That said, everything looks
fantastic. The framerates are totally smooth (with occasional stutters that we'll chalk up to it being almost done, but not quite), and the characters look gorgeous. All those trailers you've seen are actually of in-game footage, and when you zoom close in on alien characters, they look just as good as any of the
Unreal Engine demos we've been seeing for years. If not better. This makes sense, since it uses the Unreal Engine. Traveling from planet to planet is simple and quick, and you do so by a galaxy map that you zoom in and out of from solar systems to nebulas to the entire galaxy. This zooming, and the galaxy itself, looks as good as any special effects on say, the show
Battlestar Galactica. You can also do stuff like scan a planet from orbit, but if you want to do anything you'll have to land. The ship you're riding out in is also explorable. You're the Commander of the ship, so you call the shots.
As for going on missions and advancing the plot, you take a team of 3 crew members you pick up along the way. You have the choice of denying people from joining your crew if you want, which actually cuts out whole swaths of the storyline and changes encounters. It's KOTOR-esque, in the sense that who you take on missions actually matters. (A few key designers from KOTOR also worked on Mass Effect). Dialogue is totally smooth, in that you have dialogue options that pop up on the screen while other people are speaking. Select an option in time and the in-game cutscene will actually seem like an interactive cutscene. Did we mention that the character models look great? They do. Especially in dialogue scenes. The action was very smooth and very cinematic.
They demoed a certain scene, which we won't spoil for you here, that actually had you making life and death decisions based on your dialogue choice. You can play the game as a good character, a jackass, or anywhere in-between, based on which dialogue options you select. Again, similar to KOTOR, but much more refined. Combat is in third person, and you have the option of using either weapons or special skills you pick up. A lot of things can be customized in terms of weapons, skills, and vehicles, so you'll have breadth in the way you want to take on fights. You can even control your teammates and send them in first as a distraction (or as cannon fodder) while you sneak around and flank. The skills you use are kind of like magic, or dark force powers in KOTOR, and should supplement or complement your regular attacks depending on how you want to play. The game's due in November, and judging from the completeness level of the demo they've got now, there's no doubt that the game will be fantastic when it's released.