The Mass Effect series has been built on players’ choices and seeing the consequences of those choices and it’s nice to finally see where those choices have taken everyone, for better or worse. The Mass Effect series has made momentous strides over the course of its series, but it has also taken a few steps back as well. Mass Effect 3 ultimately proves where the series has shown its’ mastery and how it betrayed its’ initial concept in others.
One of the first new elements players will notice when firing up the game is multiplayer. This mode is simply an online cooperative mode where up to four players pit themselves against ten waves of AI opponents on one of three difficulties across six initial maps, although two have since been added for free via downloadable content. The concept is the same as Gears of War’s horde mode with a separate leveling system that’s similar to the single player. What’s new is a trading card game like system where you have to spend your hard earned credits on one of three pack types, each of which have five random types, ranging from powers, characters or weapons. While cheaper packs will get you more powers, more expensive packs are usually your ticket to newer weapons and characters.
The system works well, which will most likely keep you coming back to try new characters and classes. When you get a character to its’ highest level, you can “send it to single player” as the game mentions, but it doesn’t do anything, which ultimately eliminates the point in doing so. Multiplayer does serve a purpose for single player though. By playing more you will raise your “Galactic Readiness” by one to seven percent depending on how well you do. Not playing multiplayer for a few days will lower this rating by one percent a day until you do, so if you’re looking to get a good rating in single player, it’s best to hold off until playing multiplayer until the end of the campaign.
Speaking of the campaign, there’s definitely a lot to talk about in the portion of the game that isn’t normally talked about nowadays, namely everything else. The first thing a veteran Mass Effect player will notice is they won’t be able to import their long-standing face into the game. While Bioware has said this was recently patched, but it still exists and will anger long-time players. A major issue is the game’s journal, which has taken a step backwards from the previous entry. No longer will the game give you step-by-step progress for each mission, instead opting for a vague message that never changes. This is infuriating since you’re given very little context on how to go about completing them. It strikes as Bioware being lazy for the sake of rushing the final product out, and is a major detriment to the overall product.
What’s not a detriment however, are the continued stories of characters. There are plenty of excellent moments in Mass Effect 3 that not only provide excellent closure to some of Mass Effect 2’s favorites, but little moments with crew members as well. Garrus, Liara, Tali, Joker and Edi all have them and there are quite a few that will be memorable for a long time. The game’s combat is also an improvement over the last game, but it’s not a major step up like there was from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2. Overall, these two elements do the job enough for you to keep playing the story up until the very end, which is where most of the debate around this game occurs.
The game’s ending is, without question, a certified mess. It takes the entire series up to that point and throws everything people have done until that point out the window. It’s a shame that the people who wrote the ending came up with something so hastily to create something very nonsensical, ending the series in a very unsatisfying way. At the end of the day, that’s what Mass Effect 3 is. It had a lot of build up, but it leaves a sour taste in your mouth afterwards. There’s not enough closure or differentiation in the story that will leave a lot of people satisfied at the end. While they’ll wonder what went wrong, there’s no answer for that right now, as it has to be “clarified” by Bioware later this year. It’s just a wonder why they game wasn’t delayed until they could have clarified it on the game’s disc.
Score: 7/10
Positives
- Good characters and dialog
- More refined combat
- Good Multiplayer
Negatives
- The Ending is awful in various ways
- Poor Presentation
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