1966 réponses à ce sujet

[RGZ Archer]

DeeKay17 wrote...

I really don't get it. Why do people demand any closure? You didn’t for the first two games, and they too ended on pretty much ‘now what?’ note. The endings are perfect. Just spend some time thinking about them.

A number of people have pointed out how this is in fact a game, not real life. With fantisy people expect a degree of...well, fantisy. Its the only place left where the good guy can go home with his girl and have a degree of 'happily ever after'. People dont want 'different' or 'epic' endings when it comes to something personal like this, they want something they feel entitled to.

My father expressed curosity at my annoyance to the endings and other aspects, and I'll give the same answer here I did to him. When I'm playing this game, I AM COMMANDER SHEPARD. It's called immersion for a reason and people typically do it a great deal in RPG's (hence the title itself, role playing game). So from that light, a lot of people really feel that its they themselves who are Shepard, especially for the ending. Thats not what they would want to have happen to them in real life if they had done everything Shepard had.

You have to see things from both sides. If you were Shepard, and survived, would any of the endings sat well with you? Knowing you were responsable for any one of the three 'different' outcomes?

Modifié par RGZ Archer, 12 mars 2012 - 04:36 .

[recentio]

DeeKay17 wrote...

I really don't get it. Why do people demand any closure? You didn’t for the first two games, and they too ended on pretty much ‘now what?’ note. The endings are perfect. Just spend some time thinking about them.

The first two games were supposed to end without closure because they were setting up for the final game -- which was supposed to bring closure, and more than that, closure that made sense.

[Mikozilla]

So, I beat the game last night, here's my thoughts..

First off, I want to state that I am madly in love with the ME series. I haven't become so invested in a game since, what.. FF7? I remember when I finished the first game, I had chills. So before I get down to the nitty gritty, thank you for creating such an amazing world. That said..

All in all, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. And really, only because of the ending. I know you guys are hearing this a lot, but I have to agree with the general consensus. The end was a huge let down. Not just story wise, either. There was no epic final battle. Really, what was the last "boss"? Kai Leng? Disappointing. Then there was the story aspect of the ending, so lackluster.. Was this really what you envisioned for the story? For Shepard? "Oh yeah heeeeey. I control the Reapers. You want to kill them? Or control them? Or.. Hey! Let's combine you guys ALL up real good." I want to ask QUESTIONS. And I want to feel that all of my decisions mattered, that they were leading up to something. Not just tie it up with a pretty bow, pick and choose 1 of 3 choices, the end. I felt so cheated. And then, what do I get after making my choice? (Which, for the record, was to destroy the Reapers). My Shepard dies, which is not a big issue (though I will play again for that "perfect" ending).. But, what of my team? I see Joker, Garrus & James live. I'm excited to see Garrus alive, as he was my LI, but what about the rest of my team? Am I to assume they died? What about the ex-teammates who were stationed elsewhere? Should I assume they are all dead as well? Will Wrex and Eve not make adorable little babies? Does Tali not get to see her home again? Obviously, not via the mass relays, but HEY. I WANT TO KNOW THESE THINGS. I felt so strongly about these characters, and to just give me nothing, it's just killing me. I wanted to flip my table. And as a side note, why James for the third person? It seems to be Joker, LI, third member.. but how was that third person decided? Because I would rather see anyone else there. Also, there were a few various plots that were skipped over. Like, oh.. Harbinger? Would've thought that deserved a conversation there. All in all, I could go on forever about how upsetting the end was, but instead..

The good things? Great things? AMAZING things? Everything else. Honestly. I cried so much during the game, not just because I'm a sissy girl, but because you made me love these characters and you wrote amazing stories for them in ME3. I thoroughly enjoyed every quest, the little debates where I could offer support, that you (mostly) tied up stories for all characters. I was afraid that Kaiden would just rage more over me leaving him for Garrus, but there were options to work that out. The little moments between the characters reflecting on missions or events from the past games, I loved those moments of nostalgia. The combat system was great. The weapon and armor systems were back to how I like them. I had insane amounts of FUN with each mission and fight. The graphics, even on my 360, were beautiful. So, kudos. Kudos for everything else.

Just, please, if this is the true end to such an amazing series as we all assume it is, give us something more. Maybe that's the plan all along? Release massive DLC tailored to the fans? I don't know, but left how it is, I just feel betrayed.

I have to add, that if the Hallucination theory is correct, then you are all bastards. And.. Geniuses. (See: http://social.biowar...5/index/9727423)

Modifié par Mikozilla, 12 mars 2012 - 04:59 .

[Johnnatan]

there is now a tendency to kill everyone in the stories and the bad guys left alive... But the fans are the ones that must step up and complaint. How many games were already changed? Evn books... Think of Harry Potter and Fallout for example. Rowling wanted to kill Harry and leave Nveille as the true heroe. She wanted to kill all the main characters and everyone complainted about it and she had to change the ending before releasing the book. The same happened with Bethesda, which were forced to release the BoS dlc to revive the vault dweller. We must keep pressing, demanding and complaining.

The companies might have the money, but due to that we have rights. At the end this was a business transaction, and they must satisfy their customers. There is no space for any kind of aptitudes from any company member to the fan or from the fans to the company members. If I am not satisfied I have the right to complaint as the constitution clearly states. 
The lack of information is killing everyone somehow. That explains why there are rampaging bad pubilicty in Internet.

From friday to today more than 6k people have signed up in the FB group created to demand a better ending. I was the 2816 and now the counts go to almost 10k. This is going to be felt and I am sure that BW will release a dlc soon or make an official announcement regarding this issue. The worst thing you can do is keep silence.

[IrishSpectre257]

 I can honestly say that, before the last 10 minutes, ME3 is one of the finest games I've ever played. The storytelling was the best in the series, the sub-plots were wrapped up perfectly, the gameplay was fun, exciting and difficult without the game resorting to cheap tactics in order to feign difficulty. Animations could have been better, and the lip-sync was off quite a bit, but those come across as minor issues in an otherwise perfect game, which is a teastament to just how good the good parts of ME3 are.

And then there's the ending. It comes out of nowhere, we're expected to make a difficult decision without the chance to learn more about who and what we're dealing with, and the ending cinematic provides absolutely no closure on both a personal and galactic scale, while introducing new plot holes that leaves the player completely unsatisfied. You made a fantastic game, Bioware, I would hate for that poorly executed cinematic to be final. I'm not hoping for a re-write, but if you're not already planning on clearing up the ending, you might want to consider it. A series like MAss Effect, sold to us with the promise of our choices mattering, demands a beefy epilogue the likes of Dragon Age: Origins.

Modifié par IrishSpectre257, 12 mars 2012 - 04:53 .

[RyuGuitarFreak]

A few bugs and issues, between an astonishing game. Until the last 5 minutes. I don't what happened there, the fact is that your writers had a slide over there. Still, a remarkable experience.

[Menagra]

Thank you for asking! There's been a lot of forums about the upsets due to the ending, but this gives us a chance to really reflect and think.

I enjoy creating formulas so I developed a formula for my review to see what scores it would get:wizard:. I thought of all the things that stood out to me and gave them a score from -20 to +20. I judged each thing as an individual factor as if in a bubble of how I truly felt about it so not to let my biases of one affect the other. Then I added these together.

These individual factors added together=effectic score

effective score + 700 / 10= the score I give the game out of 100.
(700 because 70 is the curent score for average)

My score before the factors from the end were taken into account was 94.5
My score after the factor sfrom the end were taken into account was 12.5

This sort of strategy relies on how memorable elements of the game
where, as well as rating each of these elements individually. This means
a great game could potentially get a score well above 100 and a
horrible one well below 0 since if the gamer remembers hundreds of
either or it will flood the effective.

So the game rests at a 12.5 because this formula relies on what is memorable and the ending was very much memorable. I actually think it's a fun game, and has some spectacular moments that made me very pleased. But...the ending really was one of the largest dissapointments I have experienced in gaming.

If you really want to see how I came up with this score here is my math:
-10  for the intro --low quality of rendering and animation
+5  for character modeling...some looked just too different but others were stunning.
+20 for the use of abstract imagery. Whether it be paintings on walls or the atmospheric pause screen--wonderful
+10 for color and color theory application. You guys might be obsessed with complimentary colors.
-5  for high contrast visuals. My Shepard is African American and you could hardly see her face half the time
-5 for face animations
-5 for lack of atmospheric elements and textures--the use of abstract imagery in places such as the geth interface is beautiful but the lack of atmosphere and textures cheapens it.
+10 for environment modeling and layout
-20 for fewer places to explore.
-10 for no vehicles
-20 for ME1 character tie ins --they are just clumsy and lame.
-20 for not including memorable characters like Matriarch Aethyta or Kal Reegar to see or talk to.
-20 for treatment of batarians in story. It was just awful the lack of elaboration on this species that was featured in so many missions and gameplay discussions.
+20 for ambient dialogue--despite some animation issues this was truly inspiring, I especially loved how the squad members moved about the Normandy. Great job!
-20  for lack of dialogue trees (and lack of investigation). This was the game I truly was expecting to be able to investigate all corners of the galaxy, and "investigate" my curiosities. Instead my Shep just did all the talking. I literally freaked out about 20 hours in thinking I accidentally set my game as action mode only to find it was the rpg mode.
-20 for the uninspired treatment of non-council races. The volus, hanar, elcor, drell, batarians, vorcha, yaag and such are either mentioned in a short side quest or just mentioned in written text. So awful--it would seem this war would be time to create alliances with some of the ignored species, and elaborate more on some of the mysterious ones. The embassy's should have had a member of each race present(or that you set it up to invite some of the fringe species), and being able to bring each race up to council status through a side quest would have been awesome.
+5 for making scanning easier to do, but a mini game other than running away would have been optimal.
+20 for having NPC join the normandy for a while, this was a joy to experience (especially wrex).
-20 for lying and saying that you could get an optimal ending w/o multiplayer but this only being true on the second play through.
+20 for mini-stories that could be discovered through ncp dialogue on the citadel
-10 for requiring to reload into the area or do something to continue the story
+20 for the blastos installation
+20 for how the hospital is treated in the game--it's very believable and nice to see it's change after act 1.
-10 for requiring we go to the dock to board the normandy---so aggravating.
-10 for minimal descriptions about quests--I was so confused on some of the side quests and the description doesn't change so I didn't understand there was an update.
+10 for level ups being more RPG (would have preferend ME1s system though).
+20 for gun upgrade and selection system. It is awesome.
-20 for lack of equipment and gun upgrades. Recollecting gear from ME2 is just lame, and you squander what could have been done with this gun upgrade system.
-10 for not allowing us to see the stats of things we are purchasing or compare them to our other items.
-10 for not allowing us to sell items we don't like or don't want. I loved the equipment in ME1--I thought it just needed the "junk" and "sell all junk" option from Dragon Age, not taking it away completely for ME2 and then only adding it's bare skeleton to ME3.
+20 for Mordin's death scene --- it was awesome
+20 for Thane's involvement (he is such a cute old man loving it when you visit him).
+20 for Miranda's and here sister's story
+20 for Grunts "just kidding I'm not dead scene"
+20 for there being a romance where the other person isn't interested despite your actions (Jacob)
-20 for making that romance one of the femshep romances.
-20 for not giving femshep any new romances for a hetero relationship--and this was supposed to be the game that femshep was finally maleshep's equal....jk
+20 for Legion's involvement in the story--he is so awesome
+20 for the Samara and the monastery mission.
-20 for Kasumi's lame search and find mission
-20 for lack of closure for Zaeed's influence on the mercenary groups, it would seem an ultimate renegade shepard would want Zaeed to have the 3 mercenary groups under his clutches rather than aria because aria is an alien...
+20 for tali and the quarian homeworld mission
+20 for jack being a teacher
+20 for how obvious it is jack loves her students
-5 for Kelly Chamber's disappearance if you saved her
+20 for Cortez as a homosexual character -- his story with his husband is so touching and awesome
+20 for specialist traynor who is also an awesome homosexual character (definitally not cliche).
+10,000 for making Garrus a romance option
-10,000 for not letting me marry Garrus
+20 for making fun of Shepard's lack of dance skills
+20 for Garrus's romance scene on the citadel...it was awesome
-10 for not having him say "I love you too"---lame!
+20 for Eve--she is one of the best character's ever
+20 for the mother of all thresher maw's
+10 for krogan ruins and discussion of krogan culture
+20 for application of Wrex in game, as he is the only ME1 squadmate that you never get to have on your team again, but I didn't mind that.
+20 for ability to make peace between geth and quarians
+5 for tali being an admiral if you didn't get her exiled
+20 for Liara's influence as shadow broker's use in the game
+10 for including a prothean
+10 for Liara realizing how awful prothean culture wa
-10 for making the prothean the bonus DLC
+5 for allowing us to re-recruit old crew members
-10 for not explaining why we can't re-recruit all old crew members (nor letting us get the 2 engineers together).
+20 for some awesome enemies to fight
+20 for ability to roll
-20 for how hard it is to go into cover with the new roll function
-20 for lack of vehicles and environments to explore them with
-20 for how you handled revealing tali's face (an interupt option would have been better I think).
-20 for using a stock photo when revealing how she looks
+20 for the combined abilities attackes (I like the big booms)
+20 for Udina's end
+20 for admiral hacket being awesome
+20 for multiplayer's existence (not it's necessity).
+20 for game modes
-20 for making the RPG mode still an action RPG mode
+20 for allowing us to talk to all our important characters before the final battle.
+20 for the N7 missions
-5 for no space hamster
+5 for the eel fish
+5 for more conversations in shepards quarters
+10 for drunk Tali
+10 for angry mourning liara
-20 for not confirming who Liara's father is (at least not for those who didn't romance her)
-20 for never including stories about the thorian after ME1

(total score is 245)


and now for all the points due to the ending:
-20 for the aweful ending
-20 for how the aweful ending is a spit in ME2's face
-20 for how the awful ending is obviously not what you intended in ME1 (except maybe a shepard sacrifice thing).
-20 for the catalyst god-child
-20 for not allowing us to ask it questions
-20 for the 3 different options outcomes being hardly different.
-20 for making the only things about he explosion change is the color
-20 for no face off with harbinger
-20 for never explaining how all this got started
-20 for never explaining what the keepers were or acknowledging that they are still acting like things are fine when you are headed up to face TIM
-20 for making us destroy the mass relays and therefore destroy the ME universe we have grown to love.
-20 for showing the geth fighting the humans in the ending cutscene even if you recruited them to your own side
-20 for the scene where all fleets jump into battle being short and not showing every race involved
-20 for featuring master chief in the cutscene
-20 for not explaining what the heck is happening with the normandy at all (or how your squadmates who were with you during the final run for the citadel ended up on it).
+20 for conversation with TIM
+20 for how TIM reflects directly how you can handle saren
+20 for conversation with Anderson
+20 for anderson's death
+20 for credit music
-20X18 for not elaborating on Jack, grunt, zaeed, tali, garrus, liara, miranda, edi, samara, kasumi, Normandy crew
James Vega, wrex, eve, jacob, the council, cortez, specialist traynor
-20X13 for not elaborating the fate of each known race except yaag.

which brings the score down to -575

700 + 245 = 945/10 =  94.5 (before end)

700 + -575 = 125/10 = 12.5 (after end)

[Friendly Hobo]

I feel betrayed by Bioware. They built up this whole series to destroy it with an ending full of plot holes where nothing I've ever done matters? Not to mention the paradoxical logic of the stupid space kid? And magic? Really?

[Duurm]

 The game itself was
really good and I liked most of the stuff.... I would give this game a solid
9out of 10... the only big problems (other than endings ofc) where: the N7
missions, the uselessness of your squad members, random filler dialogue, CIC
BLUE WALL!!!!, really limited enemy types, and finally the fact that there were
no bosses in the entire game!



The N7 missions had me running around some arena
and where really odd as bad guys would randomly jetpack out of nowhere. Most of
the time I just had to look for the random survivor hiding on the other side of
the small map. It was like COD zombie mode but nothing to while the straggler
tries to find you (it’s a sad day when you can compare a BioWare game to a COD
game when talking about lack of content).



After about 2 hours into the game I noticed that
my squad did absolutely nothing and would enjoy running at Cerberus troops to
get shotgunned to the face. The only competent squad member that did not
instantly die every fight was Garrus (still did no dmg like everyone else).



The story felt like much of the dialogue was
rushed and felt unfinished. Dont get me wrong, the voice acting was mostly
great, but often when i would try talking to a companion they would simply say
something like "umm... Reapers are bad huh?". Its cool to talk to
your crew after every mission but every person has like 3 real dialogues you
can have with them.



Don’t think I need to explain why security taking
20 min to check the one guy that is supposed to save the world in the middle of
his own ship (that would be hard to infiltrate because, you know, you’re in
space) is a bad thing :S 



3 Types of Cerberus troops and like 5(ish) types
of reapers is not a very diverse army of bad guys. You also get the 4 geth but that only lasts a couple of missions. What happened to the mercs? Those guys where fun. Also there is one miniboss
and that is the ATLAS. The reaper minibosses don’t really count because it
takes 1-3 shots to kill them... Not very difficult. I liked the idea of killing
the two Reapers but really you’re not having a boss fight. You’re not using
your squad in interesting ways and being challenged to combo your skills to the
best of your ability. Both of the reaper fights are passed by awkwardly rolling
to the side.




(Also, the exploring was fun but the Reapers
chasing you felt forced; much like the multiplayer. These things are just my
preference though and I have seen people with insanely high levels online so I
suppose some really do like it. Another thing that bugs me was the
Paragon/Renegade thing felt the same as in the previous game. While this is not
bad, I really failed to see where my "reputation" actually comes in
and does something. Lastly, I purchased whatever I liked and was still swimming
in credits. I wish they could be invented into the war effort or SOMETHING! I
really only need ONE armor and 3-4 weapons MAX.)




Don’t get me wrong, the game was great except for
these . Not even a big deal considering all the positives. A very good game if
not for the last 10 min.





The ending was just.... Man was that terrible.
When they said they could do things on a larger scale I though they meant that
your choices could have huge and wild impacts as they did not need to worry
about a ME4. Learning that my previous choices did not have the slightest
effect on the ending (except for the collector base but it was made in THE
PREVIOUS GAME) was the seccond worst part of the game. The worst
was when I realized that the only choice I have revolves around my favourite colour.
I did not care that Shep dies; all I wanted was to actually affect what happens
to others. Most of the characters just completely disappeared. In my ending,
two random people used Star-Trek tech to transfer to the Normandy that was
fleeing a battle for no reason. All the people just vanished..... And you know
that Harbinger dude that was supposed to like, rule the Reapers or something?
Not even sure if that was him that went PEW PEW for like five seconds at the
end of the game. Everything we knew about the reapers was thrown out and
replaced with 'LOL IM A LITTLE GHOST BOY!:wizard:". Why does he look like a human anyway? Did
I miss something? Also, if no other organic has been on that part of the
citadel, how did they know how the Crucible would work? "I assume if we
stick a huge building thing together with a large rod-like structure it would
destroy the super-advanced alien robots!" This ending makes no sense even
using Batman Adam West logic. It seems like more though was put into Schooby-Do
endings than into this one. A very disappointing end to an otherwise amazing trilogy.
I played the game once and maybe once more IF I have extra time. This makes me
sad as I have 6 Sheps spread on all the consoles.

[Ari1970]

My Mass Effect 3 score: 65

Why? Multiplayer is fine, single player game play fits with ME2 but some enemy pathing glitches (I played on the PC), but if I wanted a war game, I would play something else. Story is usually where I go to my wallet for Bioware, but this game was a kick in the quad. There are some inconsistencies and dangling plots (dark energy aging a sun in ME2) and the endings (I have played twice) have some horrible logic problems. The writers also seem to have a suicide fetish. There are at least 6 suicide instances in the story...some for a better world, some just stupid.

Recommendation: A guarded buy. If the endings are going to bother you, pass it up.

[TheOptimist]

Let me first say that for 95% of this game, I was enthralled.  There were parts that might have used some tweaking, and some annoying bugs, but in general, I was having a blast.  The build up to this game, all the trailers, Femshep getting her own CGI, all of that was amazing, and the game had absolutely lived up to the hype and blown me away through that 95%.  I am going to say right here that I thank everyone at Bioware and involved with this project for that 95% of this game, because it was excellent.

I first began getting a sinking feeling when I discovered that it was not, in fact, possible to get the bar all the way up without playing multiplayer.  Perhaps you must play a second time to do so, which if so is still a ridiculous requirement that was never an issue in the first two games and shouldn't have been in the the third.  New Game+ should be to allow you to replay the game, not to finish it.  Nevertheless, I went ahead and got my readiness level up to the point where I had 6000 some odd points, then went in to finish the game.  As a note for this next part, I play almost exclusively Paragon.

Right up until that final run down the hill in the final mission, everything was great.  "There is no Shepard without Vakarian" is one of my favorite lines of all time, being able to talk to all of my living squadmates, past and present, was an awesome touch, love the fact that Major Coates, AKA the Big Ben Sniper AKA Nigel Fishnchips shows up and is a badass...and then it all fell apart. I'm going to break this down into my impressions as I played it: 

My two squadmates disappeared, for reasons unknown they were not right behind me.  Harbinger nails me, and I assumed I'd see the game over screen, and then Shepard gets up. Once again, WHERE IS MY SQUAD?!  I continue through the end sequence, the entire time wondering what became of all those people who should be right here with me.  The 'choices' offered at the end made no sense and were entirely insulting.  I had proved several times in the course of the game that organic/synthetic coexistence was completely possible and, in fact, a reality.  This was ignored and my three empty options given.  I was treated to a scene of the galaxy as we knew it ending, all life cut off from all other life, which leaves what the hell is about to happen on Earth with all the species and fleets there an interesting question (they could all be dead of course, but that's just as bad if not worse), and then somehow, there's the Normandy running from the shockwave, despite the fact that it had no reason to leave the battle above Earth.  There are a few of my companions coming down the ramp, even though there's no way a shuttle got in to pick them up and besides which they all should have been coming to help me on the Citadel, having no idea if I had even made it or not.  And...  nothing.  Roll credits and some conversation between two people about 'The Shepard'.

What I have just described is the worst travesty of an ending it has ever been my displeasure to experience.  It gives no closure to any of the storylines in the game, it leaves you feeling hollow and with no hope of being able to effect or change anything.  In a series with a story built on choices, character interaction and the consequences that derive from those interactions, this ending was devoid of all three.  Ignoring the lack of any kind of epilogue, there is an absolute abyss where an ending that lets Shepard live to old age with his/her companions should be.  As somebody with an optimistic viewpoint that had seen that choice implied throughout the first two games, not to mention the generally upbeat endings possible in those first two games, I find this void a soul sucking tragedy. 

I played through Mass Effect 1 several times, and I loved both the fight on the Citadel and the scene at the end, with Shepard rising from the ashes.  I must have played through Mass Effect 2 more than a dozen times, many with the same character, because it was just that awesome.  IMO, the ending mission of Mass Effect 2 was perfect, and the ending that resulted when you accomplished the Suicide Mission with everyone coming through was flawless. With Mass Effect 3... I cannot imagine playing through a game that offers so much, only to be punched in the face at the end a second time let alone more than that.

The First 98% of Mass Effect 3:  10/10, a masterpiece.

The last part of the final mission and the ending: Absolute crap that has disintegrated most of my joy in both this game and the two that came before it.  I cannot imagine a better way to destroy a franchise.

I have seen many people here advocating for a change to the end of the game.  I hope this happens, but I'm not sure at this point you can fix it.  I had preordered Dragon Age 2, Star Wars: TOR, and this game.  I will not be preordering a Bioware game again, nor am I likely to purchase one.  Sorry folks, you screwed this up badly.

Modifié par TheOptimist, 12 mars 2012 - 06:12 .

[tackle70]

and now for all the points due to the ending:
-20 for the aweful ending
-20 for how the aweful ending is a spit in ME2's face
-20 for how the awful ending is obviously not what you intended in ME1 (except maybe a shepard sacrifice thing).
-20 for the catalyst god-child
-20 for not allowing us to ask it questions
-20 for the 3 different options outcomes being hardly different.
-20 for making the only things about he explosion change is the color
-20 for no face off with harbinger
-20 for never explaining how all this got started
-20 for never explaining what the keepers were or acknowledging that they are still acting like things are fine when you are headed up to face TIM
-20 for making us destroy the mass relays and therefore destroy the ME universe we have grown to love.
-20 for showing the geth fighting the humans in the ending cutscene even if you recruited them to your own side
-20 for the scene where all fleets jump into battle being short and not showing every race involved
-20 for featuring master chief in the cutscene
-20 for not explaining what the heck is happening with the normandy at all (or how your squadmates who were with you during the final run for the citadel ended up on it).
+20 for conversation with TIM
+20 for how TIM reflects directly how you can handle saren
+20 for conversation with Anderson
+20 for anderson's death
+20 for credit music
-20X18 for not elaborating on Jack, grunt, zaeed, tali, garrus, liara, miranda, edi, samara, kasumi, Normandy crew
James Vega, wrex, eve, jacob, the council, cortez, specialist traynor
-20X13 for not elaborating the fate of each known race except yaag.

which brings the score down to -575

700 + 245 = 945/10 =  94.5 (before end)

700 + -575 = 125/10 = 12.5 (after end)

Basically this. That was the worst and least satisfying ending since Halo 2. I enjoyed the game for the most part until the end, and then my reaction changed to "wtf? oh... lame"

The ending is basically a lesson in "how to squander a magnificent trilogy in 5 minutes or less". Left me with a sick taste in my mouth that I enjoyed the first two games so much only to have it lead to this unsatisfying garbage. There's so many problems with it that I don't feel like listing them all, but the above list is a decent starting point.

As for the game overall, it was OK. Pacing was a bit off and the quality was not as consistently good as ME2 was. The characters, which IMO are the strength of this trilogy, seemed to unnecessarily take a back seat to the bigger story. This would have been fine if the overall story had some emotional payoff at the end, but it really didn't. At least, certainly not compared to the previous two games. The mid game had some unbelievable high points, though.

Overall, I'd probably give the game a 7/10 I think that ME1 and ME2 are about 9.5's, and this one would have probably been a 9 with a decent ending. The end killed it, though. You'd think that with a 5k military strength ending you'd get one that was satisfying, but nope - not really anymore satisfying than the 2k ending. Basically no matter what you do you get a crap ending to your 3 game long story that you've spend hundreds of hours playing. Disappointing.

So - overall, 7/10 (-2 points for crap ending, -1 for bugs and inconsistent pacing)
Compared to ME1 and ME2 - 4/10 (-2 for crap ending, -1 for end of series being worse than the other games' endings, -1 for not focusing as much on character development as ME2, -1 for bugs like not being able to import your face properly, -1 for forcing you to play MP to get the 5k military strength ending)

I plan to replay it at least one more time, but wow I'm disappointed. Can't see how I'm gonna be motivated to play through this more than about twice. (I replayed ME1 and ME2 6 times)

:edit: I think I can sum up ME3's problems like this --> What makes Mass Effect great is its characters and the control you have over the world/story. At the very climax and end of the series, the characters basically don't matter and no matter what you choose to do with the story you get an anticlimactic crap ending that comes out of nowhere - and not in a good way.

Modifié par tackle70, 12 mars 2012 - 06:03 .

[rahf226]

 Mass Effect 3 was a great game and I will likely have several replays. The endings however were horrible. It is like the writers just gave up at the end. All of my hard work through the first two games was meaningless. We ended up with three choices that all ended the same way.

I have been a bioware fan since Baldurs Gate and have enjoyed their products greatly. But, Dragon Age II's many unppatched problems and the horrendus endings og ME3 have made me decide to never purchase another bioware game again. If this is the quality we can look forward to then I will no longer support this company.

Bioware should be ashamed and immediately begin working on new ending DLC. A DLC that should be offer ed for free. If its not free it will just show that bioware is only after our money and doesn't care about quality any longer.

Don't get me wrong I love a good heroic sacrifice ending and that is not what bothered me in ME3. What bothered me was the fact that the game makes you think that with the right choices you will get a happy ending. Or at least a somewhat decent ending. But when we get there the rug get yanked out and you find that none of it mattered.

[Khevan77]

Just finished my first playthrough of Mass Effect 3.

I would rate it around 85%.

The writing, setting, atmosphere, everything about the game itself was amazing. The level of customization of your gear was insane, in a good way, the power evolutions, everything was top notch, grade A wonderful. This is, in my opinion, the best of the three Mass Effect titles in this regard. When I can be brought to outright tears on three or four seperate occasions, and to the brink of tears many other times, and in the same gaming session be laughing out loud from a perfectly timed quip... The writing was masterful, in my opinion.

The parts that I didn't like quite as much (which dropped the score from a 100 to 95...) were the dearth of conversation options compared to the first two games. There was alot of character interaction, both between Shepard and crew and (wonderfully!) between the crewmembers themselves, but too much of it was given without my input. I'm not talking about the lines that should be autodialogue, like where no matter what, the situation only really calls for one comment, and the choices would only be minor variations on "Let's go," or "Move out," or whatever. Too much of the conversations themselves had Shepard speaking without my input. This isn't as much of a big deal for me compared to other posters I've seen on the BSN, since what was there was good, and I can certainly live with it. But for future reference, at least get closer to ME2 with the dialogue choices than what we had in ME3.

Finally, the endings were a bit of a disappointment to me. This brought the final score down from 95 to 85.   I'm not raging about them like some forumites, but I have a few issues with them. All of this is very subjective, and I can only offer my own opinion, so bear with me.

We've had endings like this in games before, most notably the original Deus Ex. And those endings worked in Deus Ex for one important reason: The game told you about the choice for nearly the entire last level of the game. You had time to prepare for them, to figure out which choice was best for you. It was overt, but in a way that made sense for the story that game was trying to tell. It was also foreshadowed well enough that the choices presented at the endgame wasn't a shock. In Mass Effect 3, we literally go the entire game focused on building the Crucible, gaining the support and resources necessary to build it, and then deliver it to the Citadel to deploy it against the Reapers...and suddenly, the rug was pulled out and this choice was offered that literally came out of the blue. There was no foreshadowing that I saw, there was no lead up to the choice, there was just a sudden "What that...what is this I don't even..." moment where the entire narrative changed direction. I honestly don't have a problem with the endings in Mass Effect 3, even though they aren't what I would prefer. I was honestly expecting something along these lines, where the reapers were destroyed, but in doing so destroyed all reaper technology. The mass relays were built by the reapers, and I just figured that something that destroyed all the reapers would also destroy all reaper tech. I had hoped it would play out in a way where Shepard and LI (and the rest of the crew) could all be together, and it would end on a more hopeful note. But the way the ending choices were presented wasn't well done at all, in my opinion. There should at least been something during the construction of the Crucible where there was doubt about the true purpose of the device, something that hinted at the choices at the end. It could have been subtle, if the writers wanted to hide the choice for the surprise twist factor, but it should have been there in some form.

Last thing I want to mention is this. I've heard other forumites complain that the choices we've made during the previous games doesn't affect the ending, and I agree, but I disagree that it's worthy of complaint. I think that the choices we've made during ME1&2, not to mention 3, affected the story itself. The end destination was always what it was going to be, but we each took a different path to get there. Again, this is my opinion, and I'm not disparaging anyone with a different opinion.

All in all, I am very happy with this game, and it was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy all the way up until the last 10 minutes of the game, and even that could have been rectified with some foreshadowing, and a different way of leading up to the choice itself.

Thank you, Bioware, for giving us this epic game, and concluding such an epic trilogy. It's not perfect, but it's very damned good, and I can even live with the endings. I am happy I bought this, and I look forward to what's in store for the Mass Effect universe.

Modifié par Khevan77, 12 mars 2012 - 06:44 .

[mizark3k]

I'll start off by saying I absolutely loathed ME2, so I wasn't very optimistic about ME3. The first game was my favorite game of all time, then I picked up ME2 and it was something totally different, but I had to get ME3 to finish out the story. I'm glad I didn't give up on the series as ME3 is great. 

There is just the right amount of RPG stuff put back in the game to make me happy. The customization is just right and the combat has an overall better feel to it. Also, I like the return to the more synth/techno soundtrack as apposed to the orchestrated sound of ME2. Plus, all of my favorite characters didn't take a backseat to the lame ME2 characters again (sorry, but Samara IS NOT an acceptable replacement for Liara). If you like the ME2 chararcters that is fine but I prefer the original cast.

Graphically, I think it is an improvement. I'm playing on PS3 and I haven't had any of the glitches and bugs everyone else is reporting, guess I'm just lucky.

What I didn't like was the ending I got. I felt like I was watching I am Legend again (not gonna spoil that for anyone who hasn't seen it but I'm referring to how much of a downer the scene with Will Smith and his dog was). Really depressing. Didn't read the spoiler stuff that is all over the net before-hand but now I can really see what everyone is so upset about. It didn't ruin the game for me though.

The other thing that could be improved are explanations for certain game mechanics. If you aren't going to include instruction manuals anymore then better in-game explanations should be provided. All the Galactic Readiness/War Assetts stuff as well as the new Reputation system made no sense until I looked on the forums for answers.

All in all, great game though.

[Wowlock]

I agree with most of you saying the Game itself is great and I would say one of the best I played....and then there is the ending that destroy ALL of the meaningful moments and enjoyment and emotion I feel for the Franchise.

It is not Shepard sacrificing himself... It is Mass Effect series commiting a suicide. Believe me, if this was any other game, I would say '' Bah, screw those idiots for making such a crappy ending ''
But when it is about a Trilogy where I invested countless hours,emotion and spend money on 3 games, DLCs etc.... I think we deserved better than this. I literally felt a punch in the guy...stomach...a dagger in my back...a middle finger in my face. I never felt more betrayed in my life because of such an ending. Those last minutes were NOT Mass Effect....it was a different game. I was a Deus Ex rippoff and NOT A GOOD ONE at that.

It rendered all my experience from the trilogy meaningless. I feel like the time I spend on Mass Effect series were a waste of time and writers seemed like with this ending, they are actually aiming for that ? A Franchise suicide ? So Congratz...you did it....

I am sorry but this won't go away if you just stay away and won't look at the backlash. Until we get the endings we deserve , my already shaken trust for you guys actually shattered with this last straw... I won't be pre-ordering ANY product you guys will release after this stunt until you fix this mess. This is not a threat.... this is just a sad statement from a Sad, heart-broken fan who trusted you for years only to get screwed in the end.....

I hope the cash you earned can wash away the guilt.

[Bruinen79]

Ok, I’ll post here. I haven’t read anything from any other fan posts, and I don’t know if this will be read by anyone “important” or not, but I’d like to have the chance to vocalize my opinions. This will be a whole review though, not just a quick post about my feelings regarding the ending. Also, I posted this same review elsewhere, but it was suggested I post here. I would like to reiterate though, that I have NOT read anyone else's posts on this topic.

In terms of gameplay, I really enjoy ME3. It’s improved on a lot of the combat aspects that were originally improved upon by ME2. I like the weapon customization options overall, although I think there should be more explanation of what things do (armor piercing mod confused me for a long time). Some of the same problems from ME2 still exist though; mobs (or worse, Shepard) getting stuck or lost in the environment is a real pain. Luckily this time they don’t seem to be so bad (in ME2, I would always get stuck on one rock on the Blood Pack planet where the towers have to be activated to make a path…God was that horrible). One definite change that should be done is more coherent quest guidance. When I find a resource on a planet that someone has asked for (or will ask for), I need to know what it’s for. Mass Effect 2’s quest system was great, and I wish ME3 followed that example. Overall gameplay though, it’s great.

In terms of story, I can say that for the most part ME3 is amazing. So many little aspects of the first 2 games have been incorporated that it really draws me in and makes me want to play over and over again (I may be a bit of a freak, because I have 8 Shepards, all with different choices, and all from ME1 and ME2). The same things that kept me playing and making new Shepards in the first two games make me want to play ME3; decisions and consequences. No other series or game that I’ve played has drawn me in to being a character like this one has.

Unfortunately, I feel the game fails in the last 10 minutes in the story department. Although spoilers are allowed here, I won’t go into great detail. I will just say that, there is no “good feeling” for me at the end of the game. I’ve only played through once on one of my characters, and I will probably play through most, if not all of them. However, I won’t play a game that doesn’t make me happy I played it. In the first two games, I felt excited and ready to play again. I bought all the DLC’s and even sometimes wanted more of them. I bought the collector’s edition of both ME2 and ME3. I will not be purchasing anything more for ME3, however; no DLC’s and no merchandise (which I have done for the other games). The game has taken my enjoyment of it and stabbed it in the heart. Imagine the last Harry Potter book where every main character dies (or is otherwise lost/incapacitated), or imagine the Twilight series ending with the deaths of everyone or the dissolution of their relationships, and you may come close to imaging how I feel about the end of ME3. Perhaps this story was building up to this ending, but it is the beating of the odds, the “fighting against inevitability” that we play for. A human survives an intergalactic hunt for a rogue agent who’s trying to bring back the destroyers of civilization? Yep, I’ll play that. A human is brought back from death to defeat mass murders intent on wiping out the human race? Yep, I’ll play that too. The same human who did these previously mentioned things gets to die, (maybe) saving everyone they care about, no matter what I do? Eh, I’d rather not play that, actually.

(I apologize that I must compare the ME3 storyline to such recent works as Harry Potter or Twilight, but I feel that many people would probably have read these stories and can more easily understand my point. For us scifi nerds, there’s also the Ender’s Game series to put into those same contexts.)

Overall I will miss this series, but unless there are some major fixes done to “fix” the ending of the game (yes, to make it a simple “we saved everyone!”), I’m afraid I’m done with this series. I know that from now on, I’m also going to wait a while before buying a BioWare game. Dragon Age 3 will no longer be a preorder from me.

Also a quick note, I do have some lingering questions about some of the ending’s details, but they’re not as important as the story death I experienced.

[tateel99]

I should have used a different wording than "greed" due to it's completely negative tone. The multiplayer
capability is a cost adder so it generates more revenue. I actually assumed that Bioware used the increased 
effective readiness trick so that multiplayer participants would feel rewarded.

Bioware intentions aside my personal opinion was that the 50% clamp on single-player was effectively a
penalty for anyone not participating in multiplayer. I found that bothersome enough to affect my rating of the game.

[Big McLargeHuge]

I liked the Multiplayer. Why because it was a multiplayer that actually felt like it was part of the singleplayer. The only other game that did that for me was Space Marine, and even then it didn't quite captivate me as Mass Effect's did. Heck no franchise has captured me the way ME did. I have several Shepards saved from ME2, and I plan to playthrough ME3 with each.

But I refuse to finish any of them. The endings are simply too terrible. Once left a bad taste that lingered for days, and I doubt a second helping will be much different. I sincerely hope to have some alternate decision somewhere down the line, otherwise this might be the last Bioware game I'll ever play.

[captainchimp]

As an addendum. I do not mind the ending I got so much at the end of the game. It feels oddly appropriate now that I think of it. The multiplayer is actually quite fun, and I think it is not that bad. The only part I do not like is how weapons and other characters are unlocked.

[Hiredguns23]

*Contains Spoilers!*
My Mass Effect 3 score: 60
http://gamingshogun....c/#comment-4560
Pretty much sums up how I felt about the game. Also the Galactic Readiness involves multi-player to increase? I did all the side missions as well the main missions and couldn't figure out why it didn't increase no matter what I did. I had to come to the forums to figure out that part. One last thing. The last big fight was an obscure character that had little to do with whats going in the game. He was just a gun for hire that was disappointed that Shepard turned against Cerberus. He didn't even show up till the whole Udina tried to take over the Citadel.

[Torga_DW]

Okay, so i just finished the game, and thought i'd briefly outline my experience. I've been following bioware since baldur's gate 1, and up til now considered them on my 'must buy' list.

So i find out while playing my favourite mmorpg (not the old republic) that mass effect 3 is due out on the 6th of march. Its a work day, so i use my lunch break to go to my local EB and pick up a copy. Hey australia, this is bioware, and we'd just like to say a big FU to our customers there. We're not releasing it until march 8th in australia.

So i'm a little annoyed, but also busy with work, and i wait the extra couple days and buy it. I install it on my computer, only its not standalone anymore, it requires origin to install (which i assume is a cheap knockoff of steam?). Okay, i can live with that, still not too put off.

After dragon age 2, i was expecting it to not just read a save file but actually require the previous game to be installed on my computer. So a couple days earlier i reinstalled me2, and then copied my save file back into the save directory. Pointless, but still not too put off.

Overall i found the game epic and awesome (until the ending, but i'll get to that later). More options in combat, like rolling and climbing ladders. No stamina limit on running. But space bar does everything. I had a few frustrating moments in the london fight where i'd keep trying to run to a new position, pass to close to a nearby phonebox and instead end up hugging it (while everyone just shot me standing in the open). Very annoying when it happened. I was happy to see grenades back, but despite being a soldier, i saw very little reason to use the different weapons, let alone change my standard weapon (assault rifle) for anything until the geth assault rifle became available. For the most part, incendary ammo did the trick everywhere, and the different types of weapon were largely pointless.

The arc with cerberus was okay, it was fun to have another enemy in the game, but the end with TIM just reminded me of saren 2.0 (as others have said). Only to discover that paragon and renegade now share the same bar, so i didn't have enough points to influence him when it mattered. Which kinda bugged me, as it meant replaying the game i would have to go one way or the other completely, to make sure i had maxed points.

I straight away realized that some missions would have to be completed before others, or else lose the chance to do them.

The journal was really obnoxious. Telling you to go to a planet but not where in the galaxy that damn planet was located was really annoying. I could pretty much guestimate where in a system the ideal scan points were, so i didn't have to revisit much after attracting reapers. But the whole scan subquest system just struck me as pointless filler.

But up to this point i didn't care about any of the flaws, i was immersed. I was enjoying myself. When i finally tracked down the cerberus base, i didn't care that it would initiate the end. I wanted to take those guys out, and i did. Although i'm still not sure how i defeated the kai leng or whoever guy, i was busy taking out his minions and suddenly he seemed to be dead. I can only assume my team mates killed him, but given how useless they largely seemed the entire game i find that hard to imagine. All i know was i couldn't get through his shields at all, so i took out his support team, and suddenly he was dead. Oh well.

The assault on london was okay, but short. Then i make it up the beam (and quicksave) and come to the ending. I didn't get them at all (despite reloading and trying all three). Nothing i had done during the game had any effect on the outcomes, and none of them made any sense. I remember when i announced in my mmorpg that i was about to play me3, some random guy kept saying there was no point, the kid was the ultimate reaper. I just thought he was being a jerk and trying to be funny, but no he was right. The kid was the ultimate reaper, and you could only choose what colour explosions you wanted in your endgame sequence.

The whole ending seemed rushed and tacked on, like bioware had run out of budget and/or time at that point. I could point out the plot holes and questions raised, but others have done that admirably. First dragon age 2, now me3, (and don't get me started on TOR). The short version is that bioware is no longer on my list of 'must buy' games. I'm not raging, i'm not hating, but their work of late seems very shoddy to me. If they release some DLC alternative endings, i'll get them for sure. But otherwise, the honeymoon is over. ME3 has killed any replayability for the entire series, since it will always end the same way. And in such an unsatisfying manner too.

And back to my mmorpg (not the old republic) i go.

[Marta Rio II]

I finally got my game registered, so I can now shout about the game to anyone who will listen.

If I had to give ME3 a score, I'd give it an 80/100.  And I'd break down the score like this:
95/100 for the game, minus the ending
25/100 for the ending

Up until the ending, the game was utterly fantastic.  Things I particularly liked were:
- Seeing how one's choices from previous games played out.  Tuchanka, in particular, was outstanding.
- Excellent level design.  In ME2 I felt like I was fighting in a bunch of waist-high box factories.  In ME3 cover felt more organic, and the gameplay was a lot more dynamic (i.e. I didn't feel like I was sitting in cover, in one spot, the entire time).
- The romances (well, at least the one I played through) were top notch.  Really really squee-worthy, as the fangirls say.
- Beautiful scenery to look at.
- Side quests that actually seemed like they mattered to the main plot.
- Conrad Verner.  The Man, the Legend.

Basically, I felt like most of the game was a love-letter to the long time fans of the series.  It's clear the Mass Effect team put a lot of work in, to help give us a great experience. 

Then, came the ending. 

I'm actually truly baffled why the ending was implemented in the way it was, given that the entire game leading up to it included (a) things that were designed specifically to appeal to longtime fans and ( definite consequences that were the result of previous choices.  The ending tossed both of those things out the window. 

Others have complained about the endings elsewhere, so I won't beat a dead horse.  Suffice it to say, the available choices (i.e. which color explosion would you like?) killed my desire to replay ME3, or even ME1 or ME2.  Which somehow I doubt was the developers' intent. 

I think the thing that saddens me the most is that there will never be anything like the Mass Effect series.  (At least I don't think there will be).  To have it end in the way that it did, not with a bang, but with a whimper, is, well, just depressing to think about. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my rantings.  Hopefully the good people at Bioware are weathering the fan-rage storm.

[Pyromaniac_v.2]

My Mass Effect 3 Score:  75/100

Honestly, I find it extremely difficult to give Mass Effect 3 a solid score.  I'll say why in a moment.  First, let's start with what I liked about the game.

The Good:

1.  Graphics.  While generally I'm not terribly concerned with a game looking as good as humanly possible (I just recently played through Baldur's Gate and occasionally dust off my good ol' SNES), I still appreciate a fine lookin' game when I see it.  Mass Effect 3 looked beautiful, and some of the scenery cinematics were simply amazing.

2.  Emotion.  I truly had an emotional experience here.  This is the first game that honestly made me cry.  Sure, I've teared up a bit before, even in previous Mass Effect games.  But the death of Thane had me bawling.  It was glorious.  Throughout the game, you hear about people losing loved ones, you see firsthand how devastating this war is, and you see people that you know and care about make sacrifices for the greater good.  Those moments, while relatively few, were glorious.

3.  Writing/dialogue.  I loved almost all of the conversations I had in this game, especially with my companions.  I was able to expand on my romance with Tali, and it was great.  I loved chillin' with Garrus, being like a brother to Kaidan, and continuing to support Liara as a friend.  And even characters that I didn't know previously were surprisingly good, like the new soldier, Vega.

4.  Living World.  I know this may seem minor, but I loved the fact that the companions could be found in the citadel or in various parts of the ship, doing different things or having conversations with each other.  This made the universe feel so much more a live and vibrant.  That's something that this installment did very well as a whole, or so I felt.

5.  Epicness.  This one's a bit more...well...biased.  Everything I wanted to see in the sequel, I got.  And then some!  I had dreamed that I might be involved in the Krogan Genophage solution, the resolution of the war between the Quarians and the Geth, and being able to see the homeworlds of some of the various races.  I never actually thought I'd be able to do all of that, and in the same game no less!  It all came true, even better than I had imagined!  There were some amazing scenes in this game that just had me going "YEAH!  That's what i'm talking about, that's amazing!"  I couldn't pull myself away from the experience.

6.  Multiplayer.  This one came out of nowhere, at least for me.  I honestly hadn't expected to like the multiplayer very much at all.  I mean, really?  I play Mass Effect for the epic story and universe, not for some co-op shooter!  Or so I thought.  After giving it a try in the demo, I got hooked!  It reminded me, in part, of a game that I really like called Killing Floor, which involves surviving waves of enemies, followed by a boss wave.  There's a few issues with it, sure, but overall, I really like it.  Playing it with my brother pretty regularly.

7.  Gameplay:  I found the game to be very fun, if a bit difficult from time to time. (Was playing on the hardcore difficulty)  I played as a soldier, and found the experience satisfying.  I think I might have enjoyed one of the other classes more, and still want to play as an infiltrator or vanguard, but I think they're all pretty well balanced.  Combat was fun.

8.  Choice Continuation.  I liked seeing how your choices in Mass Effect 1 and 2 played out in 3.  When I met Jack as the Biotics instructor in Grissom Academy, I was genuinely shocked.  And I mean that in the best possible way.  She was one of my least favorite characters in the previous entry.  Seeing her return, with Shepard apparently influencing her for the better, was a great moment.  As were the many other moments in the game influenced by past decisions.  To my understanding, some of these moments may vary depending on how you treated the characters in the past.  I find that rather cool, myself.  At least to have as an option.


Now let's move on to some less pleasant areas, shall we?

The Bad:

1.  Bugs.  There's surprisingly few.  I had expected more.  I occasionally crash.  It seems to happen more often in multiplayer than anything else.  I crash every third or fourth game, not really sure why.  IN single player, I only had two or three CTDs.  THat was across a nearly 40 hour campaign, so that wasn't bad at all, at least in my mind.  Occasionally, when heading up to the cockpit to talk with Joker, I'd get stuck for no obvious reason and had to reload.  Also the sound was sometimes a bit quiet in dialogue, and I struggled to hear what people were saying.

2.  Tali's picture.  Okay, this one isn't really a big deal and I don't actually think it's "Bad" per say.  But I think it should be mentioned.  When I first saw it, I didn't really think it was particularly good or bad, just a bit strange.  It took me a while to collect my thoughts on it.  Initially, I felt it looked a bit too "Human" for my tastes, especially considering that most of the other alien races in the galaxy look VERY different from Humanity.  Still, not a huge deal.  I was just glad to finally see Tali's face, the face of a Quarian!  The only reason I even bring this up is because it turns out it was a photoshopped picture.  That kinda bugs me just a bit.  Otherwise, not really a problem.  I may come to think more positively of this with time, I dunno.

3.  The space bar.  As in, the the thing on your keyboard, not where you buy drinks and dance poorly and rather hilariously on the Citadel.  It does EVERYTHING.  And I really don't want it to sometimes.  It's very annoying when I'm trying to revive a team mate, and I take cover instead.  Or I want to take cover, but instead sprint straight towards an enemy sniper lining up a shot.  Would be nice if I could assign some of it's various functions to different keys.

4.  The Crucible's introduction.  This thing, this superweapon that can destroy the reapers, came out of nowhere.  Honestly, I sort of expected something like this, considering how difficult it was to take down one Reaper in Mass Effect and how many there are.  The plans for this thing are coincidentally discovered on Mars just as the Reapers attack, and surprise surprise, they happen to be plans for a new super weapon that can save the galaxy.  If this had been referenced or hinted at in any of the previous Mass Effect games, I would've been more accepting of it.  I guess it's kinda the reverse of the Dark Energy thing mentioned in Mass Effect 2, which forshadows something that doesn't ever happen.  As it is, I didn't have a huge problem with it, at least in that regard.  It was just a little annoying.

5.  Harbinger's absence.  In Mass Effect 2, he wouldn't shut up, and I loved his voice and how ominous he seemed.  In Mass Effect 3, he makes little more than a cameo appearance.  Well, a cameo where he descends to Earth and blows Shepard away with a laser.  Then he's gone.  He could've at least been polite enough to say "I know you feel this." 


Were these my only complaints, the game would EASILY have a 90 plus.  Heck, I'd say that this was not only the best Mass Effect of the trilogy, I'd say it's the best darned game of all time!  But then...something happened.


The Ugly.

The Ending.  It's what everyone's talking about right now, at least those who have played it to completion or seen the endings online.  It's the only reason why I have so much trouble giving the game a solid score.  Everything about this game was perfect in my eyes.  I loved every minute of it, and I believe I felt more drawn in, more immersed, more enraptured with this game than I have been with any before it.  And the ending was as opposed to that as you can possibly get.

So how does five minutes of a game's ending justify lowering the score so substantially?  Well...I remember telling one of my brothers how eager I was to beat the game. (I being one of those who had done his best not to have anything spoiled, so I didn't know what was coming)  I couldn't wait!  I was gonna start one mother of a marathon and play the entire series from beginning to end!  And now I just can't bring myself to do that.  The ending simply makes me feel hollow and empty.  I just get depressed thinking about playing through again, only to get to...well...that.  It not only made me not want to see the ending again, it made me not really want to play the games again.  Any of them.

I'm not used to this sort of thing.  I can't think of too many other games that were so close to being absolutely perfect, at least in my eyes, and then seemed to trip right at the finish line.  Until that point, it was everything I ever wanted it to be.  And I couldn't believe that it wouldn't end that way.  I was wrong.  If you exclude the ending, it's a near perfect experience.  Include it, and it all seems somehow pointless, among other things.  And it makes me sad.  If you wish to see the specific problems with the ending, look around at some other threads.  There's plenty of good reasons out there.



There are a few other issues that I haven't covered in this review.  Many of them I don't have particularly strong feelings about one way or the other, I just see them as different or a means to an end.  Like War assets and how the main mission seems to progress a bit more linearly than previous entries.  Others I may have simply forgotten about.  And I'm tired.


So there you have it.  I still say Mass Effect 3 is a brilliant game as a whole.  It was fun, it was moving, it was glorious.  And with time, maybe I'll be able to get through it again.  But for now, I still haven't come to terms with what happened at the end.  And I have no idea whether to recommend it to my friends or not.  I'm so conflicted!

Though, on a more uplifiting note, it has led to a great fan ending.



I find that video hilarious.  And more entertaining than the real ending.  I think this IS the real ending.  We just don't know it yet!

As a final note, I'm trying to see the experience like Jacob and his dad.  His dad taught him so well that, as Jacob says, "Even he couldn't screw it up."  Kinda the same thing here.   Mass Effect, up to this point, has been so amazing that even it's creators can't completely ruin it for me.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself.  That's what I hope.  I think I nearly believe it!  So maybe in a few days, I'll be up for more beyond just multiplayer.  We'll see.

[AscendBaldur]

I'm with most people reviewing the game. I'd give it a 8/10. Pre-ending, I was telling my friends it was the greatest game I'd ever played and I've played pretty much every game on the 360. I went on and on and on about it til one friends who hates SP games wanted to punch the crap out of me. Then the ending happened and I can't even face them, talk to them, nothing. I'm just so damned embarrassed right now. I'm firmly entrenched in the Hallucination/Indoctrination theory camp, and I pray BW has something epic planned, but if it stays as is, this depression I'm in may never leave. I can't touch my XBOX right now to play any games. It just makes me sad and hurt. My wife is mad at me for moping around, but I can't explain to her why I feel this way. It just doesn't make any sense how something so epic just dove so fast. :'(