...and if you disagree, you are an idiot.
So that probably isn't the best way to introduce and article, but this has been bugging me a while. Mass Effect 3 wasn't a bad game. It was sublime.
The final chapter of what was an excellent trilogy was never going to be an easy prospect, but it is one I personally believe BioWare excelled at. Starting with a rather janky, but good first game, the series has improved dramatically on each installment. Each iteration improved on the story, graphics, and gameplay.
Mechanically ME3 plays like a dream, with its silky smooth animations, tight controls and pretty good gunplay. The 3rd person gameplay is probably only bettered by that found in the Gears of War series.
The graphics are exceptional, the Unreal Engine used in ME3 truly pushed the consoles to the limit. The visuals are some of finest I have ever seen, and the facial animation is easily one of the games strong points. You can actually read emotions on characters faces. (Unlike LA Noire's odd motion-captured plasticine faces.)
I even like the sound design in ME3, the guns sounded as the should, and the voice acting was second to none. Jennifer Hale's voice acting for the female Shepard is fantastic as always. (FemShep is the only way to play Mass Effect.) The soundtrack is also a treat, one of best I have heard in a while.
Sounds pretty great right? So what didn't people like about it? Well, the ending for one, and the fact they added a multiplayer mode.
Let's start off with the multiplayer. Yes, they added a multiplayer. Yes, they said it affected the story. Yes, the also made a app that supposedly also affected the story. The multiplayer and the app both affected something called galactic readiness. The galaxy's readiness for war, or something.
Let me level with you here, I never installed the app, and I didn't touch multiplayer till after I finished the campaign. You know how much it affected the ending? None. Not one little bit. Was it bad for them to claim otherwise? Sure. Was the multiplayer just a cynical ploy to keep you playing? Don't be so daft. It is genuinely a rather fun add-on.
So the ending then. Personally I thought it was alright. Nothing especially bad about it, nothing overwhelmingly good. Passable, if you will. I for one loved the sacrifice aspect of the ending, making the ultimate sacrifice to save earth and the galaxy. It seemed the right way to end Shepard's story. Sure it was a bit iffy the way they portrayed it, but it wasn't that bad. (It certainly didn't deserve the rage and the daft conspiracy theories.)
I think it comes down to gamers being used to victory against all odds. Saving the day and riding into the sunset and all that jazz. The main character dying is a brave choice that hardly any games go for, (The only other I really can remember was the great ending to Read Dead Redemption.) and for this I salute BioWare.
