Note: This review contains plot details from my own personal playthrough of all three Mass Effect games. You have been warned.
I enjoy the Mass Effect series for its world, not necessarily its story. As a plot, it’s rather thin and hinges on a lot of science fiction tropes. I am a sucker for a good “powerful aliens arrive to wipe out all life as we know it” tale, but will be the first to admit that it’s already passed its expiration date. However, the world that Drew Karpyshyn and his fellow writers crafted for the first Mass Effect game was nothing sort of extraordinary. It feels alive, lived-in, in a way that all proper world building should.
Properly continued on in the sequel, the world really comes full circle by the end of the trilogy in ways that left me satisfied, even when the emotions associated with the latest development wasn’t positive. Yes, more than once during Mass Effect 3, I felt myself profoundly moved, and there are even greater moments to be discovered depending on the choices made in the first two games. Once I headed into Quarian space, the game’s storyline suddenly enveloped me and I ended up playing until 5am. I just had to know what happened next.
As the last game in the series, and concerning no less than a galactic Apocalypse, I was ready to see a narrative that would really push the bar in regards to the world and the characters during this galactic upheaval, and expected apainful dismemberment of the Normandy crew. That wasn’t the case. Starting off, I had saved everyone up to that point with the exception of Ashley (it’s either her or Kaidan and I couldn’t get over how much Kimberly Brooks sounds like Mila Kunis) and Mordin (who, tragically, was the sole casualty on board the Collector Base). By the time ME3 had “finished”, I had only lost two of my former squad mates.
I really liked Thane Krios. A hired assassin who had a picture-perfect memory, Krios would re-live events from his past during conversation. It was a very inventive character. But Krios was already dying during the events of Mass Effect 2, a disease was slowly eating away at the time he had left. Thus, his death in ME3 comes as no surprise, though the storyline gives him the opportunity for one last bit of heroics beforehand, and he ends up dying from a wound, not from his disease. Thane’s character was already handled well in the previous game, and so the heroic sacrifice for the safety of the Salarian councilor comes off as a little trite, as if simply dying in a hospital while a disease overtakes him isn’t good enough.
Tali’Zorah commits suicide after the Quarian fleet is destroyed, depending on your response to Legion’s request to upload Reaper data to the Geth. It’s a shocking moment, even more considering the entire Quarian race is literally wiped out when they refuse to cease fire on the enhanced Geth. It was a bit frustrating because choices in the Mass Effect series are usually clearer. I had no idea that the Quarians would force the Geth’s hand. And I had earlier brokered a successful alliance between the Krogan/Turians/Salarians! Even stranger is that if you allow Legion to begin the upload, and then stop him in the middle of it, dialogue options become available that might allow you to save and align both races. It was very frustrating to have that dialogue choice that ended up going wrong in every conceivable way. Thank god I decided to return to Liara for my romance option.
How Cerberus is portrayed is also a mixed bag. I really enjoyed how Mass Effect 2 placed Cerberus in an ethical gray area. In the first game, they were mostly human cannon fodder for those times when you got tired of shooting up members of other species. ME2 changed that and offered some interesting situations in which Shepard works with Cerberus in order to stop the collectors. You never really got a sense of where the Illusive Man really stood on issues, and I thought it added a nice depth of complexity to the storyline and world. In ME3, Cerberus is painted with the broad brush of evil. You never question whether actively opposing them is a good idea. None of the Cerberus missions do anything but display them in the worst light possible. I would have enjoyed it more if you were forced to make a decision at times in which Cerberus seemed to actually be doing some good.
Near the end of the game, when you make your assault on the main Cerberus, you find a bunch of terminals that playback log entries from before the events of Mass Effect 2. The very first of these hints that Cerberus may not have actually been able to rebuild Shepard. My first thought was “my god, what if he’s a clone or a synthetic or something?” The storyline chickens out, though, and we find out stuff we really already knew in ME2, making the log entry discoveries kind of pointless. The only big revelation is EDI being the rogue AI from the Luna mission in the first game. Interesting, but hardly life-altering. I was really hoping for something juicy from Shepard’s time on that operating table.
Speaking of EDI, I felt that her character arc was handled well and provided a nice juxtaposition of the organics dealing with a cybernetic humanoid lifeform that wasn’t a previous enemy (Luna mission notwithstanding). While Joker’s obvious infatuation with EDI could have easily become corny, it was handled well both with the script and great voice acting by Seth Green and Tricia Helfer.
Where Mass Effect 2 went a little overboard with the number of potential squad mates at your disposal, ME3’s selection is sane. You can rebuild a lot of the old crew, but certain characters are only available during specific missions or after their mission arc is completed, which is fine, but dumping two new characters into the mix was a poor choice. I can understand it from a game design perspective, but given the storyline, it just didn’t appeal to me.
Javik is the last remaining Prothean, rescued from a state of suspended animation on Eden Prime. Javik was a source of controversy because he is only included with the “From Ashes” DLC that was released alongside Mass Effect 3, thus could have been a part of the core gameplay experience. Frankly, I could have done without Javik. The first game instills a sense of wonder concerning this ancient race that ruled the galaxy and was suddenly wiped out, and “From Ashes” obliterates this mystery and makes the Protheans the West African version of Jar Jar Binks. This is even referenced by Liara dealing with the upheaval of having to adjust her own mental image of Protheans and Prothean society. I would have preferred to leave that society a complete mystery. We know them only as having been re-engineered into the Collectors by the Reapers, and there are no Collectors to be seen this time around.
James Vega was added to provide the perspective of a new player starting off with the third game in a trilogy. Never mind how ridiculous that notion is of someone starting their experience with the series at the end, but outside of that, James is a very one-note character. There’s not a whole lot of backstory (that he’s willing to talk about at least) and when it came time to pick a squad mate, I always preferred to have someone at my side who I had been through hell and back with in the previous two games. Kudos to Mass Effect 3 for making that a consideration in the first place, but that always left James on the bench. I always preferred to have Kaidan or Garrus watching my back.
As a side note, I was really moved by Kaidan’s arc, especially in the friendship with him and Shepard. It felt very natural, especially in how it grew starting from the very first mission in Mass Effect. I did find Kaidan’s distrust of Shepard due to his involvement with Cerberus in ME2 to be a bit annoying, but thankfully it was dealt with soon enough and ceased to be an issue after the Citadel coup attempt mission.
And from there we slowly glide to the topic of Donnel Udina, who also gets something of a shaft in this storyline. Though having a prickly personality from the outset in the first game, his betrayal of the council and attempted coup at the behest of Cerberus should have been setup more. It was a great mission, and had a great showdown as he attempts stall everyone until Cerberus goons could show up, but there could have been more “oomph” to that moment. Had there been some indication of “I don’t trust this guy” in the previous games, Udina’s betrayal wouldn’t have felt like it came out of nowhere.
Another character that feels off is Kai Ling. The way characters react to Ling, I was thinking that he had been in a previous game as a character I failed to remember, but no, Ling’s prior appearance in that world was in the Mass Effect novels. I don’t think it’s necessarily an issue to reference characters and situations from extended universe type media (books, comics, iOS apps, ect.), but in my dealings with him, I felt like it made sense to know more about his character in the context of the goings-on.
While Mass Effect 3 is a dark game and definitely exudes the feeling of a galaxy going to complete shit, there is almost no backstabbing, especially not to the level that I felt it should be. Nothing bad happens for trusting anyone. Javik is especially antsy about Geth involvement in the final battle, but his warnings ultimately mean nothing. I would have really liked to seen the game allow a Paragon response that turns out to be a poor choice. As it stands, being nice to everyone always pays off in a good way (with the exception of never stopping Legion from uploading the Reaper data, but the Quarian extinction doesn’t directly stem from a betrayal of Shepard’s trust). Dealings with the Reapers themselves are also passed over. In the first two games, Shepard has moments in which he/she speaks directly with the Reaper personality of the game, but here they are just a “faceless” foe, no Sovereign or Harbinger to spice things up. The latter does make an appearance, but only to wreak havoc at the very end, a function that any generic Reaper ship could have provided.
Nothing pleased me more than to see an end to the Mako planetside driving sequences from the first game when Mass Effect 2 came out, though in its place was a monotonous sequence involving sending out probes to pick up resources on random planets. That game mechanic is even more simplified here, but with the added complexity of having Reaper ships invade the system whenever you scan for items to pick up. Thankfully, there’s only one item per discovery instead of having to mouse over planets again and again, but this is only marginally better. The Reapers are more of an annoyance than an actual threat during these sequences. Just scan around, avoid the Reaper ships, and if they get too close, navigate to the edge of the system, then return immediately for more time to search around. It still causes the narrative to grind to a screeching halt every time.
Scanning planets for “War Assets” is a tertiary mission conceit. These are problematic because you mostly get these missions by eavesdropping on people talking as you wander around the Citadel, and the Journal display is buggy when it comes to highlighting these missions and marking them as completed. Often, you’ll be told that you need to check out a planet which is not currently found on your Galactic Map and which won’t become visible until certain missions are played. Then, after you’ve scanned and discovered the necessary item to complete this assignment, you return to the Citadel to wander around, trying to find the person to whom the item is of most importance. It feels like a step back from the previous two games, especially given that none of the quest interaction ever take place in a cutscene moment, so they can be easy to miss. It just feels like busy work.
And now, the ending. About a third of the way through the game, I started to hope that the ending that I was hearing was riddled with controversy because it was dark instead of confusing. I could almost see the end being that the Reapers win and everyone dies, thus making it a pointless exercise of Shepard running around uniting the galaxy, only to find it all for naught: the Reapers are really unstoppable, and no amount of heroic acts would change that.
Once you reach Earth, you have to fight your way across the rubble-formally-known-as-London. This sequence is pretty long and employs a different style than what has come previously. You inch forward across the ruins, with wave after wave of enemies throwing themselves at you. It’s somewhat frustrating, but redeems itself only because it really feels like Earth is nearly a lost cause.
The final rush to the transport beam is quite exhilarating, dodging in and out between exploding debris and Harbinger’s energy beam. It’s the same epic scale that I remember when I played the first game, traveling up the side of the Citadel to stop Saren. This is way more intense, though far shorter.
I wasn’t expecting to get caught in Harbinger’s beam, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to end up playing as a wounded Shepard. It was quite a different experience, and a welcome one after much of the sameness with ME2. The encounter with the Illusive Man, as I mentioned before, is something of a letdown, and then, the Starchild.
First, I don’t think that this is the actual form of what Shepard is speaking with. It seems that it simply pulled the image from Shepard’s head to resonate with him. It’s a very “Architect”-kind of moment from the Matrix Reloaded. Shepard’s given a choice: take over the Reapers and withdraw, saving the galaxy, but destroying the Mass Relays in the process, trapping the galactic fleet in the Solar System. There’s also the ominous threat of a mere postponement of judgment day instead of anything permanent.
The second is to change the “solution”: merge synthetic with organic, save the galaxy for all time.
And a third: destroy all machine life, including the geth (possibly including EDI too).
So, at 4am, I picked the option to merge synthetic with organic life. My default-looking male Shep took a long run off a short pier and ended with Joker and EDI stepping out of the crashed remains of the Normandy to start their new life together as man-machine and machine.
The end.
