Mass Effect 3 Reviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on March 6th, 2012

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All told, Mass Effect 3 is an absolutely amazing game, one that successfully puts a bow on the Mass Effect trilogy while still leaving us hungry for even more. It looks and plays great, but Mass Effect 3's true strength lies in its ability to tell a deeply-woven story. Better yet, the sheer ambition shown by BioWare in announcing an intersecting trilogy complete with save importation becomes fully realized in Mass Effect 3. BioWare deserves applause for not only having the courage to attempt something like the Mass Effect trilogy, but for pulling it off with such exceptional poise and skill.

Mass Effect 3 isn't the best game ever made. But it'll certainly be in the conversation for a very long time to come.

As with any game that dares to be ambitious, deconstruct Mass Effect 3 into its constituent parts and of course there are flaws, but taken as a whole this is arguably the first truly modern blockbuster, a game that transcends the genre boundaries of old and takes what it needs from across the gaming spectrum in order to finish its story in the most compelling, thrilling, heartbreaking way possible. Few gaming sagas come to a definitive close, but this one signs off in breathtaking style.

Nearly all of the game's plots and subplots lead up to a major confrontation that is so closely tied to your accomplishments as Commander Shepard that it's hard to compare this game to nearly anything else. Sure, every player will fight the Reapers in a big battle - no surprise or spoiler there - but who will be Shepard's allies and enemies at the end, and who'll be left standing? What about all of those little accomplishments that make up much of Shepard's story? For those who don't care about those things, those characters, that bigger conclusion than "player kills final boss", there's nothing in ME3 that will dissuade them from considering this third game in the trilogy some kind of failure. For those who have cut down the Mass Effect series in the past by oversimplifying the lore, plot, and mechanics to try and show that it's shallow, I admittedly have no answer that they'll find useful. I guess I just don't play games the way they do, and they'll likely disagree with the score at the end of this review. But if you are either a fan of Mass Effect, or if you're simply looking for an action/RPG that builds some legitimate lore and backstory while mixing in its explosions and headshots, then this is the series you should start with. Just, start at the beginning if you haven't already. Go through the series properly, then hit up Mass Effect 3 so that you can see the progression and understand just why this is one of the best and most satisfying sci-fi franchises in gaming history.

But the core elements that make the series spectacular remain intact. The level of depth in the storytelling and background are unparalleled. Players still dictate how Shepard responds to characters, either acting as a peaceful Paragon or a Renegade. There are still those opportunities to foster relationships with characters that help your standing.

And that's where Mass Effect 3 shines. It's an incredible universe BioWare has created, with so much dialogue and back story, that it is seemingly impossible to tear yourself away. With combat that again shows signs of improvements, the final installment in this trilogy is out of this world.

For two full games, we heard about the Reapers. Mass Effect 3 shows us how great this threat is both to the inhabitants of this fictional universe and to the players who must face off against it. I guided Shepard across three massive games spanning over 100 hours, and feel BioWare has delivered one of the most intricately crafted stories in the history of the medium. After getting to know these characters so well, it'll be hard to leave this universe behind, but it's been one hell of a ride.

Mass Effect 3 has its flaws, but they're of minimal consequence in a game this enthralling. By filling the Milky Way with vibrant, singular characters, the series has given you a reason to care about its fate. Ostensibly, Mass Effect 3 is about saving the galaxy, but a galaxy is just a thing--an idea, an abstract, a meaningless collection of plutinos, planets, and pulsars. But the game is actually about saving people. And there's a big difference there. Watching cities burn from orbit tugs at your heartstrings; watching a beloved companion die cuts to the bone. Whether you possess a storied history with the series or come with a clean slate, Mass Effect 3 expertly entangles you in its universe and inspires you to care about its future.

Playing through Mass Effect 3 with a canon save expanding back to the first game is a sublime experience ultimately exceeding BioWare's original promise of a long-term gameplay legacy. Developers often say that choices made in one game will carry to the next, but never before has it been achieved on this level, providing a radically branching experience that feels as personalized as any game ever has. Even if the end destination of this final chapter isn't quite as magnificent as we hoped for, we'll never regret the hundred-hour, three-game journey we took across the galaxy to get there. Mass Effect 3 is an incredible experience that rewards you for those years of investment and devotion to its stratospheric tale.

We're not sure where BioWare will take Mass Effect next, but we're glad that Shepard's story has been given the closure it deserves. Closure that, depending on the choices you make and how strong your army is, will either leave you teary-eyed with joy, or tinged with melancholy. Few endings are so powerful.

Individual elements are already done better by other games but no other title, including those by BioWare, comes close to offering such a balance of disparate gameplay elements and meaningful, enjoyable character interaction. Whether it's the future of storytelling or not we don't know, but it does feel very much like the future of gaming.

When the credits rolled, I felt finished. Mass Effect 3 is the culmination of an unprecedented experiment in game narrative, and in the best possible way, I'm glad to have seen it through, and to see it done.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that Mass Effect 3 is an apt culmination to the series, and particularly apt to my personal experience of the trilogy. No, I never really did like the way it handled combat, and that has been lit up neon for me here. Yes, I did love the characters and cast, and the sci-fi world they were set to inhabit. Yeah, it was a bit generic space soldiery, and a legion of Space Opera others had been here before, but that hardly mattered. When Mass Effect 3 hit the ground running, I found myself unexpectedly caught up in its events. It dragged me along, and I was glad to see it move so fast, and cover so much ground. It's a big game, and a worthy conclusion.

On the story front, certain "surprise" plot twists seemed, to me, to be broadcast in flashing neon lights hours before any character managed to wonder about them. Occasional conversations take a left turn at hackneyed, run off the cliff of cliché, and explode into a glorious wreck of pompousness. And I wish that a few "old friend" characters had better, more fulfilling cameos, while I could have done perfectly well without some that were in the game.

Most of all, I am absolutely sure that fans will be talking and arguing amongst themselves at length about the entire final act and the ultimate conclusion of the story for months, if not years, to come.

But Shepard's story the story of this one leader, the reapers, and the galaxy-that-is had to come to an end somehow, at some time. Mass Effect 3 is definitively the conclusion of that story, and with every moment I laughed aloud, with every moment I sobbed, and with every moment I shouted extremely unprintable words I knew that it was worth the wait.

At the end of the day, Mass Effect 3 is a game for people who liked Mass Effect 2 so much that they absolutely need to see how it all ends. Despite claims to the contrary from the game's publisher, I really don't think newcomers will get much out of it at all. All it would take is getting to the new character creation screen and being forced to select between Numerous, Ashley, or Kaiden from a screen that asks you who died during your previous missions for a new player to realize they're being asked questions they couldn't possibly answer in an educated way. The value in this story is from seeing characters you adore dealing with a continuing situation. Even though it doesn't come together quite as successfully as it did in the previous games, those of you with an attachment to the Mass Effect universe should still play it.

BioWare is no stranger to letting players carry their characters through multiple games -- I watched my half-elf ranger grow from having a hard time against kobolds to calling in beast armies while shooting an arrow that can take down a demigod in three Baldur's Gate installments. But what Mass Effect 3 brings, besides a persistent player character, is the dizzying array of choices, decisions, and outcomes from that character. As great as the climaxes and moments of games like Metal Gear Solid 3, Halo 3, or God of War 3 were, they never incorporated decisions that I made in their first installments -- I saw what the developers had decided for me without any input. While Mass Effect 3 stumbles at times, the fact that it's the ultimate culmination of my own Shepard's story makes it one of the signature (and somewhat-literal) role-playing-games of this year.

It's even the first Mass Effect game to let you play as a male Shepard and have gay relationships although those are conducted in such a stiff and awkward manner that you don't feel BioWare was particularly comfortable about making them. But at least they show the game's desire to provide a mature form of entertainment which lacks nothing in comparison with Hollywood or television. Show it to the next person who maintains games are vacant and unsophisticated, and watch them squirm as they're forced to acknowledge their ignorance.

When all is said and done, Mass Effect 3 is the conclusion of Shepard's career and as fine a conclusion as they deserve. The story is more fast-paced than anything BioWare has done before and still feels like it's affording the player as much time as they need to explore and discover. While some niggling issues do persist in terms of controls, the storyline is supremely satisfying right up to its climax, which contains one of the most interesting moral dilemmas found in videogames (from a standpoint of long-term implications).

Well done, BioWare. Mission accomplished.

Everything you've done in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 has led up to this moment, a weight that Mass Effect 3 bears with grace and pride. Everything you do feels important - every side quest, every scan, every conversation, every shot fired feels like it impacts your likelihood of success in a very real and tangible way. You never lose the sense that you're fighting for the survival of all life, everywhere, but it also never feels overwrought or excessively dramatic.

Mass Effect 3 is so much more than a game. It blends genres and transcends the video game medium to offer up an experience unparalleled in this industry. This game will easily be a front-runner for Game of the Year and is in my mind a serious contender for being the best game of this generation. It may not have a multiplayer mode that can stand up to the likes of Halo and Call of Duty, but it does offer the best single-player experience that $60 can buy. If you consider yourself a fan of the franchise, I'm sure you're already too busy playing the game to read my review, but if you are a newcomer who has steered clear of the series for whatever reason in the past, you owe it to yourself to give this game a chance. I dare you to be unimpressed.

Mass Effect 3 is the perfect ending to a masterful trilogy that's gone from strength-to-strength with each title. It's the conclusion you're hoping for, with each decision demanding that you think twice before pulling the trigger. Thanks for the memories, BioWare... It's been emotional.

Though I generally approve of how things turned out, the fact that the MacGuffin key to stopping the Reapers is mentioned for the first time in the third game makes it feel rushed and tacked on. Similarly, the introduction of a generic new Cerberus henchman reeks of a "We didn't quite think this through" scramble in the writers' room. If the seeds of this ending had been planted in an earlier installment, it would've been much more fun to watch it come together now.

Even so, a science-fiction saga that leaves me feeling this satisfied at the end is a rare thing, and BioWare deserves a standing ovation for bringing it all together with a final chapter worthy of Shepard. Even if I were to never play the multiplayer part of Mass Effect 3 at all, it'd be well worth my gaming time and money to complete the trilogy. I'm already looking forward to replaying as a female renegade (as is my custom) and I expect I'll start the whole Mass Effect cycle again in a few years' time.

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