Mass Effect 3 Review

The Mass Effect franchise has become one of the most critically acclaimed series in recent years. The original Mass Effect, launched back in 2007, and was met with enormous amounts of success. But it is in Mass Effect 2 where the series really began to shine as something quite extraordinary among other titles. Bioware managed to create one of the most memorable universes out there while emphasizing on providing a highly customizable and enjoyable experience. Mass Effect 3 is the final conclusion to the Mass Effect trilogy and is set to tie up all the ground work that had been laid out by the previous two games. With Mass Effect 3, Bioware topped off nearly every element from the previous iterations and created a fantastic game that is just short of being called a masterpiece.

Mass Effect 3 puts you in the shoes of Commander Shepard, a galactic hero who is the main protagonist in the Mass Effect trilogy. Following the events of Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3 starts off with the return of the Reapers, an alien race of machines that appear every 50,000 years to destroy all organic life forms in the universe. The game starts with the Reapers arriving on Earth and you witness firsthand their destructive capabilities. It’s now up to Shepard to unite the different races and forces of the galaxy in order to be able to stand a chance of defeating the them.

Unlike Mass Effect 2 which focused on building your squad and expanding your relationships with them, Mass Effect 3 is a lot more focused on the end goal. Nearly every mission and task you come across is all geared towards gaining War Assets to assist you in defeating the Reapers. While increasing your War Assets and gathering help around the galaxy, you will come across a variety of familiar faces you met in the previous two installments. Who you meet and under which circumstances are all dependent on what your choices were in the previous two games. If you, however, did not play Mass Effect 2 before and did not import a save file from the game then Mass Effect 3 adapts quite well to take that into account. It is however highly recommended that you play both Mass Effect 1 and 2 in order to fully appreciate the game’s brilliant moments.

In terms of combat, Mass Effect 3 is classified as a cover-based third person shooter with a large array of RPG mechanics supporting it. However, gameplay usually differs in style as it is heavily dependent on which class you choose to play as at the start of the game. The game offers 6 different classes to choose from and each play out very differently from one another. The Soldier for example is the standard class which offers the more traditional cover based shooting experience with a huge reliance on your guns to do most of the damage. If you choose to be an Adept however, you focus more on abilities and skills to attack your opponents rather than relying on guns.