I just finished my playthrough of Mass Effect 3. Yes, I realize the game's been out for months, but my apartment didn't get it for a while. While this won't be a review, exactly, I will be going into detail about what I thought of it.
I should note that when I beat the game, we had already downloaded the Extended Cut DLC (which is free, in case you were worried about that.) So if what I'm talking about confuses you despite having beaten the game, there's your explanation.
SPOILERS AHEAD. BE WARNED.
Mass Effect is a game series that, I would argue, is more about seeing the story unfold than shooting things. It achieves this through a combination of excellent writing, top-notch voice acting, comprehensive and thoughtful world building, and a sweet-spot compromise between a player-generated character and one who is written and on rails.
One of the odd motifs of video games is the silent protagonist. In many RPGs, especially those where you create your own character from a number of race, class, or other options, the silent protagonist is a necessary evil. Occasionally they get around this by simply having your speech in text form, but this can create a degree of distance between the character and the player.
Mass Effect has your decisions center-stage, and indeed the state of the galaxy and pretty much everyone you know is affected by the choices you make. Yet we don't really get a chance to rewrite Shephard entirely - he or she will still always be an utter badass, and while the Renegade can do some fairly dark things, Shephard is still a hero, and has roughly the same relationships with his squadmates. The effect is the kind of protagonist who can span three big games, and exist in a world teeming with life and lovable characters (I literally said "awesome!" out loud when I walked in on Garrus and Tali making out before the last mission. I always thought of them as Shephard's closest friends.)
In fact, while I don't think it has never been done before, the continuity throughout the series is something I think deserves extra recognition. While not every choice you make necessarily has a huge impact (most of which are boiled down into your Effective Military Strength in 3,) there are a shit-ton of memorable people who will remember you, for better or worse.
The gameplay shifted greatly from game one to game two, but the transition from two to three was not nearly as jarring. Despite the need to relearn a bit how to play, the change was vastly for the better. The ideal for an RPG is to feel that, yes, your decisions are important, and will affect how you play, but you won't be punished or forced into crippling overspecialization.
While Mass Effect 3 did allow you to have the most profound impacts on the galaxy, which was good, I did also feel like some of the adventuring was lost in the limited scope. Perhaps this was just the unfortunate necessity of all the major plots coming to a head, but thinking back, I don't think there is a single instance in 3 where you fight anyone other than Cerberus or Reaper ground forces. (Cool as it was to see what happened to the other races when they got Husk/Collector-ized. Asari probably win for most pants-shittingly terrifying. Also, am I the only one who feels a little insulted that human Husks are the dumbest, most disposable cannon fodder? Then again, Husks showed up in the very first mission of the first game, so maybe they hadn't yet figured it out what they were and just thought "hey, cyber zombies!.")
I managed to make it through the game with as many "good" resolutions as I could. It would seem unconscionable to let the Salarians sabotage the genophage cure, so I went with that. And thankfully, I was able to negotiate the peace between Quarians and Geth. When it came to the final decision, to Dominate, Destroy, or Synthesize, I went with Synthesize, because I got the impression that would be the best ending. I was very tempted to go with destroy, which I believe allows Shephard to live, but then, huge portions of both this game and the previous one were dedicated to establishing EDI and the Geth's sentience (as Tali tell Legion if you make peace between their peoples, yes, he does have a soul.) My Paragon, Armin Shephard, couldn't destroy them, so the self-sacrificial, long-term solution seemed the right way to go. And now everyone has cool glowy eyes and skin!
Maybe it was just because I saw everything fresh through the extended cut, but I found the ultimate reason for the reapers made at least some sense. For you crazy people reading a spoilery thing despite not having beaten the game, here's the gist:
Many, many cycles ago, some species (the true precursor race, I guess,) created the Catalyst (who is the AI in the center of the Citadel.) The Catalyst projects that any organic life is ultimately going to develop AI - synthetic life - and there's inevitably going to be a conflict, which then has the potential of destroying all organic life. Even if the organics win, they're just going to eventually make them again. All it takes is the synthetic life winning once, and organic life is doomed - or so the Cataclyst's reasoning goes. Shephard calls the Catalyst on this, saying basically "so what do you call what you're doing?" The Catalyst then points out that the Reapers preserve the species they harvest, killing all of the individuals, but holding on to both the genetic record and the cultural record.
Admittedly, Sovreign's supreme arrogance on Virmire, where he's talking about how organic life is a pathetic mutation that could not possibly comprehend something like the Reapers rings a little weird in that light. But hey, they were giant evil starships. Good villains think they're the good guys.
And I do tend to like endings where everyone makes peace. The narrative of irredeemable evil is one that can work, dramatically, but is all too often the default. The Synthesis ending (which I'm happy to think of as the canonical one) is filled with hope, which is something that the series does a good job of really beating out of you.
Given the endings, while it's not inconceivable that new sequels, or prequels, could be made (presumably with a different protagonist) it does feel as if we're going to have to bid the Mass Effect universe farewell. My hat is off to Bioware. Excellent job.
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