[gamespot review]::
Mass Effect 3 is a remarkably satisfying conclusion to a beloved trilogy, and a poignant and memorable role-playing action game in its own right.
The Good
- Fantastic, moving story that balances plot and character
- Past and present choices impact the game in wonderful and unexpected ways
- Much-improved level design leads to challenging, exciting battles
- Fantastic art design makes great use of color and composition
- Top-notch voice acting brings every major character to life.
The Bad
- Some glitches and bugs
- Galactic travel and scanning aren't much fun.
Sacrifice. It's Mass Effect 3's major theme, and rightly so. After all, the reapers were coming--it was only a matter of time. And now, those sentient space vessels are here, and with them, a galaxy's worth of destruction. Mass Effect 3 brings the sound and the fury, but these aren't meaningless shows of laser fire and alien devastation. The series has earned its right to showcase such destruction by drawing us close to its characters and teaching us of its universe.
Mass Effect was about time and place; you discovered the Milky Way's landmarks and races, guided by memorable characters like Tali and Garrus, who served as representatives of their cultures. Mass Effect 2 was about people; you learned more about old friends and made new ones, and drew each of them close to your heart. Mass Effect 3 fearlessly manipulates those personal bonds, forcing you to make difficult choices and consider the greater good--even when the greater good isn't always clear. The game is structured less like Mass Effect 2 and more like Dragon Age II: three dramatic acts, each concluding with major events that might leave you in tears, or at very least, shivering from the emotional impact.
Mass Effect 3 is focused more on plot than the previous installments were, and at first, you might miss Mass Effect 2's more obvious personal touch. You meet some new characters, but you develop few new meaningful relationships. A couple of notable exceptions aside, your party members are familiar faces, and as Commander Shepard, you aren't traveling the galaxy seeking individual crew members, but rather the assistance of entire races. Some of the plot devices seem a bit transparent; what are the chances that Shepard would just happen to find an old acquaintance on almost every random planet? But once the plot is in motion, the human element returns, and poignantly so. Mass Effect 3 frequently reminds us that the loss of a single shining soul often takes on more meaning than a planetwide massacre. (After all, what carried more emotional weight in Star Wars: Obi-Wan's death or Alderaan's destruction?)
Like Star Wars, Mass Effect 3 is an incredibly fulfilling story that deftly balances plot, character, conflict, and resolution. After a short exposition, an opening combat scenario cleverly combines the "big" of a reaper attack on Earth with the "small" of a single death. That one death haunts Shepard until the moving and jaw-dropping conclusion. While there is plenty of action, developer BioWare subverts our expectations. Every so often, the shooting heats up, only to lead to a climax that comes not in the form of an explosion or a boss fight, but in a simple quiet conversation, or a few limping steps.
The reapers aren't your only adversary in Mass Effect 3: the pro-human organization known as Cerberus, led by the Illusive Man, complicates the conflict. Your ultimate goal is to rid the galaxy of the reaper threat with the use of a superweapon, yet the Illusive Man has different ideas and goes to some disturbing lengths to implement them. Discovering his goals and means is one of Mass Effect 3's better story threads, in part because the Illusive Man is such a strong presence. Actor Martin Sheen brings a calm, chilling strength to the character, but also exudes a touch of vulnerability when the Illusive Man is forced to confront his own demons. Not that Sheen outshines any given actor. A few inessential characters aside, the galaxy's inhabitants seem authentic. You hear stoicism, fear, or resignation in the simplest of line readings.
The series' focus on player choice is as vital as it has ever been in Mass Effect 3. The effects of choices in previous installments have an impact in extraordinary ways here, more so than in Mass Effect 2. Sometimes the nods to prior choices are subtle. A lover might fondly recall her previous entanglement with you, while still supporting your new romantic interest. At other times, the impact is far more dramatic. Entire quests, conversations, and characters shift as a result of your actions in previous games (not to mention, your decisions in this one). As a result, you might be delighted by characters other players never meet, share intimate talks with crewmates other players never interact with, and deal with decisions other players never make. And as in previous Mass Effect games, your entire attitude when choosing dialogue options (paragon or renegade) can drive you to conclusions other players could never consider.
This intense narrative is met with an equally intense presentation. Mass Effect 3 is more atmospheric and darker in tone than even Mass Effect 2 was. You hear more expletives and raise your voice in desperation far more often, and the environments you do battle in reflect the rising pitch. An ominous storm encroaches, giving battle an even greater sense of urgency. The sheer darkness of a subterranean ruin enhances the sense of danger. The blue and rose bands of light that periodically stretch across the screen may seem old hat after Mass Effect 2, but the trick remains effective. That blue is also the color of Garrus' eyepiece, Liara's skin, and a harvester's glowing lights. That rose is the color of Wrex's armor, Mordin's forehead, and the Normandy's war room terminals. Both hues are used in the game's various interface elements, which makes other colors more effective when used. Witness, for example, the starkness of Jack's black-and-white ensemble and how it contrasts with the rich colors around her.
These are exquisite details, though other details come across as a bit sloppy in comparison. The frame rate stutters on occasion. Camera movement and viewing angles occasionally go askew; the camera might jitter in weird ways during cutscene transitions, or focus on a wall instead of the character speaking. A scripting error could force you to restart a mission should an event not trigger properly. And if you play on the PlayStation 3, you could run into a crash or two. These flaws stand out because Mass Effect 3 is otherwise such an elegant experience.
It's also packed with action. The basic third-person shooting is the same as Mass Effect 2's, though it has been given a few minor tweaks. You can now deliver a charged-up melee attack, for example, and slide around corners while still in cover. Such mechanics don't drastically change the flow of battle, which is still occasionally sullied by returning Mass Effect combat quirks: occasional cover glitches, unintelligent friendlies that crouch on top of crates, and enemies that thoughtlessly tumble against walls and end up going nowhere as a result.
On the other hand, the improvement in level design is remarkable. Unlike the previous game, Mass Effect 3 isn't about "take cover behind the obvious barriers, shoot the enemies that predictably emerge, and then do it again." Combat areas are more expansive and some enemies are more aggressive, so not only are you given room to move about, but you must use that space. One such enemy is the banshee, which destroys you in a single grab if you let it come too close. These shrieking horrors join charging brutes, dogging you in tandem in a memorable combat sequence and providing a challenge the previous games lacked, at least on normal difficulty.
And so you can't always trust a single cover spot to provide sanctuary--not when you have three guys in humongous robot suits blindsiding you. You sprint and tumble about, sliding into cover and using cryo ammo to freeze a creepy cannibal before smashing it with a powerful shock wave. As you level up, you eventually make choices on how to upgrade your powers. Do you increase the Pull ability's recharge speed, or do you learn to launch two Pull projectiles at once? Don't assume that Mass Effect 3's missions are all about guns and space magic, though. A pistol isn't much help when you traverse a virtual space made of neon cubes and floating platforms. Facing an old nemesis isn't a battle of guns--it's a battle of wits.
Nevertheless, you do a lot of shooting, and Mass Effect 3's primary customization element is in its huge supply of guns and the large number of modifications you can make to them. There are five weapon types and loads of choices within those types, each with its own pros and cons. You find weapons and mods in mission areas and can purchase them from vendors on the Citadel or from a terminal on your ship, the Normandy SR-2. You don't just need to consider your play style when choosing weapons prior to battle--you also need to consider how their weight might affect your ability to perform biotic and tech skills. The heavier your loadout, the less often you can send the bad guys flying into the air.
You may also spend credits to level up these weapons, which gives Mass Effect 3 a fine sense of progression. A dinky pistol and submachine gun lead to assault rifles upgraded with scopes and sniper rifles with damage modifiers. And if you've never found much use for certain weapons, the broader level design may have you rethinking your approach. If you were never inclined to use a sniper rifle, now you can find a good vantage point to zoom in and let loose. You may never have let an enemy get too close before, but a nice shotgun and a melee attachment can make it a snap to fend off hawkish husks that intrude on your personal space.
It's worth noting that Mass Effect 3 has added a notable feature to the series, but has lost another. The Xbox 360 version supports the Kinect peripheral, allowing you to call out commands to teammates ("Liara: Warp!"), perform your own skills ("Pull!"), interact with objects ("Open!"), or choose dialogue options. This is all absolutely functional, and sometimes even enjoyable. For instance, calling out to a team member to let loose a biotic power means you don't have to pause the game to pull up the radial menu. On the other hand, there's enough of a delay when speaking your wishes aloud that it's more efficient just to push a button. The feature lost, on all platforms, is that of hacking minigames. They were fine diversions, but Mass Effect 3 varies its pace enough that you won't likely miss them.
Mass Effect 3 isn't all talking and shooting. Outside of combat, you walk around the Citadel, picking up odd jobs and eavesdropping on diplomats and refugees. There are some wonderful moments to be had here: having a bizarre conversation with a virtual copy of yourself, checking in on an old ally in bad health, and punching an old nemesis square in the face. Refugees mourn for the lost and missing, gazing at a collection of photographs that serves as an ad hoc memorial. Again, it's the subtleties that pull you in. A crewmate gets a tattoo to celebrate his newfound ambitions, you ponder the meaning of a human-on-AI romance, and you grab a drink in a busy nightclub. It's a pity that the entertaining lesser races--the Hanar and the Elcor in particular--are in such short supply. Mass Effect 3 isn't big on comedic interludes.
The side missions you pick up at the Citadel aren't all that inspired. In some cases, you wander around searching for objects to interact with. In others, you head to the Normandy and take to the galactic map. The way you zoom about the galaxy is much as it was in the last installment, though the details differ. No longer do you scan planets looking for resources. Instead, you scan solar regions to identify planets of interest. From here, you scan the planet itself, drop a probe onto its surface, and collect the artifact or object in question. This busywork is complicated by reapers, who appear in these solar systems after a few seconds and swarm and destroy you if you don't make a swift escape. This game of cat and mouse is more annoyance than entertainment, getting in the way when you wish you could just get the job done.
Galactic exploration is important if you want to tackle the reapers with the might of the galaxy behind you. The more side missions you conquer, the more fulfilling the finale becomes, though there is another way to prepare: playing Mass Effect 3's online multiplayer. The more you play, the greater the galaxy's state of readiness. There's only one mode, the standard "defeat progressively stronger waves of enemies" mode, and it's functional, even fun. Tossing grenades and incinerating ravagers as a unified group is a blast, especially when an objective draws you to a central point to defend an area or focus on a specific enemy. The cooperative play isn't particularly special, however; out of context, the action is fine but lacks the heft ofGears of War 3, or Uncharted 3's speedy tempo. Spots of lag can also hinder the experience, however, as can the possibility of having a few enemies get stuck in some unknown place and forcing you to restart the match.
The multiplayer's overall structure is more interesting than the action. You choose from one of six classes and level them separately, and earn credits as you play. You use these credits to unlock packs that contain a number of random items--special ammo, a weapon mod, an on-the-spot ammo refill, and so on. (You can also spend real money on them if you are so inclined.) Because so many of these items are expendable, and because the flow of rewards is slow but steady, you might be drawn to stick with Mass Effect 3's multiplayer even after you've reaped its single-player benefit.
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.
Gamespot==>9/10 [Editors Choice]
[Machinima review]::
Developer: BioWare / Publisher: EA / Played on: Xbox 360 / Price: $59.99 / ESRB: Mature [Blood, Partial Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Violence]
I like to think that of all the Mass Effect fans that work in gaming, we here at Machinima have the most passionate group. At least once a week for the last year, Mass Effect has been the subject of lunchtime conversation. To that end, to say that Mass Effect 3 was eagerly anticipated around these parts is a galaxy-sized understatement. When I wasn’t trying to shield my nearby coworkers from massive story spoilers as I played, I thought I might have to physically beat them away from my desk. Their eyes glinted with Gollum-like desire and their mouths frothed up just a little bit when they caught sight of the box. So when they asked me how the review was going, I felt as though I was taking my personal safety in my hands when I said “it’s goddamn amazing.”
On the bright side, I was telling the truth, and Mass Effect 3 is easily the best game of the year up to this point. Why? Let’s take a look.
To speak in any sort of detail about the plot and narrative of ME3 would be to do a disservice to anyone who plans on playing it. From the opening moments of the Reaper arrival on Earth, the game takes you on a space-faring adventure that compares with the best sci-fi has to offer. The real star of this story is not any particular event, per se; instead, this yarn pulls you through to the end credits on the strength of its character moments. BioWare’s writing team has achieved an incredible victory with the conclusion of the trilogy, in the way that they’ve managed to showcase a fictional galaxy facing imminent destruction, the complete removal of fictional life from fictional history, all the while creating characters that feel more real than you’ll be able to comprehend.
And they’ve done this because they’ve had more than five years to develop and mold these characters into beings with extended arcs. Looking back at the young, naïve asari scientist Liara T’Soni from Mass Effect 1, for example, and comparing it to the brooding, sometimes haunted Liara of Mass 3, you’ll get the sense that this character, this person, has lived an actual life that has persisted, even when you weren’t playing a Mass Effect game. In other words, every single being that you have come across in your time with the Mass Effect franchise has stayed with you. You just didn’t know it. But they’ve been in your head, whether you were conscious of it or not, and their presence in the story of Mass Effect 3is their opportunity to remind you of their intricate depth and subtle personalities. The crew of the Normandy are your friends, they’ve been there with your Shepard as you flew out to save the galaxy time and again, and I dare anyone not to feel some sort of emotional connection during some of the game’s poignant conversational moments.
If it was just the characters alone that were indelible, you might think I was writing off the rest of the storytelling as average, but that is simply not the case. Each successive mission you play builds on the previous mission’s atmosphere, establishing a rising sense of scale that is so massive it will drop your jaw when you see it. Take everything you remember about Mass 1’s final mission against Sovereign, and ratchet up the intensity two, three, sometimes tenfold. And might I add that the reward of seeing the game’s amazing conclusion is truly something I will treasure as a gamer.
Fanboys and fangirls everywhere will rejoice at the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to detail, as well as the small surprises sprinkled throughout; even elements from the novels play a role in the story. The only major downside to all the great narrative is that occasionally the storytelling gets a little lazy, and convenient circumstance will help the heroes get through some tough spots. But if you’re not expecting every miniscule plot hole to be buttoned up firmly, the overarching story is engaging, compelling, and entertaining.
The game’s visuals aren’t too shabby, either. In classic ME style, the game will give you a portal through which to view the beauty of the universe, be that the multi-hued nebulae of space; the grand, sweeping vistas of alien worlds; or the ravaging beauty of a city crumbling under the siege of Reaper forces. ME3 doesn’t want for aesthetically pleasing locales.
On the downside, we are playing a game that is based (at least in part) on tech that’s closing in on seven years old. Because of this, many textures won’t exactly set the world on fire. Animations, too, are a bit stunted and jerky, especially when you answer questions in dialogue before NPCs finish their speech, causing Shepard to unnaturally shift to a new position without the intervening frames allowing for natural movement. Lip-syncing isn’t too great, either, which makes me long for L.A. Noire’s facial tech to be broadly applied to other games.
All that said, the game doesn’t look bad; it’s just not revolutionary. The various filters and lighting effects all serve to evoke emotional reactions to the game’s many atmospheres, and the characters are so well written that you should be able to forgive the blemishes.
If you’ve played a Mass Effect game before, especially Mass Effect 2, you’ll be right at home (which is great, since the game doesn’t come with a physical instruction manual). The gunplay does feel marginally tightened up, even over ME2’s improvements, and the new functional melee system means close-combat situations don’t induce panic attacks.
It’s interesting. The structure of ME3 is like an amalgamation of the first two games. Where ME1 felt very wide open (and sometimes aimless), and ME2 felt too tightly constricted, Mass 3 straddles a fine line, adopting both games’ strengths and discarding their weaknesses. Obviously with a plot about the fate of galactic society hanging in the balance, it pushes forth a sense of urgency and driving narrative. That said, the Citadel is much bigger this time around and serves as a side quest hub for those looking for content off the beaten path. The galaxy map, too, is bigger than it’s ever been. By the end of the game, dozens of star clusters will be available to explore, most containing valuable supplies or soldiers the Normandy can recruit to the fight against the Reapers.
Thankfully, the tedious planet mining from ME2 is gone in favor of a more elegant solution. You now scan solar systems from space (which has a chance to draw Reaper attention to the system; get caught and it’s game over). If something valuable shows up on the scan, you can then zoom in on the planet or area of space in question and use the world-scanning interface from ME2 to locate said asset and recruit it to the cause. Sure it’s nothing more than menu management when all is said and done, but at least your fingers won’t be bleeding.
All that out there, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Kinect. Thankfully, the Kinect integration is unobtrusive, optional, and at its best, actually useful. While there are a number of functions Kinect can supplant during your experience, the best are the ones that allow you to forego using the weapon/power wheels during combat. Simply using your own voice to tell Garrus to switch weapons or Liara to use her singularity power on the enemy on you is an experience that is vaguely futuristic, but definitely cool. Protip: Don’t play with a friend behind you who has a penchant for messing up your gameplay on purpose by yelling out random commands to trip you up.
Using the Kinect to speak Shepard’s dialogue choices is somewhat less fun, mostly because pressing a button is faster and doesn’t make you look or sound foolish.
Unfortunately, the multiplayer side of the game was not yet operational at the time of this review. From what I can tell from my time with the demo (and assuming everything is working properly on launch day), multiplayer should significantly extend the life of the game with its addictive upgrade system and gameplay-differentiating classes and races. I really wanted to give the full suite of features a whirl, as I put more hours into the multiplayer demo than some full games I own. The jury is still out, so please take the final score on this review to be inclusive of the main campaign only.
The voice acting is incredible. The actors themselves feel like they’ve grown as much as the characters they’re portraying, leading to some incredibly authentic and nuanced performances. Musically, the soundtrack is varied and generally well-conceived. Combat features explosive, driving melodies that heighten the intensity. Old classics return (such as the galaxy map theme, and the Illusive Man’s foreboding anthem), but the most standout pieces are the gentle lilts of the music that accompany the more touching and understated moments between characters. These songs reflect the ties between beings who relate to one another as individuals, a fact that stands in direct opposition to the cold logic of the malignant Reapers. Naturally, the songs used in these most human of moments drive this point home nicely.
On the sound effect front, there’s a great meatiness to the audio textures. When guns fire, you know that whatever is on the other end of that bullet is getting decimated. The mechanical whirring of machines, the sinister noises of enemies, and the general ambience of the environments are all just component bits of a delicious auditory meal.
I’ll say it: Mass Effect 3 is the best game in the trilogy. It takes enough elements from its two predecessors and combines them very effectively, an achievement that very clearly indicates a BioWare team who has spent the last half decade refining their success and missteps to master their craft. The niggling issues with the visual glitches detract slightly from the overall score, simply because everything else is so damn good that they really stand out as the major dings. But what you’ll remember when you’re done with ME3 is not the glitches, it’s the adventure and the characters you shared it with. As a trilogy, it is one of the most well-realized pieces of science fiction ever created. As a videogame, let’s just say I hope I’m alive to see a series of this scope again.
It’s not perfect, but it certainly holds a special place in my gaming experience. I can’t think of one reason you wouldn’t go out immediately and pick this game up, unless you haven’t played a Mass Effect title before. In that instance, go and start with the first game; it’s a large commitment yes, but you’ll be glad you did when you get to experience firsthand the incredible arc the franchise will take you on. For everyone else, you have no excuse.
Machinima==>9.5/10
[IGN review]::
Few games come with the amount of hype Mass Effect 3 has swirling around it. As the culmination of BioWare’s epic sci-fi RPG trilogy, Mass Effect 3 hasn’t garnered this groundswell in an artificial way. Rather, anticipation steadily sits at a fever pitch because the previous installments—Mass Effect, and especially Mass Effect 2—rate amongst the best games ever made. And in many ways, Mass Effect 3 has set the bar even higher as the worthy conclusion to one of the finest stories ever told in gaming history, even if it’s still admittedly imperfect.
Mass Effect 3 throws you back into the role of Commander Shepard, the first human Spectre that has, at this point in the story, gone above and beyond proving his (or her) commitment to galactic order. After reluctantly working for the xenophobic human-first organization Cerberus and jumping through the Omega-4 Mass Relay to fight the Collectors at the center of the Milky Way in Mass Effect 2, Shepard’s greatest challenge still lies ahead.
Once considered the stuff of lore, the Reapers rear their heads in our own backyard. Having returned to the galaxy after a 50,000 year hiatus, the Reapers conduct an all-out assault on the galaxy’s organic life. Earth itself suffers heavy bombardment as Mass Effect 3 begins, with millions suffering and dying daily. Your task: fight back, not only for Earth and humanity, but for all galactic races that find themselves simultaneously under siege.Shepard and his allies aren’t nearly strong enough to combat the Reapers’ planet-sacking death squads on their own. The earlier Mass Effect games focused on exploring the galaxy as you complete quests, building up your reputation and ultimately careening headlong into the endgame. Mass Effect 3 has all of that too, and it’s all conducted through the lens of truly consequential, wide-ranging decision-making. This brings yet again an exceptionally plot-heavy slant to a series already deeply reliant on amazing story-telling.
The Reapers pose an existential threat to life in the galaxy, forcing Shepard to navigate through tricky territory wrought with age-old grudges, conflicts and old-fashioned hatred in order to get all affected parties to work together. The Krogans hate the Salarians and Turians because of the Genophage, while the Quarians have waged war with their rogue machines, the Geth, for hundreds of years. Conflicts like this exist everywhere. The challenge before Shepard lies in his ability to get all of these races — and many others — allied in order to fight the Reapers as one united front. This represents the galaxy’s only hope in defeating their overwhelmingly powerful adversaries.
Accomplishing such feats of diplomacy resides at the heart of Mass Effect 3. Gone are the loyalty quests of Mass Effect 2; things aren’t quite as personal this time around. Shepard must still make a staggering number of choices in conversation, and how he treats those around him heavily affects the game’s outcome. He’ll still make friends and enemies, have personal conversations and learn a great deal more about those he encounters. And the more time you spend speaking to others and exploring everyone’s stories, the more you’ll extract from the game.
But now, the galaxy’s problems are greater, and Shepard must think bigger. By helping out individuals, militaries, governments and entire races, Shepard will collect War Assets and form a higher and higher level of Galactic Readiness. These will become integral to the success or failure of Mass Effect 3’s endgame, and bring an entirely new slant to the series, one that’s both welcome and fresh.
…playing Mass Effect 1 and 2 before playing Mass Effect 3 comes highly recommended.
On an individual character level, Paragons and Renegades still rule the day. There’s little room for grey area, making Mass Effect 3 – like its franchise predecessors — worth playing at least twice. Better yet, characters can be imported from Mass Effect 2 (which in turn could be imported from the original Mass Effect on Xbox 360 and PC), giving you an even larger range of consequence, impressively widening the paradigm in which choices you made in the original two games come to bear upon the trilogy’s finale.
For those new to Mass Effect, the game will prompt you to make a character fresh if you don’t import a save from Mass Effect 2, and will even ask you to make some important choices that will affect the game’s outcome. But without understanding the full gravity of these choices by having played the original two games, Mass Effect 3 will certainly be a shallower, less fulfilling and more confusing endeavor. Consequently, playing Mass Effect 1 and 2 before playing Mass Effect 3 comes highly recommended.
With an imported character or a freshly-rolled one, veterans of the Mass Effect franchise will find a game much more in-line with Mass Effect 2 than the original. While Mass Effect 2 radically changed the series in many important ways, Mass Effect 3 only mildly iterates on what made Mass Effect 2 so great. Some of this tinkering works well; scanning planets for minerals, for instance, has been almost entirely removed, much to the chagrin of nobody. Now, while all planets in known systems can be visited and studied, only some of the planets have something truly interesting to offer you. In other words, BioWare has done a nice job in not wasting your time beyond sucking you in to read the fictional write-ups of the planets in every known system. (And speaking of fiction, get ready for the irresistible rip curl of Mass Effect’s amazing codex, which fleshes-out the series’ lore in an unimaginably deep way.)
But some changes aren’t as positive. Mass Effect 3 totes a far looser side quest system that’s less compelling and interesting than its predecessors’. It’s easy to earn a bunch of side quests only by overhearing conversations in certain locations, with no real context as to what you’re supposed to do. While the main quest is heavy on story and action and certainly fulfills in its own right, Mass Effect 3’s slant on side quests feels wanting, making the 30 to 40 hours it takes to complete everything in the game just a little more arduous.
BioWare has somewhat down-scaling the RPG-centric nature of the series, but thankfully this dumbing-down is totally optional.Mass Effect 3 still very much acts the part of action-RPG, but players will be given options to lessen the role-playing if you want to jump only into the action or story. Then again, BioWare has made Mass Effect 3 deeper in some ways, too, with features like enhanced weapon customization. So not all is lost.
Cover-based, run-and-gun action is still the name of the game…
Mass Effect 2‘s third-person action returns with some minor changes and upgrades. Characters can still launch into a number of classes that rely on conventional weaponry, tech, biotics or any combination therein. Likewise, the squad members you meet — some old, others new — will fit into one or more of those categories. With a level cap of 60, you probably won't fully upgrade your character in Mass Effect 3 in one go, especially if you don’t import from Mass Effect 2. But Mass Effect 3 does support a New Game+ mode once beaten that will let you beef-up your character to loftier heights.
In combat, minor changes are almost immediately evident. Shepard can now jump when prompted, roll around on the battlefield and perform other feats of pseudo-platforming that give Mass Effect 3 a somewhat different feel than Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 3 also feels more vertical than its predecessors. Various maps have more staircases and ladders than ever, giving you several levels from which to fight, forcing you to employ different strategies to survive against enemy onslaughts.
Cover-based, run-and-gun action is still the name of the game, and overall, this setup works great. Weapons can be toggled through and powers selected with trigger-controlled radials, while AI controls your squad mates almost entirely, save issuing supplemental manual commands. And speaking of AI, enemies also fight smart for the most part. Foes appear to work together, employ flanking and cover tactics and care about self-preservation. This doesn’t always prove to be true, of course — nailing enemy AI behavior is often an imperfect art in the world of game design — but BioWare has done a nice job in holding your feet to the fire in any case. Few battles can be won without employing some tactical acumen of your own.
FRIEND-LY FIRE
For the very first time in a Mass Effect game, a multiplayer component has been concocted to complement the single-player experience. While Mass Effect 3 is still very much a single-player affair, an optional multiplayer suite — one most closely aligned to Gears of War 3’s Horde Mode, though not as good — will give the game even more replay value. Purists need not worry; multiplayer isn’t necessary to play in order to complete the single-player campaign. However, the two do interconnect should players want to explore that particular angle. And Achievement and Trophy hunters will find multiplayer necessary to play in order to get all of their virtual goodies.
Multiplayer itself proves to be quite fun, although it’s held back somewhat by Mass Effect 3’s more rigid and at times unforgiving mechanics. But even with only one mode consisting of six stages (pulled from the single-player game’s N7 missions) and three enemy groups (pulled from the single-player game’s primary antagonists), leveling up your characters, purchasing upgrades and generally playing around with up to three other people certainly satisfies. Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer may not have been even remotely necessary, but it doesn’t diminish the overall product. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Aesthetically, Mass Effect 3 pleases with a mild graphical enhancement over Mass Effect 2, obvious enhancements that shine especially when compared to the original. Voice acting still sounds great for virtually all characters, and Mass Effect 3’s soundtrack makes for great sonic accompaniment through both tender conversations and hectic battles alike. Expect to find some texture loading problems, framerate hitches and off lip-syncing from time to time, but these issues don’t mar the experience too severely. It’s worth noting, however, that on PS3 our Shepard fell through the map and got caught in the environment a couple of times, forcing us to restart. This didn’t happen on our concurrent Xbox 360 playthroughs.
Mass Effect 3 with Kinect feels innocuous enough, which means it works well. Adding the ability to fire off hands-free commands to your team, the mechanic offers responsive functionality without requiring you to shout at your television. Simply speak a command, and Kinect executes generally well, though occasionally stringing three power commands together yields mixed results. Take a common combo used against Shielded enemies for instance: combine Garrus’ Concussive Shot to knock out shields, Liara’s Stasis to freeze a foe, and Shepard’s Biotic Charge to rush and melee. Done properly, this can eliminate armor and take down buffed out Centurions, Marauders, even Phantoms. When it works, you’ll smile goofily, noticing the gameplay speed up handily without the need to camp in the power wheel.
CONCLUSION
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.
IGN==>9.5/10 [Amazing]
[DTOID review]::
via [Gamespot], [Machinima], [IGN], [Dtoid]
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