Save the galaxy once again with the latest Mass Effect game from Bioware.
Making an ending for such an amazing character like Commander Shepard is probably one of the hardest thing to do for Bioware. And we can clearly see how it went terribly wrong in this game. While Mass Effect 3 deliver a great journey up until the end, the destination is unfortunately disappointing.
The Story (7/10)
+ Great story with great script as always.
+ Amazing and awesome multi dimensional characters
+ Freedom to alter the script by being a nice paragon or a badass renegade, just like previous games
+ All of or choices and decisions from previous games will determine our journey here
- Incredibly unsatisfying and illogical ending
- All of our choices and decisions and consequences from all 3 games become useless because in the end it's all about the 'big choices'
- The 'new and improved' ending is largely the same unsatisfying, illogical original ending.
- Despite the Indoctrination Theory -which is very convincing- it still very hard to accept the poorly executed ending of this game. If you need a 10 minutes Youtube video to really understand a twist in a story, that means the writer have a serious flaw in storytelling
The Gameplay (9/10)
+ Smoother 3rd person shooter mechanics
+ Fluid and simple control just as always
+ New heavy melee and roll movement making Shepard much more agile and deadly on hand to hand combat
+ Improved in-game HUD
+ Interesting and powerful new enemies, especially the Reapers
- Reputation points seems useless and confusing, better stick to the Paragon/Renegade points
- Only 5 characters that you can bring into Normandy
- Annoying new journal system. Bioware joins codex and journal but left out the assignment tab. They also erased the mission progress system so it could be a bit confusing to track down the progress of the side (read:fetch) quests
The Graphic (8.5/10)
+ Better graphics with sharper textures and more amazing lightning effect
+ Seamless transition from cutscene to in-game gameplay
+ More great action set pieces
+ Tons of new animation for Shepard
- new facial animation and face model for Shepard make him/her looks uglier even if we made a good looking Shepard on previous Mass Effect
- Graphical animation glitches especially when Shepard using his communicator (touching his/her ear)
The Sound (9/10)
+ Awesome and epic scores
+ Great voice acting as always
- New weapon sound effect feels weak, especially for most assault rifle
Verdict (8.2/10)
Mass Effect 3 is a great action RPG, but the big disappointment over the ending of the Shepard Saga is just too much. The legendary Commander Shepard deserve a lot better than this.