Monday, March 19, 2012

Mass Effect 3

BioWare's futuristic space trilogy called Mass Effect has been a massive hit around gamers, critics and sci-fi enthusiasts, and recently I have beaten the final part of the trilogy. It takes the cake for bringing closure to a deep space lore full of complex events happening, however, not everyone will like the way the game will most likely end for most of us.

The original game had some serious issues such as crappy vehicle controls, long loading times and empty dull planets, but rewarded players with it's storytelling and a combination of FPS and RPG gameplay. The sequel improved upon pretty much everything, took care of my critique and continued to envelop a strong story, still allowing you, the player, to choose the decision for many important events.

Mass Effect 3's conclusion as it stands is determined by the choices you have made in part 1 and 2, granting for a bigger impact during this, unless you decide to start with a new Commander Shepard and choose the most important decisions which have happened during past events before the game even begins.

The game feels largely the same as 2, offering little new input other than an available multiplayer mode. Naturally, I'm used to ignoring newly implemented multiplayer modes when single player modes take so much time to finish already, so you will have to look elsewhere for how good that aspect is. 

The dialogue, voice acting, lore and story are still superior towards many modern games, and moral decisions and watching the consequences unfold remained interesting. It may annoy some that everyone is able to speak English and that so many beings look much alike, but it's hard to get angry over anything else covering the interaction with the players. 


Personally, my concern this time is that many of the main missions felt the same, and that there was a scarcity of party members accompanying me towards defeating the villains. Perhaps that is the huge consequence I made during the end of part 2, where I lost all of my party members except for 2 and the protagonist. Perhaps BioWare intended players to recruit most of the members in previous games already, as this presumably wasn’t the focus in here.

The loading times are noteworthy minor, the shootouts are the most chaotic in here and there was plenty of content and things to do, and I am sure that I missed out on a good amount of stuff. Navigation has become more conventional, showing clear signs where to go next, plus being able to locate key people. 

Next to the familiar Paragon and Renegade options, as well as being able to take a neutral line, your Reputation will rise, for better or worse, depending on the definite choices you make. Become tolerant or intolerant, good or evil, virtue or vice, it's your call.

The galactic races are all still present(excluding extinct ones), such as turians, krogans and asari's. My favorite 2 races happen to be salarians and geths though, the former for their tendency of speaking fastpaced and scientific, and the latter for being engrossing synthetics with their own tragic background of abuse and the possible change they can bring towards organisms.

Potential romantic interests can still be developed here, and this time I successfully created one here. I tend to think that it was difficult to achieve this previously, but maybe I was being naïve and too conflicted with myself, maybe I was getting too emotionally involved, hah!


Also, each part of the trilogy doesn't necessarily have to be played in order so that players can understand them better, since major events will shape in the way you want them to be by the use of determined choices at the beginning. However, if you have played and beaten the trilogy in order, you are rewarded with being able to migrate your save file towards the next part and thus, see the major consequences of major events which have already happened. Such as, did you either destroy or "collect" the technology of the Collectors at the end of Mass Effect 2?

It's an interesting distinctive feature unknown to many video games that brings many different experiences from the games separated for tons of gamers. But the Mass Effect games are much more than that. Most of all, they offer a rich experience of interaction, gameplay, cinematic and galactic exploration that is sure to keep anyone intended to invest time and money in them intrigued long enough in order to be satisfied.

Rating: 8.5
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On a rather large sidenote, should you be interested into finding out why there is so much controversy about Mass Effect 3's endings, consider reading this remarkable written article with it's 5 in depth reasons as to why expectations towards a grand finale where shattered for many: 


Do note that I was content with the ending I acquired either way, and thus, I disagree with the article. The choices you made through each game had a lot of impact already during the games and if BioWare decided as of now that this should not be reserved for the several endings available then I won't complain. 

Here's a hint, most if not all of Mass Effect 3's endings are linear and are not a happy ending, nor the most plot filled(the opposite of plot holes) or affected by the major choices of the players, but once again, I didn't get bothered by them.

Actually, the controversy surrounding them feels like an entertainment show to me, where I would easily be glad to grab up a bowl of popcorn and enjoy the debates.

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