Someone sell the Mass Effect series to me. I love RPGs, but I've never really looked into Mass Effeect. What makes it stand apart from other high caliber RPGs?
Well, Mass Effect is a tricky one really. There's not a lot out there that's truly comparable. Borderlands comes to mind with its fusion of shooter and RPG elements, but if you go in with a Borderlands mentality you will likely have a bad time. In some ways it's also like Knights of the Old Republic, a game from the same company, but really only in how the plot is constructed. The dialogue system is improved over KOTOR, too.
When I first tried to play Mass Effect, I actually hated it. I barely got through the intro because I just wasn't feeling engaged. It wasn't until I gave it another shot and forced myself to keep going that I discovered how great it is. It's really a game that you should just give a try and let yourself become immersed in the world.
One of the advertised features of the series is choice, but I'll be honest, there's not a whole lot of REAL choice. For the most part, Paragon and Renegade are different ways of portraying the same Sci-Fi movie with different character tropes. You can be the all encompassing hero of the world (or galaxy), or the gritty rogue antihero, but for the most part the outcome will be the same. It's more about how you see yourself acting in a situation than making choices. This does make the conversation system pretty fun, but you can be certain that the plot is always going to move forward the way it wants to.
The Sci-Fi plot of the series is on a very grand scale, although you really won't realize how far it goes until the second game. Which I think was a good route to go since it let's you warm up in the first game and get familiar with the world. There are some smaller scale thematic elements that foreshadow the later entries in the first game though, like deciding how to handle the genocide of a resurrected species from extinction. Did I get your attention with that one? Thought so. Thematically, the Sci-Fi is very much like Star Trek, taking place in a clean utopian future, as opposed to stuff like Alien or Blade Runner, though some later planets in the series do explore this sort of visual theme.
Anyway, you should play the game for yourself and see what you can find to like about it. I think this is a series of games that has different appeals for different people. You won't find deep RPG gameplay here, but you will find a really well constructed plot and a great dialogue system that became the model for a lot of modern games (fuck, did Mass Effect really come out 10 years ago?) and I certainly think it's worth your time.
Oh, right, the gameplay. Well it's basically a third person shooter with RPG elements, but it's not the same as Borderlands where you take perks have really unique effects. In the first game it's much more about specializing into certain weapon types or abilities. I'll be honest though, I don't remember how leveling works in later games so someone else will have to elaborate on that front, but it does become more shootery later on with the addition of clips over a heating system. If you like RPGs I would recommend playing as a character with power instead of a soldier, and the reverse if you like shooter games. The classes are actually really well differentiated and one of the reasons the game is so accessible to so many people.