Mass Effect: What I find great about it - Part 3

Mass Effect 3, the culmination of a 3 part experience, is an incredibly polarising experience. The games capture some truly incredible moments throughout the series and in this the last part of the trilogy they really put together all those choices and moments that the player has done up to this point.

After the events of Mass Effect 2, Shepard must stand trial for being associated with Cerberus and, in the aftermath of the Arrival DLC, answer for their actions.

This due process is cut short as the Systems Alliance Defense Committee, calls in Shepard to try explain the rapid blackout of outposts and colonies in quick succession, this is promptly interrupted by news of the moon losing contact and not so after by the unmistakable sound of a Reaper, signals they have arrived and have started their cleansing. This introduction is good but falls a bit short of reaching the same highs as Mass Effect 2. To give credit though, the environment artists really do step up their game and the way that gameplay and background action take place at the same time is a big improvement on the environmental storytelling front.

The task ahead of Shepard is now to unify the galaxy and attempt to present a united front against the Reaper invasion. This task is cut short by being informed that Mars has a discovery of great importance that could help tip the scales in the galaxy's favour.

Mars serves as a narrative starting point from which a number of core themes and structures are built upon from as things such a project that could solve the Reaper threat, questions about Cerberus and questions about Shepard. This section culminates in a chase that results securing the data, but at the cost of a squad mate taking serious injury.

With the Mars project secured, Shepard can finally focus on securing alliances with the Citadel's Council's support. It doesn't end as successful as planned but a bone is given to Shepard in a "you scratch my back I will scratch your" agreement.

Exploring the Citadel afterwards paints a bleak picture and it provides an insight into the scale of the Reaper's carnage as it becomes a center for refugees and acts as a central hub of the war showing the effects on civilian side of the conflict. 

The stories Shepard hears by eavesdropping on conversations is great at providing perspective to the greater galactic conflict and can even collect small quests from the rumours one hears.

The game slowly opens up at this point as you are directed towards your first priority mission, again I wish to praise the environment artists as the priority type missions really go all out when it comes to the animation that plays in the background while you and your team works through a mission.

This is also where one can really start to see where they changed the system as it feels like an amalgamation of the Mass Effects before where every gun is now usable and equipable, but the more guns you carry the heavier the cooldown is on abilities. Weapons also can be upgraded with "modules" and have tiers which is very reminiscent of Mass Effect 1, although it presents the improvements far more clearly. Another small improvement in Shepards arsenal is the addition of a heavy melee attack which is based of your class, with technical classes use their omnitool as a weapon and the biotic classes focus more shaping their power into a melee attack of sorts and an additional nice touch is how each class has different heavy attack variations.

Armour is similar to Mass Effect 2 where one mixes and matches to improve aspects that are relevant to the player. These updated systems really give the player a lot more freedom to tailor and optimise their loadouts compared to the second game.

The abilities have also been touched up to be able prime and exploit more consistently with a wider range of abilities when used to combo effects together to cause an enhanced effect. This is important in higher difficulties where the enemies are strengthened by multiple layers of defense, and to be able to use the debilitating effects of your abilities those defenses must be stripped.

The moment to moment gameplay is excellent in the early to middle parts of the game as you have to work on getting the various races to cooperate together and to do that having to do a lot of quid pro quo and making decisions that have been weighted with the decisions made in the previous two games. The conversations between the crew and important members on the Normandy SR-2 feel genuine as any pretext of distrust is put aside to work together for the betterment of the galaxy.

In between these missions you pick up secondary missions that are timed based off of mission progression and can fail if not seen to promptly. These missions can vary from counter-Cerberus combat missions to a mission with narrative weight, usually with a previous game's companion that you cannot recruit but can convince in joining the war effort.

The character work in between missions is improved on and one can see effort was taken to make the Normandy feel more organic with characters conversing amongst themselves and improved dialogue amongst characters.

The later half of the game is probably the best time to work on the DLC content, as the missions start to show a few cracks here and there, nothing too serious and the missions still do convey great emotion and weight. I mention this as most of the DLC content ( exception being the "From the Ashes"  which is probably best done early) do a good job of rounding out aspects in relation to the events.

A rough guideline could be "Omega" after the events Priority: Citadel II, "Leviathan" before Priority: Thessia and leaving the "Citadel" right before Priority: Cerberus Headquarters.

Now onto the point where I feel it is very difficult to not have subjective bias on and in writing that I will try to be as reasonable as I can. The moment when the wheels are in motion for the final act is a beautiful moment that slowly degrades to good and then leaves me feeling disappointed.

I write this knowing that every time I initiate that final jump it always brings me to tears. It is a simple but powerful thing seeing the results of your actions coming full circle from 3 games being condensed into a moment of unified glory. The battle scene that ensues is beautifully messy as fleets clash and act as screen to get the reinforcement you've gathered to reclaim Earth underway.

The moment of landing into a "hot zone" is intense and the combat tests all the skills that you have learnt up until now with the only disappointment being that Bioware has done something like this before in Dragon Age: Origin. 

This comment is more in line with a personal bias and probably unrealistic expectation considering how Bioware handled Origins finale. It was where your group was divided into two groups, one that is meant to deal with the final fight and the other is intended to act as a rearguard to ensure that your primary party could reach your target without enemy reinforcement - which on reflection is fairly similar in execution to how they did it in the Mass Effect 2 finale. Anyway, in your final push the player was given a power wheel which had limited reinforcements that simulated the effect of the forces you gathered as helping you push towards your goal. It really was just something seemingly simple as having allies spawn in to help you give the illusion that the fight is greater than you and helped sell the illusion of a grand battle.

From writing that, Mass Effect 3's ground battle finale felt too human-centric, it is sold as a galactic effort where at least there is the ground forces of Humans, Turians, Krogan and Asari should be participating. 

There is a scene where you see a Krogan unit preparing for battle and even in sharing your final words with all your crew members, including those that are still surviving via a video chat you feel like it will be an epic all species coming together and pulling their resources to give Shepard the greatest chance at accomplishing their goal of stopping the Reapers.

 

In a tangent, the characters in these final moments of quiet before the storm are excellent, it allows one the space and time to be able to talk to them one last time and mentally prepare oneself for what is to come. It feels like a fitting moment of comradery and closure ( not to be confused with the Citadel DLC.

There is this hopeful expectation that the decisions you made could be seen effecting, visibly, the battlefield. An example seeing Krogan and their Varren "hounds" supporting a push on one front, Asari commandos using their exceptional biotic power to provide support, Turian soldiers running and fighting side by side with Alliance marines. 

That is not mention the potential of having the support of the other races such as Geth Prime orbital drops, Elcor warriors providing ground support, Omega Mercenary Groups running Mech and soldier support and that just covers the groups that are the easiest to consider in relation to potential ground military assistance.

What is disappointing then is that the push appears to be an exclusive human effort, it has a "Systems Alliance Leads the Way" feel and all allies are fighting in their own sector. It feels a bit jarring and in having an expectation that your assets would at least get a passing reference like in Mass Effect 2 how it has a positive influence on an outcome seeing just humanity fighting in the final stretch hurts the impact of the narrative that has been pushing that humanity cannot do this fight alone.

It doesn't ruin the story so much as cause some dissonance if one comes in with the quality set by Bioware in previous games.

Now comes the part I dread to write, but feel I need to at least add my elephant to the already over-packed room: 

The Ending (Spoiler  Warning)

Personally I would have been accepting if it ended with the speech with Anderson and in your last moments pressed the button on the Crucible console and the light show played out and ran epilogue slides giving the Effect of your actions throughout the series as a send off for your heroic sacrifice having stopped the Reapers - I would have accepted it, maybe feel disappoint, but it would be an end.

That additional segment with the infamous "Star Child", it felt unnecessary. It is like a magician showing how they do a magic trick, once the mystery is "solved" it loses all sense of mystery. Sovereign, from Mass Effect 1, said: 

"My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation. Independent, free of all weakness. You cannot even grasp the nature of our existence."

could it just be grandstanding and arrogance talking but with that line it sets a precedent that this is an alien race that has transcended their mortal shackles and exist in a plane of higher understanding.

With the Star Child explaining their motives and goals, it doubles down and removes all the agency of the Reapers, even though they are an existential threat. Some great unknown all powerful threat gets reduced to the folly of arrogance and single minded thinking and by showing this and confirming it again it feels like neutering the scale of what the Reapers represent.

The choice that the it represents also flies somewhat contradictory to the themes the Mass Effect games have been representing, where both Saren and the Collectors show the futility of merging flesh with machine when it speaks of Synthesis and how The Illusive Man vision of "controlling" the Reapers seems like a vision doomed to fail by both his fall from grace as well as showing how distressful the experience is when one is plugged into a digital consciousness with the events of Project Overlord.

From that subjective view, the only options are Destroy and Refuse. Even then Refuse feels like the sequence is all just some dream as it is quick to drop all facade and assume the voice of Harbinger in its disgust - although it does somewhat feel like a victory of moral superiority is won even if it cost the lives of all sufficiently advanced sapient life in the Milky Way. Destroy when I subjectively look at the characters and what they stand for feels like the "most correct" option, but even then the appearance of the "Star Child Sequence" puts into question if it was real.

The options given to Shepard are then played out and because of this narrative dissonance that no option is wrong it makes the ending feel less impactful and disjointed. Whatever Shepard chooses they are a "Chosen One" and the effects seemly take place and the threat of the Reapers is considered "solved" but the validity of this always has this element of doubt in it finality.

I give credit to the extended cut content on fleshing out the end content in a more satisfying way, but, again I want to emphasize, subjectively it does leave one feeling disappointed when one compares to Bioware's other works like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Jade Empire and Dragon Age: Origins in providing endings that feel satisfying.

Before I provide a conclusion, I would also like to mention Multiplayer from Mass Effect 3 and just a few words on it. It was for all intents and purpose good. It had an extensive selection of races to choose from and unlock, the weapon selection was good and in a big surprise for an EA game was that the in-game store was surprisingly reasonable. It is unfortunate that it was not included in the Legendary Edition, but I will say it was a surprising addition to the game that was better than expected.

In closing, Mass Effect 3 is a great game with great moments, improvements to the gameplay that feels great to play when compared to previous entries, the enemy variety and how they act is an improvement, has moments of truly awe-inspiring art direction and something I have not mentioned much over writing about the three games but should get special mention is the music.

For me a sign of great music is when it is there but does not throw one out of the scene and complements so well that it one does not realise it is there until you focus. The music of the game does a great job of blending with the gameplay, action and combat scenes and I commend the individual(s) responsible throughout all three games.

Overall I feel like it is great game series that is only let down by the weight of expectation that the trilogy had created and how previous Bioware games had been able build and deliver satisfying conclusions in their previous games and if anything I do feel like it came up short when put to scale of the incredible and complex world that the Mass Effect universe created. 

Which is a shame as the game has many moments where the decisions one makes throughout all three games come to a head and you can experience some truly emotional scenes based on it. The game takes one on a journey where one can feel a wide range of emotions, with each iteration building on the form and mechanics from its predecessor and over the series builds this grand scale that, unfortunately they could not deliver 100% on, but still builds something that is special and with deep relationships and ,overall, a good narrative.

 

Go back to part 2:
Mass Effect: What I find great about it - Part 2

Go back to part 1:
Mass Effect: What I find great about it - Part 1

Images Sources:

IGDB Mass Effect Legendary Edition

IGDB Mass Effect 3

 

Video Source:

Mass Effect Legendary Edition Reveal Trailer