Mass Effect, for those not in the know, is BioWare’s latest RPG and is the first in a planned trilogy of games following the military life of space hero Commander Sheppard, the player character. Who exactly Sheppard is up to the player of course and you can customise the gender, appearance and skills of the protagonist however you want, but the game follows his progression through a mostly linear story.

That story is one firmly set in the space opera genre, around the date of 2183. Humans have confirmed that they are no longer alone in the universe and have flung themselves out into the ocean of inky and diamond studded blackness that we call space with the help of a newly discovered phenomenon called Mass Effect – more commonly known as Dark Energy.

The Mass Effect phenomenon was discovered in the ruins of an ancient alien civilisation now vanished from the galaxy known as The Protheans, much like Jack Chalker’s famous Markovians. Nearly all interstellar travel in the galaxy is the result of Promeathean technology, and as the Human race harnesses the power of it they realise that they aren’t the first race to master the ability.

In fact, nearly everyone has beaten them to it and we humans are very much a minority in the galaxy – a handful of primitives in the eyes of the Citadel Council, which runs most the Milky Way. Not content to be on the sidelines though, the humans start climbing to the top of the ladder and the player represents one very special rung – the first Human Spectre. Spectres in the game are the elite agents of the Citadel and having humanity represented in those ranks is seen as an important step for the race.

You can read the entire review at Bit-Tech.