2012 Review – In defence of Mass Effect

It’s interesting to watch the tide of opinion turn on a game. Last year it was Skyrim - in 2012 it was the turn of Mass Effect 3 to suffer the brunt of revisionist commentary.

Alas poor Morton.
Source: Bioware

Games coverage is driven by hype and with time enthusiasm wanes. Impressions of a game can pivot quickly from positive hyperbole to negative.

The complaints leveled at big-name releases aren’t always core to theor experience either. There were some bizarre criticisms leveled at Mass Effect 3.

Some commented on the pacing of the game - they found it odd that Shepard and his crew had down-time mid-mission, or that they would take side-missions off the beaten path. Casablanca, Apocalypse Now and Zero Dark Thirty are just some examples of the slow rate of progress during missions in war.

Other complaints are more valid. The sense throughout the game that Shepard is a small cog in far-reaching machine was well conveyed. So why did the story descend into chosen-one nonsense with the future of the galaxy resting in his hands?

The Mass Effect Effect

How can the loss of a Mass Effect game-save lead to so much strife? Well, there are two reasons. And the first is simple, I love my Shepard. I didn't want to lose him. The second has to do with the appallingly small world of videogame journalism. And it's highlighted one unsettling problem that a 'year off gaming' might present.


Now that the old PS3 has received a new lease of life (thanks to my trusty hair dryer), I’m back in business with Mass Effect 3. Catastrophe averted. 

Losing a game save shouldn't be such a problem, right? The gameplay in ME3 is unrelentingly satisfying. I’d have been only too happy to play through those opening 12 hours again. Combat has real heft - although things can still get hairy, it's only too easy to dominate each encounter. It's crowd-control and it's fun.

Controlled chaos in Mass Effect 3

The game also benefits from a serious presentational facelift. Looking just as good as ever, it seems that developers Bioware finally hired a foley artist and/or sound engineer to bring the quality of their audio up to match their visuals. Weapons pop and the iconic sounds of the mass relays and reapers are pitch perfect. And those bizarre moments of silence that peppered previous games? Few and far between.

Most importantly, the game feels like a sequel to the original, rather than to its 2010 follow-up. I've been known to ramble on about how much I love (and hate) the first game so I won't labor the point here. With this third release in the series, Bioware have struck a careful balance between the original’s storytelling and its sequel's focus on combat. Shepard’s back in the thick of the action in this one. 

So if the experience of Mass Effect is all good, what exactly is my problem? And no, it's not the obvious one.