Mass Effect 3 (Legendary Edition) for PC Review

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I think Mass Effect is a series you’ll get a lot out of if you play the games in order. The overarching narrative is partly shaped by the decisions you make in all three games and you can carry over your characters and decisions from game to game. Unfortunately, the first game isn’t as good as the sequels. I feel the story, characters, and worldbuilding are excellent but the combat feels a bit stale and the Mako stuff isn’t all that great. The Legendary Edition undoubtedly improves some things but it still doesn’t reach the same highs as its successors in my opinion. Mass Effect 2 on the other hand is an incredible sequel and basically rectifies most of the issues I had with its predecessor. It was followed up by Mass Effect 3 which sparked a significant amount of controversy for its multiple endings. In fact, it was so controversial, BioWare released DLC just to clarify the endings and remedy fan concerns.

Developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts, Mass Effect 3 was released for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 in March, 2012 and Wii U in November of that same year. A remastered version was released as part of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition along with remasters of the previous two games for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2021. For this review, I played the PC version of the Legendary Edition.

Set months after the events of Mass Effect 2, the plot opens with the Reapers invading and attacking Earth. Shepard learns of a superweapon capable of destroying the Reapers and prepares for war. As the Alliance constructs a device called the “Crucible”, Shepard is sent on a recruitment drive across the galaxy and must also contend with Cerberus who intend to control the Reapers rather than destroy them. Once again, you can import your Shepard from the previous game along with the decisions you made and this will have an affect on the plot and the characters that appear. That said, I do think you’ll get a lot more out of this if you’ve played the previous games. I don’t think Mass Effect 3 conveys the same type of dark and gritty tone as Mass Effect 2 but it does tell a pretty good tale. The character development is great yet again and you will be forced to make some tough decisions from time to time. As for the ending, there are multiple and I can’t say I’m a huge fan of any of the outcomes. Without spoiling anything major, my biggest problem with them is that all the decisions you’ve made across all three games are basically rendered inconsequential. While I agree with many people that they aren’t great, I can’t say the endings ruined the experience for me. I still enjoyed the journey and overarching narrative.

The Legendary Edition does come with the DLC and I would argue Mass Effect 3 has some of the best DLC in the trilogy. One adds an additional squad member, the Leviathan DLC has Shepard investigating the truth about the origins of the Reapers, and my favorites are Omega and Citadel. In the Omega DLC, you’ll help Aria retake the Omega space station. The Citadel DLC is probably the biggest of them all. It follows the Normandy crew on shore leave and their efforts to uncover the truth regarding a conspiracy against Shepard. One thing I really like about this DLC is that it lightens things up with some humorous lines and interactions. Furthermore, it includes an apartment that you can somewhat customize and a new hub area called Silversun Strip which features an arcade, casino, and combat arena.

Mass Effect 3 includes a Reputation system which has kind of consumed the Morality system from the previous games, and Loyalty is gone. As expected, you will have to make decisions throughout the story and several will align with Paragon or Renegade as they did previously but it all contributes to Reputation now. As your reputation increases, different response options will become available and the benefit here is you don’t have to stick to a Renegade or Paragon path to see certain options. In other words, you don’t have to worry about getting locked out of charm or intimidation choices.

A big new feature here is War Assets. Much like Mass Effect 2, much of what you do in the game is helping to prepare for the final mission. Completing missions will typically reward you additional War Assets which includes people, weapons, technology, armies, fleets – all things to help in the fight against the Reapers and you can view all your War Assets from the War Terminal on the Normandy. The Legendary Edition does not feature the multiplayer component that was in the original game so the Effective Military Strength that was associated with War Assets is not present here and the system has been rebalanced. War Assets represent your Total Military Strength score only and this score does determine your ending choices. Ultimately, I think the War Assets concept is underwhelming when all is said and done.

I think Mass Effect 2 handled its final mission, the ending pay off a little better. Both Mass Effect 2 and 3 have you building towards the final mission. In Mass Effect 2, Shepard must build a crew to go on a suicide mission and the actual final mission is excellent. You have to make several choices that could lead to life or death for certain characters and the mission actually felt impactful. In Mass Effect 3, Shepard must accumulate enough War Assets to fight the Reapers and win or in other words, complete the story and see an ending. But that’s not my problem with it. My problem with it is that you’ll accumulate all these fleets and armies and technology and for what? A score. For nothing cool if I’m being honest. You’re not going to fight alongside armies of Turians or Krogans or command any Alliance fleets or ships. Depending on your choices throughout the game, there might be some subtle narrative changes, maybe a cut scene difference, but that’s it. The actual mission plays out like any other. Any sense of war is conveyed through the cut scenes and dialogue.

Ultimately, I’m disappointed with the ending for two reasons. The actual choices you’re given and the War Assets. And, honestly, I have a bigger problem with the latter than the actual endings themselves. It’s a shame because I feel the game does a great job and conveying a sense of progression. It’s a cool feeling when you complete a mission and unlock an additional War Asset. It’s cool to visit the War Terminal and see all the fleets and armies on your side, ready to fight with you. It made me think the final mission would be some awesome epic battle where I would fight alongside armies of aliens and Alliance soldiers and have to make different choices as to who’s doing what. Something like that. Something similar to the final mission of Mass Effect 2 but on a much bigger scale. But it’s not like that at all. No. Instead, War Assets simply contribute to a fucking score.

The ending and War Asset stuff aside, I do think Mass Effect 3 is the best game in the trilogy from a gameplay perspective. Mass Effect 2 was a big improvement and I would say Mass Effect 3 refines things even more making for a better gameplay experience. All the staples are here. You fly around in the Normandy to different worlds to complete missions. Different characters can join your crew and you can bring two squad members to fight alongside you on missions. The combat feels similar to that of Mass Effect 2 but more refined, the game features a rather large arsenal, and weapon mods make a return. Squad members still level up with you and can still only equip certain weapons. As it relates to Shepard, the weapons you carry now contribute to weight and the amount of weight your carrying determines how fast your powers cool down. I did play through the game on the Normal difficulty and I can’t say carrying a max amount of weight ever caused a real problem for me. In fact, I forgot it was a mechanic.

In general, I would say Mass Effect 3 feels more streamlined than the previous games. For one thing, the minigames have been cut which I’m grateful for. That means no more bypass and hacking minigames. Vehicle sections have also been cut. That means no Mako and no Hammerhead missions. Much of the gameplay is third-person shooter combat. Now maybe it’s just me but I felt this was the easiest game in the trilogy. Just like previous games, Mass Effect 3 features third-person shooter combat and is basically a cover shooter. You and your squad run around the environments shooting at enemies and using different powers. But I can’t say the combat ever felt challenging. In fact, it got easier as I went along and equipped better weapons. By the end of the game I was able to drop even the toughest foes in a matter of seconds.

Another thing that’s been cut or at least trimmed down is all the scanning. In Mass Effect 2, many planets could be scanned for resources. It’s basically a minigame. The scanning is still present in Mass Effect 3 but it’s not as time consuming. The Normandy still acts as a hub where you can interact with different NPCs, change Shepard’s armor and casual appearance, buy weapon upgrades, and use the Galaxy Map to travel to different worlds. The Normandy can send out a pulse to discover planets and wreckages that can be scanned for intel, resources, artifacts and War Assets. But using the pulse does attract the Reapers so you need to be careful. The Intel Terminal on the Normandy allows you to view any Intel you found and select one of multiple permanent upgrades. Any Artifacts found can be delivered to NPCs to complete side missions and the rewards are typically credits and War Assets.

Mass Effect 3 does seem to come with a lot of side missions and a lot of them come from the Citadel. Just by walking around and listening to conversations, you’ll receive new missions in your journal. In what seems like another effort to streamline things, the developers made the Citadel the ultimate one-stop-shopping center. In Mass Effect 2, you could find different shops on different worlds and locations, including the Citadel. In Mass Effect 3, most shops are located at the Citadel. You can buy weapons, mods, armor, and some cosmetic stuff. However, a lot of weapons, armor, and mods can be found in the environments on your travels. The Citadel is also where you can visit the Spectre Office to access a shooting range, Spectre Terminal, and Spectre Requisitions terminal. When you complete certain missions, you’ll unlock new messages in the Spectre Terminal relating to Spectre activity and support for the authorization of covert actions. And what’s the reward for authorizing things? War Assets. Although, you may not want to authorize everything. The Spectre Requisitions terminal is where you can buy high-end weaponry.

One of my complaints with Mass Effect 2 is the reduction of what I call “character building” elements. In the first Mass Effect, characters come with a bunch of powers and you can distribute points to different ones and even swap out their armor and weapons. You’re basically building these characters to fit certain molds or types or whatever you want to call it. They could be customized. Mass Effect 2 seemed to be more focused on combat and as a result, the “character building” or customization or role-playing elements (if you want to call it that) were minimized to an extent. Each character comes with several powers but nowhere near as many as the that of the first game. One is a class power and the rest seemed to be either offensive or defensive in nature and once a power’s max is reached, it could be evolved into one of two more powerful forms. Unlike the first game, you don’t need to pump points into any specific power or talent to be able to perform certain actions like bypass things for example. Instead, bypassing simply requires you to complete a minigame. Furthermore, you can only change your squad members’ appearance. You can’t equip them with armor and they only carry certain weapons. Most of this is carried over to Mass Effect 3. However, each power can be upgraded or ranked up with the points you earn and at certain ranks you can choose from different options as it relates to how that power will behave and I do like this system better.

The series has evolved quite a bit since the first game and Mass Effect 3 is basically a third-person shooter with some role playing elements. The refinements and efforts to streamline things since the first game have successfully improved the pacing in my opinion. Compared to the first game, you’ll spend much less time in menus in Mass Effect 2 and 3. From a gameplay perspective, I think Mass Effect 3 is the best game in the series. It takes all the improvements and refinements of Mass Effect 2 and refines them further, even giving you more movement options, making for a fun sci fi shooter experience. The action is far better and more fluid than that of the first game and blowing enemies away can be a ton of fun. Whether you freeze them with cryo ammo and shatter them or set them ablaze with incendiary ammo or simply blow their heads off, the gunplay is often rewarding and satisfying and the powers are fun to mess around with.

Mass Effect 3 is another planet hopping adventure. You’ll travel all over the galaxy and visit numerous worlds, engaging enemies and making decisions. The environments are diverse and mostly linear. It would be impossible to get lost and there are often branching paths with rooms and areas off to the sides where you can find weapons, mods, armor, and salvage. Pickups like these seem to be around every corner so exploration will often lead you to goodies. Mass Effect 3 features the typical structure of the series. Receive a mission, travel to the world, shoot a bunch of bad guys and complete the objective. A lot of side missions will require you to scan planets to find things like Artifacts but most missions are action-oriented.

Visually, I would say Mass Effect 3, the Legendary Edition that is, is on par with the last game. It’s a nice looking remaster with a colorful presentation and some gorgeous backdrops. The game also does a good job at conveying an atmosphere of war. You’ll sometimes land on planets with active battles going on and/or look like war zones and it looks cool. Some animations can appear a bit stiff, including facial animations, but other than that I have no complaints with the visual presentation. The audio is also wonderful. Weapons sound powerful, explosions sound satisfying, and the action is backed by another amazing soundtrack featuring many memorable tunes. On the technical side, I did not encounter any bugs but I did witness the frame rate dip and hitch at certain points, often when I was traversing the Silversun Strip.

Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Mass Effect 3. In fact, I think it’s the best game in the trilogy. I do think the ending is disappointing which is a shame because the journey has been so great. I found it easy to get attached to certain characters and most are so well developed that certain decisions can be tough to make. I would say it’s definitely a series you should start from the beginning even though the gameplay gets better as it goes along. When you start from the beginning, certain story beats and decisions will feel more impactful and satisfying. As for the gameplay, I think Mass Effect 3 offers the best in the trilogy. Combat plays a big role in this series and it has been refined significantly since the first game. The gunplay here is great, there’s plenty of weapons on offer, and firefights can be a lot of fun. In my experience, I found Mass Effect 3 to be the easiest game to get through on the Normal difficulty. Maybe it’s because I carried over my character from the previous games or because of something else but whatever it may be, I can’t say I ever felt challenged at any point. So if I was to replay it, I would probably increase the difficulty level. Ultimately, I had a great time with this trilogy and even though I think it could have ended better, I would say it’s still a ride worth going on.

I would definitely recommend Mass Effect 3. If you’ve played the previous games already and enjoyed them, I don’t see why you wouldn’t enjoy this. The ending could have been handled better but I don’t think that should overshadow all its good qualities. The gameplay is fun, it’s got good characters, and it’s a great sci fi adventure as is the trilogy as a whole. It may not be the best conclusion to a story but it’s at least enjoyable. Definitely check it out.