Mass Effect 3

Alright everything this is my first review so bear with me if some of the details are sketchy. I’m doing this to test the interface for Smoke as well as possibly looking into doing many more reviews for the clan! So let’s get started…

To start off I have been a part of the Mass Effect franchise since it’s founding and been a long-time fan of the Shepard and his exploits. This is going to remain as much of an unbiased review as possible and I will do my best to not judge it from ME1 and 2.

Story

The story begins where Shepard has left Cerberus and has moved back to Earth. From here you can tell that things are about to get interesting, as we left the end of Mass Effect 2 there was a mass wave of Reapers headed towards Earth and their intent was to destroy many of the planets inhabited by the council species. Shepard since returning from their suicide mission of the Omega 4 relay began his quest to inform as many people about the Reapers and their pursuit to destroy life. Something I want to reiterate here about the choices made in previous Mass Effects. When you made the choices you made you really didn’t realize that they would be have such an effect on your game throughout the whole series so keep that into consideration as your game goes on. This is a *spoiler* free review so I am not going to to go into much depth as far as story mode but I want to add that my biggest disappointment with this game was not the ending to which many of the gamers out there think it is, it’s the lack of characters and their development. To me there is a lack of storyline between each character, the romancing is lacking as it wasn’t in previous Mass Effects. It’s however not a game breaker for me though. The ending was disappointing to an extent since there was a lack of answers but at the same time we can’t judge the game for what there isn’t but some of the great aspects that there are! BioWare has rumored that there is a strong possibility of a new DLC being released that will alter the ending of the game and explain some more of the short falls that are present. All I have to say about the storyline is that you need to give it a chance.  Hopefully there will be some new DLC coming out soon that will pump this game up!

Story rating: 7.75

Gameplay

I’ll say what I’ve always said about Mass Effect, I LOVE the setup. It’s a personal opinion of course. I think that as far as most action RPG’s the user-interface is very friendly. It holds true from Mass Effect 2. Your abilities and your equipment are very similar. There are some slight differences where as now there is a “weight” factor involved with your weapons which makes your weapons hold a big factor when using your abilities. So rather then running around with a complete ensemble of guns you usually will want to focus on 2 weapons and if you are more ability based you may even just want to run a strong pistol so you can continue pump out warps, pulls, and adrenaline rush! The gameplay is generally smooth and there is plenty ammo to boot. I haven’t done an insanity run through yet but I will eventually.

There is also a new part of the game where you boost your “Galactic readiness” where each match of multiplayer boosts this score and helps you in the singleplayer campaign. Many of the single player missions throughout the game will give you the ability to add new forces to your arsenal which is a totally sweet part of the game.

Gameplay: 9/10

Graphics

The graphics in this game are top notch. I can honestly say that through the flow of everything that the combat was smooth running and the facial expressions we spot on. I think my favorite part of the game was seeing the massive alien fleets fight. It truly was a spectacle. There is that certain factor anyone could say that this could be better or that but as a whole I was thoroughly impressed!

Graphics rating: 10/10

Multiplayer

Mass Effect 3 brought some strong innovations to the floor with the introduction of a multiplayer game mode which resembles “Horde” mode from Gears of War 3. The multiplayer might very well be my favorite part of this game. There are many classes along with different styles of abilities. You can run with a squad of four and play a handful of different levels on 3 different difficulties. Bronze, silver, and gold with each getting much more trying as you progress. There are also different species of enemies you can fight from the geth to the reapers. The multiplayer is thoroughly enjoyable and even the servers have been fairly strong. I have yet to disconnect from a match.

Multiple rating: 9/10

Controls: The controls are easy and straightforward. There aren’t very many issues with them. All and all if you enjoyed the whole franchise this game will be a breeze for you.

Control rating: 10/10

On the end note please don’t hate too much on my review haha… it’s nothing more then a side project I have going on and all in all a work in progress!