Summary [ 9.5 out of 10]:

Mass Effect 3 is the final chapter in the series and opens as Commander Shepard is in the midst of a hearing for his actions after being grounded following the events of Mass Effect 2’s Arrival downloadable content when the Reapers attack Earth. Shepard escapes to the Normandy and is sent on a desperate mission to rally support across the galaxy to stand up to the Reapers once and for all.

Jumping off from that set up Mass Effect 3 brings the majority of its storylines to a close and accounts for pretty much all of the loose ends throughout the series with return appearances from characters from both of the previous games and gives you closure on your crew and relationships. The gameplay is generally the same as it was in Mass Effect 2 with real time, squad based third person shooting in a comfy cover and shoot based shell. The story is strong and compelling all the way through with some genuinely emotional moments scattered throughout. The changes made based on fan feedback are generally welcome although the cover system takes a baffling hit to accommodate a combat roll.

After you’ve been playing a series, following a character of your own creation and guidance across three games for four years or so, the gameplay really kind of takes a backseat to the overall story and seeing that character’s destiny and choices play out. There are a few things that fans of the series have been upset over with this game from a problem recognizing faces from imported characters to some fans feeling cheated by the endings. I didn’t care much about the import problem, which should be fixed in a patch at some point, as I wanted to change the way my Shepard looked anyway. The endings are another matter and I can’t really fault someone for not liking how it turned out because everyone is entitled to their opinions but the level of vitriol and bitching has actually made Bioware agree to expand said endings with DLC and I don’t really think that is a good idea. This is best left for its own editorial article but understand that the score given reflects the endings as originally shipped and while the end is not what I would have done myself or hoped for it is also not something I am going to lose sleep over or feel like I have wasted all my time for. I think the Mass Effect series is one of the best to ever grace video games and the writing and storytelling is incredible and profound. I have never cared so much about characters in a game and I think the outcry from fans shows just how much this story has touched those who play it. That they are acting like petulant children who didn’t get what they wanted for Christmas is regrettable but it does illustrate how passionate fans are about this series and how successful the story has been at moving the audience. For my money, the endings are what they are and the game is what it is and I am more than okay with it. Mass Effect as a series has set the bar ridiculously high for other series and I am very glad to have been able to play it. Mass Effect 3 taken by itself is an incredible game that stands alone in its excellence and is made much deeper as part of the whole.

What It’s Like:

• Mass Effect 1 & 2: Obviously, given that it is the third in a series, Mass Effect 3 is most like the previous two installments. More specifically, it is a combination of the two as some elements of the first game like inventory management (to a small degree) and inventory purchases from the hangar bay as well as elements of the second game in terms of how the combat and levelling works (also all the eyes look Asian again, what is up with that?). The game introduces some of its own mechanics as well but if you have played the first two games, you are going to be pretty well set up for this one.
• Gears of War Series: Often criticized for its combat system as being ‘Gears of War lite,’ Mass Effect 3 again consists of combat based around firing from cover in real time, meaning that you are actually aiming rather than targeting an enemy and letting behind the scenes dice rolls do the rest. Whether you are for or against this combat style, the comparison is fairly apt and should be familiar to players of Gears of War.
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic: If you’ve played KOTOR, it is hard not to compare the storytelling and character development in Mass Effect to this previous Bioware effort. I think Mass Effect is more fleshed out and more fully realized than KOTOR but the two do feel strikingly similar which is okay because KOTOR was awesome. Mass Effect is a natural evolution from KOTOR and that is a good thing, assuming of course, that you liked KOTOR to begin with.

The Great

• Story: The Mass Effect story is pretty incredible. From a writing standpoint, I find it amazing that they were able to incorporate so much content and bring all of that together in a cohesive way and a way that engages the player so completely. A lot of time in games when there is so much choice involved the story suffers because accounting for those choices is very difficult. If it is just a binary set of ‘good and bad’ choices then they can just have two branches and that makes it easier but with Mass Effect 3 you have all of these storylines and threads dangling there at the end and a ridiculous number of choices to account for. Those choice inform who you interact with on missions and what the out come of those missions are. Choices made in Mass Effect 1 determines if a character from Mass Effect 2 survives 3 and choices made in previous installments affect the choices you are given in this game. That is a lot of balls to have in the air at once so from a story standpoint, writing it must have been incredibly difficult to make it all fit together and still maintain its integrity. The dialogue and characterizations are spot on and major plot developments are shocking and generally satisfying. Just about all of the hanging and dangling plot points are resolved and your squad mates and NPCs are dealt with and given closure. That is a feat in and of itself but for those resolutions and closure moments to actually mean something to the player on an emotionally level is phenomenal. I have never been so moved playing a video game as I was during Mass Effect 3. I have real affection for the characters and the ones that died had a real impact on me as I played through. Triumphs and defeats mean more than they ever have before and there are a couple of moments where Commander Shepard gets to be such an unrepentant badass that I might have actually cheered and done a fist pump. Luckily, no one was around to see it…of course, I have just now shared it with the internet. Dammit.

• Characters: This ties in a bit with the writing but the characters in Mass Effect 3 in particular and Mass Effect in general are some of the most fleshed out and fully realized I have ever experienced in a game. There are lots of games that try really hard to achieve this level of depth and sophistication with character creation and experience and none have come even close to what Bioware has accomplished here. That the player character can be included in this is testament to their skill and also flies in the face of the belief that a player character cannot have a voice and personality without alienating the audience. Shepard is a hero worth spending time playing and the depth of choice given to the player allows for all the needed feelings of personalization and identification while still allowing the character to be fully fleshed out in his or her own right. In all my years of video game playing I have never encountered a group of characters that have moved me or made me care so much. At the end of the day you actually care about trying to save the universe because you actually care about the people that inhabit that universe and, particularly in the cynical internet message board times we live in, that is absolutely amazing. In Mass Effect 3 the story and characters come full circle. It is for all the marbles so the interaction and engagements with the characters mean even more than in the previous two games. Mass Effect 3 is a master class on how to write and deliver fully fleshed and fully realized characters.

• Graphics:   I’m not really sure how they squeezed this much performance out of the 360 (it is less surprising on the PS3 although apparently that one has some graphics issues) but they managed and the game looks even better than Mass Effect 2. Given the jump in quality between the three games it is kind of amazing that all three of them were this generation. The character designs and facial mapping is pretty impressive and goes far in helping to sell the drama. It might not be as impressive as the facial moves found in something LA Noire but that didn’t have any aliens and I like the overall art design here better anyway. The animation can hiccup a bit here and there and overall the sections aboard the Normandy are really dark, but everything in the game looks very pretty. Effects in the game really pop and the lens flare is used just enough to make things look like it was filmed with a camera, especially the Battlestar Galactica style zooms on space action. Textures are rich and the colors, where appropriate, are vibrant. The slightly darker tone to the colors and design works very well and gives everything the proper look of destruction and desperation. It is not the best looking game I have ever seen but it ranks and is perfect for the series.

• Voice Acting: With the notable exception of Mordin, all of the voice actors from the previous games return here and deliver performances that are just as good if not better than those previous installments. At this point they have had time to really settle into their characters and they deliver the voices with just the right nuances and hitting every note just right. The voice actors were also excellent in handling the deeply emotional moments in the game and that is definitely key to the game’s success. This deep in the series it would have been pretty heartbreaking and terrible to have to put up with new performers so it is a real boon to have the original cast be intact (except Mordin).  Voice acting may not always seem like a big deal but in a game like this when the story is so important and character interaction makes up the bulk of that story, voice acting is absolutely vital. Mass Effect 3 has some of the best in the business.

• Multi-player: When I first heard about multi-player I was almost inconsolably pissed. That might be overstating things a bit but I saw no reason for the game to include it and I was worried it would leech resources from the main game. I am very happy to report that I was wrong. The multi-player is based around a series of challenges in a variety of levels that pit a team of four against a variety of randomized forces. The levels are taken from the levels used in the N7 missions in the story and success and experience earned in the multi-player serves to bolster the galactic readiness rating of the story mode. This rating is not vital to getting the best endings but it does adjust the requirements for the war assets needed for the best endings. Your characters in multi-player are built from the game’s classes and races and you choose your character with some baseline stats and weapons and can then level up and customize them in the same way you would Shepard in the story mode. When the characters reach level 20 you can import them into the story mode as war assets which further helps you get the best possible endings available. The gameplay itself is fun and interesting with a pretty stiff challenge going in. There are three skill levels available and each offer their own challenges. Playing as different races is pretty cool and allows you direct control over a lot of character types you are only passively controlling or interacting with up until now. It is kind of like getting to be Harbinger for awhile but not by being an indoctrinated bastard. I am not usually that into multiplayer but I like this a lot.

The Good:

• Controls: Mass Effect 2 controlled perfectly. I had no complaints with the button mapping or easy interface between me and my Shepard. I wish I could say the same thing for this installment but sadly it has to setting for just really exceptional controls. This is mostly because of a bullet point down in the bad section so I won’t belabor the point here. Aside from that, the game controls very, very well and you won’t have to fight with the controller to be the raging badass that you are destined to become. The targeting is spot on and powers are quick and responsive. Navigation is typically flawless and when you tell Shepard to do something, he generally does it right away without incident just so long as you aren’t trying to take cover behind something. Oops.

• Inventory Management: When inventory management was streamlined out of Mass Effect 2 almost entirely, a lot of people complained and claimed that it wasn’t an RPG anymore. I maintain that is bullshit but Bioware listened to those complaints and offered a compromise. We can now purchase a lot more weapons and armor pieces and find and purchase upgrades for all of those to customize them to our hearts content. We can adjust our  ‘ load outs as well, although they still maintain the same suit of armor they always wear. This system is really the best of both worlds as it offers more depth to the inventory system but does it in a clean and easily managed way. This should make everyone happy. I am sure it doesn’t but it should.

• Focus: This is a bit of a nebulous category and could just as easily be called tone but the general feel of the game and the missions and issues that it presents you with is as economical as it is vital to the story. There isn’t a bunch of feckless planet scanning for resource gathering or goofy  side quests where you have to tell somebody if there are actually fish on the Citadel. Those things added flavor to the first and second game but here, with the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, they would seem very frivolous. Gone also are annoying driving and flying missions that impede the flow of the story telling and had janky controls. Sure, there are moments here when you have some levity and that is much needed but it never feels cheap or frivolous. The sense of dread that permeates the game is just the right tone and the focus stays clear and true the entire way through. There was never anything that I did in the game that felt out of place or inappropriate for the situation at hand.

• Character Imports: Facial recognition issues aside, the ability to import your character from two previous games is incredible and goes a long way toward the passion that players have with this series. The level of immersion that this provides is staggering and your character is so much more your creation than most games of this type. Aside from the story aspects, carrying the character’s level over from Mass Effect 2 is pretty awesome and you start out feeling like a badass. The level of challenge is raised appropriately but it was very nice to take on the Reapers as a level 30 Vanguard than having to start over from level one again for some reason. By the end of the game I was doing some crazy things mostly due to this carry over of skills and abilities and the rest due to my intimate familiarity with how my Shepard plays. In Mass Effect 3 it isn’t just your choices and level that carries over but also your skill as a player and your knowledge of how to play your build. This is enormously satisfying. I am sure a virgin player is going to have a great time with Mass Effect 3 but those of us who have some skills and experience are going to have a much better time.

• Casual Clothing: In previous Mass Effect games, Shepard has some casual clothing to wear around the Normandy and it has generally ranged from being passable to looking like something crossed between Han Solo and a leather daddy. I have never really liked many of these options (until FemShep got the hot dress in Kasumi’s DLC) so I was very excited to see that Shepard has some pretty awesome casual clothing this time (although the aforementioned leather daddy outfit is still in the closet…just like the Shepard that wears the outfit I imagine). This is especially good since your away time on the Citadel is spent in casual clothes and not body armor. My Shepard once again looked like if I was much more Asian and much more in shape but this time I was able to dress him the way I dress: jeans, t-shirt and leather jacket. It was pretty awesome and it allowed me to identify with him that much more.

The Bad:

• Frustrating Cover Mechanic: Okay so they added a combat roll here so that you have options if you find your cheese in the wind with multiple units firing on you and cover too far away to run to. That is fine and it saved my ass a lot but then again it kind of had to given that actually hiding behind something was the frustrating reason for more deaths than I have a proper count for. I have never had issue with the cover mechanic in past games and sticking to a wall or behind cover was simple and easy. Here I found the collision detection to be sketchy and often I would stand by cover absorbing bullets like it was my job while I tried to find just the right sweet spot to get Shepard to crouch down. Given how important cover is to the over all combat, this is a really big issue for me and I found myself very frustrated a lot throughout the game. As I played longer I got more accustomed to it so death resulted a lot less but even in the final assault in the game I found myself restarting because Shepard wouldn’t hide behind a brick wall and instead stood there like an idiot or rolling out into fire because the roll and cover is mapped to the same button and as such confuses the game into thinking that the player is an absolute moron.This late into the series we should not be having this problem, especially when it is something the last game had down perfectly.

• Glitches: Bioware’s old nemesis rears its ugly head again and while there were fewer than previous installments and I didn’t feel much pain on them this time, I cannot let it go either. There were a couple of game freezes that I had to restart for, although they were pretty infrequent and not as bad as in Mass Effect 2. They were annoying but not that big of a deal. The other major one, the facial recognition error, is a much bigger deal. I wanted to change how my Shepard looked from the get go but a lot of people didn’t and being forced to rework how he looks when the character creator lacks some of the same options from previous games is unacceptable. Even with a desire to change the way he looked it was jarring for me in the beginning to hear Shepard’s voice coming out of someone who looked totally different so I sympathize with people forced into the change. Whether it bugs me or not, it should not be an issue at this point and Bioware should have done a better job on this. Importing is a big deal and people get REALLY attached to their Shepard. Wanting to maintain facial fidelity should have easily been anticipated and a patch shouldn’t need to be applied to fix it. This is pretty basic stuff and I am surprised to even have to talk about it. I forgave Skyrim its glitches when it got a 10 but I cannot do that here because unlike funny giant bouncing and horse acrobatics, the issues here affect the enjoyment and fulfillment of the story and that is inexcusable.

The Sad

• It is Over: Sure there will probably be more Mass Effect games in the future but Shepard’s story is pretty much done. This makes me a bit melancholy as a lot of the fun of the previous games was looking ahead to what your decisions would mean for the next installment. Perhaps if they do more games in the series my choices will carry over in a world buidling sort of way but it is a bit sad to know that this story I’ve been involved with for the better part of a decade is done. This isn’t a negative on the game but more a statement of sadness that I will miss the series and characters and story. If anything, this is one of the most positive things I could ever say about the game and the series.

Conclusion [ 9.5 out of 10]

Given the level of vitriol from some very vocal detractors online, I am sure that my score for the game and refusal to condemn the endings as unmitigated bullshit will earn me at least one accusation of being on Bioware’s payroll (god I wish) but all of that fanboy horseshit is nonsense. I loved this game and I love the series. It is not perfect but it is wonderful. If you liked the previous games then you will like this unless you can’t see past your own idea of what should have happened at the end. If you hated the previous entries in the series, nothing here will change your mind at all. You should also probably consult a psychotherapist and see about that head injury and/or your inability to like awesome things. In all seriousness, this game is great and should not be missed. When it was announced that Mass Effect 2 and 3 would be released on PS3 a lot of fans cried foul. I for one am glad for it. I like games and I like gaming so I want everyone to be able to play the best that gaming has to offer. This is one such game.