Hell Fire's Mass Effect 3 Review
Mass Effect 3
The Mass Effect Trilogy could easily be compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy; in that they’re both arguably the most highly regarded epics of the last decade (of their respective forms). The Return of the King concluded the Lord of the Rings journey with a bang. Fans of the Mass Effect series will be pleased to know that that the finale to this outstanding trilogy is no different. ME3 has a few hiccups, but overall it’s so polished and addictive that I’m certain fans and newbies will be both very satisfied and craving more at the same time.
It’s hard to argue against the point that the story told in the Mass Effect Trilogy in a tale of epic proportions. ME3 sees our hero Commander Sheppard almost single handily unite the galaxy to fight against the ancient Reapers, who return every fifty thousand years to exterminate every living organism. Very few video game series manage to deliver three directly related masterpieces that build on each other in such an amazing way. The first two games set up this finale magnificently and through importing your save files, many of your actions and choices in the first two games directly (and heavily at times) affect the narrative progression of ME3. For example your actions in the first two games will dictate whether certain party members live or die, or if races are completely wiped out or given a final chance of survival. However, I wasn’t fortunate enough to get the most out of this very personal story, as I played the first two games on the PC, and was unable to carry this data over to my PS3 for ME3 (ME1 isn’t even out on the PS3, which makes it frustratingly impossible for PS3 owners). I’m hoping that the trilogy is released in a box set eventually so I can experience the trilogy from start to finish. The ending (and there are four of them) to this massive story initially copped a fair amount of criticism and as a result, Bioware released additional scenes which seemed to appease many fans. I was satisfied with my ending, and all I wanted to do upon completion was begin the series from the start once again. Mass Effect 3 gets two thumbs up for its conclusion(s) to perhaps the biggest epic trilogy in video game history. Below is an image of the Reapers wreaking havoc in London.
I firmly believe that a good story can only be driven by interesting characters, and ME3 does not fall short in this area. Most of your lovable favourites from the past instalments return as either NPCS or party members, but some only return if you import your data (assuming they survived in the past games). However, this was a problem for me due to playing ME1 and ME2 game on a different system. Sheppard is also prohibited from slutting around this time. By that I mean that he/she can only develop a single romantic relationship, forcing you to pick a target and stick with them until the end. I did not welcome the forced loyalty, as my Sheppard was such a Dawg in ME2. At least there are still the raunchy sex scenes, if you’re into that stuff.
While progressively digging deeper into each characters history has always been of the upmost enjoyment, I did feel there was a serious lack of new characters to learn about. In fact, only one party member is entirely new to the series. I sorely missed building foundations with new characters this time around, but on the other side, this allows us to dig deeper and see of our past heroes grow. And what good are heroes without villains? The mysterious, Illusive Man makes a return and his motives are as unclear as ever, until later in the game. I never knew what to make of this antagonist and this feeling was great; “Why the hell did he do that? Is he crazy? I need to know more”. Top this off with the ‘real’ enemy, the Reapers, trying to destroy everything in the galaxy and you have yourself an exhilarating plot from start to finish. The image below features the amazing characters in the series, most of which will make an appearance in ME3.
The gameplay is another aspect that has reached its peak. The player controls Sheppard like a traditional first person shooter, but there is also the option of stopping combat and selecting combat abilities (ranging from freezing ammo, to telekinetic control over enemies). The other two party members are well controlled through AI, but you are given the option of moving them to specific spots on the battlefield, telling them to halt, or selecting an ability for them to unleash. This works well as you have the option of controlling them, or letting them act entirely on their own. Both of these methods are perfectly viable. This combat system is so enjoyable that I was often craving the opportunity to destroy as much as possible without having the story interfere. While there are plenty of opportunities to get trigger happy, they are unfortunately all through missions, meaning that you are not able to land on a planet for the sole purpose of fighting enemies. The only qualm I have with the system itself is that the ‘take cover’ button is the same as the ‘roll’ button. There were so many instances where I was trying to roll away, only to ‘stick’ to a wall/barrier, and ultimately die.
Mass Effect goes a lot further than a regular first person shooter through the implementation of classes and various skills that can be performed during battle. The class that I chose for my Sheppard was of the stealthy build. This allowed me to cloak for certain periods of time, sneak up on my enemies and attack them from behind. I’ve always favoured this style of combat (some call it cowardly, I call it stylish) and was stoked when I saw the option at the start of the game. The classes are quite diverse and cater to various playing styles. On top of this, each class has a set of combat abilities that can be upgraded as your characters earn more experience. While many of these abilities cross over with other classes, there is still a lot of variety, and it’s impossible to max out every skill on the same play through. For example, during one play through you may wish to specialise in bombs and armour piercing ammo, while on another play through you could focus on biotic abilities. On top of this, there are options to upgrade your weapons and armour which add another level of depth. How you choose to kick alien ass is placed entirely in your hands.
Space travel is awesome! Super awesome, in fact. Exploring these planets is another thing that I would put in this awesome category. If I had a rocket ship, I wouldn’t be here right now. I would probably be on some super-tropical planet eating grapes (of the red, seedless variety) with the scaly, blue natives. I can’t do that. The reality is that I wake up every morning, drink an average coffee, eat seeded green grapes that are not in season, and travel to work, with regular humans who I don’t particularly like. For people like me, there’s Mass Effect. ME3 allows you to travel around the galaxy and explore hundreds of planets. Each of these planets are unique and have a nice little fact sheet to read about, but don’t get your hopes up; This game doesn’t allow you to land on any of these planets, which is something that disappoints me as finding planets with a population and large cities (according to the in game planet facts) creates an enormous desire to explore. The only planets you can explore are those involved in missions. I know it’s a huge ask to make dozens of environments that you can actually explore, but I can wish upon a (non-explorable, ME3) star. Below is a screenshot of the planet Irune (which is of course, unexplorable).
The only real city that you can explore is the Citadel, which, for those new to the series, is a huge space structure home to millions from various races. This place is lots of fun to explore. There’s nightclubs, cafes, apartments and loads of characters to interact with. The best thing is that there’s a purpose of constantly returning after each mission, and that is to view the new scenes between Sheppard and his crew (which is always interesting to watch). The Citadel is great, but my traditional JRPG roots create a desire for multiple towns and hidden areas discovered through hours of exploration.
Mass Effect 3 is a beautiful game in every regard. The character models, the voice acting, the soundtrack (which has some amazing pieces), the sound effect, the menus. If you’re looking for eye candy and presentational perfection, then this is a good place to start . And this is just the icing on the cake when you think about the quality of everything else that the game has to offer. Mass Effect 3 is super mainstream due to its hybrid of genres and cinematic experiences and for this reason it is so easy to recommend it to anyone who has any interest in video gaming.
It’s hard to argue against the point that the story told in the Mass Effect Trilogy in a tale of epic proportions. ME3 sees our hero Commander Sheppard almost single handily unite the galaxy to fight against the ancient Reapers, who return every fifty thousand years to exterminate every living organism. Very few video game series manage to deliver three directly related masterpieces that build on each other in such an amazing way. The first two games set up this finale magnificently and through importing your save files, many of your actions and choices in the first two games directly (and heavily at times) affect the narrative progression of ME3. For example your actions in the first two games will dictate whether certain party members live or die, or if races are completely wiped out or given a final chance of survival. However, I wasn’t fortunate enough to get the most out of this very personal story, as I played the first two games on the PC, and was unable to carry this data over to my PS3 for ME3 (ME1 isn’t even out on the PS3, which makes it frustratingly impossible for PS3 owners). I’m hoping that the trilogy is released in a box set eventually so I can experience the trilogy from start to finish. The ending (and there are four of them) to this massive story initially copped a fair amount of criticism and as a result, Bioware released additional scenes which seemed to appease many fans. I was satisfied with my ending, and all I wanted to do upon completion was begin the series from the start once again. Mass Effect 3 gets two thumbs up for its conclusion(s) to perhaps the biggest epic trilogy in video game history. Below is an image of the Reapers wreaking havoc in London.
I firmly believe that a good story can only be driven by interesting characters, and ME3 does not fall short in this area. Most of your lovable favourites from the past instalments return as either NPCS or party members, but some only return if you import your data (assuming they survived in the past games). However, this was a problem for me due to playing ME1 and ME2 game on a different system. Sheppard is also prohibited from slutting around this time. By that I mean that he/she can only develop a single romantic relationship, forcing you to pick a target and stick with them until the end. I did not welcome the forced loyalty, as my Sheppard was such a Dawg in ME2. At least there are still the raunchy sex scenes, if you’re into that stuff.
While progressively digging deeper into each characters history has always been of the upmost enjoyment, I did feel there was a serious lack of new characters to learn about. In fact, only one party member is entirely new to the series. I sorely missed building foundations with new characters this time around, but on the other side, this allows us to dig deeper and see of our past heroes grow. And what good are heroes without villains? The mysterious, Illusive Man makes a return and his motives are as unclear as ever, until later in the game. I never knew what to make of this antagonist and this feeling was great; “Why the hell did he do that? Is he crazy? I need to know more”. Top this off with the ‘real’ enemy, the Reapers, trying to destroy everything in the galaxy and you have yourself an exhilarating plot from start to finish. The image below features the amazing characters in the series, most of which will make an appearance in ME3.
The gameplay is another aspect that has reached its peak. The player controls Sheppard like a traditional first person shooter, but there is also the option of stopping combat and selecting combat abilities (ranging from freezing ammo, to telekinetic control over enemies). The other two party members are well controlled through AI, but you are given the option of moving them to specific spots on the battlefield, telling them to halt, or selecting an ability for them to unleash. This works well as you have the option of controlling them, or letting them act entirely on their own. Both of these methods are perfectly viable. This combat system is so enjoyable that I was often craving the opportunity to destroy as much as possible without having the story interfere. While there are plenty of opportunities to get trigger happy, they are unfortunately all through missions, meaning that you are not able to land on a planet for the sole purpose of fighting enemies. The only qualm I have with the system itself is that the ‘take cover’ button is the same as the ‘roll’ button. There were so many instances where I was trying to roll away, only to ‘stick’ to a wall/barrier, and ultimately die.
Mass Effect goes a lot further than a regular first person shooter through the implementation of classes and various skills that can be performed during battle. The class that I chose for my Sheppard was of the stealthy build. This allowed me to cloak for certain periods of time, sneak up on my enemies and attack them from behind. I’ve always favoured this style of combat (some call it cowardly, I call it stylish) and was stoked when I saw the option at the start of the game. The classes are quite diverse and cater to various playing styles. On top of this, each class has a set of combat abilities that can be upgraded as your characters earn more experience. While many of these abilities cross over with other classes, there is still a lot of variety, and it’s impossible to max out every skill on the same play through. For example, during one play through you may wish to specialise in bombs and armour piercing ammo, while on another play through you could focus on biotic abilities. On top of this, there are options to upgrade your weapons and armour which add another level of depth. How you choose to kick alien ass is placed entirely in your hands.
Space travel is awesome! Super awesome, in fact. Exploring these planets is another thing that I would put in this awesome category. If I had a rocket ship, I wouldn’t be here right now. I would probably be on some super-tropical planet eating grapes (of the red, seedless variety) with the scaly, blue natives. I can’t do that. The reality is that I wake up every morning, drink an average coffee, eat seeded green grapes that are not in season, and travel to work, with regular humans who I don’t particularly like. For people like me, there’s Mass Effect. ME3 allows you to travel around the galaxy and explore hundreds of planets. Each of these planets are unique and have a nice little fact sheet to read about, but don’t get your hopes up; This game doesn’t allow you to land on any of these planets, which is something that disappoints me as finding planets with a population and large cities (according to the in game planet facts) creates an enormous desire to explore. The only planets you can explore are those involved in missions. I know it’s a huge ask to make dozens of environments that you can actually explore, but I can wish upon a (non-explorable, ME3) star. Below is a screenshot of the planet Irune (which is of course, unexplorable).
The only real city that you can explore is the Citadel, which, for those new to the series, is a huge space structure home to millions from various races. This place is lots of fun to explore. There’s nightclubs, cafes, apartments and loads of characters to interact with. The best thing is that there’s a purpose of constantly returning after each mission, and that is to view the new scenes between Sheppard and his crew (which is always interesting to watch). The Citadel is great, but my traditional JRPG roots create a desire for multiple towns and hidden areas discovered through hours of exploration.
Mass Effect 3 is a beautiful game in every regard. The character models, the voice acting, the soundtrack (which has some amazing pieces), the sound effect, the menus. If you’re looking for eye candy and presentational perfection, then this is a good place to start . And this is just the icing on the cake when you think about the quality of everything else that the game has to offer. Mass Effect 3 is super mainstream due to its hybrid of genres and cinematic experiences and for this reason it is so easy to recommend it to anyone who has any interest in video gaming.
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