Mass Effect 3

BioWare has been getting a ton of crap thrown at them for Mass Effect 3. People felt like BioWare/Eletronic Arts was selling an incomplete product, and to get the whole game one should also buy From Ashes, a Day 1 DLC. Since the DLC was included in the Digital Deluxe edition, I did not mind all that much. The second issue came up when people finished the game and its ending was not what they thought it should have been. But I will get onto that later in this post.

The game started a tad ominously with a technical problem -- it failed to import my Shepard's appearance, and I had to recreate the looks, using a screenshot as a reference. I was not the only one who had to do this, but as the importing worked well enough for most, I guess BioWare somehow missed it. Otherwise ME3 was pretty much bug-free, and loading times were noticeably shorter than in the previous game.

I wonder, though, why the game's sound levels are so low. I had to turn volume up from what I usually keep it to be able to enjoy the great music and sound effects of the game fully. Maybe this was to avoid deafening all the people who play with headphones on. I do not know. But the sound aspects of the game are truly stellar, including voice-acting (as always).

I was also glad to see they learned from feedback and improved the tedious scanning of planets to something much better. Weapon-modding was reintroduced in a fairly easy to use to manner, and I have no complaints there. But there are so many damn weapons to choose from and the extra ones gained from pre-ordering/collector's edition/Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo did not help at all in that matter. Luckily, the Citadel has a shooting range for Spectres where you can try all the different weapons you have.

The enemies of Mass Effect 3 are smarter, nastier, and tougher than in the previous games. And the really tough enemies are really tough even on Normal difficulty. I often felt pretty helpless against them, although, that might have been partly because the Soldier class does not really have abilities to bring down Armored foes quickly. Of course, you have your squad members and the extra ability chosen from the abilities they teach you. I used the armor-piercing ammunition one from Garrus but it still took many thermal clips with an assault rifle to bring down the Reaper nasties.

The main plot of ME3's story is to unite the galaxy against the Reapers. The exploration aspect is still there, but the whole thing plays out much more linearly than previously -- which I liked very much. Your party is gathered along the way, avoiding the companion gathering simulator ME2 felt like. You meet all your old friends along the way, though only a handful of them joins your crew, which is also much to my liking.

The party members are less static than previously; they do not stay in the same place all the time between missions. Instead, you can find them having discussions with each other around the Normandy, and they take shore leaves when you dock on the Citadel. ME3 was not as amusing as ME2 for me, though. I did not end up laughing out loud at any point... well, except at Joker's "Too soon?" line. The humor consisted largely of references to the older Mass Effects.

The success of your uniting operation is measured by a bar to which all the found war assets add. There is also a Galactic Readiness rating, which determines the total effectiveness. It starts at 50% and stays there unless you see the effort to join the multiplayer, Galaxy at War, to raise it. The multiplayer is not needed to succeed in the game, but you need to be less a completionist with the singleplayer if you decide to play it. I chose to do both, because why not.

The simple wave-survival four player co-op is pretty nicely tied to the main story. I do not know how long-lived it is, though. Regardless, it was pretty fun and quite challenging too. The combined hours of what I spent in the multiplayer and the 36 that it took me to finish the singleplayer campaign probably bring total time played close to what I played ME2.

All in all, Mass Effect 3 is a damn good game. Its gameplay is great, it looks beautiful, its soundtrack is superb (Faunts returns with an end credits song), the characters are wonderful, and the story works... until the end comes. Oh boy, the ending of Mass Effect 3... damn. I was aware of the uproar of fans demanding a better ending before I got there myself. I was slightly suspicious, but after seeing it, I can see the reason. Some claim there are hints for a different ending in the game files, and conspiracy theories are up and running.

My first problem with the ending was how you frustratingly slowly limb through it since Shepard's been badly injured. It makes it take ages and since you are not allowed to save in the final sequence, playing it thrice to experience the "different" endings is a pain.

The ending itself is not so bad, or would not if it was not the ending of Mass Effect 3. I feel the three games have been all about party interaction, doing stuff with all these different people of different species. Beating impossible odds and living through all of it to tell the tale. But there you are, all alone -- Joker will not fly Normandy in to save you, and your friends are left somewhere behind. You need to decide the fate of the galaxy all by yourself.

And the fate of the galaxy is pretty much the same, whatever you decide. While they techinally lose, the outcome resembles way too much what the Reaper victory would have looked like. The logic of how the Reapers are doing what they do seems flawed too, it does nott seem to really achieve their goal. The reason is justifiable but the way of execution is not. And it seems odd, given the assumed level of intelligence the Reaper AI has.

I think most players (including me) would have been quite okay with a simple and-they-lived-happily-ever-after ending. It just feels plain crappy after the 100 hours you have spent playing the game trilogy "to end... like this?!" as Jon Irenicus puts it in Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn.