Earlier this year I started making my way through the Mass Effect series. What is considered one of the most well known, well respected, and hyped game series out there. Known for its universe, lore, characters, moments, and much more. The impact it had on gaming is still talked about to this very day, and it’s easy to understand why so. It's an action role-playing where your choices actually matter and are carried over between each game. Its cinematic presentation and visuals could rival that of film, and each installment aimed to be grander than the last. I’m glad I gave Mass Effect a shot, because it’s one of the best pieces of sci-fi I’ve gone through in a long time. After I beat Mass Effect 2 back in February, I decided to take a break from the series. Play some other titles before I hopped into the third and final game. What many consider as the divisive end to all of Mass Effect. That wasn’t until they made Mass Effect: Andromeda, but let’s just focus on Mass Effect 3 right now. A lot of money and time was put into Mass Effect 3, because the series had become the cash cow of both Bioware and Electronic Arts. It was developed during a period when all of Electronic Art’s good properties were rising in fame, and they wanted to capitalize.
Production on games would be sped up and made in larger quantities. New games every one to two years, and maybe even find more ways to make more money from their games. This is how you end up with something like being able to buy resources in Dead Space 3 with real money. Mass Effect 3 did not have the same amount of development time as Mass Effect 2. The team had two years to make the game, and it didn’t help they made Dragon Age 2 inbetween the gap of the two games. Yet they tried and they attempted to make Mass Effect 3 a game that would appease everyone. An ending that would sum up everything the series had been working to at that point, and pile it all up like a fancy square cake pyramid. A more refined combat loop and mechanics, because and I quote “They wanted Mass Effect 3 to become one of the shooters in the market.” The end all to end all as you can tell, and plentiful amounts of hype was aimed at Mass Effect 3. It was one of the most well anticipated games of 2012, and when it finally released people were losing their minds over what it did. What Mass Effect 3 did was interesting to say the least.
Mass Effect 3 at the time was a beautiful mess. Critically the game was received very well with critics, and sold the right amount of copies as Bioware and Electronic Arts had hoped. It got all their players to talk for weeks about what happened, but not everyone saw eye to eye. Criticism was aimed towards the game’s writing and how the story treated events of the past. How the fate of important characters that existed since prior installments was handled. Then there was the end which remains to be the most divisive aspects of Mass Effect 3. Some say it was satisfying and is the epic conclusion the series needed. Others claim it was bad and a spit in the face for everyone who was heavily invested in these games. Even expansions made to help fix the ending could not help, and Mass Effect 3 remains the black sheep of the franchise for this reason. I remember how bad the reception for the ending was during the first week of release. Disappointment flooding the faces of my friends and relatives. The amount of people arguing online. I was young, but even I was shocked to see how the bad ending leaked into my life. That’s why I kept my expectations low going into Mass Effect 3. I tried to stay optimistic and appreciate the game for what it was. I did at first. The first few hours were great and I was having a lot of fun. Slowly the problems crept in through and I began to realize why people dislike this game years later.
Mass Effect 3 is not bad, but it is one of the most disappointing games I’ve played in awhile. I do respect the attempt to smoothen out the gameplay and push its technical capabilities. It shines in certain aspects, but although the core values of what makes a good video game are good here I can’t ignore how displeased I was after finishing it. Mass Effect 2 is my favorite in the series, and I would even say the first Mass Effect was better than this. This is a game that aims for a lot and falls on its face. It’s a burning star that crashed into the ground, and it makes me wonder if more time was needed to flesh it out. If Bioware were given an extra year or two of development time would this game have been better? Who knows. Let’s just move on with the review and help you understand why this game was okay rather than great. It's just disappointing....
Story
The game takes place half a year after the events of Mass Effect 2. Ever since the suicide mission where Commander Shepard saved their crew and took down a forged Reaper they’ve been trying to warn the forces of Earth and the Council of future Reaper attacks. They know the Reapers are coming, and one day during a discussion the Reapers decide to attack earth. Sending zombified forces to terrorize the people and bombarding the surface with all powerful lasers. Shepard does manage to escape from the attack, but is unable to help anyone else escape the planet. They make their way to the Council and show evidence of what is going on. The Council wants to help, but is unable to since the other alien races are dealing with Reaper attacks as well and other terrible problems. The Krogan are demanding a cure of the genophage disease from the Salarians. The Quarians are trying to purge the last of the Geth,and the Asari are being bombarded too. All feels hopeless at first, but one of the councilors tells Shepard that if they can aid these factions they can aid the fighting power needed to fight back.
Shepard departs and is aided by both old and new friends. During their adventures they discover an ancient coffin containing a live Prothean. The alien race who fought the Reapers before but were wiped out. Upon interacting with the coffin the Prothean is released, and Shepard gets to relive their past memories. The Prothean is named Javik, and before he was sealed away his race tried to forge a weapon that could defeat the Reapers once and for all. They never managed to complete the weapon, and they all perished for not doing so. This gives Shepard and company hope, and so the ultimate plan is to find the blueprints to this weapon and make it. Shepard’s journey is coming to an end, and with it they’ll decide the fate the galaxy rightfully deserves.
Gameplay
Mass Effect 3 plays much like Mass Effect 2 in that gameplay is made up of third person cover based shooting, level based RPG progression, and getting some downtime to talk to characters and wander around certain locations. Combat is simple and fun. You can bring up to five guns into a mission, but they all have different weights and the heavier you are the longer it takes for your shields to recharge when down. Weapon types range from handguns, rifles, smaller rifles, long range rifles, and heavy duty weapons. You have pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, laser guns, rail cannons, grenade launchers, SMGs, and much more. Each weapon has their own quirks, so bring the tools you see fit. Battles take place in arenas with lots of cover, so you’ll be hiding when you think you are taking too much enemy fire. However, you can’t just stay in the same spot the whole time, so you want to be on the move and trying to outflank your foes. You also have powers and these powers can be quite useful when used correctly. To either tear through the defenses of enemies, lob them around, or offer protection.
Everytime you complete missions, kill enemies, and level up you gain skill points. These points can be spent on skills and stats, and the higher these go the more efficient they are. These also apply to allies, and they each have their own unique skills not similar to yours. Bringing the right companions for the job can offer new strategies and benefits to missions. You have Garrus who is good at dishing out heavy fire, Tali who can use tech skills and drones to help out. Liara who has a lot of biotic powers, and much more. Outside of combat you can chat to allies aboard the Normandy and explore the galaxy. One such place you can go to is the Citadel which has a lot of shops you can buy equipment from, and NPCs worth talking to as they may assign you special side quests. Some of these contain characters you may have helped live in Mass Effect 2 and be willing to help you in your fight against the Reapers. During conversations you can make certain choices, and these choices can lead to quests and events playing out in certain ways. You get reputation points based on certain actions and they come in two flavors. Paragon for doing the right and courageous thing, and Renegade for thinking for yourself or being assertive. If you gain enough points of either category you may even unlock new dialogue options, which opens even more choices for you to make especially during story segments where you decide fates.
As you participate in side quests and progress the main story you earn war assets. This is another point based system which you’ll need a lot of by the end of the game. This is the firepower for the final battle of the game, and your success will matter depending on how high war assets are. I’ll talk more about this later, but getting those who aren’t even major factions may help you out by the end. Besides that there’s nothing much else to say. Not much has changed in terms of the gameplay since Mass Effect 2. There’s just more action now and it’s more chaotic. Let’s hope you can gather the allies you need, face the Reapers head on, and win this galactic war….
Thoughts
Mass Effect 3 is disappointing. As I said near the beginning of this review I tried to go in with as low as expectations as I could. I wanted to like this game especially with how my reception with the first two titles were pretty good. The original Mass Effect had some rough edges, but overall I really liked it. The setup to this universe was very good and gave us an idea of how the politics and races of this world work. How you the player and your actions actually changed the world rather than the higher ups who sit there and do nothing. You can say it’s critiquing real world politics and how they don't do much to help people besides talk and pass laws that are aimed at harming others. Mass Effect 2 would sacrifice some RPG aspects, but in doing so they smoothed out the gameplay and made the most refined Mass Effect experience to this date. A game with a better combat loop, better characters, more stakes, and satisfying conclusion to your effort. It is a perfect sequel and it’s very hard to top what is nearly flawless. How does Mass Effect 3 improve on the previous games? It can’t. It truly can’t and all it could really do was attempt to deliver the conclusion fans wanted, but it didn’t do that. It aimed for too much and like I said it became a big burning star that crashed to the ground. Let me make this clear. I do not hate Mass Effect 3.
As disappointed as I was with this game, I think its core principles are great and a majority of players will have a fun time. The combat loop is great and I’d even say it’s better than ever. All the guns feel great to use, have enough impact for each shot, and you can quickly pick up what their quirks are when using them in the field. I do wish there was a firing range to test the guns, but thankfully one of the DLCs added an arena mode where you can test these weapons. There is a nice variety of foes and the nice combination of them will keep you on your toes especially on the higher difficulties. You have a lot of room to move around, cover to work with, and enemies are not afraid to force you out of hiding. This is a game where you are rewarded for playing masterfully and I love it. However, the combat as good as it is compared becomes repetitive quickly. The devs wanted Mass Effect 3 to be a more action focused experience, and they achieved that goal. A majority of your time will be spent shooting everything on sight, but in exchange for making a more combat focused game they made it a more mindless game to play. They haven’t attempted to fix problems of the past.
Being a good person is still really easy. You never really have to think about what you do, because the good choice was always mapped to the same button or colored to make it clear that it was the good choice. I was fine with it in the past games because at least the writing was good, but here I want to question some of the choices that aren't very sensible. One of the first major story choices is to either help cure the Krogans or kill them with another deadly disease. As to why you want to make the second choice is baffling, because everything leading to this point would signal to you how much suffering the Krogans have gone through. Another choice several hours later is to either side with the Quarians and help them purge the Geth, or help the Geth who are willing to side with you if you purge the Quarians. I’ll say this is one of the more interesting choices you make in the game, by a little. It makes more sense to help Tali and her people, because the planet they once lived on is poisonous and they’ve been suffering for years now. It does not make sense to side with the robots you’ve been fighting since day one, have done horrendous things, and literally tell you they’ll fuse with Reaper code if you decide to side with them. Why is this even a choice?
Speaking of characters and their survival I want to talk about one of my favorite things about this series and how it harms Mass Effect 3. The continuity between each game. Choices you made in the last game will carry over, and characters who survived the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2 are there to aid you in the final battle. It really feels like the story of Mass Effect 3 works better if you perfected the suicide mission in Mass Effect 2. Characters who died will get replacements, and these replacements are not good at all. They are boring, exist for the moment, and are often killed after you progress enough. For example, I had Legion die in Mass Effect 2 and when it came to a conversation with Tali on whether the Geth should live or not it felt soulless. Whereas having Legion there would add more depth. There are a lot of moments that are better with Mass Effect 2 characters and if not it feels weird. I was even told that Garrus does not even get a replacement because they did not suspect you to fail that badly.
The progression, handing out of quests, and design of the game aren’t very good either. There are quests you can miss out on easily if you don’t do them at the right time or don’t check the right places. There was a quest I could’ve triggered in the Citadel to have Kasumi as a war asset, but I couldn’t do it because I progressed too far into the game. Miranda can be obtained as a war asset as well, but this only if you do her quest line which has you regularly checking your terminal. A screen that most likely you won’t check and is often flooded with emails that offer nothing. I wish the game would tell me what quests offer something to the story, because some quests are there for filler. Admiral Hacket gives you a location, you go there, run around, press buttons, fight two to three waves of enemies, and leave. I don’t think Mass Effect ever had a problem with filler. I don’t remember Mass Effect 2 having it, because the game had a steady pace and always labeled quests in the journal as to whether it progresses the story or gains the loyalty of allies. Not here though and it creates this confusion on what is worth checking out in an otherwise simple game. What do you get from gaining optional war assets outside the main story? Nothing. They just trigger some optional conversations you can miss, and it would’ve felt great if the characters of Mass Effect 2 popped in during the final battle to help you during trouble. At least in Baldur's Gate 3 when you helped people during act 3 they gave you summons during the final fight. It was like they were helping you fight for your cause because you helped them.
I gotta talk about the story and ending, because that’s what people are wondering the most about me and this game. Is it really that bad? No, but I still didn’t like it. I can understand why they were trying to go for the story and at first I liked it. A game about losing hope and trying to cling onto it. A game about regretting saving those you could have. A game about the effects of war on others, and trying to persevere even when you are about to die. That I like about the story. The payoff for this story is not very good. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I’ll say it reminds me of the ending of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The RPG where you literally press one of the many buttons available to decide fate and a cutscene plays showing that fate. It just felt underwhelming. Like there was so much leading up to the conclusion and just ends with a wet fart. So that’s what I think of Mass Effect 3. A game that aims for a lot, doesn’t achieve it at all, got confused, and is just disappointing. It’s not terrible, but I find recommending the game difficult. While gameplay will be good to some I don’t think people invested in the story will find it a good payoff. Which is a shame. There’s no other sci-fi series I can think of that is like Mass Effect, and with the current state of Bioware I don’t think they are ever gonna reach these heights again. In the end I’ give Mass Effect 3 a 7.5/10 for being okay.
Not bad and not great. Just okay.
