1967 réponses à ce sujet

[Chris Priestly]

Hi Everyone

We now have a thread collecting the press reviews for Mass Effect 3. You can read all the reviews we collect here.

We also want to hear from you, the Mass Effect Customer. What did you think about ME3?Waht score would you give it?What were your likes? What were your dislikes? Please post in like the below:

(Start with) My Mass Effect 3 score: X/100 (where X = your score. 95, 67, 42, 6, etc)
(And then why you gave it that score) I really liked/disliked ME3 and here is why.....

We want to hear from you.

Modifié par Chris Priestly, 06 mars 2012 - 04:27 .

[CDRSkyShepard]

I'll definitely give you a full impression once I'm done, Chris.

So far, I have a few gripes, but none that are completely ruining the game for me:

- No new LIs (as in no LIs who weren't LIs in previous games) for straight, female players
- The Crucible is a pretty blatant deus ex machina
- We're not given a real clear reason why Earth is the focus of everything. We know the Reapers are hitting it harder than other planets, but is that their main focus, and thus the key to stopping them? Maybe this will be cleared up by the end of the game.
- More bugs than I remember coming across in ME2. I got my Shep stuck on Mars in a pretty open area...not some random corner. My femShep's face code also didn't import like was warned earlier, and I really hope a patch comes out for that, because it will be a pain to re-create all my Sheps' faces.

Stuff that's absolutely blowing me out of the water:

- The little things...like going to talk to Garrus in the Main Battery and discovering he's on the bridge.
- The Citadel is very vibrant
- I have experienced a pretty full range of emotions so far, and it's been an absolute roller coaster. I've gone from giddy-happy to all-out crying in just about 7 or 8 hours. The number of heart-wrenching times is even greater than that. It's a testament to how well the universe is written that I can care this much.

As I said, I will be on the lookout for more feedback to give you, and I'll give it more concrete numbers when I'm done.

[tackle70]

Well, since I'm angry about not being able to import my Shepherd's face (which I have probably spent about 200 hours playing on across ME1-ME2 and which is not currently possible to import/replicate in ME3), I'd give it a 1/10.

Reason - I played for 30 minutes and could NOT stop thinking "Something is terribly wrong - this isn't my Shepherd, this is someone else that I don't care about." It completely broke the immersion and ruined the single biggest reason I wanted to play this game - to see the end of the story of MY character. Keeping my Shep's face (which is unique or almost unique to me) is VASTLY more meaningful than just keeping my decisions (which thousands of people have identical to me).

If/once I get over being pissed off about the broken import feature, I'd probably give the game a 7-8/10 assuming the feature is not fixed.

I imagine it would be an easy 10/10 for me if I could continue as my same character. PLEASE fix this if possible. I'll probably wait for official word on this before I play any more

[SyyRaaaN]

***CONTAINS SPOLERS****

Score: 4/10 (More bad than good) .  (Very conservatie rating. I'd rate Starcraft2 a 5/10, GTA IV for PC a 6/10, and ME1/ME2 8,5/10)


The good.

+ Combat was fun
+ Geth and Quarian story arc was excellent
+ Genophage story was excellent
+ Some of the side quests were excellent. They relate to the story and to the lore. Definitely a strong part of the game. But the citadel fetch quests? Please...
+ Liked the Turian/Krogan/Salarian drama
+ Love intrest. Well done.
+ The engine. Runs good. Low loadtimes on PC. Very nice.
+ The dramatic endings of the ME2 crew. I actually liked it.

The avarege.

+- The Citadel: Looks great, feels great, is great. But like the IGN preview said, actually u get loads of quests without any context... I opened up my quest log and it was... Overwhelming. And the questlog does a really bad job of explaining where to go, which annoying. I personally hate detective quests where i have to run around searching for clues. Also it was the only visitable "hub area". I enjoyed the different settings in ME1 and specially ME2.
+- The autodialogue. Some of it was good, other things weren't so good. Was a big mistake to remove the wheel.
+- The multiplayer simply doesn't add anything to the game. And I assume it does'nt remove anything neither, so... 

The 100% crap

-Very underwhelming intro. No music, no drama, no nothing. Just boring and very very badly done. Almost unforgivable, but not nearly as bad as the ending.
-The questlog sucks and should have had the split like it always had, main quests and side quests... In this game it should have been splitted in 3: Primary Quests, Side Quests, Timed Quests.
- Kai Leng is such a ridiculous character and really takes away from the game. This alone lowers the score significantly and is in my opinion equal to the role of Jar Jar Binks. Good thing he only shows his nerd face 2-3 times.
- Very hard to control Shepard because to much stuff happens on the space bar.
- The story with the Crucible... In my opinion it wasn't very well done.
- Almost no dialogue-wheel = I'm playing your Shepard, not mine and it showed. Which is okay since the dialogue is so well written. But still, this is in my opinion vastly inferior than to how it was in ME1 and ME2.
- The dreams...
- Kaidan Alenko, the second most annoying character after Kai Leng is such a douchebag and i can't kill him, or tell him to ****** off? Nono, i cry like a baby over him. Gosh, just wanted to smack his face after his ugly comments on Horizon. Thats the problem with Rail-roading a series like ME :/
- The amount of backtracking and rewriting story, or retrostory. EDI was the VI on Luna? Yea, cool thing. Really cool. When did you come up with this idea? November 2011?  Now im hard on you, but there is very much of this.
- Lackluster end mission. Not epic, rather boring. ME1 was tense, ME2 was one of the best final missions i've ever played, such a good ending to a long buildup. ME3 ending mission was pretty boring. Lacked that rewarding feel.
- The first 3-4 hours of the game was quite boring and dissapointing. Hard to specify exactly what was wrong, but there was no intromovie or anything. No context, no nothing.
- Wow, the many sidequests were scanner quests...
- Some ME1 and ME2 decisions and stories are almost completely ignored. The star on Haestrom was one of the coolest story arcs that i 100% thought we would have a solution too. Why was it ignored? .
- The game is pretty short.
- Cant import my ME1 face. Tragic.
- The vast amount of plot holes.
- Where did Harbinger hide all game long? No dialogue with him?
- The DLC was only 1 mission and some banter.


The 200 % crap.

0 replayablity

- The game actually doesn't differentiate much regardless of your choises from ME1/ME2. This is a disaster. I didn't think i would start a NG. But i thought that i'd try my paragon Shep out (why not? I burned 699 SEK on this, $104). Well, the game played out basically the same... Council choise had almost no impact? Played 2-3 hours and shut down the game. Really really boring. This game has 0 replayability and it isn't because of the endings, its all of it. Won't be importing any of my other Sheps nor finishing my second.  One of the reasons is the lack of Dialogue wheel. I simply don't care anything about dialogue choises anymore. All Shepards feel the same. If i wanna kill off Mordin or Tali or whatever, i might aswell watch it on youtube. You streamlined our Shepard way off to much. Seriously, this series took a heavy hit from this. Also choises like Rachni Queen/save the Council/etc doesn't seem to impact the game enough. This is problematic to say the least. So the game is basically 20-25 hours of gameplay including the DLC... Thats bad. Really bad.

The Ending - I changed my mind - it is really bad.  (Sorry for the hard words, wrote this when i was tired)

- The execution of the ending was horrible in my opinion. A wounded TIM, wounded Anderson, wounded Shepard coughing lines makes me very sad. The ending itself was 100%  crap. It sucked so much donkey ass that i cant comprahend that you went with that. Also as a total testemony of how bad the endign was you dont even let me ask the AI-kid anything. Why cant i dialogue wheel with it? Its the final chit-chat. I had a billion questions i wanted to get answered. This is such a missed opportunity... Unforgivable and takes away from the score. The more i think about the ending the more i realise that it sucked as an ending for the Mass Effect series. Why? 

I mean, I love science fiction, this ending would have been perfect for a slow non-action oriented sci-fi series. It somehow reminded me of the Babylon 5 ending for the Shadow War, which was excellent I might add . The reason it doesn't work here is because this game ditched "the mystery" story arc and became an "action" story arc instead. The only way this ending would have worked is by keeping a slow pace, deep story around the galaxy and the mystery of the Citadel/Relays and thus doing a deep Sci-fi-RPG story. ME1 and ME2 are Action-Scfi-fi and the more "natural" ending would have been to let us kick Harbingers ass out of the galaxy with the combined fleet, losing some races depending on choises while using the Prothean tech. Also you would add a moral twist like choosing to save the reapers based on some new knowledge; Maybe that the Reapers in fact are good or blababa. This would also have added replayabilty, try to save different races, maybe save them all or suicide all... Instead... We get stuck with a deep, almost filosophical ending to a very un-philospichal game. Also, this game has very much a charachter driven story which you totally overlooked in the ending. Or you should have made ME2 much more about the Citadel/Relays and made the focus on a mystery, and not so much about charachters and action. Sorry Bioware, you blew this one.

Yes, you destroyed it tbh. And yes, it needs a good DLC with a more action oriented end that is true to this series gist. Mass Effect never was a Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek (original) or Babylon 5. It was a action story with good elements from many different sci-fi stories. Sure, you could have made it to one of those slower sci-fi sagas, but you didn't. And if you mean it is one of those slower (but good) sci-fi sagas, then lets start deconstructing the story... Ouch, we wouldn't want that now, or? I mean look at the problem explaining a thing like this within the ending:

I saved Rannoch for the Quarians, but their fleet is helping me on Earth. I destroy relays - gg Tali. Forget that homeworld i saved for you since your not going home for a million years or two, or a xxx years with ftl drives. 2 bad. The only way to save stuff like this is to start bs:ing like: "Hey SyyRaaaN, dude, they used the relays BEFORE they exploded to get to Rannoch". Yeah, right.


Even a Reaper wins ending would have been better than this.


I even made a thread about why the ending was bad:

forum/1/topic/347/index/9681108/1#9684129

Modifié par SyyRaaaN, 12 mars 2012 - 02:18 .

[DiegoProgMetal]

Ok Chris, I didn't have much time to play it yet, but I'll update this same post as I go. I loved this game as soon as Shepard got near Joker and I recognized Seth Green's voice complaining about the presence of Nihlus in the Normandy. In that moment I said: "This will be epic!".
I can't and wont hide that I'm very disturbed so far by the possibilities ahead (yes, the endings). But I'll reserve judgement until I get there.

What I could get so far: (mostly technical qualities/issues)
+ Gameplay mechanics
+ Slightly improved graphics
+ Vega is funny, as subtle as a train wreck
+ MP was nicely done
- Animations not so good. Eva Core running looked like she was "sliding" or "moonwalking".
- Feels even more streamlined than ME2. Like a movie where I have close to none interaction, even when playing RPG mode.
- Low-res textures.
- Lack of Nvidia Surround/ATI Eyefinity support.

This review is just a stub, and will be changed/improved as I play the game.

Will paste here something that me some other forumites posted on another thread.

DiegoProgMetal wrote...

Vox Draco wrote...

Seryl wrote...

snip...

I have a question for anybody that'd care to answer. If ME3 ended with no final choice, would anybody have been disappointed? That is, if you could only destroy the Reapers, would that have been acceptable? In this scenario, the Crucible firing would remove the Reaper shields, then your ending would hinge on how high, or low, your EMS was.

The reason I ask is that the more I think about the ending, the more I think that the end choices were shoehorned in simply to give the illusion of choice to the player. If Shepard has spent the past five years working toward destroying the Reapers, starchild or no, it seems bizarre that he'd suddenly choose an option that didn't kill them.

*sigh* Just the way I had hoped it would end....a straightforward ending with the reapers destroyed, and your choices shaping the end-sequences and consequences...

...snip...

There is no need at all for the Starchild-scenes and those red/blue/green-choices. none at all. Stop the game after the final confrontation with TIM, see Anderson die, activate the crucible...and hope your EMS is high enough that most of your allies and Earth survive and a team can even pick up Shepard for the ultimate happy ending...

...snip...

Exactly as I would like it to end. Instead of shooting a tube, just push the button. The Crucible, instead of making all that space magic, takes the shields/barriers of the Reapers off. We know from ME1 that a Reaper without its shield takes just a couple shots before it is destroyed, even before the Thanix Cannons. The best case scenario for the Reapers would be that they got just as powerful as any other dreadnought. Then the EMS would get into the game. The higher the EMS, the lesser the casualties. Simple, and allows for a great variety of endings.

Modifié par DiegoProgMetal, 25 avril 2012 - 05:05 .

[crimzontearz]

The ending(s) might prevent people from ever playing more than once. They were even mentioned as a negative aspect in professional reviews

fix them through DLC please....and the teleportation bug as well

[Pee Jae]

I'm probably going to come across as a fanboy, but I still remain unapologetic about it. I've been a fan of this series for a little over a year now and Mass Effect 3 has not changed my mind. Yet. I'm concerned about the endings. It's not really that big of a deal to me. What happens happens. I'll start a new game+ or import Shep regardless. But, I probably am not going to like what I see. It's okay, I can live with it.

All the talk about auto dialogue for me has proven baseless. A lot (and I mean quite a lot) of conversations have more than two choices. Same investigate options as ME 2. Same renegade/paragon choices. Worry was unnecessary in my opinion.

I can't get used to how Femshep walks or runs, but this will just take time.

I love everything else about the game so far. I've been running around doing side missions and just taking my time, but I don't think my opinions will change. This is a very fun game and I'm only playing as a new default Femshep. Worth every penny, if you ask me.

10/10 <3 it.

[AndroLeonidas]

Well here it goes Chris...

From someone who has devoted many many hours to this series and has come to love it more than KOTOR in many respects. You had a hiccup IMO with the opportunity for an epic love relationship in 2 but you fixed it with LotSB. That being said...
About 12 hours in and overall score... 80/100

Story is awesome so far...
fighting is awesome...
characters awesome... so many to talk to and stuff.
So far... this far into the story my only major gripe is the importer did not recognize that I reunited with Liara in LotSB. There is some dialog where it seems the two of you are more intimate than others. She's more flirty in some dialog than others... like two people in a relationship would be... and then it changes gears all of a sudden back to they haven't seen each other in years! And what's this "You're a good friend" cra*P!! If you romanced Liara in ME1 and than reunited with her just months before ME3 is suppose to begin... how can you just call her friend? I am a true romantic at heart and their love story was a primary reason I fell for this game so hard. lol! The more I progress through the story the more I am not liking where this is going I suppose.
I realize that this part 3 is suppose to be darker... but after all the work I put into this series if they don't end up together I probably won't play it more than once.
The Prothean back story and flashbacks... very nice touch. Very nice.
I love having to make the hard decisions on what to do.
Combat I thought was smooth and fast, just as combat should be.

Now the bad....
I have avoided the rumors about the endings... but if they are true... after the flubs in the DA2 and ME2 romance plots and then what I have seen so far in ME3 with the interactions between Liara and Shep... I can honestly say after investing so much time in these characters... to have it end the way it does.. with not even a hint of good... well... let's just say I won't spend anymore money.

This may all change... but it is not looking so good right now from what I hear.
You and Bioware got us invested in this series over the course of 5 years and I have always supported you guys in saying you will get it right in the end. I sincerely hope you don't prove me wrong.

[blind black]

Dislikes:
I hated how the game began. it seemed so rushed. It felt like there was no prologue. It would have bee nice to have some sort of rising action before the crucible. I think that something that big should have been found later on in the game.
the fact that i have to change disc on certain N7 missions. So far ive done it twice. I have come to expect this since i play on xbox360 but you guys should have had certain mission on be available on certain disc at a certain point (if this makes sense).
Too much auto dialogue.
I would have liked to of seen more waypoints on the maps to help me get around. some people may see this as hand holding but i just like having them there.
This one is more cosmetic. i wish i would have been able to take off my helmet in all situations. I really like the terminus armor but i wish i could take the helmit off in combat situations like with the N7 armor.
the endings suck, nuff said.
Likes:
Seems like i have more control over my character after the demo.
a lot of options when it comes to guns and armor customization.
squad members having more than on set of armor.
a lot of comedic dialogue.
action parts of the game are on point.
hub worlds are really spacious and well done.
mission worlds dont feel like a giant hallway.

7/10

(might add some more later)

[Cirreus]

My Mass Effect 3 score:  0 out of 100




I really disliked ME3 and here is why.....

All the ending(s) are the STOLEN, grim, poorly written, vague, dystopian & most above all else ... completely devalued my experiences of the entire franchise. 5 years, $700+ in Xbox/PC copies, DLC purchases, Art book, Comic Books, replica Normandys, toys, hundreds of hours, my will to replay the games .... gone in 15 minutes.

There isn't a pay out in the end, EA/Bioware took a withdraw out of my adventure/fantasy bank.

EA/Bioware took a sh*t in my cereal.

I do not want to play Mass Effect anymore.

The media praise leaves a bad taste in my mouth (conflict of interest comes to mind)

IGN calling me an stupid doesn't help either

Did I miss something in the marketing of these games ? I saw frequent material saying "End of Sherpard's story". It appears I missed the memo that it really translated to "Dispair, Death & Destruction of the Mass Effect Universe".

I feel lied to. I feel JADED! I don't understand why EA/Bioware wanted to leave a paying customer with so little hope. That doesn't make sales, that makes an angry customer who let's other potential customers know about their grief. This feels like a hit & run cash grab. EA/Bioware broke into my house, smashed my copies of Mass Effect & left a note on the broken front door with intentions of robbing me next week with DLC.




Why would I want to buy anything more from a company that is going to remind me of how sh*tty I feel about my last experience. I have never had such disgust, felling of loss & angry toward this medium before. Did I play this game to close to the chest ? I never even felt this level of rage even when Blizzard tried to publish everyone's real name on there forums for World of Warcraft with RealID.

My entire experience comes down to this ?


This youtube video meme sums it up Hitler on Mass Effect 3


It's a complete failure on part of EA/Bioware when a Hilter meme is making more sense on the context of your game than the company that published it. I just don't know what's worse right now, playing this game or having to sit on the boardroom meetings at Bioware & EA Marketing ...

Forbes.com ... the site that focuses on money & investment ... you know important stuff
Well they are backing were the money comes from. And it isn't IGN with there 9.5 review.
www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/13/why-fan-service-is-good-business/



There is a few things I enjoyed (while under the delusion) playing ME3. It was more Mass Effect (while it lasted). I really enjoyed the idea of an Avatar of the ship, and EDI worked out (unless you picked red ... red is bad!). There was great pleasure in making the Geth & Quarians end there war with each other (if you didn't, Tali kills herself & you have the pleasure of the Bioware's art department finer skills in Google search & Photoshopping).

I really thought the idea of Galaxy at War, Effective Military Strength, Galactic Readiness was a great RPG element. Until I found out that mutliplayer is a virtual requirement to access all potential endings because my Galactic Readiness is capped at 50% sans multiplayer. For those not reading between the lines, this is another form of DRM. So you can't easily let someone else borrow the game for the single player experience and when the product is returned at Gamestop for resale.

The bugs are far worse. This game was rushed. Random side quests early that you can't complete till the end of the game, indicators not working, failing quests with unclear timers, the nondescript journal entries & horrible path finding, could it get worse ?

Required Reading ! Am I playing ME3 or ME4 !?  Because I seem to be missing a several trilogies worth of story between ME2 & this product under the guise of ME3. Thanks for trying to to tie in every book, novel, and comic into the game's story without any consideration that I the "gamer", who happens to plays on a "console" and maybe, just maybe only played Mass Effect 1 & 2, would know what the hell is going on.

One word: DLC ... So USD$870 ... that's not including everything either. There is the cost of ME , it's DLC , ME2, it's DLC , Collector's Editions of ME2, Promotional DLC, Pre-Order DLC, DLC from other games such as Dragon Age, Dead Space, Battlefield 3 .... that imports into ME3. Needless to say $870 is a low ball number for a "complete" Mass Effect investment.

My review of the this games boils down to this. If your a fan, do not buy this. If you are fan & bought this. Remind EA/Bioware that the customer's wallet determines the future of the company & continued employment.

Modifié par Cirreus, 18 avril 2012 - 04:05 .

[Banjopete]

My Mass Effect 3 score: 85/100

I like the game for the most part. Enjoy the overall story, the characters, and the combat system. In fact I'd say those three things are close to 100% in my book. I also really like the soundtrack as well. Just because I spend most of my review focusing on the things I don't like doesn't mean I have an overall negative outlook!

I have two major gripes that bother me a lot with the game. The first is the time management aspect where missions have to be done in a set time or else they expire and you either can't do them or you are forced into a bad resolution. Yes, I know that plotwise we are supposed to be in a time crunch in this game, but it still adds an annoyance factor to the game that I wasn't expecting. I just don't like having to save in a bunch of slots and reload old saves in order to change the order that I perform missions because i find out that if I did some mission earlier, someone would live and so on.

The second major gripe is the system scanning aspect, where the Reapers just barge in on you while you are searching around. Even more than the time management, this just seems to add senseless difficulty. Not to mention it stifles the exploration aspect which has always made the ME series great. I am finding myself having to save the game, go to a system, scan around to find where everything is, then reload and then try to hit all the points and escape before the Reapers get me. It'd be 1000x better if I could just bypass that and go straight to the resources.

The second issue is going to get resolved one way or another because I have read enough people complaining about it that either Bioware is going to patch it or someone is going to find a way to bypass the problem, as it is pure frustration. The first though is likely endemic to the game and I'll just have to live with it.

Still, thanks Bioware for the fun game. I've never been the type to make the perfect the enemy of the good. I'll surely replay it multiple times before I set it aside.

[ticklefist]

Mass Effect 3 is the first time I've ever cared about Mass Effect characters the way I care about Dragon Age characters. Sure, I've always thought they were cool and interesting, but I'd never really connected with them on an emotional level. Now that I've introduced Liara to her father and listened to all the dialog between them, now that I've witnessed the death scene of one of the better written squad mates in all of Mass Effect, I can say that I am feeling those emotional connections I hadn't before. Good job.

Great job.

Post finish edit: I was happy to hear Jo Wyatt's voice in the game, even for a short bit. You guys can't use her enough in my opinion. I thought the Tali romance was very well done. EDI was also done well. As a matter of fact I hold out hope that I can play as her in a DLC episode at some point down the line. Aria T'Loak as well. I'd hope her story's not finished yet. Before any of that tho, I'd suggest giving the endings a serious look. They're incredibly dissatisfying. Possibly  the greatest misstep in modern sci-fi since The Matrix: Revolutions, and too similar as well. If Bioware wants to be successful as the "story first" company it has claimed to be then I suggest you make sure you can finish these stories in a way that satisfies your audience. 

Modifié par ticklefist, 09 mars 2012 - 04:17 .

[Karrie788]

My Mass Effect 3 score: 60/100

First off I want to say congratulations, you made an amazing game. The reason I rate it so "low" is because I couldn't get past some issues that really, really bothered me. But you all obviously put a lot of effort into this game and it is *amazing*. Arguably the best of the series.

What I liked:

+ the characters. Even EDI (I still think the concept of her being an android is silly, sorry) had awesome lines, the banter on the ship between all characters felt very immersive and gave us plenty of lulz.
+ very powerful moments that did not feel too much melodramatic (others did... I'll get to that): for instance ** SPOILERS ** the death of Mordin completely broke my heart, but in a great way. It was a powerful, emotional scene that you pulled off greatly. Thane's death as well. ** END SPOILERS **
+ the romances: if your goal was to have us fangirls (and boys) looking like complete idiots with the biggest smile on our faces for days to come, congrats, you did it. My heart melt.
+ all those references to the previous games' memes. The big stupid jellyfish, Garrus' calibrations, etc... you definitely listen to us.
+ the combat system was the best of the three games.

What I disliked:

- the soundtrack, overall. I would have liked less piano/violins and more synth. It was nice to have some old tracks back though
- don't know why you brought back scanning.
- that whole scenario with the kid. I was playing a Colonist/Sole Survivor Paragade Shep and I assume she has seen some pretty horrible things in her past. I didn't buy for a second that she could become traumatized by not being able to save a random kid on Earth. It's just too melodramatic. Some other scenes felt too forced and overemotional. Then again, they were counterbalanced by absolutely mind-blowing scenes.
- on a more general issue, I did not feel I was playing my Shep at all. And I definitely felt encouraged to play only in extremes - meaning either paragon or renegade, nowhere in between.
- the endings are a BIG issue for me, for several reasons. First off yes, I admit, as a foolish fangirl, I did wish for my Shepard to ride happily in the sunset with Garrus by her side at the end (while billions died behind them ). Especially after such a sweet romance. So the lack of closure was quite heartbreaking. And unlike in other scenes, I felt like raging more than anything. It felt unecessary. Drama for the sake of drama makes people rage, not cry.
BESIDES, all endings were completely deus ex machina, the whole kid thing (again) was unnecessary, and it left us with some big unanswered questions. It also gave us the feelings that our previous choices did not matter at all. That killed my replayibility as I am now headcanonning an entire scenario in my head.

To sum it up, you did a great job. I don't regret my purchase, the journey was great. But the destination kinda ruined it. I'm not sure I'll be able to play Mass Effect for a long time now.

Still, thank you Bioware.

Modifié par Karrie788, 07 mars 2012 - 02:35 .

[AlexMBrennan]

Was it fun to play? Yeah, mostly, except for the last hour maybe (which involved crawling very slowly towards the objective and the ending).
Am I at all likely to replay the game (SP) - not for the foreseeable future (bad endings means I won't enjoy playing to the ending, and playing until a cut-off point lacks closure, so I'll probably end up playing some other game instead).
Am I likely to play the multi-player section of the game? Not really since it's rather boring (with a non-dumb squad) or frustrating (with a dumb squad).

-the endings
-badly executed (take cover/storm/use button confusion, dumb fetch quests cluttering my journal because of the lack of filters, bugs requiring the reload of a manual save, Navpoints not working right)
-unbalanced (sniper rifles are way OP)
-contrived and pointless deaths/sacrifices (half way through the credits the Normandy is stranded and crew is dead for all intents and purposes)
-premise rather undermines the rest of the series (if we can let the Reapers invade and still win, we could have done that 3 years ago in ME1, or in Arrival). At the end, it comes down to "Reapers invade, Liara has a brief look at the Mars archives, and finds superweapon schematics)
-contrived endings - literally 3 buttons to pick an ending (although the game tries to disguise this by not letting you make manual saves at that point)
-EDI

---Having spent £60 on the game despite my better judgement (I suspected much of the above)

Modifié par AlexMBrennan, 07 mars 2012 - 03:45 .

[J5550123]

My Mass Effect 3 score would have been 100/100 except I don't like how you guys ended it, and neither did most fans. It was like our choices over the trilogy didn't really matter and you gave us a limited ending. I loved the game, but the ending was really depressing and I would have preferred at least one really happy ending. I hope you guys fix this problem somehow with downloadable content or a patch or something. It'd be a shame if we had to pay more money for a better ending though. I hate that I'm not satisfied with the ending, but I had to be honest.

[kjdhgfiliuhwe]

Just finished an hour or so ago. Clocked 20 hours. No idea how complete of a game I had, but I had filled the readiness bar about 3/4th of the way through the game and had done most of the quests in my journal (just a few 'go get aritfact x' quests left that I didn't have the energy to finish. Imported a modified ME 2 save, in which I had set my character to level 1, so I wouldn't start the game at level 30, and instead started at level 3 once the prologue finished. Finished the game in my mid 40s as an Infiltrator. 

My review:

My Mass Effect 3 score: 90/100

The Good:

• Much improved story over the snorefest of Mass Effect 2. I've become so cynical towards you, Bioware, but you mostly delivered on that front. There was sadness, and loss, and closure, and humor. You ended it well (at least, I think; I admit, I have no idea which ending I got since I've avoided spoilers). I chose to integrate synthetic/organic, and while it made no sense, I can live with that. The 90 I give is based mostly on how pleasently surprised I was with the story, as after ME 2 and DA 2, I thought you didn't have it in you anymore. Also, was I supposed to assume that the two Companions I had with me on that last mission died? Despite what I'm about to say two points down from this one, there was zero closure in the ending I got, outside of knowing Joker, EDI, and Samantha made it into the brave new world.
• Decreased cooldowns on powers means more 'action' while fighting. I enjoyed that. Played as an Infiltrator on whatever the default difficulty is. Cloak seemed more than a little cheap having such a short cooldown, but I admittedly have not tried insane yet, where balance actually might matter. That said, some of the 'swarm' type fights, especially near the end, is going to be real interesting on my next playthrough without being able to cloak and drop aggro. 
• Did I mentione closure? I was pleasently surprised at how that closure went about towards a number of people you've met over the last two games. After the 'choice' in ME 1, ME 2 was a huge disappointment in how 'happy happy' it was. So glad to see a return to consequences, especially sad ones. I had made a few callous comments about whether I'd tear up in ME 3, based on how sterile and boring ME 2 was. I didn't tear up, but I came darn close.
• Decent Multiplayer, but it needs to be greatly expanded if you want people to be playing in large numbers once the initial week or two of novelty has worn off. It'd be really great if completing the game gave you some bonus of some kind in Multiplayer, but oh well.

The Bad:

• It's a tired thing to say, but I still dislike how little this game resembles an actual RPG. That said, it's an improvement over ME 2, so I'll just leave it at that, since your blog has explictly stated your target audience doesn't want to pore over numbers and stats.
• Most of the conversation choices you make don't seem to have an effect, which is ironically a criticism certain members of Bioware have levied against JRPGs, so I am giggling a bit as I write this.
• Reputation doesn't seem to do much, if anything. I maxed it out a little over halfway through the game, and not once did I find myself noticing reputation doing anything for me. Also, with all the talk about 'Reputation' vs 'Paragon' vs 'Renegade', you're still forced to max one or the other (Paragon or Renegade) if you want to make a conversation choice at the end, and all I thought of was your blog entry a few days ago that claimed the entire point of the 'Reputation' system in ME 3 was so you didn't feel forced to be only one or the other. Some giggling commenced. I was slightly under 2/3 Paragon and the rest Renegade, and was unable to choose either choice when talking to the Illusive Man. This second playthrough I started, I will stick to one, just to see if that conversation affects the ending in any way.
• Male Shepard still has way more love interests than FemShep. Women want some love too.
• Many of FemShep's combat animations seem to be built off the male skeleton. Her walking/running as well (I dare anyone to tell me they find her run remotely appealing when wearing the black dress-presumably imported into the game from the Kasumi DLC from ME 2; that dress pretty much embodies everything that's wrong with FemShep's animations and body. This stands in stark contrast to say...ME 1. I can't help but feel this was a shortcut taken by your development team. Combined with her default face, calling her a Gorilla would be polite.
• You're such a tease with Tali's face, yet again.
• Numerous audio not playing when someone spoked. Samantha, on board the Normandy, was the number one culprit of this, especially after you 'zoned' in from a mission/map/save/etc to the bridge. Good thing I had subtitles on, or I wouldn't have realized all this dialog was going on (there are a number of other NPCs as well, also mostly related to dialog immediatly after you transition into a scene/zone).
• Inability to skip probably half the dialog/cutscenes. Sure, I want to listen to the story, but when I'm doing sidequest #39 that has little bearing on the plot and no emotional trigger, I just don't have the energy to listen to it anymore. Much of this seems to be 'fixed' if you beat the game. It's like you decided, 'if you beat the game, now you can skip as much dialog as you want!'. That said, there are still a few bits that seem unskippable.
• No helmet toggle still not implemented. How did you go from having it in ME 1, removing it in ME 2, knowing how much people hate helmets, and somehow decided to just have players be able to remove it in cutscenes. Some cutscenes. The cynic in me chalks this up to your really quick development cycle. Which is why there are scenes where your armor/weapons don't match what you're wearing either.
• Unable to carry around 'super weapons'. Boo.
• Inability to carry different types of the same class of weapon (two sniper rifles for instance). I'd have loved to have one sniper rifle with the mod that allows it to punch through XX amount of inches at reduced damage, and my normal sniper rifle. As it was, I never used that particular mod, since it's such a specialized thing. Since you had the weight system, it made no sense to me why you didn't let us put whatever weapons we wanted on our back.
• Need more enemy diversity.
• Planet scanning. Let me get this straight. By your own words, you know that 'everyone hated scanning'. So, you bring back scanning. Now, you made the scanning simpler, but since it attracts Reapers, it's still a pain in the buttocks, since you'll often have to stop what you're doing and leave the system and come back at a future time, making the total time you spend looking for resources not much improved over the previous implementation in ME 2. Gah! Someone at Bioware must really love scanning or something.
• Lack of good new characters. I know you wanted to bring closure to the characters we've met, so you probably felt limited in the number of new faces you could introduce, but I was really hoping you'd been keeping a few new characters up your sleeve to surprise us. The two (three if you count the Prothean) we got were a snooze, especially since one of them wasn't really new.
• Graphics on the PC. I know it's basically a console port, but my gawd, the anti aliasing doesn't hide just how bad the edges and lines a console-specific game has. Or the low resolution textures. I'm no graphics snob, but this game could look a lot better on even a modest PC. I think it's really starting to show how old the Xbox 360/PS3 have gotten.
• Companion AI/Damage. Companions served as my extra HP bars, because I ended up just sniping about 95% of the enemies we fought, all by myself. I'd even just sit there and watch my two Companions attack the same target and want to cry as that target's HP bar would barely move, and then I'd grow old and decript from old age and kill it in one shot.
• Should really have come up with an in-game explanation for why Anderson is no longer the Counciler for those who had made him on in ME 1. Takes like 10 s for some character in-game to mention that Anderson had resigned his post because blah blah or whatever excuse you want to come up with, and save all the confusion I had when I found out Udina had the position, when the last I'd seen of him was him acting like a little toady secretary in ME 2. 
• The lighting in the Character Creator still sucks horribly, and I had to sit through the prologue dialog/cinematics (since you can only skip parts of it) five times before I could restart and try again to make a character. You also still won't let us rotate the character's face 360 degrees. Oh well.
• Gib hasn't released a ME 3 editor yet so we can use what passes as a decent hairstyle in the ME universe, which strangely enough seems to only be available to NPCs (oh, I get it, since the game is developed for consoles, you have no choice but to do horrible hair with low resolutions for the player *wink**wink*).

So, I know the 'Bad' seems to outweight the 'Good', which might seem strange, since I gave the game a 90. Well, I'm a story-driven gamer, and I was just so surprised at how much better the story was than ME 2, I had to give the game a high score in response. Most of my complaints about gameplay are low on my personal totem pole, as I'll put up with just about anything if I enjoy the story. I do have to reiterate that multiplayer is going to need a lot more if you want it to have a long life. I'm already bored with it and we're only two days into its life. The first improvement you need to do is have people who join a game automatically be 'ready'. Let the 'leader' be the one who decideds to start a game or not. I've lost track of the games I've left because we're sitting there in the lobby unable to get the fourth person to press 'Ready' (often a level 1, who probably hasn't realized he's supposed to press anything). Not being able to chat/type in the lobby makes telling that individual impossible as well.

[Althix]

85/100
-everything fine except the ending, logic of Catalyst is strange at best.
- mini-game evade the Reaper is rather annoying (galactic map)
-and yes Joker is mentally sick

in total ME3 is better than ME2 and DA2 and that reason enough to buy it.

[KBomb]

Though I am still in Act One, I will still give a review of what I think of it thus far. Of course, it could change as I get further into the game. As of now it's a 70/100.


Dislikes:

-The Normandy. It seems dark and....unfinished. I know it was utilized before retrofitting was complete, still it looks thrown together and lacking detail and atmosphere. (It could be the neat freak in me)


-The scanning. While I think adding the reapers gives it a feeling of reality (I mean, of course you'd run into reapers while exploring space) it becomes annoying after a while. You scan a couple of times and then suddenly they're after you. It's not that it's hard to evade them, it just becomes tedious after a bit.


-The auto-dialogue. Though it seems to be more dialogue, it seems like I am not involved in it. Sometimes as the player I feel like a third wheel. As though I should be waving my arms saying, “Hey, you guys! Remember me? The player? Hello!”


-Side Quests. Some of the side quests this far have been pretty meaty as compared to ME2. However, a lot of the side quests just seem to be fetch quests or taking sides during random NPC interactions. Also, and granted this could be from the fact I know some side missions are timed, I feel rushed into doing them. I don't feel I can take my time and enjoy them. It's more of a “Crap, I better hurry up and do this one before it disappears.”


-Cameos. It seems as though the ME2 characters are just thrown in for the sake of being seen. As if they're an after-thought instead of being an integral part of the series. Granted, I am just at the last of Act one and I understand they may have a larger part later on. I hope they do anyway.


-Liara. So far it seems like she is a co-protaganist. It feels as if this is a Shepard/Liara story, instead of her being a squad-member.

-Cerberus. It gets a bit tiresome to continuously here how bad Cerberus is. It feels kind of cheap, as if Cerberus is a dastardly villain in the corner twisting their handlebar mustache while laughing maniacally. I feel like they went from anti-hero to tying women to train tracks and kicking puppies. Odd transition. I sometimes want to yell at the game: “I get it! Cerberus = Evil!” I keep looking for Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy to come rushing in.


Finally, Jessica Chobot. I am sorry, but her voice acting is atrocious, imo. I brought her along because I wanted to give her character a fair chance. I remember not like Jack at the beginning of ME2 and she ended up being one of my favorites, I wanted to give Diane Allers that same consideration. Her delivery of the lines just seem so forced and stale.


Now, the likes.

-Gameplay. It seems fun. I love some of the new powers. I really am enjoying my engineer so far. I actually like the melee, though I am a bit worried it may become repetitive after a while, but so far I enjoy it.

-Character Interaction: I enjoy going to the Citadel and seeing my crew mates there hanging out. I also enjoy the banter while on the battlefield. So far I have found it appropriate to the setting and I am really enjoying James Vega. Though, I took Javik and EDI on a mission with me and I don't recall they spoke two words to each other, which was a bit disappointing.


-Shepard's emotion. She really seems emotionally involved in what's happening around her. You can almost sense her frustrations at times, her sadness and stress at others.

-Summary. I was happy to see the import summary at the beginning of the game. The Shepard I imported was one of my very first ones and I had forgotten a lot of choices I had made, so it was nice to see them laid out for me.


Well, that's all I have so far. I am sure some of my opinion will change as I get further into the game. It's been pretty fun to play.

Modifié par KBomb, 07 mars 2012 - 12:59 .

[StarYukiko]

Score: 5.5/10 – Mediocre-ish.

Good stuff first;

++Multiplayer.
++Some of the can the achievements can unlock via multiplayer and/or singleplayer. This I’m very happy over.
++Shooting Udina as a renegade interrupt. Yeeeee.
++Wrex and “Eve”+ Krogan arc + So many krogans.
+Turian arc + Turians who aren’t assh*les. Pleasant surprise that the Turian counsellor is the one who seems to sympathize the most with Shepard.  
+Some of the cameos
+Geth and a ridiculous suicidal behaviour from the Quarians. It was so silly that I actually chuckled when they died. I have a special place in hell reserved for me, don’t worry.
+The new weapon upgrades system.
+Being able to choose what kind of weapons you want. I have a strange love for carrying a pistol and a sniper.

Meh:

~Low re-play value. Doesn’t mean that it’s not a good game. I think LA Noire is a great game, but it’s really not something I can play multiple times.
~Really hard to tell where you’re supposed to go with the navigator. Sometimes I wonder around in the same area because I have no idea where to go.
~Reave not being so awesome anymore.
~Not being able to choose a certain set of abilities in multiplayer. I would like to use Overload – Tech armour – Push. No alien has that set of powers amongst the Sentinels, but these powers have been around for sentinel since ME2.
~Death of some of my favourite characters. This happens in every game I play though, sometimes its canon, sometimes it’s optional. Alternative is slaughter of the character’s personality.
~Why isn’t it not possible to import your character’s look anymore?

Dislikes:

-All that auto-dialogue. The feeling that you’re playing a game is now replaced with the feeling of watching a movie. And that character you liked is now filled in with a look-alike and somewhat changed personality.
-Smaller dialogue wheel, fewer options.
-Being all crushed about Thessia. Uh, yeah, how about some mourning for Earth? I would understand the crankiness for being so close, but Shepard’s mopping around.
- The whole game felt rushed and linear.
- McGuffin schematics as a plot coupon to bad plotville.
-The new journal layout. You know, “RANDOM NAME” and “Citadel” doesn’t really tell me much on where the heck I should go.
-Random quests that pop out of nowhere and you have no idea what to do about them.
-No Krogan squad mate. I like krogans.
 -An enemy like KL should’ve had more character development in the game. I know he’s been in some of the books, but I don’t read books. He’s so underdeveloped that I can’t even remember his whole name after finishing the game. 
-More whining about the books. In ME3 there are multiple references to the books that just leaves players like me, who don't read the books, very confused. I elected Anderson as the  counsellor, why the hell is Udina  counsellor  now?
--That stupid kid and the dream sequences. Not to mention that the kid shows up in the ending too. I tried to fix a rubber band on my controller while I went to fetch something to drink or do laundry.
--The Endings. Seriously. What’s so fun with working your ass off and then just get the endings handed to you? ME2 was better in that sense that there were consequences in who lives and dies at the end depending on how you played. Also, it didn’t feel as climactic as the previous games, it was pretty much similar to any random side-quest where you shoot stuff. I would’ve been more satisfied with an ending where everyone died because you didn’t plan the game play.
-- Nuke Kaidan, no males for female Shepard in ME3. ...Seriously? Even if there’s so much for whining about that the LI’s for female Shep, especially the human males, are so boring, doesn’t mean we don’t want to romance a male character. My Shep was single throughout all the series. Nothing against s/s romances, I’m just saying that it’s not what I would go after in firsthand. 
--Forced friendship with certain characters. I dislike some of the characters in ME, and it bugs me that you’re always nice to your former and current crew. I killed of someone on purpose during the suicide mission, and then my Shepard mourns her loss and speaks so very highly of her.
--Joker/EDI. Horrible, just, horrible. And even though you have the option to oppose it, it still rubs you in the face throughout the game.
--EDI’s new body. What for? Just give us a new character instead, the whole sexualized robot body just makes me cringe and gag.

Modifié par StarYukiko, 07 mars 2012 - 01:58 .

[Siansonea]

It's too early for giving a score, but so far I really like it. I'm still in Act 1, but I'm enjoying all the interaction with characters. I LOVE the "Narrative" combat setting. I have problems with my wrist, and I just can't do that hair-trigger sustained shooting stuff. It's 'cause I'm old and I'm a delicate flower. If you guys can get the face code import problem resolved, I think ME3 will be a real winner for me. Definitely glad I got the CE, I like all the goodies that came with it.

[Dreskar]

After playing such an amazing game and loving it so much, my score would be 20/100. Nope you didn't read that wrong, that's how bad the endings made me feel. I feel like I just had all the hundreds of hours I spent with Mass Effect 1 and 2, torn apart, and spit on. Not only were the endings bad, they were poorly written, pulled directly out of someones' rear, made no sense, had poor pacing, terrible gameplay design restrictions, and forced no saves to try and add epicness or weight to the choice.

Really the game was fine, it had some bugs here and there but was very playable, its the endings that will kill you if you are a fan of the mass effect universe. It will literally destroy everything you did in the past games, and straight up tell you that nothing you did mattered in the slightest. I spent nearly 100 dollars on this EA, this feels like a direct insult especially considering the numerous plotholes, dropped balls, and annoying overuse of sex innuendos for humor.

Seriously, for myself personally, this game's last act should have been epic, it had the ideas, it had the gameplay to back it up and then, nothing. It completely failed and fell flat on its face, completely abandoning anything that could be considered resonable. Oh but thank god you basically told us it was all made up by an old man talking to his kid/grandchild cause that means this sort of completely contrived ending is legit. Ya, and I do apologize for my language here but:

To sum up my review... FFFFF those bloody endings.

+Great gameplay, much smoother
+Felt like a galaxy literally on the edge of oblivion
+Lots of customization
+Geth/Quarian Alliance [Very well played, liked the added touch of the memory videos within the geth data network, glad we got the chance to make them both allies.]
+Characters felt more alive
+The worlds felt more alive [NPC's move and interact with the world and each other more, and there are more of them.]

-The Endings [All terrible, and all insulting]
-The Dream sequences [Too slow, obvious attempts at heart tugs but too obvious and thus left me emotionless.]
-Some really awful voice acting [Stands out because other VO's are amazing, the main culprits are the storyteller, Diana Allers, Cerberus Agents]
-The Banshee's [At least as a soldier they were annoying as all snot to take down, and throwing 7 of them at a time at me in the ending... ha...]
-Very akward plots [The Udina thing seems to come from left field, would have liked more expleation on this, same with Kai Lee, but I do know he was in the books.]
-Gunplay [Weapons feel weak, or too powerful there is no in between, for instance the Mattock was my favorite from ME2, it sounded powerful and looked powerful, in 3 it is very weak, and sounds much weaker.]

Modifié par Dreskar, 07 mars 2012 - 05:07 .

[Caelistas]

I finished the game once, could choose between the 3 "deus ex" endings.

My score as of now: 65/100

What's good?

+Combat: the combat is perfectly tweaked this time, it feels fast, responsive and it works great.
+Customization: i loved that the modding and upgrading your weapons part from ME1 has returned, albeit somewhat more streamlined but i can live with this,pretty solid cutomization system.
+Krogan/Salarian alliance: Just perfect in my book, i sided with wrex and the krogans and Mordin's dead was the one death that actually felt in place.
+Geth/Quarian war: Loved the 'tron' part inside the geth network, also nicely worked out, really enjoyed this story aspect.
+The little things: Your companion's don't stay in one place on the ship, sometimes they are at different places and you have to search for them, just like you would do with real life people who move around on a vessel.

-TALI'S FACE: I can't believe you guys used a stock photo as tali's face and photoshopped it, there we're a lot of people who had high expectations of seeing tali's face, and so many are dissapointed with what you did here.
-The endings: I don't like them at all, everything in the end get's resolved by "space magic" (crucible) and it makes me feel that all my choices i made in ME1 & ME2 HAD NO PURPOSE whatsoever. Could you please give us an extra ending or at least an epilogue that show's us what happens with our love interests?
-FIX the quest log: it's really confusing whe're you need to go and there are to many "pick up this, deliver to there" quests on the citadal. You need to be able to catogorize you're quests under "main quests", "timed quests" and "secondary quests" or something. Make it more easy to use the quest log.
-Jessica Chobot as Diana Allers: Character felt completely forced and out of place, i didn't like her at all.



Chris i'm going to be perfectly honest with you, normally i'd never ask/ want this but i'd pay to give my shepard a semi-decent ending that concludes things, without cliffhangers like:"why are all your companions are stranded on a jurassic park planet" and "why did my 2 companions i picked for final quest magically transport to the normandy on that planet".

Modifié par Caelistas, 07 mars 2012 - 06:33 .

[chris fenton]

I bet you've heard this enough, but I loved this entire series. All Mass Effects have been incredible. Mass Effect 3 was a perfect game! ...
Until the endings.
They were so horribly forced and painful to choose between it burnt me out of wanting to replay it, or even do the multiplayer.
I hereby throw my hat into the "new endings" circle.

[Sargerus]

The Good
- Combat system improved
- Weapon customization was much needed
- The mix between ME1 RPG + ME2 Action systems is a good one
- The world around you feels more "alive", specially in the Citadel
- Interaction between your squadmates is very well done
- The length of the game is bigger than ME2, same as ME1
- Multiplayer is very addicting and provide a tough challenge

The Bad

- There are some WTF plotholes through the Endings
- Harbinger only makes a very brief appearence, which is disappointing
- The dream sequences with the Kid aren't needed, or at least it should be cutscenes instead of boring gameplay
- Many squadmates only have two or three major conversations through the game, in between these, they get "Zaeeded"
- That blue wall in the Normandy's CIC is annoying as hell

Still, ME3 is a great game, although i can see why some people are calling the weakest of the trilogy, mainly because of some plotholes and the endings, but overall is a great experience.

My rates on the previous games:
ME1: 9.5/10
ME2: 9.8/10

My rate for ME3:

9/10

[Wildhide]

I prefer not to give number reviews, but rather focus on whether I would recommend a game, and by how much.

Despite my longterm support of Bioware, starting with the purchase of Baldur's Gate 1 when I was in high school, I cannot recommend this game.

I've told my friends who have inquired that I honestly don't feel it's worth the money.  It looks nice, plays well (though I find the weight mechanic to be a bit superfluous), and the dialog and general story are fine.  However, it deviates considerably from what I've come to expect from a Mass Effect game.

It's feels more linear in a rather bad way.  And while the prior games weren't super open, you could at least pick the order of many of the missions.  Especially during the second half of ME2 where you could go about things in any way you want to.  I don't get this feeling of freedom at all.

And that relates to the biggest problem I have with ME3.  The ME series was and is marketed on the concept and idea of choice.  Your choices and what you do matter and impact how the game progresses and the stories of the characters.  This installment lacks that, and to be honest it comes off as invalidating the entire feeling of choice.

Like many others, I associate a large part of this to the endings.  For the last 2 games what we've decided has impacted the endings, altered them, and shown us different outcomes.  This is particularly true for 2 where you could actually fail miserably and even die/lose for an ending if you did poorly enough.  But with the endings of 3 any and every choice you've made becomes pointless.  They don't matter, they have no impact on the ending of the series.  All your choices have been thrown out the window and you're given the choice to pick A, B, or C.

It's utterly contrary to how the game was promoted.  What's more, it makes me feel if I ever replayed the series I may as well just barrel straight through and ignore all side quests.  Why pay attention to them, whyconsider the choices I'm making in even the main quest?  They won't matter, you'll never see any results to them and the only choice that actually changes anything at the end is the rather contrived macguffin.

Which is another problem.  Coming up with a clutch magic solution in the last installment to miraculously defeat the Reapers is poor writing.  It comes off almost as a Deus ex machina, which are a hallmark of poor writing used by authors when they've written themselves into a position they can't find their way out of.  They ruin the efforts of the characters in the story.  I had expected all the efforts raising a massive military force and a genius battle strategy, not that.  With the loss of their Citadel trap, and the proof that reapers can be destroyed (Soveriegn and the Human Reaper), a conventional war was quite plausable, if improbable in victory.  But that draws out tension and keeps people interested.  It's why Star Wars worked.  Insurmountable odds, but the Rebels still succceeded.

The lack of a happy ending and this forced dour/dark/or downright bleak option with 3 different flavors is equally disappointing.  In part because of the choice issue.  Because no matter how hard you try, what you do, or all your efforts in a game that's vaunted for supporting them... you can't get a happy ending.

It's bad writing, the games have never flowed towards dark and depressing ends.  I like bittersweet or even just bitter endings.  The last 4 books I've read have all had very imperfect endings, but the authors steered me towards that.  I knew not to expect a happy ending.  But Mass Effect has never done that.  It was high fantasy in space.  Space marine and Reaper instead of Knight and Dragon.  It was always suggested by Bioware that you could save the girl, defeat the monster, and ride off into the sunset if you wanted.

You can't.  It let me down a lot.  The way Mass Effect has been written to this point did not suggest this.  But right at the end when you're getting to the satisfying conclusion where you see the culmination of your choices the game veers sharply to the left and kicks your support out from under you.  There's nothing to suggest that you just have to take this awkward, unsatisfying conclusion and deal with it.

The endings lack closure, finality, or any real substance.  They're just poorly done and smear the way I'll remember the series.  After 3 games I expected a much more well thought-out and fulfilling ending, not this.  Some epilogue, conclusion, and by golly I wanted to see my Shepard walking down a street on earth wtih Bromance Garrus and whatever LI I chose for that playthrough while I hear about how the choices I made changed the galaxy.

Instead I get everyone my character cares about missing or dead, and an old guy telling his kid a fairy tale with my Shepard being screwed any way you shake it.  It was completely off the flow of the game and felt utterly forced to be bitter and negative for the sake of.  That's not good writing.

Cutting out this old man portion and having a resolution that would allow you to have Shepard survive and be with at least some of his friends and loved ones would have done worlds for this.  Then it may have been bittersweet, and not just bitter.  Some people died that you knew, a lot that you didn't, but you won and have the rest of your friends to work with to start picking up the pieces.

Yes the journey is important, but it doesn't matter how nice that walk in the park I had today was if I tripped and my face landed in a pile of dog feces at the end.  That's the part that will stand out to me.

So, because I know my friends would be utterly disatisfied with the way the game ends, and it would make them feel the way I do, I won't recommend this to any of them.  Just like I can't recommend DA2 to anyone.  As it stands after the quality of your recent games I will be taking your future releases with a grain of salt and reserving my purchases till I hear whether the trend is continuing.

Sorry Bioware.

PS:  I would strongly urge your ME writing team to go play Dragon Age Origins.  This is an example of making choices matter, both in how the finale plays out (Including your support during the final battle), as well as altering both the in game ending (The coronation) and the epilogue text (though I always prefer more cinematic story telling in games.)

Edit:  I should add, throwing in at the end of the game that the entire 3 game conflict was about Synthetics versus Organics, the eventual take-over of Synthetics, and the 3 endings provided doesn't fit or work.

Man vs Machine has never been the primary concern of ME, it's always been Mortal vs God, essentially.  Can the regular, normal people defeat the super monster.  Or single mortal Knight vs a Dragon.  Yes, Synth vs Organic was brought up, but it was always brought up as part of the universe.

More to the point, it was never really Synth vs Organic, is was a question of are AIs alive.  Do they think, feel, and have a right to exist?  We see this in two cases;  The Geth and their revolt to survive when the Quarians attempt to shut them down after they began to show signs of sentience, and EDI as she develops from the Normandy's computer to a thinking, feeling person with relationships and even romantic interests.  The Synth question has always been, are they really alive, do we respect them that way, or are they just running code that has them behave as such.

So the sudden Godchild informing us the entire series is about Synthetics conquering Organics is completely contrary to even the narrative threads addressing living machines.  It's always been David vs Goliath.

These endings worked in Deus Ex (And they're identical to the DE choices, don't try to claim otherwise) because the DE narrative focused heavily throughout the game on cybernetics, implants, machines and the ethical questions of using the implants and people becoming more machine.  So the Control, Destroy, Merge ending made sense with the narrative.  It lead there.

Mass Effect doesn't, instead you get a Godchild changing the entire story and force feeding you the new conflict  in the last 5 minutes in a failed attempt to make the awkward ending choices work within the setting.

Modifié par Wildhide, 11 mars 2012 - 04:16 .