On the surface, ME3 is the ultimate refinement of everything we've come to love about the series, but digging into the meat of the beast, EA's influence over Bioware becomes readily apparent.
From a marketing campaign focusing on the "sexy" and "new user friendly" aspects of the title, to the bigger emphasis on combat and multiplayer, it's easy to spot where a higher up within the company piped in with a "Well, what if we added..." This isn't to say that a game should be judged by the behind the scenes antics of it's production, but if the end result is a bad taste left in your mouth, you have to call a spade a spade.
So, looking past all that, what's left?
Well, what we're given is a title that does its best to wrap up years worth of A plots and B plots (and C,D, and E plots for that matter). Sometimes it all comes off a bit too convenient and tidy, but overall the resolutions are satisfying. One area where the game is sorely lacking is with the supporting cast. Major players from part 2, whom you assumed would be with you until the end, are benched for just about the entire game, despite having vital roles previously. One has to wonder why new characters are being introduced this late in the story while other characters that you're already invested in are literally stand around a waiting room for the entire game, as if there's nothing better to do.
What the benching of these characters does, whether it was Bioware's intent or not, is it places the focus of the narrative more on Shepard than the cast. The problem with focusing on the one instead of the many is that Shepard him or herself is only as interesting as the company they keep. Sure, you can build a story up around your individual version of Shepard, but we've spent hours and hours with these crew members, and our attachment to them is just as deep, if not deeper, than our investment to Shepard. That they are absent, or only minor players at best in this grand finale, makes it a lesser tale.
Regarding the tale, I wish I could tell you why it begins the way that it does, but seeing as I didn't purchase the last piece of DLC for ME2, I was left totally in the dark, and completely confused. I had to play catch-up, both online, and within the narrative, just to get a basic grasp of what had happened in the time between parts 2 and 3. Again, you have to call a spade a spade, Bioware/EA.
Once you're off and running (for reals- you flee Earth), the game gets to telling its story, and does so mostly competently. Mass Effect 3 is a war movie with a controller. The wide-eyed spectacle of the first game, and the down and dirty black ops nature of the second are traded in for Saving Private Ryan in space. The tone and level design fit with what they're doing with the narrative, but this leads to several sections of the game that just feel repetitive (which, seeing as some of these levels were built for multiplayer, they are) and lacking when compared to the high notes of the first two games.
Where Mass Effect 3 shines is it's one on one moments, and character resolutions. When it's just Shepard and someone that he's forced to put in harms way, those conversations are pure gold, and remind you that when they bring their a-game, Bioware are second to none. These scenes can be gut-wrenching at times, and I wished there were more of them in the final product. As it stands, the bulk of the game has weight and depth, but most of that is undermined by how everything plays out in the end.
As for the games ending, and how we get there, that's a whole different conversation. The end of Mass Effect 3 breaks the series in several ways, and is compounded by the addition of the extended cut material. At least with the original ending, you could say it was a definitive poor ending. Now, it's just muddy and reactionary. I've heard the Leviathan DLC fleshes out what comes in the ending further, and sets you up to be more accepting of it, but honestly if that's the case, then it should have been in the game. Just like the From Ashes DLC.
Mass Effect 3 is a mostly-enjoyable conclusion to the trilogy, but it should have been better. It should have been game of the year. And it's not.
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