In which, Paradigm the Fallen goes on about everything he's beaten so far in Mass Effect 3 across both PC and PS3 for review. Also, he takes on the quest to somehow fulfill (since for the life of him, he's a bit unclear where it's lacking, even after asking a few people who read his stuff) a more "constructive" aspect to his reviews. It'd be a lot easier if people actually said more than "rant less" and "be more constructive" with actual examples of when Fallen is and isn't doing what they'd prefer rather than just saying he's doing it wrong and then expecting him to know exactly what they think. Paradigm the Fallen is not a mind reader, and will stop talking in third person now. *turns off megaphone voice*
So, Mass Effect 3.
Sidenote: Was I the only person who didn't gel with this CGI trailer? It just felt so weird... and forced...
To say Mass Effect was (and is) a big deal is an understatement. Some called it gaming's answer to Star Wars, others heralded it as the triumph of Bioware. The series has had a rocky road, but arguably turned out mostly for the best. I'm not going to touch upon the part everyone's said about until it's appropriate, until I've actually reached the conclusion of the game, so until then, we're going to pretend that I didn't watch IGN's leaked video of the Mass Effect 3 endings back before complaining about ME3 was even a thing.
I still hate that kid though. My gosh, do I hate that kid. You know the kid. That kid with the stupid hoodie who plays with the fighter? You don't remember? Play the opening minutes again. Yeah, -that- kid. The "I am a metaphor and will haunt your dreams!" kid. Why do I hate him? Because he symbolizes, in a whole, all the things wrong with an otherwise relatively great game. He's lazy, he's made to cut corners, he doesn't fit with the setting, and he's not done well enough to warrant his inclusion. These aspects apply to almost all the problems I have with Mass Effect 3. Which is why I'm glad I can just summarize it like that, because it's a good game.
At the very least, it has been so far, as I've just helped Jack at the Grissom Academy, and am going to be playing diplomat with the Krogan, Salarian, and Turian ambassadors*. I've imported a male Shepard on PS3, and my original Femshep playthrough (which I thankfully recovered from my defunct, older harddrive) is imported for PC. They are opposites on the Paragon/Renegade morality system, so I'll be able to cover the same situations differently and compare the different ways things can play out, as this is a game about CHOICE (no, still not talking about it. Hush now.).
The story so far remains a strong point for Mass Effect. The opening may take a few too many hints from Michael Bay, and some dialogue is clearly worded to help out new players (you really should at least play Mass Effect 2 or ME3's Origin 2 DLC before starting the game), making for some M. Shamalyn The Last Air Bender awkward exposition moments. For everyone who's played the series so far, the opening gives on rewarding aspect, especially if you've got a high rank -- you get Anderson as your tutorial squadmate. Granted, you only really get to use him like a regular squadmate for one section, but he has a full upgrade tree and you can finally play out a gunfight with him.
After that, you're reinstated (after several convenient years under house arrest over your actions in Mass Effect 2: Arrival), and off again. Kaidan or Ashley will join you, as will newcomer James Something I Don't Know It's Freddie Prince Junior What Do You Want From Me, who surprisingly isn't as bad a personality as we feared. He's got something of at least adequate depth, and hey, people who complained about Carth in KotOR? This is the opposite. James is very much a masculine character, but still they show some flaws and character building moments, plus a few brief references (so far) to Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. He's also built for new players, making the exposition dumps mildly less Shamalyn-y.
As for your old team, only expect heroes from Mass Effect 1 to return in full. As much as I wish they would at least bring us back one or two squadmates from ME2 (letting us pick from the majority of the roster if they aren't dead) to bring along, but instead we get James and an ally I won't spoil, but is kind of foreshadowed by the sheer fact that someone used to work on Battlestar Galactica. (I'll give you a hint, they wore a red dress!) Besides that, expect (unless dead) Liara, Garrus, Tali, and Kaidan/Ashley to all join you. You can only romance Garrus or Tali if you started to in Mass Effect 2 though, so like I said, PLAY THE EARLIER GAMES OR AT LEAST GET THE ORIGINS 2 DLC FOR CHARACTER CREATION! IT'S KIND OF A BIG DEAL! Got it? Good!
You'll deal with the Council... continuing to an unrealistic extent being against you. This the third game, Bioware. Even with the Reapers attacking all species at once, you'd think they would get their s**t together by this point. It doesn't matter what you chose to do in the first game in relation to the council, as they always get in your way for their own interests. Also, that bit about the "all human" council? Apparently Bioware actually meant a human "led" council. So Udina is the main dog, yet still has no real power. This makes for a bit of a headache, but at least the different council members between the two variants have distinct personalities, for talking heads who never get off their arses.
After that, the story picks up a rapid fire pace and may be hard to put down. I don't want to spoil anything, but I have one bit of advice -- make sure Jack survives the Suicide Mission. If she didn't, go back and make sure she does. Trust me, her character arc is one of the most satisfying ones for your former companions. Kasumi and scar-face what's his name are only present for brief side missions and a few more war assets. Speaking of which, expect to be collecting LOTS of War Assets. Why? Because that's the new focus instead of gaining teammates like in Mass Effect 2. Except, it's a lot more vague.
For one thing, your units worth is half of what it actually could be -- you need to raise moral. Supposedly Bioware has patched since launch so that you can get a full moral without multiplayer, but expect to at least do a few rounds to get your galaxy readiness rating above less than ideal numbers. Not like that's an unpleasant proposition -- even if you hate interacting with people online, you can basically play it like a singleplayer game, just with less powers and some tweaked balancing, plus some really dumb and really smart "AI" partners. You can also try to strike it alone but only do that on Bronze if you are that insistently anti-multiplayer.
As to the core shooting... I honestly can't tell you which is better. It works fine on PS3, but I find that precision weapons just honestly work better with a mouse. I could barely work a sniper rifle on PS3, but on PC I am popping headshots like no tomorrow. In contrast, assault rifles and similar weapons are far more stable and easy to handle on PS3 instead of PC. I'm handing this up to the controls, so if you use a controller for PC, keep this in mind, and the same for those who have that whacky PS3 controller-mouse hybrid**.
There is one point undeniably in the favor of the PS3 -- the combat UI. I mean it, is just better. The PC version is static, doesn't let you change your aim while pausing, or conveniently line up targets for your allies, making it far harder to be tactical unless you have lightning reflexes. Also, while the PC lets you have up to 8 quickfire abilities, you still only use about three of them regularly due to lengthier recharges on most abilities. Sure, planting a perimeter trip mine is cool and all -- but if I have to wait twelve seconds to recharge after placing it in a FIREFIGHT, I'll just fire the rocket that does twice as much damage in six seconds. Upgrades compensate for this, but I really think at this point, any game with a progression system shouldn't balance it's gameplay purely for before or after you've reached a certain level. Balance the sections for what you expect, and have something of a bend to the curve in relation to the character levels we actually have. KotOR got this down in spades***. Not perfect, but better than the present status quo.
Also, balance is thrown off a bit further by importing your character. If you reached Level 60 in Mass Effect 2, you will have that same level in Mass Effect 3. This means... you won't really have to worry about leveling up that much. The same goes for your morality numbers, so if you have New Game +++ Mass Effect 2, you will have a high reputation to start with. This method of bettering your stats remains in ME3's additional New Game +, but if you want a clean playthrough for ME3 with the bonuses, then you know what to do. Unfortunately, all those mining resources you got in ME2 don't actually pay off more than 100 military assets, which is essentially a drop in the bucket by comparison to other things you can get, but every little bit helps.
The real flaw about the system is how it's implemented outside of the main missions and multiplayer though. It's fetch quests, for pretty much every non-story related asset. Just fetch quests. I have a -stack- of fetch quests just from wandering around the Citadel twice. The sheer number already makes me wary of what will come down the road, as I'm not exactly desperate to go off to various planets and extract relics or Space Donald Trump's tooth brush. It's not going to really prevent you in the end unless you really fail to cough up moral to go with your assets (at full morale, I'd be able to take on the Reapers now with the minimum required forces and I've barely started the campaign).
Overall, it's a solid if a bit flawed experience thus far. I haven't really seen any impact I've had on the war over the hours I've played, but hopefully by my next update, we'll see some of that. Also, oddly enough, Freddie Prince Jr. actually works as a voice actor. Who knew?
Cheers,
Paradigm the FALLEN
I AM BIOTICS MADE FLESH!
Trivia: Despite utterly hating Ashley to death, it was still hard to choose Kaidan over her on Virmire.
*I apologize if that seems a bit early to start this review -- but I had to play to the same point for PC and PS3 in the same day. Needless to say, my eyes are probably a little red from staring at the screen for so long.
** This: http://www.amazon.com/Frag-Shark-Controller-PS3-Playstation-3/dp/B0047IOXAO/ref=sr_1_50?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1376278682&sr=1-50
***Speaking of KotOR, I realize this is a bit last minute but why is it we still can't swap control over to a squadmate? We know the original game was going to have this but it got cut, and it's a bit limiting when you know if you could -just- swap to Liara at that last moment you could save yourself from dying.