Mass Effect (Microsoft Game Studios)

It's been an amazing year for gamers as a veritable avalanche of quality games have hit store shelves in the past few months. But while all of them are worth playing, only a few have what it takes to rise to the top and attain "must own" status.

We've purposefully kept the finer details hidden because Mass Effect is a game that you have to play for yourself. Then, and only then, will you fully understand the game's depth and intricate nature.

BioWare is no stranger to producing excellent RPG experiences. Its catalogue includes hits such as the PC classic Baldur's Gate as well as the amazing Knights of the Old Republic. And now, the company is back with what might be its best effort yet: the stellar and sensational Mass Effect.

Childhood's end

After the climactic discovery of alien ruins on Mars, mankind finally starts taking its first baby steps into the greater galactic neighbourhood, courtesy of a little understood technology that manipulates the fabric of space and time to facilitate interstellar travel. Around the same time, the "element zero" carcinogen gives rise to psychic abilities in 10 per cent of the population.

Two events of such magnitude might be sufficient for a simple space opera, but Mass Effect's universe is considerably more complicated. Between the seemingly arrogant posturing of the Council races, the instability of the outlying Terminus systems, and the myriad minor species that operate in between, the cosmos at large feels positively alive with political conflict and thinly-veiled hostility. Of course, where there's bureaucracy, there's corruption, and rooting it out isn't difficult solely because the perpetrators are hard to detect, but also because the long-term consequences of your own actions are so difficult to predict.