(Don't) Fear the Reapers - Mass Effect 3: Legendary Edition Review
Developer: Bioware | Platform: PS4 | Playtime: 39:05 | Platinum: 40:00
The third and final game in the Mass Effect trilogy, the Reapers have finally arrived in this galaxy and it’s not truly a war but a fight for survival. Being the climax of quite a rich trilogy of stories, Mass Effect 3 had to stick the landing and I’d wager it’s done it. I might go as far as to say it’s my favourite in the trilogy.
Major Story and Gameplay spoilers follow. Reader discretion is advised
Following on from the not very good Arrival DLC of ME2, Shepard is grounded on Earth due to her involvement in the destruction of a Batarian Colony. All the warnings about the Reapers have fallen on deaf ears and now they’re on Earth. Narrowly escaping, Shepard has to rally the forces in the Galaxy to build a Superweapon to deal with the Reapers.
Each game offers a different vibe – the first is an adventure to stop the bad guy, making friends along the way. The second is darker and more serious, a suicide mission that only the best of the best can make. The third then, feels really desperate. It’s all hands on deck, anyone who can hear the message. That’s not to say the game is depressing, there’s a fair bit of resolution had here with various storylines. The game mercifully wraps longstanding arcs up rather than creating brand new ones. I say not depressing, the player agency with Paragon/Renegade means you can have quite drastic outcomes for the end of the Quarian-Geth War and Curing the Krogan Genophage for example.
Your squad selection this time around is a mix of newcomers and series mainstays (provided they survived the Suicide Mission in 2). The selection is larger than the first game but smaller than the second meaning you can make more meaningful choices about who you bring along on missions, for both gameplay and story reasons. Dialogue during and post mission is much better than in previous titles, I enjoy how much more dynamic and alive it makes missions and the Normandy feel alive. Personal favourite is Shepard and Garrus teasing Liara about the Yahg they see on Sur’Kesh, a nice little throwback to the previous game’s ‘Lair of the Shadow Broker’ DLC
The Reapers and the Illusive Man/Cerberus are the major and secondary villains of the narrative. The Reapers are great but I think the Cerberus side of things didn’t quite hit the mark as well as they could of. I like most of what they did with the Illusive Man but don’t fully agree (him appearing close to a Husk is cool though). Kai Leng is just a crap villain, not sure what the plan was there.
In terms of gameplay, if the jump from the first to second game was revolutionary then the jump from second to third is more evolution with a fair bit of refinement to systems – everything’s been changed or scaled better.
Weapons are no longer locked behind class (Save for companion specialisation) and instead are based on weapon weight. The player can have three smaller weapons and two larger ones, with the weight changing how quickly the players power recharge – being over-encumbered means powers recharge slower, being lighter the opposite. Not sure if I would have gone with weight since the various customisable armour sets don’t affect anything. Weapons can be modified as normal but also upgraded and each of the statistics are more clearly displayed. Hooray.
Admittedly, the new Movement felt a little too smooth to begin with, but you get used to it. It benefits the faster pace of the game. Being able to leap small gaps allows more strategy and cinematography and the new ability to roll is nice too. Not being able to holster your weapon is a sad change but that’s a small gripe. The new upgrade screen is interesting, a mini skill tree gives more freedom than a linear progression without being overwhelming like some skill trees can be.
Navigation throughout the world map is largely the same as ME2, minus the resource gathering from the second game which is no real loss. There’s also no vehicle missions which again, no real loss. The main change when exploring is that Reapers can attack when you scan too much in space. Cool in concept but there’s literally no consequence - death respawns you when you first entered the system so you lose 30 seconds at most. I’m not sure what could have been done to make it cool but it’s a wee bit lacklustre currently.
A cool feature that doesn’t really get utilised to it’s full extent is the Spectre office on the Citadel. Used in a couple side quests, the Spectre office feels a bit like the Shadow Broker’s lair in the way it’s interesting thematically but lacks purpose. At best, it’s a way of finding side quest items you’ve missed in areas you can’t get back to.
DLC is a big part of the trilogy and Mass Effect 3 has some of the best DLC in the trilogy - Omega is a good story DLC and Citadel is a perfect send off to the series. (Check out the DLC Ranking in a couple days!)
Refusing to explain my opinion on the ending, Mass Effect 3 is a great send off to a wonderful trilogy, one I’m glad I finally got around to playing. It’s hard to wrap up a review since there’s more I could say about this game and the trilogy as a whole. In a sentence, one of my favourite all time video game stories. Shepard Out.
