Review: Mass Effect 3

It is approximately 2185 and you are Commander Shepard of the ship Normandy. You have been warning the entire universe of an invasion by a hostile alien race of machines and no one believed you.  Well who’s laughing now that Earth is being destroyed…regrettably no one is, since almost everyone’s dead. The plot is a heavy one, which is understandable with a threat of all organic life in the universe coming to an end. With a heavy plot comes extreme amounts of intensity, and some of the best moments involving fighting for your life against highly-sophisticated, enormous spacecrafts named Reapers that can annihilate anything in their path. It only intensifies when these Reapers focus entirely on you, with a laser that rings with the noise of death each time it strikes the ground, sending tremors to shake the world as you dash for cover to stay alive. Trust me, it’s intense.

Mass Effect 3 is a third-person, cover-based shooter, but it is also an RPG. However, there is an option to switch the genre to a different mode, either narrative or action. If you don’t like RPGs, have no fear, you can still shoot plenty of aliens without worrying about experience and leveling. However, it is strongly suggested you use the RPG format to get more satisfaction from this game. Playing in the action more deprives you of what makes this game beautiful which is the depth and attention to detail this game exudes. There are countless planets in this game and every single planet in this game has a small back-story and description. Not only that, every alien race has an incredibly deep history that rivals the actual history of the human race. Even in a sci-fi setting, everything seems to work and blend together perfectly to give off an authentic feel.

There are six different classes to choose from all with different abilities. Some specialize in the mastering of weapons, while others use more supernatural powers. As you progress through the game, you gain experience, and spend it on your character to either upgrade previous abilities or gain new ones.  The multiple classes add a level to depth and detail to the game and each person will progress through the combat differently based on the character they create. A strong class will undoubtedly be charging the front lines, but a long-range class will wisely hang in the rear to hold the advantageous position for their skills. If you play the game twice with two different classes, it will feel like a completely new game.

Personalization is the name of the game for Mass Effect 3. You have complete control over what Shepard should look like, including gender, along with one of three back-stories, which is an interesting way to influence the morality system in place. The morality system itself is fairly basic, you can either be a renegade or a paragon, which translates into a ruthless Commander everyone fears but respects or a friendly Commander that everyone loves. The choices made will affect the person Shepard becomes and how everyone reacts to the Commander. Some choices won’t affect the game much but some other choices will be the life and death of characters, so choose wisely.

There is plenty to do outside of the story missions, for instance visiting the Citadel will take up a lot of time with all the people to speak to there. This is where the RPG elements incorporated into the game really come into the forefront. Wandering around helping people with their troubles and gaining insight to the location you are in and the character’s stories. You can spend hours at a time between story missions, messing around on the Citadel and the Normandy speaking with people and learning about the universe you are in. This game will undoubtedly keep you busy.

On top of the thirty hour campaign, (shorter or longer depending on side-quests) there is a co-op multiplayer. It’s nothing that hasn’t been seen in gaming before, but it is entertaining nonetheless. You pick one of the six classes and join three people to complete simple missions on a small level. Working together with three people of different classes is fun since it gives you the feeling of being a team of superheroes. You need to use your strengths to overcome their weaknesses and vice versa. Still, it gets rather repetitive completing the same simple ‘survive’ and ‘defend’ type missions over and over. If there were more options for different classes or more levels or modes to compete in, this mode would have a lot more to offer gamers than it currently does and would be a better all around addition to the game. However, as it stands now it is hard to look upon this as a reason to buy the game if you weren’t already sold on the excellent story mode.

This game is good but there are some apparent flaws in the game play. For instance, any time you step into an elevator, you will have to sit through a loading screen. It isn’t unbearably long, but you’ll see it enough that it gets annoying. The second flaw of this game is the absurd idea of planet scanning. Despite the fact that this has been a staple of the series, it still fails to engage the player in any meaningful way. Sure, it is necessary for side-quests to collect items, but it just doesn’t add to the game. It’s the definition of padding and it is unfortunate that you have to spend time doing this. However, since there are multiple endings, and you want the good ending, you will have to put that time in collecting random items with this method.

Speaking of the ending, if you want a good ending (without completing 100% of the single player, which involves the horrible planet scanning) you have to play multiplayer. This will increase your galactic readiness rating which helps determines what ending you’ll get. While being forced to play a multiplayer may not be everyone’s cup of tea, that’s only decent way to achieve a better ending without spending a lot of time with mundane tasks. There are many problems with the endings themselves, but that’s spoiler related.  All you need to know about the multiple endings is that really don’t differ that much from one another.

Despite the few flaws, this is an absolutely amazing game. The setting is one of the greatest I’ve personally ever experienced in a video game. What is better than charging enemy encampments on a distant moon with a burning planet in the background and a spaceship battle roaring above you? From the astonishing visuals, to the crazy amount of history the developers embedded into this game, it’s all incredible. The war for the universe will come alive in your mind in some spectacular ways as you are the literally the last hope for not just humanity but all organic life in existence. This is truly an experience to be had by all gamers.

Final Verdict:  It’s worth a purchase.

Rating:  

This review is based off a retail copy of the Playstation 3 version of Mass Effect 3 developed by BioWare and distributed by Electronic Arts.