PC Gamer - March 2012

Earth might be in ruins, but that’s no reason not to wear a stylish jacket.

Elder Dragons have seized control of Tyria in the time since the original game.

Some men just want to see the world burn. And explode.

stored decisions feeding into a mesh of
dialog possibilities—feels a little like
being in freefall. “It took three months at
the beginning of this project to deal with
the decision to kill off any of the
henchmen at the end of ME2,” he says.
“They’re all major characters, but they all
could be dead. What were we thinking?”
The first game’s binary choice of
whether you save Kaiden or Ashley means
you’ll have either the sensitive soldier or
the brunette space racist onboard (both
suspicious of Shepard’s dealings with
Cerberus in ME2) but previous decisions
made over the Rachni queen, the
Collector base, the Genophage, the Geth
and good old Wrex will also come back to
alternately haunt or help you. Getting a
perfect playthrough and appeasing
enough alien races is promised to be very
tricky indeed.

Enter stage left Mass Effect’s contro-
versial Galaxy at War system, a sort of
social metagame hub where your success
in ME3’s horde-based co-op multiplayer
(and the Facebook games and apps) serves
as a multiplier to your proficiency against
the Reapers on the approach to the
endgame. You’re presented with the
forces you’ve amassed, including
characters such as Samara and
contingents of Asari Commandos and
Mindbenders, and encouraged to shuttle
them between Reaper troublespots. It’s a
needless addition, but a forgivable one if it
turns out to be fun. Shepard’s adventures
tend to consume body and soul, so being
able to aid the war effort while on the bus
has a certain allure.