During Microsoft's GDC press event we got to see the first tiny portion of Mass Effect, the long awaited Xbox 360 exclusive sci-fi action-RPG from developer BioWare. The game begins with an in-game cut scene (as with many other upcoming games, Mass Effect uses Epic's Unreal Engine 3 for its graphics) showing a human starship heading towards a human colony to retrive an alien artifact; a "beacon" that supposedly can be used by the human race to jumpstart their technology many times over. However before the ship gets to their destination they get a transmission from the human colony; it has fallen under attack by an unknown alien race.

After your ship desposits you on the world your character, John Shephard, and two AI squadmates investigate the devestated worlds and come into contact with the hostiles, a robotic like alien race. The combat system in Mass Effect is definately real time and action based (no turn based stuff here) as you fire energy weapons at the aliens and their robotic sentinels along with defense items like portable force fields. After taking out some of the hostiles you and your party discover that the alien beacon has been moved. It's around that time that our demo ended.

During the demo, we were shown many aspects of the game, from the branching conversation system that you use to communicate with the NPCs. Some chat options open up all new storylines and infomation so you have to think a little before you make your choice. The game's inventory system was also shown as you are able to outfit your character with different weapons, ammo types, armor types and bionic upgrades. Graphically the game looks solid and apart from a few glitches (some voices not synching entirely with the lip movements and some breaks in the frame rate) its well on its way to being a visually impressive title. Voice acting was also top notch. BioWare confirmed that character actor Keith David was the voice of the human commander of the ship in the demo; more well known actors will be announced in the coming months.

Mass Effect will be a massive (pun intended) game. The main storyline will run about 40 hours and the game's universe is vast enough for plenty of side missions. They also hinted at downloadable content that could expand the game even more after its release. And when will it be released? Unfortuately we were not told a solid ship date.

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