Friday, March 22, 2013

Mass Effect 3 Completed on Insanity


Last weekend, I completed Mass Effect 3 for my third and perhaps final time, this run on Insanity difficulty.  The playthrough took me about 46 hours (I believe my shortest run to date), I imported my Solider from Mass Effect 2, and continued my romance with Miranda.  My squadmates were usually Garrus and either Javik if I was fighting Reapers or Liara if I was fighting Cerberus.

Overall, I didn't find Insanity that difficult, with only three battles being really tough for me.  As usual, I found the arboretum in Grissom Academy to be a royal pain, and the penultimate battle was frustrating but wasn't as bad as my first two playthroughs since I knew what to expect.

The new challenging engagement for me was the final battle against Kai Leng, which I found really tough.  Ultimately I had to move around more and pick targets better, micromanaging Liara's Singularity much more than normal.

Overall though, it was a great playthrough for a great game and netted me the last retail Achievements I needed.  Many gamers are still very critical of its ending, and some have expanded this to the game's general story and character development, but I don't share in those criticisms.  I thought BioWare did a great job throughout, even with the original ending.

I did, of course, use the Extended Cut DLC (and I also maxed out my War Assets as usual) and this time I chose Control, so I've seen all three primary endings (though my original Synthesis ending was the original release's version).

A wonderful experience, and I'm hoping to one day playthrough the entire trilogy from beginning to end.  I'm also hoping the three story-based DLC add-ons for Mass Effect 3 go on sale soon, as I'd love to play them as well.

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