The epic space saga concluded

Mass Effect 3 is the the excellent concluding part of Bioware’s superlative action RPG series. Can Shepard save humanity and the galaxy from the mythical Reapers?

You will either start with a ‘new’ Shepard, or import your saved character from Mass Effect 2. The game starts in dramatic fashion, with Earth under attack. From there, you’ll start an incredible journey to stop the Reapers, making decisions that might have catastrophic results for life in the galaxy.

Mass Effect 3 looks great, and the set pieces are really impressive. The cover based combat seems even tighter than in the previous game too, and Bioware are so confident about the quality of the action that players can choose an ‘Action’ mode that removes all the RPG choice elements of conversations. At the other end of the spectrum you can choose to focus on the story, with less challenging combat. Most players will probably stick with the Goldilocks RPG mode, which is give you the most complete experience.

The first Mass Effect took story telling and player choice to new levels in video gaming, while the second was more accessible and perfected the third person shooting action. Mass Effect 3 has a lot to live up to, but has a fantastic platform to build upon.

As well as concluding the saga, Mass Effect 3 also adds a multiplayer mode. This allows you to play as different species (Asari, Drell, Krogan, Turian, Salarian and human) for the first time, in cooperative battles against waves of increasingly challenging attackers.

Your PC will need plenty of free HD space, and 2GB of ram is the absolute minimum. Mass Effect 3 on PC will require EA’s Origin – you can’t be able to play it through Steam or on its own.

Bioware have shown with Mass Effect 3 that it’s possible to create a complex, epic story that is genuinely touching. Add the fantastic graphics, a moving soundtrack and fun multiplayer mode, Mass Effect 3 is a title that it quite simply great.