Video game review: Mass Effect 3 (PC)

In 2005, developer Bioware took the world of video games by storm when they announced the Mass Effect project. A sci-fi RPG space adventure set in the futuristic world. What really grabbed the attention was that the game would allow players to make "choices that matter" to the story development. Mass Effect 1 and 2 were released in 2007 and 2010 respectively, and have both received critical acclaims from both the critics and the general public. The main protagonist of the series, commander Shepard, have also become one of the most beloved video game characters, where millions of players around the world have spend hundreds of hours, crafting their own story for their version of commander Shepard.

The success behind the Mass Effect series is mostly that the game allows the players to "craft" their own stories, by constantly making choices through playing the role of commander Shepard. On the epic quest to save the galaxy. In Mass Effect 3, Bioware has promised to bring a satifactory conclusion to the commander Shepard story arc.

Story:

In 2157, we discovered a strange device called "Mass Replay" at the far corner of our solar system. In 30 years' time, human race managed to harvest the technological knowledge from the device, and bring about great technological advancements. Eventually, human race sent space ships through the mass replay, and discovered that we, are no alone in this universe. Mass replay, are simply devices (gateways) that connect one solar system to another, where intelligent life forms exist.

All known life forms in the universe formed a galactic system of governance. Based on a gigantic space station called "Citidal". In the event of Mass Effect 1, a human soldier, a commander of a spaceship named Shepard, was put on the case to investigate strange activities at the far side of the space. Shepard discovered that an ancient, synthetic alien life form, known as the "reapers" had a plan to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy. Shepard successfully thwarted the reapers' plan, but died later during a mission at the beginning of the story in Mass Effect 2.

In Mass Effect 2, the bodily remain of Shepard was recovered by a human supermacist group called "Cerberus", the organization spent tremendous amount of resources and capitals to "resurrect" Shepard. After returning to life, Shepard was put on a mission to investigate the strange disappearances of people on human colonies throughout the galaxy, which led to the revelation of a consipiracy plan by an alien group called "Collectors", who was working with the Reapers to wipe out organic life in the galaxy.

After Shepard successfuly stopped the Collector's plan, in Mass Effect 3, Shepard was accused of being a war criminal due to his actions in Mass Effect 2, and was put under house arrest on earth. Despite Shepard's warning of the Reapers' threat. The council ignored the warnings, and was completely unprepared when the Reapers finally made a massive invasion on earth, and simultaneously across the galaxy. Outmatched by the Reapers, Shepard had no option but to flee the earth, on a mission to unite the different alien races across the galaxy, in a final confrontation against the Reapers before all organic life forms are wiped out.

Needless to say, Mass Effect 3 is more epic than both of its predecessors, as the central plot involves assembling a unison of galactic fleet for a final showdown against the Reapers. The player can import their save games from Mass Effect 2, where the decisions they made in the previous games will shape the story in Mass Effect 3. Just as previous Mass Effect games, commander Shepard has a team of squad members who can join Shepard on this epic adventure. One of the strength of Mass Effect stories is that, as you play the game, you will become familiarized with your squad members, by having conversations with them, or be in missions with them in life and death situations.

In Mass Effect 3, the squad is smaller to the size of squad members in Mass Effect 2. However, a lot of old friends returns to join Shepard, while some new members also make their first appearances in the series. Bioware has done a really good job in connecting the players to these squad members. You will feel like you actually know them towards the end of the game, and that adds weights to your decision making, when you have to make difficult choices in the story.

Another success of the story is that new comers do not have to play the previous two games to be able to enjoy Mass Effect 3. The story narratives in Mass Effect 3 reveals the essential plot revolving around the first two games, so if you are new, it is likely that you will be able to pick up the story of Mass Effect after a few hours.

Bioware released an amazing trailer called "Take Earth Back", see below



Gameplay and design:

Mass Effect has been gradually evolving towards a 3rd person shooter game. In Mass Effect 3, the gameplay is even more action packed than Mass Effect 2. While the core game mechanics and engine hasn't been changed much since ME2, but Shepard definitely has more freedom of movement in Mass Effect 3. For example, now Shepard can sprint, jump and climb ladders. The game still retain the RPG elements from the first two games. There are still five character classes: Soldier, adept, infiltrator, engineer and sentinel. Each class has its own unique skills and play style. Mass Effect 3 also has a large library of weapon and armors. There are all together 32 sets of armors for Shepard to equip. The weapons can also be customized and upgraded. These features retain the classic RPG elements. I think Bioware has managed to improve the RPG/shooter hybrid gameplay in Mass Effect 3, and deserve to be commended for this achievement.

Enemy AI has been improved, they are now more aggresive, smarter and generally harder to beat. Mass Effect 3 is the hardest game in the trilogy with ramped up difficulty level, and should appease critics who criticized the first two games from being too "easy".

The artistic and atmospheric design of Mass Effect 3 is somewhat between Mass effect 2, and Mass Effect 1. The various alien worlds and planets have their own unique outlooks, and the mission environment gave senses of danger and urgency. The voice acting is pretty good, although slightly dull compared to the voice acting in Mass Effect 2, but once again, Martin Sheen gave a great voice acting performance as the character of "Illusive man".

Graphics and sound:

Although still graphically impressive, but it seems Mass Effect 3 is using the same graphics engine as Mass Effect 2, and there are signs that this graphics engine is beginning to show signs of age. While the characters still look detailed and realistic, but the environment can sometimes look a bit rough around the edges. Compared to Batman Arkham City which came out last year, the graphics of Mass Effect 3 looks slightly dated. But that is not saying the graphics is bad, Mass Effect 3 still looks impressive all around.

The soundtrack in Mass Effect 3 is, in my opinion the most memorable in the series. While some of the voice acting is a bit flat, but the sound effect and the soundtracks are still great. Especially on 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound system.


My thoughts about the game (warning: minor spoiler!!)

Since the release of Mass Effect 3 on 6th March. The game has generated a lot of controversies over the issues of day one DLC, and even bigger expressions of anger and frustrations over the endings.

In regard to day one DLC, personally I am unaffected by this, as I bought the collector's edition of Mass Effect 3 which came with the DLC. I guess it is only fair to say that maybe Bioware should have just released one format, which is the collector's edition which contained everything. Having said this, the problem is that most people don't want to pay the extra 20 dollars for collector's edition, but this really is a minor problem.

The biggest controversy, is the ending of this popular sci-fi trilogy. Fans of Mass Effect complained that seemingly, the previous choices they made in the previous games actually has no impact to the ending, and all 16 possible endings in Mass Effect 3 are essentially identical. Furthermore, all the endings are quite depressing and gloomy. There is a facebook petition where angry fans have gathered, demanding Bioware to change the endings.

Personally, while I can understand where these angry fans are coming from, but I, for one, actually really liked the endings of Mass Effect 3.

I cannot think of a better way to end this remarkable sci-fi trilogy, this is why:

At the final moment of Mass Effect 3, I finally realized Bioware, is trying to explore an age old theological/philosophical/scientific dilemma in Mass Effect 3 story, the dilemma of "Free will vs. predestination".

Players of Mass Effect series would know that, the series is famous for giving players the freedom to make choices that shape the story arc of the games. By giving the player the ability to import saved games from their previous games, this allows the player to craft their own stories. However, at the end of Mass Effect 3, the players are faced with 3 choices to end the story, each choice will lead to almost the same result at large, but with minor different consequences.

This gives players the feeling of "illusion of free will", or "illusion of personal choices". No matter how hard you worked in the previous two games, making the best choice, attempting to bring about the perfect ending you would want in Mass Effect 3, at the end of the day, it is all futile. As players are shut down by the immovable obstacle, the obstacle of predestination, the inescapable fate that occurs in the infinite space and time.

To be honest, I was really stunned by the ending of Mass Effect 3, when my beloved commander Shepard literally "vaporized" into thin air, in his final act of self sacrifice to save billions of lives. While my final choice did have minor impacts on the future of the universe, but by large. The choices I've made throughout the entire game could not save Shepard from his final fate, one way or another.

This led me to ask the question:

Do we really have choices in life? Are we able to obtain "happy endings" that we want by hard work? Or are we all on the highway to an unavoidable destiny and nothing that we do really matters? Furthermore, does anything matter at all?

There is a good reason why the age old debate of free will vs. predestination is an ongoing discussion. This is because no one in the history, nor the greatest thinkers or the best of the philosophers that ever walked the earth have able to figure out the exact answer.

One thing is for certain, that you and I, and everyone else, have a limited time on earth. Everyone living human being knows their destiny, that the physical death of our bodies, is inevitable. That is the one inescapable destiny that awaits all of us. Just as in Mass Effect, in Shepard's final moment, he realized that no matter what he chooses, he cannot escape his inevitable fate, but Shepard didn't get stuck in trying to figure out the answer to predestination vs. free will, nor did Shepard become paralytic and gave in to his "seemingly" inescapable fate. Shepard knows what really matters, knowing his limited time and destiny, Shepard made the choice and decision that holds most true to his belief and value, for the best of everyone else. In other words, while it may seem that Shepard had no power over his final fate, but he still made the choice that really mattered in the end, because Shepard believed his belief and values, were more important than himself!

Will the answer to the dilemma of "free will vs. predestination" do anyone any good? Personally, I don't think such knowledge will bring much practical benefit to anyone's life.

Perhaps, instead of trying to get a knowledgeable answer, it is more valuable to walk away with a wisdom:

Because our time on earth is limited, with the predestined fate of our physical death, we ought to base all of our choices on what we uphold to be the most true, according to our belief and values, according to something bigger than us. Live a life that reflects what we earnestly believe to be truth and meaningful, in this sense, our lives and our choices really matter!

But the question is, what is it that you earnestly believe to be true? Have you found the belief and value that you uphold as bigger than yourself?


Final score:

Story 9.6/10 - Mass Effect 3 brings a satisfactory conclusion to the story of commanders Shepard. Personally, I think there is no better way to conclude this remarkable story with its current endings. While it is certainly not a happy ending, but at least it is an interesting and meaningful one that leaves much room for interpretations.

Gameplay 9.6/10 - Mass Effect 3 proves to be the most challenging game in the series yet. It is a really good blend between RPG and action.

Graphics 9/10 - While still graphically impressive, the current graphics engine is beginning to show signs of age. There are occasional graphical glitches in the game.

Sound 8.5/10 - The soundtracks are good, but the voice acting is a bit flat at times.

Violence - heavy - As commander Shepard trying to stop an invading alien force, you kill lots of... stuff... lots...

Sex - Mild - Another controversy about Mass Effect 3 is the homosexual romance option. The player will have the option to romance same sex squad members. With the current hot topic of legalization of same sex marriages, Bioware seems to be making a propaganda by saying that in the future, same sex romance should be a norm in our society.

Final score: 9.4/10 - Mass Effect 3 is a great way to end an otherwise amazing sci-fi adventure. It is hard to part ways with commander Shepard, but nevertheless a great way to say goodbye to commander Shepard.