On March 6th, America was rocked with the release of the final installment of the Mass Effect Trilogy. Even now, two months later, the game still grabs onto people shirts and pulls them into game retailers across the country and the world. Commander Shepard is back and is taking the fight to the Reapers.
The History of the Three
In 2007, Bioware released a new videogame, Mass Effect. The new RPG/ third-person shooter received very high review as well as some scandal. Many people argued for an AO (adult's only) rating upon seeing naked alien women in the game during a sex scene. After the debates, Mass Effect went on to win several awards including A Game f the Year award and Best RPG award. During combat, the player, playing as Commander Shepard, uses a combination of weapons from assault rifles to snipers and biotic powers (Force powers on steriods) to find and defeat a rogue SPECTRE (galactic government agent). You eventually found out the agent worked for an ancient race of machines called the Reapers. The Reapers are hell bent on harvesting all intelligent life in the galaxy. As Shepard, you must save the galaxy and get some alien booty while your at it.
Hot on the heels of the success of Mass Effect, Bioware released Mass Effect 2 in 2009. Even though Mass Effect 2 received many awards, it strayed from the RPG elements that made Mass Effect 1 a #1 RPG. Mass Effect 2 focused mainly on the combat aspect of the game versus the RPG and story elements. A distinct lack in the variety of weapons as well as an enemy that barely fits within the universe of Mass Effect lead it to lower scores than its predecessor. One redeeming quality about it was the variety in situations you would experience; from fighting off crazed robots onboard a science vessel to arguing against an alien much taller than you are (and better armed). Of course not all situation revolve around fighting. Some touch on the bedroom. Like in the first Mass Effect, you can choose to "romance" certain crew members (depending on which gender you chose during your character building).
Throughout all three games, one great thing is the ability to transfer a character from one game to the next. Doing so grants special abilities and unlocks. In some cases it makes earning achievements (or trophies if your a PS3 owner) much easier.
Earth as a battleground
In the previous two games, you could never set foot on Earth even though you could prance around shooting aliens at a whim on any other. You could visit it and see it in the Galaxy Map (navigational tool) but never touch it until Mass Effect 3.
In the start of the game, you are on Earth due to the knowledge of all that you have "done" across the galaxy as both a SPECTRE and a freelancer. As the Reapers invade humanity's homeworld, you finally get to take your first steps on Earth as you fight your way off. If you rush the level, it is possible to finish the level in less than 10 minutes on the hardest difficulty. Once the level is complete though. no more Earth for you until the last 1% of the campaign.
Originally described as a thriving world of peace and prosperity, Earth is reduced to rubble and smoldering ash as the Reapers ahrvest the humans. As you return, it seems like Dr. Seuss' worst nightmares.
Get Help
Of course, you can't return to Earth until you get reinforcements. You have to play politics across species and the galaxy just to try and take Earth back. Yeah the Reapers try to stop you, but I think Lawyers would do a better job at stopping Shepard than a 500 foot tall machine with laser eyes.
Curing manufactured genetic diseases and destroying thousands of robotic servants are just two political things that take place.
Fighting
Not much is different between ME2 and ME3 in terms of fighting except when it comes to weapons and abilities. In ME2, you could win the game with justa a sniper and a shotgun with no powers. In ME3, the massive amount of weapon varieties as well as the biotic abilities make for varied combat situations. You can just run through the game with a boom stick and say "I win". Without your powers, you dont stand a chance. When you combine the different weapons, insane powers, and the combat maneuvers you can do, ME3 hit the motherload of fun.
Multiplayer
Unlike the previous ME games, ME3 has added a multiplayer feature similar to Gears of War's Horde mode. You can choose which enemy, place, and difficulty to fight on. Ten waves of pain and an extraction and the match is over. It may sounds short but even an easy match is going to take an average of 20 minutes. At the end of each match, exp and credits are evenly given out among those who finished. Using the credits, a player can buy different packs (from Recruit to Spectre) to unlock characters and weapons as well as equipment that can be used during the match.
Like in the campaign, the player can choose between different classes as well as different species for each class. Never before have you been able to play as any other race other than human. You don't have to stick with one character though. As you use a class, the level increases cumulatively across all characters in that class up to level 20 where you can "Promote" that class and gain help in the campaign during the final missions. Promoting resets the level of the class down to one but doesnt reset what characters you have unlocked.
(Personally, I found that the Quarian Infiltrator works really well. Just saying.)
Ending
Here comes the part that is probably the most controversial thing in all the ME games. I won't spoil it, but it makes it seems as if all your choices throughout the whole series were in vain. I had brought a character from ME1 through all the games and was so pissed that no matter what, all my choices were useless. Let's just say Bioware dropped the ball when they said that the ending was "artistic".
Overall
Overall, I found very few, if any, problems with the game. It was well written and designed (except for the ending). If it wasn't for that awful ending, I feel ME3 would've gotten a 10/10. With the ending, it only gets a 9.5/10. I can't give it a perfect score merely from the fact that they screwed me over with the ending and a company as well known as Bioware shouldn't have put that out there feeling it would appeal to their audience.
Score: 9.5/10
