Mass Effect 3 is fun and is a great game, but it's not perfect.
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Bioware
Platform: Xbox 360
Rated: Mature
Released: March 6, 2012
Visuals:
The visuals for Mass Effect 3 are quite impressive to look at with the new engine that was used for the new installment of the game in this quite and very spectacular series. So the visuals for this game is in most parts of the game this graphics are very beautiful to look at and are quite an improvement from the last game in the series which was Mass Effect 2 and in my mind was the best looking game to look at until I played this visually nice looking piece of art and with that said their are parts of this game that do not look no better then Mass Effect 2 which is still not a bad thing because like I mentioned I found that Mass Effect 2 a great piece of work visually and was very impressive to look at so it is a bit of a compliment to the last game in the series. The main improvement of Mass Effect 3 is and though they were quite impressive in ME 2 and they are the facial animation is very impressive the art design is just as impressive as the last and it may be better this time around with all the environments and worlds you get to lay a step on and most of the worlds you get traverse on are quite breathtaking and you might want to a moment when the game let's you take in the art design and the nice overall look of this game from all the planets and space station's you get to go to, like the Citadel, The Krogen home world, Earth and many other's the detail to all the environments and places are great and the detail to all the individual character's are stunning as always.
Now even though this game may have a lot of great thing for it with visuals and don't get it twisted you might notice that this game some flaws and a little more in this entry of the series the the last two and for me it was a bit of a let down but the overall standing of the visuals are still quite impressive to look at and still kind of out weigh the flaws and if you are like me and are a fan of this series and the series graphics engine and for you it might come off a little disappointed a bit and one of the things I found flawed and you the player might notice is when you are in the action parts of the game and even when you are not is the camera movement and I will shine more light on this in my gameplay portion of my review, but again the thing with the camera is that as you move it around their seems to be and issue like a bit of a stutter and some times it may cause a few issues with the frame rate and other minor problems even with the game installed to the hard-drive and who knows maybe I was the only one who had these issues, and I'll shine more light with this issue later in my review. So basically in short is that the visuals are stunning as they always are and with some more but minor noticeable issues that will keep playing this game, but this time around even with the new engine the visuals are just simply great, but no where near perfect.
Audio:
The audio for Mass Effect 3 is as always still pretty spectacular from the voice work which as always great to the musical score/sound track which is always superb for the game as they always are. So the voice work was great as it always is and the voice actors and actresses were all pretty good in this game well maybe except for Freddy Prince Jr who did the voice work for Vega he was good but nowhere near as good as the regular's that have been part of this series from the beginning and Jessica Chobot who did the voice work of the reporter who follows you throughout your mission and yes she maybe web personality on IGN for tips and stuff like that but she just felt out of place, but all and all the over all the voice work was just simply great. So the musical score/ sound track was ass it always as been in this series and like other game series like Halo and Gears and that is pretty superb and it help's the flow of the game with the action oriented part of the game and even in the parts where you are just roaming the Citadel station and in simple terms the musical score/sound track is just plain superb as it always has been.
So the sound effects for this game is great from everything from the sounds of the weapons, the sounds on the Normandy to just about every thing in this game's sound effects sounds great. So in short on the audio for this game is that the audio is just as spectacular as it always as been in this game and in the whole series.
Gameplay:
The gameplay for Mass Effect 3 is great but way to familiar and with no Role-Playing-Game elements at all in this game and when this game started as a science fiction/action RPG series and now with the skill tree is basically the weakest in the whole series and it virtually make's Mass Effect the far more superior and it also makes Mass Effect 2 a far more better experience and even with that said Mass effect 3 is still a great game but nowhere near a perfect experience as the first two games in the series. So in general for this games gameplay and if you have already played this game then you should know that this game plays like about two games and in my mind I notice some similarities to the Dead Space series and where I noticed is in the movement of Sheppard and if you have not played any of the games in this series Sheppard is the main default character when you are just walking after a break in the action you would walk like Isaac from the Dead Space series but when you ran or sprinted it was just like in the Gears of War series and the third like the camera angle would drop to right behind your character but still over the shoulder and shaky like in the Gears of War series so it made feel like everything was shaking movie or a reality t.v show or something like and for this game series it was was just odd and really out of place for this series with everything I have mentioned Mass Effect 3 sounds and plays more like a action game and not a Role-Playing-Game but sadly this game is still a RPG and yes that is sad thing for this game with most of the RPG elements basically stripped out and really watered down to the point to make a little sick just like me a bit disappointed so the gameplay might be liked by new players and some fans and will definitely be hated by most the fans of first and second games of the series.
So the few strong point for Mass Effect 3 is it's story and to still have the power of choice in the game and what ever choices you made in the first two games of this series does make and impact on what happen's in this game does have some impact and the game add's some new character's and some old ones from the past from the first two games and the other new thing for Mass Effect is power to use you voice in the game with the Kinect where you can command you squad mates with orders for them to do or execute to help and make it easier so you do not have to go in to the command squad wheel to tell your squad mates what to do in a sticky situation and the use of Kinect is a pretty good addition to game and makes the experience a little more enjoyable but that is if you have a Kinect sensor. So in general with the gameplay far to similar to other game franchises now and the game now feeling more like a typical action TPS game (Third-Person-Shooter) rather than a RPG and in that case and that said Mass Effect 3 is a pretty good single-player game and if you have a Kinect sensor make the experience that much better and just plain fun.
Multiplayer:
Now the last but not least the new on-line mode for the series for Mass Effect 3 is actually quite impressive with the mode basically the same thing as Gears horde mode, Halo's firefight and COD: World at Wars Zombie mode where for Mass Effect 3 is the same with you and 3 other players or you can just play it all by your self and so the wave based on-line is quite great and really fun when everybody is in the same page and so in this on-line mode for Mass Effect 3 and like I said it put's you and three other players are to team up to fight you way through a wave of up to about 11 waves enemies which include's Cerberus, The Geth and The Reapers, but with a twist you'll get objective to complete or get gunned down trying and the on-line does play very smooth and seems to have very good and dedicated servers and from my experience with this games on-line it does not lag to much which is really good thing. So in short the on-line is pretty decent addition to the game and I thought it was not going to be that fun but it turned out it was pretty fun and worth playing.
Overall:
The overall point for this game is that is it worth checking out, well I'll put like this and that is if you have played the first two entry's in this series then you whole it to your self ride this one, if you a person that has played these game for the gamerscore/achievements and just like the second game you can get most of them in one playthrough and if you are going to play this game with out playing the first two games in the series you might get a little lost. So in short the overall point is this game is worth owning, but for some of the die hard fans of the series you might play this and get a little disappointed and might find some fun with this game if not sorry for your loss and in general this game is worth checking out.
8.5 out of 10