 Failure is not an option. Shepard’s warnings have finally come true. The Reapers are here and their devastating plan for the extinction of all sentient life in the galaxy is finally coming to fruition. Now it is up to Commander Shepard to rally a force capable of stalling the Reapers long enough so that the forces of Earth can activate the only superweapon capable of ending the war for good.
 Click here to watch the video review! 1. Gameplay
If you have no idea who “Commander Shepard” is, you need to find out. The Mass Effect series is better than almost every science fiction movie I have ever watched. The Mass Effect series makes choices have serious significance. Instead of forcing the player along a set path with no real decision-making ability, Mass Effect has allowed players to make decisions that directly impact the outcome of not just a single game, but the entire three-game trilogy. Mass Effect 3 is the culmination, the finale of everything the player has done over the past two games. Seemingly insignificant choices that the player made in the first Mass Effect game will come back to help or haunt the player in Mass Effect 3. Characters who died or who the player killed in the previous games will not come back to help Shepard in this game. It’s an awesome way to make the player feel like they have a say in the fate of the galaxy.  Power overwhelming. It’s difficult to write a summation of this game because the content will be different for each player. While I worked hard to make sure as many people survived as possible, many gamers will have lost a squad member or two along the way. While I let the potentially deadly Rachni queen go, many gamers chose to kill her and eliminate her threat to the galaxy. While I decided to destroy the Collector base, many gamers chose to save it and use it as a resource to fight the Reapers. There are hundreds of different choices such as these that players will make in all three games.  And this is one of the big ones. All of the choices will culminate in an overall “war assets” amount that the player will have to increase as much as possible before the end of the game. It’s a complicated system that gamers will have to monitor closely, but as long as the player doesn’t try to get everyone killed on purpose, players shouldn’t have a problem keeping the number high enough to defeat the Reapers.  I seemed to do well. There were a number of issues that detracted slightly from this game, but these are discussed in the “Frustration Factor” section below. Overall, gamers should play this entire series. It is a lot of fun and will provide hundreds of hours of gameplay, well worth the total price.
It took me about 30 hours to complete this game. That includes the amount of time that I spent playing multiplayer matches and the time it took for me to complete every mission of the campaign. This is a pretty good amount of time. Unfortunately, replayability feels a bit limited. The player is able to change the way that they approach conversations and people, but I feel like if I were going to replay the game in order to make corrections, most of the corrections would need to be made in the previous two games in the series. So it would take a replay of all three games in order to make things different enough to be noticeable. That being said, I do expect to replay this game in the future. It is definitely enough fun and the characters are all well developed. The storyline is absolutely amazing, so it’s definitely worth another round or two.
There was a serious controversy about the original ending for Mass Effect 3. However, the developers came out with an “extended ending”. My thoughts on this can be found here. Other than the ending, the game was fairly smooth. The combat was significantly improved over the previous games, which was a definite plus. Since combat took up a good portion of the overall gameplay, any serious problems to the combat mechanics would be blatantly obvious. At most I had trouble with the somewhat sticky cover, but this is the kind of problem that should be relatively easy to get over with some practice. There were two main things that annoyed me slightly. First, and most obvious, the game works on a somewhat confusing formula that is based on “war assets”. War assets are different units, abilities, and other similar items that can be acquired throughout the campaign. The player’s choices in the previous games will affect the availability of war assets, so if you pissed someone off (or killed them) they will not be a potential war asset in Mass Effect 3. What is slightly aggravating is that the game is designed so that it requires a certain number of war assets in order to get the more desirable endings. This means that players who went through the game and made decisions based on the potential long-term consequences will likely have fewer available war assets than those who made “better” decisions. It’s not impossible to get the best ending despite playing the previous games imperfectly, but it’s more difficult. Unfortunately this is also compounded by what the game calls a “readiness rating”. This is a percentage that affects the number of war assets the player has available. The readiness rating is changed by playing the multiplayer game mode. If the player has 4000 war assets but a readiness rating of 50%, the number of usable war assets will be 2000 (far too few for the best endings in the single-player campaign). It takes some time to increase the readiness rating in the multiplayer and the number decreases by a percentage point per day, so in order to get the best endings the player will have to play the multiplayer a few times.  77% isn't really good enough to cut it. 2. Parental Notices
The violence in Mass Effect 3 has spiked significantly since from predecessors. The majority of the violence will result from the player and his allies shooting enemies with projectile weapons which will cause a bit of bloodsplatter.  Not too much though. Players will also be able to use a variety of technological and “biotic” powers to do damage to enemies. These powers do not cause any serious graphic violence.  They look like they're dancing! Things get a bit more complicated when the player starts to add “ammo powers” to their weapons. For example, I was able to add on “Inferno Ammo” which would burn enemies on impact in addition to the damage the round would normally do. It also had a chance to light enemies completely on fire, causing them to flail and try to put themselves out.  Who wants toast?! There were other similar types of ammunition. Cryo rounds could freeze an enemy solid, EMP rounds could electrocute an enemy, etc. For the most part, I stuck to Inferno rounds because they dealt extra damage to the tougher armored enemies. There were some weapons that could do more damage in a slightly more graphic way. For example, the player is able to get flamethrowers when fighting the Rachni. The flamethrowers will engulf enemies in a wave of flames, but for the most part the Rachni don’t react.  ...smells like victory. If a player uses a high-damage weapon, such as a sniper rifle, they can use it to blow the heads clean off of enemies. When the player gets a headshot, the enemy’s face / head will explode into gore and the remaining body will slump over.  Boom! Headshot. Certain high-powered weapons, such as turrets, can even cause an enemy to completely explode into blood and chunks. This is fairly rare, but will occur a few times in the game.  Chunky. While this may seem like a graphically violent game, keep in mind that violence is just one portion of this game’s content. I spent an equal amount of time in combat as I did in conversations or walking around the Citadel. Violence is definitely a key portion of this game, but there will be plenty of times when the player will not encounter any hostile forces.
Sexuality does have a minor presence in this game. Outside of the romance options, there are only a few instances when sexuality will be an issue. The most obvious will be the weird fembot originally named “Dr. Eva”. The developers decided to model her after a character from a famous German science fiction movie “Metropolis”. The downside is that the design of the robot makes no sense at all. It’s hard to take a robotic, intelligent personality seriously when its assets are extremely obvious yet have no true purpose.  Why da robot gotta be sexy? There is a club in the Citadel known as “Purgatory”. The club’s design features a number of exotic dancers. These aren’t strippers in the traditional sense (they’re always clothed), but their style of dancing is supposed to be somewhat sexual. The player, however, cannot interact with any of these.  How do they get off the platforms? There is only one place in Purgatory where the player can dance. The player can dance “with” a woman who is doing some slightly sexual and somewhat aggressive dancing against a wall. Shepard’s dancing abilities, however, are pretty poor so it makes the scene more amusing than sensual. Sexuality and reproduction is brought up a number of other times, usually in a very specific context. For example, one of the main quests has to do with curing the “genophage”, which has significantly hindered the Krogan’s reproductive capabilities. The player will have an opportunity to cure the genophage, and many of the surrounding discussions have to do with the Krogan’s ability and desire to reproduce. As with the previous Mass Effect games, the player has the opportunity to engage in romances. The details of the romances will vary depending on how the player has approached romances in the previous games in the series. Some players may be inclined to find a new romance among the characters in Mass Effect 3. There are a variety of people of each gender that can be romanced on the ship, and players will have the opportunity to engage in dialog that would eventually lead to sex.  Bow chicka bow-wow! But approaching romance in this manner is a bit shallow and the dialog can seem rather cheesy. Instead, romances are designed to be carried over from the previous games. For example, there are a number of characters who, if they were romanced in Mass Effect 2, will follow Shepard into Mass Effect 3. My romance was with a character that I had originally romanced in the first Mass Effect and decided to continue the relationship with despite being separated from her in Mass Effect 2. The continued romance made the dialog seem much more natural.  My romance. Pursuing a romance options will, with some exceptions, result in a “sex scene”. This isn’t nearly as explicit as it sounds. With my romance, Shepard and Ashley simply stripped to their underwear and kissed. The screen faded to black then after a dream sequence Shepard wakes back up. Both are still in their underwear. They get up and get dressed. The end.  Time for work. The other scenes work in a very similar way. While the appropriateness of these scenes is up to you, I consider these to be an excellent example of what sexuality should be. Instead of simply picking someone up in a club, the players have to develop a relationship with a character before any action occurs. While the relationships and conversations are oversimplified, Mass Effect 3 is one of the few games on the market that shows sexuality in the context of a loving relationship. The only example of anything that comes remotely close to full nudity is the “Banshees”. These are Asari that have been corrupted by the Reapers. They are tall and almost completely naked, but their disfigurement and cybernetics rule out anything sexual. The strength of these enemies made me far too scared and annoyed while fighting them to ever consider being turned on.  The embodiment of beauty.
Substance use in this game is fairly mild. Alcohol is by far the most prominent substance since it is the only one that can be directly used by the player. At “Purgatory”, the club on the Citadel, the player can drink a shot from the bar. If the player drinks enough shots in a row, the player will pass out and wake up at a different spot in the club later on. There were no further consequences to excessive drinking that I noticed.  Not sure who pays for my drinks though... A few other characters will also be seen drunk at certain times. Ashley, one of the player’s allies from the first Mass Effect game, can at one point be found on the floor of her room after having consumed an entire bottle of hard alcohol. She clearly has a hangover. Tali, an alien ally, can at one point be seen in the bar on the ship. Since her species has to wear a protective suit to prevent infections, she uses a straw to drink the alcohol through a vent in her suit. She is very drunk.  Loneliest bar in the galaxy. There are a few other substances that are either briefly mentioned or never shown. For example, the player is able to use something called “medigel” to heal, but medigel is never actually shown. Similarly, the game mentions a highly addictive drug known as “Red Sand”, but the substance is also never shown.
Gambling is almost completely absent from Mass Effect 3. There is one spot in the refugee sector of the Citadel where one of the player’s allies can be seen playing cards with other characters and there is a table on the Normandy that is clearly designed for card games, but the player cannot engage in any of these.  Alright slackers, get back to work. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion does come up a few times in the game, but for the most part it’s mild and easy to miss. The majority of the “religious” topics involved in conversations have to do with briefly mentioning certain aspects of a species’ religion in the context of some other, larger problem or topic. For example, while on the Citadel the player can have a conversation with a Protheon ally. During the conversation a jellyfish-like Hanar will approach the Protheon and recognize it as an “enkindler”. The Hanar believe that the Protheons are gods, and thus worship the extinct species. The conversation that follows is brief. Thane, a character from Mass Effect 2, resurfaces in Mass Effect 3 for one mission. He is mortally wounded in the mission and ends up in the hospital. As Thane is dying, his son asks the player if he (the player) would participate in a short prayer ritual. As they finish the prayer, Thane dies. When Shepard asks why Thane said the prayer if Thane had already atoned for his sins (a topic of discussion in Mass Effect 2), Thane’s son explains that the prayer was not for Thane but for Shepard.  Prayers for the living and for the dead. A much more obvious example of religion occurs on the Asari homeworld of Thessia. The player has to find a Protheon relic inside a giant Asari temple. The player does have a small discussion with an Asari ally if she is in the party, but other than this the specific religion that the temple is used for isn’t explained. The only importance of the temple is that it contains the relic that the player is looking for.  Services every Sunday at 7 and 10 AM.
Commander Shepard has the title of “Spectre”, which is a special branch of law enforcement. Spectre status allows Shepard to operate above the laws of the council. To a paragon, this just means being able to investigate and solve problems without the legal red tape that is normally associated with government work. To a renegade, this means being able to do whatever is necessary to complete a given task, regardless of the well-being of anyone else involved. The details of the Spectre status are completely ignored in Mass Effect 3 though. In fact, much of law enforcement is completely absent from the game. For the most part, the need for law enforcement has been negated by the Reaper invasion.
The online community for this game is very docile. Microphones are hardly ever used and in-game text isn’t possible. People do their jobs to the best of their abilities, so it’s actually a fairly good experience. Since the only multiplayer mode is cooperative, there is no problem if one player is significantly more skilled than the others.
The few examples of “extreme sports” in this game are very subtle and rather rare. The player will have to jump across some short gaps in order to progress on in a few cases. These are, for the most part, pretty mild.  Or climb up unstable pieces of architecture. There are also some instances where characters will have to run across beams and other narrow objects in order to escape enemies. This is fairly rare. There are no other examples of extreme sports.
As the species in the galaxy have evolved, some individuals in the species have developed the ability to use “biotics”. Biotics give an individual the ability to manipulate objects from a distance without the aid of technology. Most of these can be broken down into various telekinetic abilities, but sometimes the powers extend far beyond a simple push/pull mechanic. For example, one ability allows the user to open up a gravity well near enemies, which will cause these enemies to float up into the air for a period of time.  Pull! The Mass Effect series explains that biotics are biological in nature, not magical. However, because the powers are able to do extraordinary things beyond what human ability would normally allow and because the origins of biotics are never discussed, I have to include these as magical. Many characters, including the player, will be able to use biotic powers. Some characters will specialize in biotic abilities and be able to use them as makeshift weapons against swarms of enemies.
Execution When the player first arrives on Mars, he witnesses Cerberus soldiers executing employees from the Alliance facility. The executions are very brief and easy to miss.  I don't miss. Human Experimentation One of the main antagonists in the game is a man known as “The Illusive Man”. The Illusive Man runs a company called Cerberus, which has become infamous for working to promote the welfare of humanity above all other races in the galaxy. While on some levels Shepard may agree with Cerberus’ intentions (in Mass Effect 2 Shepard even works with Cerberus), Cerberus goes a bit off-grid in Mass Effect 3. It turns out that The Illusive Man believes that he can find a way to control the Reapers if he figures out how their indoctrination tactics work. In order to do this, Cerberus performs horrific experiments on uninformed and unwilling human refugees. Most of these involve studying the transformation from human to husk.  It's like Planet of the Apes, but with more blue. The process and experimentation aren’t discussed in detail but some of the experiments are shown on a low-quality video feed. It is designed to make Cerberus seem thoroughly evil. Human Disfigurement The Reapers have developed the ability to take control of members of any organic species and use them as soldiers. The transformation eventually results in a cyborg zombie-like version of the formerly organic individual. For example, humans are turned into “husks”, which are weird blue zombie versions of what can be recognized as being human at one time.  A soon-to-be-dead zombie husk thing.
5 Comments
9/27/2012 08:07:45 pm
I think the things you covered through the post are quiet impressive, good job and great efforts. I found it very interesting and enjoyed reading all of it...keeps it up, lovely job. 10/4/2012 08:57:29 pm
This blog impressed me and over exceeded my expectations. You know how to involve a reader and increase his curiosity to read more. Many congratulations! 10/10/2012 04:37:43 pm
wow so intrusting game i lke it ypeeeeee it'so nice...thanks.... Leave a Reply. |
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