Mass Effect 3 starts out at a disadvantage thanks to the weight of expectation larded on it by the first two games in the series. Not only does the game have to wrap up a sprawling, galaxy-spanning storyline in a satisfying way, but it has to do so while avoiding gameplay that obsessive fans will see as "more of the same" after spending dozens of hours with the first two titles.

Mass Effect 3 manages to live up to those expectations, but not without some frustrations at the seams. It's far from a perfect game, but it holds up as a well-constructed conclusion to a much-loved series.

Mass Effect 3 xbox*, pc, ps3 Release Date: now

now MSRP: $59.99 (standard edition) $79.99 (Collector's Edition) Official site * = platform reviewed

Saving the galaxy

The game starts off with a bang, as the life-eradicating Reapers finally make the assault on galactic civilization threatened throughout the series. During a dramatic attack on Earth—serving as the game's seamless tutorial—Commander Shepard is called back into active military service as the only person with the credentials and reputation to unite the galaxy's various bickering races into some sort of coherent front (against an existential threat they haven't sufficiently prepared for, naturally). Humans-first group Cerberus plays the spoiler role this time around, working against Shepard and the Alliance in an attempt to control the Reapers rather than destroy them.

Often, securing the help of one race means utterly screwing over another, setting up the kind of Moral Dilemmas With Far-Reaching Consequences (tm) BioWare games are known for (I'm staying necessarily vague in discussing the story here to avoid giving away too much). The game does a good job telegraphing these major decision moments, naturally laying out all of the interspecies backstory necessary so that even newcomers to the series will understand what's at stake. For series fans, the game also throws in quite a bit of previously unknown background that might even impact the way you look what transpired in previous games.

Subtle decisions

Aside from these major decision points, which are practically highlighted with flashing, red neon "THIS IS IMPORTANT" signs, the game was almost too subtle in showing the player how seemingly minor decisions would play out across the timeline. Most of the decisions I was allowed to make in conversations and cut scenes seemed relatively immaterial, representing two different branches that quickly end up back on the same conversational pathway. Yet, there was a constant, nagging voice in the back of my head wondering whether some earlier decision (or set of decisions) could have changed the outcome of some relatively key events. That nagging voice was usually balanced out by another that said, "No, this event is too crucial to the story to have happened any other way."

The thing is, both of these voices were quite often wrong. Bits of the story I thought were crucial and absolutely inevitable turned out to be completely reversible, as I found when I compared notes with other reviewers. Other major moments, which I figured I could have changed with a different set of choices, turned out to be seemingly necessary waypoints in the story's development—at least as far as I could tell from reloading earlier saves and trying a different tack.

Obsessive players will of course map out the entire possibility space of Mass Effect 3's ever-branching story lines soon after release. Players will no doubt want to use multiple playthroughs to see just how much things can change. Still, the situations at which you seem to bump up against the limits of where a completely interactive narrative can really go left me with the persistent sense I was missing a lot during my first playthrough. It's a feeling that lasted right through to the surprisingly direct ending, which I found somewhat unsatisfying from a narrative point of view—and even more unsatisfying because I was relatively sure it wasn't the "good" (i.e. "true") ending developers intended.

A small-scale focus

But the decision-making in Mass Effect 3 isn't all on the same level of galaxy-shaking importance. While wandering around crowded shopping and living areas, Shepard frequently stumbles into discussions where galactic citizens argue over ancillary issues brought up by the war: whether two cops should still bother with petty crimes when civilization itself is under attack; whether two civilians should relocate to a safe house or sign up to fight. Shepard gets to lend her support to either side of these everyday arguments, a nice touch that lets the player consider how a galaxy-wide war is affecting the people off the battlefield as well as on it.

The game's focus also zooms down to a more personal scale through Shepard's shipmates, many of whom are familiar faces making return appearances from earlier Mass Effect games (presuming they didn't already die in the save you import from Mass Effect 2). The game does a good job weaving major subplots for these characters into the larger story without requiring the player to go off on distracting, character-focused side missions. There are also plenty of opportunities for optional shipboard conversations that help flesh out their motivations and traits in some surprising ways. By the end, there's barely a major character arc that hasn't been wrapped up with some kind of a pretty little bow. Even though some of these conclusions are handled more awkwardly than others, there's a palpable sense of closure in seeing all of these subplots through to the end.