Mass Effect 3 - Reviews

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17.3.2012

Mass Effect 3 concludes BioWare's epic trilogy which began five years ago. Long-term players will have guided their version of Commander Shepard (whose gender and abilities can be adjusted by the player) through three games totalling 65-80 hours (depending on what side-missions you played) to reach the grand finale of the story. As a result Mass Effect 3 has more weight than most computer games. Though assembled from some fairly generic ingredients, the Mass Effect universe has become immensely popular, making it the most successful new space opera franchise to appear in any medium since Farscape and the Stargate TV shows in the late 1990s.The game has a similar structure to the first two.You spend most of it on the Normandy with a choice of where to go next. There's a number of main storyline (or 'priority') missions to complete before the final showdown with the Reapers on Earth, but there's also a large number of side-missions to undertake. The mineral-scanning mechanic from the second game has been replaced by a new system where you can scan planets and star systems to search for items of interest and then recover them. Whilst this risks detection by the Reapers, the items you discover can be of immense cumulative value in the war.The game tracks your readiness for the final battle with a new war room installed on the Normandy. From this console you can see how the allies you have made in the main and side-missions are faring against the Reapers, as well as the tangible impact of the items recovered from planets on the war effort. The game measures these factors with a score. How high the score is when you launch the final assault on Earth determines how successful you are and the details of the ending that you get.Mass Effect 3 calls upon the full resources of the storylines and characters established in the first two games (and even some of the spin-off novels) to deliver an immense series of pay-offs. The war between the quarian and the geth is resolved and an opportunity arises to cure the krogans of the genophage disease to win their loyalty (though this might come at losing the support of other races who fought the krogan in prior wars). Whilst Mass Effect 3 has a relatively small pool of characters to take on missions compared to the second game, just about every single major character (and many minor ones) from the series reappears. Some of them don't make it to the end (this is war, after all) and others only have fleeting appearances, but the game does an impressive job in wrapping up almost all of the plot points left dangling from earlier in the series.Something that Mass Effect 3 does well - and easily its greatest achievement - is giving real value and depth to the relationships established over the course of the trilogy. One of the best (and funniest) scenes in the whole trilogy comes when Garrus and Shepard just decide to hang out on a building rooftop and talk the breeze with some drinks to hand. There's a whole bunch of ongoing subplots that are carried out entirely through dialogue, such as Shepard trying to convince a nervous new comm officer that her skills are of worth in the war or EDI attempting to understand human behaviour better. These elements, based on role-playing and characterisation, are handled well by the game. They're not quite as well-written as previously (most of the franchise's better writers, including Drew Karpyshyn who is credited with the best work, bailed before Mass Effect 3, some of them to work on The Old Republic), but still effective. This extends to tons of 'slice of life' conversations going on at the Citadel as refugees search for family members and security officers struggle with the influx of people, adding detail and depth to the struggle.An unfortunate problem is that the game's journal is a rather sorry thing compared to the previous games. It doesn't track your mission progress, which given the sheer number of missions you can have going on becomes rather tiresome. The game also has a number of quest-related glitches that leaves several missions uncompletable after a certain point in the game, but the journal and map both insist they can be finished, resulting in you wandering around confused. It's a tribute to the game's quality that, whilst irritating, these problems only had a minor impact on the enjoyability of the game.Combat, the meat of the game, is mostly unchanged from Mass Effect 2. The biggest change - and problem - is the addition of a combat roll move. In theory this allows you to roll from cover to cover, but it is pretty much totally unnecessary. Unfortunately, BioWare chose to make the 'roll' button the same as 'cover' and 'use', with the result that the game often gets confused about what you are trying to do and has you rolling into the enemy's crossfire when you're actually trying to duck behind one of the many chest-high walls in the game. If you've imported a character from the previous games, you will retain your level which is nice, but means you're so powerful that combat in the game is trivially easy. There's a couple of enemies (most notably the Reaper Banshee) that require more intelligence to deal with, but overall combat is so easy as to be almost perfunctory in the game. This isn't helped by the fact that you have dozens of weapons to choose from, but the original starting weapons are actually all you need to complete the games (with suitable upgrades).The game unfolds with a crisp pace, complete with an effective, doom-laden atmosphere (helped by Clint Mansell's excellent soundtrack). The scale of events is epic with a capital EPIC, and there are multiple individual showdowns, confrontations and battles huge enough to be end-of-game bossfights in other titles. The final scenes on Tuchanka (the krogan homeworld) are brilliant, as is the battle to reclaim Rannoch (the quarian/geth planet). The game also knows when to reward the player and when to punch them in the gut; the loss of several planets (including one major one) to the Reapers with attending death tolls in the billions is dramatically powerful and has major repercussions throughout the game.Events culminate in a massive assault on Earth...which is where things fall apart. The Reapers rather conveniently make a series of embarrassing tactical errors that give you a shot at victory. But during the final confrontation, the game suddenly makes a hard left turn into unexpected weirdness. Remember how the Neo/Architect conversation in The Matrix Reloaded sucked and was universally loathed? BioWare seem to have decided that is a good model on how to end a story. Whilst it undercuts expectations not to have a massive bossfight at the end, that doesn't necessarily make it a good idea. The other problem is that the revelations in this conversation make no sense, and go against what you've just spent three games and 60+ hours learning and experiencing. Thematically, the Mass Effect games are about free choice, cooperation and not letting old arguments derail future chances at peace. The ending throws that out the window and offers you a fairly boring choice of which of three buttons to press (and no matter which one you press, there is immense death and destruction waiting). The games have had their hard knocks, but the ending is downright miserable to the point of making the entire trilogy feel pointless, and totally out of keeping with the tone of the series to date.This has led to the suggestion that the ending of the game is not real and in fact a hallucination. That's entirely possible (the supporting evidence is rather impressive) but, if so, it shows that BioWare has not learned from the mistakes of the creators of Lost and Battlestar Galactica. We shouldn't have to parse the ending. This isn't Twin Peaks, this is an epic space war story, and epic space war stories need endings. Return of the Jedi, for all its faults, had a decent ending. Babylon 5 and Deep Space Nine had decent endings (wobbling only when they brought in mystical events and implausible backstory revelations, but they were relatively minor). BioWare claim they wanted a bittersweet ending, but we've had tons of bittersweet moments in the game up to that point with billions dying, planets burning and major characters biting the dust. Ending the game in a further bloodbath of millions of innocent civilians followed by a nonsensical conversation, a really weird ending cinematic and then a cheesy post-credits sequence straight out of The Big Book Of Overused Cliches That Should Never Be Used Again, Ever is an idiotic move, a failure of the writers, the game designers and the Q&A testers who should have told their bosses this would never fly (although to be fair they may have done, and been ignored).The fact that the ending to Mass Effect 3 (****, with the ending costing the game a full star) sucks should not overshadow the achievements of the rest of the game. BioWare has pushed the ability of computer games to showcase real emotional relationships rather than just explosions and bullets further than before and some of their decisions were surprisingly brave. But ultimately the ending is cheap, nasty and nonsensical and cannot help but put what has come before in a less flattering light. I didn't feel the ending was bad enough to invalidate the rest of the game or the trilogy, but, whilst I enjoyed the first two games a lot I wasn't as invested in them as some. Those who are much bigger fans of the series may feel much more let down about the ending, and I can fully understand that POV.

13.1.2021

Mass Effect 3 works as the final bookend of the Mass Effect trilogy and puts you back in to the familiar shoes of Commander Shephard. The Reaper threat that has been building up from the previous two games is now in full swing and it's all hands on deck for what is surely the battle of the galaxy. The game doesn't waste any time either, and right from the off you get a constant sense of tension and imminent danger that is present throughout the game, with the very first scene seeing you and other allies scrambling while Earth itself gets attacked and trying to figure out just how to deal with such a colossal threat.Visually Mass Effect 3 looks great,with the environments and character redesigns evidently present as everyone looks clearly upgraded and a touch different from how they did in previous games. Some of the character redesigns actually look a little weird for the human characters, though by and large most things look much better compared to even Mass Effect 2, which itself was a pretty game. This does however lead to a few performance issues sometimes as some areas have slowdowns that make the gameplay feel less responsive, but luckily the majority of the game isn't in those sorts of places so it tends to be fine most of the time. You still can't pause cutscenes though, and this remains annoying just like in the previous games, and you can't skip them either, making replays feel worse, especially as there seem to be far more of those sorts of scenes here relative to Mass Effect 3's predecessors.Story wise the game is very well done and even with a a depth that you don't really see in this franchise, with you now even seeing some exploration of Shephard's psyche, whereas in previous games they'd be a completely blank slate devoid of any personality that you didn't project on to him or her. Similarly the voice acting and sound effects are good as you would expect from this series and the music punctuates those dramatic moments very nicely. I was also fairly impressed by the ending, at least the particular one I ended up getting, and I was pleasantly surprised by how unpredictable it was instead of being the usual fare, albeit at the cost of gameplay because the final mission did drag on too long and it did feel like like everyone was going 'this is it!' for about two hours only for this to very much not be it.Speaking of gameplay, much has been improved to make an all round tighter experience, and one which is the best in the trilogy. The wide variety of powers that you can use feel satisfying, as do the upgrade systems and important usage of things like specific types of ammo, especially in the harder difficulties, and the shooting itself is great. The weapon upgrade system is also nice and is well balanced between the depth of Mass Effect 1 and the simplicity of Mass Effect 2, creating a rounded system where all classes can now use all weapons and combining that with a new weight system that can increase or decrease the recharge speed of your all important powers, which can mean the difference between life or death. Much has also been upgraded with regards to movement as you now finally have dedicated buttons to vault over objects, the new ability to dodge, and have significantly better control of Shephard's turning while running, making the whole combat experience a lot smoother. This is also helped by an improved healing system where you can now revive an ally by standing near them and helping them up for a few seconds without needing medigel, which plays a lot better than in the previous games. Similarly the variety of enemies is also good and makes you use your weapons, abilities and ammo types differently depending on what is put in front of you, like taking down a barrier-protected Banshee who teleports in small bursts being much different than a gun-toting Geth Hunter who is protected by shields and who can go invisible. On the other hand the traversal does suffer in some sense because now they've massively shrunk the distance between you and a point of interest before it shows up on the screen to let you know that something is there, so you'll need to spend more time running around and scanning every part of the room if you don't want to miss anything, which can get tedious.The missions themselves are all thrown in your journal to tell you what to do next, with there always being a priority mission to move the story forward listed alongside all other active side missions you have as well as anything you've completed before, though organisationally this is a complete mess as these used to be separated and now just looks cluttered since everything is in one massive list, with the cherry on top being that you can't even expand each mission any more so if you stopped doing one halfway the game will give you no indication on what to do next. The missions structures are a little odd too as a lot of the side missions are dependant on which part of the story you're on, and impact things like when you can start certain missions and when you can complete them, with a lot of these being missible altogether if you do certain story missions first, though none of this is communicated to the player so the whole thing seems very messy to keep track of. There was also one side mission that was bugged altogether and didn't allow me to complete it, which was predictably annoying.The mission structure itself is similar to the previous games where you have a mix of fighting off enemies, conversing with all sorts of characters or fetching an item someone needs. As I mentioned above the combat is generally satisfying, though sometimes they do this annoying thing of having unlimited enemies come at you until you press a specific button or something along those lines, only with the game not telling you of this being the case, which can get dull. The conversations meanwhile tend to generally be good, and this time around they've finally improved the morality system by merging your Paragon and Renegade dialogue options in to one big reputation meter that allows for more flexibility in how you talk to people instead of just nudging you to lock yourself in to one side or the other, which is a very welcome change. The final type are the fetch ones which replace the old planet scanning systems of Mass Effect 2 and are much better here, because now part of the scanning still includes getting upgrades for yourself, but now you also have the addition of finding various important things that help you complete side missions or add resources to your 'War Assets', which impact what kind of ending you get in the game. The scanning itself is also improved because now if you hang around a system too long to scan planets and the like then the Reapers get word of your presence and show up to attack your ship, necessitating an escape, and that adds a nice bit of tension to what you're doing.The map system is also now improved, with it pointing out where important NPCs or shops are so that you don't need to wander around aimlessly before you stumble on to something interesting while you're on various planets, though funnily enough it's worsened within your Normandy ship itself as it no longer tells you which squadmates are on which floor, and is made worse by the fact that there are frequent and long loading screens that halt the pace of the game. Some of this pain is eased by a dedicated quicksave button though, which you can instantly use instead of needing to go fiddling about in menus. Squadmates themselves however are massively reduced, making the ship seem very empty, as I went from having a team of a dozen people in Mass Effect 2 to now having just five, which does come off as an awfully lean team when the fate of the galaxy is at stake.Overall though Mass Effect 3 is a solid game and is the best of the trilogy. It isn't perfect, but it's good nonetheless.

10.1.2014

A bit of background I guess. I came into the Mass Effect series fairly late (I've never played ME, and only purchased ME2 about 6 months ago). I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy it, but after about five minutes of playing time one thing struck me more so than anything else: I was playing 'Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic' except without the lightsabers. This set me off on a journey of two games that I've absolutely loved.Mission's and Story -Reapers. Reapers everywhere! Yeah, ME2 leaves you with the daunting image of thousands of Reapers, and guess what: They're here. Join Commander Sheppard on His/Her mission to save the galaxy from the cull from those pesky synthetics.The missions come in three forms: Priority missions, N7 missions, and Side missions. Priority missions are the core story, with N7 missions being given periodically throughout the game. Side missions are often discovered whilst wandering around The Citadel, but be careful when completing Priority missions as it may prevent you from completing some of the side missions. Ultimately this affects your ability to max out your character to lvl 60.The most important addition to this game is the 'War Room', essentially acting as your only way of knowing the state of affairs across the Systems. Here you can keep tabs on your 'War Assets', a new system added to list your military capabilities, that come into play towards the end of the game. This is what I consider to be the best part of the story. Mass Effect is possibly the most 'player choice' driven franchise I've come across. Things you did in the previous games can affect the final battle in the third. The third instalment carries its tough decisions, some weighing the state of the galaxy against previous crew members, or even romantic interests.This aspect is what really engrosses me the most. It's not just some run-and-gun shooter where the outcome of the game is decided before you even take it out of the box. The fate of the galaxy IS on your shoulders, and your shoulders alone. The actions you make throughout the game affect the final outcome. Actions can result in you losing one of your fleets...in my playthrough I actually lost two of the eight Races of fleets that count as War Assets through my own actions. They're fictional, bits of code on a disk, but being responsible for the genocide of an entire Race of sentient beings has a profound outlook on how you approach the game.Gameplay -Fast, unyielding, and exciting, yet also highly infuriating at times on higher difficulty settings. The power and weapon wheels are great for combat, but it took a bit of time to get used to as some of the buttons from ME2 had been switched, so I often found myself firing a concussion round instead of switching to one of my ammo powers. The mechanics seem more thought out, especially when in cover. It's much easier to get into the cover you want to, to shoot either over, or around the cover, and to roll from one piece of cover to another. I often find myself using the Melee function much more in this game due to the frenzied nature that some enemies just swarm you. Overall it feels like a definite improvement over the previous game.Weapons, Armour, and Powers -New weapons and armour add-ons are dotted all over the landscapes of your missions...There's probably around 30 weapons to choose from, all with 10 levels of upgrades (though you can't actually upgrade to lvl 10 unless you play the game twice, or online), and multiple mods to improve accuracy, damage etc. Your loadout is now a massive part of your capabilities, giving importance to each weapons weight - if you equip heavier weapons you'll gain a speed penalty. Sadly there are no slots for heavy weapons, but you can often find them in levels that require them.Armour is similar in that you have multiple sets to choose from, each with their own powers or bonuses. On ME2 you get the 'Blood Dragon Armour' as an alternative, on ME3 you can buy 'sets' with your credits, some of which look damn terrifying (and cool). The powers are much of the same, with some new biotics thrown in. For each level up you attain 2 or 3 new biotic slots to go towards unlocking the next level of powers. Each biotic power now has six unlockable levels.Location(s) -Whereas Mass Effect 2 had a more open world/galaxy approach, 3 seems more linear. This doesn't necessarily detract anything from the game, you can still travel the various systems, but your path feels more set in stone. The only place on the Galactic Map you can actually visit off-mission is The Citadel. Some may consider it a good thing, but they did away with the 'Planetary scan' business to find raw materials, replacing it with a simplified - and much much faster - scanning for war assets. At times it feels like an improvement, but there was almost something therapeutic about scanning every planet in a system for raw materials in order to improve the Normandy. Be vary wary though, scanning occupied systems results in Reapers chasing you across the map.Many of the planets you do travel to for missions seem bland. Even when going back to planets from previous games things seem the same everywhere you go - yet that is partially due to the state of the galaxy at the time. Also, because you no longer use a scanner on every planet, you no longer get the hidden missions which often ended up being the most glamorous on the previous game. Yet, having said all of this, the cinematic sequences often make up for the drawbacks of when you're actually exploring during combat.Issues -Aside from the odd button issues or your freedom to roam, there are a few minor issues I came across.1) It's impossible to collect all trophies on one playthrough - even with an Imported Character.2) Some of the trophies glitched for me, notably the 'Overload Shields' and 'Hijack a Mech'. Can make things infuriating when trying to go for Platinum.3) interactions are hard to come by. Aside from a handful of your crew members, and maybe 2-3 NPCs there aren't really anyone to converse with. Not really a problem, it just makes the game feel less interactive.4) Galactic Readiness is a part of your War Assets. The level of readiness affects your Military Effectiveness when coming to the final battle. If it's not high enough, you can't achieve the best endings for your character. It's set to 50%, meaning you either have to play online or go to the N7HQ website to get it up to 100%.5) Horrifying drops in frame rate in some sequences...notably every time you visit the Engineering deck on the Normandy. It can take a good thirty seconds for it to sort itself out. It reminds me of Skyrim when it was really messed up.Conclusions -The game is a fantastic and gripping experience, with potential for multiple runs at it. There are numerous outcomes and how you play the game affects how many people - in the galaxy or even in your crew - survive. The issues noted above are minimal and don't really count towards lowering the rating. If you read through all of this, you can have a digital cookie.

9.3.2012

So got my ME3 and popped in disc 1. Origin appeared and said "Install me". After all the controversy of the past months (I've read it all) I want to play the game so I agree to everything and install. Origin updates. ME3 picture appears in my Origin profile along with a couple of other games I purchased years ago when it was just plain EA. Progress bar under ME3 starts filling. Hang on. Am I downloading this or installing from disc? My DVD drive is spinning. Gets to 91% and asks for disc 2. Ok its off the disc. 99%...99%...99%...oh no not the dreaded 99 never 100%. Check HDD LED and its double busy hopefully extracting files. Done, all in all no longer to install than ME2.Start new game and imported a save from ME2,well a save that began in ME1 when I romanced AshleyFirst impressions - graphically excellent. The cut scenes are beautifully done. The backgrounds are excellently drawn, lip syncing is bang on and animation is improved. Character modelling is very good, Ashley looks stunning. Music is epic and sound effects - WOW! I have 5.1 surround and when the reapers are shooting moving making their general groaning, the sub-woofer bounces the floorboards of my room. Need to use headphones late at night. Voice acting is spot on. Great accents and a lot more sarcasm and humour involved which makes for really believable characters.Shepard IMO appears to sprint faster, he goes into cover as in ME2 and when approaching an obstacle that requires him to run+jump, ascend/descend ladders all of this is done automatically using the same key. Shepard's new move is to roll between cover like Adam in Deus Ex HR. The HUD is the same as in ME2 if not a little smaller in size. Abilities are pre-bound to keys if you wish to use quick-keys and recharge is very fast.The Normandy is a cross-breed between the Normandy ME1 and Normandy ME2. There are 5 decks. Captain's cabin is the same, CIC is more similar to ME1 in appearance but the layout is a mish-mash of both. There is a War room and Comms room on this deck as well as the galaxy map. Crew deck is the same although character room assignments will differ depending on whether you've imported a game and what your history is from previous MEs. Engineering deck is the same and right at the bottom you have access to the Shuttle Bay. Here is where the armoury is now.Love it or hate it planet scanning has gone. Now to scan a planet you hover over it and send out a `pulse'. If anything is worth salvaging then it will pop up then you do a quick scan like in ME2 but much faster. The consequences of sending `pulses' is that Reapers may detect you and you have to flee the system and return at a quieter time. Galaxy map is divided into sectors showing where the Reapers are strongest, also in the War room you can see which sector has the best resources e.g. Marines.Upgrading your abilities is much improved. After basic upgrading you're offered a choice of two options to choose from, 3 times, for each ability when points become available. There is also an option in sick bay to completely redistribute all skill points for every crew member. Weapons? Loads of them. Some old favourites and new ones. Shepard's cyber sword (whatever its called) for me is a non-starter. At the beginning you're shown how to sneak up on an opponent and backstab him, rarely do you have a chance of sneaking up on opponents - in fact I haven't had the chance to use it once except in close quarters with Husks when ammo has run out. Paragon/renegade points have been replaced by 1 bar - like a swing-ometer, more good things you do the more it swings to paragon, do bad stuff and you lose paragon points and eventually cross the middle section into renegade. It really is hard to be nasty in this game.All in all the game's research, resource management, ability distribution, weapon modding are a full time task alone. There are more cinematics involved in ME3 which is not bad as some of the cut-scenes are on par with a sci-fi movie but this sometimes leads to a feeling that you're just a spectator. The battles seem to have been cut but the ones that you do have can be epic - Tuchanka Caverns is a great fight. You will die a lot in the big battles.The story as expected is excellent and as it pans out you really feel there is no hope. Story line will vary depending if you imported a save game. The basic plot is to gather as many resources as possible in order to attack the Reapers, this means convincing alien races to band together and put past differences behind them - not easy. As in ME2 in order to get races onside they will always want something in return which leads Shepard to fix these grievances. You'll meet old acquaintances along the way, some will join you, some will appear in side-quests, some will fly with you but not get involved in battle and some will only be mentioned in passing. Some friends won't make it - some emotional moments. There are some new additions to the squad, from the beginning you get a guy called James - Alliance soldier who loves himself too much and loves his muscles more. James pushes Shepard to the edge sometimes. If you have the DLC `From Ashes' then you have the chance to recruit a Prothean - valuable team member with unique abilities. Again this all depends on your previous decisions in MEs. Your squad choice is drastically reduced; again I guess it depends who you chose in previous adventures.Some reviewers have said they have had problems importing characters whose appearance they altered in ME2 I can't comment on that because I used `vanilla' Shepard in ME2 but I do have some saves where I changed appearance so I'll see on the next playthrough.UPDATE: Started a new game with imported character, male, whose appearance I changed in ME2 without a hitch.It's the end of the trilogy but I can't help but feel there are so many opportunities for spin-off games from this franchise - look at Aliens! The ending? Lot of controvesy about this but again you choose the ending.It's a must buy for fans of the series, simply buy it even if you need closure. Maybe in some years your kids or grandkids will buy you the box set of Mass Effect for Christmas and say "Here I found this collecters set of old games that you can play on your old computer - thing." and you'll smile, think of Shepard and spend the next month learning how to use a keyboard again.Tip: Tired of your fish dying? Buy the automatic fish feeder!EDIT - I've dropped this review to 4 stars now I've played through it 4 times with different characters. Endings are really messing with my head. Nothing makes sense! Like many players I won't be buying any DLC as I have no desire to play the game again.

15.3.2012

Oh my god! I cannot believe how many spoiled, whiny brats there are out there in gaming community. Demanding to change the ending?? I thought I've heard it all, but this takes the cake. There is nothing wrong with the ending imo, but if you think there is, fine, just don't demand it to be changed. Like it or not this is what the creators intended, and I pray to god they don't give in. Leave the game as it is. Just because you didn't like the ending, doesn't mean it should be changed. I didn't like endings of many books and movies but I'd never even consider demanding for a change.Ok, now, from what I read, many of you were fine with the unhappy ending (my ending was mostly happy though),but what most of you didn't like is that the end gives you no "choice"...I mean, come on, what exactly did you expect? Did Mass Effect 1 ending give you any major choices? How about Mass Effect 2? What were these colossal choices the very end of the game gave to you? Beyond deciding who lives or dies, there were no major choices to be made at the end. Mass effect 3 gives you PLENTY of choices throughout the game regarding who lives or dies, but the end doesn't...just like the end of Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 do not give you choices at the very end.When I started playing Mass Effect 3 (a week ago), I read all the complaints about the end and I decided to take my time with the game. I thought the end will ruin the experience for me, so I wanted to stay in the Mass Effect universe for as long as possible. I was wrong. Ending didn't ruin Mass Effect for me, not one bit. It was a fitting end to this epic sci-fi masterpiece. The truth is, nothing can destroy Mass Effect universe. It is the only game I have ever played that managed to bring strong emotions of happiness and sorrow in me. Mass effect was the only game to do that. You are given a masterpiece of a game that isn't afraid to bend the rules, that isn't afraid to steer clear from convention or clichés (for the most part), that isn't sugar-coating the story - the ending in particular - and you complain? Be grateful, you won't see many games like Mass Effect any time soon, especially if people force Bioware to change the ending. If that happens then we will see this kind of reaction in the future, every time people are not happy with the ending, they will demand it be changed to suit their needs. And soon enough, developers will be too scared to steer clear from what the convention is (as if they are not already scared)...is that what you want?And another thing, even if you HATED THE ENDING...ONE STAR??? Really??? So, you LOVED 99.9% of the game and ONE STAR? I mean, how can the developers (or anyone else for that matter) take you seriously after reviews like that? Not many games I can think of deserve one star reviews, and Mass Effect 3 certainly is light years ahead from one star review, even if you hated the ending. Then you have those hilarious few who claim that the ending ruined the whole franchise for them...I mean, come on, that's just stupid. Did Terminator 3 ruin the first two for me? Absolutely not. I hated Terminator 3 but it just made me love and appreciate the first two even more. Did Godfather III ruin the first two for me? No...nothing can ruin it. They can do a horrible remake the godfather movies in 2012/2013 and they still won't ruin the originals for me. Those masterpieces are in my memory vault, they are untouchable. Same with Mass Effect.As for the game itself...absolutely AMAZING! From beginning to the end. If you liked Mass Effect 2 you will like this one. Granted, Mass Effect 2 was a departure from the original, which was more focused on RPG elements, but there is no major departure going from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3. It absolutely makes sense that each Mass Effect title focuses more on action and less on RPG elements, and this is coming from major RPG fan! Think about it, the original could be nothing but RPG as this was the beginning of the whole Mass Effect universe. Great portions of the game had to be dedicated to LEARNING about this world, about different races, conflicts, different planets, different worlds, politics etc. RPG element was crucial in the original as it allowed players to learn everything there is to learn about Mass Effect universe. Then, when Mass Effect 2 came out, the focus shifted from learning to taking action, and that was the right move. Mass Effect 3 takes the action to another level - as it should. This is it, the final battle, this is the 3rd act, no time for learning or talking. It is absolutely correct decision from Bioware to focus on action in this final installment. Don't get me wrong, RPG elements are still there, you still have those wonderful dialogue options, you still have character upgrades, weapon upgrades, but the focus has been shifted to action, no doubt about that.Anyway, I could go on and on, but nothing I say will make haters change their mind, nor do I want to change their mind (or anyone else's mind). If you don't like it, fine, no worries. But some of us do. No need to cry and demand for the game to be changed just because you don't like it.Mass Effect 3:Story - 5/5Sound - 5/5 (beautiful score, feels like Blade Runner at times)Graphics - 4/5Game play - 5/5

17.11.2012

First of all,I've been gaming since the days of the Spectrum, Amiga 500 etc, etc, so I've seen a few games.Secondly, I've just completed the Mass effect trilogy today..........epic!!!Mass Effect 3 carries on where Mass Effect 2 left off. OK. All I can say is if you haven't played the first two games, then you should do. This really will help you to appreciate the depth and sheer brilliance of this story! Like the first two games the choices that you make (morally, and storyline), and the bonds that you make with your team can have a large impact on how the story plays out, and that's even better if you played Mass Effect 1 and 2 and imported your "Shepard" character from the second game.The game uses the choices and NPC (Team) relationships you made and had from the first and last game, to add to how the story unfolds in this third part, and that's important!If you enjoy a great book or film, then this is better. The storyline just gets more interesting, and when you think that it's just another hero saving mankind game, it's not! The twists and turns are brilliant!There are several different endings, and many story paths to get there. You must update the game with the "Extended-Cut DLC" to appreciate the ending that you've made, and for you to have clarity, but more on that later. It's also great to see how your team members pan-out as well, all depending on the choices that you've made along the way.Top-tip: Watch the whole of the credits at the end of the game to see more cut scenes.The gameplay itself was good. Not too hard or easy, and lots of side quests to do....if you wanted. The graphics are great too, as well as really good cut-scenes for the story.Ok. Now to the bad part....really bad....The game is installed using EA's Origin installer. I have Steam (with minor problems from time to time), and also installed Battlefield 3 using Origin with no problems. So when I inserted the Mass Effect 3 DVD and installed, it wanted to use Origin. No problems....so far. After registering the game online through Origin, it then wanted to download the game, instead of installing from the DVD! Now that really annoyed me, as it would take days to download 10+ gb. After lots of forum searching I found out that this was a massive problem, and EA have done nothing to resolve it, even after many complaints from paying customers! I then had to manually install from the DVD. That wasn't easy, and if you haven't got a clue, then your stuck with having to download the game, especially when you own the hard copy!You shouldn't have to register the game on the internet before playing it, and definately not have to download it if you own an original hard copy. This is what is destroying the gaming industry in my eyes and making piracy happen. Mugging the paying customers off is not a good thing, and these game developers will lose their support. I travel a lot, and shouldn't have to be forced to be connected to the internet to install or play a game that I've paid for, and some people don't have the internet. The other two games worked fine without the need for over-complicated installation and registering process that I'd imagine have put the Mass Effct experience on hold for some people. I'd give the game 0 stars on the basis of having to mess about with this installation, but that would be unfair because the game itself is outstanding. EA, get a grip on reality, and stop over-complicating things for good customers!The other quite widespread complaint is that EA rushed out the game, and therefore ruined the ending to such a spectacular story and trilogy, so now it is imperative that you download the "Extended-Cut" ending from the Origin DLC downloader (it's free), which is about 2gb (I think). This must be done for you to appreciate the climax of the story, and it's understanding, or you will be left seething! Download and install it before starting the game.Lastly then. The Mass Effect trilogy has been something new to me. I've seen them all, and played all the stories in my gaming time of over 20 years. I've read books and seen films that have been great, but most importantly to me the story of Shepard, his team and the Mass Effect galaxy have really been something new to me. I really thought that I could see through the story from the first game, but it just kept twisting, getting deeper and more mysterious. The story and ending that I played out for my set of choices throughout the trilogy was nothing that I could have imagined myself, and I was amazed by the whole affair.I seriously reccommend this trilogy to anybody who enjoys a great adventure, and not just mindless hack and slash gameplay!Well done to the game designers.Best game trilogy in a long time!ASUS P8Z68 V-Pro Gen 3Intel Core i7 @ 3.50GHz (Natural Speed)Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP18.00 GB G-Skill PC3-12800 1600MHz RipjawsX (8-8-8-24)Dual-Channel (Running auto atDDR3 @ 802MHz (11-11-11-28))ASUS PA238 (1920x1080@60Hz)2047MB GeForce GTX 560 Ti (EVGA)125GB M4-CT128M4SSD2 ATA Device (SATA-SSD)977GB SAMSUNG SAMSUNG HD103SJ ATA Device (SATA)246GB OCZ OCZ APEX_SSD ATA Device (SATA-SSD)2930GB Western Digital WDC WD30EZRX-00MMMB0 ATA Device (SATA)

19.3.2012

The amount of one star reviews this game is getting is ridiculous - there is simply no way this is a one star game. A one star game would be one that is broken, amateurish and no fun, and this game is none of those things. There have been a number of criticisms of this game, some fair, some not, and I'd like to address them and give a balanced opinion on the game.First of all is the suggestion that the RPG elements have been dumbed down. This is simply not the case, in fact the RPG elements have been expanded over ME2, which did cut down on the RPG side of things when compared to ME1. Overall this game is somewhere between the first two in this respect. Weapon modding is back (but without the awful ME1 inventory system)and there are more powers with more options for each one than ME2.Secondly a lot of ire seems to be aimed at Origin. This one always comes up, and Steam seems to draw a similar reaction, some people are just opposed to these online DRM/digital distribution platforms. What I will say is Origin is fairly lightweight, unobtrusive platform, and not much of a hit on system resources, but if you're against this sort of thing I'm probably not going to change your mind - just bear in mind it's not a fault of the game itself.Then there's the lack of XBOX gamepad support on the PC version. I'll admit this is a major oversight considering this is a console port, but to be honest the mouse and keyboard combination is far superior anyway. I've played both the first two games on the XBOX, and ME2 and ME3 to completion on the PC, so I've extensive experience with both input methods. With a gamepad you're constantly pausing the game to use powers etc, with a keyboard and a bit of skill you may never have to pause the game mid-combat. The mouse is better for precision shooting too.Some people are complaining about the multiplayer, again why this would bring the overall rating down is beyond me - you don't have to play it. I've played maybe 3 games to completion and my Galaxy at War rating was high enough for me to get the optimum ending in single player. If you do play it it's actually pretty fun - it could do with some more maps though.And then there's the two biggies - day 1 DLC and the ending. Let's address the day 1 DLC first. Yes, I agree this is awful business practice and a slap in the face to the customers on EA's part, but it doesn't affect the quality of the game - a lot of these one star reviews are a backlash at EA, and not reflective of the quality of the game you DO get. To be honest the DLC isn't that great and you're not missing much (at least from a gameplay point of view, lore fanatics may think otherwise) if you decide to give it a miss on principal.Then there's the ending. This is the one point I can agree on (to a point, I don't agree that it ruins the whole series). Without wanting to give away any spoilers, there are essentially 3 endings, each with 3 different "flavours" depending on how well you performed over the course of the game and the two previous games. The problem is however that they're all pretty much the same, and you make the decision as to which one you get right at the end of the game - your previous choices from the last 120 hours of gameplay have no bearing on the decision. This is most people's main issue with the ending - Bioware sold the series to us on the basis that it was our story, that our decisions meant something, but in the end how the story ends comes down to one arbitrary decision taken right at the end of the game. Your previous decisions DO affect the journey, but not the end result. Add to that the fact that all the endings are fairly similar, and have some fairly glaring plot holes and you can see why people are concerned - it just feels rushed and tacked-on.So to the game itself. Gameplay wise, it's essentially ME2 with a bit more polish, and the last mission on Earth is the most epic moment in Mass Effect history (until the aforementioned ending). The combat is a bit better (Sheppard is more agile now) and as I've said previously there's a slight return of some of the customisation options of the first game. This is why I don't think this can possibly be a one star game - almost everyone will agree that ME2 is a five star game - how can a more polished version, albeit one with a dodgy ending suddenly become a one star game, whatever you think of EA's dubious business practices and disregard for it's customers? All in all, for me this is a five star gameplay experience, with a one star penalty for some legitimate issues, giving a solid four star overall.

2.4.2012

With 1-star reviews for this game being all over the site, I thought I would give a more balanced view. I do beleive that the game merits five stars, but would be compelled to rate it as such anyway, seeing as one star reviews are unfortunately bringing the rating down so much. It's undeserved, and incredibly narrow minded of these people.Having ploughed over 38 hours into my first playthrough of Mass Effect 3 I can say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a great game! If you bother to read this review I'll try and keep it spoiler-free and outline just why ME3 is well worth your time (as well as 24 quid, which is just over half what a lot of us paid for it,reason in itself to give it a go).The first thing that hit me upon loading the game was a lack of an install. Usually PS3 games have an install between 500mb and 5gb (I'm looking at you, Lost Planet 2. Unforgiveable!), Mass Effect 3 clocks in at a slim 13mb. Bioware chose to have short pauses to load new levels, areas etc and they are particularly well hidden. They don't interrupt the flow of gameplay and are generally quite painless. Well done, geeks!On loading the game its undeniably very well polished and all looks exceptional on a nice TV. Framerates are smooth on the whole, colours are vivid without being gaudy and animations are fluid and- most of all- believable, and sound is well defined and very well mixed. A LOT of work went into the overall feel of the visuals and it really shows. While not being a large departure, it's certainly a step up from ME2 (which was quite a looker anyway).If you need to know about the core gameplay, it's mainly a third person cover-based shooter with tactical elements provided by giving orders to your squad and tech/biotic (magic, basically) powers. It's nothing too groundbreaking and yes, we have seen it before, but it's still such fun that I personally didn't mind. This is for a very good reason: Characters.If there's one thing this series excells at, it's characterization. The various species' and races are all both believeable and interesting. I found myself reading through the vasious codex entries about various planets and races for hours. The level of depth is simply staggering, and for my money has never been bettered. Most films, books and TV shows would struggle to create such a well thought out and interesting universe, and this is something which Bioware should be commended for. While playing this game I didn't think of certain characters as just a bunch of polygons, they were living, breathing creatures who you begin to care about. That is not only the mark of good storytelling, but for the medium of games is nothing short of staggering.Of course, all of this lush character and idiosyncratic detail would mean nothing if there was no plot, and luckily the game has it in spades. I'm not referring to the ending, which has been well discussed here, but for the fact that Mass Effect 3 IS the ending. Whether or not the last ten minutes float your boat (I for one subscribe to the "truth" idea, and hopefully Bioware will be backing that up) you will spend a very long time playing this. While you do, look forward to having the choices you make have real consequences, as you see crewmembers, friends, partners and entire races feel the effects of your actions. These decisions can weigh heavy on your shoulders, I personally sat slack-jawed for 10 minutes trying to figure out whether to sacrifice an old friend to save many more lives, or to have the chance to essentially give life to a whole new race. Once which could be an asset to the war effort, or the end of it. THIS is what makes Mass Effect 3 a five star game, not entitled teenagers whining about the final 10 minutes.The main plot device works incredibly well in that you always feel hunted, chased towards the conclusion, without being rushed along into the final battle. The reapers are a worthy adversary, and you will want your combined force as strong as possible in order to defeat them.That's all I want to say on the matter, as it is important to go into this game with your own ideas, and make decisions as you would normally. The more personal the experience the better, and I hope that after reading this you enjoy the game as much as I did. As interactive storytelling it really is head and shoulders above its peers, and as an action game it really is a lot of fun.

29.7.2014

I don't usually write reviews any longer but with this I will make an exception. I have not included any spoilers too.A little background, I have quite a few hobbies, there's one I've had since I was 10 (I'm now 43), I've played computer games since (gulp), 1981. Yes, I get all the in-jokes in Wreck-it Ralf.My advice, Buy this game. Why, buy this? Well, you will be very, very hard pushed to see this kind of story-telling, complexity, difficulty and sheer creative genius in any kind of medium. There aren't many truly epic games that can beat film for story-telling but this stands head and shoulders up there. This is one of a very small number of computer games so good that as a medium it makes you look at film and think,"Why can't they do that?" Yep, a film costing £500m to make cannot deliver these kinds of goods. It is that good. One thing that people fail to mention is the in-game soundtrack, it is very, very good (ME2's is superb - covered by the London Symphony Orchestra nonetheless).If you have never played any of the Mass Effect trilogy, buy ME1, 2 and 3 and play them in that order. Play them and savour every single minute of it. If you have never played this trilogy, I truly envy you.You will never look at another computer game in the same way ever again after finishing this. It's funny, sad, profound, trivial, cheesy and at times, very moving. So moving, you will stop and think. I found playing this game will change a lot of your perspectives on many things. I'm an old cynic but even I have found myself wondering "Now, what would Shep do?" The characters in this game are rich, vibrant, you warm to them, you like them, you don't like them, they are each different, each with their foibles, flaws and strengths.There's guns, plenty of those, there loads of action and combat, options, loot and decisions to be make. Get them right, you and your team progress, get them wrong, team mates die, missions fail. If you played ME1 & 2 and were happy with your outcome you can continue ME3 with the same character that started with in ME1 and developed.I've played ME3 three times now with the same character, my Shep's a Level 60 with all guns to upgraded to 10 important when playing the last chapter of the game on Insanity - you will need them and a well upgraded team around you to get a sniff of making it to the ending.Playability is fantastic, even on the third time round I was still picking up snippets, chat, jokes, upgrades (important to get guns to really do proper damage).People get very huffy about the ending. I've played out all the options including the non-extended and the extended endings. Yep, my Shephard lives. There are two ways to consider the ending. One, it's not fair, Two, war isn't fair. It's a serious ending. Personally, I found it very thought-provoking and after all that effort, I think it would have better to have seen the extended ended first. So, my advice, buy the game, download the extended ending (it's free) and then play it.Play the game on a good set-up and you are rewarded with a very well rendered backdrop in 1080p gorgeousness. It looks fantastic on a big screen.There are a lot of DLCs for this now, I played the game once, then added two DLCs (Leviathan and the Extended ending), my final go-round, I added Citadel DLC. If you have the cash, and at £6 for the main game now, I would recommend all of these DLCs, they add the most to the story in my opinion.As for getting the game loaded up, buy the license key and go for the download option via Origin. I've personally had little to no problems with it. The DLCs cost extra but I'm very happy with the one's I bought, Citadel is a favourite, (you'll be prompted for shore leave - that's your cue in the game). Leviathan the first time through was tough, absorbing and really added to the story. Citadel is the very last final DLC they will make for ME3, it's utterly packed with stuff (it's a whopping 4Gb) and it's a final farewell to all the characters.If you do play it, find the Datapad near one of the bed's in the apartment, if you aren't moved, check for a pulse.In all, it's a damn good game to play, ignore the fuss and bother about the ending, it takes some doing, you can get Shep out of the other end IF you download the extended ending and work hard to meet the criteria.

31.3.2012

It's finally started, everything Commander Shepard has been warning us about has come to pass and galactic civilization stares into the abyss. The Batarian Hegemony has collapsed, the Turians fight a desperate battle to save Paladin, the powerful Asari home world falls silent and Earth burns under the onslaught.With the Reapers here, powerful armies struggle to defend their people against a vastly superior enemy that's intent on totally wiping them out. Colonies are destroyed, civilians massacred and cities harvested or bombarded from orbit. The galactic economy is in chaos as supply lines are cut and resources dwindle.With every ship and soldier needed for home defense it's your mission to convince the galaxy to rally together and use whatever strength they can muster, leaving their own people undefended, in an all out assault in a winner takes all gamble. And if that wasn't enough the Elusive Man has his own agenda and you can expect it to conflict with yours.The brilliance of Mass Effect has always been the ability to make important decisions that will affect the direction of the game and you can expect more of the same here. The difference in the third installment is the stakes are even higher than before. Some decisions are obvious (like the paragon and renegade option) but some are less clear with both choices being morally correct but a great many people are going to die either way. Difficult decisions have to be made.You will notice a darker feel to the game than in the previous two with more emphasis on fighting than building a reputation with your crew. For me this was as it should be, I have my crews loyalty and I've already upgraded the Normandy so there's no need to do it again. Your crew from ME2 has gone it's separate ways but some decide to rejoin you while others make important or cameo appearances throughout the game. The dark undertones continue as the war takes it's toll, don't expect everyone to survive the journey and there's some emotional moments as you loose those you considered a friend. Again this is as it should be, there's a war on and people are going to die. This is something Shepard has to learn to accept in game.One thing of particular note was how Bioware have taken player choice a step further and allowed same sex romances, something missing from the previous two games. This was met with some controversy from a portion of the community who felt for what ever reason this content shouldn't be included. Bioware wrote a brilliant reply to this on their forums which included the following quote...."The person who says that the only way to please them is to restrict options for others is, if you ask me, the one who deserves it least"We the gamers have been given the option, it's up to us if we make it. Shepard will romance who ever you want him to romance, be that a woman, a man or an alien, the point is we have a choice. A massive MASSIVE Kudos to Bioware for allowing that choice to be made.The game is brilliant and a worthy addition to the franchise, the action packed finale has you on the edge of your seat one minute then wiping a tear away the next. The entire trilogy is in my opinion one of the finest examples of gaming to date.And yet.....you only have to look at the over all user rating to know something isn't right.ME3 is fantastic right up to the last 10 minutes when everything seems to go wrong. To quote an online review "It's like Bioware took me out of the driving seat and put me in the passenger seat" and that describes it perfectly.When I reached the end I was faced with three options and none were ones my Shepard would make. I'm not exaggerating when I say I stood there for five minutes not knowing what to do because none of my options were acceptable. I assumed I'd made some poor choices along the way that were limiting me (as has happened in the past) and I looked forward to playing through again to correct my mistakes and get the choice I wanted. I soon found out that there are only three ways the game can end (though the details of each can change a little) and nothing I did could change the outcome.Disappointment is the best way to describe how I feel about the ending, it's nonsensical, full of plot holes and doesn't end the game well at all.

28.4.2012

A lot has been said about the ending of this game and yeah, it's not good. But 10 minutes of bad game at the end of 35 hours of one of the best games I've ever played is pretty good odds to me.I am a big Mass Effect fan and love the whole trilogy. ME3 is the best technically. It looks amazing, and the combat is greatly improved from ME2. I actually love the fighting in this game, whereas in ME2 I enjoyed it but it wasn't one of the highlights, and in ME1... well let's not talk about ME1's combat. I personally love all the enemy types and feel there's a lot more variety and interesting challenge than there were in the previous games.Also your squadmates seem to finally have achieved a level of intelligence above "labotomised chimp" and are actually kind of good at using cover and not constantly dying (there are exceptions of course. They don't seem to understand the tactic of "run away from the thing that just got all up in your grill and is murdering you", but at range they are okay) The environments are also more varied than earlier games, and all of them are interesting and look great. The krogan mission in particular is a standout for me.The weapon and mod system is good fun, better than the previous games, as is the levelling system. Every class can use any weapon, but using certain weapons (or more of them) makes your powers less useful, so there is a nice balance there. It is VASTLY better than ME2's system of just not letting you use certain guns. If I want to be an adept with an assault rifle, I can be. There is also more customisation available in levelling your Shepard than in ME2, so you could play the game twice with the same class and use quite different playstyles.The music is fantastic. ME2 and now ME3 are two of the very few games where I have actually stopped what I'm doing at several points just to sit and take in the soundtrack.The overall story is nothing special, for me. It's epic enough but it's a pretty standard plot. But for me it would be impossible to beat ME1's story which I still love all these years on. It also kind of falls down in the latest parts.The writing however is brilliant, as expected. The tone is the darkest of the three games and it can be genuinely depressing at points but there are still plenty of moments that made me honestly laugh out loud. There is also an impressive amount of variety in little details depending on the specifics of your imported saves. The interaction with NPCs is one of the highlights. There is a lot more chatter and opportunities to interact with your squad when not on missions, and it's all written really well. Joker is still hilarious, Garrus is still your bestest best mate ever, and Wrex is still a huge badass (unless you don't have him in your game, you monster)The multiplayer was a really pleasant surprise for me. I don't play much MP in games, and was not expecting to care about this mode at all, but it is actually really, really fun and adds an awful lot to the value for money of this game. 35 hours for the single player campaign plus dozens of hours of MP is pretty good going.There are negatives of course, but for me they are mainly minor annoyances, like sticking to cover when trying to run past it. It's reportedly buggier than ME2, but I've personally been lucky and had very few issues. The ending is awful, but whether that ruins the rest of this game or indeed the entire trilogy is very much a subjective opinion. For me it doesn't.I wish it had been in development an extra year. I'm not quite sure why it needed to be released in 2 years when we waited 3 for ME2, and I think that extra year would have been good to give it a bit of extra polish. Some of the sidequests feel pretty shallow and I think that's purely because of the time limit they had, which is a shame.Overall yes there are bad points and it is by no means a perfect game. So why did I give it a perfect score? Because it's 90% good, and when it's good it is SO DAMN GOOD. The lows are low but infrequent, and the highs are the best shining example of how great a videogame can be to experience.

7.4.2012

If you are thinking of buying this, then you have probably heard of all the controversy surrounding it. There are many statements made from EA/Bioware promising what the game will be such as all your decisions will matter and make a massive difference on the game as a whole, however these are not at all true and many people bought this game thinking that what they were. I would consider looking into these issues before purchasing if you do not mind a small risk of spoilers (Bioware Social Network is your best bet), otherwise you could be as dissapointed as I am alongside thousands and thousands of others. I am not saying you will be, but it is a possibility.The game as a whole is very fun,even with certain defining moments from ME1 and ME2 being cut (squad interaction being one, you can talk to them but not with the dialogue wheel it is all scripted). The gameplay is really good and improves on the combat from ME2 greatly, adding combat rolls, heavy melees, grabs etc. and also adding player encumberence which allows the player to choose 1 or 2 light weapons, to allow maximum power recharge rate which makes power orientated classes like the Engineer and Adept much more fun to play. There are new powers and a much larger number of weapons and armour for greater customisation. Another addition to ME3 is weapon mods, which allow you to add certain modifications to your weapons to enhance ammo capacity, armour piercing, increased damage, enhanced accuaracy etc.However, the reason I bought all three Mass Effects was because of story and character development, which Mass Effect 3 does do quite well in times (2 missions in particular) but doesn't really shine anywhere else. You are asked to go on fetch missions which just requires you to scan a planet, get the item, return it to the citadel. Doing this in a game where every corner of the galaxy is not being exterminated would be acceptable, but in ME3 it just breaks the whole atmosphere and slows everything down pointlessly. However, when you get to the last moments of the game, it was all for nothing anyway which is definately a very big dissapointment and can't help but make me think that this game is rushed.Another lie that EA/bioware has said that should be known to everyone before purchasing, is that you MUST play on multiplayer to get the "best ending" which will definately be off putting to people without internet connections or a very stable one. To this day they defend that you do not need MP however people have gone into the game files and calculated that you come well short of the number needed to gain the "best ending". The multiplayer is quite fun however, and if you have an internet connection this problem may not bother you, however someone who doesn't have a stable connection may want to re-consider. The multiplayer is basically horde mode and every 3 rounds, you will have a certain objective which could be eliminate targets or hack terminals. Each map lasts for 10 waves with an additional 11th wave which is an extraction which requires all 4 players to be alive in the extraction zone when the timer hits 00.00. The unlock system is addictive and frustrating at the same time because it is all random. It is basically like Pokemon booster packs where it is all down to chance, and to get the best cards, you have to open more and more packs. I wanted a Geth Plasma Shotgun from day 1 and it took me almost 3 weeks to unlock one, whilst getting other useless (for me) weapons and character cards several times.Do not let all my complaints put you off because this game is still better than most and is definately worth the price Amazon is asking for it. It is very fun, but as a massive Mass Effect fan, slightly dissapointing. I wanted to give this game a 5 stars... but just couldn't because it just isn't.On another note, if you are going to buy this game, get it from Amazon delivery was fantastic and arrived sooner than expected. Definately buying the rest of my games from here from now on.

19.3.2012

You may be wondering why some of these reviews have one stars; this is due to the contraversial ending, and before I start my review one the WHOLE GAME (which is what a review is meant to be for, and not for ranting about the ending), I would like to point out DLC is coming out that will fix the ending, and carry on afterwards. They are taking feedback into consideration.Now for the review.Playing Mass Effect 1 and 2, I am glad to say that Mass Effect 3 really went beyond my expectations. The graphics are stunning from the get go, and you really feel like (without giving too much away) like the Universe is in deep trouble. Unlike 2 which was mainly about getting the best people,it is now a combination of recruitment and finding "assets" which will help in the war. Some characters have had a look overhaul, whilst some remain the same. Whilst a few people have said this is disappointing, it's not their outfits that make the character (and you can change the look anyway).All the main voice actors have returned, and each squad member from 2 you will meet along the way. They are not just a casual chat, they will each be involved in some missions.Also, addressing the story, some have said ME2 does not impact ME3. I don't know where they have got this from, but it does. If a character dies in 2, they don't appear in 3. Even some minor characters back from Mass Effect 1 appear, and you always conversations from past events. The story is very detailed, and you will be travelling all across the universe to help all races. I have finished ME3 and I can say I totaled 42 hours, but that's not even including the multiplayer!The multiplayer! At first I was very mixed when it was announced, as I thought it would impact the game and to some extent it does. However, you do not have to play it and you can still get the best ending (more about that soon). In Multiplayer, you can choose most of the key races to play as, create your own character and join other players in stopping one of three opposing forces. It's strictly co-op, making it especially fun to play with friends and you can fight in all key levels of the game.Now regarding the glitches in this game, there are a few I must admit. I encountered 3 or 4, but I asked a friend about his ME3 copy and he encountered several. It really differs from person to person. Some are common glitches however, but it does not hinder the game. If it was ever a problem, I simply re-loaded my file and it was gone.How did I feel while I was playing this? Amazed, saddened, conflicted, everyone I should have felt. So much happens in one level it's not enough to put in one review. You may encounter some losses, but it's worth getting through to the end. Now the ending...you may well feel a bit disappointed, you may not, but like I said at the start, they are carrying on after the end, like they did in Mass Effect 2. They are listening, but don't complain in a general game review, complain in the official forums and many blogs on the Internet, where it will hit home. It's not the end of the world (forgive the pun), and believe me I enjoyed the ride. Apparently if you play through a second time, the ending is significantly different, so I intend to find out what that is about and comment on my review in future.So, Amazon asks me "How much fun is this game?" -- Very, very fun.Should you play 3 before playing 1 or 2? Play the previous ones to find out how amazing the series is first. Whilst 3 could still be fantastic for new players, you are really tidying up lose ends, and the first 2 are very affordable nowadays. Finally, I ask that other reviewers do a general review and not just "oh no, the endings were AWFUL", "It's rubbish, don't play it!" and then place one star. That's not talking about or rating the whole game.So enjoy the grand Mass Effect Series, and waiting in the near future for things to be resolved....From Gamer yuna66.

24.8.2012

Mass Effect 3 is a mixed bag, I'll go over the good points and the bad point to summarize.Good:- Combat is MUCH better than 1 and 2. Much more variety in terms of weapons and weapon customization (It features the upgrades of 1 but not the horrible system where you had to pickup and sell every item you got) and the powers feel much nicer to use as they also feature more in-depth customization.- Armor customization is just as good, it's almost a copy of number 2's but with more armor sets allowing for more variety and choice.- Classic RPG elements are still there and as fun s ever, conversing with NPC's and teammates both during missions and on board the Normandy and the Citadel (Which is back,not that horrible hub we got in ME2). The Interrupts are back as well as the Paragon and Renegade options giving you further customization beyond the standard choices you make.- Character Customization seems to be much better, with more a unique default femshep and every character doesn't look like they've got massive cheekbones. You can, once again, import previous saves to continue your specific story.- Introduction of the War Assets system gives you more reason to go out and explore. You gain War assets by recruiting people (Not to your Normandy team, but to help out elsewhere with the Reaper invasion) and recovering helpful pieces of tech, you can gain assets from choices made in previous games as well as this one which all help out during the games ending. For example, Saving squad mates in ME2 will give you War assets specific to each character, the more you save the more you get, this makes the choices you made actually affect the games outcome beyond a "You get a different cutscene somewhere" level.- All your favorite characters are back in the game, including Teammates from ME1 (Ash/Kaiden and Liara) As well aas those from 2 (Garrus and Tali) Plus some welcoming additions in the form of Alliance soldier James Vega and the last surviving Prothean, Javik. Even Edi makes an appearance with a new synthetic body. The feel is much more like number 1 with limited squadmates, rather than having 12 different ones from ME2 where everyone just kinda felt separated.- Despite older reviews saying the ending was bad, I can confirm that the "Extended Cut" DLC has plugged any major plot holes and given the ending more closure and context that we all wanted, so don't fear that you're saga will be for naught! Ofc the devs still take some creative liberties, but EVERYONE does, this isn't an issue, despite how much people want to complain about the smallest of things. The ending are much more emotional now, and even made me tear up slightly. Overall, much more satisfying than the original cut.Bad:- Exploration is almost completely gone. Some may prefer this method of Scanning planets and finding assets and items purely via scanning like ME2, but I felt that with decent controls, exploring in a vehicle could've been really fun. You do however have to evade reapers when exploring planets in the Normandy which is kinda fun, but can get frustrating.- BioWare/EA force you to buy the Prothean squad mate in a piece of DLC called "From ashes" which to me is ludicrous, considering it was released on Day 1.Worth Noting:- the game registers on Origin, EA's digital download system, like Steam or Gamefly's equivalent. Some people complain about it not working or having bugs, but I've had no problems and I find Origin to be a fantastic platform for games. Whilst it doesn't have the massive library of games that Steam has, you can always just add ME3 as a non-steam game on steam but it'll open Origin which to me seems like more hassle than it's worth.Overall, game gets 8.5/10. Fantastic conclusion to the ME series, whilst it has some issues, aside from eh ending they're not unique to this game, IE bugs and all that malarkey.

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