Mass Effect 3

With Mass Effect 3, the Mass Effect trilogy takes its place as one of gaming's epic tales. It's a modern Homeric epic; the War of the Ring fought in the reaches of space. With this last chapter, one of the greatest stories of this gaming generation comes to an end.

The tone of Mass Effect 3 is far different from almost anything in the entire series thus far, with the exception of the original Mass Effect's last 1-2 hours. Since the ending of ME1 was easily the best sequence in either of the first two games, this means that ME3 is around 40 hours of concentrated high-drama epic storytelling, filled with hectic action and fueled by desperate circumstances. This is not the Mass Effect universe we've known before; this is a galaxy that's living in fear of the Reaper invasion and is completely unsafe. Everywhere you go, you meet wounded civilian refugees, desperate soldiers on the brink of losing, and enemies that threaten to kill you in horribly grotesque ways.

The squadmate roster has been reduced to a maximum of 7, which is good. It pays off greatly, too, since that it allows for a greater amount of dialogue between squadmates during missions. The writers did a great job of really getting into the characters' heads and figuring out what they would have to say at every major plot point.

The visuals receive a huge bump up from Mass Effect 2, with better textures and improved animation. Finally characters' faces don't look odd; now they look natural enough for the audience to forget they're looking at a game and start simply falling into the story. There are times when you actually feel like you're watching a very well-made, emotionally gripping film rather than playing a game. This actually connects rather directly to the slightly revamped way ME3 deals with choices. Choices this time around have been far reduced. Rather than having Shepard make a moral decision every other line, now the player just watches Shepard go through the story and only makes choices where appropriate. It actually works very well, letting the cinematic quality of the story flourish rather than come to a halt every ten seconds, while still letting the player make all the important choices.

The combat is mostly unchanged from Mass Effect 2, which is largely a good thing. This time around, however, the action is faster and more intense. In ME2, the player could merely hide behind cover and, with enough patience, easily pick off enemies. Now enemies flank you and throw grenades, constantly keeping you on your toes. It's not enough to hide behind cover and play it safe; now you're forced to become constantly mobile and very alert. In many ways, this is great. It definitely fits ME3's more chaotic and desperate wartime feel. In other ways, however, this becomes a bit of a stumbling point for the game. Mass Effect 2's combat system was not made for exactly this type of gameplay, and it notably suffers. One notable aspect of this is the melee system, which doesn't seem quite calibrated correctly. Meleeing isn't helped by the fact that the maximum sensitivity speed for the camera/aiming isn't quite high enough to allow for the quick turning that you need in close-quarters combat. The best you can do is line up a target first, then sprint forward and do a heavy melee attack. The worst aspects of combat are without a doubt the cover and sprint systems. Sprinting no longer has a limit, which is great, but you need to orient the camera in a specific direction before Shepard can accurately sprint there. If you tilt the analog stick too far in either direction while sprinting, he'll just stop sprinting rather than turn. Worst of all, if you try to sprint away from an enemy but hit an obstacle, Shepard will hit the wall and "take cover" in front of it, now making himself "stuck" to the wall while still being gunned down. Considering that there's a cover object about every five feet in the game, this makes retreating for cover extremely difficult at times. Also, Shepard can only climb up short ledges if he has taken cover next to them or if you double-tap the cover/sprint button, effectively triggering a rapid cover-jump move. This can be easily mistimed or misread by the game, and it's very frustrating. It could have been easily solved by simply setting sprint and cover to different buttons and assuming that a sprint to a low ledge was meant as a jump. The solution is so mind-bogglingly easy that it's a wonder that Bioware didn't do it.
For those wondering, this is how I'd do it: Since both the left and right analog stick buttons have the same function, either move Melee to the right stick or Sprint to the left stick, move cover to B/Circle, leave A/X for either Sprint or Melee. Easy.
In any case, despite the problems with control in combat, all of the issues can be resolved by paying attention to how the game works and working around its limitations. In the end, the combat really does do an incredible job of pulling you into the story, making you feel the desperation and life-or-death intensity of the situation. There are few games that truly make you feel the epic quality of a war-to-end-all-wars narrative, but Mass Effect 3 does it rather brilliantly.

Overall, the story in ME3 is staggeringly brilliant. It's a Lord of the Rings-scale war drama, with massive life-or-death struggles for entire civilizations. There's not a single plot point along the way that rings false or is anything less than entirely compelling... until the ending.

The ending of the game has been a source of immense controversy with players. Generally, most fans of the series have found the conclusion dissatisfactory. I don't entirely disagree. Mass Effect 3's ending, while powerful and epic, is so entirely disconnected from the rest of the game (and the series as a whole) that it really feels like a section from a different game altogether. ME3, far more than the previous two games, really does a lot to make you emotionally connect with the characters and the general plight of the galaxy (notably Earth) in a very strong way. The ending throws that all out the window and asks you to make a gigantic philosophical choice about the fate of all existence. In the end, you never get even the slightest bit of closure about the characters you've come to cherish. If anything, the ending only raises more questions about the characters' fate and the fate of the galaxy in general, confusing the audience more than anything else. For some gamers, this is fine. For many, including myself, this is unfortunate. However, comments from Bioware have confirmed that upcoming DLC will directly address fans' complaints concerning this, which is good enough at least to soothe the ending's sting, for me at least. Although this DLC won't be out until April 2012 at earliest, for the purposes of this review, I'm simply going to ignore my problems with the ending in terms of final scoring.

As somewhat of an aside to the main game, ME3 has a multiplayer mode, a first for the series. It ultimately amounts to nothing more than a 4-player co-op survival mode, but it's a lot of fun. The fact that the game uses random item packs purchased with in-game credits makes everything feel more unique in comparison with other competitive, like playing with trading cards and playing a shooter at the same time. The only problem is that this means you need to play the game for much longer in order to get the weapons you want, which can be a problem if you've trained yourself to use anything other than the standard five starter weapons.

Furthermore, playing this mode increases a multiplier in the single-player game which makes a lot of things much easier to achieve. If you don't want to spend twenty hours extra just doing side quests in story mode or twenty hours in multiplayer, just play a few hours of both. It's less monotonous, saves time, and adds a level of variety that makes the entire experience a lot of fun.

Mass Effect 3 has flaws, to be sure. The overall experience, however, though not unblemished, is something truly amazing. Every single element combines to create a masterful interactive narrative that will likely be the template for role-playing games for decades to come. Although there's plenty of other games on the horizon, what I'm most looking forward to at this point is DLC for ME3, simply because more than anything, I want more of this game.

10/10

Mass Effect 2

If the original Mass Effect was a prototype for the game it should have been, then Mass Effect 2 is the full realization of everything the first game should have been.

It's obvious right from the beginning that Mass Effect 2 is a much more emotionally ambitious story than its predecessor. While the overall plot with the Reapers seems to be on hiatus for most of the story, this new tale has a bit more character depth, along with greater attention to detail and realism. When things happen in this game, you actually care.

The feel of the game's world is remarkably realistic. Whether at a maximum security prison, an alien nightclub, or an insectoid spacecraft, everything just feels right. Every audio and visual element comes together to craft worlds that the audience can believe in.

Instead of the sparkly-clean altruism of Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 deals more with the seedy underworld elements of the Mass Effect universe. Instead of the Enterprise from Star Trek: The Next Generation, think Jabba's palace from Return of the Jedi. It's very much a "dirtier" and less morally clear-cut story. Indeed, sometimes it makes more sense to play this story as a renegade than a paragon, since many of the alliances you forge are with the morally-corrupt, and there's definitely an attitude of "the end justifies the means" for much of the game.

This rougher attitude is even represented in the way the game plays. The combat is far, far improved. In fact, it feels like it's not even the same game. Instead of being RPG combat with a shooter interface overlaid on top of it, now it's straight-up shooter combat with RPG elements enhancing it. There's no more worrying about loot or stat-tracking; nearly everything is streamlined here and it's wonderful. The guns even have a traditional ammo reloading system instead of the previous game's overheating system, which really helps things to feel more visceral and less annoying. On top of that, the game runs at a solid 30 FPS. It all comes together to make combat that's honestly better than many top-level third-person-shooter games out there.

The fact that combat is only one part of the gigantic Mass Effect 2 experience is one of the things that makes it so great. After all, movies aren't just one two-hour action scene (usually); there's more to it than that. Were ME2 all action, all exploring, or all dialogue, it could get boring. This game never gets boring. It finds a near-perfect balance of every kind of element you'd want in an interactive story.

Going along with the newer, more aggressive tone, Shepard gets new armor. In the first game, Shepard's default armor looked like black space pajamas. His new armor in Mass Effect 2, however, looks like actual armor, while still carrying over the few elements that really worked in the first place.

The characters in general are far better-written than before, with a ton of added depth. It's partially because the writers seem to know how to write the characters better, and partially because the returning characters from Mass Effect have had two years of in-universe time to grow. However, the new characters vary in levels of depth. Few of them are particularly amazing, and most are just "there." In fact, it could easily be said that most of the characters are superfluous. There's a total of twelve squad member characters, far more than necessary. It might have been better for the game to focus down on perhaps only six squadmates, as in the first game.

As said before, this game focuses not so much on the overall plot with the Reapers, but on a new plot with a new enemy, the Collectors. As the story goes on, Shepard learns that everything is more closely connected than it initially seems, however, the fact remains that most of ME2's story is self-contained and somewhat tangential to the ongoing story of the game trilogy. What's even odder is the fact that Shepard is working for "the bad guys" in this story, fighting an even more dangerous enemy. While the game makes a decent case for why Shepard does this (it boils down to "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and "we need all the help we can get"), there isn't a choice given to the player in the story, and it feels obviously wrong. It might make a certain level of sense for a renegade Shepard, but not for a paragon or neutral Shepard.

In general, the graphics are much, much improved. There's still some weirdness with characters' faces and hair, but it's not enough to be a real bother. The fact that the game runs at a solid 30 FPS now is great, as are the upgraded textures. The dialogue sections are much more lifelike, with characters doing more than just standing still and delivering lines. Now characters actually move around and gesture as they talk, making them feel more believable.

Unfortunately, there's a major problem with the way that the game displays text on a standard-definition screen. Not only is it extremely tiny, but there's not very much contrast. Most everything is in different shades of orange, or occasionally green. Since I played the game on a standard-def TV, I sometimes literally could not read what was on-screen and had to guess. Once or twice, this meant that I chose an incorrect option and had to reload a previous save file. It honestly is a huge problem since so much of the game is text-reliant. Still, though, it's a testament to the game's brilliant design that I was able to play, finish, and greatly enjoy the game despite only barely being able to read anything.

Seriously. Can you read this?

Mass Effect 2 is easily one of the best games ever made. It might not reach the very top, but it's extremely close. The few technical issues are far outweighed by the great visual design, and although the overall story and new characters may be a little bit underwhelming, they're at least decent. The level of quality put into the feel of the game is outstanding, and the overhauled combat is insanely fun. All these elements come together in the end to make one absolutely incredible experience.

9/10

DLC:


Kasumi: Stolen Memories
This is a fun little side mission. It feels like equal parts heist movie, spy thriller, and action blockbuster. As expected, the new squad character, Kasumi, isn't all that important to the main story, and generally stays out of the way of the entire main plot until the ending, where she serves only a minor—and unnecessary—purpose. This is a decent bit of fun, but, as stated, unnecessary.
7/10


Overlord
This one has a great classic sci-fi plot, but the actual gameplay is more time-consuming than fun. It's just too long.
5/10


Lair of the Shadow Broker

This should be upheld as the prime example of how to do story-based DLC properly. Not only is it a lot of fun, but it gives Liara the most character development she's ever had. Actually, it gives Liara more development than any other character in the entire main game. Provided that Shepard romanced Liara in Mass Effect, there's a ton of new relationship stuff that can happen here, and it's all well-written. In fact, everything in this DLC is well-written. There's plenty of great banter between the characters, some extremely well-choreographed cutscenes, and a plot twist that genuinely surprises. This is probably the pinnacle of storytelling quality in Mass Effect 2 as a whole; the fact that it's DLC makes it all the more notable.
10/10

Mass Effect

Mass Effect is a game with some really revolutionary ideas, but not the best execution. It's a hybrid RPG/shooter, but the RPG elements far outweigh (and outperform) the shooter elements. For the most part, this game plays much like Bioware's previous RPG space epic, Knights of the Old Republic. In fact, shooter combat aside, much of this game's structure is nearly identical. The fact that ME is based on that tried-and-true formula helps it greatly, but the newer elements almost entirely fail.

In Mass Effect, set 270 years in the future, you play as Commander Shepard, the first-ever human selected to be a "Spectre" (sort of like a cross between a commando and a Jedi). Shepard traverses the galaxy searching for a way to stop Saren, an insane Spectre who is attempting to bring apocalypse upon all sentient life.

Most of the gameplay revolves around traveling to different planets, exploring various areas, talking to people, and occasionally getting into some fights. The real crux of the game, though, is the focus on choices.

Choices that the player makes in the game affect whether he gains "Paragon" or "Renegade" points. Paragon is generically good or diplomatic, while renegade is aggressive and self-serving. Gaining more points in one or the other will yield various rewards. Separate from the Paragon/Renegade meters, however, the choices you make in the game yield incredibly powerful results. Major characters will live or die depending on the choices you make, and by the end of the game, the galaxy will be forever changed because of you.

Dialogue is probably the biggest and most important aspect of the game, as that's where the decisions are made. Mass Effect's dialogue system has a dynamic camera that makes cuts that mimic the shot/reverse shot technique used in film, allowing for much more engaging dialogue. As if that weren't enough, the entire game is voice-acted, leaving nothing to the imagination as far as voice is concerned.

The Mass Effect universe is great. It's got a wonderfully sleek visual aesthetic, with a great deal of thought put into the background of each and every character, alien race, and new technology. There's even a codex of information put into the game's menu just in case you feel like learning everything there is to learn about the universe, regardless of its actual importance to the plot. It's that kind of detail that really makes this game feel like it's something special, despite its flaws.

Speaking of those flaws, there are many. The shooter mechanics are flat-out abysmal. Everything from a barely-working cover system to completely ineffectual controls over your squadmates plague this game. As if that weren't enough, the RPG mechanics of the game overtake the shooting to such a degree that it doesn't even make sense as a shooter. For example, there are four separate accuracy stats for weapons: your personal accuracy skill stat, your accuracy skill stat with that weapon, the weapon's built-in accuracy, and your actual skill as a gamer. Shockingly, the last of those four is seemingly the least-important. You can have your reticule aimed squarely on an enemy's head, but if you don't have all your stats in the right place (which it's almost guaranteed you won't until late in the game), you will miss a great many of the shots you fire. So, essentially, you're playing as a supposedly-amazing hero who can't aim correctly, can't take cover correctly, and can't interact with his teammates effectively enough to make up for any of that. While being extra-careful in combat can help you greatly, that doesn't make up for the fact that the game basically takes control out of your hands when, as a shooter, complete control is exactly what you should have. It feels as though Bioware designed the game to be a traditional real-time turn-based game, but tacked on shooter mechanics. So instead of combat being fun, the shooting only makes things more difficult than necessary.

There's also an issue in that you spend a ridiculous amount of time picking up loot, including all types of weapons, armor, and upgrades. The problem with this is that you can literally pick up thirty different versions of the same gun, all with slightly different stats. This means that you end up doing a lot of organizing and cleaning out your inventory, as well as maximizing your stats just to make sure your gun works correctly.

The graphics are both great and problematic. The Unreal Engine 3 is used rather well here, not looking at all like other UE3 games. There's an optional film grain filter that's put over the game by default, which really adds to the cinematic feel. The aforementioned sleek style of the ME universe looks great, with vivid lights glistening off metal surfaces. Details like player movement are also more realistic, with Shepard having a bit of inertia to deal with as he moves throughout the game world. On the negative side, the texturing is a bit simple and bland, making characters' faces look a bit overly smooth. The framerate in the game is also pretty bad, hardly ever reaching 30 FPS, and usually staying down in the 20s at most. As if that weren't enough, there are a ton of glitches, many of which require you to revert to a previous save.

That's another thing: the save system. There's an auto-save system, but it doesn't save often at all. If you don't constantly save manually, you'll spend a lot of time replaying the same sections over and over again. It's very frustrating.

Another problem is the oddly dispassionate story. While the overall plot is very good, there's not very much genuine emotion in it. The characters don't generally have much of a personal stake in the events; they're just "there." While Mass Effect's story is definitely interesting and at times astonishingly epic, it's sometimes hard to care about.

The characters are all well-realized, but there are definitely some oddities. First of all, three of the characters can be pursued as romantic interests, but this comes off as being a little abrupt. Although you're supposed to have formed some kind of deep bond with the character you decide to be with, you can romance that character after literally two or three conversations. Unlike KOTOR, where you could have a dozen different conversations with every character, getting to know his or her backstory and developing a relationship that seemed somewhat genuine, here relationships seem to spring out of nothing, and feel shallow.

Despite all these flaws, there is one gigantic saving grace: the ending. This is where all the problems with the game seem to melt away. The story gains a bit of emotion; the gameplay feels tighter and more responsive; the overall package is just better. It's easily one of the best finales in gaming history, and even worthy of being put alongside the best Sci-Fi film finales.

Mass Effect feels a bit like a prototype of a different game. It's got a lot of bugs, design flaws, etc. However, all in all, Mass Effect is a game with a ton of promise, and though it doesn't always live up to that promise, few other games even attempt to reach the levels that Mass Effect does. For that reason, while Mass Effect definitely stumbles along the way, it's still something truly special.

8/10