Developed by BioWare
Released in 2012
The Mass Effect series is, so far, the only body of video game fiction worthy to join the heavies in film, television and literature like Star Wars, Lost and Harry Potter. The rich universe of characters, locations, conflicts, phenomena and funny names created by Canadian developer BioWare not only stirs a rabid fanbase but also mines a vein of franchise dollars on a scale unseen before in role-playing games. All tales must end, and Mass Effect 3 concludes the trilogy just like those aforementioned series: with nostalgic nods to its revered canon, inspiring additions and a handful of questionable decisions.
Despite
what EA Games' marketing team may be preaching, Mass Effect 3 is made for the fans. Who starts with Return of the Jedi, after all? As hero Commander Shepard, you run
into basically every key and bit character of the trilogy (well over 50) as you
prepare to battle the gargantuan threat of the Reapers, an ancient alien race
that wipes the universe of all sentient life every 50,000 years. Since you can
import your save file from the second game — which, in turn, could have been
imported from the first — the choices you made way back in 2007 decide who is
alive to fight by your side.
The word "choice" rules most discussions of Mass Effect. Once again, choices you
make shape your character into a good — “paragon” — or bad — “renegade” —
character, though saving the galaxy is the common goal at both ends. The
variable is more how you get there: unite the quarreling races or save only
those already on your side? (Hint: the latter approach is most unwise.)
Guiding
your Shepard’s morality takes place in the abundant cinematic dialogue the
series is famous for. Not much has changed in aesthetic since the first game, but
I am once again astonished how they record over 40,000 lines of dialogue and
attach them to convincing, animated characters in proper lip-sync. The voice
cast includes such actors as Martin Sheen, Seth Green, Keith David and Yvonne
Strahovski. It speaks to the respect BioWare has accrued that these acclaimed talents bring their all to this medium.
BioWare fills the Milky Way with species ranging from
beautiful humanoids to sentient Portuguese Man o’ Wars. There are the brilliant,
if neurotic, amphibious Salarians and the brutish, reptilian Krogans. Ignore
that all these disparate organisms evolved with roughly equal intelligence and
have spoken modern English for millennia (shh, ignore it). Shepard has to find
a way to band together the warring factions and recruit the isolated ones to
unite against the greater threat. In my playthrough, Shepard solved not one but
two Israel/Palestine analogous conflicts; one race involved, the Quarians,
carry an unmistakable Middle Eastern accent. Earthly ties can be drawn between
all events, if on a macro scale. It is a post-human society where contemporary
quibbles over evolution — “the cosmic imperative,” a wise, African-inspired
race calls it — and homosexuality — pilot Steve Cortez recalls his dead husband
with no camp or novel subtext — are relics of the past.
But your time with Mass
Effect 3 will not rest solely on futurist political theory and interspecies
sociology. At its core, the game is a cover-based shooter a la Gears of War. Action still does not flow
as smoothly as said game, and both schools and monasteries possess invincible
architecture primed for war. However, there is a broader cornucopia of choice
on how each battle is played. Dozens of pistols, shotguns, snipers and machine
guns flesh out the arsenal, and new modifications can be purchased to
strengthen your stopping power. Biotic and tech powers, including a repackaged
Force push, are now easier to complement conventional weapons, leading to
varied battlefield encounters encouraging experimentation.
There are only 15 or so hours of required missions, but
to see all the content — and achieve the “best” ending — 30 to 40 hours will
accumulate. One central mission culminates with directing airstrikes on
and dodging the death rays of a giant Reaper, the design of which resembles Halo’s Covenant ships and H.G. Wells’
alien forces. Another smaller assignment has you defusing a bomb that could
decimate a planet, ending with a scene of thrilling cinematography and moving
sacrifice. There was only one mission I actively disliked, involving a
digital Shepard recovering important files; basically, a virtual reality
CCleaner. Regardless, most missions reintroduce familiar faces from past titles
and carry enough thrills to induce involuntary gamer vegetation, or bliss, as
we prefer it to be called.
Between missions you roam the Normandy SR-2, your sleek
vessel capable of faster-than-light speeds, and talk to your squadmates about
the mission ahead. The different perspectives of your varied crew lead to enlightening discussions on the toils of war. However, if playing the good guy as I did, it usually boils down to Shepard reassuring those worried that cooperation is the key to victory and, when Shepard laments all those dead, a pal like series steady Garrus reminding that sacrifice is the other key. War is bad, that is
for sure. The game even opens with you watching a little boy crash as his ship
fails to escape a smoldering Earth. For a triple-A blockbuster title of the
sort, there is legitimate contemplation on the price of war, even if the
theme’s execution leans more Independence
Day than The Battle of Algiers.
Love is still on the plate, of course, and virtual
romance is still as incendiary as it has never been. I favor overhearing
crewmembers hit on each other and the awkward results that follow, or the
exchange of dirty jokes between a meathead soldier and a 50,000-year-old
warrior (“Now the joke’s on you, human, hehe”).
To guarantee the “best” ending, assisting different races
to find traitors or artifacts boosts their morale and, alas, readiness. Your
in-game journal does not register progress on these tasks, so these
preparations for war just become what they really are: cumbersome chores.
Thankfully the Citadel, an ancient space metropolis, is a triumph of artistic
direction, so running across a beautiful plaza to deliver the third missing war
bible right after taking down a mile-high Reaper is not that much of a buzzkill.
Playing multiplayer is also necessary to gain access to
the “best” (again, the quotes) ending by some inexplicable logic of ratios and “effective
military strength” EA threw in. Thankfully, the online co-op is surprisingly
fun, structured like Horde mode from Gears,
with waves of enemies to defeat and simple objectives to complete. I cannot
picture myself playing it weeks down the line, but it is a worthwhile diversion
from the main campaign.
And then it ends. The ending already lives in infamy, with
thousands signing protests against it. I find this widespread devotion to story inspiring, signaling how great writing is now expected of great games. The
final moments do not take into account the whole arc of your journey and enter
some serious Lost territory that will
frustrate some, or many. I do not personally loathe it so for it still
successfully wrings emotion, a tough feat in video games, and there is a
convincing justification making the Internet rounds (look up: Indoctrination
Theory). The real issue is that, after bonding together the entire galaxy to
fight the Reapers, there is little proof of collaboration in the final battle.
I would have appreciated some help from the bloodthirsty Krogans I befriended after
dying for the ninth time battling endless screeching Reapers.
The first Mass
Effect received a fair share of ridicule for its loading screens disguised
as the slowest elevators in the universe, inching up as you and your squad just
awkwardly stood there. There is a not so subtle nod to that ignominy in Mass Effect 3 as you blast off on top of
a high-speed elevator to apprehend an assassin. BioWare has brought this series
to remarkable heights over five years, aware of its weaknesses and ever eager
to improve. While the third may hold its own flaws, it closes the greatest
modern video game franchise with style and heart. I finished the game and was
struck by that unique depression that also accompanied the finales of Lost and Harry Potter. Now what? I guess I’ll play them all again.
Final Verdict:
4.5 Stars out of 5
This review was originally written for The Cornell Daily Sun and can be viewed at its original location via this link.
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