The Mass Effect series has perhaps been my favorite on this generation of gaming. Its wonderfully rich and fulfilling story, numerous likeable characters, and implementation of character choice have raised the bar for interactive storytelling in video games. I had extremely high hopes for the last installment of this epic sci-fi trilogy, and in many respects the game came through. Combat has been improved, the new weapon upgrade system is certainly welcome, and many of the missions are quite enjoyable. And yet, it's very apparent that there's just something missing from the game that the previous two games had. Maybe it has to do with the fact that any sense of exploration has almost been completely eradicated. Maybe it has to do with the series becoming more mainstream and streamlined and losing its focus on compelling narrative. Maybe it's because many of the key choices I made in previous games don't impact the story meaningfully, or that the ending is unsatisfactory and not up to par with the rest of the series. I'm not entirely sure which aspect of the game to point to for justification of the unnerving sense I had while playing through the game, but I know that the game could've been a lot better. Mass Effect 3 is a good game and certainly improves upon some aspects of the previous game, but ultimately I felt the game didn't have the immersive potency that the previous two did, thus easily rendering it the worst game of the trilogy and a bitter conclusion to the greatest piece of fiction since Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings.
The game takes place several months after the end of Mass Effect 2. The reaper invasion is an immediate threat, and Commander Shepard has presumably been attempting to warn the galaxy of their arrival. He and Admiral Anderson attend a meeting in Vancouver just as the Reapers begin their harvest of the planet. Shepard leaves Earth in order to unite the galaxy in hopes of being able to defeat the Reapers. The rest of the game involves resolving cultural issues between several different species while at the same time fending off Cerberus troops and the Illusive Man. The final component of the plot is the Crucible, a device that can evidently be used to fight against the Reapers. Most of your time playing the game occurs simultaneously while this device is being built by the species of the cycle. This Crucible object is introduced only in this game, and doesn't have a whole lot of context to tie it into the Mass Effect universe.
Right off the bat, the introduction felt rushed. Most of the conversations Shepard has involve auto dialogue, and the player doesn't get the opportunity to use the dialogue wheel until at least five minutes into the game. In addition, the neutral dialogue and investigation options have been completely eradicated from nearly all conversations. On the story side of things, much of what happened from the end of Mass Effect 2 to the start of Mass Effect 3 is unclear and left to speculation. Why are nearly all of your former squad members suddenly missing from the Normandy? Who is this James Vega, and how did he become a part of your squad? If you're importing your Commander Shepard after playing The Arrival DLC, the game indicates that your ship was impounded as a result of what happened, but even then the information is too cryptic. Glossing over the most important event in the entire series up to this point with a combat introductory sequence seems nonsensical to say the least.
Players familiar with the Mass Effect series should immediately recognize some differences in terms of the combat of the game. The combat is from a third-person perspective and is very similar to something like Gears of War. You take cover behind anything solid, and pop out to take shots at the enemy. The player now has the ability to perform evasive dive-rolls in all four directions, including diagonal. I found this new feature fairly helpful but very stilted compared to Gears of War. The player can choose from several different classes at the start of the game, and this definitely adds variety to the combat itself. Much of the differences between these classes pertain to the balance between weapons and biotic abilities. These essentially act as the player's "magic" in the game, and can cause enemies to be levitated in the air or allow the player to teleport several feet to warp an enemy. Speaking of enemies, you'll mostly be fighting Cerberus operatives and Reaper-based ground forces. One enemy that really annoyed me was the shielded soldier. The only real effective method of killing him is by using a sniper rifle to shoot through the slot of the shield, and if the player doesn't have one then the sequence will be more troublesome than fun.
One neat addition is the use of weapon mods. These are acquired or bought throughout the course of the game and increase the effectiveness of your gun, such as less recoil or more damage. Another factor is how many guns the player chooses to carry into combat sequences. The player will have more armaments to choose from but at the expense of a longer cool down time on biotic abilities. Which option you opt for depends entirely on your particular playing style.
The main story missions are a bit of a mixed bag. On the positive side of the spectrum, the Tuchanka and Rannoch missions are prime examples of what Mass Effect is truly about. This mainly arises from the fact that many decisions from the previous two games have a high level of impact on the outcome of these missions. Let's take the Tuchanka mission as an example. You're tasked with curing the Genophage, a disease placed on one of the major species featured throughout the series. Two squad mates, Mordin and Wrex, accompany you. Depending on your previous choices, either or both of them could already be dead. This is just one example of several choices that affect that one mission alone. Most of the missions I didn't care for featured Cerberus in some form or another. I found these missions too combat-orientated and generic in general. Many of them feature a new antagonist named Kai Leng, who, like James Vega, has virtually no development at all. More importantly, the choices you made in the previous games have next to no impact in any of these missions.
Exploration is very limited to say the least. The Citadel is now the only galactic area to freely explore, and it isn't all that large. Side missions essentially boil down to overhearing a conversation about someone losing an object of value, traveling to a system to find that object, and then returning it to the owner in exchange for war assets or money. I'll talk about those in a moment, but first I'd like to address just how dysfunctional the journal system is. Whenever you exit out of it and then re-open it, you'll be forced to scroll all the way back up to the top to view the objective. In addition, there are no specific steps to each objective, so finding that lost trinket can be nearly impossible unless you visit the Mass Effect wiki site. There are unfortunately only a handful of side missions that have a decent amount of depth to them, and these few don't last long enough to account for much.
Now for these war assets. They essentially build up progressively upon completion of side missions and story missions, yet they ultimately have no genuine effect on the game itself. Nearly all of the rewards of side missions correlate directly into more war assets for the player. But what exactly are they implemented for? In theory, they grant the player more options during the incomplete, broken mess known as the Mass Effect 3 ending. I won't bore you with specifics, but these war assets in reality have no effect on the outcome of the game at all. It makes me question just why so much of the completion of the game involves something so shallow and underdeveloped.
In terms of the audiovisual presentation, the game generally looks excellent. Models and environments are highly detailed, and the frame rate is pretty smooth. However, I didn't really notice any improvements over Mass Effect 2. The color palette is drab, and the animations of characters during conversations occasionally appear jerky, and in one instance the character that I was talking to disappeared from frame altogether. The audio department is fantastic. All of the voice acting of the primary characters is flawless, and the music often times supplements the plot. Everything else in the game, such as combat and weapon sounds are fine.
There is a new multiplayer mode in this game, as well. I can't really say this is a welcome addition to the series, as Mass Effect has always prided itself on being a single-player story driven experience. I still feel that the multiplayer was completely unnecessary, even though I did enjoy it. It's essentially a wave-based combat survival mode that supports up to four players in total. All of the enemies you face during single-player are featured here. You can actually play as members of different species in this mode, which is actually fairly exciting. Even so, much of your upgrades come from different "packs" you purchase through multiplayer experience points, and the rewards are completely randomized to the point where it feels cheap.
The final thing I'll mention is the ending to this game. What I said earlier may have seemed harsh, but based on the gravity and context of the series as a whole, it really isn't. Without giving anything away and going into too much detail, the ending dishonored the sanctity of the series and goes against everything Mass Effect stood for. Bioware released an extended cut DLC for the ending less than two months ago, and while I appreciate the fact that most other developers wouldn't have done that, it's a marginal improvement at best. If you have the space on your hard drive, feel free to download it, but I'd say you're better off watching it on YouTube than wasting 2 GB.
I firmly believe that Mass Effect 3 is easily the weakest game of the trilogy. Does that mean it's a bad game? No. In fact, aside from the ending and few minor annoyances, Mass Effect 3 as a game is excellent in general. But as a Mass Effect game, it's a definite disappointment. The price of this game has most likely been lowered significantly since its release date, and I'd strongly recommend purchasing it only if you've played the previous two games. It's a fun game that should satisfy any casual fan of third-person shooters. But for any of the long-time fans of this series like myself, the conclusion of this excellent series and the large controversy surrounding it have tainted the series, and remains in my mind the most disappointing ending of all-time.