Mass Effect 3
The Take
The multiplayer component was criticized before release, but no game since has successfully combined cooperative multiplayer with meaningful single-player progression quite the way Mass Effect 3 did.
Building and prestiging multiplayer characters directly contributed to the larger war effort and fit naturally within the game’s lore. Rather than feeling tacked on, the multiplayer became part of the overall experience in a way few games have managed.
The concluding chapter of BioWare's original Mass Effect trilogy, in which Commander Shepard rallies the galaxy's fractured species into a unified front against the Reapers. Choices carried forward from the first two games shape which allies survive to fight the final war.
Expansions & DLC
From Ashes
Available at launch, adding the Prothean squadmate Javik — the last surviving member of his species, found in a stasis pod in a buried temple on Eden Prime — along with unique dialogue and Prothean lore threaded through the rest of the game.
Mass Effect: Genesis 2
An interactive comic recapping the major choices of Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, giving players a way to set the state of their galaxy before starting the finale.
Extended Cut
A free expansion of the game's ending sequences, adding cinematics and epilogue slides showing the fates of squadmates and civilizations, and clarifying the consequences of each ending without changing the underlying choices.
Leviathan
Shepard investigates a black-market weapons trade tied to a legendary sea monster and uncovers the Leviathans, an ancient species whose experiments to preserve organic life ultimately gave rise to the Reapers.
Omega
Sends Shepard to the lawless station of Omega to help crime lord Aria T'Loak retake her territory from a Cerberus general, teaming up with a new rival vigilante, Nyreen Kandros, along the way.
Citadel
A lighter, character-focused send-off: Shepard survives an assassination attempt, confronts a vendetta from an unlikely source, and hosts a party bringing back nearly every squadmate from across the trilogy before the final battle.