Mass Effect - Review @ PALGN

PALGN has whipped up a review of Mass Effect that sees the game as a rather ordinary RPG but an excellent adventure:

Sliding block puzzles, though. They're cunningly designed as nuclear reactors, computer security systems and electronic gate openers, but if you're moving that over there, which puts this out of position until that bit is put there - it's a sliding block puzzle. And if sliding block puzzles scream one thing, it's adventure game. We spent a good few hours with Mass Effect wondering why it all felt so... wrong. The character development was rudimentary, the combat rough and unfinished, inventory management bafflingly unwieldy and it all felt slightly bent out of shape. It was only when we realised that the RPG elements were almost irrelevant to the story - the adventure - taking place, that everything clicked and we were spirited away on one of the most accomplished and professional slabs of storytelling we've yet encountered on any gaming platform.