A worthy conclusion to an excellent series
Reviewed by CommanderVideo on or around 24th Apr 2012
The Mass Effect series has done so much for the medium.
It showed that it’s definitely possible to evoke real-world emotions from players. It gave players an unprecedented amount of choices and forced them to live with the results. The voice acting was top notch, as was its integration into every aspect of the game. The use of biotics and tech powers in an FPS was refreshing. The list goes on. Honestly, Mass Effect is a masterpiece.
And yet, even a masterpiece... has flaws.
And no, I’m not talking about the ending. The ending I chose was perfect. Yes it depressed me. Yes I wanted to go and find that secluded corner of the galaxy with Liara and have blue tentacle-haired sex for millennia. Yes, I was sad to have to sacrifice myself. But in the end, wasn’t galactic peace what I was fighting for? Well, galaxy, I delivered. I wish I could be there to enjoy it with you. But everything comes at a cost. This was mine to bear; and that was apparent the moment that Mass Effect 2 began.
I would be lying if I said that this series didn’t move me in a real way. I’m a sucker for space operas, and this one was done with such attention to detail that you could almost believe that it could come true in a hundred years or so. This attention to the richness of the world made it all the more meaningful as I watched character after character that I loved over the course of the series die as the war came to a head. I actually teared up at least three times while playing.
And herein lies the power of story. The world, voice acting, freedom of choices, etc. were so remarkable that I was able to overlook, or more appropriately stated: forgive several blemishes on an otherwise perfect visage.
For one, the cover system can go straight to hell. Countless were the times when I vaulted over something I wanted to hide behind and ended up directly in enemy fire. And conversely, I often hid behind things I wanted to vault over! Not only were the cover controls sloppy, but they were also buggy. Several times, I’d be under cover, and I’d want to pop out to get a bead on someone, and the game just simply wouldn’t respond. An action that’s done hundreds of times in the game doesn’t work as expected about 10% of the time. Also, when speaking of cover, there were times when Shepard wouldn’t dash out from under cover when prompted--another bug.
And speaking of bugs, let’s not forget the face import issue at launch. Yes, I know they fixed it. And I refused to start my playthrough until then. I’m sorry BioWare/EA, but when importing the character we’ve created and lived through two epic games with is one of your MAJOR SELLING POINTS, don’t ship with the fucking feature broken. If a fix had not been forthcoming, I might have never played Mass Effect 3. I know that sounds extreme, but this is how good the developers made the series. I actually felt compelled to not finish it if I couldn’t have MY Shepard with me as I did so. And this was most certainly a bug they knew about before shipping. The in-game error message was so clearly human-generated, that this was not just a weak link in the code, it was a weak link in the integrity of BioWare & EA’s ethics to ship a product that was so completely contrary to what a large part of their userbase expected and was promised.
But the bummers don’t end there.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of Mass Effect 3 was actually finding a living Prothean and then getting to have him on your team! Oh, but this was in a DLC package... On day one. And most, if not all, of the content was on the disc. So, BioWare/EA ended up charging real human dollars for content that was ready to ship day and date with the game. Luckily, I bought the Collector’s Edition, so I got the DLC for free. But with Javik being such an amazing character, and offering such depth and meaning to the story, it seemed like a low blow to have him be excluded from the primary experience for those unwilling or unable to shell out the extra simoleons. Also, as a side note, I know that it’s entirely possible that this content was not done at ship, but was completed during the extensive manufacturing process, etc. But how it looked/felt to the players was unfortunate.
Lastly, I had a big issue with the Galaxy at War system. I can’t believe that the developers thought it was a good idea to cripple players in their quest to fulfill the mission if they didn’t play the multiplayer and/or that stupid iPad app (which was shoddy at best). While the multiplayer was actually quite fun, I don’t care to play it. I want to play my Mass Effect 3 game alone. I don’t want to feel like I have to play some tacked on feature to excel at my main objectives. What if I didn’t have access to the internet? What if I was an Xbox Live Silver member because I couldn’t afford the expensive Gold membership? What if I bought Mass Effect 3 for a lot of money (because video games are expensive), and I couldn’t get the full experience without having to do something that I don’t find very rewarding? It’s like grinding for levels in an RPG only crappier, because 1: you have to wrangle friends, or worse, play with strangers to do so; and 2: the progress you make in multiplayer degrades over time! How is this good for the end user!? What if my real life got in the way of my gaming life and dictated that I couldn’t play Mass Effect 3 for a week? I’d lose progress? That’s bullshit. What that does is it makes me a slave to my game, just like Seaman did, and that doesn’t feel good.
Also, the combat got rather repetitive as there weren’t enough different enemy types/AIs. But I’m sick of griping now so I’ll stop.
In many ways, Mass Effect 3 is better than Mass Effect 2, but the bugs, unfortunate design decisions, and clunkiness of the combat compel me to score it slightly lower. I do like how I got to exercise my distrust in the Elusive Man--finally! I also like how I was more willing to be a badass because I’d been pushed so far by the Council, etc. I felt like the Shepard I played in ME3 was definitely a stronger, more passionate person than the one I started out as in ME1. I felt untouchable and willing to do anything to stop the Reapers. I found that I was using the Paragon dialog options pretty much solely on those with whom I’d fostered relationships earlier. Almost everyone else got Renegade Shepard. With the galaxy under threat of destruction, I wasn’t about to screw around with niceties. Yes, that made my character a bully at times, but above all else, it gave her a character arc.
Even though one can say plenty that’s negative about Mass Effect 3, one will overlook almost every shortcoming because, as I stated, this is a masterpiece--and we allow ourselves to look past its shortcomings.
Shepard, I’ll miss you. For real.
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