As the last part of the epic sci-fi trilogy,
Mass Effect 3will appear with the expectation levels running at its peak. Pre-releasecascades seen copies sent into space, presumably to see if passing Salarianswould catch one and come and say hello (unfortunately no answer yet). As withfrankly amazing, the last installment has the power to make or break the legacyof the series - the stakes are high, but developers get all the shots, or willit be an expensive failure?
Partly within the competence of
BioWare was to make theseries so that when cooking up ME3, players of previous games will rejoice inseeing their old character back, fall back into action as s' is simply afamiliar pair particularly well worn slippers, as opposed to a war for thesurvival of sentient life itself. New players to set foot in the galaxy for thefirst time will feel as comfortable as the game guides you expertly through themechanisms that get away from your homeland torrid, and the plot begins to drawyou in.
Hardly had the dust settled on the events of Mass Effect 2,when the Reapers decided to invade Earth. Commander Shepard, who stands on theearth after its associations Cerberus in the previous installment, is the onlypredictable that can save the planet from the ravages of foreign deadly threat.
The first addresses emotionally comes when you realize thatyou must flee your home country and leave to thank you for the enemy, before flyingto find a way to beat the Reapers implacable. As always in Mass Effect, it isto recruit a new crew for your new ship design Normandy, and seeking a solutionto the universal problem of how to defeat something that is for all practicalpurposes the equivalent of a huge bottle of correction fluid of God.
Much fun is to see old friends appear in known locations,the Citadel again be a sort of hub with main missions to return repeatedly. Ofcourse, with Mass Effect 'Choose Your Own Adventure style, this will largelydepend on how things turned out for you in previous games.
For example, if Miranda survived
ME2, then you willencounter in the early Citadel in this game, but if she died, the meeting willnot happen and you will be talking to someone different, something completelydifferent. Maybe time to return to earlier versions for newcomers to the seriesthen.
As with previous installments, is talking a lot ofexperience. BioWare have removed many of the "fence-sitting" ofsecurity options available to you to really choose between good or bad.Personally, I found this great because he castrated my natural instinct for themiddle-ground, allowing more honest choices rather than become mired in endlessshades of gray.
Battles themselves are essentially the same as
Mass Effect2, but with greater mobility added by the use of ladders and requiring jumpingmore scenery. The cover system works well, except for a tendency to roll in thefight against enemy fire, from time to time, but it's still the same great funblasting.
Perhaps more variation in the enemies could have improvedthe game, but at the same time learn to play as solid mechanisms from time totime, or the pleasure of sniping people who did not even notice you, the easilybalances the repetition of Cerberus enemies and Reaper.
The planet has undergone a sweeping overhaul, and there Ireally think they made a step backward by changing it - it just is not much todo with cruising speed of the universe of Normandy, and the threat Reapers ofarriving when you try to find treasures only makes the more annoying when youhave to escape a galaxy and come back later (only to find that missing"treasure" is just a little fuel that you could have bought anyway).
Technically, Mass Effect 3 is as strong as you expect.Visuals are uniformly excellent and built environments effortlessly incorporatebreathtaking use of the scale. Seeing a planet burning in the background untilnow, such as Reapers destroy cities in the middle distance, as you face combatin the foreground for a truly cinematic experience gameplay - a feeling thatintensified Clint Mansell excellent musical score.
Regarding the end will, I will not spoil except to offer awarning - I did not like the end of The Sopranos, either, but nobody said itspoiled the series of six that preceded it. I have never even seen the lastepisode of The Wire, despite watching the entire series through at least threetimes - I can not bring myself to let him finish. And we all know what happenedto Lost.
The tumult surrounding Internet denouement Mass Effect 3means it will be subject to special scutiny by all players, but perhaps thosedisappointed should look back on the history of video games and try to rememberto complete Super Mario Land on the Gameboy, to name just one of many examplesmillion. The "end" was simply that you had to play the same thingagain - but harder. No emotional climax, twisting script, just plain old playagain. "
As a great actor once said, "life is just atrick." So are video games, and if you leave their terminations frustrateyou, then put things in perspective. Many things happen every day in the realworld who are far worse than an impressive series of games that have keptmillions of people clinging to their consoles for more than forty hours per game.
Mass Effect 3 is probably not the best of its predecessor, it's more like anextension of it, but it's a fascinating story, a dependence on high speed relaythrough space, and well worthy time and money someone.
