Mass Effect 3 is the final game in this trilogy, and while there have been more games in the series, this marks (so far) the conclusion of Commander Shepard’s story.

Mass Effect 3 (2012)

• IGN Rating: 9.5/10
• Metacritic Rating (Xbox 360): 93/100
• GameSpot Rating: 9/10

Mass Effect 3 is the wrap up to the original trilogy, finishing the story of Commander Shepard and the Reapers. The Reapers are here now, and everything you’ve done until now in the Mass Effect games is about to either pay off or bite you on the butt. In the end, you’re not just fighting for humanity, you’re fighting for the entire galaxy. Every species is counting on you, as Shepard spearheads the war against the Reapers.

Mass Effect 3 has one of the pound for pound greatest intro sequences to a video game ever. It starts off with Shepard being reinstated by Anderson as the Reapers begin to attack Earth, destroying cities and devastating the Earth. Shepard and Anderson run through the city to get evacuated off of Earth. As they finally get to an evacuation shuttle, Shepard watches a little boy get onto another shuttle separate from his, and as they begin to take off, a Reaper attacks and destroys it, killing the little boy. Then, Leaving Earth by Clint Mansell made for Mass Effect 3 begins to play as the player soaks in the weight of the situation and what is really at stake here. Lives of innocent people, humans and aliens are at stake. Families are being devastated and entire species being pushed to the brink of extinction, and the survival of everyone is depending on you.

There isn’t much background to go over since most of it we’ve gone over in the other games. You should know that Commander Shepard no longer works with Cerberus and works with the Alliance military again, in fact every squadmate you had in Mass Effect 2 that were with Cerberus left Cerberus, and either moved on, work independently, or are doing something to fight back against the Reapers. Also, Cerberus is working independently and being very hostile, not wanting to work with anyone else as the Illusive Man wants to control the Reapers instead of destroying them, so don’t expect them to play nice.

Squadmates:

The squadmates in Mass Effect 3 are small, but strong. Also depending on your choice on Virmire depicts which squadmate you get in the beginning of the game.

Kaidan Alenko is a Human squadmate that you can get in Mass Effect 3. Even though Kaidan returns to action alongside Shepard in Mass Effect 3, at first he is reluctant to because of Shepard’s past with Cerberus. After the first mission on Mars with Kaidan, Kaidan is injured severely and needs time to recover in the hospital on the Citadel. After making a full recovery, Kaidan joins Shepard again to fight against the Reapers, making sure history doesn’t repeat itself. His biotic abilities and skills with a gun makes him a valuable asset for the fight against the Reapers. Kaidan Alenko is a romance option for a female Shepard in Mass Effect 3.

Ashley Williams is a human squadmate from Mass Effect 3. Her story in Mass Effect 3 is virtually identical to Kaidan Alenko’s. She is reluctant to work with Shepard because of his past with Cerberus, she gets injured severely on Mars and cannot work with Shepard for a while, and she makes a full recovery and joins Shepard to fight against the Reapers. What separates her from Kaidan is her abilities on the battlefield and her as a character. She is a soldier that doesn’t possess biotic abilities and has limited tech abilities. While it doesn’t bother me too much that she has the same story as Kaidan, but it would be cool to see a variety to it, but still just a nitpick. She is a romance option for a male Shepard in Mass Effect 3.

James Vega is a human squadmate from Mass Effect 3. He is a lot like Ashley in his abilities, but what separates him from the rest of the human squadmates is his brash and humorous personality, and his competitive nature. Also, he has an interesting background that is explored more in a spin-off animated movie called Mass Effect: Paragon Lost. It explores James Vega’s past, where he used to lead a ship and squad of his own where they were investigating the Collectors. Eventually, it got hairy and all of James’s squad were killed, something he blames himself for. James is a romance option for a female Shepard in Mass Effect 3.

Liara T’Soni is an Asari squadmate from Mass Effect 3. After taking down the Shadow Broker and becoming the new Shadow Broker, Liara became even more busy. Still, she found time to go to Mars and search for an ancient Prothean blueprint for something powerful enough to defeat the Reapers called the Crucible. She helped Shepard on Mars to get the blueprints, and decided to join Shepard for the final fight against the Reapers. She still has to complete her role as Shadow Broker, and can often be found in her office on the Normandy with her monitors and AI companion from the Shadow Broker ship. Liara uses her biotic abilities and tech to aid on the battlefield. She is a romance option for a male and female Shepard.

Garrus Vakarian is a Turian squadmate from Mass Effect 3. Stationed on the moon of Palaven, the Turian homeworld, he fights against Reapers forces to protect Palaven from the Reapers the best they can. Garrus returned to the Normandy for the third time after Shepard and his squad aided the Turians on Palaven’s moon. Knowing that this may be his final mission ever or final mission with Shepard doesn’t stop him from going head first with Shepard into the thick of it, using his tech and weaponry to help to the best of his abilities. Garrus is a romance option for a female Shepard. You can only get Garrus if he survived the Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2.

Tali’Zorah Nar Rayya is a Quarian squadmate from Mass Effect 3. The Quarian’s are now looking to gain their home world, Rannoch, back from the Geth, a fight that the Quarian’s need help to win. Tali joins Shepard as they fight for Rannoch, and fight against the Reapers. She uses her tech abilities to gain the advantage on the battlefield. She is a romance option for a male Shepard. You can only get Tali if she survived the Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2.

EDI is a squadmate you can get in Mass Effect 3. Using the body of the Cerberus operative that attacked Shepard and his squad on Mars, and severely injured Ashley/Kaidan, EDI uploaded herself to control the body of the Cerberus operative and aid Shepard on the battlefield. If you talk to EDI and Joker on the Citadel you can set up a relationship between the two. EDI uses her tech abilities and handiness with a gun to aid Shepard on the battlefield. EDI is not a romance option for a female or male Shepard.

Javik is a Prothean squadmate from Mass Effect 3, who you can get if you pay for the DLC or have Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. Shepard returns to Eden Prime to investigate an ancient Prothean stasis pod that Cerberus is attempting to recover. However, Shepard stops them from doing so and recovers Javik. Javik was a Prothean soldier born in the middle of the war with the Reapers during his cycle, which means he never got to see the Citadel or much of the Prothean empire. He now joins Shepard to defeat a common enemy, the Reapers. Javik is not a romance option for a male or female Shepard.

STORY OF MASS EFFECT 3, WARNING, HEAVY SPOILERS BELOW:

The game starts with Shepard being reinstated by Admiral Anderson in Vancouver on Earth as news of Reapers attacking Britain and Europe emerges. (Shepard was stripped of his status of Spectre and put under house arrest because of the Arrival DLC in Mass Effect 2, or for unknown reasons if the DLC wasn’t completed). Shepard and Anderson along with James Vega and Ashley/Kaidan make their way to a courtroom surrounded by glass. As they talk about the Reaper situation and if they should lift Shepard’s house arrest, the Reapers zip past the Luna base and begin to attack Vancouver. James and Ashley/Kaidan are separated from Anderson and Shepard during the sudden attack, and the courtroom is destroyed. Shepard and Anderson run on roof tops and through buildings as they attempt to regroup with some Alliance officers and get to evac shuttles. As they run through a building already devastated by the Reapers, Shepard spots a little boy who was playing with a miniature Normandy model outside before the attacks inside a vent shaft hiding. Shepard tries to comfort him, reaching out his hand to take him to the shuttles with him and Anderson, but the little boy is reluctant. Shepard’s attention is drawn to Anderson when he asks Shepard what he’s doing, and when Shepard looks back the little boy is gone. They make it to the evac shuttles, but Anderson tells Shepard he can’t leave Earth and that Anderson had to stay and fight. Shepard wants to stay and fight for Earth too, but Anderson tells him that Shepard has to go and get the galaxy to fight this war. While the shuttle starts to lift up Shepard sees the little boy run and get into another evac shuttle, but as the evac shuttle lifts from the ground a Reaper shoots it, destroying the evac and killing everyone inside of it. Shepard looks down at Earth as the Reapers devastate it, and as much as it pains Shepard, he knows that he must leave Earth.

Shepard heads to the Citadel to talk to the Council to get aid to fight the Reapers where he meets with the human Councilor Udina who took Anderson’s place when Anderson left for Earth. Shepard tries to get the support of the Council, but they are all feeling the effects of the Reaper war and are looking to contribute to their own war efforts back at their homes. Udina sends his support for Shepard, and wishes him luck. Shepard, Ashley/Kaidan, and James head off to Mars for a Priority mission where they have found blueprints for an ancient Prothean super-weapon called the Crucible. At the Mars research base they run into Cerberus soldiers that they’ll have to deal with all throughout the base. Half way through the mission, they ran into Liara T’Soni who was also looking for the Prothean blueprints. She joins Shepard and Ashley/Kaidan while James goes to get an evac shuttle ready for them once they are done getting the Prothean blueprints. As Shepard and his squad progress through the base, depending on if the player romanced Liara or Ashley/Kaidan in the previous games, Shepard will have a moment with Liara or Ashley/Kaidan where the player can reestablish a romance or put an end to it. After the moment, the squad get back to work further progressing through the base. Finally, they reach the blueprints, only for a Cerberus operative that had been undercover at the base for a while named Eva Coré to ambush them, taking the blueprints and running off with them. Shepard and his squad chase Eva all the way to the shuttle docking where Eva gets into a shuttle and begins to take off. That’s when James rams a shuttle directly into Eva’s, sending it into flames. As they get ready to recover the blueprints, Eva emerges from the shuttle, revealing a disturbing secret as to what she is.

Eva is actually an android, and she begins to attack the squad, and in the process, seriously injures Ashley/Kaidan. Shepard is finally able to gun down Eva, killing the android. The Normandy comes in just in time to avoid the Reapers and pick up the squad, and with them they bring the body of Eva. Now that they have the Crucible blueprints, the Council starts to focus on the development of the Crucible with the top scientists, engineers, etc. to help decode the blueprints and build the Crucible, which will be essentially an add-on to the Citadel to use the Citadel as a weapon against the Reapers. While that happens, Shepard is looking to unite the galaxy to fight back against the Reapers. The player can gain war assets throughout the game to help with the fight against the Reaper. There is a point system that has a minimum that must be reached in order to beat the reapers, and a maximum of points to gain. The player can gain these through doing missions, or finding artifacts, weapons, oil, or lost assets.

There are many Priority missions Shepard must complete before the final fight to gain war assets. These can be done in whatever order the player chooses, but I’ll go over the Turian mission first. Priority Palaven takes place on Menae, one of the two moons of Palaven, where Turian forces are fighting back against Reaper forces to the best of their abilities. You are looking for Primarch Fedorian to join you on the Normandy where he will operate in the War Room of the Normandy to assist in the galactic wide war with the Reapers. When you fight your way through some Reaper forces and get to a Turian shelter, General Corinthus tells Shepard that Primarch Fedorian is dead, and with the comms tower down, you are unable to find out who is the new Primarch. So, you must go repair the comm tower. After doing so Corinthus tells you to return to the shelter. When you make it back, you meet a familiar face. Garrus Vakarian is back (if he survived the first two games), and he’s been helping his fellow Turian on Menae against the Reapers. After you catch up with Garrus, you find out from Corinthus that the new Primarch is General Adrien Victus. Now, you have to defend the airway from Reaper forces, and then defend the main barricade where you can use a large turret to gun down incoming Reaper troops.

Now, you have to get to Victus who is located at a camp not far from Corinthus’s shelter. You’ll be ambushed by some Husks, and watch a Turian fighter craft crash in front of you, but you’ll eventually reach the camp that you find is ran over with Reaper troops that are fighting the Turian soldiers there. After clearing the camp, you find Victus and inform him of his new role as Primarch. He isn’t quite ecstatic about the news, but he accepts it and comes with Shepard. Garrus also follows along, if he survived the first two games that is. Now, that you have the help of the Turians, you’ll get war assets from it.

Something important happens after you finish the Turian missions, where EDI suddenly goes offline. You go to investigate it, and find out that EDI took over Eva Coré’s robotic shell, and now can assist Shepard as a crewmate on the battlefield.

Now, I’ll go over the Krogan missions. The first Priority mission in the series of Krogan missions is Priority Sur’Kesh, where there is a Salarian base that has a female Krogan that hasn’t been affected by the Genophage. In the mission you need to recover the Krogan so that Mordin (if he survived Mass Effect 2) can work on a cure for the Genophage. After that is completed you have an optional mission that you can do, but once Mordin is done with the Genophage, it’s time to use it.

Onto Priority Tuchanka, which, you guessed, takes place on the Krogan homeworld Tuchanka. On Tuchanka there is a giant building called the Shroud that was used to spread the Genophage across Tuchanka, infecting the entire species, which caused a giant decline in Krogan population and society. You will use the Shroud to spread the cure to gain the help of the Krogan, or you can sabotage the cure and gain the help of the Salarians as promised by the Salarian Dalatrass. There’s a problem though. A destroyer Reaper has appeared and is guarding the Shroud, and you’ll have to find a way to either get past or through the Reaper. As Shepard goes through old Krogan ruins, because of an accident destroying the bridge they were using to get to the Shroud, they find out about a giant Thresher Maw named Kalros.

Thresher Maws are giant, worm-like creatures that travel underground and only pop out of the ground to attack their prey. You encounter Kalros when you start to exit the Krogan ruins as you see Kalros almost causing an earthquake simply by moving, and someone suggests the idea of using the Maw Hammers used to summon Kalros at the Shroud to fight the Reaper. While Shepard activates the Maw Hammers, the rest of the team will lure the Reaper out to where Kalros can actually get the Reaper. After the Maw Hammers have been activated, Kalros jumps out of the ground and attacks the Reaper, taking it down.

Now is where you can either sabotage or cure the Genophage. Mordin or the Salarian scientist that replaces Mordin will go into the Shroud, and Shepard will follow behind him. There, if Shepard decides to sabotage the cure then Mordin will live, and you will gain the help of the Salarians, and gain Mordin as a war asset. If you cure the Genophage, Mordin will die, but you gain the help of the Krogans.

After Shepard has finished Priority Tuchanka, it’s time to move onto the Quarians and Geth. To start off, you’ll have a priority mission on the Citadel where Cerberus has started to invade the Citadel. You find out that Councilor Udina is working with Cerberus and helped them get into the Citadel. So now the mission is to get to the Citadel, repel Cerberus, save the Councilors, and take care of Udina. Starting off the mission you go through the Citadel clearing out attacking Cerberus forces, and find a wounded, but not dead Commander Bailey. He lets Shepard know that the Salarian Councilor was meeting with the C-Sec executor on planning a big arrest when they both went missing during the attack. Now, Shepard has to find the Salarian Councilor, and when Shepard finds the Salarian Councilor hidden by a cloak a cutscene plays of them being attacked by a Cerberus assassin, Kai Leng, but if Thane Krios survived Mass Effect 2, he will intercept and save the Councilor from the attack, during the game this can be a surprise as he is unable to help Shepard initially due to him entering the final stages of Kepral’s syndrome, which was covered in the Mass Effect 2 review. Thane musters up the last of his strength to fight off the assassin, and save the Councilor. Note, if Thane died in Mass Effect 2, then he will be replaced by Major Kirrahe if Kirrahe survived Virmire in the first game. If neither Thane or Kirrahe survived, the Councilor simply dies.

Now, onto intercepting the other Councilors after the Salarian Councilor is saved or dies. You won’t be able to just simply go to the other Councilors though, as Kai Leng loves to ruin things. Kai Leng tries everything he can to try and stop you or kill the Councilors before you can get to them, but you of course beat the good for nothing Kai Leng to the Councilors. They were just about to get into a shuttle with Ashley/Kaidan as their escort when Shepard stopped them. You’ll have multiple dialogue choices and interrupts that can help you convince them that Udina is the Cerberus mole, along with actions you’ve made in the past, and if you are able to convince them, then they will turn their gun on Udina, who is trying to override the lock on the shuttle and escape. If you cannot convince them, then you will have no choice but to either shoot them, or have one of your crewmates shoot them. Now, as Udina continues to become more desperate to override the lock on the shuttle and escape, you can either shoot Udina yourself, or have Ashley/Kaidan do it if you don’t, but if Ashley/Kaidan are dead then one of your crewmates will do it. Back on the Normandy, you’ll have a conversation with Admiral Anderson and Specialist Traynor, a friend of Anderson with a deep history with him. This is where you learn that Kai Leng has a deeper history than expected, with Anderson and Traynor knowing of him and even running into him is revealed to you.

To start Priority Perseus Veil, you’ll need to go to the Far Rim to board the Quarian Envoy Ship. Here you speak to the Quarian Admiralty board where you talk to them about what they’ve been doing since the start of the Reaper invasion. They tell Shepard that they’ve been engaged in a war with the Geth to regain their homeworld Rannoch. If you didn’t know, the Quarians created the Geth initially as workers for manual labor, but the Geth led an uprising and sent the Quarians off their homeworld, causing them to have to live in Quarian ships away from Rannoch, and the Geth now reside in Rannoch. Now, back onto Priority Perseus Veil. You met the new fifth member of the Quarian Admiralty board, who is Tali’Zorah vas Neema, if she survived the previous two games. On the Normandy you can talk to the Admirals in the War Room, and you can talk to Tali’Zorah privately in your personal cabin, and lock in the relationship with Tali if you romanced her in the second game.

After Perseus Veil it’s onto Priority Geth Dreadnought. The Geth Dreadnought, that is located in the Tikkun system, has been broadcasting a signal for the Reapers to keep the Geth under Reaper control, and as you may guess, you have to go onto the Dreadnought and disable it. After boarding it and reaching the Reaper Signal Transmitter, you open it up and find a Geth inside of it. The Geth is none other than Legion, if he survived in Mass Effect 2 or wasn’t sold that is. If he died or was sold, then you get Geth VI, instead of Legion. A cutscene plays, and now it’s time to escape once the Dreadnought is disabled.

Onto Priority Rannoch, where you will have to take on a dormant Reaper Destroyer after destroying some Reaper tech and shooting some Geth, you cannot beat the Reaper with conventional weapons, so you’ll have to use a gun to summon a massive Orbital strike that can damage the Reaper. You’ll be alone too, so no crewmates to help. You have to maneuver around the Reaper’s attacks and counter with the Orbital strike until eventually, you alone, Commander Shepard, kill the Reaper.

Shepard converses with the Reaper, allowing the player to deeper understand the Reapers and their motives. With the Reaper destroyed and Geth unactivated, Shepard needs to make a decision. Both Tali and Legion join Shepard on Rannoch to help him make the decision. Either Shepard allows the Geth to be reactivated and destroy the Quarian fleet, allowing the Geth to stay on Rannoch, gain the Geth as war assets, but lose the Quarians, or allow the Quarians to destroy the Geth, regain Rannoch, and gain the Quarians as war assets, but lose the Geth. If you choose the Geth, Tali will be devastated, and she will decide to make a heartbreaking decision to take her own life, and if you choose the Quarians Legion will attack Shepard, but Tali kill him. Now, if Shepard is a wordsmith and you have high speech attributes, you can gain both by convincing them that the war was both their faults, but by passing two speech checks, you can convince them to live with each other on Rannoch in peace and gain them as war assets.

Now, we’re entering the final stretch of the game. Shepard has dealt with most of the major Citadel species to gain them in the war effort, except for one. The Asari are Shepard’s next target to assist and recruit, and to do so you’ll need to visit the Citadel and go to Udina’s now vacant office, where you will meet Miranda and get orders to head to Thessia, the Asari homeworld, where they are fighting against Reaper forces. You are looking for information on the Crucible, such as how to use it or activate it, and to do so you have to fight your way to an Asari temple full of ancient Asari artifacts that Shepard can interact with and reveal a Prothean memory construct hidden within the Athame statue. Shepard interacts with it, and even has a conversation with it regarding the Reapers.

If you were expecting to just uncover the artifact without someone coming to ruin the fun, then I’m sorry to tell you, but Kai Leng shows up. Kai links Commander Shepard up to have a conversation with the Illusive Man, and as soon as Shepard and the Illusive Man are done talking, you get to fight Kai Leng. After you beat him up a bit, he resorts to using a gunship, and a cutscene plays after the fight showing Kai Leng leaving with the artifact that Shepard uncovered. Back on the Normandy, Shepard is in a dark spot, and after a conversation with the Asari councilor, he aims to get revenge against Cerberus, and he’s in luck as Specialist Traynor has tracked Kai Leng’s shuttle to the Iera system in the Shadow Sea Cluster, but after that it goes dark. If Shepard wants to resolve him Cerberus issue, he’ll have to head to the Iera system in the Shadow Sea Cluster and dig a bit deeper.

The next Priority mission is Priority: Horizon, but before you start the mission you’ll get an interaction with Miranda Lawson, if she survived Mass Effect 2. Previous interactions with Miranda reveals she left Cerberus after Mass Effect 2, and she indicates that Cerberus might’ve placed a hit on Miranda, and that she thinks her father has kidnapped Oriana again. Now, head to Horizon, which is located in the Shadow Sea Cluster in the Iera system. It is suspected that Cerberus has been using Sanctuary as a base as a cover for secret activity. When you land and begin to go through the camp and head to Sanctuary Shepard notices that the facility is empty. It was then revealed that the Reapers attacked the facility. Then, Shepard and crew are attacked by Cerberus forces. As you go through Sanctuary, you see through a window Cerberus shuttles leaving Horizon, and through another window you see the bodies of Reaper and Cerberus forces. After going through Sanctuary, you’ll finally encounter Miranda’s father, Henry Lawson, and if you played Miranda loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, you’ll know Henry is a real piece of work, who kidnapped Miranda’s sister Oriana. Henry’s back at his old ways of kidnapping Oriana, and if Miranda survived Mass Effect 2, she’s here too, but a little beat up as she got into a fight with Kai Leng. You can negotiate with Henry for Oriana’s life, if you use a Paragon or Renegade dialogue choice, then you will convince Henry to let Oriana go, and if Miranda is present, then she will kill Henry with her biotics. If not, you can use a Renegade interrupt to shoot Henry. If you fail to convince Henry, you’ll get a Renegade interrupt, if you choose to do it, you’ll shoot Henry, separating him from Oriana and Miranda will use biotics to finish Henry off. If you don’t, Miranda will use biotics to separate Oriana and Henry, but Henry will shoot her, and with her last ounce of strength she will kill Henry with biotics. If Miranda isn’t there, and you failed to convince Henry, you can use a Renegade interrupt to separate Henry and Oriana, and another one to kill Henry. If you do the first interrupt, but not the second, Henry will escape alive. If you don’t do either of the interrupts, then Oriana will push Henry through the window, but she will fall with Henry, killing them both. After Henry is dead or escapes, if Miranda was present and wasn’t shot by Henry then there will be a number of factors that determine if she lives or not after the mission.

After Priority Horizon, you get Priority Cerberus Headquarters. The Illusive Man’s headquarters have been found, and now it’s time to take back the Prothean memory construct to help build the Catalyst, which is important to help use the Crucible, beat Cerberus, and finally focus on beating the Reapers. This is the game’s no point of return, where you cannot go and do previous missions or side missions once you start the mission, so make sure you do whatever you need to do before starting this mission. To dumb it down as this has been a very long story section, you make it to the Illusive Man’s view that he normally has of a star, and the room we mainly see him in when talking to him. He is not here physically, but through a hologram like usual. Shepard speaks to the Illusive Man, trying to convince the Illusive Man to join them and fight and destroy the Reapers, but the Illusive Man doesn’t want that, instead he wants to control the Reapers. It’s clear he’s too far gone, and after talking to him, you get to fight Kai Leng one last time. After you defeat him, Kai will attempt to sneak up on Shepard, but there is a Renegade interrupt where Shepard will block and shatter Kai’s sword and stab Kai with their omni-blade. If the player doesn’t execute the Renegade interrupt, Shepard will dodge it and then stab Kai. Now that Kai is dead for good, Shepard speaks to the Prothean VI again, and then return to the Normandy where Anderson confirms that the Citadel is in Earth’s orbit and ready to go, so it’s time to use the Crucible and give the Reaper’s one last struggle.

Priority Earth is the next and last mission in Mass Effect 3. When you get to the Sol System, you find thousands of Reapers and Ally forces going to war in space above Earth, and on Earth it’s just as devastating as they are fighting it out down there too. You must get onto the Citadel to activate the Crucible. After making preparations and fighting against Reaper forces, Shepard will get to talk to each crewmate he has and past crewmates that are still alive for possibly the final time, as Shepard prepares to make the final push with other allies and Anderson to the Conduit, which will take them into the Citadel. Now, it’s time for the final push, and you’ll get to bring along 2 crewmates like usual. Once you get to the final stretch where you run like crazy for the Conduit, you will see a giant Reaper guarding the Conduit, as it stands there blasting away at everyone making the push to the Conduit. The Reaper turns out to be the oldest Reaper, and the Reaper responsible for many events in Mass Effect 2, the Reaper is Harbinger.

In the Legendary Edition, the version I’m using for the review, your war assets depict whether the crewmates you brought along survive the run or not. Remember, this doesn’t apply for the base PS3/Xbox 360 versions of the game. If your crewmates survive the run, the Normandy comes by for an emergency pick up where a highly emotional scene will play out of Shepard saying what could be his/her final goodbye’s, I recommend you bring along the crewmate you decided to romance, if you decided to romance a crewmate at all. After the Normandy takes off and you’re alone on the field now, Shepard continues the run, but one of Harbinger’s beams makes a direct hit, and everything goes white. Then Shepard wakes up on the field in a very bad way, but the Conduit won’t stay open much longer.

Getting closer to the Conduit, a few Reaper troops pop up, and in Shepard’s weakened state, he/her takes them out, but not without getting shot. Still pressing on despite being severely injured, Shepard makes it to the Citadel through the Conduit. On the Citadel, it’s dark and creepy, with a room full of corpses stacked in piles and Keepers keeping themselves busy with them. You navigate down the hall and then Anderson talks through comms to you. At some point Anderson followed Shepard through the Conduit, but ended up in a different location. After a bit of slow navigation, you meet Anderson on a platform in the room you need. Also in the room with him is the Illusive Man, who’s holding him hostage. You’re in no fighting shape, so you’ll have to convince him that what he’s doing is wrong. If you successfully convince him through the Paragon option, he’ll realize that he’s been indoctrinated by the Reapers, and will promptly take Anderson’s weapon and turn it on himself. If you threaten or choose neutral options, then you’ll get Renegade interrupts to shoot the Illusive Man, if you don’t you fail.

Shepard shoots the Illusive Man, putting him down. They have one last conversation as Shepard opens the doors to the Citadel for the Crucible, and the Illusive Man takes his last breath, and dies. Shepard walks over to Anderson and takes a seat next to him as they look out at the ongoing battle and have their last conversation together, and in a very emotional scene, Admiral Anderson passes away.

The Crucible latches onto the Citadel, and Shepard is approached by the Catalyst, also known as the Star-child which is taking the form of the child that Shepard tried to save in the beginning of the game on Earth, but failed. The Catalyst explains to Shepard the purpose of the Reapers and tells Shepard of the various ways he can use the Crucible to beat the Reapers. The options are Destroy, Control, or Synthesis. Depending on which version of the game you play, the options could be limited to just Destroy or Control if you don’t have enough EMS.

If you choose the destroy ending, also known as the red ending, Shepard will approach the conduit in front of him and shoot it, resulting in all Synthetic life being destroyed. This includes the Reapers, the Geth, and even EDI. This also damages the Citadel and the mass relays, but some time later they are repaired. If your war assets are low, then the damage will be much more devastating and bittersweet. Also, if you choose the Destroy ending and you have 7,400 or more war assets, then a cutscene will play showing the state of the Citadel shortly after the destruction, with debris and the Citadel ruined, a body comes into frame with N7 armor, and then the body breathes and moves, reveal

In the Control ending, also known as the blue ending, Shepard sacrifices himself to command the Reaper fleet. A blue pulse goes out across the galaxy, damaging the relays, but results in Shepard controlling the Reapers. He directs them to stop attacking and leave Earth, and directs them to repair the relays and help reform the galaxy. This ending is interesting, and can lead to a lot of interesting storylines, but it’s pretty widespread knowledge that the most likely canonical ending is the Destroy ending. Also, Shepard cannot live in this ending, so you won’t get the Shepard surviving cutscene after you beat the game.

In the Synthesis ending, also known as the green ending, Shepard adds his DNA to the Crucible to allow synthetics and organics to merge, blurring the line between Synthetics and Organics. The relays are damaged, but the Reapers repair them and live amongst us now as we are all at the pinnacle of evolution, being perfect. The Reapers share their knowledge to the billions in the galaxy, but again, Shepard cannot live in this ending, and you will not get the Shepard surviving cutscene in this ending.

In the Legendary Edition and Extended cut, you can shoot the Catalyst, also known as the Star-child, and he lets the Reapers destroy all living lifeforms, leading to the continuation of the cycles. If you also wait too long the Starchild will make the decision for you, letting the war play out like in the previous ending. Both of these endings have a cutscene showing one of Liara’s time capsule on a planet for new species to discover and hopefully beat the Reapers.

DLC:

There is a good amount of DLC in Mass Effect 3, they span from weapons, alternate attire for Shepard and crewmates, and story DLC’s. I will only be cover story DLC’s here, and if you play Mass Effect 3, I suggest you get an edition with all the DLC or buy the DLC as it adds a lot of story and also explores the Reapers and Protheans more.

From Ashes: This DLC concerns an artifact of Prothean origin where you can recover a living Prothean named Javik that has been in stasis for 50,000 years, and he can be a crewmate.

Extended Cut: Adds new cinematics and endings to the game.

Leviathan: A recently discovered dead Reaper has been found, and you are ordered to investigate the ancient-Reaper killer named the Leviathan.

Omega: Aid Aria T’Loak and her allies in taking back Omega from Cerberus control.

Citadel: Shepard gains Anderson’s personal apartment while Anderson is away on Earth, and gathers all surviving crewmates from all previous games and current to solve his case of identity theft on the Citadel.

Mass Effect Genesis 2: Allows the player to make decisions from the two previous games if they didn’t play the previous games.

Gameplay:

Gameplay is very similar to Mass Effect 2, but there are differences. In Mass Effect 3, guns and other weapons feel the best yet, making combat very fun and exhilarating. Additionally, when an enemy gets close you can hold down the melee button, Circle for PS4/PS5, B for Xbox One/Series X/S and you will perform a heavy melee, where Shepard uses their omni-blade.

Just like the previous games, dialogue is a huge factor in this game, and at certain points even more so if you are making huge decisions in the game that affect the universe a lot. Paragon and Renegade interrupts are carried over from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3, and work the same as well.

Codex and attributes work practically the same as Mass Effect 2, with maybe minor changes if any at all.

The atmosphere has that same Mass Effect awe-inducing feel to it, but with the Reaper war, it can also be very intense. The implications of every decision carries through until the final decision, making you heavily consider every single move you make.

When exploring the galaxy on the galaxy map, it definitely feels more limited with the Reaper threat. When looking at the galaxy map, you’ll see some different systems have Reaper’s hovering over them, which means that if you attract too much attention via scans then you’ll alert the Reapers of your presence and you’ll have to escape the system from the Reapers chasing you, and if they catch you it’ll result in a “Critical Mission Failure”, or game over. This feature isn’t my particular favorite, but once you get used to it, you learn to deal with it.

Mass Effect 3’s story is very good, with good gameplay to go with it, but with a rather lackluster ending and some more minor things, it feels a little bit disappointing after Mass Effect 2, but it is hard to top the second game. Still, the game is a great play and still worth the play. With all things considered, I’ll give Mass Effect a 9.5/10, just barely above the first Mass Effect game.