Genre: Third person cover shooter; Sub-genre: RPG
ESRB: M (this is a medium M due to some gore, profanity, and some discussions on "the birds and the bees" with hot alien broads)
Estimated hours of gameplay (thorough play/quick play): 40/20
Developer: BioWare
Wiki page
You've likely heard the outcry over the ending by now. So maybe you saw the 3 star rating and are confused. Well, I refuse to treat games like movies and let the ending be so ridiculously weighted in my judgement. If you want to hear my take on the, eh, "differently able" ending then you can find that at the bottom. I'm here to talk about the full experience of the game, and not just the last 5 fucking minutes of it.
I do have some disappointments, though. But this just comes from expectations I had playing through the first two. The first game had these boring vehicle sections that everyone hated: the car was awkward to drive, you spent hours on end driving up nigh vertical walls, and the thing fought like a sniper rather than a tank. But the experience of going down to inhospitable planets and walking around and exploring was something I really wanted to work well. It was bringing the Star Trek into this Star Wars-esque universe. And having both things at the same time is like some kind of nerdish wet dream, you know?
And rather than improve on the vehicle sections, BioWare simply removed them. In Mass Effect 2, they released some DLC with a new and improved vehicle. I thought the idea was that they didn't have time in the development cycle before release, but "here it is now!" And that thing didn't make it into ME3. So this latest installment becomes just a bunch of third-person shooter levels without that full feeling of immersion around your surroundings, lending it more to the feeling of being in a shooting gallery.
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| Weee! |
There was also a statement BioWare made that ME3 would have a few more "RPG upgrade thingies" (I think that's a direct quote). But I didn't expect it to have as much depth as Mass Effect 1, and it doesn't. Because of these things, I might say that Mass Effect 1 is the strongest game in the series. Although I'd probably rate it a low 2 out of 3, maybe even a 1. Funny how that works, huh?
The reason for this high rating is that this simply is just an amazingly full game that's well-refined. As opposed to the first game, which felt like half a game with a bunch of filler mixed with some of the sloppiest gunplay you'd see in a game from a Western developer.
The story is coherent and full of understandable characters with personality clashes and quirks with a range of different types of people. This is generally BioWare's strong-point, so expect a lot of talking. So the best parts are the interactions between the characters, but the overall plot is a bit generic: save the universe from killer robots. I've come to like this type of storytelling since it allows for casual players to understand what the fuck is going on while still giving the more involved player a lot of cool stuff to dig around in.
Probably one of the biggest improvements I've seen in this section of the series is the enemy design. Previously every enemy was mostly the same, only with different amount of health and damage. In ME3, the enemies are both visually and tactically distinct. This means you can readily identify what kind of enemy you are fighting and will have to change your tactics to fight it. This is a pretty big deal to me. One of the main reasons I hate "realistic" shooters is that all the enemies die in 1-2 hits and carry different sizes of machine guns; no variety, no strategy. Here you might run into a large behemoth with armor plating trying to punch you and you'll start circle-strafing and hip-firing. Next you might see some laser sights from a weird bug that starts shooting rockets and you'll take cover. These are the most obvious examples, but the point is you have to react and change your strategy depending on what's going on.
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| Each thing does a different thing! |
Keeping these new monsters in mind, a fun surprise for everyone is the new horde mode. I call it that because it's simply called "Multiplayer" in-game (I thought this mode was called "Galaxy at War" at some point. I have found out that I was mistaken.) While you can tell this new mode was just slapped together quickly and was likely created out of desire to get some kind of extra profit from optional micro-transactions, it's still very fun! Hell, I lost track of the hours I've spent on it. It would probably be measured in days at this point! The easiest way to compare this would Gears of War 3 (especially since that is where "Horde Mode" actually comes from). But... I forgot the details of how that works. One thing that really makes this mode work for ME3 is the fact that you can win at it. As in, the waves are not limitless. This sounds like a petty difference, but it really is an immeasurably better design. Matches will take about 18 minutes to complete on Bronze setting. Also, instead of the upgrades only existing within that match, they are carried onto your account. Being able to choose your favorite class with your favorite upgraded weapon is also a stupidly better design choice. I'm actually most excited to see more DLC for this game mode than the single player! To be fair, though, some of that is because there are a number of bugs and flaws that I'd like to see fixed (For example, a lot of the UI relies on the actual XBox Live interface. This means XBox Live has to load to get to that interface). And I'd like to see more features like challenges, stat tracking, re-balancing, etc. For those interested, here's a tier list I've been working on for Gold matches (for those who don't "believe" in tiers, have fun sucking at video games your whole life!):
S: Salarian Engineer, Human Engineer
A: Asari Adept
B: Asari Justicar, Drell Adept, Salarian Infiltrator, Geth Infiltrator
C: Turian Sentinel, Human Sentinel, Human Infiltrator, Geth Engineer
D: Krogan Soldier, Quarian Infiltrator, Turian Soldier, Krogan Battlemaster, Human Adept, Quarian Engineer
E: Human Vanguard, Asari Vanguard, Krogan Sentinel
F: Drell Vanguard, Batarian Sentinel, Battlefield 3 Soldier, Batarian Soldier
G: Human Soldier
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| Big robots are best fought with teammates! |
Conclusion: I've already talked too much about this game, but I don't think I've covered half the things I wanted to say. Simply put, there is so much good game here that it makes me question paying $60 for other games. This. This right here is the benchmark for when I or anyone else feels bad for buying a 4-8 hour single player game. Just beware: there is a lot of talking!
Extra rant about the ending (slight spoilers)
So the ending is stupid. Like, stupid in a lot of ways. It's illogical because characters just appear places they have no business being. It's going against the style of the game since you get in some kind of Silver Surfer-ish philosophical argument with a cosmic being. And finally, it's stupid because bizarre things happen that are not explained (IE the planet the Normandy lands on). My point is that video games are about gameplay and RPG's are about the journey, both of which were outstanding. When the stakes are as high as "the entire galaxy", only bullshit can happen. Also, there's little room for a creative ending: either the galaxy is won or it is lost. So I suppose I never expected anything that enlightening, and having appropriate expectations is a big deal.
Here are some other people's complaints that are dumb:
1. The decisions you made had no effect on the ending.
Gee whiz! If only the game remembered to reference the fact that I chose to punch that reporter! The decisions you make have effects that you get to see already. Not everything should affect everything. How can you ask for the 8 bajillion combinations of endings to exist?
2. There's no final boss fight!
Does there have to be? It's a game of decisions and it ends on the biggest decision. Shrug!
3. This is the worst ending I've ever seen!
You must not have seen very many things.
I think what I'm trying to say is "You're right in that it's bad. You're wrong in that you're overreacting." I mean, c'mon. It's not the Phantom Menace. And there will be more games in the series to take your money. You'll be okay.
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| I found this on the internet. Good job, internet. |
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