Mass Effect is fairly well balanced between dialogue and combat. You start out in the Citadel, a great flying city in the heart of the galaxy, and most of the quests there involve talking to people and learning about your environment. This part of the campaign feels the most like a BioWare game, and the Citadel fits right in with the worlds from the Knights of the Old Republic games.

Once you leave the Citadel and start exploring the galaxy, however, the game enters its Elder Scrolls phase and gets much more combat-oriented and much more disappointing. The worlds involved in the main plotline are detailed and interesting, and they work pretty well, but the 30+ optional worlds are a disaster. Each solar system has a single planet you can land on (or a ship you can board), and each planet has roughly the same make-up: two mineral sites to survey, a crashed probe to examine, a mummified explorer to loot, and some enemies to kill. That is, all of the optional solar systems are about the same, right down to the extensive re-use of building layouts. Having lots of places to go is a good thing -- but only if they’re fresh and distinctive, and Mass Effect doesn’t even come close to achieving that.