The late 90s and early 2000s saw a lot of game devs attempting to add theatrical elements to their games to make them more cinematic: advanced lighting effects, better cinematography, full voice acting, and a focus on well-animated cutscenes improved video games as a whole. While some early cinematic games were maligned as "movie games" for too much cutscene bloat, Mass Effect managed to strike a good balance between cutscenes, dialogue trees, and actual gameplay. Rather than just sitting down for a movie game, this feels more like playing a whole season of Star Trek:TNG. There are bleak moments, but the story is generally hopeful as you gather your crew and save the galaxy, one civilian settlement at a time.
Later games in the series focused more on the combat, but this is definitely an RPG with guns, and has the best overall RPG elements in the trilogy. While the weapon RPG elements are a bit lame (numbers go up and that's it), the attachment system gives you options for different ammo damage types or buffs and debuffs. All classes can use all weapons, but leveling proficiency in them gives you unique skills, plus damage and accuracy buffs. Unlike the later games, you have to keep your squad's individual gear updated and modded since gear is per-character here. Equipment is pretty sterile but it serves as a carrot on a stick, a motivation to continue exploring the galaxy beyond just the narrative's scope.
Because the first game focused so much on the characters and worldbuilding, the combat suffered, and the AI with it too. Both allied and enemy AI is pretty terrible in this game, with most enemies just running at you while shooting and suffering no consequences for it if you don't CC them. Squad composition is the most important here because CC is required to win: most of your enemies are non-human and don't suffer from weapon hitstun. Late game combat requires careful planning of offensive and defensive skills, along with actually shooting from behind cover. Squad AI definitely got better in later games but this feels the most hands-on tactical in the series for me. The combat is the worst part of this game, but it is truly an RPG with guns... If you don't enjoy the storytelling, then the combat isn't going to carry the game for you.
This is the only game in the trilogy with proper PC support, and feels like halfway through development someone at the top said "this needs full controller support too". There's full hotkeys for sub-menus (like J for Journal) and F1-F4 are used for swapping between the four weapon types (something that wasn't included in later games). The HUD is clean and provides you with all the important info that later games omit for some reason, like a working radar, full life and shield bars for your squad, and maps for each individual area. Even though there's still hints of this being a cross-platform release, the only really "console-y" feeling part is the clunky equipment menu.
This game has aged the best of the trilogy because of the attention to detail with the PC port, along with almost all cutscenes being done in-game. Cinematic elements are implemented, like light flares and lens effects, while maintaining graphical fidelity. Later games in the series resorted to pre-rendered cutscenes that suffered from video compression artifacts, but everything maintains full quality here. If there's any argument for buying the original trilogy over the Legendary Edition, it's this game; ME1 specifically suffered the worst in the remaster, with the lighting systems getting absolutely butchered. There's no excuse for what they did to this game, especially because all three games run on UE3.
Overall I think this is the best Mass Effect game. The story is concise and immersive, your choices matter within this game and also carry over into future games, and the Paragon/Renegade system has the most "weight" here. Humanity is trying to secure a foothold in the galaxy, and you're the face of their special forces. The way the story progresses follows the Bioware mould they used around this time, but it still has an excellent intro and ending, with great small stories to tell throughout the middle. Highly recommended because not only is it a great entry point to the series but it's also a very good game on its own.
