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    Mass Effect 3

    Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Mar 06, 2012

    When Earth begins to fall in an ancient cycle of destruction, Commander Shepard must unite the forces of the galaxy to stop the Reapers in the final chapter of the original Mass Effect trilogy.

    trottyvek's Mass Effect 3 (Xbox 360) review

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    • trottyvek has written a total of 10 reviews. The last one was for Shank 2
    • This review received 4 comments

    Mass Effect 3: The Deathly Hallows

    The Mass Effect story is a three part arc, and even though there are many planet sized fire fights the main show is running into old and very old friends to say your goodbyes. And as my title suggests you can't usher in galactic salvation without cracking a few eggs.

    As the final act of Shepard's story Bioware keeps new faces to a minimum. New characters like Vega aren't necessarily bad so much as they're the new kids with nothing to say. And honestly, it's hard to compete with veteran characters like Garrus and Liara, which players have had 30-40 hours to become heavily invested in.

    At the end of Mass Effect 2, assuming you didn't make every possible wrong choice, there were roughly 15 squad members total from both games that could potentially fill out the roster for Mass Effect 3. With such a deep well it was a little disappointing to end up with a squad 1/3 that size with no returns from any ME2 characters. Granted, many headlined their own story mission it still felt a bit light.

    As far as some of the things people are crying fowl over, like Jessica Chobot and the tacked on COD multiplayer I found them both such small side-shows to the main attraction they never bothered me. To start, Chobot plays such a small part it's a stretch to call her a secondary or even tertiary character. The separate multiplayer mode is fine, but I've never thought of the shooter component of the series as the best part. It's good enough, but for those interested the character progression, weapon modification, and skill trees should keep you busy.

    With each passing mission I grew uncomfortable; not for humanity's sake but for that final goodbye. A good story leaves you wanting more, and in almost every encounter I wanted those missions to last just a little bit longer (particularly Thane's). Games may not have the best reputation when it comes to narrative, but when it's done right games can trump any other medium. Mass Effect has done it right.

    4 Comments

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    honkyjesus

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    Edited By honkyjesus

    It wasn't the fact of how much Chobot was in the game, it was the fact that she was in the game. She does work for IGN and some G4 or GT shows. She got on my ship at some point until I was given the option to kick her fifty pound head off of it. If you couple that with the awkward choice of Freddie Prinze as a streetwise Hispanic, that is just so off it would seem a joke. Glad when I got a third squadmate so I didn't have to bring him along.

    The other glaring problems include the technical issues and the fact it really isn't an RPG. I won't even elaborate on those things nor the button mashing I had to do to get past about fifty hours of cutscenes. I literally know very little about the story of this one, if you skip past the tedious cutscenes you are left with the story of your average shooter. Which is what I took from the game.

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    Ultimasta

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    Edited By Ultimasta

    @honkyjesus:

    Tedious? The main focus of all three games has been in making a semi choose-your-own adventure and it was great seeing how things changed in the galaxy. If you're skipping cutscenes or find them tedious, you're missing the point.

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    TrottyVek

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    Edited By TrottyVek

    @Ultimasta: my thoughts exactly

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    honkyjesus

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    Edited By honkyjesus

    The cutscenes would have literally added ten hours to my eleven hours of playtime. A lot of folks dig the story, I just find it to be a little Star Wars-ey. I have no idea what actually happened in the game, at some point Shepard becomes the Terminator and Joker bangs a computer's floppy slot.

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