Mass Effect 3 has all of that too, and it's all conducted through the lens of truly consequential, wide-ranging decision-making. The earlier Mass Effect games focused on exploring the galaxy as you complete quests, building up your reputation and ultimately careening headlong into the endgame. Shepard and his allies aren't nearly strong enough to combat the Reapers' planet-sacking death squads on their own. Your task: fight back, not only for Earth and humanity, but for all galactic races that find themselves simultaneously under siege. Earth itself suffers heavy bombardment as Mass Effect 3 begins, with millions suffering and dying daily. Having returned to the galaxy after a 50,000 year hiatus, the Reapers conduct an all-out assault on the galaxy's organic life. Once considered the stuff of lore, the Reapers rear their heads in our own backyard. After reluctantly working for the xenophobic human-first organization Cerberus and jumping through the Omega-4 Mass Relay to fight the Collectors at the center of the Milky Way in Mass Effect 2, Shepard's greatest challenge still lies ahead. Mass Effect 3 throws you back into the role of Commander Shepard, the first human Spectre that has, at this point in the story, gone above and beyond proving his (or her) commitment to galactic order.
