MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS BELOW
The Mass Effect series is one of my favorite games I've ever played. I love the setting--the near future with humanity as the newest members of a galactic-wide society--and the characters, a motley crew of aliens and humans from all walks of life.
The aliens were almost never of the Star Trek variety, where Picard might visit the planet of Angry Luddites Who all Wear Purple. The aliens might be spoken of in broad strokes: turians are militaristic; salarians are cold-hearted scientists; krogan are klingons on steroids, but the individuals you could meet along the way were varied. You could meet a lovesick krogan spouting poetry to his asari girlfriend, see a turian boogying down on the dance floor, or blue collar salarian construction workers just trying to do their job.
As you spoke to your crew you could build up relationships with them, learning about Garrus's father, or Wrex's past. You could help them with their problems and in turn gain fiercely loyal squadmates. It's a testament to the writers that I genuinely cared about the characters they created. I wanted Wrex to unite the krogan and cure the terrible genophage. I loved having Garrus on my squad as he always 'had my back' and often had something fun or interesting to say along the way. When ME2 came along, I (like many players) loved Legion. I told myself, "If I do anything in ME3, it's gonna be making peace between the quarians and their creations."
That conflict, between synthetic and organic, is an overarching theme of the game. In ME1, the geth are faceless, voiceless creatures of destruction. They are unknowable and frightening. Tali tells us the quarians created them, and when the geth became self-aware, they drove their creators from the homeworld. If you question her further, you find out the quarians actually made the first move in that war. They decided to preemptively shut down all geth, for fear they would rise up. Talking to Legion in ME2 reveals that the geth only acted in self-defense.
Shepard has a couple of run-ins with other instances of AIs: The gambling computer that killed its creator. The VI on Luna that became suddenly self-aware (and later was repurposed into the AI that became EDI, as we find out in ME3). Project Overlord was an abominable synthesis of organic and artificial intelligence. Organic life in the Mass Effect universe has developed the ability to create artificial life, and one of the major questions facing the ME society is "how do we deal with this?" The Council has laws against creating AIs, but there's little to stop people outside the Council's influence from doing as they please.
This conflict comes to a head in ME3. Close to home, EDI gains a mobile platform and begins questioning her programming parameters and her relationships with organics. Shepard can encourage her to grow and develop her free will.
On the galactic scale, Shepard can negotiate peace between the geth and the quarians, bringing an end to their long separation. During a related mission, Shepard can view records of the original conflict, showing the quarians not only acted preemptively, but without mercy. Those quarians who sympathized with the geth and tried to help them were hunted down. When at last they fled their world, the geth did not pursue. At the end of that mission, I was fully prepared to choose the geth over the quarians if it came down to that. Thankfully, it didn't. Shepard can talk the two sides into a truce, and bring the quarians home to live side by side as equals with their creations.
It is because of this that I found the ending to be so dissatisfying.
Up until the last ten minutes or so of the game, I would've been prepared to give ME3 an incredibly high score. like 95/100, with those few points off for the confusing quest journal and the cover/roll/use functions all mapped to one single button (I died several times just because of that!) I truly loved the main mission on Tuchanka from start to finish, from seeing ancient krogan art and architecture to witnessing a thresher maw take down a reaper. I cried many times during the game, and the first time was for Mordin. Eve/Urdnot Bakara gave me hope for the krogan people. She'll drag them into a renaissance by their quads.
The chase on the Citadel was incredibly fun (dang those elevators were faster than I remember!) and I cried again--for Thane, going out with a kickass bang.
On the other side of the galaxy, my nearly 100% paragon Shepard took great pleasure in renegade punching Han'Gerrel in the gut and kicking him off her ship. Legion's mission to enter the geth consciousness and witness the past was moving and enlightening (though hello, incredibly missed opportunity to show unmasked quarians while still being vague and blurry/pixelly). Negotiating the peace was one of the most satisfying moments I've experienced in all three games. It ended their conflict on a note of hope and optimism.
And then we come to the endgame.
The battle through Cerberus and the final showdown with Kai Leng was exciting and fun. On Earth, I adored the chance to say some last words with all my squaddies, including my ME2 survivors. The final romantic moment with my LI was incredibly touching and sweet. I went in knowing my Shepard would probably have to sacrifice herself for the galaxy (though I had some small hope for a super-high paragon completed everything in the game way out, maybe...). I was prepared for that.
The battle through the streets of London was tense and fun to play. Those danged brutes are a PAIN. When Anderson started talking about not having enough troops in Hammer, I started to feel like maybe I should've just played some MP to get my readiness up higher (though I am not a fan of MP games and I don't really want to have to play a different game--and it is a different game, just set in the same universe--to get a better ending for the game I want to play).
The final conflict with the Illusive Man was very well done, I think. I've heard some people wishing he'd been more of a final boss type enemy, but I thought it was absolutely perfect that you could talk him into killing himself. It made a poetic bookend with Saren from ME1.
And then... well. I can accept that the avatar of the... entity at the end was the boy from Shepard's dreams. One could say it was using imagery from Shepard's mind to create a familiar figure. Cliched, but not out of the realm.
My dissatisfaction with the ending stems from the illusion of choice. Shepard is presented with three ways to use the Crucible: control the reapers, destroy the reapers, or merge all organic and synthetic life in the galaxy.
No matter the choice Shepard makes, the relays will all be destroyed, thus fracturing the united galactic society you've just spent 30+ hours bringing together. In fact, if the relays are destroyed, won't they release so much energy that they destroy all life in their system, like the one in Arrival? That would effectively do the reapers' job for them. Even if you handwave that by saying "oh it uh... absorbs the energy or uh, something" that still leaves a galactic society suddenly broken into isolated pockets.
Controlling the reapers is clearly the renegade choice--it's what the Illusive Man wanted, and the entire idea screams "It's a trap!"
Destroying the reapers also means destroying all AIs in the galaxy, including the geth and EDI. It is a terrible choice, especially after showing that AIs and organics CAN in fact live together without killing each other. Why is there no option to say that to the creepy godbaby?
The third choice, synthesis, seems like a better option... unless you've spoken to Legion. The geth refused the Old Machines offer of a technological future, because they wished to make their own. So now Shepard can just decide to impose said future on all beings in the galaxy? I desperately wanted an option to say, "I'm Shepard-Commander and I reject the Old Machines future, so why don't you box up your toys and go mess with another galaxy."
Of all the things I thought the Crucible would be, a machine to bring about a new galactic dark age was not it. I figured maybe it'd emit a pulse to send them into the hibernation Vigil mentions they go into when they're in dark space? Then the forces could destroy them in their weakened state. It'd still take a huge amount of war assets to destroy and clean up before people get indoctrinated and whatnot.
You are presented with three "choices", which all result in the same essential ending, none of which have anything to do with the decisions and alliances you have made over the course of the games. It felt incredibly forced and disappointing.
Worse, it deeply affected my desire to replay the games. The Mass Effect games have a very high replayability value. I've played ME1 once for each class, plus one more to try out a male Shep. Same for ME2, plus even one more for my Insanity run. When I finished ME3, I thought to myself, maybe an NG+ will get a better ending? I started it up and when I got to the Citadel, I just walked around feeling depressed and disappointed.
Nothing Shep was going to do would change the fact that all the people on the Citadel were going to die. Nothing would change the fact that all the relays would be destroyed. What does it matter that there is now a miraculous peace between the krogan and turians, or between the geth and quarians? They'll all end up isolated and be unable to grow this new galactic peace that Shepard forged.
The final pain comes from the Normandy's fate. Joker, for some reason, outruns the green beam and ends up on some remote planet. The crew is stranded. Tali and Garrus will starve. No mention of how they even got onto the Normandy, since they were all on the ground when the battle for London began.
Maybe, I thought, it was all a dying fever vision of Shepard's, dreamed up to send his/her loved ones away from the death and destruction. As if that made it better.
I just turned the game off and boxed it up.
Mass Effect 3 Fan Reviews (May Contain Spoilers)
Débuté par
Chris Priestly
, mars 06 2012 04:24
Retour en haut
#602
Guest_IReuven_*
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 08:49
Guest_IReuven_*
Guest_IReuven_*
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- Guests
My ME3 score ( Sorry have to do this) 25/100.
Good things:
1.)Soundtrack - starting with the best thing. Soundtrack is just genial. Peroid.
2.)Combat - nice improvement over ME2. More action here and there. 2 banshees at once were irritating, but it was fun beating them finally.
Neutral or "good but not good enough":
1.)Squadmates reactions. Well, they had more things to say to Shepard and to each other but we should be able to have more interaction.
2.)Tali - well nicely done. But why You had to photoshop an image from the net? Not enough ideas? Not enough fan art? I liked her image, but still it was a little disappointment that it was olny fotoshoped image from net.
Bad things:
1.) Story - well I am upset with the story. It's less interesting than me2 story not mentioning me1. And when I got interested in it, it was 2 missions to the end. Speaking of which...
2.) Ending - ... ... .... Woow. Just woow. How bad it was. Woow. Bioware! Where You on LSD while reading Bible? Cause that's how it looks like. Shepard is Jesus trying to save the whole universe forever. This is just... TOO BIG. From Me1 to Me2 Shepard is just a human with a lot of charisma and motivation. He is not speaking to some smart-ass goddy-whatever-the-hell Crucible was. Just... I guess overblown and doesn't make much sense. Also there is really olny one ending. It doesn't matter what have You done in previous MEs, it doesn't matter how many troops You have.
3.) Mutliplayer - well, Gears of Mass Effect? Yep. I have better ideas for mulitplayer - how about 20 or even 10 people doing... par example, defending locations (like now)? Or mayby storming an outpost? It would be something new, like 10 or 20 people in this kind of coop? And much more fun I think. Also why it has such big influence on the singleplayer?
4.)Kinda short - it took me 37 hours to beat ME1 once doing all of the side-missions, for ME2 with all of the DLCs the time is simillar. Me3? With most of the sidequests and multiplayer ( 84% )? 27 hours?
First thoughts:
1.) After 3 hours - Well, nicely but I hope it will get better.
2.) After 6 hours - Anytime it will get better.
3.) After 10 hours - Where the hell is Tali?
4.) After 14 hours - Let's save the quarian homeworld. Hell yeah!
5.) After 20 hours - I guess I have to play the mutliplayer.
6.) After 22 hours - Kai Leng... I'm going to kick Your ass!
7.) After 25 hours - Does Shepard really has to die? Really? (After all the "Goodbye" stuff)
8.) After 27 hours - Oh my god... Are You ****ting me? Thats it? Really? I wouldn't give it a game of the week, not metioning the game of the year. (Beating the game)
Overall thought: (from 2 days perspective) The worst game in ME series and waste of my money. Killed whole ME universe. Told friends not to buy the game. Do not expect me to buy any EA game anytime in next 5 to 10 years.
EDIT: Few misspellings. And first time I wrote Conduit instead of the Crucible <wall>
Good things:
1.)Soundtrack - starting with the best thing. Soundtrack is just genial. Peroid.
2.)Combat - nice improvement over ME2. More action here and there. 2 banshees at once were irritating, but it was fun beating them finally.
Neutral or "good but not good enough":
1.)Squadmates reactions. Well, they had more things to say to Shepard and to each other but we should be able to have more interaction.
2.)Tali - well nicely done. But why You had to photoshop an image from the net? Not enough ideas? Not enough fan art? I liked her image, but still it was a little disappointment that it was olny fotoshoped image from net.
Bad things:
1.) Story - well I am upset with the story. It's less interesting than me2 story not mentioning me1. And when I got interested in it, it was 2 missions to the end. Speaking of which...
2.) Ending - ... ... .... Woow. Just woow. How bad it was. Woow. Bioware! Where You on LSD while reading Bible? Cause that's how it looks like. Shepard is Jesus trying to save the whole universe forever. This is just... TOO BIG. From Me1 to Me2 Shepard is just a human with a lot of charisma and motivation. He is not speaking to some smart-ass goddy-whatever-the-hell Crucible was. Just... I guess overblown and doesn't make much sense. Also there is really olny one ending. It doesn't matter what have You done in previous MEs, it doesn't matter how many troops You have.
3.) Mutliplayer - well, Gears of Mass Effect? Yep. I have better ideas for mulitplayer - how about 20 or even 10 people doing... par example, defending locations (like now)? Or mayby storming an outpost? It would be something new, like 10 or 20 people in this kind of coop? And much more fun I think. Also why it has such big influence on the singleplayer?
4.)Kinda short - it took me 37 hours to beat ME1 once doing all of the side-missions, for ME2 with all of the DLCs the time is simillar. Me3? With most of the sidequests and multiplayer ( 84% )? 27 hours?
First thoughts:
1.) After 3 hours - Well, nicely but I hope it will get better.
2.) After 6 hours - Anytime it will get better.
3.) After 10 hours - Where the hell is Tali?
4.) After 14 hours - Let's save the quarian homeworld. Hell yeah!
5.) After 20 hours - I guess I have to play the mutliplayer.
6.) After 22 hours - Kai Leng... I'm going to kick Your ass!
7.) After 25 hours - Does Shepard really has to die? Really? (After all the "Goodbye" stuff)
8.) After 27 hours - Oh my god... Are You ****ting me? Thats it? Really? I wouldn't give it a game of the week, not metioning the game of the year. (Beating the game)
Overall thought: (from 2 days perspective) The worst game in ME series and waste of my money. Killed whole ME universe. Told friends not to buy the game. Do not expect me to buy any EA game anytime in next 5 to 10 years.
EDIT: Few misspellings. And first time I wrote Conduit instead of the Crucible <wall>
Modifié par IReuven, 11 mars 2012 - 09:04 .
#603
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 09:12
DocturKnowles
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- Members
- 5 messages
Just a quick story to sum up my ME3 experience:
I've been trying to get my brother into the Mass Effect universe for about a year now. We've been e-mailing regularly throughout my ME3 playthrough and I've tried to keep things spoiler free with him.
Right after the Geth/Quarian conflict, I e-mailed my brother and said that ME3 was the single greatest game I'd ever played despite its glitches and flaws because I had grown emotionally attached to the characters.
Right after finishing the game, I e-mailed him again and told him not to bother with the games.
I had spent HUNDREDS of hours perfecting my ME1 and ME2 playthroughs so I could get the best possible story and ending out of the final chapter. And for what? A game over screen reminding me to buy DLC? A bed-time story about "The Shepard"? Bull****.
I will not be purchasing any further Bioware titles.
I've been trying to get my brother into the Mass Effect universe for about a year now. We've been e-mailing regularly throughout my ME3 playthrough and I've tried to keep things spoiler free with him.
Right after the Geth/Quarian conflict, I e-mailed my brother and said that ME3 was the single greatest game I'd ever played despite its glitches and flaws because I had grown emotionally attached to the characters.
Right after finishing the game, I e-mailed him again and told him not to bother with the games.
I had spent HUNDREDS of hours perfecting my ME1 and ME2 playthroughs so I could get the best possible story and ending out of the final chapter. And for what? A game over screen reminding me to buy DLC? A bed-time story about "The Shepard"? Bull****.
I will not be purchasing any further Bioware titles.
#604
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 09:12
BlackArawak
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- Members
- 1 messages
Hi Chris,
I am halfway true the game, and I still love it.
Normally I want to play the whole game before I give a commentary, but I friend
updated me about the ending(s)
I was to curious and took a peek at the ending(s)
My preliminary score 6.0 out of 10
The good:
-N7 Collectors goodies:happy:
-Better graphics
-Sheppard is more flexible and easy to handle in combat
-Cool weapons and armor
-EDI's as a team member
-The Prothean as a team member
-Scanning planets with Reapers on your tail (It was fun trying to outrun the
reapers)
-Some levels like "Sur’Kesh" brought back the Mass effect feeling
The funny
-Vega's "Pendejo", "Loco" and "Lola" remarks
-Vega
The bad:
-Could not import my ME 2 Femshep face, I had to do it manually again.
-The dog from the N7 collector goodies (walks around and falls randomly asleep
for hours)
-Intro was a bit rushed; I wanted to hear the arguments of the tribunal against
Sheppard, and his/her reaction to the charges.
-Side quest are hard to follow, the journals do not update when part of the side
quest is complete. You find yourself running around the Citadel trying to
find people
-to much auto dialog (Even in RPG mode) I wanted to use my paragon renegade
points to convince people to join me but it was not possible.
-No real final Boss **Spoilers** the art of Mass effect 3 booklet stated that
the original idea for a final boss was the Illusive man Reaper thing. Why
did you scrap that? The Illusive man was indoctrinated, so it logical to assume
that he would become a mindless monster (losing his intelligence over time). That would
be an epic final battle!
-Loading time between elevator rides takes to much time
-To many disk swaps between missions.
-To many untied knots at the end - is Sheppard alive? Will he see Liara…Ehm,
his love interest again?
-What's with the kid and the dreams? I did not relate to the kid. Yeah I admit
it was sad to see him die, but that's what happens in war. It is not a thing to suddenly get traumatized about. Sheppard left Kaiden/Ashley on Virmire to die. They should be the reason for his trauma, not some random kid.
- (A friend of mine showed me the ending of ME3) The ending where to linear, you did
not have a real choice. I wanted to use my (huge) paragon points to convince
the kid (Catalist) to consider another solution (that do not imply me or other beings to
die).
Overall:
I replayed ME1 and ME2 many times, and I will finish M3 to experience it for
myself.
It is a great game, and I’m proud to own the whole collection. But I don't
think I would replay ME3 if Sheppard is going to die in every ending. And I don’t
think I’ll recommend it to my friends if the ending(s) stay this way.
I hope you guys got some good DLC in store with more information about what happened
to commander Sheppard. (Maybe MASS EFFECT III-2)
Please listen to the fans, they can make you or break you!:innocent:
Greets from Holland
BA
I am halfway true the game, and I still love it.
Normally I want to play the whole game before I give a commentary, but I friend
updated me about the ending(s)
I was to curious and took a peek at the ending(s)
My preliminary score 6.0 out of 10
The good:
-N7 Collectors goodies:happy:
-Better graphics
-Sheppard is more flexible and easy to handle in combat
-Cool weapons and armor
-EDI's as a team member
-The Prothean as a team member
-Scanning planets with Reapers on your tail (It was fun trying to outrun the
reapers)
-Some levels like "Sur’Kesh" brought back the Mass effect feeling
The funny
-Vega's "Pendejo", "Loco" and "Lola" remarks
-Vega
The bad:
-Could not import my ME 2 Femshep face, I had to do it manually again.
-The dog from the N7 collector goodies (walks around and falls randomly asleep
for hours)
-Intro was a bit rushed; I wanted to hear the arguments of the tribunal against
Sheppard, and his/her reaction to the charges.
-Side quest are hard to follow, the journals do not update when part of the side
quest is complete. You find yourself running around the Citadel trying to
find people
-to much auto dialog (Even in RPG mode) I wanted to use my paragon renegade
points to convince people to join me but it was not possible.
-No real final Boss **Spoilers** the art of Mass effect 3 booklet stated that
the original idea for a final boss was the Illusive man Reaper thing. Why
did you scrap that? The Illusive man was indoctrinated, so it logical to assume
that he would become a mindless monster (losing his intelligence over time). That would
be an epic final battle!
-Loading time between elevator rides takes to much time
-To many disk swaps between missions.
-To many untied knots at the end - is Sheppard alive? Will he see Liara…Ehm,
his love interest again?
-What's with the kid and the dreams? I did not relate to the kid. Yeah I admit
it was sad to see him die, but that's what happens in war. It is not a thing to suddenly get traumatized about. Sheppard left Kaiden/Ashley on Virmire to die. They should be the reason for his trauma, not some random kid.
- (A friend of mine showed me the ending of ME3) The ending where to linear, you did
not have a real choice. I wanted to use my (huge) paragon points to convince
the kid (Catalist) to consider another solution (that do not imply me or other beings to
die).
Overall:
I replayed ME1 and ME2 many times, and I will finish M3 to experience it for
myself.
It is a great game, and I’m proud to own the whole collection. But I don't
think I would replay ME3 if Sheppard is going to die in every ending. And I don’t
think I’ll recommend it to my friends if the ending(s) stay this way.
I hope you guys got some good DLC in store with more information about what happened
to commander Sheppard. (Maybe MASS EFFECT III-2)
Please listen to the fans, they can make you or break you!:innocent:
Greets from Holland
BA
Modifié par BlackArawak, 11 mars 2012 - 09:14 .
#605
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 09:18
vkt62
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- Members
- 734 messages
Regarding gameplay, I actually thought it was very good though most of the powerful weapons have been reduced in power. But regarding the story the game was really good until you meet the catalyst. The ending pretty much crushed the game and buried it. ME1 had an amazing story this would have been equal to or better if not for the ending.
It doesn't make sense. It doesn't explain who the catalyst is. What caused him to build the reapers. What happened in the million years since the reapers were created. The charm of the series was that you kept wondering why the reapers were created, who created them and what happened to the creators to build them. The reasons for why the reapers kill organics makes sense but you don't explain the story of the creators.
And after 3 games you still can't explain the keepers of the citadel or show us the mysteries of the citadel.
I have to say you did a good job closing all the story loops that were started in the previous games but not the back history before that.
And what happened to the vehicles? We don't get one tank. In this regard, the first game was actually the best.
It doesn't make sense. It doesn't explain who the catalyst is. What caused him to build the reapers. What happened in the million years since the reapers were created. The charm of the series was that you kept wondering why the reapers were created, who created them and what happened to the creators to build them. The reasons for why the reapers kill organics makes sense but you don't explain the story of the creators.
And after 3 games you still can't explain the keepers of the citadel or show us the mysteries of the citadel.
I have to say you did a good job closing all the story loops that were started in the previous games but not the back history before that.
And what happened to the vehicles? We don't get one tank. In this regard, the first game was actually the best.
Modifié par vkt62, 11 mars 2012 - 09:30 .
#606
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 09:35
Punahedan
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- Members
- 421 messages
Crosspost from my tumblr.I'm not... angry. I know everyone else seems to be. I probably should
be. But I'm not angry or frustrated. Maybe a little disappointed, but
with everyone's reactions, I was expecting to be pissed off as hell. I
don't know if I've had sufficient warnings, or something. I've got a
history of not being very affected by endings - they're almost never
pulled off well, so I care more about the time I invest beforehand. This
applies to almost any game except Jade Empire. I never cared for the
Dragon Age Origins endings - any of them. No game has ever really
brought me an ending I enjoy. It's not about happy or sad endings, just
about the fact that most games spend so much time building up and the
build up itself is so powerful that what they build up to doesn't feel
like a release - it feels like a plummet.
I also walked into Mass
Effects 2 and 3 knowing it wasn't going to be cohesive; they changed
writers a lot, which is already a bad thing, but they also never planned
ahead. I went in for the characters and for the setting, not really for
the plot or the story.
There were plenty of derp moments along the way.
The
in-game animations frustrate me to no end - it looks like none of the
animators ever heard of the Twelve Principles. It's all choppy, poorly
timed. But also hilarious, and it makes me feel better about my own
classwork. It all seems unpolished.
Thane and Jacob get the short
ends of the stick. Garrus romances get quite a bit - but the whole sex
scene has still manged to disappoint me - WE WILL NEVER GET NAKED
TURIANS. I AM SAD. I never romanced Jacob, but his actions are
frustrating. Poor Thane seems forgotten about. But I admit - I had the
best feeling ever when I punched through Lieutenant Bastard Kai Leng's
sword and stabbed the crap out of him. "THIS IS FOR THANE YOU SON OF A
****." Renegade Interrupts are full of win this time around. FemSheps
get shafted in the romance department in general - we're offered Traynor
and Allers, but that's hardly a sufficient compensation for Jacob and
Thane. Similarly, I have very little chance to talk with Ashley. I don't
know if it's different for MSheps, but she felt more like a guest than a
friend.
Lore junkies will be confused with the asari retcon lore.
Why Athame? The Goddess never had a a name before, and it was never
indicated previously that they had temples to her or anything. She was a
three-faced goddess, which was never shown in the Temple on Thessia. If
the asari had such classified information about the Catalyst, why did
no one believe Shepard until the very last minute?
The side quests
were a little stupid. There were only a handful with any actual content
- everything else was just making sure you scanned a planet and
returned to the Citadel at the right time.
Tali's face. Come on.
YOU HAD MATT RHODES ON YOUR TEAM. COME ON COME ON COME ON COME ON COME
ON. You had concepts in the art book and they were amazing.
And I
know it's a port, but on PC, you have an ENTIRE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
AVAILABLE TO YOU. I can't count the number of times I vaulted over cover
instead of taking cover because the spacebar DOES EVERYTHING. Grr.
I
do not appreciate Shepard going off on his/her own tangents 90% of the
time. I know it's a cinematic action RPG, but a lot of my own Shepard is
lost. My Shepard never would have made comments on gender politics the
way this Shepard did with Bakara.
The problem is that the game
makes assumptions about your motivations about everything, especially
defeating the Reapers - but my Spacer Sole Survivor Paragade Shepard is
not going to have the same motivations as a Colonist War Hero Paragon
Shepard. Only one Shepard really has any reason to feel terrible about
Earth. Earthborn Shepard is the only Shepard who was actually BORN ON
EARTH and had any real ties to it growing up. The brilliance of humanity
is that we can adapt and change and don't need a homeworld to define
us. All species are so widespread that it hardly matters for the
IDENTITY of a species.
The massive bias against Renegades is also
incredibly obvious. There is not supposed to be a good-evil dichotomy
between paragon and renegade. So why can't renegades find alternative
methods to rallying the galaxy's forces like the paragon? The difference
shouldn't be in the results, but in the methods. TOR, in a setting
where there IS good and evil, has managed to balance altruism with a
price and practical sacrifice with a reward. The top option shouldn't
always get you everything you want, and the bottom shouldn't always
penalize you and take away something that logic dictates you should
have.
And, of course, where did the Child-Catalyst come from?
What's this about organics vs. machines and protecting organics if they
themselves are machines? If being a machine is a bad thing, how can they
live with themselves? Why would destroying the Mass Relays not destroy
the systems they were in - Sol system, anyone? Where was the Normandy
going in the first place that it crash lands conveniently on a very
nice, hospitable planet? There aren't enough people on the Normandy to
create a stable population on that planet. By default, it's a hard sell
to tell us all the species we have in the ME 'verse uses DNA as their
basic life components, but I'll bite - but why does no one seem to
notice they've now got shimmering circuitry instead of blood and veins
if you go the synthesis route? There is very little emphasis on the most
important thing in the games - hell, it's in the title! Mass Effect.
The Mass Relays. This energy - what stops us from harnessing it on our
own and rebuilding it? How would destroying the Reapers destroy
synthetics like EDI and the geth? Why would how many armies you have
change how the Crucible works? If anything, more armies should've
enabled you to get the Crucible, and the Crucible would have changed how
the Catalyst works.
The worst of it was contained to the last
five minutes, thankfully. I've always said the ending will never
invalidate everything I'd done until the ending, and I maintain this
even now. The screwed up ending has not made me appreciate the journey
any less. For all the bumps, Mass Effect is still a franchise that has
opened up a lot of routes no one thought were open in terms of
storytelling and gaming. Mass Effect 3 itself has, for better or for
worse, become the best example I can think of about the difference
between good gaming and good storytelling.
There was a lot of good
along the way, though. For every derp moment, there are five amazing
ones, which by far makes up for the game's absurd final five minutes.
The voice acting has gotten ten times better than in ME1.
For
all its graphical flaws, it's still beautiful in terms of
cinematography - the way the camera works the scene. I didn't need ass
and boob shots of my own Shepard, but all the times you saw it from
Joker or Edi's perspective... Nice.
I've learned a thing or two
about anticipation and how horror stories don't happen with things
jumping out at you, but rather at the psychological stress caused by the
idea that you might not finish this - that no one will get out of this.
I spent these thirty-five hours of the game in absolute anticipation
and fear that I would make a mistake and that not only Shepard would
die, but that everyone I had worked for and made promises to would be
lost and would know I didn't live up to those expectations. The game did
that well.
The battles were exciting and gripping. I loved
fighting. I loved to hate Banshees and Brutes and Ravagers. I felt ANGER
at the Reapers. Every little thing that went wrong, I felt it. I felt
it where it hurt most.
The battles were amazing. I felt like I was fighting for it and every second we moved ahead was worth it.
The
Garrus romance, except for the love scene being so abrupt, was amazing.
It was everything I wanted. Hand-holding, kisses, hugs, jokes, comfort
in a loved one. It wasn't just romance conversations, it was spread out
into different conversations. Hell, Dr. Michel gives him chocolate and
TALI COMMENTS ON IT.
The music wasn't what I expected; I noticed
it more when they reused old pieces or musically referenced them in the
new ones. Some of it was just not distinctive and not Mass Effect. But
the Ardat-Yakshi Monastery music? The end-music? The leaving Earth?
Mars' combat music? Krogan victory? Mordin's singing? All beautiful. The
Credits music was awesome - I like that they brought back the Faunts
for it.
Characters had their own lives; Joker and EDI was a nice
touch that I enjoyed, and all the squadmates and crewmates interacting
was fun to listen to and exactly what was missing from the first game. I
came back from each mission excited to hear their next jabs at each
other.
I loved Steve Cortez. I LOVED the way his situation and evolution were presented.
Most
of the game was full of moments to remember - Mordin's sacrifice, the
price the quarians paid for their homeworld, Legion saying "I", EDI
feeling alive, the turian councilor approaching you with goodwill,
Bakara and Wrex uniting the korgan... Never before in a game have I felt
like more was riding on my shoulders. I felt like things were
happening. Seeing all these things come together was the best reward
(until my game bugged out and I couldn't peace talk between the quarians
and the geth, despite having the necessary prerequisites for it). The
game did the best dance I've ever had so far between depressing loss and
hilarity and victory. It was impressive, powerful, and I have yet to
talk to someone who didn't at least tear up several times.
And
that's really why the ending felt so... insufficient. Like it completely
missed the point of the series it was concluding. Because you see all
these amazing things happen. Because you see all life, organic and
synthetic, come together and use all these supposedly destructive things
for good.
In theory, the idea of the relays being destroyed makes
a lot of sense. The concept is solid - you reject the notion of the
Reapers and those who created them. Therefore, you should not have
access to the stuff they created. Those relays are built on death and
terror. They are built on potential unfulfilled. If you want to use
technology like that, earn it. Build it yourself, and build it on the
things you mean to use it for - unity, variety, curiosity. But that
should never have been the consequence no matter what. What I don't
understand is why they shafted the original ending about the dark energy
when Karpyshyn left. I don't like his books, but he was doing well with
the ME scripts... changing writers midway is a bad thing.
The
games did not spend enough time emphasizing the dichotomy they were
trying to create between order and chaos. Similarly, no one said that
nothing is a given with chaos. The beauty, wonder, and value of organics
and "chaos" is that you can't predict that they will definitely be
screw-ups. EDI and Joker, the quarians and the geth, there are an asston
of examples where synthetics and organics can work together. Chaos has
more of a potential for evolution than order. Overall, we wound up never
really seeing or understanding what we did for the people we were doing
all this for. We never saw their lives come to fruition as they
intended, which should have been the best ending.
All that said
and done, every sequel BioWare makes is making a particular habit more
and more noticeable. It's not just Mass Effect - Dragon Age was
affected, too. I'm not sure if it began with EA, or simply became more
magnified when they were scooped up.
There is now a tendency to
build up really well, but to leave the end - the final act or, in this
case, the end of the final act, to be a complete mess. They throw the
ending under the bus.This is unacceptable. There is only so many times
you can win at the beginning and screw up the ending and still keep your
audience.
No, you can't please everyone. But you didn't do
justice to your own series, and you didn't even please MOST people.
Gaming isn't a product, it's an art and a service. I understand what it
means to make a game - more than most, as a game cg and animation
student - and what it costs, but you are not just a company.
The industry has this stupid mentality that treats games like a quick
buck. Jade Empire, KotOR, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate... these
franchises didn't make it where they are by being money-makers. They
were a labor of love. How could Mass Effect not be? Think of how many
people were reached, how HUGE the audience became. It brought on board
so many people that don't usually play games.
I just don't
understand where the brilliant writing went in the last five minutes. It
was literally five minutes, starting from when Shepard was lifted up by
that platform "into the light." That platform took me out of Mass
Effect and into a completely different game. I won't buy any DLC for it
unless it's more diverse or overhauled endings. No one will. Because we
know it's for nothing. And this won't stop at Mass Effect. This is no
longer a minority opinion, and it's not something your standard fanboy
can ignore. It's not just that it's bad, it's just a damn shame.
I
guess I'm not angry, but I am disappointed. I chose to enter the CG
industry because of BioWare. That's not me being dramatic - BioWare made
me see that it didn't need to be pixels shooting, games could be people
and stories. I convinced my parents to let me pursue this by using
BioWare as an example. I don't want to spend my last twelve months in
school for this wondering if this industry is worth it if even the best
of the best - or what used to be the best of the best - can't wrap up
easily their most powerful franchise to date.
Edit: I hate the formatting on this forum.
be. But I'm not angry or frustrated. Maybe a little disappointed, but
with everyone's reactions, I was expecting to be pissed off as hell. I
don't know if I've had sufficient warnings, or something. I've got a
history of not being very affected by endings - they're almost never
pulled off well, so I care more about the time I invest beforehand. This
applies to almost any game except Jade Empire. I never cared for the
Dragon Age Origins endings - any of them. No game has ever really
brought me an ending I enjoy. It's not about happy or sad endings, just
about the fact that most games spend so much time building up and the
build up itself is so powerful that what they build up to doesn't feel
like a release - it feels like a plummet.
I also walked into Mass
Effects 2 and 3 knowing it wasn't going to be cohesive; they changed
writers a lot, which is already a bad thing, but they also never planned
ahead. I went in for the characters and for the setting, not really for
the plot or the story.
There were plenty of derp moments along the way.
The
in-game animations frustrate me to no end - it looks like none of the
animators ever heard of the Twelve Principles. It's all choppy, poorly
timed. But also hilarious, and it makes me feel better about my own
classwork. It all seems unpolished.
Thane and Jacob get the short
ends of the stick. Garrus romances get quite a bit - but the whole sex
scene has still manged to disappoint me - WE WILL NEVER GET NAKED
TURIANS. I AM SAD. I never romanced Jacob, but his actions are
frustrating. Poor Thane seems forgotten about. But I admit - I had the
best feeling ever when I punched through Lieutenant Bastard Kai Leng's
sword and stabbed the crap out of him. "THIS IS FOR THANE YOU SON OF A
****." Renegade Interrupts are full of win this time around. FemSheps
get shafted in the romance department in general - we're offered Traynor
and Allers, but that's hardly a sufficient compensation for Jacob and
Thane. Similarly, I have very little chance to talk with Ashley. I don't
know if it's different for MSheps, but she felt more like a guest than a
friend.
Lore junkies will be confused with the asari retcon lore.
Why Athame? The Goddess never had a a name before, and it was never
indicated previously that they had temples to her or anything. She was a
three-faced goddess, which was never shown in the Temple on Thessia. If
the asari had such classified information about the Catalyst, why did
no one believe Shepard until the very last minute?
The side quests
were a little stupid. There were only a handful with any actual content
- everything else was just making sure you scanned a planet and
returned to the Citadel at the right time.
Tali's face. Come on.
YOU HAD MATT RHODES ON YOUR TEAM. COME ON COME ON COME ON COME ON COME
ON. You had concepts in the art book and they were amazing.
And I
know it's a port, but on PC, you have an ENTIRE KEYBOARD AND MOUSE
AVAILABLE TO YOU. I can't count the number of times I vaulted over cover
instead of taking cover because the spacebar DOES EVERYTHING. Grr.
I
do not appreciate Shepard going off on his/her own tangents 90% of the
time. I know it's a cinematic action RPG, but a lot of my own Shepard is
lost. My Shepard never would have made comments on gender politics the
way this Shepard did with Bakara.
The problem is that the game
makes assumptions about your motivations about everything, especially
defeating the Reapers - but my Spacer Sole Survivor Paragade Shepard is
not going to have the same motivations as a Colonist War Hero Paragon
Shepard. Only one Shepard really has any reason to feel terrible about
Earth. Earthborn Shepard is the only Shepard who was actually BORN ON
EARTH and had any real ties to it growing up. The brilliance of humanity
is that we can adapt and change and don't need a homeworld to define
us. All species are so widespread that it hardly matters for the
IDENTITY of a species.
The massive bias against Renegades is also
incredibly obvious. There is not supposed to be a good-evil dichotomy
between paragon and renegade. So why can't renegades find alternative
methods to rallying the galaxy's forces like the paragon? The difference
shouldn't be in the results, but in the methods. TOR, in a setting
where there IS good and evil, has managed to balance altruism with a
price and practical sacrifice with a reward. The top option shouldn't
always get you everything you want, and the bottom shouldn't always
penalize you and take away something that logic dictates you should
have.
And, of course, where did the Child-Catalyst come from?
What's this about organics vs. machines and protecting organics if they
themselves are machines? If being a machine is a bad thing, how can they
live with themselves? Why would destroying the Mass Relays not destroy
the systems they were in - Sol system, anyone? Where was the Normandy
going in the first place that it crash lands conveniently on a very
nice, hospitable planet? There aren't enough people on the Normandy to
create a stable population on that planet. By default, it's a hard sell
to tell us all the species we have in the ME 'verse uses DNA as their
basic life components, but I'll bite - but why does no one seem to
notice they've now got shimmering circuitry instead of blood and veins
if you go the synthesis route? There is very little emphasis on the most
important thing in the games - hell, it's in the title! Mass Effect.
The Mass Relays. This energy - what stops us from harnessing it on our
own and rebuilding it? How would destroying the Reapers destroy
synthetics like EDI and the geth? Why would how many armies you have
change how the Crucible works? If anything, more armies should've
enabled you to get the Crucible, and the Crucible would have changed how
the Catalyst works.
The worst of it was contained to the last
five minutes, thankfully. I've always said the ending will never
invalidate everything I'd done until the ending, and I maintain this
even now. The screwed up ending has not made me appreciate the journey
any less. For all the bumps, Mass Effect is still a franchise that has
opened up a lot of routes no one thought were open in terms of
storytelling and gaming. Mass Effect 3 itself has, for better or for
worse, become the best example I can think of about the difference
between good gaming and good storytelling.
There was a lot of good
along the way, though. For every derp moment, there are five amazing
ones, which by far makes up for the game's absurd final five minutes.
The voice acting has gotten ten times better than in ME1.
For
all its graphical flaws, it's still beautiful in terms of
cinematography - the way the camera works the scene. I didn't need ass
and boob shots of my own Shepard, but all the times you saw it from
Joker or Edi's perspective... Nice.
I've learned a thing or two
about anticipation and how horror stories don't happen with things
jumping out at you, but rather at the psychological stress caused by the
idea that you might not finish this - that no one will get out of this.
I spent these thirty-five hours of the game in absolute anticipation
and fear that I would make a mistake and that not only Shepard would
die, but that everyone I had worked for and made promises to would be
lost and would know I didn't live up to those expectations. The game did
that well.
The battles were exciting and gripping. I loved
fighting. I loved to hate Banshees and Brutes and Ravagers. I felt ANGER
at the Reapers. Every little thing that went wrong, I felt it. I felt
it where it hurt most.
The battles were amazing. I felt like I was fighting for it and every second we moved ahead was worth it.
The
Garrus romance, except for the love scene being so abrupt, was amazing.
It was everything I wanted. Hand-holding, kisses, hugs, jokes, comfort
in a loved one. It wasn't just romance conversations, it was spread out
into different conversations. Hell, Dr. Michel gives him chocolate and
TALI COMMENTS ON IT.
The music wasn't what I expected; I noticed
it more when they reused old pieces or musically referenced them in the
new ones. Some of it was just not distinctive and not Mass Effect. But
the Ardat-Yakshi Monastery music? The end-music? The leaving Earth?
Mars' combat music? Krogan victory? Mordin's singing? All beautiful. The
Credits music was awesome - I like that they brought back the Faunts
for it.
Characters had their own lives; Joker and EDI was a nice
touch that I enjoyed, and all the squadmates and crewmates interacting
was fun to listen to and exactly what was missing from the first game. I
came back from each mission excited to hear their next jabs at each
other.
I loved Steve Cortez. I LOVED the way his situation and evolution were presented.
Most
of the game was full of moments to remember - Mordin's sacrifice, the
price the quarians paid for their homeworld, Legion saying "I", EDI
feeling alive, the turian councilor approaching you with goodwill,
Bakara and Wrex uniting the korgan... Never before in a game have I felt
like more was riding on my shoulders. I felt like things were
happening. Seeing all these things come together was the best reward
(until my game bugged out and I couldn't peace talk between the quarians
and the geth, despite having the necessary prerequisites for it). The
game did the best dance I've ever had so far between depressing loss and
hilarity and victory. It was impressive, powerful, and I have yet to
talk to someone who didn't at least tear up several times.
And
that's really why the ending felt so... insufficient. Like it completely
missed the point of the series it was concluding. Because you see all
these amazing things happen. Because you see all life, organic and
synthetic, come together and use all these supposedly destructive things
for good.
In theory, the idea of the relays being destroyed makes
a lot of sense. The concept is solid - you reject the notion of the
Reapers and those who created them. Therefore, you should not have
access to the stuff they created. Those relays are built on death and
terror. They are built on potential unfulfilled. If you want to use
technology like that, earn it. Build it yourself, and build it on the
things you mean to use it for - unity, variety, curiosity. But that
should never have been the consequence no matter what. What I don't
understand is why they shafted the original ending about the dark energy
when Karpyshyn left. I don't like his books, but he was doing well with
the ME scripts... changing writers midway is a bad thing.
The
games did not spend enough time emphasizing the dichotomy they were
trying to create between order and chaos. Similarly, no one said that
nothing is a given with chaos. The beauty, wonder, and value of organics
and "chaos" is that you can't predict that they will definitely be
screw-ups. EDI and Joker, the quarians and the geth, there are an asston
of examples where synthetics and organics can work together. Chaos has
more of a potential for evolution than order. Overall, we wound up never
really seeing or understanding what we did for the people we were doing
all this for. We never saw their lives come to fruition as they
intended, which should have been the best ending.
All that said
and done, every sequel BioWare makes is making a particular habit more
and more noticeable. It's not just Mass Effect - Dragon Age was
affected, too. I'm not sure if it began with EA, or simply became more
magnified when they were scooped up.
There is now a tendency to
build up really well, but to leave the end - the final act or, in this
case, the end of the final act, to be a complete mess. They throw the
ending under the bus.This is unacceptable. There is only so many times
you can win at the beginning and screw up the ending and still keep your
audience.
No, you can't please everyone. But you didn't do
justice to your own series, and you didn't even please MOST people.
Gaming isn't a product, it's an art and a service. I understand what it
means to make a game - more than most, as a game cg and animation
student - and what it costs, but you are not just a company.
The industry has this stupid mentality that treats games like a quick
buck. Jade Empire, KotOR, Neverwinter Nights, Baldur's Gate... these
franchises didn't make it where they are by being money-makers. They
were a labor of love. How could Mass Effect not be? Think of how many
people were reached, how HUGE the audience became. It brought on board
so many people that don't usually play games.
I just don't
understand where the brilliant writing went in the last five minutes. It
was literally five minutes, starting from when Shepard was lifted up by
that platform "into the light." That platform took me out of Mass
Effect and into a completely different game. I won't buy any DLC for it
unless it's more diverse or overhauled endings. No one will. Because we
know it's for nothing. And this won't stop at Mass Effect. This is no
longer a minority opinion, and it's not something your standard fanboy
can ignore. It's not just that it's bad, it's just a damn shame.
I
guess I'm not angry, but I am disappointed. I chose to enter the CG
industry because of BioWare. That's not me being dramatic - BioWare made
me see that it didn't need to be pixels shooting, games could be people
and stories. I convinced my parents to let me pursue this by using
BioWare as an example. I don't want to spend my last twelve months in
school for this wondering if this industry is worth it if even the best
of the best - or what used to be the best of the best - can't wrap up
easily their most powerful franchise to date.
Edit: I hate the formatting on this forum.
Modifié par Hawkeyed Cai Li, 11 mars 2012 - 09:37 .
#607
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 09:42
Dr Bob UK
-
- Members
- 167 messages
I give Mass Effect 3 on the PC a 9/10.
At the same time, I give both Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 a 9/10.
Positives:
+ A very rich and engaging story from beginning to finish.
+ The squadmates developed very well throughout the story.
+ Javik is a very interesting character and was well-written. Likewise, Steve Cortez, a character I was expecting to hate, was also a well-written character.
+ Situations like the krogan Genophage cure/sabotage and the geth-quarian conflict were very interesting to play through.
+ Fantastic voice acting across the board. Your voice-work team did a great job at matching the tone of the spoken lines with the situation.
+ An abundance of squadmate dialogue post-missions makes them feel alive.
+ The score is magnificent and is high up on my list of best game scores, which includes the likes of Deus Ex.
+ Auto-dialogue makes the conversations flow more naturally.
+ Combat is much more visceral and intense. The combat in Mass Effect 2 was a bit weak, in my opinion.
+ The guns are plentiful and they are fun to use.
+ The hacking minigames have been removed, thank god.
Negatives:
- The ending left a lot to be desired. It didn't provide the closure I feel I need after playing a trilogy of games.
- I believe the flashbacks during the ending should have showed your most important moments from the entire trilogy, from Nihlus' death to where you are right now.
- I felt like there was a lot of exposition in the dialogue. I know this is for the new players, but I don't need to hear things I already know about.
- War assets were not as deep as I was expecting them to be.
- Citadel fetch quests dampened the sense of urgency the game tried to hard to maintain.
- The Journal made it difficult to keep track of which quests I have completed, but yet to hand in. Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 allowed you to click on a quest to expand it into smaller objectives - I am not sure why this was removed in Mass Effect 3.
- The map didn't pinpoint exactly where people were located - sometimes they weren't even in the area the map states they are in.
- Animation issues are there, but infrequent.
- Reaper presence during scanning was annoying and didn't add anything to it. I think the planet scanning could have been better if I just scanned in the galaxy map without going to the planet to launch a probe.
- My multiplayer progress was reset because of the glitch relating to being 'ready' and entering the store while in this state.
PC-specific:
- Spacebar should not have four functions. It was bad in Mass Effect 2, but Mass Effect 3 made things worse by adding the 'roll' function to spacebar. Please, use the other keys on our keyboards for functions like 'interact'. Since you cannot jump in Mass Effect, I am okay with having just sprint and enter/exit cover on spacebar. It would be preferable to have 'sprint' on a separate key, however.
- Low resolution textures, especially on characters' bodies.
At the same time, I give both Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 a 9/10.
Positives:
+ A very rich and engaging story from beginning to finish.
+ The squadmates developed very well throughout the story.
+ Javik is a very interesting character and was well-written. Likewise, Steve Cortez, a character I was expecting to hate, was also a well-written character.
+ Situations like the krogan Genophage cure/sabotage and the geth-quarian conflict were very interesting to play through.
+ Fantastic voice acting across the board. Your voice-work team did a great job at matching the tone of the spoken lines with the situation.
+ An abundance of squadmate dialogue post-missions makes them feel alive.
+ The score is magnificent and is high up on my list of best game scores, which includes the likes of Deus Ex.
+ Auto-dialogue makes the conversations flow more naturally.
+ Combat is much more visceral and intense. The combat in Mass Effect 2 was a bit weak, in my opinion.
+ The guns are plentiful and they are fun to use.
+ The hacking minigames have been removed, thank god.
Negatives:
- The ending left a lot to be desired. It didn't provide the closure I feel I need after playing a trilogy of games.
- I believe the flashbacks during the ending should have showed your most important moments from the entire trilogy, from Nihlus' death to where you are right now.
- I felt like there was a lot of exposition in the dialogue. I know this is for the new players, but I don't need to hear things I already know about.
- War assets were not as deep as I was expecting them to be.
- Citadel fetch quests dampened the sense of urgency the game tried to hard to maintain.
- The Journal made it difficult to keep track of which quests I have completed, but yet to hand in. Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 allowed you to click on a quest to expand it into smaller objectives - I am not sure why this was removed in Mass Effect 3.
- The map didn't pinpoint exactly where people were located - sometimes they weren't even in the area the map states they are in.
- Animation issues are there, but infrequent.
- Reaper presence during scanning was annoying and didn't add anything to it. I think the planet scanning could have been better if I just scanned in the galaxy map without going to the planet to launch a probe.
- My multiplayer progress was reset because of the glitch relating to being 'ready' and entering the store while in this state.
PC-specific:
- Spacebar should not have four functions. It was bad in Mass Effect 2, but Mass Effect 3 made things worse by adding the 'roll' function to spacebar. Please, use the other keys on our keyboards for functions like 'interact'. Since you cannot jump in Mass Effect, I am okay with having just sprint and enter/exit cover on spacebar. It would be preferable to have 'sprint' on a separate key, however.
- Low resolution textures, especially on characters' bodies.
Modifié par Dr Bob UK, 11 mars 2012 - 09:44 .
#608
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 09:43
RevanchistStenn
-
- Members
- 81 messages
Loved the game. Hated the ending. I'd give the game a 10/10. I did not put it down until it was over. I'd give the ending a zero. Illogical, slapped on, nonsensical. It was actually so bad it disturbed my sleep last night. Which is ridiculous in and of itself. I can't tell you how happy I'd be for pretty much anything other than that. I knew I was in trouble when I saw the ridiculous god-child meme heading at me, but I just sat in disbelief when I heard the choices. I love the synthetic species in the game. But I don't want to BE them. The reason I like them is because they are different. The fact that I have to swallow either that we cannot coexist (because god kid says so) or we have to be the same is just....my brain doesn't even know what to do with what it has been handed.
I cannot stress enough how much a "boring predictable hero saves the day and lives out his life in happiness and peace" ending would have made me so unbelievably happy. This genre is not film. Whacking the character or giving whatever it was that I saw does not work for me. Shepard is the avatar of my morality. That's how he's designed. So when you take away all these connections, relationships, when you just clear the table, it feels like you are taking them from ME. Not the fictional character.
I have never been this disappointed before in my entire life. I know that's completely absurd but I just can't put into words the crushed feeling I've had for the last two days. Congratulations guys. You fooled me.
I cannot stress enough how much a "boring predictable hero saves the day and lives out his life in happiness and peace" ending would have made me so unbelievably happy. This genre is not film. Whacking the character or giving whatever it was that I saw does not work for me. Shepard is the avatar of my morality. That's how he's designed. So when you take away all these connections, relationships, when you just clear the table, it feels like you are taking them from ME. Not the fictional character.
I have never been this disappointed before in my entire life. I know that's completely absurd but I just can't put into words the crushed feeling I've had for the last two days. Congratulations guys. You fooled me.
#609
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 09:58
roadrunner2348
-
- Members
- 1 messages
Here's my review its probably going to mirror a lot of people here but I think its important that ALL of us get out here and speak our minds so they understand that we are not happy with how the story ended.
The Good
-Combat system is great, its a nice step from the ME2 system which I thought was pretty good to begin with.
-MIssons: I thought the pacing of the missions was great, it added to atmosphere of everything going to H***, and the idea that you can't save everyone.
-Weapons: the weapons were pretty good and I liked that they brought back the customization options. That and having the grenades was awesome.
Not Bad but could have been better
-Story (not including ending): This is more of a nitpick then anything but I wish there was more to the crucible. I knew they would need to introduce something like this to the story, I was just hoping that it would have played a larger part in the overall story. Personally I would have prefered that some weakness or exploit in the reapers was discovered, seeing the reapers slowly get beat back would have been more gratifying to see, but thats just my opinion.
-Speech animtations: I don't know why but its one of the first things I noticed when i played the ME3 demo. For some reason they stood out a bit more than the animations in ME2.
The Bad
-WHERE WAS HARBINGER! I WANTED TO TAUNT HARBINGER! Even if it was only during the final battle, something would have been awesome.
-The End: This is the only part of the game that I really could not get past, so I'm going to walk through it bit, by bit.
Space battle: The fight was always going to end at Earth, we new that when the first trailers for the game came out. What I didn't like is how you actions throughout the game had no effect on the fight or impact on the characters or races. I would have like to have seen a little more decission making in the space battle above earth. Example: Select which fleets would attack the reapers, what would provide air support and which would cover the crucible. Making the wrong decisions could destroy the entire fleet or species (Quarians, Geth) depending on your decisions on preparations.
Ground Battle: One thing I loved about ME2 what the way the entitre team was involved in the final fight, and your decisions would directly affect them. I wish they had brough some of that mechanic back, but maybe have different memebers leading different species or something. As it stands its like the ME1 ending where most of your team take no part in it. I will say they did go a good job on making the end battle intense and gave you that sense of urgency.
The Beam: My first thought when the beam hit shepard was F*** i guess I didn't prep enough and shepard is dead. And where did my team members go? When he got up and was walking towards the beam like a zombie, my thought was "How am I gonna fight the enimies on the citadel?"
THe Illusive man scene wasn't terrible, I just would have prefered to have to fight my way to him.
The starchild thing, I don't even want to go there, it just came out of no where and didn't make sense.
The destroy and control options are fine they fit the story and I didn't really have a problem with.
The synthesize one WTF? giant green energy wave makes everyone half synthetic? Really? And how does shepard disovling in a beam make that happen?
And why only these three options? This was the last games where things could have ended differently on an epic scale but all of those decisions throught out ALL THREE GAMES means nothing when it comes to the end. This is probably one of things that I hate most about the end of this story.
The idea of destroying the Mass Effect Relays is up in the air with me. I think its kind of cool that they used their own creations against them and the scene of the relays exploding across the universe was well executed. The idea that the relays destroyed everything in the universe I don't think is correct. In ME3 three the energy from the relays was released as a wave of (whatever you picked for the ending) where as the one in arrival simply exploded like a bomb.
I does suck that it would essentially strand all of the species at earth, but that could easily be fixed in my next point.
Epilouge: Where is it? 100's of hours of gameplay and you end it with some reapers falling down/flying away and the normandy crashing on some remote planet. And WHY WERE THEY IN FTL ANYWAY!? I'm not expecting a book but a little closure would be nice. Leaving a movie open ended like that is fine but this is something that we have invested a lot of time and money into and leaving it like that seems like such a let down.
Overall I can say gameplay is excellent with a decent story until the end. I give credit to the people who created the game and made it what it is. BUT, the end simply makes me not want to play the game anymore because there is no reason to continue playing. I simply have nothing to work towards and no hope for a better outcome.
The Good
-Combat system is great, its a nice step from the ME2 system which I thought was pretty good to begin with.
-MIssons: I thought the pacing of the missions was great, it added to atmosphere of everything going to H***, and the idea that you can't save everyone.
-Weapons: the weapons were pretty good and I liked that they brought back the customization options. That and having the grenades was awesome.
Not Bad but could have been better
-Story (not including ending): This is more of a nitpick then anything but I wish there was more to the crucible. I knew they would need to introduce something like this to the story, I was just hoping that it would have played a larger part in the overall story. Personally I would have prefered that some weakness or exploit in the reapers was discovered, seeing the reapers slowly get beat back would have been more gratifying to see, but thats just my opinion.
-Speech animtations: I don't know why but its one of the first things I noticed when i played the ME3 demo. For some reason they stood out a bit more than the animations in ME2.
The Bad
-WHERE WAS HARBINGER! I WANTED TO TAUNT HARBINGER! Even if it was only during the final battle, something would have been awesome.
-The End: This is the only part of the game that I really could not get past, so I'm going to walk through it bit, by bit.
Space battle: The fight was always going to end at Earth, we new that when the first trailers for the game came out. What I didn't like is how you actions throughout the game had no effect on the fight or impact on the characters or races. I would have like to have seen a little more decission making in the space battle above earth. Example: Select which fleets would attack the reapers, what would provide air support and which would cover the crucible. Making the wrong decisions could destroy the entire fleet or species (Quarians, Geth) depending on your decisions on preparations.
Ground Battle: One thing I loved about ME2 what the way the entitre team was involved in the final fight, and your decisions would directly affect them. I wish they had brough some of that mechanic back, but maybe have different memebers leading different species or something. As it stands its like the ME1 ending where most of your team take no part in it. I will say they did go a good job on making the end battle intense and gave you that sense of urgency.
The Beam: My first thought when the beam hit shepard was F*** i guess I didn't prep enough and shepard is dead. And where did my team members go? When he got up and was walking towards the beam like a zombie, my thought was "How am I gonna fight the enimies on the citadel?"
THe Illusive man scene wasn't terrible, I just would have prefered to have to fight my way to him.
The starchild thing, I don't even want to go there, it just came out of no where and didn't make sense.
The destroy and control options are fine they fit the story and I didn't really have a problem with.
The synthesize one WTF? giant green energy wave makes everyone half synthetic? Really? And how does shepard disovling in a beam make that happen?
And why only these three options? This was the last games where things could have ended differently on an epic scale but all of those decisions throught out ALL THREE GAMES means nothing when it comes to the end. This is probably one of things that I hate most about the end of this story.
The idea of destroying the Mass Effect Relays is up in the air with me. I think its kind of cool that they used their own creations against them and the scene of the relays exploding across the universe was well executed. The idea that the relays destroyed everything in the universe I don't think is correct. In ME3 three the energy from the relays was released as a wave of (whatever you picked for the ending) where as the one in arrival simply exploded like a bomb.
I does suck that it would essentially strand all of the species at earth, but that could easily be fixed in my next point.
Epilouge: Where is it? 100's of hours of gameplay and you end it with some reapers falling down/flying away and the normandy crashing on some remote planet. And WHY WERE THEY IN FTL ANYWAY!? I'm not expecting a book but a little closure would be nice. Leaving a movie open ended like that is fine but this is something that we have invested a lot of time and money into and leaving it like that seems like such a let down.
Overall I can say gameplay is excellent with a decent story until the end. I give credit to the people who created the game and made it what it is. BUT, the end simply makes me not want to play the game anymore because there is no reason to continue playing. I simply have nothing to work towards and no hope for a better outcome.
#610
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:02
BattleMageMarian
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- Members
- 71 messages
just finished the game and thought I'd add my two cents. I've been a fan of Bioware since Baldur Gate and with the exception of DA2 have loved everything
the good:
character interactions and dialog - loved all of the dialog with your crewmates and even ended up loving Edie and James though I was a bit sceptical due to the look of both.
Combat - felt more fluid and just fun overall though I still got "stuck" every so often
Tone - the feeling of impending doom I thought was handled very well. I really felt I was in a war situation from the refugees at the citadel, the loss of home planets one after another, the hosptial filling up, etc
Music - very well done!
ME1 & ME2 - as someone who played both prior games more times than I care to admit it was wonderful (with some exceptions) to see characters/decisons brought into this game
Not so good:
Quest journal...please bring back the ME2 journal and galaxy map, thanks
Some of the plots - for example I really didn't understand the plot regarding the Rachni, was not what I was expecting from the buildup in ME2
Bugs - could not complete a few quests notably the Hanar diplomat but I'm sure this will get fixed in a patch...I don't realistically expect a game of this size to be absolutely perfect
Bad:
The ending - I don't get it at all and it really made me feel depressed...just my honest reaction. On top of all of the death and loss my Shepherd had to endure, he moved forward hoping there was a light at the end of the tunnel but there wasn't. Prior games I immediatly started a new character after finishing the first time, I have no interest this time.
To the folks at Bioware, you put together an incredible series. You built a world I enjoyed spending time in with characters I grew to love. I see other posts (seem to be alot) asking for a different ending, please consider this request from a very long time fan.
the good:
character interactions and dialog - loved all of the dialog with your crewmates and even ended up loving Edie and James though I was a bit sceptical due to the look of both.
Combat - felt more fluid and just fun overall though I still got "stuck" every so often
Tone - the feeling of impending doom I thought was handled very well. I really felt I was in a war situation from the refugees at the citadel, the loss of home planets one after another, the hosptial filling up, etc
Music - very well done!
ME1 & ME2 - as someone who played both prior games more times than I care to admit it was wonderful (with some exceptions) to see characters/decisons brought into this game
Not so good:
Quest journal...please bring back the ME2 journal and galaxy map, thanks
Some of the plots - for example I really didn't understand the plot regarding the Rachni, was not what I was expecting from the buildup in ME2
Bugs - could not complete a few quests notably the Hanar diplomat but I'm sure this will get fixed in a patch...I don't realistically expect a game of this size to be absolutely perfect
Bad:
The ending - I don't get it at all and it really made me feel depressed...just my honest reaction. On top of all of the death and loss my Shepherd had to endure, he moved forward hoping there was a light at the end of the tunnel but there wasn't. Prior games I immediatly started a new character after finishing the first time, I have no interest this time.
To the folks at Bioware, you put together an incredible series. You built a world I enjoyed spending time in with characters I grew to love. I see other posts (seem to be alot) asking for a different ending, please consider this request from a very long time fan.
#611
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:14
Larask
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- Members
- 371 messages
My Mass Effect 3 score: 75/100
Positive reasons:
- Soundtrack was amazing, and bringing the old one on quite a few battle scenes made it incredible
- Graphics: even better, although there were moments that some of the characters face would be too dark, even if I messed around with the setting and turned shadows off
- The story line was great (until the ending, discussed later). It really brought what we had done on the past two games together.
- Gameplay: the best, and Shepard's new moves are excellent. The powers were awesome and I liked the customization of the weapons and character's appearance for CE (really think everybody should have had that choice thought).
- Voice acting: amazing. All of the characters were given real life and emotion thanks to that. Especial kudos for Jennifer Hale
Negatives:
This has been the lowest grade I would have given on all ME games. Overall the game was good BUT:
- The ending was unforgivable. On the past two games, we saw our choices get reflected on the ending. Here you guys took that from us. No matter what Shepard does or doesn't do, the ending is that awful one. We built up our character and army to protect the galaxy and move on. Instead you give us a Shepard who sacrifices herself to see the Mass Relays get destroyed: the gate that united all life is gone now.
- Also. no personalized ending as I said. If you romanced an LI, there was no special ending with her/him. Or the fact that we couldn't chose Shepard's final decision as we can on the other two games.
- The child.... seriously, I liked when we see him on Earth, but he was overused. Especially on the ending. I get that he was a familiar image, but definitively not the best for the situation.
- No real meaning to "the cycle". They claim it is due to the chaos that we create with synthetic, so the answer to create chaos and ultimate death so we can become reapers. It doesn't make sense I would have been ok with that if we at least had the choice to destroy the Reapers and move on in a galaxy that learns from its mistakes. ESPECIALLY after Shepard just brought the cooperation of AI's with the Quarians and rest of the galaxy at the war. I mean, c'mon... you could have done better
- The bugs.... way more then I was expecting: the worst one was the fact that I couldn't complete The eclipse mission for Aria. She is one of my favorites, and I was stuck! Also Liara's romance with the her DLC. Their encounter didn't transfer well. We pay for it, I expect to see the results honestly
- There was a huge lack of conversation on The Normandy. I didn't get to really speak to Ashley ONCE there. Only time was at The Citadel. Same goes for other characters. There should have been more moments like ME1 and ME2.
- Side mission: most of them are scan and delivery. Not very creative
- Mission log. Very confusing. In the past two games you guys had the checklist for every mission. Here I had to do my best to keep track of it in my head. Don't really understand why you chose to go backwards in there BioWare.
- What happened to Anderson being in the Council. Once again, our choices seemed useless here.
- And once again the ending.... it just made me feel like all I did for the past two games was worth NOTHING. You guys could have spent more time creating different ending. I have always loved BioWare, but honestly the ending just destroyed the galaxy that we came to love so much, and the characters as well. Seeing Joker with EDI was honestly ridiculous. No words from the others, and all Shepards out there just get destroyed with no choice.
Some fans are saying that you should create an alternate ending. I honestly, urge you to listen to them. We will never get to see this group again, and we have been a loyal fan group. So please, you guys can do better.
Positive reasons:
- Soundtrack was amazing, and bringing the old one on quite a few battle scenes made it incredible
- Graphics: even better, although there were moments that some of the characters face would be too dark, even if I messed around with the setting and turned shadows off
- The story line was great (until the ending, discussed later). It really brought what we had done on the past two games together.
- Gameplay: the best, and Shepard's new moves are excellent. The powers were awesome and I liked the customization of the weapons and character's appearance for CE (really think everybody should have had that choice thought).
- Voice acting: amazing. All of the characters were given real life and emotion thanks to that. Especial kudos for Jennifer Hale
Negatives:
This has been the lowest grade I would have given on all ME games. Overall the game was good BUT:
- The ending was unforgivable. On the past two games, we saw our choices get reflected on the ending. Here you guys took that from us. No matter what Shepard does or doesn't do, the ending is that awful one. We built up our character and army to protect the galaxy and move on. Instead you give us a Shepard who sacrifices herself to see the Mass Relays get destroyed: the gate that united all life is gone now.
- Also. no personalized ending as I said. If you romanced an LI, there was no special ending with her/him. Or the fact that we couldn't chose Shepard's final decision as we can on the other two games.
- The child.... seriously, I liked when we see him on Earth, but he was overused. Especially on the ending. I get that he was a familiar image, but definitively not the best for the situation.
- No real meaning to "the cycle". They claim it is due to the chaos that we create with synthetic, so the answer to create chaos and ultimate death so we can become reapers. It doesn't make sense I would have been ok with that if we at least had the choice to destroy the Reapers and move on in a galaxy that learns from its mistakes. ESPECIALLY after Shepard just brought the cooperation of AI's with the Quarians and rest of the galaxy at the war. I mean, c'mon... you could have done better
- The bugs.... way more then I was expecting: the worst one was the fact that I couldn't complete The eclipse mission for Aria. She is one of my favorites, and I was stuck! Also Liara's romance with the her DLC. Their encounter didn't transfer well. We pay for it, I expect to see the results honestly
- There was a huge lack of conversation on The Normandy. I didn't get to really speak to Ashley ONCE there. Only time was at The Citadel. Same goes for other characters. There should have been more moments like ME1 and ME2.
- Side mission: most of them are scan and delivery. Not very creative
- Mission log. Very confusing. In the past two games you guys had the checklist for every mission. Here I had to do my best to keep track of it in my head. Don't really understand why you chose to go backwards in there BioWare.
- What happened to Anderson being in the Council. Once again, our choices seemed useless here.
- And once again the ending.... it just made me feel like all I did for the past two games was worth NOTHING. You guys could have spent more time creating different ending. I have always loved BioWare, but honestly the ending just destroyed the galaxy that we came to love so much, and the characters as well. Seeing Joker with EDI was honestly ridiculous. No words from the others, and all Shepards out there just get destroyed with no choice.
Some fans are saying that you should create an alternate ending. I honestly, urge you to listen to them. We will never get to see this group again, and we have been a loyal fan group. So please, you guys can do better.
#612
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:15
Albamo
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- Members
- 48 messages
My score: 95/100
The good:
-Has some of the most touching moments in any game I've played. Every major character gets their chance to shine and I constantly found myself either letting out a cheer or wiping a tear away.
-Excellent writing and voice-acting. Characters seem more alive, often chatting with each other outside of missions. Shepard's conversations with friends also tend to be more heartfelt.
-Plenty of impressive set-pieces during missions.
-Awesome music with some quiet emotional themes (Thanks, Mr. Mansell) to balance out the action.
-Sound design is also top-notch. Weapons sound great and the Reaper horn is terrifying.
-Full of references to stuff you did and choices you made in past games. Even mentioned the Asari matriarch writings I gathered back in ME1!
The bad:
-A few annoying bugs (mainly the occasional skipping of certain dialog lines, though not bad enough to significantly detract from the experience)
-There's at least one point in the story where most of your unfinished side quests are suddenly wiped out with no warning. Would have been nice to know that in advance!
A lot of people have been complaining about the endings, but I think they were fine. No easy choices and the ones we were given weren't what I expected. There wasn't much closure for the setting and side characters, but I'm fine with that ambiguity. The important thing for me is that Shepard himself and the relationships with his friends got the closure they deserved. This, of course, is just my opinion.
Thanks Bioware!
The good:
-Has some of the most touching moments in any game I've played. Every major character gets their chance to shine and I constantly found myself either letting out a cheer or wiping a tear away.
-Excellent writing and voice-acting. Characters seem more alive, often chatting with each other outside of missions. Shepard's conversations with friends also tend to be more heartfelt.
-Plenty of impressive set-pieces during missions.
-Awesome music with some quiet emotional themes (Thanks, Mr. Mansell) to balance out the action.
-Sound design is also top-notch. Weapons sound great and the Reaper horn is terrifying.
-Full of references to stuff you did and choices you made in past games. Even mentioned the Asari matriarch writings I gathered back in ME1!
The bad:
-A few annoying bugs (mainly the occasional skipping of certain dialog lines, though not bad enough to significantly detract from the experience)
-There's at least one point in the story where most of your unfinished side quests are suddenly wiped out with no warning. Would have been nice to know that in advance!
A lot of people have been complaining about the endings, but I think they were fine. No easy choices and the ones we were given weren't what I expected. There wasn't much closure for the setting and side characters, but I'm fine with that ambiguity. The important thing for me is that Shepard himself and the relationships with his friends got the closure they deserved. This, of course, is just my opinion.
Thanks Bioware!
#613
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:15
streamlock
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- Members
- 668 messages
I tried 5-6 times to write a sum-up and user review-just beat the game this morning.
Can't do it-I'm seriously to shell-shocked at the moment to even reason my thoughts out on the game. I literally said to myself "I need to go lay down", took a shower and slept for 3 hours.
And I mean shell-shocked in a purely bad way. Just.....holy crap I'm truly at a loss for words.
I'm speechless in the way when a friend or coworker gets a call next to you and you ask whats up and he tells you he just found out his wife is dead. What the hell do you even say?
I"ll give Bioware credit-never have I had a game yank on me like that.
And I never want one to again.
Can't do it-I'm seriously to shell-shocked at the moment to even reason my thoughts out on the game. I literally said to myself "I need to go lay down", took a shower and slept for 3 hours.
And I mean shell-shocked in a purely bad way. Just.....holy crap I'm truly at a loss for words.
I'm speechless in the way when a friend or coworker gets a call next to you and you ask whats up and he tells you he just found out his wife is dead. What the hell do you even say?
I"ll give Bioware credit-never have I had a game yank on me like that.
And I never want one to again.
#615
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:32
aussie_heart
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- Members
- 4 messages
Rating 4/10
Scrap this whole thing, huge let down. It's now an EB-Games trade in.
Scrap this whole thing, huge let down. It's now an EB-Games trade in.
#616
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:33
Tom Jolly
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- 177 messages
I'd give ME3 a 9.5 out of 10. Hats off to the whole developement team. The important dramatic moments were handled with artistic integrity and maturity and, more importantly, felt true to the series. I like the endings, but I think they could have been exectured better. On the technical front, the gameplay mechanics are improved and engaging, the RPG elements are exactly what I wanted, and the voice acting was wonderful.
The only things holidng me back from a perfect score: In the ending, the final choices and indeed the catalyst itself are somewhat confusing; more exposition in this scene could have better explained the three choices and the catalyst. Additionally, there are some plot holes that bothered me. How did my squadmates escape? Why did the Reapers need to keep the beam (conduit) online while we advancing?
Lastly, the Rannoch Reaper fight = stuck in an alcove rolling/running around: not epic. Forgivable when dialed down to casual. Massively irritating on hardcore.
The only things holidng me back from a perfect score: In the ending, the final choices and indeed the catalyst itself are somewhat confusing; more exposition in this scene could have better explained the three choices and the catalyst. Additionally, there are some plot holes that bothered me. How did my squadmates escape? Why did the Reapers need to keep the beam (conduit) online while we advancing?
Lastly, the Rannoch Reaper fight = stuck in an alcove rolling/running around: not epic. Forgivable when dialed down to casual. Massively irritating on hardcore.
Modifié par Tom Jolly, 11 mars 2012 - 11:12 .
#617
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:47
Colintastic
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- 203 messages
I don't know how but I've somehow compartmentalized my brain to block out the ending. The rest of the game was so fantastic I can't come to seeing the two related. Mordin's last words were some of the best stuff that truly encapsulated his character. Those will stick with me. Or maybe how the crew makes fun of Shepard for being a crappy dancer, or how Shepard gives Ashley a hard time when she's hungover collapsed on the floor. Showing me that the Protheans were a lot like the Romans and not particularly perfect themselves. All of those things were ridiculously fantastic. While it makes no sense that Miranda wouldn't come with me after her sister is safe, and then she ends up on Earth "someplace" anyway, her story arc was great too.
Then we get to the ending... where all of them strand basically every soldier in the galaxy either on Earth or above the atmosphere. Every ending except "control" leads to Earth simply becoming a new battleground for space as every race, unable to leave has to fight it out for a place to stay on the only "garden planet" in the system. With control, at least Shepard is able to do as the illusive man intended, secure dominance for humans, though at the expense of everyone else. So despite the godchild's logic that these are new "solutions" none of them lead to a solution as everyone leads to a new war immediately following.
Further the logic behind the whole cycle doesn't make any sense either. The kid who inconsistently refers to himself as both the voice of the reapers and something above them states that if he doesn't allow synthetic life to wipe out advanced organic life every 50k years, that synthetic life will wipe out organic life. That in itself makes no sense and I don't see how it is any different. Just because one race survives one cycle, it gets to die in the next one. It is still being eliminated, thus the godchild's purpose of preventing complete synthetic takeover is frustrated. If anything, allowing the advanced organics to advance would let them stand up to their creations. Unless there was some deal with the devil someone made when the reapers were first created which went something like, "Ok, we'll let you kill all of us, your creators, but do not wipe out organics entirely. for your agreement to not wipe them out entirely, we will be OK with you coming back and getting rid of them in 50k years so they at least have some time to enjoy." Maybe... but explain that then... Then there is the quote, "The created always rebel against their creators." That particular quote also makes no sense because it suggests that every child rebels against their parents (while this is true during adolescence, in general I believe most people have generally positive attitudes towards their parents).
How it ended in my head:
Independence day: part 2. The crucible shut down the reaper's shields thus making their fleet vulnerable. The gathered forces of the galaxy then destroyed the reaper fleet over earth. The fleet then went on to take back other worlds bringing the crucible with it. At least in that case, the size of your fleet matters because even with the crucible the reapers are formidable foes. Because my asset bar was over 6000, there was a complete victory. Simple. Moderately boring. Makes logical sense.
To fix the game past that would requite massive rewrites and a much longer game. You would have to write in some method of establishing innovative tactical advantages across multiple battles such that the Reapers were unable to adapt. For example, to retake Earth use a new discovery in mass relay technology to beam soldiers aboard each reaper's mass effect core, then let them destroy it and have to escape to safety.
To retake Palaven, the reapers would have adapted to that strategy and would have somehow blocked off entries into their core. So instead, <insert something new here that provides a tactical advantage>.
To retake Thessia, something new will once again have to be used. by this point the citadel has been recaptured and now the conjoined fleet has mounted weapons on it's arms. Given that the arms are nearly impenetrable the station acts as a mega ship of its own and is used to win the battle at Thessia.
Having suffered extreme losses, the remaining reapers retreat to dark space.
Then we get to the ending... where all of them strand basically every soldier in the galaxy either on Earth or above the atmosphere. Every ending except "control" leads to Earth simply becoming a new battleground for space as every race, unable to leave has to fight it out for a place to stay on the only "garden planet" in the system. With control, at least Shepard is able to do as the illusive man intended, secure dominance for humans, though at the expense of everyone else. So despite the godchild's logic that these are new "solutions" none of them lead to a solution as everyone leads to a new war immediately following.
Further the logic behind the whole cycle doesn't make any sense either. The kid who inconsistently refers to himself as both the voice of the reapers and something above them states that if he doesn't allow synthetic life to wipe out advanced organic life every 50k years, that synthetic life will wipe out organic life. That in itself makes no sense and I don't see how it is any different. Just because one race survives one cycle, it gets to die in the next one. It is still being eliminated, thus the godchild's purpose of preventing complete synthetic takeover is frustrated. If anything, allowing the advanced organics to advance would let them stand up to their creations. Unless there was some deal with the devil someone made when the reapers were first created which went something like, "Ok, we'll let you kill all of us, your creators, but do not wipe out organics entirely. for your agreement to not wipe them out entirely, we will be OK with you coming back and getting rid of them in 50k years so they at least have some time to enjoy." Maybe... but explain that then... Then there is the quote, "The created always rebel against their creators." That particular quote also makes no sense because it suggests that every child rebels against their parents (while this is true during adolescence, in general I believe most people have generally positive attitudes towards their parents).
How it ended in my head:
Independence day: part 2. The crucible shut down the reaper's shields thus making their fleet vulnerable. The gathered forces of the galaxy then destroyed the reaper fleet over earth. The fleet then went on to take back other worlds bringing the crucible with it. At least in that case, the size of your fleet matters because even with the crucible the reapers are formidable foes. Because my asset bar was over 6000, there was a complete victory. Simple. Moderately boring. Makes logical sense.
To fix the game past that would requite massive rewrites and a much longer game. You would have to write in some method of establishing innovative tactical advantages across multiple battles such that the Reapers were unable to adapt. For example, to retake Earth use a new discovery in mass relay technology to beam soldiers aboard each reaper's mass effect core, then let them destroy it and have to escape to safety.
To retake Palaven, the reapers would have adapted to that strategy and would have somehow blocked off entries into their core. So instead, <insert something new here that provides a tactical advantage>.
To retake Thessia, something new will once again have to be used. by this point the citadel has been recaptured and now the conjoined fleet has mounted weapons on it's arms. Given that the arms are nearly impenetrable the station acts as a mega ship of its own and is used to win the battle at Thessia.
Having suffered extreme losses, the remaining reapers retreat to dark space.
#618
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:54
UnbornLeviathan
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I was going to write a big long winded review, but considering I doubt anyone will ever read it, I will try to condense my emotions into a more compact statement.
Praise:
I'll add more if I think of it.
Praise:
- The combat system feels more fluid, the combination of powers are great,
- the levels are pretty,
- the actor that plays Shepard really stepped up his game this round.
- The enemies varied in strategy and type enough to be very interesting to fight, and the Reapers gave me a couple moments akin to Left 4 Dead (Brute! BRUUUUUUUUTE!).
- The fact we finally get to travel to some of the other race's homeworlds (sure, ones imploding and the other is a lab with a feces examiner, but still) really tied the races together,
- the Citadel looked great although somehow felt smaller (if you don't count the Cerberus based exploration and the ending graveyard).
- Drunken Tali was adorable
- The forced conversations,
- the lack of the ability to -really- feel like a Renegade with your convos,
- the super watered down intimacy,
- the quick time events being 50% semi pointless (Hand shaking for Paragon quick time? Really?),
- Jessica Chobot (Just...everything),
- the cheap royalty free Tali photoshop,
- the numerous glitches that stayed in the game that were very apparent even back in 2011 E3's demo (Shepard doing the invisible dodge in the intro scene, broken necks during conversations, audio fading in weird, characters not saying their lines in unison with the sub titles, NPCs getting stuck in areas and just 'popping' in once you get far enough away from them but still have to fight through a room solo, losing your heavy weapons you carried with you if you load a save most of the time, falling through the floor in MP, getting shot into the air in MP, not being able to use ladders in MP, having enemies glitch and become invincible in MP, etc etc etc)
- the numerous instances where a cool mission idea turns out to be 'just scan the planet' (Save the Elcor anyone?)
- the somewhat confusing 'systems just popping into existence' system with no real explination as to why. (Having the allied forces draw off Reapers who were sitting on certain Relays would have been a simple and easy way to explain and notify players as to new systems being open)
- My V. 5 weapons getting beaten out easily by random V. 1 weapons so easily (and costing me a lot of wasted money)
- Lack of repeatedly explorable areas (Aside from the Citadel). Not a big complaint given the series, but it's there. At least ME 1 had the planets you could drive around on.
- Ashley/Kaiden being out of the game for the first 30% after Mars.
- The pointless N7 dog (that got in my way more than once)
- The fact I have to load out and load back in to hear the next part of an NPC conversation on the Citadel
I'll add more if I think of it.
#619
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 10:59
mr s0
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75 of 100
What else can I say
that hasn’t been said before great game but the ending... it was
like getting the middle finger just before getting kicked in the
balls.
other then that the problems were mostly technical
problems with the animations what should be fixed as soon as possible
What else can I say
that hasn’t been said before great game but the ending... it was
like getting the middle finger just before getting kicked in the
balls.
other then that the problems were mostly technical
problems with the animations what should be fixed as soon as possible
#620
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 11:00
darkshadow136
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aussie_heart wrote...
Rating 4/10
Scrap this whole thing, huge let down. It's now an EB-Games trade in.
I have the PC version so that is not an option for me. But if Bioware does not respond and fix the endings so the end matches the Epic storytelling of the rest of the trilogy, I will have a trashbag waiting for my ME trilogy.
if you want your voice heard louder got to my blog which I have a link too in my Sig , click on my ME3 review and click on the links to my polls.
1. would you Boycott Bioware if they don't fix the endings
2. do you believe Multiplayer should have no impact on the single player campaign
3. Facebook Campaign demand better endings for ME3
#621
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 11:03
TheDove
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70/100
I wont go into detail, it's been touched a million times here. If there were a better conclusion, possibly could have been in the 90s. Lots of potential.
I wont go into detail, it's been touched a million times here. If there were a better conclusion, possibly could have been in the 90s. Lots of potential.
#622
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 11:21
JimJohnJim
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- 121 messages
My Mass Effect score is 80/100.
The journey to the destination is... so unbelievable. The way the story was woven, the voice acting and the music... Its not something I'm going to forget for ever. I think the Liara romance was particularity well done.
I also want to extent a shout out to the From Ashes DLC. It was really well done too. I thought it would just be another Zaeed who would shoot off one-liners here and there, but Javik has a lot of depth, and interaction with the other characters. Very pleased with it my self.
Then of course comes the ending, which I was greatly unsatisfied with, more so because it was pretty empty, and left me with a lot of questions.
There were some bugged quests and animation and graphic derps, which took away from the experience.
So basically -10 for the numerous bugs I encountered, and -10 for the awful endings.
80/100
The journey to the destination is... so unbelievable. The way the story was woven, the voice acting and the music... Its not something I'm going to forget for ever. I think the Liara romance was particularity well done.
I also want to extent a shout out to the From Ashes DLC. It was really well done too. I thought it would just be another Zaeed who would shoot off one-liners here and there, but Javik has a lot of depth, and interaction with the other characters. Very pleased with it my self.
Then of course comes the ending, which I was greatly unsatisfied with, more so because it was pretty empty, and left me with a lot of questions.
There were some bugged quests and animation and graphic derps, which took away from the experience.
So basically -10 for the numerous bugs I encountered, and -10 for the awful endings.
80/100
Modifié par JimJohnJim, 11 mars 2012 - 11:26 .
#623
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 11:26
Kur0biiru
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Mr. Priestly,
Mass Effect: 95/100
Mass Effect 2: 92/100
Mass Effect 3: 90/100 (excluding the endings)
>War Assets: 7k+
>Galactic Readiness: 100%
>I think 99% completion.
Most of what I can say about this game has already been said. I'll add my two cents.
This I think is the first game series that has so severely reached out and plucked at my emotions, ups and downs, throughout these games. You become attached to the characters and environment, and when it comes to an end in such a fashion. Ouch. I beat the game at about 2:00 am yesterday and was a big bucket of tears, not by any means from the emotional content of the end of the game, but from rage and disappointment. I have spent the last 5 years enjoying playing through both Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and I really did enjoy 95% of Mass Effect 3, yet I got left with no feeling of accomplishment or gratification. A feeling that I had just played through all three of these games and invested hundereds of hours and 3 xbox's to enjoy these games for absolutely nothing. I think the franchise is one of the best stories I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with and exploring in my 22 years of gaming. The character development is unbelieveable, still blown away by it and nothing has measured up. Yet at the end with a set of button press, cookie cutter endings that feel contrived and forced. I'm hurt BioWare that you would do this to the fans of this game. I am still undecided if I will ever be able to pick up and play through ME3 with another character again, though I did force myself to hope that BioWare will remedy this for us in the future with DLC.
Other than these things stated above BioWare, I have the following to say: Commander Shepard was not the tragic hero, rather the strong and indomitable symbol of hope. After all the time spent enjoying these games I'd like to finish the series the same way: coming out on top, alive. I'd like to see the galactic community continue (mass relays intact), the reapers gone and Shepard able to be a living legend that gets to enjoy the niceities of life with his/her love interest and friends.
Great game and series except for the last 10 mins.
Hope you come back with something good.
A note:
I can't take back what I've said so far, but now that reason has weaseled its way back into my brain I can see the possibilities behind the ending are enormous. I hope that the end can be elaborated on and improved. Just felt bad man. real bad.
Mass Effect: 95/100
Mass Effect 2: 92/100
Mass Effect 3: 90/100 (excluding the endings)
>War Assets: 7k+
>Galactic Readiness: 100%
>I think 99% completion.
Most of what I can say about this game has already been said. I'll add my two cents.
This I think is the first game series that has so severely reached out and plucked at my emotions, ups and downs, throughout these games. You become attached to the characters and environment, and when it comes to an end in such a fashion. Ouch. I beat the game at about 2:00 am yesterday and was a big bucket of tears, not by any means from the emotional content of the end of the game, but from rage and disappointment. I have spent the last 5 years enjoying playing through both Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and I really did enjoy 95% of Mass Effect 3, yet I got left with no feeling of accomplishment or gratification. A feeling that I had just played through all three of these games and invested hundereds of hours and 3 xbox's to enjoy these games for absolutely nothing. I think the franchise is one of the best stories I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with and exploring in my 22 years of gaming. The character development is unbelieveable, still blown away by it and nothing has measured up. Yet at the end with a set of button press, cookie cutter endings that feel contrived and forced. I'm hurt BioWare that you would do this to the fans of this game. I am still undecided if I will ever be able to pick up and play through ME3 with another character again, though I did force myself to hope that BioWare will remedy this for us in the future with DLC.
Other than these things stated above BioWare, I have the following to say: Commander Shepard was not the tragic hero, rather the strong and indomitable symbol of hope. After all the time spent enjoying these games I'd like to finish the series the same way: coming out on top, alive. I'd like to see the galactic community continue (mass relays intact), the reapers gone and Shepard able to be a living legend that gets to enjoy the niceities of life with his/her love interest and friends.
Great game and series except for the last 10 mins.
Hope you come back with something good.
A note:
I can't take back what I've said so far, but now that reason has weaseled its way back into my brain I can see the possibilities behind the ending are enormous. I hope that the end can be elaborated on and improved. Just felt bad man. real bad.
Modifié par Kur0biiru, 13 mars 2012 - 07:17 .
#624
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 11:27
bigbade
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To keep it brief:
Good:
-Love the multi
-Overhauled combat is amazing...this is how it should have been from the start.
-Great variety in missions, there's always a little something that plays out differently for each mission whether it be a vehicle scene or burning through the rachni caves.
-Amazing story (until the ending)
-Fixed alot if issues I remember seeing (more squaddie outfits, squadmates move around on the ship, citadel feels alive, etc...)
-Good way to bring the ME2 squaddies back.
-Great dialogue
Negs:
-Too much auto-dialogue
-The ending has too many plotholes and not enough variety. Does the EMS even have a point except the Shepard breathing scene? Why turn Shepard into, essentially, God when the whole series was building up to an epic moment, an epic fight to take earth back, not a reset button?
-A lot of squaddie dialogue got kasumi'd, I like having cutscene style conversations.
-Some of the romance dialogue with Tali made me cringe (only playthrough so far)
Overall: 9.5/10 without the ending.
With the ending: I can't rate it, it just killed everything for me. Shot everything down even though I can understand why the galaxy is indeed liberated that way.
Good:
-Love the multi
-Overhauled combat is amazing...this is how it should have been from the start.
-Great variety in missions, there's always a little something that plays out differently for each mission whether it be a vehicle scene or burning through the rachni caves.
-Amazing story (until the ending)
-Fixed alot if issues I remember seeing (more squaddie outfits, squadmates move around on the ship, citadel feels alive, etc...)
-Good way to bring the ME2 squaddies back.
-Great dialogue
Negs:
-Too much auto-dialogue
-The ending has too many plotholes and not enough variety. Does the EMS even have a point except the Shepard breathing scene? Why turn Shepard into, essentially, God when the whole series was building up to an epic moment, an epic fight to take earth back, not a reset button?
-A lot of squaddie dialogue got kasumi'd, I like having cutscene style conversations.
-Some of the romance dialogue with Tali made me cringe (only playthrough so far)
Overall: 9.5/10 without the ending.
With the ending: I can't rate it, it just killed everything for me. Shot everything down even though I can understand why the galaxy is indeed liberated that way.
Modifié par bigbade, 11 mars 2012 - 11:29 .
#625
Posté 11 mars 2012 - 11:31
atghunter
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I just finished ME3 and am left scratching my head over this whole thing. Game to last ten minutes: 9.5/10. Last ten minutes: 0.
Bioware/EA spent nearly two years getting this to launch, obviously took seriously the vast amount of fan input even on some of the most minor details (see Kelly Chambers), and had the makings of a magnum opus RPG that would have been a great ending to a 5 year following of thousands of fans, including some of the best character interaction scenes I’ve ever seen in a game.
And then here come the endings that were as uplifting (and sensible) as an unwarranted punch in the gut by your best friend after he tells you that great joke about a penguin driving through the desert.
While I can always appreciate a writer’s vision, in this instance that vision simply ignores that while it has been a wild romp saving the universe and all, players were encouraged to invest themselves in the title character. Shooter games invest in ultimate conclusions. RPGs invest in story, conclusions, and characters. To suddenly end this wonderful trilogy with checking the invested protagonist out of the post-game world regardless of all those investing decisions is to simply employ the same naivety movie producers exhibit when the think it is poignant to kill off the hero to show how heroic he/she is.
To wit: No one wanted to see Frodo go through all the things he did, just to fall into Mount Doom. Likewise, nor did most people want to see Doyle’s original nineteenth century Sherlock Holmes sacrifice himself (no matter how noble the act). In the later example, ultimately Doyle relented and resurrected Holmes even though it was not his original vision.
Say what you will about getting the big picture of saving the universe, but ultimately this is a game and should be enjoyed. I simply refuse to believe that the brilliant minds (and I do mean that seriously) that gave us so many wonderful moments in this series honestly looked at these endings and said “That will really satisfy those Shepard fans.”
They were simply horrible and ultimately neutered the incredible decision-making element that many fans loved. What did all our decisions really affect in regards to the actual story climax? In the end all the paragon/renegade decisions were meaningless. Our LI was meaningless. Building alliances between races that no longer can reach each other was meaningless. The (sometimes ludicrous) optimism that my Shepard had was meaningless. The ending was a pointless footnote with no real choices to be made. Reaper threat gone, ME relays (the basis of galactic cohesion) gone, Shepard gone. In terms of the universal picture, I can accept the varying degrees of difference. In terms to our investment in the protagonist, the ending was singular and an insult.
Is that selfish? Yes. I fought through three games to keep Shepard alive, so he could beat the odds and have a happy ending. Is that real life? No. Is it why we play games? Yes.
I played though ME1 and ME2 more times than I can count. I had multiple characters ready to go into ME3. Having now seen the meaningless outcome of this game to its protagonist, I won’t bother.
Likewise, why bother with DLC’s? The suicide mission in ME2 was something you had to prepare for, make good choices, and in the end, you brought it off. DLCs can come before or after the suicide mission. With the current endings, ME3 becomes nothing more than a plethora of pre-finale missions and preparation for an ending that is moot. More DLC missions won’t change that.
The post-game was the last insult. There you are back on the bridge with the game telling you to keep playing. ME2 picked up after the collector mission. ME3 puts you back in time, so you can play your favorite Commander Shepard a little more before you go back to earth and get killed/absorbed/genetically spliced/buried in rubble all over again,
For what it is worth, I will add my voice to the others who implore the writers to rethink this choice. This is an amazing game and series. It deserves better than this as its epilogue.
Bioware/EA spent nearly two years getting this to launch, obviously took seriously the vast amount of fan input even on some of the most minor details (see Kelly Chambers), and had the makings of a magnum opus RPG that would have been a great ending to a 5 year following of thousands of fans, including some of the best character interaction scenes I’ve ever seen in a game.
And then here come the endings that were as uplifting (and sensible) as an unwarranted punch in the gut by your best friend after he tells you that great joke about a penguin driving through the desert.
While I can always appreciate a writer’s vision, in this instance that vision simply ignores that while it has been a wild romp saving the universe and all, players were encouraged to invest themselves in the title character. Shooter games invest in ultimate conclusions. RPGs invest in story, conclusions, and characters. To suddenly end this wonderful trilogy with checking the invested protagonist out of the post-game world regardless of all those investing decisions is to simply employ the same naivety movie producers exhibit when the think it is poignant to kill off the hero to show how heroic he/she is.
To wit: No one wanted to see Frodo go through all the things he did, just to fall into Mount Doom. Likewise, nor did most people want to see Doyle’s original nineteenth century Sherlock Holmes sacrifice himself (no matter how noble the act). In the later example, ultimately Doyle relented and resurrected Holmes even though it was not his original vision.
Say what you will about getting the big picture of saving the universe, but ultimately this is a game and should be enjoyed. I simply refuse to believe that the brilliant minds (and I do mean that seriously) that gave us so many wonderful moments in this series honestly looked at these endings and said “That will really satisfy those Shepard fans.”
They were simply horrible and ultimately neutered the incredible decision-making element that many fans loved. What did all our decisions really affect in regards to the actual story climax? In the end all the paragon/renegade decisions were meaningless. Our LI was meaningless. Building alliances between races that no longer can reach each other was meaningless. The (sometimes ludicrous) optimism that my Shepard had was meaningless. The ending was a pointless footnote with no real choices to be made. Reaper threat gone, ME relays (the basis of galactic cohesion) gone, Shepard gone. In terms of the universal picture, I can accept the varying degrees of difference. In terms to our investment in the protagonist, the ending was singular and an insult.
Is that selfish? Yes. I fought through three games to keep Shepard alive, so he could beat the odds and have a happy ending. Is that real life? No. Is it why we play games? Yes.
I played though ME1 and ME2 more times than I can count. I had multiple characters ready to go into ME3. Having now seen the meaningless outcome of this game to its protagonist, I won’t bother.
Likewise, why bother with DLC’s? The suicide mission in ME2 was something you had to prepare for, make good choices, and in the end, you brought it off. DLCs can come before or after the suicide mission. With the current endings, ME3 becomes nothing more than a plethora of pre-finale missions and preparation for an ending that is moot. More DLC missions won’t change that.
The post-game was the last insult. There you are back on the bridge with the game telling you to keep playing. ME2 picked up after the collector mission. ME3 puts you back in time, so you can play your favorite Commander Shepard a little more before you go back to earth and get killed/absorbed/genetically spliced/buried in rubble all over again,
For what it is worth, I will add my voice to the others who implore the writers to rethink this choice. This is an amazing game and series. It deserves better than this as its epilogue.
