Mass Effect 3 Review
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Thankfully, the PC version of Mass Effect 3 is also a good deal better to play than Mass Effect 2 was. Although there's no support for gamepads (rather curious, as Xbox 360 controllers are supported natively by Windows), the menus have been improved - no more issues with double-clicks not registering - and there are more options available as far as key bindings go... heck, you can even disable mouse smoothing, which I appreciate quite a bit. It's not all perfect, as there's no way to adjust the game's field of view (which made me a bit ill until I found a third-party mod to get the job done), and some graphics options have to be adjusted from the external configuration utility, but overall I was satisfied with the quality of the PC port. While I haven't played the console versions, I have heard that they do suffer from framerate issues, whereas the PC version ran at a constant 60 frames per second, maxed out, on my three-year-old system; if you have the option, the PC version is probably the one to go for.Unfortunately, there are some caveats that relate mostly to interface, performance and bugs. While the Citadel has maps to aid navigation, it's the only place which has any, and this can make getting around some of the game's other areas a bit awkward, especially for those who want to search every nook and cranny without losing track. The Galaxy Map also does a poor job of highlighting quest locations, and as more areas unlock as the game goes on, it doesn't always update to let you know that a given sector has new content available, and I found myself constantly revisiting the same areas just to make sure I didn't miss a random fetch-quest object. The quest journal is also laughably bad, often failing to mention critical details on where to go or who to talk to to progress or finish a given quest, leading to more endless wandering around.
Most annoyingly, though, Mass Effect 3 is buggy, more so than I'd expect from a game of this caliber. For starters, there are lots of glitches during conversations, with really awkward-looking animation transitions, or characters' heads facing the wrong way, or the camera pointing at walls rather than speakers. There were also a few side-quests which didn't advance properly for me, forcing a reload, and others which required me to leave and return to an area before the quest giver would let me speak with them. In multiplayer, I also ran into enemies stuck floating in mid-air, as well as one bizarre situation where my character did no damage, couldn't use any powers, and couldn't interact with the environment, until I quit the game. None of these really ruin the experience, but they definitely contribute to the overall feeling that the game really could have used another month or two in development.
Last, I should bring up the standard DRM blurb. Mass Effect 3 requires EA's Origin service, and the review copy I played experienced absolutely no problems relating to Origin. Some of its features, like the ability to quick-join friends' multiplayer games, are actually quite handy to have available. Mass Effect 3 also uses the standard EA Online Pass, which means used copies are locked out of the multiplayer mode until users pay $10 USD. I am not a big fan of these sorts of policies, but they are here to stay, so buyer beware if you're thinking of picking the game up second-hand.
Conclusion
I've been pretty tough on Mass Effect 3 in this review, and the truth is, it's got a lot of problems no matter how forgiving I try to be. Whether it's little things like glitches, or a lack of gamepad support on PC, or the larger issues of an unsatisfying storyline, dissonance between the gameplay and themes, or just plain bad side-missions, it's hard not to be disappointed by Mass Effect 3 in any number of ways. It's both infuriating and engaging, and the worst part is that none of it needed to be like this. Smarter writing could have fixed up a lot of the plot holes. A month or two dedicated to polish could have fixed up the bugs. The time spent on FedEx filler quests could have been devoted to creating more substantial gameplay, even if it meant fewer quests in the end. And yes, everything negative you may have heard about the ending is true, as well.
However, that doesn't mean that Mass Effect 3 is, at its heart, a bad game. On the contrary - the things that Mass Effect has generally been good at, including likeable companion characters, visual direction, and, scenario-to-scenario, engaging storytelling, have all been preserved and are in many ways the best the series has ever offered. However, the lows are also lower than they have been before, and those who have been looking to a satisfying conclusion story-wise will at best find themselves scratching their heads. For those who have invested themselves in that galaxy and those stories and characters, Mass Effect 3 is still an essential purchase - but it's one that comes with a lot of strings attached.
What's not debatable, though, is that the Mass Effect we know is, for the most part, done and gone - the loose ends have all been wrapped up, the characters are finished their stories, and the galaxy BioWare built will be a very different place in the future. At the very least, it feels good to finally be able to put Shepard and the Normandy's crew to rest.
