Upon playing a game, many questions run through my mind as to what I think about the product as a whole. You might think graphics, sound, action, explosions (aka eye candy) are what makes a good game. To me the quality of its greatness is not justified by things that last only the first two minutes of playing a game. The thing that grabs me in a game are great characters that are interesting and a story that sends chills down your spine.
Characters that have motives that relate to you, someone you know, or someone you want to be. Characters that interact with other characters in ways that make you believe this game was made by a person and not a mindless drone counting numbers in his check book. The story is probably the most important aspect of a great game . What's the point of giving me someone to play as, a huge gun and no reason to use either than to blow shit up for 5 hours?
Am I saying that a game with sandpaper for textures and characters made out of clay while 8 bit sounds blast out your stereo speakers is suddenly redeemed as a masterpiece because it had a great story? By all means no. But Mass Effect combines the perfect mix of ingredients while using its story and interactivity to twine together the perfect game. Do you like space? Mass Effect is an astronauts dream. Like Movies? Mass Effect has better writing than a lot of movies that make it into the theaters these days.
Overall, Mass Effect uses all the aspects that make any game a classic. Things such as music, state of the art technology, sound, great game play and a story so brilliantly told you'll wonder why your not watching a movie.