Review: Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 is an RPG/cover-based third-person shooter for the Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3, and Wii U. It was developed by BioWare.

Commander Shepard, escaping the Reaper's invasion of Earth.

Picking up right where Mass Effect 2 left off, the Reapers have invaded the galaxy and begun systematically harvesting and/or exterminating all life in the galaxy. N7 marine and all around space hero Commander Shepard is sent on a mission with two objectives. His/her first mission is to get all the alien species to stop arguing amongst themselves and work together to create an effective fighting force to repel the Reapers. Meanwhile, Shepard has to collect as many different resources (researchers, plans, workforce) to build the Crucible, a giant recently rediscovered ancient weapon that could possibly destroy the Reapers forever.

In Mass Effect 3, you travel around the galaxy, landing on planets and completing missions. To complete a mission you talk to people on the planet, who explain the mission and the story in detail, or you start off immediately fighting enemies. You alternate between the talking parts and the fighting parts several times during a mission. During the talking parts you might overhear things that lead to side missions, which are like regular missions but shorter and do not progress the main story. When you complete missions Shepard levels up, which unlocks new abilities for him/her to use.

The board you use when you travel around the galaxy.

Combat is not particularly frustrating, but I would not call it really memorable, and it is definitely not the most fun part of the game. You take cover behind things and take shots at enemies who do the same thing. Your biggest advantage is that you have a shield that regenerates quickly, so you stand there and shoot someone until they die, and if they hit you too many times you duck behind something and wait for your shield to fill up, then go back up and finish them off.

Commander Shepard, shooting one of the Reaper's many monstrous foot soldiers.

Shepard can hold five different types of weapons, and can compliment these weapons with several powers, like ice ammo and bullet time. Some of the powers are more effective against enemies than others, like disrupter ammo being effective against shields, while most of the weapons are useless. I was able to kill almost everything with an assault rifle and pyro ammo.

You take two squadmates with you into fights. Most of the time they get stuck behind walls, do not follow you when you move to another room, and have terrible aim. A couple of them have powers that can tear through an enemy’s defenses, but most just serve as distractions and meat shields.

You can find weapons upgrades while completing missions.

The fighting is not all bad. While Shepard does have a stronger shield than most single enemies, he/she can be overwhelmed by multiple enemies. There is a great variety of aliens and humans Shepard and hi/hers crew fight, plus the occasional mini-boss which are difficult, but reasonably so. It is the enemies that keep the fights from getting dull, since they are just difficult enough, and new enemies are introduced regularly.

Or at least, that is one way to play it. At the beginning of the game you get to choose whether you want to play it like a space marine, or focus on using your abilities more, or relying on your teammates more. I do not know why anyone would want to play it as anything besides a shooter, given how unreliable the partner AI is, and how useless several of the powers are.

The combat is not the interesting part of Mass Effect 3; it is the story and the atmosphere that is the best part. BioWare put a ton of effort into making the Mass Effect universe a diverse and interesting place to explore. All the alien races have cool backstories and societies, and it is always fun interacting with the universe. Dialogue actually sounds like things people would say, and everything everyone says, even people who are having random conversations in hallways, is fascinating to overhear, though Shepard him/herself is prone to making speeches and spouting lines like in an action movie. Most dialogue choices have a nice and a mean option, and the game keeps track of how nice and mean you are. Thankfully this does not really affect the game.

Talking to the supporting cast is always good for killing a couple of minutes.

The main story is mostly about going around fixing all the problems that have been plaguing the galaxy for the past two games, which convinces the aliens to help Earth.  In doing so Shepard finds people to help build the Crucible too. If you have played the first two games, and if you are playing this then you should have, it is nice to see all these major plot point wrapped out, but it makes most of the story unsurprising.

There are way too many times when characters sacrifice their lives to save the day tough. It is a cheap and lazy way to elicit drama and robs the game of its more amusing characters.

A bit more work could have been put into the human character models, so they look less like creepy dolls with dead eyes.

The biggest couple of problems with the story happen at the end, which I am going to discuss in the next couple of paragraphs, so if you do not want the ending spoiled you should stop reading now.

The first problem with the ending is how all your work amounts to nothing. No matter how many problems you solve, conflicts you stop, missions you complete, the Reapers are always too powerful for the entire combined might of the galaxy, and victory rests entirely on the Crucible, which in the end fixes everything. A giant gun that magically saves the day forever is far less rewarding than having everyone you met triumph against overwhelming odds. I suppose that ending is for people who screwed up constantly throughout the series so they still get a happy ending, but that is not fair for players that actually tried. I think part of the problem is that BioWare made the Reapers too powerful, and could not imagine anyone beating their so special bad guys through conventional means.

Before I reached the end I downloaded a patch from BioWare called Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut which apparently gave the ending more closure. I thought the ending could have had a bit more detail about what happened to everyone, but overall I thought it was satisfactory. It is not fair though that you have to download a patch to get a decent ending, especially for those without a good internet connection.

The game comes with a multiplayer mode. You create an avatar, join a group, and fight off ten waves of computer controlled enemies plus complete miscellaneous objectives. You start off with a couple of weapons and powers, but by doing well you can buy boxes that randomly reward new powers and weapons. It is a fun enough activity, and I like that anyone can play, regardless of how good you actually are since you can choose how difficult you want the waves of enemies to be.

The game has technical problems as well. Characters walking through each other, repetitive idle animations, planets being highlighted on the map for no reason.

More time should have also been put into how missions work. You can only go through a mission once, so if you miss anything like new weapons you cannot go back for them. This can extend to important items you collect for side missions, which if you miss means you can never complete them, and the missions just get stuck in your mission log without any way to get rid of them.

I do not really know what to say to convince or dissuade anyone from playing Mass Effect 3. If you played through the first two you have no reason not to finish the whole thing. You might be disappointed, but that is better than not knowing what happens. And if you have never played the first two games you have no reason to touch this one.