1967 réponses à ce sujet

[NomadDC]

My review:
Well, I can't figure out a number yet, just completed it 1st time. I played all parts, and my save is ported from me1 to me2 and now me3. What can I say? From the gameplay side, it evolved. I liked gameplay. But (I am really shocked by endings now, they changed whole attitude to game series) this is the only GOOD thing I can say.
ALL 3 ENDINGS (that are discovered atm) COMPLETELY SUCK.
Seriously, WTF? Shepard dies (atl for now community found only 3 endings, in which Shep dies, there are *some* speculations that he may survive, but I didn't see any proof) if all endings, mass relays are eleminated (making all I did cost nothing!) ...Moreover, personally I had to choose only between 2 endings:
-As I saved both geth and quarians, I OBVIOUSLY wouldn't like to wipe out all synthetics, so this ending is pointless for my story.
-Second one is rather ugly too - merging synthetics and organics? NO TY, I suppose they should be left as they are, they are fine. And again, geth and quarians are IN PEACE! So THEY WILL NOT BE KILLING EACH OTHER, OKAY? Syntheticss wiping out organics question SOLVED!-And finally, I am FORCED to choose awesome Shep-becomes-reaper ending, as there is no other options (except *sarcasm: on* never finishing game and leaving Shepard to stay there and hope that united forces will wipe reapers out and extract Shep from that place and he will live with Tali on Rannoch, and so on... *sarcasm: off*).

So, well, I feel myself decieved by Bioware. You promised better endings (I'm so downed, that woun't even bother linking your claims, anyway someone already did); Shepard story have ended, as you promised, BUT.. I suppose (and not only I do) that Shepard DESERVED better ending! He DESERVED his own home, peace, happy life with his LI, marriege, small children running around, and bright death in old ages, surrounded by his family... That's how Shepards life should end, YOU CAN BE A HERO AND LEGEND, WHO IS ALIVE, WHO MADE IT! You don't have to be a MARTYR to become a legend. Better Hero, Legend, is the one, who is alive and walks among us. As well, all endings lead to mass relay elimination. AND HELL YEAH, IT PISSES ME OFF, AS ALL I WAS DOING WHOLE GAME WAS TRYING TO SAVE ALL WORLDS AND SPECIES, TO MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY. And now, when ALL species of organic and synthetic life are near Earth, nice kiddo says "OKAY, I GONNA BLOW MASS RELAYS, BE HAPPY NOW". Ok, they are not obliterated, it's good. BUT without mass relays they woun't make it home soon. Quarians will not see Rannoch, Asary - Thessia, Turians - Palaven, etc.. Can you even imagine, how long will it take them all to get to their homeworld on FTL drives? BUT, it's only in shep-reaper ending or synth/organic ending. In "Kill synths" ending, the only ending that may possibly leave Shep alive (due to rumors), they loose all tecnologies. GREAT, how they will travel home now? On foot? Well, that suck krogans balls.

To summ up:
As known for now, there is NO ACCEPTABLE ending. All endings bull*hit coefficients are over 100%. Moreover, endings extremely dull from "common sence" point of view. Everything that was happening after Shepards final rush to the "magic" beam to Citadel was like: "WTF?!?!?!? WHYYYYYYY?!?!?!? HOW THE F*CK?!?!?". Furthermore, after ending "choise" this becomes like: "HOW?!?!? What the hell is going on?!?!? Why Joker running on Normandy from green/blue/red wave?!?! Why it disables everything, inc ship?!?!? How he landed?!?!? On Earth???? There is no other planet with grass, etc. in Solar system!!!! How Tali and James (in my case) got on Normandy???? How they survived that masacre????", I can go on indefinetely. All endings produce FAR too many questions. Actually, they just blow your brain up. Too many lore and story fu*kups, lore is just dieing in agony on our eyes, game ending is just OUT OF ANY COMMON SENCE. Really, it makes me think that person who was writing plot was affected by heavy drugs or something worse. FAR TOO illogical, short, question producing end for the game that was supposed to be the END OF TRILOGY. Almost NO answers given, NO satisfaction at all after game is completed, NO more desire to play anything connected with Mass Effect universe, as the ending left a really awful leftower on all series. Feels like a raw product, and like ending was created just for "tick" and in greatest hurry ever seen. To compare: Mass Effect 1 ending had only 2 options - paragon or renegade backgrount,  but still it was GREAT. Mass Effect 2 proofed, that ending can be far more epic, if you made some efforts and done all you can for your squad. And than comes Mass Effect 3 with its raw, ugly, soul-reaving, heart-breaking, totally disappointing endings, and puts a huge CROSS on everything good that was before it. This endings are the greatest FAIL in your companies history. I'd like to unsee it, but I can't. Even DA2 doesn't look that bad now. Now ME3 ending gets it's honorable place #1 in Bioware top fails list. As well as it takes all places down to 10th in that list. And than goes DA2.

I even don't know how to classify these endings withoud being completely rude and offencive.

Now what I hope will happen:

• "April fools" post on twitter
• Followed by patch that replaces all current endings with normal ones
• Normal ones = no questions left after these, no "wtf?!" situations, fully compatible with "common sence"®[/b]
• A cup of hot chocolate for everyone who saw these 3 endings "of doom and despair"
• And heartly "we are sorry that we made you feel so crashed/ruined/downed"
• the thingie from MIB film, that makes ppl forget what they saw would do well here, I'd like to unsee all 3 endings I saw and whole part of game where you play wounded Shepard

But as I clearly understand, that some points here are extremely improbable (like 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5),I still hope that there will be SOMETHING that will give us really good endings. If it will beBW points DLC - I will buy it, but wil think a lot about further investments in Bioware, If it will be free DLC/patch, I will get it asap, and will keep buying Collectors Editions of your games, and will buy all DLCs that will release for ME3, and finally if it will be "GTFO Mass Effect fans, eat it as it is and shut up" I'll probably will forget about Bioware existance, as I don't see any point in supporting this company anymore (greatest evah experience in DA2 and now here, you know how to make ppl feel bad). I'd like to get my money back now, as I think it totally didn't worth it (atl with such endings), but it's too late for me. Even Blizzard failing WoW each expansion more and more aren't that bad. Take a look at http://social.biowar...06/polls/28989/ , you satisfied 5% of gamers. THAT'S 5%!!! OMG SO MUCH, YOU SHOULD BE REALLY GREAT AT MAKING GAMES!! KEEP IT UP THAT WAY, AND 5% OF YOUR CURRENT CUSTOMERS WILL BUY YOUR NEXT GAME!!!! And who the fu*k cares about rest 95%? THEY ARE ******, 95% IS NOTHING!! THEY DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SCI-FI AND GOOD SCENARIO!!! TOO DULL TO UNDERSTAND GREATINESS OF THESE ENDINGS!!
Can't do anything against writing in offenciwe way and with typoes, I'm too pissed to control this. I was waiting for something really great for almost 1 year, and almost every single piece of hope was ruined. I'm not even mentioning where you got Tali's pic., as that's just an unbeliveable shame.
Before I played 3rd part, I used to recommend Mass Effect to all my friends. Now I'd rather shoot myself, than recommend it to someone else, unless I want that person to feel extremely bad and die in agony.

I am fu*king shocked.

SyyRaaaNs post is good, agree with him.

Edit: I see a great ****wave coming, don't you see it too?

I suppose myself to be a loyal Mass Effect fan, I'm ready to ignore some bugs/glitches/stuff I don't agree, but this endings are out of any limits. As one not unknown hero said: "You crossed the line".

Modifié par NomadDC, 08 mars 2012 - 02:24 .

[movieguyabw]

Still not anywhere near finished with the story, so I'll just give my impressions right now and edit this post as I go along.

I really only have one point right now I wanted to address, at the moment. I've restarted the game several times, and this is the main issue I've had. Haven't been able to really get into a character because of it.

I'll update as I come across other issues, though.

Commander Shepard:
-Lots of auto dialogue. I understand the idea may have been to streamline speaking segments, to fit the pacing of a galactic war, but it leads to a lot of cases where Shepard acts out of character, to the player defined him/her in the last two games. (my FemShep never saluted anyone, in fact she told the Admiral who wanted to inspect the Normandy to ****** off. She never mourned anyone's death, or became overly emotional. Any emotion she ever showed when Ash died was anger and resolve. She was always kind of a **** to both Anderson and Hacket. And based on her words to Anderson and Kaiden in ME2, I RP'd her from then on to have no faith in the Alliance.)

Would be really cool if it turned out there were alternate lines recorded throughout the game, and either a patch or DLC were to be released that gave us choice for every line of dialogue. I'd certainly pay something for something like that. As it stands, I feel like both my Sheps (I only have two. Was going to start a third, but the idea I had in mind for him, wouldn't fit with the auto lines I've seen, so far, either) are gone. :\\

[blackbblade7]

i loved the game up until the ending the auto dialog was bit annoying but other then that good. the ending........... hate the bloody ending

[SharlenaSharlena]

This game could have totally done without the weird dream sequences with the child and running in the woods in slow motion. I understand she has remorse and resent towards the war but wouldn't a dream cut scene with her fallen comrades make more sense? Not some random child? tisk tisk tisk...

[mastirkal]

Come on guys, I've been ****ing too much on the forums as is, remove the Normandy running and remove the explosion of the mass relays... Make that the canon lore and almost EVERYONE would be happy and settle for a bittersweet ending...

[kjdhgfiliuhwe]

SharlenaSharlena wrote...

kjdhgfiliuhwe wrote...

Seeing all the moaning about the ending(s), I just wanted to throw my voice in to reiterate how much I enjoyed you not copping out and making the ending all happy (though, in a way, the endings were happy; just in a big picture way, and not a personal level).

Sacrifice for the hope of a better tomorrow is a good theme, in my books. Don't let all the people who wanted the white picket fence, two children, and a dog get you down (I totally loled when Samantha brought that up and knew right then the ending wasn't gonna be 'good', heh). ;D

Its not that we are all sappy people and want the white picket fence so much as we just wanted Shepard's hard work saving the galaxy one mission at a time to be for something and not for naught the way it seemed. You may not have been let down and thats awesome that means you got your money's worth but the gaming experience other's may have been anticipating was far from what was given to them that's all. I think the sad ending was interesting but its not what I want for my Paragon. My Renegade playthrough maybe because she would deserve it but my Paragon deserves a happy ending.

This isn't really the thread for this, so this is all I will say on this subject so as not to completely derail the review thread, but from my perspective, the ending embodied Shepard nearly perfectly.

Here we have someone who's consistently been the one to sacrifice and push on in the face of incredible odds. He's exactly the type of person heros are made of, as not everyone would willingly fling themselves on the grenade so to speak. Shepard did. With a smile. As Shep said when talking with Garrus...what do we do when the fighting is over? It was a really sad moment, because you realize just how out of place Shepard would be trying to live a 'normal' life.

Now, not to get religious here, but the ending is a theme that's common in many religions, with the most obvious being Jesus Christ and the symbolism that surrounds him. Which was really driven home by the actual ending conversation between the father and the son, making it seem like the entire game trilogy could be a future/modern telling of their society's 'bible'/fairy tale. It really makes you wonder if they knew how this was going to end from the beginning, when they named the character 'Shepard'. Bioware, if you did know how it was going to end from the start, I applaud your telegraphing it with his name so blatantly, and I'm actually astonished that this same fanbase that analyzed Tali to death didn't pick up on it over the years.

Now, is that really a 'sad' ending? I guess it depends on your perspective. I sort of feel like the story just went over everyone's heads. 

Again, I have all sorts of issues in my initial review, but story wasn't one of them. I think Bioware was very 'brave' to go this route with the story, and I know they're going to get a lot of flack, but I want them to know that some of us, in the sea of outcries, appreciates their daring to defy expectations (presumably, for those of us that didn't spoil ourselves ahead of time, obviously), and hopes the outcries don't stop them from going outside the box in future narratives. So, once again, 90/100 from me.

Mods, we should get a sticky just to discuss the ending, btw.

Edit: Any other anime fans totally think 'Madoka!' at the ending?

Modifié par kjdhgfiliuhwe, 08 mars 2012 - 04:07 .

[NPH11]

I think what disappoints me the most about ME3 is that the game is just so damn cash. If the endings were better, told a bit more, provided a little more substance, delivered a little more, I would be pissing myself in excitement and joy. The game is really good. It provides the best of both worlds when it comes to fluid combat and RPG elements. A damn fine job on that end. Voice acting and animations are solid, the game runs as smoothly as ME2 did, but looks better.


But as it stands, I feel the endings simply don't do enough. They're not "bad" per se, but they certainly didn't provide the variety I was anticipating, especially with only three real options, all of which are really different shades of the same colour. Would it have really hurt that much to have two endings that were a little more black and white, a more conclusive victory and a more conclusive defeat? I also felt that having it as another choice at the end of the game made me feel as though my previous actions didn't really matter. I also felt that the endings just left me with more questions than answers. I can see where Bioware was aiming, allowing us to theorize what might have happened, but all the theorizing feels invalid unless there is some substance to fall back on. Ambiguity can work well to tie things up, but not as the conclusion to a three game series where we were intended to become invested in our characters and their allies. People want to know what happened to their Shepard and his team, they don't want to have to come up with it on their own.


I guess I would describe the endings as rushed. More could have been done, I would be pleased if more was done in the future. Other than that, I have no real qualms with the game.

Modifié par NPH11, 08 mars 2012 - 04:09 .

[knightnblu]

First, I thought that the story was solid, if a tad cliché (the synthesis solution reminded me of the new BSG series finale). The dialog was greatly improved and really pulled the emotions from me, but they were also few and far between. Of the returning cast, they met all expectations with the exception of Tali and Williams.
 
Tali was distant (not LI) and Williams did not trust me at all (LI). Although I expected the cold shoulder from her, I really didn't think that I would be placed in a position where I would have to kill her. When I was attempting to save the Council for the second time, Williams drew down on me because she thought that I was a Cerberus assassin and if killing her was the only solution I had to save them, I would have. Fortunately, I didn't have to because the Council saw it my way and Udina lost it.
 
However, Ashley's reaction proves what I have said all along, she no longer trusts you. Further, how can you expect her to obey an order which seems questionable and that you have no time to explain? The situation with Udina was a prime example of what I asserted. Frankly, I was expecting the renegade interrupt to pop up and I would have had to kill Ashley and Udina in order to save the Council. Having had to kill Legion, I am glad that I didn't have to kill Williams.
 
The pathos of the story was palpable and although I never shed a tear, I did choke up a couple of times. The other character that I thought was excessively weak was Diana Allers. Jessica Chobot is no actress and her performance in ME3 proves it. Her lines were wooden and forced and it definitely showed in game. Ms. Chobot is a beauty and she's really good at her day job, but being a VA is not her thing. Had a professional VA voiced the character and had the writers put some effort into it, I believe that they could have had a really exciting opportunity to allow the player to explore his choices, but it was not to be.
 
While aboard the Normandy, I definitely felt that I was aboard a warship. Particularly while handing diplomatic negotiations between species. I really wish that there was a bit more of that. The feeling of desperation on the Citadel was a nice touch and I was especially surprised by the Cerberus coup attempt. However, I would have expected a lot more lawlessness amongst the refugees and prostitution and drug use in particular. When the world is coming to an end, people tend to get slack and desperation drives others into less than legal professions.
 
Other nonsensical story components include the narrow mindedness of the Salarian Dalatross which was unfathomable, but people tend to be petty creatures. I'm just amazed that she put her revenge ahead of her and her people's survival by holding back her fleets.
 
The deaths of so many friends was...hard to take. I realize that they are just polygons, but when you are immersed in your character and the game you get the full brunt of it. I think that by waiting until ME3 to begin killing off characters was a master stroke. You really do feel the sting and it generates a great deal of emotion because you have an emotional investment in them. I found Thane's death to be particularly well done with the prayer that was said not for him, but for Shepard. Also, the death board on the crew deck was nice. I just wish that Kelly Chambers' name was added to it after she was murdered by Cerberus on the Citadel. If the ME2 squadies get a place, then why can't she? I think that she's earned it with her service aboard ship in ME2.
 
The combat was out of this world, but the game was about 90% shooter and 10% RPG. Today, when someone says RPG, you are usually asked to define the term. I believe that this is partly because very few people have any idea what an RPG is anymore and fewer still can define it accurately. I was happy with the customization of armor and weapons, but I was not happy by the limited mods. I also was not happy that ME3 wants me to pay (not real money) for equipment that I have already paid for in previous purchases (real money) of ME2 DLC. While we are on the subject for receiving what you paid for, how in the name of God are you supposed to get the "From Ashes" DLC?
 
If you follow the instructions on the card that came with the CE, no dice. They send you someplace that tells you nothing about the DLC. If you go to the redeem code page, it has no idea what you are looking for and is not helpful. If you go to EA's Origin site, again you are met with frustration, or at least I am. I got the game midnight Tuesday morning and still have not solved that conundrum. Frustrating. The odd thing is that it is oh so easy to BUY the DLC. That you can find in a heartbeat, just not where to input the code to get the free DLC that came with the CE. There's something rotten in Denmark methinks.
 
As to the plot, it was great right up until the end. You fight hard, you lose friends, you sacrifice millions (wait...what? Where was the distress calls between this one and that one and you had to make a choice? The only case where I had to do that was between the Geth and the Quarians), and still you come within an ace of losing. But even though you have a skull fracture, 2nd and 3rd degree burns where your armor melted away from your body, and God knows what internal injuries, you still keep fighting. That is remarkable and was very well done. Especially where everything slows to a crawl and the sound goes dull. That is what the incredible stress of Combat does to you when you are in it up to your neck. In fact, if you ever want to know what real combat is like, watch the first 30 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. I used to use it to train new recruits. Well done BioWare, you did your homework.
 
What wasn't done well was the climax to the story. Having TIM and Anderson modeling good and evil in trying to sway the main character's decisions was clumsy in its execution. I could appreciate the situation, but TIM seemed to float in and out between being indoctrinated and being in denial. When I got the renegade interrupt to shoot him, I did, but if I could shoot him then why couldn't I before? What changed? Perhaps it was TIM struggling within himself that provided the opening and perhaps it was something else. But it gets stranger.
 
You are taken to meet the creator of the whole Reaper mess. He's synthetic, he's part of the Citadel, and he's in the form of the kid who was killed as you were leaving Earth and he's the kid that was in your nightmares. Riiiiiiiight. OK, it's a little creepy, but little buba has three options for saving the galaxy and stopping the slaughter. He does not have to mind you, but he's going to do it anyway because he's a nice synthetic.
 
Option A, you die, but you get control of the Reapers and can tell them to stand down, the Citadel closes shop and joins the Reapers in their trek back to dark space. Option B, you die, but you get to blow the Reapers to hell right along with the Citadel. Option C, your body dies, but your soul becomes fused with the creepy kid and everybody else becomes an organic/synthetic hybrid and lives happily ever after. The kicker? The mass relays blow to hell and gone with every choice, kind of like having fries with your burger at your local fast food joint.
 
I can understand Shepard dying to get the mission accomplished. That's what he signed on to do and the odds were greatly against him anyway. I pretty much expected that from the get go. It would be what the Spartans would term a beautiful death. But the only way I get to live any "semblance" of life is from joining myself to the creepy kid? I don't think so. Joker does not look good with glowing eyes. Never mind the fact that there is absolutely no explanation for how every organic and all of the galactic fauna becoming fused with electronics simultaneously with DNA from Radioshack. That is a deus ex machina option if I have ever heard one.
 
Writers paint themselves into corners all of the time. The ancient Greeks did it and it is done today. Because it is a ton of work to go back and rework the story until you come up with a good way to tie it all up and finish it, some writers turn to the "God will fix it" solution which has been termed the deus ex machina plot device, a proud sign of poor writing since ancient times.
 
But if you are going to borrow something ancient, why not borrow from the myth of Sisyphus instead? He was so clever that King Sisyphus even cheated death itself. But I guess that it is extremely difficult to be conniving when you have a basilar skull fracture. Had I been the writer, I would have found a way to save the galaxy, screw over the creepy kid, and die with honor while keeping the galaxy connected and more or less intact. But that's me.
 
Frankly, I really don't understand why the Mass Relays had to go in each and every scenario. In the control scenario, the Reapers pack up and go right along with the Citadel. Why couldn't the Mass Relays remain? Or if the mass relays had to go, why didn't the Reapers and the Citadel explode? The celebration on Earth is going to be a short one because in about 20 minutes everybody is going to die from the Charon relay exploding like the one that killed 300k Batarians. Oh, and it will take the combined fleets of the galaxy with Hackett right along with it. End result of all three options? Trillions of deaths. Bet you nobody ever thought of that. So, if you felt bad about blowing the alpha relay, you now have something else to feel bad about. Congratulations.
 
I also don't understand why the creepy kid couldn't just stand down the Reapers given that it was his solution to kill everybody in the first place on a cyclical system. The fact that the addition of the crucible provided him with additional options is wonderful, but the downside is that Shepard has to be forced into killing himself in order to do what the creepy kid could do. Why? That is never explained and it is nonsense. Why does Shepard need to die at all? Granted, his injuries could be mortal, but if the kid can change your DNA in a heartbeat and make you an organic/synthetic hybrid then why can't he save Shepard? Maybe he doesn't take Alliance Care insurance.
 
No matter what Shepard does he is doing the Reapers job for them by default. Earth, Thessia, Palavin, and every other world where there is a population and a mass relay is done, so stick a fork in 'em. Yup, I feel like a hero alright...D'oh!
 
To me, the Mass Effect story was one of the good person struggling to save it all. Shepard uncovers the threat of the Reapers and nobody believes him. He even has to join with the sewer rat terrorists to take out the Collectors only to have those some rats try to take him down in ME3 because they really are the evil SOB's everybody said that they were. Like I didn't know that in ME2. If you romance Ashley in the original ME, then you are double tapped because she rips your heart out of your chest in ME2 and still thinks that you are a Cerberus lackey in ME3. In fact, she is still so convinced that Shepard is a Cerberus lackey that she has her weapon aimed at his head in ME3 with the intent of shooting him because she thinks that he is still working for Cerberus and intends to murder the Council.
 
Shepard is constantly trying to define who he is and what he is about. The Council doesn't believe him, the Alliance had him locked up, his human LI from ME1thinks that he is a traitor and terrorist, and he is held in disgrace for killing more than 300,000 people. That situation would have made most folks throw up their hands in disgust, but Shepard does not. He keeps fighting no matter what comes his way or how bad it gets. He does not want medals, he does not want rank, he does not want privilege, he just wants to do his job and to defend the Alliance. His duties as a Spectre expands those responsibilities to every soul in Citadel space and it is a job for which he is uniquely qualified.
 
It is Shepard's character that defines him. His sense of duty, honor, and integrity provide his moral compass and determination to succeed. In short, he is a person of great character and determination. To take such a character and cheapen him by giving him essentially three choices that accomplish the slaughter of trillions of souls at the end of the game does a disservice to the character. In trying to save humanity, he must first destroy humanity. That is an axiom that made no sense in Vietnam (in order to save the village you have to burn the village) and makes even less sense in the context of the story.
 
The events that transpired during ME1 and ME2 essentially condemn Shepard to death. That's because you can't win them all and when you have the deck stacked against you time and again, eventually you draw a losing hand. This is Shepard's predicament, but what else can he do? He has to go on because if he doesn't, everyone dies. I get that. What I don't get is the ocean of blood unleashed by Shepard that comes with the end of ME3. It is Hobson's choice pure and simple.
 
While I totally ripped the climax, I hate closing on a sour note. There were many remarkable things about ME3. The scene where the combined fleets of the galaxy come in to fight the Reapers was one for the books. I have never seen anything like it before and likely never will again. The fight on Earth was everything that I expected it to be and more. The character interaction was top notch, and the pervasive sense of pathos was what gave the game its grim atmosphere, particularly the loss of Thessia and Shepard's loss to Kai Leng. That was incredibly well done and an experience that will stick with me.
 
All in all I really enjoyed playing ME3 and there were many times that I was caught up in the emotions of the scene. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best game you ever played, I think that ME3 comes in a solid 7.5.

[franka_h]

First and foremost I loved this game, but the ending was a let down.

Pros:
-all of the activity in the Citadel. I think this was lacking in previous games. Yes, you had to go to the Citadel but it wasn't often that you really interacted with people there.
-character stories. I felt that each and everyone of the character stories were wrapped up nicely. For me Mordin's was the hardest and it was beautifully sad but all of the stories had that same sort of feel to them. Also, talking with your team at the end of the game. It was hard because it really was the last suicide mission.
-game play. I liked being able to roll into cover, though I did have some problems overall I thought it was a nice addition to the final installment.
-the councilors. I felt that all of them really came into their own in this game. I went from hating the Turian Councilor to loving him.
-multiplayer. I thought that this was an excellent addition to the game. When I downloaded the demo my roommate, my husband, and I could not stop playing multiplayer we weren't even concerned about the story demo, just the multiplayer.

The Cons, and there are cons.

-glitches. I had one in Mass Effect 2, which was during Jacobs mission, and only 2 in ME1. So, I was pretty mad when I would get stuck on a piece of cover or stand on top of EDI's head and then teleport or not be able to get out at all, it was as bad as getting stuck in the elevators. Also, Thane lived through my ME2 game but when I started Mass Effect 3 he was already on the memorial board when I got the Normandy. So, instead of Thane taking the hit for the Salarian councilor it was Kirrahe.
-the ending. I'm not mad about the ending, initially I was and then I thought about what I didn't like. I in no way expected that perfect happy ending, though I would have liked it, it was not expected. My problem with the ending is that no matter what your choices were the same 3 endings were available to you regardless. And I felt like all of the planning I had done, all of the people I had recruited, every time I went out of my way to help people instead of telling them to f**k off, my choice about the Rachni queen (which I agonized over), just did not matter because regardless you had the same 3 endings. I would have liked a little more variation, also what the hell, a child VI creator thing controls the Citadel? Who the hell created that? And I know that's not the point. I would have been fine not saying where the Reapers came from or who created them but all of a sudden this Child VI shows up and is like "yeah we created them". Well what former civilization do you represent? Again, it wasn't just terrible but I thought that there should have been more variations based on the choices you made. Kill everyone, kill synthetics, or save everybody and must make the reapers go away b/c you assimilated. And in every variation you die, which I was expecting but again more variation.

I give this game a 8.5/10. I really did love it and I don't think I wasted my money. I was just let down.

[Wildhide]

kjdhgfiliuhwe wrote...

SharlenaSharlena wrote...

kjdhgfiliuhwe wrote...

Seeing all the moaning about the ending(s), I just wanted to throw my voice in to reiterate how much I enjoyed you not copping out and making the ending all happy (though, in a way, the endings were happy; just in a big picture way, and not a personal level).

Sacrifice for the hope of a better tomorrow is a good theme, in my books. Don't let all the people who wanted the white picket fence, two children, and a dog get you down (I totally loled when Samantha brought that up and knew right then the ending wasn't gonna be 'good', heh). ;D

Its not that we are all sappy people and want the white picket fence so much as we just wanted Shepard's hard work saving the galaxy one mission at a time to be for something and not for naught the way it seemed. You may not have been let down and thats awesome that means you got your money's worth but the gaming experience other's may have been anticipating was far from what was given to them that's all. I think the sad ending was interesting but its not what I want for my Paragon. My Renegade playthrough maybe because she would deserve it but my Paragon deserves a happy ending.

This isn't really the thread for this, so this is all I will say on this subject so as not to completely derail the review thread, but from my perspective, the ending embodied Shepard nearly perfectly.

Here we have someone who's consistently been the one to sacrifice and push on in the face of incredible odds. He's exactly the type of person heros are made of, as not everyone would willingly fling themselves on the grenade so to speak. Shepard did. With a smile. As Shep said when talking with Garrus...what do we do when the fighting is over? It was a really sad moment, because you realize just how out of place Shepard would be trying to live a 'normal' life.

Now, not to get religious here, but the ending is a theme that's common in many religions, with the most obvious being Jesus Christ and the symbolism that surrounds him. Which was really driven home by the actual ending conversation between the father and the son, making it seem like the entire game trilogy could be a future/modern telling of their society's 'bible'/fairy tale. It really makes you wonder if they knew how this was going to end from the beginning, when they named the character 'Shepard'. Bioware, if you did know how it was going to end from the start, I applaud your telegraphing it with his name so blatantly, and I'm actually astonished that this same fanbase that analyzed Tali to death didn't pick up on it over the years.

Now, is that really a 'sad' ending? I guess it depends on your perspective. I sort of feel like the story just went over everyone's heads. 

Again, I have all sorts of issues in my initial review, but story wasn't one of them. I think Bioware was very 'brave' to go this route with the story, and I know they're going to get a lot of flack, but I want them to know that some of us, in the sea of outcries, appreciates their daring to defy expectations (presumably, for those of us that didn't spoil ourselves ahead of time, obviously), and hopes the outcries don't stop them from going outside the box in future narratives. So, once again, 90/100 from me.

Mods, we should get a sticky just to discuss the ending, btw.

Edit: Any other anime fans totally think 'Madoka!' at the ending?

They weren't brave, though.  Dark, sour, bitter endings aren't brave, bold, or new.  It's been done a thousand times... it's been done better a thousand times.  It honestly feels like they did these endings so dark in hopes of appearing BOLD AND BRAVE to hide the fact they're so poorly done and completely against the themes of Mass Effect and the idea of choice. 

It would not surprise me that EA wouldn't give them the time or money to produce a decent ending so they had to cop out on three unnecessarily dark endings.

Depressing for the sake of depressing (as is especially the case with the whole Normandy LOL look at us randomly out of place for convenient angst) is not good writing.  It's rather cheap tripe, to be honest.

Modifié par Wildhide, 08 mars 2012 - 05:53 .

[future_usmc]

I'll keep this simple, I give Mass Effect 3 a 55/100. The reason I give it said score is I really like what they did with the variables and I enjoyed Mass Effect 3 a lot, but that ending just bombed it for me. Knowing that none of my work really counted for anything, and that no matter what the endings are chosen by me so my past choices are useless makes me feel like ive wasted my time. So even though I love many aspects of this game, the overall feel that my coices were spat on drops my score for this game drastically.

EDIT: nope now it's 50/100, i just realized i don't like any of the romance scenes. I feel they pg-ed those like a mother. this is a m rated game. I'm not asking for full fledged nudity but one kiss then fade to black for almost all of them? you have to be kidding. I thought the ME1 romance scenes were really tasteful and i expected those but nope.

Modifié par future_usmc, 08 mars 2012 - 09:08 .

[Experimentel]

 Mass Effect 3 - I'll give it a 76/100. It's a C.

Now, I am a very big fan of your games. Mass Effect 1 and 2 were brilliant, DA:O was fantastic, DA2 was... okay... and now we come to the latest game in the Bioware line up. Well it was good... and not so good.

First off I would like to say the graphics were incredible. The character designs were well rendered and beautiful. The landscapes felt like being on an alien world - and that whole viewpoint mechanisim? Awesome. The new monsters the Reapers spat out were both horrifying (as in the Banshee) and horribly wrong merging of organic and synthetic - as intended. They gave new depth to the gameplay - a fantascal element compared to other shooting games where you shoot more ****'s than ever existed. The scale in which the graphics portrayed this attack on Earth really made it feel like an epic battle. Larger scale definately appears to be both daunting and awing. 

Action wise, it was very well put together. The whole rolling into cover thing was a little dodgy at times (I'd get stuck in loops of rolling from one cover to another occaisionally) but overall great. Beating up Husks was amazing since I hated them and their infernal ability to make zigzags out of my scope and then beat the crap out of me in ME2. Those newer enemy designs and all their abilities - sheilds, smokescreens, random warping around and then screaming to scare the bejeesus out of me - added a new level of depth to the gameplay that I found refreshing. I really had nothing to complain about in terms of the mechanics of the gameplay, other than Shepard seeming to walk abnormally slow everywhere. (Seriously Shepard, you gain some weight or what?) 

The romances are another big thing that draw players to Bioware games. A good story usually has a decent mix of action, adventure, melencholy and of course, romance. It was especially different and special in Mass Effect 3 given it would be a continuation of romances from either ME2 or ME3 with the LIS. (I was really hoping for a Jokermance but ah well. It happens.) Out of all of them, and as a member of the female variety, I would say Garrus won hands down. The little things worked into general conversations made the romance seem all the sweeter. However I'm not counting Kaidan/Ashley or Tali out of the running (even though I've heard complaints that Tali didn't get a whole lot of romance scenes). The continuation worked nicely and resolved many of the romantic issues posed in the previous titles - and ended completely unsatisfactory. More on that later.

Now for the story. It was... gritty. The sheer epicness and urgency you got from that first attack from Earth did a brilliant job of spurring you on through the story. You can feel the strain it's putting on Shepard, with good reason. And then there was the terrible depression that started sinking in when you lost your first companion and then another and another and... You get the picture. Throughout the Mass Effect series you become very emotionally invested in the characters so when Mordin sacrificed himself, I definately gasped and might have shed a tear. Then Thane's death approached and I believe I did cry. I'm not opposed to death in a video game at all - this is a galactic war we're talking about, it's only natural that people would die - and video games that can cause such an emotional response are usually the ones people remember the most. But then again, people don't want to remember a game with a terrible ending.

Which brings me to the endings. I am... not happy with the way this ended. Coming from a line of games where your choices actually made a difference, I felt very locked in and disappointed. You either A.) Control the Reapers and Shepard dies in sacrafice. B.) You merge the synthetics and organics and Shepard dies. C.) You destroy the Reapers and Shepard lives. I'm not opposed to the idea of sacrafice, after all I sacraficed my Gray Warden in DA:O, but the idea that every single ending appears to end the same way no matter what I did? For a game based on decisons that led all up to this single point -  where all your choices either came to bite you in the ass or be your salvation - it was unacceptable and unpleasent slap in the face. The relays get destroyed no matter what. The Reapers are gone (that's good) and the Normandy just crash lands the exact same way for all three. The epilogue is entirely unsatisfying - there is no mention of what happened to any of the characters. For all I know Shepard could have bled or starved to death even though she 'technically' survived. Which would make all the endings... near to exact.  And those amazing romances that built up through three games? They never happened apparently. I'm not expecting the 'happy ever after' archtype where they live in a little house with a white picket fence. No this is Commander Shepard, the galaxy saving badass who's probably so mentally messed up they'd never fit into a normal society! But would it hurt to say that 'oh Garrus and Shepard went to wipe out all the mercenary groups on Omega for their honeymoon?' or even 'although Tali and Shepard never saw each other again, they'd always remember each other'?  You'd think after everything Shepard has done, they deserved at least the chance to have a happier ending. At least it's some kind of closure. Then what happened to Earth? What happened to the relays? The point being: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED AFTER ALL THIS? 

The only other major thing I found to be annoying and stupid is the fact that the player is being forced into multiplayer to obtain the "good" (as we already covered, that term is neigh-worthless) ending more easily. Or in fact - at all if you're not grinding every single side quest in existance. 

For such an expensive game - and all the money we invested in previous games and DLC - it was almost intolerable that the series should have such an unsatisfying ending. I say almost because even though that five minutes at the end nearly ruined hours and hours of gameplay, the other elements - the graphics, the alien species, the sheer bloody size of the Reapers and the concept of this massive alien war - were all great. If anything else had been less than what it was, I would say it was a waste of time. It's simply too expensive for such an unsatisfying end. 

[Lilla Snorkan]

My Mass Effect 3 score 65/100 (decent)

Was figuring i'd hold off until trying to review this until i'd completed atleast 2 runs but i honestly dont feel like playing through this once more atm, maybe sometime in the future.

The Good
+ The galaxy actually felt like it was under attack , there was a sense of desperation to ME3 that i appreciate
+ The characters are for the most part exactly how you'd expect and want them to be.
+ Some of the story was great,  for example Mordin's redemption and the Geth/Quarian origins
+ Music
+ Combat controls for the most part did their job
+ Plenty of guns and options for modding makes trial and error to find your arsenal of choice somewhat interesting.



The Bad
+ Everything after destroying cerberus just felt rushed and meh including endings.I would have much preferred it if my actions in the game led to specific endings rather then having three choices presented infront of me like i was on some gameshow.
+ From a game whose tagline is "Take Earth back" i expected to see more of it then just two streets of London tyvm.
+ Squad AI is iffy at best
+ Ambient conversations on citadel only consists of 5 or so conversations, fair enough but then have the courtesy not to repeat them over and over at every visit. First time i encountered the stranded teen i got caught up in her story and actually wanted to know what'd happen. When its the third time she starts her tirade i wanted to drag her outside and put her out of her misery myself.
+The forced "emotional" parts. Most specifically the dreams.
+The Journal.
+The navpoint
+"Sidequests" consisting of scanning
+Same sex love interests being so onedimensional it actually hurts to hear the dialogue, didnt romance either of them  but even so the first thing they felt they had to tell me was their sexual orientation? I feel bad for the people who were looking forward to wellwritten same sex relationships.
+ Lazy design, for example not seeing either Geth nor Quarians at the final battle for Earth.
+Multiplayer feels extremely rushed atm,matchmaking is a bit iffy considering it wants to put beginners in silver challenges etc which is pointless.
+Using the same button for cover and activating stuff doesnt always work out to well.

The Ugly
+****ty textures in quite a few places (Fair enough i know the engine is old, but they are really horrid at times)
+Overly dark
+DAT RUNNING ANIMATION!

The Okey srsly Bioware wth were you thinking
+Edi has a  cameltoe????!!! Seriously, fire the artist responsible and keep him away from children.

The Verdict
You made a good game, and i had an ok time playing through it but it could have been a fantastic game and i think thats what makes it worse.
To be fair when ME3 is at its best its an absolutely amazing experience and if it had all kept to the same standard i would've given this game atleast 90/100 but it just takes a major swandive.
Damn it i really wanted to love this game, but i just cant.
To me Mass Effect 3 can be summed up in two words : Wasted Potential

Modifié par Lilla Snorkan, 08 mars 2012 - 11:37 .

[captainchimp]

 Out of all the Bioware games I have played (going all the way back to Baldur's Gate), I think the Mass Effect series overall has been the most satisfying.  The characters are easy to get attached to, and I feel emotionally invested in them.  This particular quality helped propel both the first and second game, which were both flawed gems.  Mass Effect 3 had definately a lot to live up to in terms of story, and evolution of gameplay.  I'd say it succeded in both these respects.  My only qualms right now with ME3, is that there is no real sense of denouement in the ending of the game.  After Shepard sacrifices himself in whichever of the three major endings, we see his crew crash land on a planet, but we never find out what happens to them after the fact.  It's all left in the dark.  I know Shepards fate, but based on my actions, and how I treated people throughout the game, it would have been nice to have an idea of what people did with their lives once the game ends.  The ending happens too suddenly.  Maybe this could be resolved via a patch in the future.  
Baldur's Gate, which is no where near the level of presentation here, gave some sense to ownership over your actions in the end, since each character got their own text ending based on your desicions in the game.  It would have been nice to get an ME3 version of this.  While I do like the ending I picked in the game, and it feels in line with the desicions that my version of Shepard would have done, it felt somewhat too much like a Deux Ex style ending (both in the fact that we have a literal deux ex machina that shows us our choices, and that it's something that every game in the Deus Ex series has done).  Having the ending somewhat more dependant on your choices through the game would have been more interesting, and it would have been a nice pay off to the emotional investment placed in the teammates and friends you accrue in the game.  In my mind I somewhat hoped that Shepard would come out alive from this, but that's okay if he died for the greater good.  What I really want to know is, what did Liara do with herself now that Shepard is gone?  Did Garrus survive the final mission with Shepard?  What about Kaiden?  What happens with him?  Do we get a krogan/salarian/geth/turian populations on Earth now that the Mass Relays are down?  It would have been nice to get some wrap up with that.  
Anyway.  My hats off to Bioware for making what is perhaps the most satisfying game they have made yet.  Like ME1 and ME2, it has a great story, fun gameplay, and the best characters.  As flawed as the gameplay sometimes is, the characters keep my coming back. 

[ShadowFaction]

 Okay, well, I'd like to start off saying this entire review is going to be a bit premature, but I have things to get off my chest. I've only played through once, though I did load back through all 3 ending choices to see each in turn, though I don't know how they are altered by different decisions in previous games or earlier decisions in ME3.

To start off, I thoroughly enjoyed the game from start to near finish.

The starting point of the game was a little bit of a let down, but I was expecting that after the demo, so it didn't harm my experience. The story, I feel, is great from start to near finish. I love seeing many of the home planets and experiencing these places as society collapses on every side, and people have to band together, and even then, most don't make it. This theme sets up the game as appropriately tragic, soldiers dying in immeasurably high numbers to defend their home, and even with their sacrifices, the Reapers still win at almost every turn. It really creates an atmosphere of hopelessness, and the game supports this when proper. But even so, that hopelessness is shadowed by brief sparks of hope throughout the game, and makes the total experience utterly engaging.

The best part of the story, in my opinion, is the more focused view of Shepard and his/her opinions and feelings, especially when the stress seems to become overwhelming, and equally well delivered are the personal moments with squadmates/romance interests(As of my first playthrough, my Shepard did not pursue romance in any previous game, nor did she in ME3). I especially like Garrus and Shepard on the Citadel, shootin' bottles, for laughs. And Liara's moment after Thessia was very touching.

The atmosphere on the Citadel adds to the game, though the side-quests are kind of a let down, but more on that later. You can overhear many interesting conversations, and Shepard can side with one person or another on a few moral arguments, and these decisions may slightly alter the capabilities of those fighting with you, be they Alliance forces or Citadel Defense. These conversations also build atmosphere. On a side note, nice to see the crew get off the Normandy, and even move around a bit.

To gameplay; the combat is improved, I feel, offering much more tactical variety to the game. Shepard can be active, being able to jump over obstacles, vault over cover and roll, move quickly and much more fluidly than in past games. Makes playing a Vanguard(My only playthrough thus far) absolutely amazing and entertaining from start to finish. I literally had trouble shutting the game off, as I enjoyed the combat so much. The system scanning/reaper awareness system is a little flunky and weird, and hard to get used to, but compared to the mineral scanning its absolutely amazing. But on that note, the vast majority of side quests, if not nearly every side quest in the game, are just glorified planet scanning, which serve as interesting distractions, but make the game feel a bit silly, shooting mineral probes after krogan war mount skulls.

I'm not going to mention the multiplayer, though I have played it, I have not played enough to have a real grasp for the entire experience. Thus far, though, Banshee's can burn in hell. Also, geth are far to easy. Cerberus is still laughably easy.

Now, the big controversy on the forums this time around is the endings. I'm not entirely sure I want to voice an opinion(as useless an opinion it may be, all things considered), but as of now, my biggest feeling towards the endings is one of absolute disappointment.

The big problem with this raging and the eventual debate between those that like the endings and those that don't, is that the same problem will plague the discussion(or screaming, as more likely) that has plagued everything else; limited view points. Those that hate the endings will feel betrayed/deceived, and be pretty PO'd about it. Those that like the endings will say 'you don't get it' or 'not everything is rainbows and little blue children'. To be honest, both of those are valid opinions, but narrow minded in their conception. The ultimate truth, is that it's a matter of perspective and expectation, and nothing we do will change that.

That disclaimer aside, I'm more inclined to side with the betrayed/deceived crowd because I'm more disappointed than anything else. I certainly 'get' the endings well enough, and the endings are certainly out of left field enough to have been a surprise, though the dream segments were so heavy handed that I knew from the first one Shepard was very likely to die at the end. But beyond that, I'm most disappointed that there are not more fulfilling endings.

No epilogue, no possibility for future Mass Effect games post-Reaper invasion( Unless they want to take part exclusively in one system, as without the relays, it would take months/years/decades to travel anywhere else, or y'know, ignore the entire ending of ME3...) and worst of all; no closure. What were the ramifications of the genophage in the long run? Wrex is old, if he is alive(he is in my playthrough), and he won't live forever. Younger krogan may not share his temperment(Much of that developed by his time with Shepard) and willingness to forgive the past. What about the geth and quarians? Do they live in harmony or does the departure of the Reapers bring back animosity. Not to mention all the major civilizations of the Citadel have been badly damaged, in some cases possibly beyond repair, who steps up? What challenges are faced, and what alliances are grown from the shared suffering of all? More importantly, what happened to Liara? Garrus? Tali? Ashley/Kaidan? Admiral Hackett? SpaceShepard's mom? None of these questions are answered, and they damn well should have been. I'm not willing to say we have a right to anything, Bioware makes the game as they see fit, but I cannot possibly express my disappointment in how the endings were delivered, and how utterly pointless, in my current opinion, the entire Mass Effect series has aparently been. My Shepard fought to preserve the life of all, humans and asari, turian and krogan, everyone. She died for it. And the result? No one knows. Certainly the Reaper invasion was stopped, mission accomplished, but what resulted from the cycle ending? I sure can develop my own ending, as some have said, and think on what happened to everyone... but that is not the point of an ending, and more to the point, self-scripted endings work for Skyrim and Fallout, not Mass Effect, and certainly not the last game of Shepard's story. As much as every Shepard is our own, his or her story is crafted by Bioware, and we can spice up our own little extra parts, but we shouldn't have to create them from scratch. Endings are supposed to give closure, to put things to rest and leave me thinking how awesome the whole experience has been. Mass Effect 3, sadly, failed at this. Now, this opinion is likely to change in the future, once the bitterness of the endings are no longer fresh in my mind, but for now thats where I stand and I will likely never accept the endings, not truly, but we'll all get over it.


In conclusion. I find my overall experience something I cannot attribute a number to, but all I can really say is thank you to Bioware, thank you so much, for making an amazing series. People will quickly forget how great this moment or that moment was, and the thrill of it all coming to an end simply because of the content that brought about the end, but Bioware certainly deserves credit and appreciation for all the hard work they have put into the series as a whole, because at the end of the day, they didn't have to, they wanted to.

Recommendation. I think Bioware deserves much thanks and more, thereafter. They've done an amazing job on all three games, and I am especially proud to have been 'with' the series since '07, and beyond that, I'm happy to see it end. My recommendation to anyone who is unsure they want to buy the game; if you enjoyed ME1 and/or ME2, play ME3. The endings are disappointing, yes, but the journey getting there is excellent and should not be missed if you well and truly care about how things turn out.

To Bioware(as I'd hope they read these reviews); Frankly, I wouldn't mind DLC or something to modify or expand the endings, and I cannot omit the fact I was looking forward to at least one of my Shepard's to end up on some remote world with Liara/any other romance interest and living a fulfilling life, despite all the death and destruction that started at Eden Prime, life could still go on, even for the one who was in the middle of it all. But beyond that, feel proud about what you've accomplished, and I for one am looking forward to the next project. Oh, and uh, no weapons and appearance DLC for ME3, I think... the community is likely to riot. 

Modifié par ShadowFaction, 08 mars 2012 - 01:03 .

[Claym0re]

Dear Chris/Bioware

First I want to thank all of you for your hard work and effort. Since the Baldur’s Gate series you are my favorite developer team. I love your work and played with KOTOR, SWTOR, Dragon Age (etc...).

But Mass Effect was the real deal. For me Mass Effect is the best franchise you have ever created. So I bought ME3 CE the very first day and when I sat down I was prepared to have my lifetime gaming experience. Lets see how how it turned out...

Background

I played both ME1 and ME2, was a 75-25% paragon-renegade, did all the sidequests in the first two games. I saved Wrex, Ashley and the Rachni Queen, blew up the Geth heretics and the Collector base, and also saved everyone in ME2 (got their loyalty too).

The „small” details

The locations were healthy, well crafted. I liked the music, both the new tracks and the original ones were nicely integrated. Combat was good and challanging, but sometimes „everything on the A” button was problematic.

I loved the meetings with the NPCs from the previous games. We finally could see the „real” Khalisah behind her mask, the mentally worn out Kelly, Adams, Kenneth and Gabby on the engineering, and when Konrad was saved by Jenna I was like „OMFG the game remembers this?” (There were a few NPCs I didn’t meet face to face, don’t know if it was intentional or missed them, like Shiala, Helena Blake, Gianna Parsini or the Asari scientest who ran away twice before I blew the place sky high).

Squadmates

All the ME1 and ME2 squadmates were well imported into the major story even the side quests made very good sense. The new ME3 characters were successfull additions.

And finally they were moving between the locations of the ship and the citadel, talking to each other and the other people. This created a very healthy universe and adventure.

Missed opportunities

I was hoping for more Aria T’Loak and Kai Leng interaction (two men quests like the Kasumi DLC).

For Aria’s support I had to make three sidequests, instead I would have loved taking back Omega with her.

As for Kai Leng...well...taking down a reaper just the two of us and him dying during the process would have been a more fitting end for such a great character.

The big decisions - Genophage

Without a doubt this is the best part of ME3 especially if you played as a paragon. Let me explain why.

In ME1 you had Wrex, who explained in great detail why the genophage was wrong and how the future of the Krogan race was at stake. In ME2 you got Mordin who explained the reasons behind genophage. You got both sides of the story by two very likeable character and you also had the chance to see the ruined Krogan homeworld and got all the necessary background info to understand its importance and the possible risks of curing them.

In ME3 you raised the stakes. Your principles, friendships, the future of the Krogan, the future of the entire galaxy were put on the line. Even the small details were perfectly put together to build up the pressure. Mordin’s obsession, Wrex’s devotion, hell, even the Krogan female asked you multiple times if there was anything wrong.

And the slow-motion renegade cutscene...perfect.

As you can guess I shot Mordin, and after watching his death scene I felt devastated, empty. I betrayed everything I believed in for the „big picture”. It was epic, thats what i call 10/10 scoring.

The big decisions - Geth-Quarian conflicet

This one didn’t have the same impact as the genophage question. The problem is that you guys made Tali and the Quarians way too likeable. Yes Legion is cool, and in ME3 you also showed us their past to symphatize with the Geth, but compared to the Quarian buildup that was insignificant.

Not to mention the stupidity that you could make them allies and gain everything you want without a real sacrifice (sorry, Legion’s death alone doesn’t count). You know what would have made this peace feel costly? If it required to sacrifice both Tali and Legion.

About the other possible ending: I have to admit that Tali’s and the Quarian’s death scene is on par with Mordin’s but honestly...noone would choose it in reality. Neither did I.

The Ending

I think I know what you wanted to do. You wanted to be creative and innovative I can admire that.

BUT

You promised a fulfilling ending without questions, instead everyone got a „WTF” ending. No wonder it caused a major uproar.

Instead of writing about how I believe destroying the mass relays killed the franchise (except for the prequels) and how the final standoff should have been between Shepherd and Harbinger I decided on sharing with all of you the endings I wanted to see as a gratitude for this great series

My endings

These endings are based on mostly the story Bioware wrote, just „different”. Ill refer to Shepard as a „he”.

1. Bad ending (galactic readiness doesn't reach minimum)

Shepard orders his teammates to wait for him and with Anderson starts to run toward the conduit, but Harbinger reaches it first. Harbinger starts shooting,  its beam hits them and Shepard faints.

Shepherd regains his consciousness, looking around he can see the dead body of Anderson. A great shadow starts to cover everything and when Shephad looks up you can see Harbinger above him.

„You fought against the inevitability Shepard. With your failure this cycle is complete.”

(here you see various cutscenes of your comrades dying one by one, all your previous and current squadmates from ME1-2-3, even Admiral Hackett, Joker etc...except for Liara (reason later))

The camera switches back to Shepard eyes, zooming out you see him looking up to Harbinger, and you see he realizes everything is lost. Then you hear the beam of Harbinger is powering up killing Shepherd and everything goes dark.

In the final cutscene you see some sort of underground ruin/maze and three soldier looking character (race unknown) wandering in it. They reach a room flooded with light, and in the middle there is a device on an altar. One of the soldiers touches the device and a hologram appears with a familiar face.

„My name is Liara T’Soni. I am the last survivor of a once proud and space faring civilization. With many other races we fought to end a cycle that has been continued for millions of years...and we failed. But if you are watching this, perhaps there is still hope...”

2. "Neutral" ending

Harbinger reaches the conduit before Shepard. While they are running toward the conduit Harbinger’s beam hits them right before they jump in, Shepard faints.

Shepherd regains his consciousness, he is on the Citadel. From this point its like in the original story. Anderson and the Illusive Man die, and Hackett tries to reach Shepard. Shepard walks to the consol and a hologram of Harbinger appears. Based on the galactic readinss level Harbinger reveals parts of the history of the reapers and reasons why the cycle must continue.

(based on the galactic readiness level here you see various cutscenes of your comrades dying one by one, the lower your galactic readiness level, the more of them die – something similar like in ME2 loyalty system)

Camera switches back to Sphepard, he says his final words to Harbinger or looks up and says „I love you (insert romanced character).” Then he activates the Crucible, the Citadel explodes, the Reapers shut down.

(final cutscenes, showing all the characters that survived, for example Miranda with her sister, Samara with her daughter, Jacob with his wife, jack with her students etc..., and all the civilizations rebuilding. The final scene is showing a statue of Shepard. If your romanced character  survived he/she is standing before it (if the romance option is a female she should be pregnant))

3. Good ending

Its like the neutral ending, except noone dies (well the Illusive Man does, but Anderson doesnt). Before activating the Crucible Harbinger tells the whole story of the reapers to Shepard and tells him its a mistake to break the cycle. „Atleast its our decision” says Shepard and activates the Crucible. The Citadel doesn’t blow up, the Reapers shut down.

(final cutscenes, just like in the neutral ending, now you see everyone for a few seconds, the civilizations rebuilding, and the final cutscene is Shepard watching over the human rebuild process with the romance option assuming he/she survived.

Summary

So ME3 wasn't the "game of my life", but was close. That makes me sad and happy the same time, so my search for the lifetime experience continues, hopefully It'll be granted by you guys. Again many thanks for this serie.

Gabriel D. Celery

P.S.: My suggesstion: make a DLC with proper ending. This franchise deserves a "proper" and "marketable" ending. Otherwise these wonderful five years will be wasted in the very end.

Modifié par Claym0re, 08 mars 2012 - 03:17 .

[Charsi]

My only dislike:

- I enjoyed the game very much, but the endings completely ruined Mass Effect 3 for me, made me fell that all my choices in previous games was worthless!!

Like many are asking, a DLC with a proper ending would be fantastic!

Modifié par Charsi, 08 mars 2012 - 04:04 .

[IndelibleJester]

My review:

I loved the game.

I took the synthesis route - bittersweet ending, there, but it bothers me that Shepard can't live through it (or any of the other endings besides the renegade one) - but Shep can live through the explosion of the citadel and land on Earth? Can I just, you know, take the synthesis route and then run off and adopt krogan babies as per suggested?

I'll pay for a DLC pack that adds more endings, more resolution and shows us more. I'm not satisfied with what we have, and trust me, I love dark endings. I was a Viconia romancer who stayed with her in the end. You should give your people more choices - even those that you don't necessarily agree with.

[Jjacobclark]

good game with a horrible ending which makes mass effect 1, 2, and 3 completely pointless.

[badmojo88]

For me the ending of the game not only ruined the entire game for me, but it poisons the entire series. Mass Effect always made it possible for you as a player to control the outcome of a story, the "endings" of ME3 to me seemed badly nickle and dimed, no epitaph, no closure, no possible happy ending no matter how many hows you've poured into your character. This move by bioware to me seems like a base betrayal to its fans, and could cost them more than they know if they do not fix this fast. Many are already saying things like "won't buy another bioware game until they sort out their endings" and it hasn't been long since the games release. Once the ending of ME3 becomes common known in the main its likely sales will drop, perhaps in other areas. Other game companies have taught us the lesson before "all it takes is one betrayal for the fans to leave" I hope bioware bounces back from this, I'd hate to see them end up paying for one mistake like this.

[xNortronx]

Good
-Gameplay (best of the trilogy)
-Storyline
-Graphics (although the issues with frame rate on PS3)
-Romance scenes

Not so good
-Auto-dialog (it's like watching a movie...)
-Dream cutscenes

Bad (not to say terrible)
-The endings... I still think it is a bad joke and somehow denying it. So much effort to make the best choices in the previous games just to finish like that. It seems like everything I did, didn't matter at all. No epilog either to explain what happens after. I would ask the writers of Mass Effect 3 to play Dragon Age: Origins and learn with them, but It's too late for this to matter.

Conclusion
I don't know what to think. I never posted here before, but I had to do it now so I can express what I am feeling. It's like I have lost hours playing Mass Effect series and it was not worth it at the end. I wouldn't mind a "dark" ending where my choices made some difference. Or one "sad end" that explains the dinamic of the galatic after the war. But you couldn't give neither of them to us, the customers.

4/10

PS: Sorry for the spelling. English is not my first language.

[Tigerjunky]

The endings aren't even bittersweet....they are just... horrible!

[djneohlp]

I have really nothing more to say as the same people have written before...

The short version:

This game blew my ****ing mind...
[

• Story: Fantastic 10/10
  
• Gameplay: Great
  
• Emotions: Wow... It hit me twice that i cried...

]
... UNTIL...

well... you know what happened...
Therefore my overall Rating
0/10

[JalenTigh]

Great, awesome game up until the end. In that final 5 or ten minutes, Bioware managed to not only completely ruin this game... but the entire franchise by making all those oh so important decisions throughout the series, completely meaningless. To make matters even worse, they gave no epilogue whatsoever telling us what happened to all of our friends.

I see absolutely zero reason to play through them ever again

[archvonbaron]

55/100 The game is great and the journy is great but the endings destroy it completly.

Good:
Ambient Diaglogue - I can't express ow much I love it, walking into the mess hall to hear Vega and Garrus one up eachother with war stories was brilliant and it does a lot to make places feel "alive".
Comabt -  it worked very well, was very fluid and forced you to move more then ME2 did, and causing enemies to explode is awesome
Story - it was awesome up until the last 10-15 mins, the Genophage cure was very well done and the Quarian - Geth was was very good aswell, even though I argued against it.
Choices - not the dialgue choices but the ones that you would run into in which you sided with someone such as the Turian and Salarian arguing about turning their VIs into weapons, it again makes the Citadel feel alive
The Engine - quick load times and only 1 crash, looks quite good on my  year old computer
Setting the Scene - things like Liara telling you her contingency plan and deaths of Mordin and Thane were well done and made it sink in what was happening and what was at stake.

Neutral:
Quest Log - it didn't tell you enough about what you were doing and until I found out that loading up the map would point me to where I needed to go it was annoying running around the Citadel for 10mins whenever I was back there.
AutoDialogue - I missed the dialogue wheel, but I will admit the dialogue was damn good on the whole and you still included the investigate so while it's not idea it's more then adequete.


Bad:
Endings - I hate them, everything I've done in ME1 and ME2 means nothing, I'm not looking for Ranbows and Bunnies but an ending without teleporting crew and plotholes large enough to fit a planet through ruins it.
The kid - I had no attachment to the kid at all, it would of been better being Kaiden/Ashley in the nightmares.

The game was damn amazing even though there were a few annoying bugs and audio files not working but that will probably be fixed. I loved it right up until the endings that render everything else useless and even then you had massive plot holes to achieve it (teleporting crew, Normandy heading to Alpha Centuri for some reason).
Both the Citadel and the Normandy feel alive and like the characters have other things to do instead of stand around waiting for you to talk to them.

Modifié par archvonbaron, 11 mars 2012 - 02:48 .