Bought it for the 360 the other day, been playing it in small portions for a few days now. Mass Effect has more than a few similarities with KOTOR and KOTOR2, so much so that some aspects of the game seems like a copy-paste job. Which is a good thing to me, because I absolutely loved the KOTOR series. A few things are different though, first of all it's obviously not set in the StarWars universe (although a lot of concepts, plot and tech seem very StarWars-like). Combat is almost real-time, with FPS-like aiming and firing, but the game will pause while you switch weapons or select powers to use.

The approach to inventory management is refreshing, there is no ammo (only ammo upgrades). Instead your weapon heats up as you fire it so you need to take breaks or fire bursts if it's an automatic weapon. Most things have upgrade slots, some more than one. There are "talents" that you can select as you level up, that give you extra abilities or proficiency with different weapons and armor tech.

You can have 2 companions at any time, but you only have limited control over them. You can manage their inventory, and give them basic orders. In combat you can select which powers they should use, but you can switch that to Auto too. A vast improvement from the KOTOR series is that you meet all your companions very early in the game. I always hated how in KOTOR you didn't get all the available people on board until very close to the end, so you never really got to try them out.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT - SOME INFO ABOUT EARLY PLOT DEVELOPMENT BELOW!
As you get past the intro-missions you will be given your own ship to command, and travel around the galaxy. Nav system is also somewhat similar to KOTORs, but in Mass Effect you can also land on uninhabited planets (you have a cool 6-wheeled APC/rover type thing that you can drop from orbit). Once you get your bird the game becomes very open-ended and you can explore the galaxy as you wish.

As you find new stuff there is a Codex you can refer to later to read more about everything from alien races to the design of your ships FTL drive. Kinda cool, but a lot of useless info.

Anyway - I love the game, go buy it!

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I completed it and thought it was a bit on the short side. Then I realised that although I had finished it in a weekend I had actualy spent 26 hours playing it and had skipped a fair amount of content.

One of the things I like about it is the real-time effects on your missions and assignments your decisions have.

[SPOILER ALERT]
For instance the mission on Peak 15 - if you try to get in the 'good' way by getting key cards, etc. you can still travel down to the quarantined lab and synthesize a cure for the toxin, whilst sneaking in through the maintenance access stirs up the rachni and does not allow you to return to the quarantine lab.
[/SPOILER]

I don't particularly like the inventory system however. It is extremely tedious to use as you get more items. And quite frankly, half of the armours and weapons are useless. What is nice is that you can convert useless items into Gel to repair your APC and open locks.

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Yep inventory needs frequent cleaning. You could turn stuff into crafting materials in KOTOR too, but you needed a workbench to do it. In ME you can do it at any time, which is nice.

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