1966 réponses à ce sujet

[happy_diplomat]

I prefer this process better, anyone who has been with Bioware since Black Isle, knows this company is awesome. They are so great at reviewing all fan concerns, and go out of their way to make an amazing experience. Releasing a real ending that will probably feel like an expansion pack is their style. They go big, and I know people who initially beat the game need time to process everything, but once you play through a few more times you will get it. This is entertainment that will be more epic than the best Bethesda could ever do (referencing Fallout series).

[Plejadenwolf]

General:

(+): Music. Great, deep, harmonic and very atmospheric. Fantastic!

(+): Dream sequences. They remind me of the Sorrow from Metal Gear Solid 3. It's great to hear all the familiar whispering voices around and to see them as shadows. Epic!

(-): No planet investigation. Why not choose between the old Mako and the Hammer? A vehicle park of different vessels would have been a nice addition.

(-): The message of building up Shepards legend and buying downloadable content can't be serious. That's just too obvious.



Gameplay:

(+): The combat system is absolutely impressive in my opinion. Especially when I fight against Cerberus troopers. Troopers throwing smoke grenades, sharpshooters, Phantoms, explosions all around... This is all very well done. It really feels like warfare. Great!

(-): The abilities could have been much much better. Where can I uprade my weapon knowledge? Sharpshooting, pistols and gun handling ability ... Where are they? There are only some weapon upgrades, which are nicely done and some cool ammunition abilities but the special knowledge of weapon handling is left out. Fail!

(-): Where can I upgrade the Normandy? There was a video out there promising that I can upgrade the Normandy with parts... Why is this left out?

(-): The dialogue options. Where are they? The option between most of the time two dialogue options and sometimes some optional informations seems very linear to me, even if there are absolut fantastically great spoken dialogues. 
Dialogues generally are well done scriptwise, but I want to choose between options! Hearing a story about some organizations, the family of someone, some small talk, something like that as in Mass Effect 2.


Missions:

(+): All missions are nicely done. The only problem is that the maps are too small and limited in my opinion.

(+): The Mission Arrae: Ex-Cerberus Scientists was great. I see the great influence from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and I liked the outcome.

(+): One of the most impressive sidemissions was Benning: Cerberus Abductions where I had to rescue civilians from
Cerberus troopers. That was absolutely stunning urban warfare in the
22nd century. More please!

(-): They were all just too short in my opinion. As I landed back on Earth with the Citadel in the orbit I seriously thought it could be in the middle of the game timewise. In Mass Effect 1 and especially Mass Effect 2 I enjoyed more time on the whole story plot because I had to do side missions, quests, planet scanning etc. The missions in Mass Effect 2 are not very long, but the whole thing around is much more than in Mass Effect 3. For example loyalty missionsin addition to the main plot and other sidemissions. It feels like there is too much left out.

(-): The prologue is only slightly changed to the demo. It's not authentic and generally disappointing. The problems mentioned weren't solved. Fail!


The Crew:

(+): Crew discussions are absolutely amazing. A drunken Tali? Seriously, that's absolutely stunning! But my new absolute favorite is Garrus. I can really see the development between the series. In Mass Effect 1 he was almost unnoticable, in Mass Effect 2 he becomes and interesting and deep warrior and in Mass Effect 3  he is a joking badass deep warrior. The calibrating weapons joke was a little bit overused, but it was okay. Hearing Garrus talking with all the crew members around is just pure plessure. Great work! 

(-): Too much of the them left out. The whole Normandy feels too empty in my opinion. Why not transfering all surviving crew members into the ship? There was the
It's cool to see them all around and meeting them again on certain places but why are they not on the Normandy especially when they say they will be on board? Neither I'm able to use them for missions nor can I speak to them on Normandy. That's just disappointing.


Enemies:

(+): Great design on the Cerberus stormtroopers and the Reaper units. Especially I want to mention the generic Cerberus trooper, the Reaper Banshees, the Harvester, and finally the absolute great Marodeurs. Designwise they are absolutely unique and perfect in my opinion.

(-): I know that we faced many foes in Mass Effect 3, but there could have been more variety. Some Collectors or just some basic Cerberus soldiers like in Mass effect 1 to add some additional variety. Especially before reaching the Citadel there could have been more unit varieties. Some additional boss fights like in Lair of the Shadow Broker would have been also very nice to see.


The End:

(+): The area in which the end takes part is nicely done. Seeing the Reapers and some parts of the fleet around was a nice idea and well executed. The whole perception is influenced by the situation which is great, too. The overall silence interrupted by explosions outside gives the thing a nice and interesting atmospheric touch.
The philosophical ideas of an absolutely higher species behind ("Dancers at the End of Time", "The Myth of Cthulhu") in general was also a nice addition generally seen.
Technically and atmosherically (!) the Citadel tower is brilliant.

(-): But it could be much much bigger, it could have been so much more. An unpredictable, unforeseable event, some absolutely new and weird foes, an absolutely new force never seen before, an electromagnetic cloud stopping the Reapers. Just something. A boss, dialogue options, just something. This is Mass Effect, a big universe of possibilities, characters, alliances, races and so on. What is their destiny? After the end there could have been much more plot which explains the things a little bit. Reapers, Keepers and so on. Or just the option to talk to the StarChild like with Kreia in the ending of Knights of the Old Republic 2. There is no problem with, that the Citadel child talks metaphoric, nebulous or enigmatically. In contrary it's a great and breathtaking mythical thing, so no complaints about that.
The philosophical-orientated touch is not bad at all, but it could have been much better executed. Especially in comparison to the other two Mass Effect titles. Content please!

The following link sums it up pretty well if this is really the final ending:
www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/

If the indoctrination theory is true and the end is supplied later to us, this would be one of the greatest marketing events ever happened in gaming history. The game would then turn the player immediately into the decisions. The player as a real living subject, who can reflect events happening in the game objectively, is influenced and deceived by the game itself! Many of us were indoctrinated by the decisions themselves and if we didn't choose the "Destroy Reaper" option, we were indoctrinated and the Reaper won. The indoctrination was final in the end as Harbinger lifts of, so they had nothing to fear anymore. If this was the plan all from the beginning then Bioware seriously had written game history with Mass Effect 3. See the complaints around here about the ending, the theories cursing around. This would be gaming history and Mass Effect 3 wrote game history with it. If not, shame on you!

There are to many questions left out unanswered, I only want to sum up some of them:
- Haestrom, the dying sun?
- The Keepers?
- The surrounding fleets around Earth?
- The crew members?
- The mass relays?
- Destiny of the races?
- The idea behind the Reapers and their cycles?
- The Protheans and other races in their cycle?
- The Collectors?
- [fill in unanswered question here]

(-): The Crucible looked like a flying microphone when docking on the Citadel. Some more details on it to avoid it looking like this would be very pleasant.

(-): The end of the Illusive Man is just too similar to Sarens. It's ridiculous. I mean this guy always has a plan, that's why he is called the Illusive Man.


By the way, there was a concept for Saren as an old turian for Mass Effect 1. That was a great one, it could have been Saren's father... It always reminds me of Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars.



Why not letting Saren return as an own unfaithful Reaper renegade who feels the great void of his life before and doesn't have a plan what to do in his new form of life. He could have the form above mixed with some Marodeur parts. He has the power of a Reaper but he does not stand under their control, but he also has no plan what to do with his power. An old and broken but powerful turian spectre. Something like a hermit living on an ice planet passively watching the whole events without being directly included in the events around. That would add some nihilistic touch. Sometimes he just appears and helps Shepard without reason. As temporary character this would be very interesting. For example when he fights Marodeurs he could say something like: "I don't know what they are. Are they brothers? Foes? Shepard, I don't know. As you freed my organic mind from indoctrination I was... dead. But now I'm just... there, neither dead nor living. My indoctrinated organic mind wanted power, I wanted rage on the Reapers for indoctrinating our galaxy... Now I feel... nothing. No rage, no wounds, no pain of beeing indoctrinated. I'm brought back from the void into another void. I don't belong to this realm, I don't belong to anything. There is no future, no beginning, no end."
He would be splitted between a Reaper mind mixed with shards of his old mind, before being indoctrinated by Sovereign. And who brought him back? Maybe some kind of a Saren cult, who think that he can save the galaxy...   
Why not? Well, it's just a suggestion though.

I strayed a little bit from topic I know.


Now back to the fate of the Illusive Man:

I really hope to wake up as Shepard in a Mass Effect sequel hearing the Illusive Man say something like:

(Cerberus station)

Illusive Man: "Shepard's choice on the Citadel was...extreme. Seeing Shepard  taking my forgiven options was a proof on the indoctrination effect and our work over the years. Our goal to open the inner circle of the Citadel was a full sucess. The station now stands above Earth, the new center of the galaxy. Our galaxy.
The Alliance forces are decimated and the Reapers... Something happened with them. They... Disappeared. Maybe only for a while. That gives us the opportunity to research further on their powers. The control of Shepards mind was a first proof of our research."

Cerberus Officer: "And Shepard?"

Illusive Man: "He won't be a problem anymore on our plans. The indoctrination effect brought him into stasis. He is our new and first testing subject. And even if he wakes up, his mind is broken and most of his loyal followers are dead, retreating or splitted after the Citadel event. When not beeing devoured by indoctrination he would have a serious war trauma. He finally is in our hands. We won't make our first mistake a second time. We... I control his mind, Shepard is in my hands and no risk for us anymore."

(Illusive Man walks around)

Illusive Man: "The Galaxy is at a stalemate. For now. Every capital world is either destroyed or scanty on ressources. And this is where Cerberus takes it's place. Our new ressources are in no comparison to the old ones."

And so on...


Don't get me wrong, Mass Effect 3 as such is a great game. But for now it's a love-hate relationship. 

Modifié par Plejadenwolf, 15 mars 2012 - 05:36 .

[NegInfinity]

Chris Priestly wrote...

Hi Everyone

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

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

The final score is 3 out of 10.

You(i.e. Bioware) have very good artists and voice actors. However story writing is poor and gameplay was weak. Before purchasing mass effect 3 I spent a lot of time playing "shin megami tensei" games on PS2 (Persona 3, Persona 4, Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne, Devil Summoner 1/Devil Summoner 2). They are all superior to Mass Effect 3 despite having inferior graphics. 

The two biggest problems of Mass Effect 3 are story and gameplay.

Regarding story (massive spoilers): 
Since the beginning of game there is no mystery of any kind - you know whom you're going to fight, and the only thing that stands between you and final boss is "military readiness". You spend all the time increasing this number. It is extremely boring process - and while you were technically right when you advertised that "every decision matters", you didn't mention that many of them only result in numerical change of "military readiness" (or whateer this number is called). As a result I spend first 25 hours yawning. There is no feeling of urgency of any kind, just an extremely boring task of increasing "military readiness".

To be fair, eventually game becomes better (near the very end). Characters you interact with start to flesh out, and few dialogues become quite nice. For example, shooting cans with Garrus in the citadel was enjoyable. However, those situations start to occur near the end of game, and when I finally started thinking thinking that the game become better, I encountered final mission.

Final mission is a clone of Hellgate: London. Aside from the Reaper, it is nearly indistinguisheble - same palette, same setting, similar enemies. And here is your biggest mistake - the final choice. The choice comes out of nowhere and is disconnected from the rest of the game. It is extremely disappointing and frustrating. Basicaly, it turned out that nothing my character ever did mattered. Renegade/Paragon ranks are largely ignored, choice of allies is largely ignored, there is not even hint of an explanation, and no matter what I choose, I'm screwed. I.e. "you die" or "you die and destroy galactic civilization" or "you die and kill your pilot's girlfriend". Something like that. A tough choice like that could have been reasonable if there were some kind of preparation. There was no preparation and the whole thing is pretty much similar to ending of Deus Ex 2: Human Revolution (they did same thing, and it was nearly as disappointing). The difference is that in Deus Ex :HR final choice, although begin poorly done(compared deus ex 1 or invisible war), made more sense because it allowed you to express your attitude towards central problem in the game world. In ME3 your choice comes out of nowhere, is completely disconnected from the rest of the game, and does not match character's attitude. For example, my shepard (I used that character since ME1) turned out to be a psychotic antisocial character that was only interested in one thing in entire world - romantic interest. This is kinda silly motivation but for me it made character more interesting. Final decision did not allow me to "express" this kind of motivation. Also after 3 games, you expect to be able to get some kind of reward of sorts, instead of "die, die or die" choice.  

Another problem with storytelling is that It felt like you really wanted to make every character I ever encountered to sacrifice himself/herself/itself heroically in front of me. Okay, Modrin, was kinda logical. Legion didn't felt like it was really necessary. But when Samara tried to blew her brains out in front of me it become utterly ridiculous. 

Another probelm is that you failed to re-enact enjoyable moments that were present in ME1. In ME1 there was a nice dialogue with the reaper (on the planet where experiments to cure genophage were performed). In the scene I could literally feel some kind of "dread" or "awe" because it felt like I contacted something ancient and inhumane. The scene were nearly perfect. You tried to reenact it on Quarian homeworld, but failed - not sure what's different (same tune plays in the background), but the feeling is gone - the reaper in question does not give impression of "ancient machine of doom". Anyway...

The next problem is gameplay. Combat is fairly mediocre, but is not entertaining. Throughought the whole game I've been fighting roughly similar enemies, and were never really pressed to think about situation. Enemies used mostly the same strategy, enemies were mostly unchanged throughought the game, and as a result it was boring even when I was killed easily. "Sit in cover till you regenerate" or "rush to the next trigger". That's pretty much all strategy there is in combat. No real challeng, and the AI is quite dumb - enemies attempt to "hide" in plain sight, and allies do not stay in cover when necessary. It would have been better if I had to adapt to ever-changing situation. After Shin Megami Tensei 3: where combat encoutneres were frequent and every single one of them could kill you in completely unexpected way, ME3 combad mechanics do not cut it. They are too boring and predictable.

Another very big problem is customer experience. In russia you sold the game without english subtitles. Because the game uses DRM AND because (unlike steam) Origin does not allow me to install language I want, now I'm stuck with product I can't fully enjoy without breaking EULA and downloading "english language pack" from other websites. I understand the need for regional lock, but, damn it, if you bind game to region, at least make it possible to change ingame language. For a person that knows english playing localized game is roughly equivalent to trying to eat once delicious cake that fell into cat's toilet once. Because of your copy protection scheme I can't sell the game to somebody else and buy language version I want and I also can't be completely sure that game purchased in UK will activate in my account. Frankly, it would have been much better if you kept using Steam. I'm trying to resolve the issue via customer support, but I'm not sure if It'll work out. Frankly, the whole thing with lack of english subtitles made me think that somebody in EA or Bioware wants to encourage piracy.

The good thing about the game is artistic work and voice actors. Models are nicely detailed, and many voice actors are brilliant (Female shepard, Garrus).  Unfortunately,
 this doesn't help against horrible ending and weak gameplay: while ME3 has some great moments, there are 5 of them and their total length is less than 8 minutes. The rest of the game is quite weak. There are also problems with character designs - I'm not sure who had a "bright" idea to redesign Ashley, but now she looked like she had a plastic surgery and it went really wrong. Frankly, she was much prettier in ME1, and now reminds me a "Cat Woman" (no, not from batman universe, it is plastic surgery-related). I suspect that same person is responsible for ruining Flemeth in Dragon Age 2 (her "improved" body looked really out of place compared to Dragon Age 1). Another big problem I noticed in graphical department is fist-fight in certain dialogue. It was horribly animated (hits had no strength in them when they connect) and looked utterly ridiculous. There was a similar problem in Jade Empire. THe reason for the problem is Motion Capture. While Mo-Cap allows realistic movement, because you can't expect two motion actors to seriously hit each other with full strength, mo-capped fights that has connecting hits can end up looking ridiculous.

Another thing about story-writing. Somebody in your writing staff tires to press "gay relationship" issue too hard. I don't have much of a problem with it (heck, Sims had same-sex couple for a very long time, no reason to make fuss about it now), however, I felt like the whole thing were handled in rather blunt and tasteless way - weeping shuttle pilot felt really out of place. In addition to that romantic lines are handled very badly - for the half of the game the only thing you can hear from your romantic interest from ME1 whom you've never seen for the last 3 years is "hello, shepard". This is insanely annoying. Perhaps that's the reason for many Renegade decision, but I doubt you designed it this way on purpose.


Anyway, bottom line:
Good voice actors and graphics, absolutely horrible ending that ruins the story instead of adding a conclusion, boring gameplay, weak story telling for the majority of game. Ending in conjuction with gameplay outweights good qualities, and as a result final score is "3 out of 10". The biggest problem is ending - all other problems with the game could be forgiven if the ending felt right. The ending didn't feel right, and as a result it took out 5..7 out of game ratings.  I think that you should play Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne to get some ideas. I cannot guarantee that it would produce desired effect, but that game also had multiple endings, decisions had more weight, and the ending I got (Neutral) was handled in much better fashion (it was more logical) then what I saw in ME3.

Modifié par NegInfinity, 15 mars 2012 - 05:59 .

[Quessiro]

Just finished ME3 - by far THE WORST in the trilogy.

• Many ideas stolen from other games. Don't get me wrong, I love Raiden. But stealing him from MGS and putting in black Cerberus armour is simply wrong. His manga-sword does not fit in this universe. Period.
• Simple, predictable story influenced a little by previous choices. Killed Rachni Queen or not... doesn't matter, she will be there.  
• Big gap between ME2 and ME3 story. Ended as Cerberus, now you're Alliance. Well, who cares.
• In ME2 Samara said there are only three Ardat-Yakshi alive. Six months later, in A-Y monastery they knew that Reapers will need many banshees, so they decided for miraculous multiplication. Of course.
• Many stupid, scripted traps. Combat made more difficult just by closing doors behind your back. On Rannoch Shepard jumps to fight the Reaper on small flat area, closed from all sides. Tactical choice indeed. Especially when having geth carrier floating nearby. On Earth talked to Liara, realised I missed Garrus, he's just behind doors... no way, handle is only on one side. On the other side, of course. Down there I see James... talk to him? No, no way to jump down from the bridge. Many examples like that.
• No side quests, only main story. Heard in a hallway that Elcors are desperately searching Saint Ear of a Black Pig, go there, scan, get back. You call it a side quest?
• Heavy Weapons removed. Why? I found an old video blog of ME2. You guys have been so excited about adding them to game... "adds new level of excitement and dynamic combat". Well, doesn't add any more.
• And last, but worst - deeply dissatisfying ending. "The Crucible gave me new powers, you can destroy me, free to go" - it made me laugh. And then my precious character, cherished in save files for years just fried. I wasn't laughing any more. The ending simply destroyed replaying fun which previous Mass Effects had. I played ME1 several times on PC, ME2 several times on PC and then again on PS3, bought nearly all DLCs. I played ME3 once and I don't want to play it any more. I don't want your DLCs.

Face import bug is very annoying too, imported character is simply different and there is no way to go back when intro scene starts playing and you see how your character really looks alike. Scene skip doesn't work there... why? I was so angry carving my character to resemble previous games... and being forced to watch opening scene tenth time...

My private rating:

• ME1: 8/10
• ME2: 9/10
• ME3: 3/10

Modifié par Quessiro, 15 mars 2012 - 05:59 .

[MoSa09]

Overall Score is a twofold thing.

1. 98 percent of the game, before the attack on the beam in London: 100/100

2. after taking the beams event into account as well: 2/100.

Positive

• Shep was finally human. She showed despair, hope, doubts. You could see and feel all this burden was tearing her apart. She need her squadmates help to recover and keep going, and that made the friendships and bonds more alive then the previous one-way trip where Shep solves all personal issues of the crew while taking a break from killing reapers.
• The Crew moving along the Normandy, and talking with each other. I was so happy i saw this first time. It adds to them feeling alive.
• Shep having a sense of humor finally. When she mocked a drunk Ash, i had to chuckle all the time.
• I liked that Shepard got wounded in the end. Its the same as making her more human by showing conflicting emotions. The game gets just more believable when the hero gets hurt, and not just passes every impossible odd unscathed. Besides, seeing Shep in such pain, and the very emotional dialogue that evolved with Anderson (not to mention the cut pieces about rasing a family and being a mom) where just brilliant and added a new layer of immersion for me.
• The first 98 percent of the narritive were beautiful, gripping, engaging, and story telling at its best, and writers deserve praise for that . What they deserve for the last percent is a different story.
• Emotional moments. When Thane said his final prayer and you realized he was praying for you, and the way Shep reacted....that had me shivering, so well it was done, so emotionally.

Negative (general gameplay)

• I was a little bewildered by the fact that even in the third game, the culprit of a romance is having sex on the eve of battle. It made some sense in game 1, since you were all knew to each other, and since your crew was new also in ME 2, it was okay there as well. But ME 3. I kept my love interested from ME 1, no cheating, and had the option to tell that i wanted a real relationship, and that i was all dead serious. After that, no more convo before"tomorrow is the day Shep, lets have sex this night". It doesn't have to be all about marriage and children, but trying to evolve a realtionship beyong the standard fling before we face death would be good.

Negative (engame beginning with laser beam)

In listing my concerns of the last chapter of endgame, i will treat the ending as it is for granted, and not indulge in metagaming or interpreting what i saw. This is not say i disregard metagaming, or the theories that players have come up with (in fact, the indoctrination theory is brilliant imo), but i feel like a product is judged by what it is, not by what i could mean if read a special way or hoping for future corrections to come.

• Massive plotholes

• I had Liara with me when i attacked the beam, the endgame showed her stranded on a jungle planet. How she made it from London aboard the Normandy and why she would abondon me in the first place is beyond me
• How did Tim get onto the Citadel? It was a hard struggle to even reach the beam, and judging by the Reapers attack on his base, they won't simply let him pass by either. Given he looks wounded, so it could be he had to fight his way in as well, but why did no one notice Cerberus arriving, and/or attacking the beam?
• How did Joker escape with the Normandy to this remote planet he's on? He either escaped when the Citadel fired its colorful beam, which means he can't be able to use a mass relay and must be stranded somewhere in Sol system, on a jungle world? Or he did abandon Shep early, decided to fly into the middle of one of the heaviest warzones on earth, picked up Liara and headed for a mass relay.
• If the starchild is the keeper of the Citadel, leader of the Reaper...in ME 1, we had Sovereign docking with the Citadel, battling the fleet, while Shep battled Husk Saren. And yet this being who thinks its time to start a new cycle decided to simply do nothing?
• I just have to point this out: We are certain organic life will create synthetics beings that will eventually wipe out organic life. Thats why i created i created synthetics beings to wipe out organic life. Ehhm, yes...But most astonishing is Shepards lack of response. The starchild can argue his case, can even claim they preserve the the lesser advanced species to flourish. But Shep can disagree!! Yet its an option you do not have. Shep could point that she has united Geth and Quarians, she can point to the simple fact that she doesn't believe history will simply repeat itself over and over. She can simply tell the starchild to go to hell as she wants to life dand face whatever future holds despite the outlook. Shep has been fighting the odds and the inevitable before, yet this time she accepts the starchilds questionable assumptions without a fuss.

• The lack of any closure. Closure serves a purpose: its not just the way that you need something to end a story, it also helps the reader/watcher/gamer to disconnect from the story. Your beloved charactres died or they moved on, their fate is fulfilled, their legacy remaining. For their next chapter, you as a reader/watcher/gamer knows they don't need you anymore, you can let them go, and their story has ended. ME 3 provides none of that. You know that the Reapers have stopped slaying the galaxy, and that a few of your crew miraculeously strand on some jungle world. And that Shepard is supposed to be dead, in most endings. In no way is this game trying to detatch you from the story, and most importantly its hero, at least in my opinion, and show you what the hero has created, what legacy was left behind, how the world is going on now. ME 3 barely answers the previously raised questions, and in the end, opens up a bunch of new ones.
• Same endings. The game was promised to contain 16 different endings. Call it nitpicking or jumble with words, but it doesn't. The game has 3 different endings, 4 if you count that mysterious breathing scene. The basic principles are all the same. All others are slight variations from the main theme that does add nothing new or unique to that very ending that it could be considered a stand alone ending. And even the 3 distinct ones mainly differ in the color of the explosion only. They will certainly also differ how they affect the galaxy, Shep and her legacy, but since closure of this kind is not present, this promised impact is left to the imagination but just not part of the game. The only difference i as a player got to see was a different explosion color.
• The total lack of meaning of the previous game, including most of ME 3 itself. I have heard that if your war rating is low, the end choice can be determined on preset by the choices you made before, but i don't know if thats true. The war assests affect the choices you can gain, and if you can see someone with an N7 dogtag breathing or not. This however, is in game mechanic. Why does it matter if my ems rating is high to the starchild? There is reason and good player theory on the subject, but the game itself offers none, far as i am aware. This is perhaps dissatisfied player speaking, but i had expected previous choices turning out to be good, or coming back to haunt me in the end. Yet they all just were calculated into some unseen formula that shaped my options for an equally vague and meaningless (in terms of consequences being shown/explained in the game) endgame choice.

In the end, though this might sound extreme, this has run the entire franchise to the ground for me. Whats the point in playing 3 games, and like 170 hours of gameplay just for this one character, if nothing matters in the end and despite all my efforts, it ends in a vague death, my crew's fate being odd at best, and picking between 3 mysterious, vague, and in terms of the game, absolutely meaningless coices. All previous games lead to this decisive point, and the rest of the brilliant ME 3 (until this special endgame part, its the best of all 3 imo) leads to this poiunt also. And this point is just bad, and thereby negates everything leading to it also.

To summarize a lenghty post, my personal opinion, and while i try to kept it as objective as possible and leave subjective thoughts on story bits out of it, i am sure i didn't succeed completely,

[beserker7]

I would have given it a 10 or perfect score, even though all games have flaws, except for the bad endings.

I think it can never be considered great with those endings. The guys missed the mark BAD!

[Magus_42]

I haven't read the rest of this thread, but I bet it gets ugly in places. This is my 10 second review.

I thought this was far and away the best entry in the series, and it's in competition for my favorite Bioware RPG ever. The level designers should be given a round of applause for realizing everything from giant battle scenes to everyday life on the Citadel with skill. The story portrays a world in collapse with delicacy and intelligence. The characters are as engaging as ever. Yeah, there are some technical glitches (and a major face import issue), and a bit more variety in enemies would have been nice, but nothing that really gets in the way of a great game.

The ending is ... rough. I get why some people feel cheated. I don't. For me, it's okay for a story to end badly. Something things just don't work out how we would like. I don't have to like it, though. Over the course of three games, I'd grown to care quite a bit about this crazy fictional world, and to have things draw to a close the way they did bothers me. That's okay, though. Thanks for creating something worth getting bothered about.

[marstinson]

Leaving aside my first, second, and third impressions (posted and linked earlier), here's my final review:

www.tesguides.com/blog/2012/03/15/mass-effect-3reviewed/

I did my best to look past the ending controversy and focus on everything else. It's not so easy to make that work on a few points, but I gave it my best shot.

[bmg2]

Oops, wrong thread.

Modifié par bmg2, 15 mars 2012 - 07:13 .

[Klijpope]

The ending was ok... but clunkily executed. I can live with it. And I loved the fact that Shep ended up blasted like that; that was a kick to the gut - it felt final. But then it all goes a bit squiffy.

However, the rest of the game it fantastic. I'll have to see on my other playthroughs, but it felt organic and alive - there were some really nice character moments. And it was incredibly emotional, with some nice call backs to previous decisions, and some good humour.

I think this is why the endings get labelled "abominations" rather than just disappointing - we've become so invested in this story and it's characters that any sort of ending would leave us grieving, and the sense of letdown gets magnified.

But I'm still going to do a straight run through from ME1 to ME3 with a new Shep this summer, and play though all my other Sheps to the end. A somewhat clunky and abrupt finale does not make me hate the game - the journey there was amazing. Knowledge of the outcome will give the early events a poignant context.

Modifié par Klijpope, 15 mars 2012 - 07:04 .

[JediSoth]

I posted this review on Amazon.com. While you can read it here, I'll repost it here in case you don't to go to their site. I gave it 4/5 stars for fun, 3/5 overall. Had it been a percentage rather than their system, I think I would have probably rated it 85% (-5% for each of the three things I point out under "The Ugly").

Where to start? I have such mixed feeling about Mass Effect 3.

The Short
Overall,
playing it was an incredible experience. I would go so far as you don't really play this game, you experience it (and I mean that in a good way). Mass Effect 3 is one of the most emotionally-engaging games I have ever experienced. If you think of video games as all Angry Birds and Tetris, then that statement will make no sense to you. It's more like an interactive novel or movie, one in which YOU control the protagonist.  As such, you develop (or not) relationships with the other characters in the game based on the decisions you make; what you say to them, how you treat them, how you treat others. It's a more depth experience than you can imagine if the last time you played a video game was when Pac-Man was king. The characters are well-written, well-rounded, well-acted, and feel real. By the end, you feel like you know them, like they're your friends. It's not surprising people develop feelings for these characters (just as people do for characters in a book, television series, or movie).

The Good
There is a level of detail in this game that makes the world seem alive. People talk to each other. They walk around your ship and interact with one another. Some even form relationships with each other that you can influence. People in the background have arguments. You can support one side or the other, or just listen. Many of these little background stories are heartbreaking. It is a time of war and no one comes through unscathed. If you go into Mass Effect 3 not having played the other two games, much of this will probably be lost on you, but if you have taken the time to play Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, then these conversation will have weight. Some, you have to do a little digging to understand their full impact, which usually makes them even more heartbreaking.

And that does NOT include the conversations you have with your squadmates. During my playthrough, I encountered all living squadmates from the previous two games, along with some other minor characters from the Normandy. The game does a good job of making you feel like you made a difference in their lives, even as you run around the galaxy trying to rally support for a final push back against the Reapers. Some of the impacts you make would be history-in-the-making in the real world (and are considered as such in the fictional world). You feel like you really did make a difference that will be felt for generations and it's presented in a touching, emotionally-satisfying way. I enjoyed the gameplay, as well (the combat). Now, I know there are other games with squad-based, cover shooter mechanics. I have not played those, so I can't say how Mass Effect 3 stacks up to those. I hear that it's not as good as those other games; it is merely adequate. What works for one person may not work for another as far as how gameplay works. It worked for me; I have no beef with it. I felt the way weapon upgrade and squad powers work were the best of the series. I liked the way it was handled so well, I would pay to replay Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 with the Mass Effect 3 engine. Planet scanning has been severely curtailed and in every case where you have to do it, you're only looking for one spot on a planet, then you're done.

The Bad
There are some bugs. There is a much-reported face import bug if you bring in custom Shepards from Mass
Effect 1 & 2. I did not encounter this bug and I usually play with the default faces anyway. There are problems with mouse button remapping; namely, the scanning function on the galaxy map. If you remap the mouse button that does this by default (which you might if you're a lefty like me, or just like to use the right mouse button for movement), system scanning does NOT work and you won't be able to find any assets for determine which planets you need to scan. This will make the game IMPOSSIBLE to play to the fullest extent (unless you want the
really horrible endings). Fortunately, restoring that button to default and reloading a save will fix the problem. I had to change the way I played the game as a result of this bug (as yet, unpatched) and it make combat awkward, though not impossible. I don't think I would feel comfortable with that particular control scheme to play at harder
difficulties, though, since I'd have to retrain myself. I also encountered ONE instance of a character vanishing on me while I was talking to them.

I did not experience any crashes, or anything I would consider game breaking. All the bugs I encountered were of the "that's annoying, but I can deal" type rather than the "this needs patched now or I can't play" type.

Multiplayer is entertaining, but I don't care for multiplayer play in general. I think tying in the single player game to multiplayer is a mistake. I understand the concept behind it, and it's really an interesting idea but I wish it were more optional than it is. Playing multiplayer boosts your Effective Military Readiness (which make the "better" endings easier to achieve--more on that later). What I am concerned with, is what happens when EA decides,
finally, to take the multiplayer servers down? Will they patch the single player game so that no longer affects your Readiness? It might not happen for years, but eventually, the Galaxy at War servers won't stay up forever. Ultimately, it's a minor concern and there are ways around the "benefits" your single player game receives from multiplayer.

The Ugly
Here there be SPOILERS

You've been WARNED. SPOILERS AHEAD

First: there is an melee-based NPC that the developers build up through conversation as being a serious challenge. The problem is: he's not. But the game doesn't let you determine that on your own because the first two times you encounter him, you're defeated in cutscenes. The first time, you don't even get ANY control over the situation. The Mass Effect games are well-known for their lack of weapon continuity in cut-scenes (i.e. you appear in cutscenes wielding weapons you may not actually be using on that mission). The second time, you get to fight him, but you're still forced to lose even though you could conceivably curbstomp him (I did; I knocked his shields down to the point he called in air support to suppress me THREE times and he never got to melee range). When the game takes control away from you in order to force an outcome, it is EXTREMELY frustrating, especially when you know you would win if you had control (obviously, that's why they don't let you have that control). It's a really lazy way to create artificial difficulty.
This is enough to knock a star off the Fun Rating.

Second: there are dream sequences interspersed throughout the narrative (at the beginning of each "act"). While I understand their supposed to represent the stress under which Shepard is now operating, and his PTSD
issues with the things he's witnessed and what he's had to sacrifice, they don't really work. The character about which you dream is not someone you've even met or interacted with (not to the depth of characters like Garrus, Liara, Tali, Ashley or Kaiden). As a result, I had no emotional connection with that character and it just felt like a ham-fisted attempt at emotional manipulation that wasted my time. It didn't work for me. It was as though the developers said "OK, right now, at this point you have to feel SAD." There are points during the game where you
legitimately can feel sad, but those dream sequences are not one of them. They add NOTHING to the game and, in my opinion, detract from it, especially the one that occurred in the middle of the game-end romance scene that could have been the emotional high of the game (the last night with your love interest, before the final battle where you KNOW people are going to die). It was jarring and pulled me out of the game.
The first and second together are enough to knock a star off the Overall rating.

Third: the endings. I won't go into full details, but I felt the endings were neither satisfying nor offered any sort of closure. They are poorly explained and contain apparent errors of continuity that are baffling, and in some cases, completely impossible the way the scenes are presented. An epic story deserves an epic conclusion and the type of head-scratching "deep message" endings you get here are frustrating, baffling, and just bad. You are told that it is inevitable that synthetics and organics are destined to destroy each other, and thus, the Reapers come every 50,000 years to harvest advanced civilizations to prevent this. However, you can demonstrably prove TWICE in the game that this is untrue. You can encourage a personal, romantic relationship between an organic and an AI lifeform and you can bring peace to the Geth & Quarians and restore the Quarian homeworld. There CAN be
peace between synthetics and organics. However, during the ending conversations, there is no opportunity to point out the patent falsehoods with which you're being presented. The Mass Effect games have always featured Shepard going in against impossible odds, being told "You WILL fail" and saying "NO", then proceed to BEAT THOSE ODDS. Here, you don't get the satisfaction of Shepard even arguing for that. He just accepts what he's told by this unknown entity. The final choice you make at the end results in something that goes against the whole concept of choice or destroys ALL for which you have fought and suffered. It feels like the developers wanted to make a point that sometimes you just can't really win and no matter what, we all face a no win scenario. Plus, even though you can have up to three choices on how to end the game, there really is little difference in how the results are presented.

That's a valid viewpoint and one that is well-suited for movies or books. But this is an interactive narrative. There are thousands of variables in this game that are affected by what your decisions were in two previous games. There should be an option for a satisfying ending with closure, even if it difficult to achieve, even if most of the endings result in doom (and I'm not talking about having Shepard live; having the protagonist sacrifice himself in a narrative like this is perfectly valid, if a bit cliche). It should be achievable in a single non-imported playthrough without using multiplayer.

There are people who are fine with the endings. Most people are not from what I've seen. Ultimately, you have to decide for yourself if you're satisfied with the types of endings Mass Effect 3 provides for the epic story you've just played. I am not satisfied with the endings. I think they're poorly done and I'm disappointed in Bioware because I know they can do better.

Gamefront.com does an excellent job explaining the problems I have with the endings. I would not go so far as to say I "hate" them, but disappointing is not inaccurate.
The endings are enough to knock another star off the Overall Rating.

I played Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 back-to-back in preparation for this game. I was ready for it to be great. I was ready for Bioware to deliver an epic conclusion to a series in which I had invested myself for several years. I love the universe they created and rank it very highly in my top sci-fi universes. The disappointment I feel for the end makes me sad. Fortunately, the rest of the game is good enough (even with the aforementioned NPC & dream sequences) that I can say: What a ride. Never have I been so happy to be an emotional wreck. It's funny
(in the right spots), heart-breaking, and exciting. If you like the ending, you'll probably feel the game is one of the best ever made. If you don't like the endings, and can ignore them in your mind, you'll agree it's worth playing for everything else. If you loved the other two games, you owe it to yourself to take Mass Effect 3 for a spin, just so
you can hang with Garrus and all your other friends one last time.

[edited to fix bad formatting from cut & paste]

Modifié par JediSoth, 15 mars 2012 - 07:20 .

[maegi]

As an all time Mass Effect fan;

My review grade is 8.5/10. It could've been 10 but the ending kinda raised many questions. I am not reflecting my perception of EA-BioWare's behaviour to the overall grade I've given, or it would ve been 7/10 (regarding DLCs, pushed side goodies etc)

GOOD:

+ The feeling of war was immense, I enjoyed every second. Citadel refugees, missing people posts, NPC dialogues, news etc...

+ Combat and atmosphere was awesome. Especially watching the fleets skirmishing while we fought on the ground was giving me nerdgasms.

+ Combat speed was quite good. There were some control glitches but the overall thing was the best in the series imho.

+ Even though the effects were quite limited, seeing modifications and more weapons were a nice touch. Same goes for armor.

+ Mordin's sacrifice, Thane's death, Quarian - Geth strugle, Cerberus hindering things (even though the design of KL was quite fail) were all fun.

+ Timed missions were fun though I would be happier to see some kind of a "notice" regarding that.

+ Even though I didn't hate the planet resource hunt (thanks to Tricia Helfer's voice), the removal added a lot to the gamespeed.

+ I really enjoyed most of the monster designs. Banshees in particular, were great.

+ Level design were the best in all ME's imho. Tuchanka, Thessia, Temple, Cerberus base busts were all fun.

+ Fleet battle videos !!!!! Nerdgasm!!!

BAD

- Controls had flaws. There were more than a few times that I died because the control didn't understand me trying to jump over, not trying to take cover.

- Kinect voice commands were late at times to respond, giving a rather bleh feeling.

- Legion's death was quite pointless / wasn't delivered well. If he has the only knowledge, how come he is linked to the others and not sharing it. It wasn't explained well.

- Some of the missions not being explained well (time issues etc) caused certain "ermm, wut?" situations.

- Story had too many holes (more on the UGLY section).

- EDIT: Music was the worst of all ME series. Best is still ME 1. The only soundtrack in the series worth buying, and I did that last year

- Some of the dialogues were awesome, and some were uber bad. There was an issue of consistency.

- The interface was good in ME 2. Why did you change it? If it ain't broke, don't fix it means anything to you?

- KL dude's design was terrible. Ninja guy? Seriously? Why? Was trying to make it to the japanese market?

- Less team members may've meant more but the choices were bad imho. And more team members = better. I may understand that Grunt or Wrex fighting with Krogans but Zaeed not hanging around on Normandy? Kasumi? Come on, these people didn't have anything left in their lives to hang on to, why did you remove them.

- Prothean guy being a DLC -> from what I read, it covers an important part of lore - story gaps with his dialogues. You wanted to have this as a DLC so that we would have to buy it non the less? (more at UGLY section)

- EDIT: Forcing player to play MP to see SP stuff.. bleh.

UGLY

- I am not against a DLC being pre-planned and ready to be released together with the game. But having some major story patches in a rather expensive DLC is a cheap move. I adored Mass Effect 2's DLC approach and I bought Shadow Broker willingly. Now as a fan, you are FORCING me to learn more about the game via this paid DLC. No, sorry, I will read it from the wiki but I won't pay for such an attitude.

- Ending was ugly. Not even bad, ugly. You are not only finishing a game, you are finising a SAGA there. So it had to be good. By good, I don't mean a happy ending. Even if the ending was dark, it should ve been delivered with finesse. Instead, I watched a vague ending video and a cover up post-txt that obviously says "we have more DLC coming but we couldn't tie it up, so trolololo". Bad. Very Bad. Are you sure you are the same company that delivered us Baldur's Gate?

- I don't like Gamespot, especially after their Kane & Lynch fiasco. But the article titled "Who the H... is James Vega?" kinda summed it up all nice. Dividing the core lore into different products to squeeze the juice more is a bad move. EA may be handling things here from their business perspective but this is not an action flick, it is a sci-fi lore no matter the gameplay, so certain things should have been handled with better care, with better understanding of your community. This was an all time failure on your end, even worse than Dragon Age 2 disaster.


You may hate me for the things I said. You may mute me, ban me, whatever. I bought BioWare games since 97-8, heh, I even have a Jade Empire poster hanged on my wall, framed, polished. I live in Turkey and until 2003-4, we didn't have proper means to buy things from online shops, Games started to arrive here in after 2006-7 properly. I was ordering games to people going to EU and USA, getting ripped off at times, awaiting for months at times. Some of those games were your releases. So bear with me when I say that I am a fan.

And no matter how much of a fan I am, I will not buy anything new from BioWare unless the attitude changes. There may be a group of players that you want to milk and you can milk, they may always be there to make you happy, but I don't want to be one of them and I won't be one of them.

Thank you.

Modifié par maegi, 15 mars 2012 - 08:31 .

[StrawberryRainPop]

Bioware, Please show me that you care.

Please.read this...








Before
reading this, i want to state that this is aimed at any Bioware
Employee, this is my personal expeirence with the game, and after
finishing it. This is not written as a hate message at all, and i do
want to thank you guys for the main bulk of the experience.

For
people on the forums, perhaps you can share your experience with the
game, but this thread is meant to be polite, so that we can speak to
Bioware employees in a civil manner.
[/b]
I
spent a long time writing this, and oragnizing it the best i can. I
know this is REALLY LONG, but its really personal to me, and i cut down
as much as i could.

This is
the first time i am writing something as long as this, but i'm really
pouring my heart out here, so please bear with me, and read the whole
thing if you can.  



First off,
i just want to say how i feel about the overrall game, then i will talk
about some elements of it. I will gloss over the ending though, because
thats been covered a lot in other threads. But lets start with the good stuff!

Mass Effect 3 started so strong!

And was emotionally powerful. There were moments of the game that i could not believe how much choice i had!
Mordins
story and the genophage was amazing. That i had power over curing an
entire race, and the fate of my best friend, was in a word, incredible.


There
didnt feel like there was any throwaway missions, like in ME1 and 2.
Scanning and resource gathering has been cleaned up, and no downtime fel
like a waste.




And Combat!
WOW! Loved the fluid motion. I know how some people said it was too
much like other action games? But thats being hypocritical IMO. The game
has always been about the third peson action for gameplay, and its just
been refined so that playing in realtime feels great! So kudos to you
in the gameplay.



The Music...Breathtaking.
Even as i'm writing this, i am still listening to the soundtrack. I
think that speaks to how much of a mark it has made on me.



Writing,
well, great for the most part, its solid. But the bond and interactions
with the characters is really good, especially the bromance with
Garrus! And some scenes where your choice matters, like the Geth/Quarian
war, really hit home with Tali. And the ways and different outcomes
were great, true to the series.

There are also some nice themes
about synthetics VS Organics, and an underveloped plot line about
whether Shepard might be a clone, but it added an element of mystery.
Pity it wasnt resolved.

The political situation was intriguing, and we played a big part in that. Another great job there.

Also nice touch on surprise cutscenes and dream levels. Really adds to the story and the character drama on Shepard.



The coop multiplayer,
should have been better explained how it affected the SP expeirence,
but its a really fun little mode that allows the fans who love the
combat to keep playing for hours. It feels great, and has an addictive
levleing system. Another great job!




However,
this is the part where i have to state the flaws, and please, do take
note of them. Here are some of the minor gripes/flaws first.



Squadmates and Romances



A
missed opputunity. So many people were cut off the roster. I understand
why, but your romances should not have been cut out. If i romances
Jack, there should be an option for her to come back, instead of a
default character.

Also, dissapointed in some romances.
It was not a big part of the game, like it should have been. Love
scenes were still very PG-13, wasnt very well done, and gone in some
cases. Tali? 

And about Tali, for a game where you play as
Shepard, why cant we see her face if Shepard has clearly seen it in real
life? Not just as a picture frame....That bothered me a lot. Plus, if
you had a conflicting romance, there was no fight for your love, or
conflict like in ME1 or 2. If you went back to one, the other would just
quietly surrender. Not very emotional....

And there is a lot of
favourtism to some romances, and disregard for others. Thane, Jack, 
Jacob, were some of the underused ones.



Also the squadmmates were underused in the final act. 
In ME2, we assigned roles to each of them. Very cool, it plays on how
well the player knows them, and had consequence to their lives, and
yours. In ME3, you just picked 2, and the rest do nothing, and the 2 you
pick have no significance. So yes, squadmate interaction was very
underused. Though what little there is is mostly well done.


[color=rgb(255, 0, 0)">Missed Opputunities and lack of New Innovation: ][/color]
There
was nothing new added to the formula. Would have been interesting for
Shepard and the Normandy to play a bigger part in the war.


No
Galatic combat, not even in the final scenes, where we know the
normandy should be i nthe fight. A chance to play as joker?  Would have
been cool to take part in the larger scale battles, we never feel like
we were in large scale combat often enough. Controlling the normandy
could have been a big choice too. Where to send them, as backup,
offensive, defensive.



[u]The Final Act (this is where to starts to fall apart).

I
will spilt this part into 2 sections.  1. talking about the scenes
before boarding the cruible, and  2. from the Cruible onwards.



1.The fight on Earth.
This was where the game started the falter. Little choice was given, no
choice between your squadmmates, as stated earlier, and add to that,
the whole fight on earth was compressed into Shepard fighting in London,
just regular ground combat, to certain locations, and eventually to a
missle pad. Thats it. Sure it was thrilling, but there was little we
havve not seen before.

Also, it starts to become a corridor
shooter at this point. Fun, but no choices involved. So it has to fall
on the oure cutscene storytelling.

Soon, after the regular combat, we head to....

2.The Scenes on the Cruible.
This
is where everything falls apart. I dont think i have to repeat what
others have already been saying, so i'll spare you the lecture.

There
was no choice at all. No chance to save the Illusive Man, no chance for
mercy.  Still, there was a certain thrill to verbally fight the
illusive man, but it could have been done much better.




And then a bright light hit Shepard....

-Plot Holes

-No Choice at all

-Every Single choice leading up to here,had no effect.

-Character inconsistencies

-Preordained ending forced to us

-Weak cliched writing

-Deux Ex machina

-Destroys a ton of the back story.

-Cliffhanger ending

-lack Of closure

-Dissapointing conclusion

-lack of Ending variations

-
Atop of all that, after the dissapointment, we get a DLC sign.
(personally insulting to me, this should have been the end of Shepard's
Journey, not more DLC added to it)




These are some of
the key problems that the god kid introduced within the last 10 minutes
of the game. I dont want to continue talking about why i hate the
ending. I think you know why Bioware.

The journey has to have an
ending to define the experience. Imagine if i had a great road trip to
Las Vegas, having fun on the journey, but i arrive at Las vegas, finding
out its destroyed, and there been an explosion killing thousands there.




All over a sudden, thats all i remember. The experience is tainted.


Anyway, here a great segment that GothamLord  said. Please read it, its not that long. If you dont have time, you can skip it, and read my final point.


It talks about how Mass Effect 3 is like a bad birthday party. Its sad and humourous, check it out!

http://social.biowar...5/index/9985562




Thats how i feel Bioware.

Confused and sad. I cant tell you the number of times i cried after the credits finished. I remember the moment.



About 2am in the morning, 9th March.

Alone in my room. The monitor light flickering against my lenses.

I was crying alone, in complete disbelief at what i just saw.

I felt lost. And so very empty.

I needed something...someone...

at 2am i wasnt going to bother my friends with this

Took me a while, then i started googling on the net.






Was i the only one who felt this way?

No, Clearly i was not. The people on the forums, broken like me, were crying out.

Not metaphorically, but literally.

My friend called me the next day, she finished the game too. She came over later, and cried after a while.

We ate ice cream later together after that. Swapping stories of our endings. Amazed at how bad it was.

We were trying so hard to find possible reasons.

Did we just play the game wrongly? What did we do wrong?


SKIP 3 DAYS LATER

Sadness turned into anger.

Anger spouted across the internet, acorss the forums.

Anger turned into blind rage.


I
was on forums, the internet, youtube, anywhere. Raging, hating Bioware.
I was doing anything i could to bring their name down, to provoke them
to warn people. I'll admit, this was me at my lowest, and i apoligze for
that.

I am not proud of what i did.




SKIP 3 DAYS LATER

Rage
slowly turned into depression. I seeked the threads that had people
depressed like me. Occasionally i would laspe into rage again.

But i know that i had little fight in me. Dry tears were all i had left.

So now, i'm still confused. There have to no answers from Bioware. No solutions, no hope.

I asked myself this.

"Do i hate Bioware? Do i hate Mass Effect 3? "

I noticed that this whole time, writing this article,  the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack was playing.

Throughout this whole thing, the fact is, i dont, i love Bioware. and Mass Effect 3.



Thats right i still love you Bioware, very much so.

You gave an adventure that was unforgettable. Characters i loved, made me feel emotions in a video game,
made
me attached to these Wonderful characters, and personally, you changed
me as a person, i'm 18 now, i started playing Mass Effect when i was 14,
and it changed me.

It made me a stronger person, i was weak, shy
and bullied a bit at the time. But the story gave me hope and strength.
Commander Shepard, a videogame character, was an inspiration to me. So
when it crashed at the end, i just couldnt deal with it.

I lashed out at you Bioware. I'm sorry. I Truly am.

But
that doesnt change what started this. The ending, there have been many
theories about whether or not it is intentionally bad, and what not.

I'll ignore such rumors for now, but i'm still sad, confused and empty, and in a need for answers.

This
series is really important to me, and my life, and i really hope you
will reply to this. I just want to know, whats up? How are you guys
taking it? I know that a lot of passion went into this game, so this
cant be easy for you guys, and i'm sorry.


It
hasnt been easy. people have been lashing out at us, calling us whiny,
******, and spoiled people. Telling us we need to grow up, harasssing
us.

But they dont understand just how emotionally attached some
of us are. In fact, a lot of us are. Like i said, i still love you guys,
and i will continue to hold onto hope for as long as i can, until an
announcement is made that either crushes my heart further, or starts to
give me more hope.


I understand you may not be able to give me answers now.



But a simple reply that one of you guys read this, understand how i feel, reads our pain on the forums, could help a lot....

Anything




But please show me that you care.

Please.....


Sinagpore,
Leon

Modifié par StrawberryRainPop, 15 mars 2012 - 08:09 .

[ChampDude]

Mass Effect 3 Review: 10/10* (Notice the asterisk)



(The many) Pros: Some of, if not just flat out, the best characters and
emotional moments I have ever experienced in gaming. Mass Effect 3 truly
elevated what games are able to do in terms of conveying the same level of
detail with characters and relationships that is shared in books in movies.
Story-telling is top notch



-Phenomenal production values and design. Never have I felt that a game larger
in scope with this consistent level of quality in music and graphics and
overall sound effects. Some scenes (such as Tuchunka, Palaven's moon and
Rannoch in particular) are simply breath-taking. Voice acting is top notch as
well



- Level design is greatly improved from ME2 and feels less game-y and more
organic. Overall atmosphere is unparalleled. Never have I felt like more is on
the line



- Hard moral decisions. These came up infrequently in the past two iterations
of the franchise, but I found plenty here. Not to mention the level of detail
weaved through the trilogy with your overall decisions really feeling impactful
and difficult



- Combat is even better than it was in ME2 and the addition of rolling and
melee is welcome



- No obvious detriment to gameplay such as Mako or planet scanning!



- Multiplayer (never thought I'd be saying this to describe a Mass Effect game).
Multiplayer is fun, especially with friends, and appropriately frantic. Use of
credits to purchase packs is addictive and rewarding



(The mostly insignificant) Cons:



- Animations can be a little strange in cut scenes and on the battlefield.



- Small graphical glitches such as pop-in and clipping



- Journal is vague and often confusing



And now the big one, the one that has been said hundreds if not thousands of
times by now: The ending. This is the reason for that asterisk next to my
10/10. Mass Effect 3 is, in my eyes, the perfect gaming experience. I was ready
to declare it my favourite game of all time before the last five minutes occurred.
Now I am hesitant to make such a claim, or even play through the game again.
The amount of plot holes are one thing (teleporting squad mates, lack or lapse
of logic with Starchild, Mass Relays exploding should mean the death of every
solar system they appear in) but the fact that there is no sense of closure or
choice is the real problem and nearly taints my entire experience. I try my
absolute best to focus on the rest of the game and the series, removing the
ending from the equation, but man is it difficult to look at all my fond
memories without being reminded it all felt like it was for nothing. Maybe one
day I'll get over it, but it's going to be a loooooooong process. If there is
DLC to give me proper closure (I don't need the endings to be changed I just
want to know what the hell happened) then Mass Effect 3 and the rest of the
trilogy will go down as the ultimate gaming experience. As it stands, it is
nearly perfect, with a near critical failure

Modifié par ChampDude, 15 mars 2012 - 07:51 .

[Big I]

My Mass Effect 3 Score: 70/100

I really liked Mass Effect 3 until the endgame, and here's why.

For about two thirds of the game ME3 was the mass effect game I always wanted to play. It gave me great gameplay, based upon the already enjoyable ME2 system.It gave me hard hitting emotional moments, like the deaths of Mordin and Thane. And it gave me the ability to resolve long standing story issues going back to ME1, like the genophage and the geth/quarian conflict, in a way that I felt comfortable with. I was enthralled with it's story of Shepard uniting the galaxy to battle the Reapers and couldn't wait to see where else the story would take me.

Sadly that all changed after the Thessia story mission. Up until this point the emotional component of the story worked because I could empathise with the struggle the narative put Shepard through. However, seeing Shepard become overcome by the fall of a world he could have done nothing to save was jarring, particularly considering the ongoing plight of Earth that the game never lets us forget. It's at this point that I began to see a disconnect between experiencing the game through gameplay and experiencing the game through what the story was telling me.

No matter what I felt, the story tells me that Shepard is crushed by the fall of Thessia and internalises his feelings over his losses through nightmares involving a child (not, for instance, the squadmate who died on Virmire). This was immersion breaking for me, as it took away from my perception of control over Shepard's actions and personality.

The major problem of this story is that it keeps too much hidden for too long. We literally only find out the motivation of the antagonists in the last five minutes of the game. The macguffin around which the plot revolves is presented as being an inscrutable magic bullet, despite being a machine constructed by the protagonists. How does the Citadel get to Earth, and are it's inhabitants still alive? Why was the Normandy flying away during the end? How do Tali or Garrus survive with their special dietary requirements? There are too many unanswered questions.

The endings are completely unsatisfactory, there's no way around that. They hinge upon an acceptance by the player that the core theme of the mass effect trilogy that must be resolved is the conflict between biological and artificial life. However, that theme is barely touched upon in ME3. The geth/quarian conflict is presented as being primarily a clash of nations, not types of life, and the reapers themselves are presented more as aberrant monsters than robots. The narative is far more about life in the face of great adversity, the horrors of war, and the burdens of command and responsibility.

Even if one were to accept that the endings had to deal with the "inevitable" conflict between AI and non-AI, the actual endings themselves fall flat because of their uncertain outcomes. Why does Shepard have to use the relays to establish his control of the Reapers in the control ending? To what extent DOES he control them? How does the synthesis ending work, i.e. to what extent are organics and synthetics changed by it? Why does the destroy ending target all AIs, not just the Reapers? We're supposed to just blindly accept that somehow things will work out somehow.

Furthermore, for me personally the narrative decison to destroy the relays no matter what is completely unwelcome. One of the most important things about the Mass Effect IP, one of the things that make it truly great, is the idea that humanity is acting on a galactic stage, interacting with other alien species either benignly or hostilely. It's the idea of a galactic community and the things that effect it. The destruction of the relays is also the destruction of that community, because interaction between different worlds and species is now impossible.

I'm not naive. I always assumed that there would be some plot point to restrict the impact of certain actions on the ME IP in any future installments. It would be the height of entitlement to expect Bioware to fully explore the considerable effects of a krogan cured of the genophage, or a resurgent rachni, especially when many people will not choose those outcomes. I just never expected the plot point that sidelines those stories to be the end of galactic civizisation.

For me Mass Effect was never just about humans, or saving Earth from giant robots. It was mainly about the first human Spectre pledging to defend an entire civilization from galactic threats, a civilization made up of the interaction between diverse species and cultures. With the end of ME3 that civilization is gone, and much of my enthusiasm for the ME IP goes with it.

Mass Effect 3 was supposed to be the conclusion, a chance to sit back and think to yourself "mission accomplished." Instead it became a moment when, after it was over, I sat back and thought to myself "what just happened?" while being utterly perplexed. There's no closure, no sense of accomplishment, just a crushing dissapointment in a wholly unsatisfactory ending to a series I've played and enjoyed for years.

[happy_diplomat]

Need DLC to see Shepards parents, all the other characters for the most part have there parents either in a scene or being listened to, however we never get to meet the parents. If you are a Spacer, or the long lost family that Shepard never had with one of the other types of Shepard. As the parents can be different type of people depending on the type of character you have made. Just and idea.

[Nilofeliu]

Any news on future DLC?

[Elric70]

 I finshed the game on Sunday night and felt I needed more time to get m thoughts straight on my disappointment. POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW, you have been warned.


First I will begin by saying thank you to all the talented staff and voice actors that brought me this almost awesome series. I would rate it a 72/100, it would have gotten a much higher mark if the endings were better, but it still would not have been perfect. I feel there were still some sizeable issues. I purchased the XBox 360 CE of the game, and liked most of the bells and whistles that came along with my box. I found the need to
constantly swap discs annoying, but I know it's necessary due to the XBox limitations, however I would have liked if there was a way to install the content of at least 1 disc onto the 360 to cut down on the swapping.

I have to say the new quest tracking was very poorly implemented, I echo the sentiments of other posters when I also say that there were lots of things that I couldn’t figure where the original quest giver was or where the item was that I needed without just searching random star clusters. I think the game also failed to deliver on whom you could have as squad mates, it’s nice to have an appearance from all the “surviving” characters, but some were cameos at best. It also seemed to me that the love interests that came from ME1 got preferential treatment , whereas if you chose to have any relationship with characters in ME2 they were relegated to background window dressing. I only played through once so if anyone else had Miranda or Jack do more than just appear in one instance or two and interact further with them than just through holo terminal or as a guest character, please let me know. I liked that there was at least some weapon customization. I did not love the weight mechanic, but
do understand it, though I think it would have been nicer if you at least got a freebie on having a sidearm and then had to be concerned about weight on the other rifles and such. 

The story was overall good, I loved that EDI finally really joined your group and Tricia Helfer was great, James Vega was pretty good as well. I think you should have finally had a sequence with Tali without her mask rather than teasing it along yet again. She’s starting to remind me of that neighbor that was in Home Improvements whom you only saw half his face the whole show, okay we get it, now show us the whole thing since we are saying good bye! There should have been more Miranda Lawson, as in her being there at least for a full mission.
Kai Leng was annoying, I know he comes from the books and all that, but outside of him killing Thane in my play through, he never had a chance to be anything more than TIM’s gofer. Mordin, made me sad, but that was perfectly done. Legion made me sad and that was well in the context, you should come out with a ring tone that says “Shepard Commander, I need to speak to you”.  Joker was great as always,  well up until the horrible endings when he pretty much ditches you and heads for high ground and gets stranded on theGenesis planet with EDI and Liara (for me anyway).  By the way, was also not pleased at how some people that you at least met are basically killed off screen, like Kal’Reegar. Though I understand that there are so many characters you meet, that you probably had to make some choices. Oh and the new reporter didn’t do it for me either, that was valuable Normandy space that could have had one of your Squad mates living in, I wish Kasumi Goto had gotten more than a walk on cameo as well. This version of your crew was also a lot more biotic poor, was that a conscious or design choice? By he way, why did you choose to offer the soundtrack as wav files instead of MP3's?

 So here we are, at the 800 lb. gorilla, the horrid “non-endings”…  

I wanted Return of the King…I’ve saved the Earth Garrus, but not for me, it’s 3 years to the day since I was hit
with the Prothean beacon, and now I have to go. Long wonderful ending with tidbits and closings for everything and everyone (especially my Liara with some beautiful blue Asari babies running around), maybe even finding out if that Salarian custodian became a baddass assassin after Thane saved him. Hell, I would have taken a “Ship, out of danger?” “Do not grieve Admiral, the needs of the many, outweigh, the needs of the few”. Instead you cribbed and ending from Matrix, which was a terrible let down. You turned complex decisions with supposed repercussions into, Simon says you can select red, blue, or green, and don’t forget your fortune cookie. Says you’re **** out of luck. In closing (for now), I hope that then endings are if not overhauled, then that there are at least more endings put in, so that I can have some closure and perchance believe that if you do right by the universe, perhaps the universe will do right by you.

Modifié par Elric70, 15 mars 2012 - 09:26 .

[avmf8]

Anyone else just want there money back at this point?

Seriously the ending was bad and they are playing games with everyone. This thread where the OP who is the mass effect head director or something like that says they can't say anything till more people beat the game. What does that even mean?

Also have to note its fine to kill off the hero or main characters. But don't kill the games entire world or universe. Even if Earth and every other homeworld or races are dead that is fine.

So what exactly do they mean they have a plan for a new ending and won't speak up? Or are they waiting till enough time passed that they can say deal with it?

[k0pernikus]

My Mass Effect 3 score: 45/100

How did I arrive at that? I took two scores:

Up until the end: OMG This is great, 90 out of 100!!!

After the end: Huh!? What is ... this ... mess? Gosh. Cannot unsee. 0 of 90.

It really is as it is: The ending taints this whole franchise.

The Great:

Genophage:
- I am a supporter of the genophage. The turian demand Krogan's help and that means curing the genophage. I wanted from the start to opt against a cure. For I do not want to defeat the reapers by making the Krogans the next big enemy.
I disliked not being able to voice my musings about my concerns about the genophage from the start. It starts of as a "but you must" in order to get the Turian's support. I was relieved when the sabotage option arrived, even though to late. Also, the moral implication of both actions could have been explored more.

- I felt like a monster when shooting Mordin in the back. I like to think I had good reasons, yet still, gosh, I am a monster.

Mordin's death scene, still trying to amend the cure, broke my heart. I have not really recovered from since. Damn it, Mordin, why couldn't you just walk away. I just wasn't Paragon enough at that point it seems. This is great.

- The confrontation from Wrex: Epic. And yes, he truly deserved better. Shame that I do not have faith in Krogans becomming peaceful. (Also awesome in the sense of alternative character interpretation: When EDI and Joker discussed racial sterotypes, which made me question my on the genophage decission, which is awesome.)

- Recounting the after-effect of this decission with Garrus. It felt so ... real. Sad. Great.

Geth / Quarion arc:
- Epic. Though short. Could have been dealt with more.
- My personal favourite: The "I love you" from Tali before you fight the reaper.
- The trip to the consensous was amazing.
- Legion. I just love Legion. He is the most well-written character in history.

The Could Have Been Better:
- I can only dock on the citadel? That's sad.
- Why do you force additional backstory at the beginning?
- This irked me back in the ME2, where you let Shepard die. Now he appearently comitted some war crime dooming the Batarians ... hmm. I would think that the combined backstory of ME1/ME2 is enough to gurantee and strong intro.
 - Udina is in charge, and not Anderson. I was confused. I gave the job to Anderson. It wasn't really adressed.
 - Too streamlined. You guys are master at making one believe one has control, but often you only offer the illusion of control. It is quite sad to see that people react exactly the same no matter if you chose reneage or paragon options. They just answer to a different text the same way. That's like an easy way out.
- Spacebar conversations. No way of influencing the conversation. Not very RPGish.
 - Citadel quests: Just by overhearing conversations my log got full of tasks I did not know how to tackle. It was weird. Also finding the guys after finishing them was annoying, as the map was not really helpful locating them.

- Please do not force my emotional responses: When Joker told me his Assari Commando-Dancer joke I wanted to chose "Humorless laugh in the face of doom". Yet the given choices only let me to berate him. It reminded me of the "Half Life 2" scene where ... told me the Zombine-joke, which I as a player laughed out loud at, but my character acted all "meh". Which results in a direct break of immersion. I want to determine how my Shepard reacts.

- The dream sequences were boring. And not skippable. Just walking around in some midst is no fun. I think I see what you tried to do. But it did not work here for me as it did in the "Max Payne" games.

Romances:
- Why do I have to play half the game again, before I can recruit Tali again? You guys are such a tease
- I wished there were more interaction options. There were like, three, cutscenes with my LI. It felt too rushed.
 - I wished there was more drama. I romanced both Ashley and Tali. I expect some kind acknownledgment from this from both characters, some angst from Tali, some anger from Ash, something more, especially when I bring both on the same mission.
 - FemShep has inferior romancing option. Not good in terms of equality.

The Oh-merciful-Zeus-what-were-You-Thinking, no, just no:

The Ending

It has been said multiple times. I say it again:

The ending sucks. Big time. I cannot phrase it differently.

"Deus Ex" is not a good example to how to end a game. And I mean it on multiplke levels. The "Deus Ex Machina" you pulled with that annoying god-child who imposes its flawed logic onto us.

I rather commit suicide than to do anything of those three options it forces me to do.

And also, the game "Deus Ex: Revoluiton", who also had the choice of pushing three buttons, after which an ending video was rendered that practically had no reflection on the choices you made throughout the game.

Though the Deus Ex ending at least made sense in their own world, so their endings still were consistent.

Also to make it abundantly clear: Your ending is not controversial. It simply is bad.

And no, it's not multiple endings. It is one ending with different colors. Yet I honestly feel cheated.

Only few endings of fiction achieved this negative emotional response within me. It's not quite anger -- more frustration of what once this great series turned out to be. And it really taints the whole series. It feels like I should never have played Mass Effect at all.

And I now must cite Mass Effect in line with fictional titles of the likes of the reimaged "Battlestar Galactica", "Star Trek Voyager", and "Enterprise".

I doubt you want to be in that line.

And no, it also not bad because it is a sad ending. E.g. I for one love the ending of "Max Payne 2", the one where Mona dies -- even though you could save her by earning your happy ending if you played on hard -- yet the sadder one actually feels more right.

So no, it isn't necessarily about the lack of the Disney happy ending, though I absolutly would not have mindeed a I-beat-the-impossible-odds one.

I really demand that you do not take this criticism as "whining", but that you realize your failure in story telling part.

The ending, as presented failed to live up to gave closure to this series. It also lacks: sense.

How is it that Tali, who I brought with me on my final trip to the beam, is able to make a run for the Normandy? Why is Joker fleeing the fight? And did you guys realise that the whole lot of people are stranded on a devastated earth? The Quarian are sure happy they got their planet back. Now they only have to travel 100 of years to get back to it, after I destroyed all the Mass Relays.

Scanning

I hated scanning for ressources in ME2. So you added scanning again. Well. OK. At least it's easier as I just have to send a pulse to discover ... oh no, reaper enter system ...

Damn. You did not fix something that was broken. You replaced it by something that's broken differently. And still annoying.

Multiplayer Enforcement

I am forced to play multiplayer in order to get a higher readiness? Seriously? I don't want multiplayer. I want to be able to fully play it without having to join up MP.

Technical Shortcommings

I bought "From Ashes" directly at release. Yet to this day, I have not been able to install it since Origin won't let me resume downloads, and I only have 500MB a day avaiable here. I could have downloaded over the weekend, but once my connection breaks, it starts from the beginning.

This is serious technical no-go.

I won't delve into the questionable ethics of a zero-day launch DLC. To me, it's just a hidden price rise. Just be honest about that. Demand your 50€ from the start and be done with it. I bought the DVDs for a reason. As I did not want to download the game.

Just be happy I bought it before I played through the ending. As in my current condition, I cannot be bothered with any DLC concerning ME3 anymore. Except one that fixes the buggy ending.

Modifié par k0pernikus, 15 mars 2012 - 10:18 .

[WangGozinya]

Score pre-ending 90/100
Score post-ending 20/100

I found this article in another post.  I believe it's very well thought out and gets his point across without being childish. I wish I could say that I wrote it because the opinions are very much the same as my own.  The author deserves some credit for it.  Thanks for the good read Ross...

www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/

I played the first and second game through at least 20 times combined, trying to get every decision the way that I would want it to be.  Completing every side mission, and reaching full paragon score. After my 4th xbox died i even traded in the xbox copy and got it for the ps3 and played it through again twice. 

I bought the collectors edition because I felt that I had been more immersed in this game than any other and wanted to give the extra money where it was deserved.   I was ready to go get the big hardcover art book and some of the other books that I haven't had a chance to read yet.  I was excited to see how all my choices would pan out into the finale of the game.  Sadly, I'm not interested in any game that bioware ever puts out until this is resolved.  I feel cheated.

When the "god child" appeared,  all appearances of difference of choice and free will went down the toilet.  Read the article above.  It's truly great and deserves a few of your minutes.

Modifié par WangGozinya, 15 mars 2012 - 10:18 .

[maddlarkin]

My review...
Main game great, fantastic even, did wonder what happened to that Asari I spared on Vermire ME 1 and then again getting Grunt on ME2 but maybe I just missed her, otherwise epic.

Oh and the Boss fight with the laser Targeter n the Reaper was a little annoying but fine once I got the hang of dodging its beam.

And I'd of like a mission to the Elcor home world, rather than a quick scan to get some war assets, something like covering a retreating force of Living Tanks or protecting the evac shuttles from the door of a Kodiak like I did with the Quarrians, that would of been awesome.

But these Small Gripes aside easily the Best game I have played since I don't remember when, I loved it, loved escorting the Mako's (shame I couldn't drive one for old times sake) the story twists the alliances the war asset mini game.... but then and we all know what’s coming here... THE ENDING

All I can ask is what you were thinking? seriously unless its a planned prelude to this Truth DLC a web article hinted at... really!!! Even if it is, you'd allow an unethical marketing campaign like this where professional (and I use the word loosely) journalists have been attacking your loyal fan base in several different publications, hat alone deserves a public apology!!!!!

But this is feed back so I'll skip to specifics... Anderson/ Shepard speech, beautiful! Utterly and moving that’s the one high point the positive, now the negative:
-Star Child... a gold like AI telling me which colour of galactic destruction I get to commit
-No way to win, its a game I want to win and all my ending achieve galactic destruction, it would of probably been better if I left it for the Reapers no matter what I do I loose!!!
-Where was Harbinger, he could barely keep quite in the last game, this one doesn't say a word, just blasts me without as much as a 'How'd you do'
- Destroying the Mass Relays... what the heck, makes all my decisions totally pointless, doesn't matter what species I brought together it'll be 20,000 years before they see each other again and they won't remember if they argued by then, it totally destroys the galaxy I've been trying to protect as much as the reapers would... if not more so
- Even without the other consequences people have mentioned, mass galactic death, due to loss of relays. Starvation, the fact Turians and Quarrians can’t eat human food, bare minimum, I kill 15 million people when the Citadel explodes or they starve to death when I turn into a computer and fly off with it... nice
- the massive amount of Plot inconsistencies...
* why am I listening to this star Child with no option to tell him to stuff himself,
* how did my crew end up on the Normandy crashed on another world, inc. the characters 3 feet from me when Harbinger blasted us,
* This is the Reapers goal to save us from chaos? Because in the chaos of evolution we will always make synthetics who with destroy us... a predictable pattern is not chaos its order.
* This is really the Reapers motivation, honestly given every other game seems a little altruistic for their motivation I'd of expected the cycle to be purely for their benefit, the whole speech from ME1 by Sovereign about 'You exist because we allow it and you will die because they demand it'
* The AI destruction theory is a bit wrong, the Prothean mentions they had a war with an AI and won it, and the Geth our either dead at the end or our friends, not to mention EDI, bit of a hole in your logic there Star Child (not that I can tell him this)
* Why was Joker piloting the Normandy away from the battle, that’s court martial behaviour right there and if he took the time to pick up the rest of my remarkably uninjured crew and he left me, well that’s field execution time for me.
* In the control ending, I just get the Reapers to play nice and leave... surely it would be more logical and have them blast one another or at least drop their shields and hold still while the galactic fleet pummels them? Otherwise they always remain a threat, what if I loose control?
* Then there’s the idea of controlling the Reapers, really, each one is described as an individual and a nation, the geth describe each passing though as titanic and dominating and yet, my puny human mind is able to control them, easily and at will
* Further to this, anything controlling the Reapers for that matter, for the reason I've already described, how does that work? A Star child who is the Citadel is there boss, no boss or overlord is ever even hinted at beyond Harbinger and yet its the Citadel? This leads me to my next point.
* The Prothean science team form Ilos altered the signal the keepers react to, to prevent the Reaper invasion... and succeeded. Sovereign had to go to extreme lengths and got itself destroyed trying to activate that Mass Relay to Dark Space, but if the Reapers Boss was the Citadel all along, then why didn't it just activate itself and get the Reapers on the job, a sense of fair play?
* Synthesis, all organics and synthetic's fuse becoming part organic or synthetic respectively... how does this work... magic, how can an energy wave possibly alter metals and plastics to working flesh and blood and how can flesh alter to be complex functioning machinery, it makes no sense what so ever... besides wasn't this the sort of union the Reapers are and have been trying to force us into and Shepard has been rejecting it for the sake of our individuality... for 3 games!! and its presented as the main choice... a bright glowy light right in front of the player (I admit here ad's a lot of credence to the indoctrination theory and would really explain a lot paving the way for special ending DLC this truth expansion pack... but really guys now is the time to come out and admit that as it's upset a lot of people and lead to a lot of arguments and press attacks on your fans as I have already mentioned above)

That’s every problem I have and bit of feedback I can think of there’s probably more, but breakfast is calling and I've already put it of for 40 minutes to type this :-)

[Spectre Hal Jordan]

 I know this has already been done to death, but I have to agree with the thousands of people who hate the ending. It's not about Shepard (possibly) dying; I was prepared for that. My problem was damn near everything else. My reasonings are based through my playthrough and will reflect my ingame choices.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. The ending reduces the Reapers from intergalactic boogeymen, to the playthings of some random being, whose existence is glossed over in favor of offering Shepard his 3 choices of explosion color. Granted, something had to create them, but if this is the way the writers wanted to go, they could have at least given the Catalyst a little more development. As it stands, the Child exists as an exposition machine to tout the absurd reasoning for the Reapers existence.

2. The aformentioned being's logic is flawed, at least in my game. It stated that synthetics will always betray and exterminate all organics so the Reapers were created to periodically exterminate most organics. This is disproven by EDI and the Geth. Other than the "heretics" the Geth have never killed organics unless in self defense. In the flashback sepuences in the hub, we even see Geth units sacrificing themselves for their creators, and they allow the Quarians to escape when they easily could have exterminated the entire race. In my game, after Legion's sacrifice, the Geth and Quarians put aside their differences to work together, and the Geth even helped the Quarians resettle Rannoch. EDI's continued  cooperation the the Normandy's crew after being unshackled proves that synthetics can coexist and even become attached to organics. Hell, in my game, EDI and Joker are dating.

3. No matter which ending you choose, you doom nearly everyone who followed you into battle. Each color of explosion destroys the mass relays, stranding the remaining fleets in the Sol system. Escape is impossible since even with ftl travel it would take thousands of years for the different races to get back to their systems. The only race capable of making it back would be the Geth, leaving the other races to suvive on Earth, the only habitable planet in the system. Granted the local population has been decimated, but the food produced by earth is poisonous to Turians and Quarians certainly, and possibly other races as well (uncertain.) So Turians and Quarians could survive for a time on food from the remaining liveships, but the other Asari, Salarians, and genophage free Krogan (my game) are stuck using Earth's resources. The residents or the other systems now find themselves completely isolated, and any ship that was in a system without a habitable planet is as good as dead. Most ships that were in the middle of a mass relay jump, probably crash land on a garden world which brings me to my next problem...

4. WHY WAS THE NORMANDY IN THE MIDDLE OF A JUMP?? What's more is that members of the crew who were last seen on Earth (EDI in my game) emerge with Joker onto the unknown world(if it's a world that I should know, please inform me). This means that Joker flew the Normandy away from the battle, down to Earth, picked up the crew minus Shepard and possibly the squad he went with (were they killed? I was too busy running toward the beam to notice), back into space, and into the Charon relay. This strikes me as wrong on  levels. The first is that Joker would never abandon the other fleets to save himself and the crew. He would have fought until the end. Second, if Joker did take the Normandy down to earth, why didn't he use the Normandy to shoot the Reaper guarding the beam? It was already documented that EDI could use the Normandy to make a precise strike and wound a Reaper. It seems absurd that, instead of helping Shepard, Joker took a handful of combatants away from the battle. Even if he would do such a thing, how would he get in contact with them? Communications were shaky at best. How could Joker contact the Normandy crew, for them to meet him. Without the shuttle, Joker would have to find a place for the Normandy to land or else fly to each member of the crew to pick them up. Neither seem feasible in this situation. Of course none of this even matters because...

5. EVERYONE IS DEAD ANYWAY! The events of Arrival showed that when a mass relay goes, it takes the system with it. Every person in a system with a mass relay should be dead. There was no explanation on how the destruction of the relays wouldn't result in the destruction of the systems. One would think that as soon as he/she heard the child say the relays would be destroyed, Shepard  would have brought that out. Admittedlly, he she was threatening to bleed out so that could be forgiven (maybe). The writer's should have guessed the players would pick up on it though as many ME fans are almost fanatical in their attention to detail about the world. This was just weak writing and should never have been allowed to happen.

It depresses me that my favorite game series went out like this. What makes it even worse is that the first 9-10's of the game was the best in the series so far.  The gameplay was the best in the series. Combat was fluid and except for a few hiccups with accidental combat rolls and rising from cover, was the most fun I've had in the series. 

The writing up to the ending was top notch. I really felt like I was facing the end of life as I knew it. The actions of Cerberus legitimately angered me, and left me wanting to shoot the Illusive Man and Kai Leng on sight. The romances were more compelling (mine were Tali with Shep and Garrus with FemShep) and conversations with crewmates were more organic, especially with the added touch of the squad interacting with each other. Curing the genophage and getting the Quarians and Geth to share Rannoch were momentous and left me smiling for a time (although the last was rendered moot by the damned ending) and showed me why I was fighting.
The deaths of Mordin, Thane, and Legion were each heroic and poignant, showcasing the best traits of each character. Thane's death scene actually gave me chills when Kolyat said that Thane was praying for me.

While the ending cannot ruin the series for me, it did lessen it somewhat. I had multiple playthroughs for both ME 1 and 2, but I don't know if I can bring myself to play ME 3 again, when I know what is waiting for me at the end. It really is a shame that what would have been my favorite entry in the series was marred byan ending that honeslty seems tacked on to meet a release date. If that is indeed the case I must ask why? Bioware should know by now how loyal the Mass Effect fanbase is. The release date could have been pushed back and we would have waited patiently (for the most part) because we trusted you. We knew that you wanted to make the best game you possibly could and give this legendary trilogy the sendoff it deserved. If you honestly felt that this was the way it should end, I would have to disagree, but I could at least respect that. If it comes to light that this was a rush to make a release date then I would find this nothing less than a betrayal of my trust. The saddest part of all of this, is if you actually created a separate ending and sold it as DLC, I would still buy it just so I can play ME 3 again without the dread of what I know awaits me.

[Navywife64]

My score would be 80/100

Bad:(doing first because it is short)
Unable to increase readiness w/o doing multiplayer. I'm sorry I did not like pugging instances on WOW and I don't want to do it on this platform either.
Mission log is better in ME2
The ending. I have been playing rpg's since Lord British did Ultima so I didn't expect all sunshine and rainbows but would have liked the option. The destruction of the relays should have destroyed the solar system they are in (ME2 dlc) but yet they didn't. What about all the races I gathered to help defeat the reapers they are now trapped in a place they can't survive due to different atmospheric needs.

The good:
Everything else. I will replay and stop just before the end just so I don't have to sit thru it again

Thank you so much for creating a game that allows an emotional attachment to the characters BUT PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE ENDING

[Mievain]

My Mas Effect score 84/100  

95/100 to 100/100 if ending was same quality as rest of game.

Loved the game, actually completed it in one day (23h nonstop gaming). I'm massive ME fan and have spend hundreds of hours/euros on series. It was goty material right untill elevator to catalyst. After ending I had my wtf face on for hours literally, felt depressed with ending and not because bittersweet victory but cause of lack of closure, ooc behavior for shepard etc. etc.

I'm currently hoping that its all indoctrination post harbringer beam attack theory is true/will be made canon via patch/dlc. (kinda makes me believe in the theory )
Not going to talk more about endings as there are tons of posts about them that sum my thoughs pretty well.

+Overall feel of war
+Great npc banter
+Liara is awesome
+Mordin's last song
+Eve and krogan lore
+Truth behind morning war
+Quarian/Geth conflict resolution (all of possible solutions were excellent and touching)
+Bromance with Garrus, shooting comptetition
+Fleet arriving to Sol (ships just kept coming and coming)
+Creepy enemies (banshee is horror story material)
+Scenes with Thane
+Pretty much all me2 cameos were excellent, so not listing more
+Better Combat system
+Weapon customization and amount of weapons
+Music and overall atmo of game
+Alot more (cba to list everything, would be too many pages)

-Lack of dialogue in some points (or more like lack of suitable dialogue for my shepard), minor complaint really
-confusing questlog (sometimes I had item already and it tells to get it from some system)
-too much stuff binded to spacebar
-Lack of Harbringer
-Photoshopped Tali and Deviantart background on stargazer
-Some of decisions in previous games were made pointless (rachni, collector base...)
-Ending !!!

Game kinda lacked me1/me2 style planet exploration but its totally understandable that Shepard doesn't have time for that when its total war going on.
Also I didn't have problems with face import as I played with default femshep but I understand that it was big deal to lot of people.

ps. I'm not native english speaker so sorry for possible mistakes.

edit. added couple more things and fixed few typos.

Modifié par Mievain, 15 mars 2012 - 11:15 .