MASS EFFECT
In 2183, the galaxy faced a threat that was once considered a myth, supported only in the broken remnants of a civilization known as the Protheans.
It was said that the Reapers, a super-advanced extra-galactic race, were responsible for the cleansing of all organic life in the galaxy every 50,000 years.
The myth was soon proven to be real. The galactic cycle was coming to an end; the Reapers were coming.
Commander Shepard, a member of the human Systems Alliance, managed to defy the expectations of the galactic community.
He/she became the first human Spectre (who are agents of the galactic Citadel Council) and stopped the treacherous actions of Saren Arterius, a former Spectre.
Indoctrinated into subservience by the Reaper vessel called Sovereign, Saren believed that obedience could save organic life in the galaxy from the coming destruction. Only after a costly battle was the galaxy spared the immediate threat.
The Reapers were merely delayed, not stopped. Commander Shepard vowed to find a way to fend off the inevitable invasion.
MASS EFFECT 2
Despite overwhelming evidence to support the coming Reaper menace, the politicians of the Council believed Sovereign had been the creation of the geth, a race of synthetics. Shepard would pay for their ignorance, and so would his closest allies.
The Normandy, a frigate under the Spectre’s command, would be attacked by a vessel belonging to the enigmatic Collectors.
Mere weeks after the triumph over Sovereign, Shepard was dead to the galaxy, and everything revealed about the Reapers was filed away as delusions and paranoia.
The Cerberus organization, led by the Illusive Man, was the only force in the galaxy that truly believed in what Shepard had revealed about the Reapers.
Recovering the Spectre’s corpse, Cerberus spent two years and untold sums of money rebuilding the hero and the Normandy. The unlikely alliance had one goal: to seek out the agents of the Reapers, the Collectors.
While Shepard lay on an operating table, the Collectors began harvesting hundreds of thousands of human colonists for reasons unknown.
The Illusive Man wanted Shepard to pursue the Collectors to their headquarters in an unmapped sector of space, find out what they were doing to their victims, and put a stop to it permanently.
Even for such a skilled Spectre, the odds of survival were slim at best.
To accomplish this suicide mission, Shepard needed a new team. Gathering the most skilled, most ruthless, and most determined men and women in the galaxy, Shepard once again succeeded where others predicted failure. The Collectors were defeated.
The Reapers, patient as they always had been, regarded this as a mere inconvenience. They would find another way.
Cerberus had an ulterior motive to bringing back an agent who once interfered with their operations throughout the galaxy.
They wanted to use the technology discovered in the aftermath of the Collectors’ defeat to prepare humanity for the Reapers and to place the human race above all others in the galaxy.
Shepard would eventually split from Cerberus and desperately fight to stall the invasion. This extreme action taken by the Spectre would eventually strip the Normandy from their command, awaiting court-martial at the hands of the Systems Alliance.
In 2186, the shadow of the Reapers finally cast itself across the galaxy, and the Earth would find itself facing the tip of the spear....
WHAT IS MASS EFFECT 3 ?
The third game of the action role-playing game franchise that started in 2007, Mass Effect 3 places players in the role of Commander Shepard, as he or she leads a squad trying to fend off the greatest threat to galactic civilization ever seen.
Using a wide variety of weapons and special powers, players must fight their way through a relentless enemy. Success on the battlefield yields experience points that go toward improving your team and earns you money that goes toward improving your equipment.
You won’t win the war through violence alone. A staple of the franchise, some of the most important battles are won and lost based on your choices made in the branching dialogue system.
Also returning to the game is the morality system, which determines your overall alignment and what special dialogue options are available.
Your choice of words and actions will help form a coalition that, with luck, will be capable of striking back against the Reapers.
With the Reapers striking so hard across so many fronts, the war is much bigger than any one squad can turn the tides of—even a squad led by a living legend like Commander Shepard.
To that end, Shepard must gather War Assets from as many species and as many worlds as possible. Some War Assets are earned in combat. Others are earned through skillful diplomacy.
Returning players who import their endgame saves from previous Mass Effect games will find that the decisions they’ve made as Shepard will continue to affect the overall story and may have special advantages over those just now starting the series.
They retain perks from their previous gameplay and have access to War Assets that are unique to imported characters. However, even newer players are capable of reaching for the best possible ending, thanks to a new feature introduced to Mass Effect 3 : the Galaxy at War.