Mass Effect 3 came out on Tuesday (March 6), and I played a lot of it. And then I beat it. And then I started again, after playing a bit of multi-player. If I wanted to sum up the game by referring to it only in terms of the previous to iterations, it would be something like this: It takes the best parts of the open environments in Mass Effect 1, combined with the best combat of Mass Effect 2, the best RPG mechanics of ME 1, and the best levelling-up of ME 2, and then adds some very good features, while pruning out things that nobody liked. Basically, it takes the best of the previous two games, removes bad stuff, adds some good stuff, and improves the results as much as it can. It is an amazing game to play. Also, the writing is incredible, which is par for the course (of course) for Bioware.
The story starts on Earth, after Shepard is under house arrest for blowing up a star system a few months (possibly a year, it's never really stated) beforehand. It killed 300,000 Batarians (who never had a good relationship with humanity in the first place) but delayed the Reaper invasion. You actually get to play through that in the last piece of ME 2 DLC.
Anyway, the Reapers invade anyhow, so Shepard is ordered to flee and get help. The rest of the game is about getting help. It's very similar to Dragon Age: Origins in that aspect. Gather help from a variety of races from an invasion that nobody believed was coming until it showed up. The invading force shows up every once in a while (50,000 years in ME, every few centuries in DA), far enough apart that it's several generations between each one. The only difference (besides it taking place in space) is that the invading force is regarded as superior in every way (much bigger, far stronger, almost invulnerable) here, and the order you get help is fixed (in DA:O, you could do any of the four main quests in any order).
Gameplay-wise, combat is a cover-based shooter with added abilities to tear up battlefields. And you'll need these abilities, because enemies are both smart and have abilities of their own.
Anyway, let's get into specifics. There are five different gun types - sniper rifles, assault rifles, submachine guns, shotguns, and pistols. Each type of gun will have seven or eight actual guns in that category, trading off Ammo Capacity (how many bullets you get), Firing Rate (how fast the bullets get unloaded), Damage (how much each bullet hurts), and Accuracy (how close each bullet gets to the centre of the crosshairs, as well as how much the muzzle climbs after each shot). As well, each gun is assigned a weight. You can carry one of each type of gun, but too much weight will increase the cooldowns on your abilities. On my first play through, I left out submachine guns and pistols, because I was fine with sniping, assault rifles for medium range, and shotguns for close-in work. My second playthrough I just went with sniper and assault rifles, and left close in stuff for heavy melee (more on that later) and powers, which recharge hella fast because I wasn't carrying much weaponry at all.
Each weapon can also be modded as well. There are five different mods for each type of gun, and the mod will apply to all of that type. For instance, a damage mod for assault rifles can be applied to all the assault rifles you have (even though you can only carry one at a time). Mods tend to be consistent across each type of weapon. There'll be an ammo mod (allowing you to carry more clips), a damage mod (bullets do more damage), an accuracy mod, usually an armor piercing mod (sacrifices some damage to ignore a percentage of armor), possibly a scope, and one more unique mod. Sniper rifles get a concentration mod that slows down time perception, allowing the player to line up a nice headshot (they do extra damage). Assault rifles get a stability mod, which I don't know what does because I stuck with the damage and scope mods (a scope on an assault rifle turns it into a mini sniper rifle. A lot less damage per shot, but a vastly increased fire rate). Submachine guns get ultra-light materials, making them even lighter (and they aren't the heaviest things to begin with. If they didn't have atrocious muzzle climb, I'd rock one of them through the whole game, and get wicked short cooldowns for my abilities). Shotguns get a bayonet for extra damage on melee attacks, and pistols get a taser that stuns enemies on melee attacks. You can only use two mods for each gun, so pick and choose wisely.
Besides that, each gun and mod can be upgraded four times, from level I to level V (all the way up to X on new game+). Mods can be found around environments, or bought in stores. If you have one, the next level will be available. For instance, if I have Ultralight Materials II for my submachine guns, and I find Ultralight Materials while wandering around on my mission, it'll be level III. Then I can go to the store and buy level IV. Each level increases its benefit by a bit more.
Guns can only upgraded on the
This game also introduces the heavy melee. Basically, your omnitool (a holographic wrist iPad) makes a giant knife out of mass effect fields that you can use to stab people. Awesome! The only problem is you can't use it from cover, and you have to hold the melee button down for about half a second before the animation takes place. So if you do use it, you'll be exposed for a while, during which enemies are free to take whatever potshots they like at you. So that's the drawback. The good news is it's insta-kill for unprotected targets (no armor, shields, or barriers), and quite damaging even for protected targets. I can get through about half a guy's life bar by using it on shielded targets.
There's also the Grab mechanic. If you take cover behind something low (chair, desk, waist-high wall) and someone walks up to the other side, you can grab them (by tapping the melee button), haul them over the cover, and stab them in the neck. Insta-kill, regardless of protection. The hard part is luring enemies that close in, because most of them tend to back away and lob grenades if they know you're behind cover. I told you they were smart.
Levelling up is the same as the previous game, but more. In ME 2, there were four ranks to every ability. The last rank had a choice, usually between more damage, or a wider area of effect. Every time you levelled up, you got two points to spend on abilities. You had to spend the amount of points equal to that rank to get the ability. So to get rank 1 of Adrenaline Rush would take 1 point, then two points for rank 2, then three points for rank 3, then four points for rank 4. Maxing out an ability would take 10 points, or 5 level-ups.
In ME 3, each ability has six ranks, and the fourth, fifth, and sixth each have choices. More power vs less cooldown. Wider area vs increased effect against shields. Maxing out an ability now takes 21 points, but you get four for levelling up. And there's 60 levels instead of 30, so there's plenty of opportunity to level up, particularly since experience comes from much more than simply completing missions (as it did in ME 2).
Scanning makes a return, but it's more than just hovering over a planet for 5 minutes and occasionally pressing a button. Now you fly around a solar system and press a button, sending out a signal that scans the vicinity for something interesting. Interesting things include ship wreckages that give you some fuel, intel that converts to small bonuses using the lab in the Normandy, war assets (fleets, scientists, troops, what-not) that directly contribute to the war effort, and Prothean and other objects that can usually be returned to someone on the Citadel in exchange for some experience, credits, reputation (which increases paragon and renegade scores in proportion to each other) and more war assets. So sending out scans is very useful, but it also attracts reaper attention. Too much attention and a fleet of reapers arrives in the system and chases you. If you escape, they'll be there until you come back, unless you do a mission in the meantime. If they catch you, you die. However, the game saves each time you enter a new system. So what I ended up doing was arriving in a new system, scanning around a whole bunch until I found everything, got caught by the reapers, restored to the previous save, and went directly to all the objects to scan them before the reapers arrived. Loophole abuse much?
Interrupts also made it back from Mass Effect 2. Dialogue is slightly less involved, though. Whereas in the previous games, a conversation would have five or six points of interaction, in this game there'll only be two or three, with Shepard filling in a lot on his or her own. I would have liked to have more options, but I can deal with that.
Multiplayer is something added for this game. It apparently started out as a separate game called Mass Effect: Assault, but eventually turned into this when that one was cancelled. I think I'm addicted to it. I'd like to say that it's because multiplayer is really well done, with awesome maps and amazingly cool stuff, but it's because I'm a loot hound, and the good loot is sparse enough that I have to play a lot to get it.
Each multiplayer mission is four-player co-op. There'll be 11 waves of enemies, with each wave starting a few seconds after the last enemy of the previous one has been killed. The very last wave, you have to get to an extraction point and last for two minutes. Often in particular waves (third, sixth, and tenth) you'll also have an objective. One objective is to get to a specific point and use that object (you're character ducks down and uses his or her omnitool for a few seconds) before proceeding onto the next one (there are four objects that need to be used, but you'll only be given one at a time). Another is to hack one specific point. The hack lasts for a few minutes, but the more players are around that point, the quicker it goes. The enemies tend to swarm all round, so you'd better pray the hack takes place in a well-defendable area. The other objective is to kill certain members of the enemy. Usually these will be stronger than the standard ones (they'll have shields, armor, or barriers). Only one will be marked at a time, and when it dies, the second one gets marked. Each objective has a countdown, and if that reaches zero, you fail. If all the players die, you fail. If none of the players makes it to the extraction point, you fail.
Besides that, you get money for completing the mission, as well as completing objectives, with a bonus based on how fast you did them. Money can be spent on packs that contain supplies. Recruit packs contain common equipment or characters (with a chance for uncommon stuff), veteran packs (more expensive) contain more common equipment and characters, as well as something uncommon (and a chance for more uncommon or rare), and Spectre packs contain even more common stuff, with at least one rare and a chance for more (either uncommon or rare). So uncommon and rare equipment or characters are doled out sparingly (which is why I'm addicted).
Unlocking characters allows access to them. You only start off with access to humans of each class, but you can get access to alien races specific to two classes (for instance, you can unlock the Drell for Adepts, and again for Vanguards). Getting the same character again gives you more options for their appearance.
Most equipment is of the One-off variety. A missile that can be used to take down difficult enemies (but only usable once), or medigel to bring you back to life (once). There's also one-off gun, ammo, and armor bonuses that last for one mission (use incendiary ammo for one mission, or faster cooldowns for once mission).
However, guns and mods stay with you, and are available for each character you unlock. Getting the same gun more than once upgrades it to a higher level (all the way from I up to X). Same thing with mods. However, guns and mods are all classified as either common, uncommon, or rare. So trying to level up the rare guns and mods will take a lot of money. Usually they're a better option than the common guns, so I'm not sure it's worth stocking up on recruit packs to get that level X gun you started with.
I probably should have stated at the start that you don't play Commander Shepard during the multiplayer. You play whatever race and whatever class, and call him or her whatever you want, because names aren't used. You do get to level up, though. The cap is only level 20, but you're limited to five abilities to level up (and two of them are passive - your class and Fitness, which increases health and shields).
I think that's about it for the entire game (single and multiplayer), except to say that you probably won't like the ending. I did, because I like different things like that, and I also got to it before the internet exploded in unhinged complaints about it, so their bad opinion didn't persuade me. Bioware went high concept, and nobody liked it. Either that, or they’ve finally found an audience wide enough that it include people who aren’t madly in love with them.
Anyway, some random tidbits:
Bioware really likes words that start with C - Citadel, Cipher, Conduit (from ME 1), Collectors (from ME 2), Crucible, and Catalyst (from ME 3). All the important things start with C. Except for Shepard, but even he or she is Commander throughout.
Cerberus is a bad guy again. In the first game, Cerberus was a shadowy terrorist organization that did horrific experiments to ensure humanity's places in the cosmos. In the second game, they're more well-intentioned extremists, and the only ones who're willing to investigate the missing human colonies. So you and them team up, despite the atrocities they committed in Mass Effect 1. In ME 3, they're back to being bad, but it's more personal, since you've worked with them and argued with their boss.
The only squadmates from ME 2 that are playable in ME 3 are also the ones that were squadmates in ME 1. Most of the squad from the second game can make it back, but they're usually relegated to sidequests. Mordin, Thane and Miranda can play important parts in the main quest, but only if they survived the previous game. I'm told that if any person died, they're replaced. But I'm not sure how that works, particularly with people that can die in ME 1 (Hai, Wrex).
To wrap it all up, this is a tremendous game, and don’t let the blowhards on the internet say otherwise just because they can’t handle the end.
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