When I wrote about the ending of Mass Effect 3, I mentioned how the military strength score comes into play. What I didn’t tell you then is that your military strength score is affected by a multiplier. Military Readiness starts at 50% by default, which means your effective military strength is exactly one half of your base military strength score.
Naturally, the readiness percentage can be increased. There are a few ways to do this:
- Purchase and play the Mass Effect Infiltrator iOS game
- Download the Mass Effect Datapad iOS app
- Play the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode
I don’t have any iOS devices and I have no interest in gimmicky tie-ins anyway, so the third option is my only hope. Fortunately, it only takes a few hours of multiplayer gaming to increase your readiness to 100% with relative ease. Note that an online pass is required to go this route. The pass comes with all new copies of ME3 but purchasers of a used game will have to buy a pass separately (what a smarmy move).
The first thing to notice about ME3 multiplayer is that you have to purchase and unlock equipment and upgrades using credits earned in-game. Alternatively, you can spend real life money to purchase these packs; I’m sure this is what Bioware and EA want you to do, which casts even more negative light on this whole scheme.
But that’s not all. It’s annoying enough to be pushed into what seems like a shoehorned multiplayer addon laced with microtransactions. This real kicker comes in the form of a simple question: what happens when EA decides to shut down its ME3 servers in a few years? Not only will it be impossible to play the multiplayer portion of this game, but it will become nigh impossible to earn a high enough military strength score to obtain the “better” endings in your single player campaign.
Bioware says it’s possible to earn such a military strength score without ever going online, but I don’t see how it can be done without purchasing all DLC for all Mass Effect games and starting over in Mass Effect 1 to replay the entire trilogy from scratch, making immaculate and meticulously planned decisions along the way because now you know what decisions (hint: paragon) to make in order to boost your future ME3 score.
Unhappy about the situation, I plunged into multiplayer anyway with plans to increase my readiness and get out quickly. I never expected to actually enjoy the gameplay.
As it turns out, the multiplayer mode is pretty fun. You choose a character race and class, then build that character up with abilities, equipment, and upgrades. The gameplay is purely combat-based. Each map (recognizable as the single-player campaign as the N7 missions) contains 11 waves of varying enemies which you must defeat in cooperation with up to three other players. Given the typical behavior of the average Xbox Live user, I was relieved to find that communication between players is largely unnecessary. Still, these missions would be a lot of fun to play with real friends.
I probably won’t keep coming back to ME3 multiplayer. It’s not as deep as it could have been, but on the flip side it’s not quite as shoehorned or tacky as I expected. At worst, the multiplayer mode is a mild annoyance. At best, it kept the disc in my Xbox for a few extra days and I had some fun with it.
I didn’t play Mass Effect 3 when it first came out. Instead, I continued to work through my overwhelming backlog of games, waiting to pick up ME3 on a decent sale. Even after I bought it for $40, I didn’t play it until several months later thanks to Gears of War 3 and Modern Warfare 3.
During this time, however, I read rumors around the net that the ending for the Mass Effect series was disappointing, outrageous, and insulting. Tempers flared, tears fell, and rage was rampant throughout forum posts and blogs alike. I intentionally ignored all this to avoid spoilers, but in the back of my mind doubt grew.
I didn’t want to hate the ending, but I was afraid I would. Mass Effect holds a very dear place in my memory (particularly the first game) that I didn’t want to tarnish.
Eventually, I had to experience the bookend of the trilogy for myself. So I dived in with my paragon character on normal difficulty. Near the end of the story, I realized that BioWare released an Extended Cut DLC for free.
This DLC adds some extra cutscenes and was purported to alleviate many players’ concerns about the abruptness of the original ending. I downloaded it immediately prior to entering the final mission. I had to delete a number of less important items from my 360 hard drive just to install this piece which weighs in at 1.9GB. I have the lame 20GB model which is nearly always full; this time around my Modern Warfare 3 recordings didn’t make the cut.
Without divulging any spoilers, I’ll say that I found the ending fairly satisfying. Depending on your military strength score and reputation at the end, you have a handful of options from which to choose. After making my choice and viewing my ending, I rushed to YouTube and watched the other endings. It turns out your final choice is somewhat irrelevant, as the ultimate outcomes are largely identical. Your decision and military strength score do determine which main characters survive the final encounter, however.
The Extended Cut DLC certainly adds enough information to resolve certain questions (the ending sans-DLC is rather abrupt and leaves several hanging threads), but it certainly doesn’t dramatically alter the outcome of the trilogy. Without the DLC, the ending is passable. Had I earned a lower military strength I probably would have been rather upset with the outcome. With the DLC installed, however, the ending is mildly pleasing. It beats Battlestar Galactica by a long shot - the bar for sci-fi endings has traditionally been set very, very low - which is all I was really hoping for.
I’m
currently working on my second play-through of Mass Effect 3. I
typically play each Mass Effect game at least twice; once on normal
difficulty with paragon decisions as male Shepard (Nick) and once on
the hardest difficulty available with renegade decisions as female
Shepard (Karen).
According to this BioWare blog post Mass
Effect 3 is a little different from its predecessors in that Shepard’s
reputation isn’t dependent on the paragon or renegade score. Reputation
is now an additive value, so you won’t miss certain dialog options or
paragon/renegade encounters just because you don’t devoutly adhere to
the paragon or renegade path from beginning to end.
In
other words, now you can play the game in a more varied manner - making
decisions that truly fit your character and the situation - without
worrying about missing out on some content.
I’m
inclined to welcome this change, since it allows me more breathing room
to enjoy the story. I can choose to be unfriendly, violent, and
careless throughout each encounter but still choose to be kind and
gentle toward my potential romantic interests - showing a truly multifaceted (or perhaps schizophrenic) personality.
That
said, I find that the renegade and paragon options differ very little
in Mass Effect 3. You’re always going to end up the hero, no matter what
you choose: you might mildly hurt some feelings, but it probably won’t
cost you anything; or you might gain some begrudging friends and a
paltry few extra military strength points. Generally your decisions are
smaller in scale than they were in the previous installments of the Mass
Effect series. You won’t be making any major galactic impact like
rescuing the Council or letting them suffer their fate without your
intervention. At least until the ultimate decision of the game -
although as far as I can tell the ending varies little regardless of
your final choice.
