When Mass Effect 2 arrived, stylised and looking like a boy who had become a man, following BioWare’s first, shaky foray into an original space-faring IP with Mass Effect, it was to the chagrin of many that despite this new sheen, the game had lost much of its RPG foundation. Combat was no longer settled by the roll of a dice, and character levelling was so streamlined, it might as well have had racing stripes. But maybe the point all along is that Mass Effect, as a series, has always been a shooter trapped in an RPG body.

It’s hard to tell, really. But with all the metagaming in tow, there’s one clear fact about Mass Effect: story is paramount. And this is a tale that literally spans the galaxy, and at such epic scale, it ends with so much gusto, so much luster, so much weight... *breathes into a bag* so much awesome, that it's almost impossible to relay in words. Planet to planet, character to character, the game delivers the goods on almost every level, but when the space dust clears the end is truly realised - something almost unheard of in the videogame landscape.



EA and BioWare have been readily talking up the idea that if you’ve never played Mass Effect before, this third chapter is the perfect place to start. And to a degree, there’s a lot in place to back this claim up. You can now jump into the game with the option to play it purely for the Action, or only for its story or for the full “RPG experience”. All the in-game help you could need can also be turned on, or you can just have it all automated so all you need to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. But ultimately, all you’re getting here is less than one-third of the epic experience.

If you’d never played the game before, then you’d have no idea how much weight the death of Kaidan played on Shepard, and his (or her) relationship with Ashley. Or how keeping Urdnot Wrex alive meant so much in the grand scheme of human-Krogan relations. You wouldn’t know the epic bureaucracy involved with becoming a Spectre, or even the gravity of being the first human ever invited to join its ranks. You wouldn’t have experienced the absolute disdain laid upon you by Jack for siding with Miranda, or have been flattered at the adulation from Tali in face of all your heroism and heavy decision-making. Honestly, you wouldn’t know much at all.

So going against their grain, you can definitely jump into the deep-end here, but so much of what’s happening, or how specific relationships play out just wouldn’t make sense, and amazing as this game is (and believe me, it’s amazing), I’m going to recommend starting right from the start for Mass Effect newcomers. In fact, it would be a massive disservice to the opus BioWare created with all three games to only jump in now, and despite Mass Effect 3’s excellent exposition, you just wouldn’t fully understand the context of the gravity of Earth, and the Galaxy’s, situation.



I also won’t lie about coming into Mass Effect 3 with a load of trepidation. The addition of multiplayer, for one, had me worried. Along with the aforementioned gameplay options to literally dumb down your experience with the game, but going balls-out and setting foot in Shepard’s boots once more in the way the dev team intended (read: “full RPG experience”) immediately hooked me. For aficionados, the experience is very much the same with only a handful of changes, and most for the better. Conversations are the same dynamic experience as ever, and in-game cut-scene Paragon or Renegade options return for the better. Squad commands are back and are much more robust this time around due to what feels like tweaked AI. Your teammates are much better behind the trigger, or with their Psiotic powers, and I felt like each encounter with an equally tweaked enemy AI was not only easier to manage, but more visceral on the whole.

Cover mechanics have also been adjusted, and moving between points feels much more refined and organic. Enemies will aggressively flank you now, and thanks to an upgraded series of archetypes, you’ll need to tactically engage them with far more forethought. Simple additions such as grenades though, make for a more action-oriented third-person shooter experience, which sits nicely juxtaposed to the conversation-seeking parts of the game, and it’s all dished out in well-balanced servings, keeping you readily on your toes, and happily relaxed in character engagement.

Oddly enough, the stand-out moment for me came very early in the piece when first setting foot on Mars. Throughout the whole series I’ve walked on some of the most picturesque and amazingly realised fantasy planets the imagination could muster, but actually seeing a fully realised Mars, replete with human colonisation, just took the cake. The fact the planet actually exists and in my lifetime will likely see humans on its surface just made the moment more magical, and despite its dreary red hue and lack of stand-out features, the art team did an amazing job of bringing it to life. Standing there and being told to focus in on the massive dust cloud on the horizon; closing in on you like some ubiquitous Mars-sized tsunami was breathtaking.



It’s this single moment that, for me, sums up the whole experience. Mass Effect 3 is about humanity, and saving it. The Reapers invade Earth within the first few minutes of the game, with the cost to life being thrown at you in dramatic form right from the outset. BioWare waste no time reminding you just why you need to step back into the boots of Commander Shepard, but once this is established, they also know that as a human, it’s your place to explore and engage in compelling ways, and at your own pace. And this is something Mass Effect 3 delivers in galactic spades.

Little things such as dynamic eaves-dropping that leads to full-fledged investigative side-quests, or pursuing relationships again, or hitting RT at just the right moment to knock out an annoying reporter make the Mass Effect experience so... effective.

Sure the game has its flaws. Be it the annoying camera issues that pop up at the most crucial of times, or some of the wooden dialogue from less-memorable characters, it can be forgiven. And we can also forgive the team for touting weapon customisation as a robust RPG element when in actuality it’s simply a case of two options per weapons, and often fairly superfluous. Everything that I came across that felt a little bit wrong, was as quickly forgiven as it was found. There’s just too much in the way of scope here to utterly scold minor misgivings that, frankly, don’t detract from what the game is about - saving humanity.



Never before has a game felt like so much was on the line. And this brings me back to the point about having to sink your teeth into the series proper. There's no possible way to relay the weight of investment for those of us coming into Mass Effect 3 fully armed with the knowledge and interactions of events from the previous two games - all of that pays off triple here. And I can't stress enough how much you need to experience the narrative length from its beginnings, because otherwise, you just won't fully understand what's at stake for all of humanity, and all of the galaxy.

And that’s where Mass Effect 3 wins. At being a humanising game; an experience that transcends ‘videogame’ to something much more than simply creating a character and shooting a bunch of aliens in the face. It’s a piece of interactive art at the highest level and a perfect crescendo to one of the great sci-fi dramas of our time. An absolute must-buy.