It’s not going to be pretty. Right from the get go you know this isn’t going to be the end of Return of the Jedi with dancing bears, fireworks, happy ghosts and incestuous make out sessions forgotten. No, for Shepherd and friends, things are not going to end well. It’s kind of exciting actually; two big, complex games have led to this, the end game, the finale, the big cheese. Time to strap on your suspiciously form fitting space suit and save the universe or more likely die trying.

Trilogies are tricky things. Invariably they have their highs and lows. You’ve got trilogies that peak too early like Star Wars, as epitomised by the Star Wars conversation in Clerks (Jedi was just a bunch of Muppets). The odd trilogy gets it right, building and building to an almost ridiculous crescendo finale, and if you don’t like Lord of the Rings you can get the hell out. With video games it’s even harder because of the expense and time required to make a game very few trilogies are actually planned, most are a result of success.

Mass Effect is a different beast. This is a huge sweeping game series that feels like it’s been planned out a decade in advance, which really it has. In the world of video games it’s an insanely ambitious idea, to set out to make a triple A trilogy, but Bioware have done so with gusto. If this is your first dip into the Mass Effect pool then remove your toe, go to the shops and buy the first games, then disappear from society for a month and play those mother flippers. Don’t even think about beginning the story here, you need to earn it.

So plot is simple. The Reapers are here. If you’re a fan of the series then this is what we’ve been equal parts waiting for and fearing. If you’re not a fan of the series let me best sum it up: The Reapers are the reset button for the universe, they appear, they hot key select ‘All living things’, then they press Delete.

As Commander Shepherd you need to rally the various races of the universe and organise the fight back against the Reapers. Being a role playing game this naturally involves a lot of running around and doing jobs for people. Just about every character who has appeared in the series so far crops back up again, some in fly by appearances, some in larger roles. Often it’s surprising who doesn’t join your crew, but then again, it’s the end of the universe, folks have stuff they want to do.

The plot keeps things tense and exciting, you’re constantly bombarded with reminders that planets are being destroyed and millions are dying, your crew members are cracking under the strain. If you were worried Bioware were going to blow it with too much hype and build up don’t be, they completely nail the landing with Mass Effect 3. The plot is just as tense, emotional and exciting as you want it to be.

Adding to this is the balls to wall action. Fire fights go for entire levels and enemies are numerous and distinctive enough to offer a real threat. Several enemy types now offer buffs and protection to lesser enemies forcing you to strategise and prioritise targets. There are a few enemies in Mass Effect now that elicit a genuine fear in the player. Not quite pants wetting terror, but more a sense of challenge. That for this particular alien monster you’re going to need to really focus. This makes for a far thrilling action experience than we’ve had before in Mass Effect. Gameplay wise the title has really come into its own with it’s finally instalment.

It’s also pleasing to say this is the first game I’ve played where the addition of Kinect controls are a blessing rather than a curse. I often found myself defaulting to voice commands for simple tasks like talking to people and opening doors, and only using the controller if the voice command failed, which it did about a fifth of the time I tried it. A four out of five success rate for control inputs might not sound great, but the novelty of using voice controls in a complicated adult game like Mass Effect doesn’t lose it’s appeal.

There are now three tiers of quests, the main story quest, secondary or ‘N7’ missions often related to current or former crew characters and the slightly disconcerting tertiary missions. As you walk around the Citadel, your only real safe zone in the game, you over hear conversations that immediately trigger fetch missions. If you come across the item and or information those people were discussing you can come back and let them know for a bit of experience. As a result you’ll actually complete dozens of these missions by accident. Combining Shepherds creepy habit of eavesdropping with his penchant for galaxy exploring makes the whole third level quests seem arbitrary.

Most of the third level quests are completed by scanning planets. Don’t panic though, the whole scanning thing is far less boring and labour intensive than in Mass Effect 2. When you enter a solar system you can scan the area for points of interest, then zoom in and scan a planet or asteroid to discover a single object. The whole process takes about five seconds. The only threat comes from Reapers, each system scan increases a Reaper alert level, when that fills the Reapers appear and start chasing you and if they catch you it’s game over.

The rpg elements are a little more balanced than they’ve been in the last two instalments. Mass Effect was considered by some to be a bit too thick in the traditional RPG elements, of gear and stat management. Mass Effect 2 was to most people, including myself, way too simplistic. Mass Effect 3 manages a better balancing act with weapon modifications and ability levelling that’s intuitive but not so moronic in their simplicity.

One of the real standout of Mass Effect 3 over its predecessors is the Multiplayer. Four player coop matches sees players combating several waves of enemies and achieving objectives in levels cribbed from single player missions. While the actual battles and objectives are a little repetitive the fun and diversity comes from the different characters you can use. In addition to human characters who cover the available classes in the game you can choose to play as Asari, Krogan, Turien, drell, Turien and Geth with the promise of more races in upcoming free expansions. These races have various class roles as well, for instance there’s an Asari commando as well as an Asari Justicar, and many have biotic and tech abilities that don’t even appear in the main game. Experience earned in the multiplayer can level up each of these classes, with experience levelling all the characters in a class, and money earned can be used to buy item packs to unlock weapons, equipment and new characters. Unfortunately the enemy types aren’t quite diverse enough to sustain this type of game mode and there’s only six maps to choose from so far, but as coop experience its right up there with Gears Horde mode for fun points.

It’s not all peaches and cream though. Mass Effect 3 might be an amazing symphony but it still has a few dud notes. There’s a recurring dream sequence of Shepherd running through a forest surrounding my wailing shadows, that I assume is supposed to illicit dread or something, but it completely falls flat and could easily have been left out. Some of the characters who join your crew are not the ones you would prefer, while some of the games most popular and interesting characters get quick and unspectacular cameos (sorry Thane fans). There’s also the dreaded inclusion of cross media characters, some bad guys from the comic and novel worlds appear as major characters and they’re appearance can be a bit jarring, a smoother introduction is definitely needed. I’m also supremely bummed that there’s no space combat. I really thought we’d finally get the chance to play as Joker and fly the Normandy, take part in some space dog fights with Cerberus and the Reapers. No such luck the best we get is a few seconds of running away from Reapers in the aforementioned scanning sequences.

There is also the prickly problem of the games conclusion. Many people are angry about the way Bioware chose to wrap up Mass Effect. Me not so much, being an old scifi fan I’d kind of seen the ending coming since the end of the first game. When you’ve crossed into the themes and motifs Mass Effect has used there’s only so many ways you can end that type of story. It’s a pretty classic science fiction situation. Without giving too much away, I think there was a moral to the story that a lot of people missed when the credits rolled. Suffice to say, you will be moved, maybe in a good way, maybe in a very bad way, but you will be moved.

It feels like an end to an era. Of this console generation no other series of games have offered blockbuster entertainment that’s both intelligent and emotionally engaging to the level Mass Effect has. Not to mention lots of shooting robots, flying space ships and making out with hot aliens. In many ways it’s the defining game series of this console generation, stretching the technology to breaking point and creating a new space opera for a generation crying out for something as good as the Star Wars of their childhood in their game world. It’s telling that a computer game provides an original science fiction universe even more compelling, exciting and mesmerising than anything we’ve seen on television over the last decade. I could go on a lengthy diatribe about Mass Effect being the herald of the next age of entertainment and interactive story telling but I’ll resist. Instead I’ll just say the game is damn good, a damn good ending to a damn good series. Play it immediately.