Five years and three games later, Mass Effect 3 transformed itself from an RPG game to a action game with some special abilities and an ending that upset the entire Mass Effect community.

Before starting to play Mass Effect 3 it is recommended that you play the previous two Mass Effect games, in which Commander Shepard saves the galaxy by the threat of the Reapers, who’s purpose is to destroy any organic life form. Shepard, is forced to return because the Earth is under attack and the Reapers appeared much faster than the entire Galaxy anticipated.

If the option of importing your Mass Effect 2 character works, the game will take into consideration your previous choices, the surviving crew and the missions related to them. If you want a new hero, the personalization methods come with a pre-made history and a single choice.

From the old team we see Mordin, Garrus, Tali, Miranda and Jacob, along with James Vega, Thane, and if you own the “From Ashes” DLC you will also get Tavik ( the Prothean ), the sole survivor of an ancient race which was destroyed by the Reapers. Also, you have to choose between three gaming modes – Action, RPG and Story – the first focusing on battles and without having to worry about decision making; the second mode focuses in battles and decisions and the third mode focuses on the Mass Effect story.

Apparently, Shepard has an impossible task: to unite all races of the Galaxy against the general threat, all having to forget about individual conflicts to fight against the Reapers. From this point of view BioWare focused on the human drama, as almost every character suffered family loses.

The decisions are still supported by the options system, with Paragon / Renegate options where possible. Furthermore, the new introduced total reputation affects the choices, so the good / wrong lines are less delimited and you can be immoral without lethal consequences. On the other hand however, secondary missions are petty common and all you have to do is to scan a planet to get an object someone from the Citadel is looking for.

The problem is the ending of the game which is so unclear and inconsistent that gamers are demanding the ending to be changed, especially since all the statements during the production promised a lot of things: in reality, we got only some decisions that basically cancels everything that would have made the entire franchise extraordinary.

The combat system is maybe one of the best achievements of the game, keeping the classes from previous versions. The abilities tree continues to offer ramifications for improving your powers or the powers of your squad members.

The cover system, which is recommended to be used regardless of the difficulty level you choose, is also used by the A.I even if it has predictable actions and not logical all the time. Unfortunately, the system fails many times because jumping, rolling over and cover are being triggered by the same key; especially when you are near a wall, you are not going to get the desired action which is annoying when monsters are shooting at you.

At least a few elements were removed from Mass Effect 3 and we are sure that nobody will miss the never ending planet scanning to gather minerals. Now scanning offers different objects required to solve secondary missions from the Citadel, fuel and credits, on occasion.

Other than this you have no reason to wonder through the galaxy especially since solar systems are being targeted by the Reapers and you constantly have to be on the run.

Almost every mission ends with the need to resist successive attacks or to find an alternate route.

The graphics shows it’s age and even if Unreal 3 continues to be an engine that can offer spectacular sights, it’s healthier not to look at the textures up close. Especially in cutscenes the differences between figures and the rest of the details are pretty high.

On the other hand, what Mass Effect 3 loses in graphics compensates through voices as the game has many popular actors that voice characters: Jennifer Hale plays a feminine Shepard, along with Yvonne Strahovski ( Miranda ), Tricia Helfer ( EDI ), Seth Green ( Joker ), Martin Sheen ( Illusive Man ), Keith David ( Admiral Anderson ) and  Michael Beattie ( Mordin Solus ).

Probably we are never going to find out why Mass Effect 3 ends the way it does. Bioware says that they are looking into the possibility of changing the ending but probably you are not going to spend the money to get something that you wanted from the beginning. Overall, Mass Effect 3 is not a bad game, but it is proven once again that it’s matters most how you tell a story and not really what the story is about.

The wrapper and the red bow are often more important and, despite sales, for us Mass Effect 3 misses it’s purpose of delivering a memorable ending.

Rating: 4.5