Mass Effect 3 Review
I have been both dreading, and dying to play the final chapter in the Shepard saga that has been part of Mass Effect. I've played through the first and second game, loving the fact that my saves have sculpted my experience into something probably unique to most. It is finally the time to take on the Reapers, and try to save not only Earth, but the very galaxy's existence. You'll get to meet old friends, and make some new ones. There's a lot of game here to explore, if you want to, or you can find a very straight forward story that will see the ending at a much quicker pace.
Graphically this lives up to the standard that we have grown to expect from this series. You're going to see several different planets, and of course several different areas that you'll have to battle through to help your cause. I do have some issue with the conversational cut scenes, it was beyond rare to actually see the voices synched up to the actual voices. There's also the very obvious lag issue that can happen when you're in combat and there's just too much going on causing the game to slightly sputter.
The music in the game is the same as you're been listening to since the beginning, and I've personally enjoyed the majority of it, so I had no problem with the music not really changing all that much. The true gem of this game is the voices, and the talent that they got to sign on to do them. Sure there are some poeple who you might have only heard of if you're huge into knowing voice actors for video games, but there are also TV stars and movie stars to be found in the credits.
The controls of the game are the same as they have been in previous games. You're going to use the left trigger to zoom, your right to fire, the right shoulder button to bring up special abilities, and the left to change your weapons. You're also going to find that the other buttons will have an equally important to role.
There is part of me that wishes that the story of the game is uniform across the board so that I can talk about what I liked and what I didn't like, but because of the use of previous game saves my experience was crafted by my past decisions. What I can tell you is that you'll be on the Normandy again, as the Reapers have finally decided that its time to cleanse the universe of all the races that they deem a threat. You're going to have an assortment of crew members to help you on your missions. I recommend giving everyone you've got a chance to see who you like to battle along side with the most. You're also going to be trying to play the role of diplomat, in whatever way you see fit, as you try to rally the other races to a mutual cause. You might lose races for your actions, and you might gain allies that you can only gain by turning your back on another race. At the end of the day, however, you've got a ton of decisions that will rest on your shoulders, and hopefully you'll have made enough good ones to help keep you alive. There was one piece to the game that I never got to really use, and I'm not sure why, I'm sure if I read a manual it would be crystal clear, or not, but there's a War Map that you can look at from a terminal that was always locked and I could never select a region to do anything with the troops I had acquired.
So with the graphical glitches from time to time, and the voice acting never quite syncing up with the faces I have to say that I wasn't impressed with that part. There's also the Kinect piece which really boils down to allow you to speak commands or conversation selections so that you can keep your fingers in the ready position, but I have to say that it does come off a bit gimmicky, and most of the stuff that you have to say could be done as quickly with a control, as with saying it. Should you get this game if you've played any of the games in the past, yes, there's definitely something there that will give you some closure to the game, there's also so many different ways to play the game that there's a good chance that your experience will not line up in many aspects to your friends', so give the game a go. This game with a couple of bumps in the road still deserves the rating of 9.2 out of 10.
