights of the Old Republic, when communicating with NPCs Mass Effect lets you pick your responses from several choices. Some are aggressive/ruthless (Renegade), some are more nice/friendly (Paragon), and some are neutral. Many of these choices will affect side quests and main quests later on, including in Mass Effect 2 and 3, so your choices have some gravity to them. This alone is a very cool feature from Mass Effect 1-3. At the time this game was originally released, the facial animations were pretty believable compared to other games. There are thousands of lines of dialogue recorded for the game with a decent variety of voice actors/actresses.

The game is played from a third-person perspective, so combat will be viewed through a camera over Sheperd's shoulder. The combat was a little sloppy in the first Mass Effect, which was improved in the sequels. You do get used to it after the first mission or so though. In addition to utilizing various futuristic weaponry, you can also manipulate the physical world around you using biotics. They are, to me, most comparable to the force from Star Wars. You can also command your squadmates you have with you at that moment to go to certain areas, engage certain enemies with specific biotics, etc.

The graphics weren't groundbreaking when the game came out, but they were definitely still considerably good. I especially enjoyed when I made it to the planet Virmire in the single player campaign, which has kind of a watery/tropical/beach vibe to it, with mixed in futuristic architecture, of course. The artists did a good job crafting this new sci-fi universe, and it's pretty believable.

As far as audio, the dialogue was generally pretty great and believable, along with the writing itself which is to be expected of a BioWare title. I love the songs when interacting with the Galaxy Map on the Normandy, and when hanging out at clubs such as Flux or Chora's Den.

If you like single player action RPG/shooter games that feature some squad mechanics and powers (especially in a futuristic sci-fi setting), this is series in general is about as good as it gets, starting with this very game! Give it a try!