In 1907, the book of the Russian ethnographer Valentin Aleksandrovich Moshkov “A New Theory of the Origin of Man and his Renewal, compiled according to zoology, geology, archeology, anthropology, ethnography, history and statistics” was published in Poland. It stated that the history of mankind can be divided into repeated 400-year cycles, each of which, in turn, is divided into four centuries-old cycles.
Moshkov called them, respectively, “golden”, “silver”, “copper” and “iron” centuries. In his opinion, the beginning of a large cycle was marked by public and moral heyday, and the end of the decline. We do not know exactly whether the creators of Mass Effect are familiar with the works of Valentin Aleksandrovich, but they built the plot of their science fiction trilogy on very similar principles.
What they sowed
Its essence, recall, is. Once every fifty thousand years, over the limits of the Milky Way are huge intelligent machines-the reapers-which grind organic life throughout the galaxy into dust, after which they disappear with a sense of the fulfillment of the fulfillment. The action of all three Mass Effect takes place at the very end of the Iron Age, and the final part of the series is the highest point of epic conflict between organic matter and synthetics.
The authors from the first minutes set stories the desired intonation: the game begins, neither more, nor less, the invasion of the reapers to the ground. An epic battle unfolds before our eyes, in which cars (seeming almost invincible) quickly and decisively prevail. Now, while the remnants of mankind are organized in the partisan movement, we have to unite the rational races of the galaxy in the struggle against the common enemy.
[Bullet]] The creature on the left is not only sharashi, by the most active in battle, the members of your team are missiles, but also periodically “gives birth” to small and very annoying spiders who hate you no less than a “parent”.
If in the first two Mass Effect, even the very existence of the Reapers was no more than a ridiculous theory, which is why the main character Captain Shepard had to listen to many ridicule and reproaches, now there are no reasons for doubt in reality. Therefore, the inhabitants of the Galaxy for once do not compost our brains, but immediately go to the matter: yes, the reapers are real … Yes, it seems to us all, it seems to be the end … But how to help the common cause, when about the same thing happens on the native planet? In short, potential allies still have to cut off for a long time, but at least they do not laugh at your face.
The structure of the plot quests has changed. In Mass Effect 3, many of them are concentrated on one planet and are connected by each other. Moreover, it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish the plot task from optional: both are written and constructed and now at about one qualitative level. It happens that you only recognize the site-quest, “from the contrary”, when you put it off for later, and after a while you get a message by interstellar mail that everything has already happened without you.
United galaxy
Mass Effect 3 – absolutely the most large -scale part of the trilogy. This is noticeable even by the awards that you receive for the performance of mandatory and optional tasks. In the Galaxy, the Galaxy has to live in the besieged by Robots-killers on the principle of “everything for the front, everything for victory”, and therefore the next closed quest means primarily a couple more gluing in the furnace of the sacred war. The completed tasks bring you not only money, experience and new equipment: in the terrible new world, the reward for services is calculated primarily by units and fleets. This, by the way, works great on the atmosphere: there is a feeling that you are really doing a vital thing.
[[Bullet]] The first meetings with thugs inspire real horror in front of these massive beasts with thick skin and strong armor. But this is far from the most dangerous enemy in the game.
Anyway, now not nameless colonists and soldiers ask Shepard to wipe their ass – entire civilizations are lying at the feet of the captain and praying: save! Stop! prevent! In accordance with the atmosphere, bets also grew up when solving plot dilemmas. On the scales today it is not your personal relationship with an arbitrarily chosen character or even by the people – the subject of heroic thoughts at a certain moment becomes the fate of two galactic nations at once. And after you make your choice, only one civilization will remain alive, and the other will be erased in powder.
This is somewhat reminiscent of an episode at the end of the first Mass Effect, when we had to choose between two members of the team-but only a billion. And no matter what decision you make, the game will reward you without jokes with an epic scene and a bitter sediment in the soul. In this sense, the developers fully fulfilled their promises: it was such situations that they described during our last year's visit to the studio.
[[Bullet]] Each skill in the character window is a small separate development branch. Which is better: a bonus to shields and health or damage from special capabilities, a larger radius of defeat or the duration of the effect of force? Questions, questions, questions ..
It turned out to be a pure truth and another statement made during the press tour in Stockholm this winter. Then, recall, we were promised that the Mass Effect 3 in the sense of dialogs will be more saturated than both previous parts. True, in the race, quality suffered the number. Dialogs are written … let's say, uneven. At times, they resemble the best samples from Mass Effect 2, but there are times when you want the characters to close their mouths. Logical inconsistencies come across. Say, for the whole game, no one will explain to you how it happened that after a few hours after the first attack of the reapers, each of their varieties had its own code names, known to every living creature in the galaxy. Who came up with the name of Cannibal Cannibal, and Harvester – Harvester, and why representatives of all reasonable races with him immediately agreed? We, apparently, no longer recognize the answer to this question.
Second Martian
It is very interesting to observe the evolution of the combat system. If you have not launched the first Mass Effect for a long time, then you may have forgotten about it, but the battles in it looked rather conditional: to get into the enemy, at times it was enough to direct the weapon barrel approximately in its direction. Mass Effect 3 is not at all: it is much more dynamic. And aiming in it has to be almost like in a thoroughbred shooter.
[[Bullet]] At the first moment, the Benshi seem slow and stupid. Do not worry – this is only until the moment when one of the skinny piles is hellishly screaming … and suddenly it will be right under your nose.
Not only further into the forest, the more actively the ME3 presses the player, forcing him not only to sit in the trench, but to move from shelter to shelter. As a result, the battle turned out to be much more exciting than even in the second part – the more the developers did everything possible to fight not only interesting, but also conveniently. Shepard has become even more agile – and between shelters it moves now in an instant. Prudent authors even took a special button for cases when you want not to jump for a neighboring concrete cabinet, but quickly slip around the corner of the current shelter. It can be very useful when someone is very persistent and armored, like Atlanta-the Cerberus Combat Robot.
New enemies are another reason to love Mass Effect 3. The authors of the game have a lot and with pleasure talked about how the reapers redraw organic matter for their needs, but until you see everything with their own eyes, you will not understand what exactly they had in mind. You are opposed not just the faceless Geta synthetics (Mass Effect) and the collectors (MASS Effect 2), but in fact, yesterday's comrades in weapons. For the first time, having caught a maraudian in the sniper optics, you suddenly understand: Lord, this is … a Turian. Only a distorted, resembling an evil ghost. And when you see what the Reapers turn the beauty of Asari, I want to cross.
[[Bullet]] Enemies not only try to get around you from the flank, but also from time to time they put smoke curtains. Aiming through smoke without special equipment – the pleasure is still.
Enemies not only look spectacular – it is interesting to fight with them. For example, in the third part (according to subjective sensations) there were slightly more opponents protected by armor and/or energy shields, so that the cartridge behind the cartridge is simply ineffective: you have to recall additional types of cartridges and special capabilities. And when the Banshi appear on the battlefield – hellishly powerful, and even capable of teleporting the fighters of the reapers – without competent use of all the arsenal available to you simply can not do.
[[Bullet]] in Mass Effect 3 also an excellent arsenal. There are real surprises, such as a sniper rifle, in terms of rate of fire almost not inferior to the assault rifle.
Finally, in Mass Effect 3, the reapers themselves periodically confront you. And the battles with them are almost always delightfully epic scenes. In one of the episodes, you will have to direct a volley of the whole fleet – dozens, if not hundreds of spacecraft waiting for coordinates for the shot,. True, one very ill-conceived scene is connected with the reaper, in which you, having grown off from four to five smittering (giant armored beasts that can kill you with two blows), can die not even out of stupidity, but simply by chance-inappropriately in that place , where the reaper watching the fight decided to put his leg.
Light at the end
But I just don’t want to be distracted by such trifles, because we have before us the end of the main interactive NF Saga of the decade. All plot paths finally converge here, centuries -old conflicts are resolved, old sins are redeemed. Literally under each bush, we meet old acquaintances. Sometimes, however, in new roles. So, the terrorists-land of the Cerberus, with whom we worked in the last part, again turned into enemies-yes in which! Their leader is a mysterious ghost – and his new improvised, a cybernetically improved hired killer named Kai Leng, will cause you almost more grief than the Reapers. And the plot story connected with Cerberus is no more boring confrontation of reasonable machines.
Well, the grand final is at all ate all the shortcomings of the game. Without rolling into spoilers, we will only say that even by the standards of the series this is something absolutely incredible. Both in terms of scale and the courage of the authors who did not bother, like many colleagues in the workshop, but really took and ended the story that began in 2007.
This is not to say that Mass Effect 3 has become everything we hoped for. In some places he lacks banal grinding – especially in terms of dialogs – but these are trifles. Another thing is much more important: before our eyes, one of the best cosmoopers in the history of the industry is coming to an end. The history of the war with the Reapers may be completed, but in the end they will slap the door so much that you will put your ears from the roar.
Reigracy:
Cool plot:
Originality:
Easy to master:
Gameplay:
9
Graphics:
8
Sound and music:
9
Interface and management:
8
Waited?
BioWare with a pomp they finish the epic about reapers. If you, like us, have been eager for five years to find out what everything will result in and what evil cars actually want, passing the Mass Effect 3 is simply stupid.
Mania rating: 9.0
"Fabulous"