1966 réponses à ce sujet

[hippanda]

60/100

Most of the game was really fun, but there were quite a few negatives that stood out. The state of the quest journal seems incomprehensible given the fact that the system had more functionality in the previous two games (seriously, who designs a quest journal that doesn't update based on progress you've made?). The inability to import either of my Shepard's faces was a huge disappointment. The galaxy exploration system wasn't a huge improvement over ME2's mineral scanning. Most importantly of all, there's only 1 ending (3 colors notwithstanding), and it's so depressing and riddled with plot holes that it's hard to do a second playthrough - and at the end of the day, replay value is a necessity for single player games (no replay value = cost/benefit is too out of whack, better off just playing a multiplayer game).

[NeoGuardian86]

 

what i liked and didn't like:

Liked:

- I liked how you guys weaved the non-squad mates in and out of the game in Mass Effect 3, and made each of them feel substantial. It was not a simple "we can't come with you sorry" and be done with it. 
- I loved the romance with Tali (have not seen how the others go), though i do think it was a big missed opportunity to do a reveal of her face when she takes her mask off on Rannoch. would of been the most perfect moment as well. 
- the combat is smooth and much more enjoyable this time around. 
- the co-op horde mode is actually fun, much more so when you got 3 other people who work together. pleasent surprise given my initial deep concerns.
- I loved Javik, love how he shatters our past perceptions of the Protheans in a very natural and organic way.
- there are a lot of really great memorable lines in it, too numerous to count, and i will say that the humor is great as well. 
- you guys incorporated comic book and novel characters, which surprised me. khalee sanders showing up was a surprise to me. So was kei Lang.
- I liked how you guys handled the homosexual options, while they were not squad mates (and i would liked to have taken Cortez with me to get to know him some more), they still each play important roles similar to Joker does. That all said, easily the best most down-to-earth real world written LGBT characters i've seen in games. No stereotypes and emotional scenes have weight to them. You give a damn. The only other two LGBT characters i've liked (that have personality) have been Victoria (Fallout : New Vegas) and Erika (Cathrine). I also liked how in - unlike Dragon Age 2 - if i turned down Cortez, i didn't have to be an ass about it, i mean sure give the option to be an ass i guess, but also give the option to turn down and not be an ass. 


Dislike:
- Top of the list are the endings, when i heard 16 endings i inferred more different endings then what we got. When i heard it wouldn't be like "Lost" i figured we'd get conclusive answers. In the end i felt very unsatisifed, my choices didn't matter, and 95% of the end is pretty much the same. At the very least i wanted to know what happened to the friends and loved ones after my sacrefice. At least in that way i would of felt satisifed and you guys (the amazing writers) were free to do whatever if you ever wished to do another game after Shepherd. At least then i can infer what happened to the galaxy afterward. 
- Tali's face, yes i think it's beautiful, but after seeing the Getty image. I mean, i got your art books from ME2 and ME3, i KNOW you guys can do better then that. didn't ruin it obviously, just again felt like a really missed opportunity. 
- the journal never updates, seriously there should be a better way to do a journal, i have to constantly pull out my Word document and keep track of what's going on myself. Otherwise i am doing way too much needless backtracking to get anything done. 



That's about it really. the endings just sticks in my craw and that's probably why i get so riled up when i think about it. Such an amazing journey you guys have crafted, but the endings is the last thing you see. 
Doing my second playthrough i'm reall enjoying the journey, just gonna ignore the destination. 

I can see, i can easily see how much work you guys put into it, and for that i am eternally grateful for the ambitiousness of the project and I am for one still glad that i picked up a little game called Mass Effect back in 2007 simply out of curiousity. 

and it was my first Bioware game. 

[Mox Ruuga]

Score: 70/100

There was a lot of good in Mass Effect 3. Some of the best writing and best gameplay ever in a Bioware game, and the artwork and graphics were great as well. But...

In a way, I'm extremely grateful for the fact that I was spoiled on the endings before I played the game. Had my brief bit of raging done beforehand, so to speak. But those final minutes still managed to spoil not only this game, but the two previous ones as well. I'm not sure when, or even IF I will be doing another run through the trilogy. The ending basically kills the universe and setting, and makes our choices (that were the main selling point of the trilogy in the first place) moot.

What about the game itself? Like I already wrote, much of it was outstanding. I loved the writing for the characters, both old and new. All the little continuity nods, all of it. Cortez, Traynor, and Vega were standouts. Really well written characters, who to me serve as proof that you don't need to be a "larger than life" alien to standout in this universe. On the other hand, Allers was a bit of a waste. I didn't have the venomous reaction to her voice actress many others had, but more could have been done with her. And Kai Leng, sorry to say, wasn't impressive. No Saren was he.

The mood of a galaxy engulfed in a genocidal war was well done I think. Certainly more so than in other games, such as the Blight in DA:O. Kudos to you guys for that. I felt that the pressure Shep and co were under was conveyed to the player, with brief moments of brevity lightening the mood every once in a while. I appreciate the intent behind using the kid in Shep's nightmares, but perhaps making him the "avatar" of the Crucible in the end was too much. Others have said before that the Virmire Casualty (ie. Kaidan or Ash, whichever died in ME1) would have been more appropriate for the Paragon Shep, and perhaps Saren for Renegade Shep. I as others feel like Shep is too experienced a soldier to start obsessing over a random kid, especially a Colonist or Ruthless (Torfan) Shepard. But all in all, I felt like the cinematic quality of the storytelling took a major step up from the previous two games.

I loved the gameplay. The combat was quick and fluid, and the guns were fun to use. I played through as a soldier, so I didn't get to use biotics or tech powers myself... Too bad I'll prolly not be experiencing a Engineer or Adept anytime soon (if ever). The melee combat was a good addition... and I was a skeptic before. Too bad about the cheesy swords the Phantoms and Kai Leng used. Should have been omniblades or something similar. Grenades were fun, too bad that heavy weapons were mostly taken out, since we had "heavy" enemies on the field now besides just Ymirs...

While mostly the writing WAS very good, some of the plotting wasn't, unfortunately. I felt like our past choices were made meaningless a little too often. The Rachni were a good example. The destruction of the Collector base another. This was the last game... you guys could have put more effort into divergent storylines here. But of course, the killer is the ending, literally. A trilogy killer. Much has been said about the relays, the "deliverance planet", Joker's joyride, the enforced deaths etc. elsewhere. I'll just restate here that for me the inexplicably badly handled ending not only detracted from this game, making it merely ok in balance instead of great, but it destroyed the replay value of the whole trilogy.

[Fynny]

Finished the game in both paragon and renegade mode (with imports of ME2 characters which were imports of ME1 characters). Played as Engineer and Infiltrator. Review contains Spoilers. I have not played MP and so cant comment on that. Nor will I play it. 
 
Slept over it a few days and figured I'd add my 2 cents. I've not read anyone elses review because... well I just haven't 
 
Story:

I can live with the story and I can live with all the endings. I sort of expected Shepard to die (ok ok that one ending where he lives... fine fine works too) because its sort of hinted at as well... having to make difficult choices and all that. seeing himself and the kid burn. My initial thought was that he would have to choose between sacrificing himself or the kid... which I suppose sort of happened. Does it actually make sense? not really. Is it actually good writing? not really. but the more I think about it the more I get bothered by it so I am ignoring it or maybe am in denial. The only real option is the center one anyway, all the other ones seemed way out of character for my Shepard.
 
What bothers me:

I dont feel like my end choices in ME1 and ME2 really make any difference. So I kill the council? big deal. They have a new one and ok they are wary of me... but they still help in the same way as if I saved the council. Destroyed the Reaper? Cerberus still has pieces of it. Save the Reaper and hand it over? Cerberus just has a different chunk of it. Maybe I missed some epic key moment here but I didn't really feel like it made any impact as to what I chose at the end of the other games.  
 
I also find all the new characters (and EDI doesnt count, she's not new) with the exception of the new comm officer not very interesting or sympathetic. Cortez is constantly crying and Vega... ah come on... they all feel like clinches and don't get me started on our new reporter friend. regardless, I am sure some people really dig the new characters, I find them wooden and shallow. Maybe because they didnt have as much time as the other characters to develop but there you go. 
 
Tali's stock photo:

I figured since its such a big discussion I'd add 2 cents. I don't mind that it's a stock photo. I do think the anatomy of the hand is a bit wonky but live and let live. I am more bothered by the fact that the Tali pay off is so weak. She's been in all three games, as playable character no less. More than we can say for Ash or Liara. People are invested in her (and yeah I am on the pro Tali side and I am not getting into the con side here) and I would have hoped for a little more of a pay off. It wouldnt have to be a full model or anything but I would have appreciated at least one little scene where we can see the face, not just a blurry edited photo. Heck even at the end, having her without the mask as Shepard dies would have been more satisfying. In his dying moments would he really think of the helm. Then again he thought of Joker and Anderson (who knows why?!) so maybe he had lost too much blood or something. 
 
which brings me to another point that confused me or maybe I am just not clever enough to get it. When you are about to be fried to a crisp the first person you think of in the last moments of your life is... you pilot? then your commanding officer and THEN the person you love? or if you chose to blow up all synthetic life... you think of Liara?! ok if you romanced her I guess but if you didnt.... why on earth would Shepard think of her above -insert love interest here-? But again maybe I missed some vital epic clue somewhere. 
 
Also... so the mass relays are gone... but since most of the fleets were near earth... wouldnt most of the ships /races still be located there? why was the Normandy in the relay and not fighting the reapers above earth? I am sure there's a clever answer here somewhere. 
 
But just to show that I am not just complaining about the game or anything... 
 
The Good:

I liked the new game play. the movements were much better and even when my crew got stuck behind a door and just refused to move though it I still survived thanks to the dodge roll and all that stuff. I like the customization of characters and weapons. I like that I can take along an assault rifle as an engineer. I like the little tech upgrades that let you choose how you want to develop. 
 
I dig the graphics. the game looks awesome even on my crappy crappy crappy SD tv. Cant imagine what its like on a nice HDTV. So good deal on that. It plays smooth as well, I've not had any issues with frame rates or anything. Ash disappears in one of the conversations... but given the other 2 games I am used to that and not really bothered by it. 
 
The expressions are a lot nicer than before so thumbs up for that too. 
 
Also glad that the resource scanning is not as tedious as before. it was a real time sink back in ME2 and just got really annoying. I also like the idea of being able to pick up side quests by overhearing conversations although I do wish there had been a few more actual side quests (you know, talk to characters and get quests kinda things). Overall it felt a bit too much like the whole game catered to shooter fans rather than ME fans. Dont get me wrong, nothing wrong with trying to get a bigger audience but... ah thin like to walk I guess. 
 
Overall I guess 7.5/10 for me. or maybe 8/10 depends on what day you catch me. I like the game, I think its a good end to the series. I dont see, given the actual end, the destruction of the mass relays etc, much sense in single
campaign dlcs but oh well.

Modifié par Fynny, 17 mars 2012 - 12:49 .

[-Rikard-]

Wow, my points must have been expressed thousand of times, and certainly better 
Anyway, completing the game made me want to add my 2 cents to the pile. Apologies for typos/bad grammar and the ridiculous length.


WHAT´S GREAT ABOUT IT


-Combat
Has greatly improved with each title. Fast, fluid, responsive and the feeling of weightlessness is gone - it finally feels "right". The variety in weapons and mods makes for a happy middleground between ME1 and ME2. For me this is the first ME where the combat is part of the attraction rather than part of the package.

-Graphics
Technically it might not be a big improvement over ME2, but the stellar art direction still makes it one of the best looking games out there.

-Level Design
The levels are bigger and much better put together. This is the first ME game where long range sniping felt just as viable as getting up close with melee attacks and everything in between. A vast improvement.

-AI
Enemies flushing you out of cover by flanking you and using grenades forces you to be a lot more active - you have to be much more aware of your environment and use it for everything it´s worth. Your squadmates hits the sweet spot where they are genuinely helpful but doesn´t do the heavy lifting for you.

-Nailing the big moments
Tuchanka and Rannoch were fantastic and definitely lived up to the five years worth of buildup. Reaper vs. Tresher Maw had my jaw on the floor.

-Nailing the small moments
Just having the option of letting Garrus win. That was one epic bromance.
Emergency induction port! Bosh´tet!
"That was a joke."
Jack, exasperated: "Shepard, everybody knows you can´t dance!"

-Squad members having a life of their own
Having them moving around the ship and talking to each other brought them to life and was a big improvement. They also didn´t awkwardly run out of things to say halfway through the game.

-Sending characters off in style
I was a bit worried about characters being casually killed off just to establish the stakes. As it turned out, I can´t imagine Thane´s and Mordin´s deaths being handled any better than they were. Beautiful conclusions to their character arcs.... what´s that? I just got something in my eye, dammit...

-Multiplayer
I had absolutely no expectations or any desire to see this, but it turned out to be addictive and a lot of fun. The fast leveling, clear objectives and intuitive level design makes it very easy to get into. Incredibly satisfying to play with three other players who know what they´re doing. Also you get to headbutt people as a Krogan.


THE NOT SO GOOD:


-The Space bar
Having so many context-sensitive actions mapped to one button results in a bit of involuntary spazzing out.

-Diana Allers
In ME2 I missed the feeling of representing all of humanity with all the ups and downs that came with it. This would have been a cool addition if Jessica Chobot could act. She can´t. It wound up feeling like a gimmick.

-Where is the dialogue wheel?
Fewer dialogue options than before, often reduced to just Paragon/Renegade. For unusually long stretches I was just sitting there watching cutscenes with no say in how Shephard would act.

-Only one hub
I got pretty tired of the Citadel. I missed exploring new places outside of the combat zones.

-Sidequests
Most of them came down to scanning planets. I sometimes got excited about quests that sounded like spectacular adventures only to discover that I had already done them 

-Scanning planets
Much improved, but I still don`t feel that it adds anything of value to the game. It just slows down the pace. The reapers became irritants as I just wanted to be done with it.

-Multiplayer tied to readiness rating
I liked MP, so this wasn´t a problem for me. But what about players gunning for the best ending a year or two from now? Or those who don´t like it? As a concept it´s a cool idea, but in practice it really shouldn´t be neccessary.


THE UGLY:


-The Mission Log
That it won´t update the status of your quests is a puzzling step backwards. Not a problem with the main story, but when you get a lot of sidequests it´s just a mess. This is the first game I`ve played since ME1 where I had to use pen and paper to keep track of where I had been and what I had done. 

-Yep, you guessed it... the ending
I´m playing these games for the characters, the most fascinating, well put-together universe I´ve ever seen in a video game and the ability to affect it all. I don´t mind gameplay flaws or a few narrative stumbles along the way if the overall experience is a good one. I steeled myself for a downbeat ending, but I never could have imagined getting one that invalidated 3 games worth of decisions and effectively tainted the entire series.

I don´t know what happened. Maybe you simply ran out of time. It feels like at the last minute you jerry-rigged the one ending that was furthest along. In any case, the decisions and consequences you´ve been promoting from day one up to the release of the final chapter, the "many different endings" and the sense of closure talked about in the media... simply isn´t there.

Making the ending be about the organics vs. syntethics conflict felt forced. It may have been fitting for ME1, but we seemed to move past it and into new territory the moment we met Legion in ME2, and certainly well beyond with the resolution of the Quarian/Geth war.

The Mass Effect games certainly have their dark moments, but in retrospect it has thematically been a remarkably positive series. It has always in one way or another been about overcoming differences and finding strength in friendship/love/trust/mutual respect and together accomplishing something that should have been impossible. That Shepard no matter what would passively and unquestionably go along with three dubious choices offered by the very enemy he/she has been standing up to, fighting and subverting since the beginning.... that the player can´t choose to call BS on this black-and-white view or disagree with it feels like a big step backward and a defeat.

Was it all a hallucination? Shepard´s mind is certainly compromised at the end, but the lack of closure and resolution is still maddening. It´s the first Bioware game I´ve played where I didn´t immediately want to start a new game just to see what I could do differently. Nor did it make me want to buy any DLC. I now know that no matter how differently I choose to play throughout the trilogy I will inevitably be funneled into that same poorly written whimper of an ending, none of my choices taken into account, every characters fate still up in the air.


Rating before the ending: 9/10
Rating after the ending: 6/10


Make no mistake, this is a great game. The gameplay is excellent and it has many of the best moments of the series, one gem after the other. But it´s astonishing how strongly and how negatively those final five minutes manages to affect everything before it. If you play it primarily for the story, like I did, you might end up wondering why you bothered with it in the first place. 

Modifié par -Rikard-, 17 mars 2012 - 01:17 .

[T-Raks]

Great until the end, unsure what to think of the game after that. Not so much because my Shepard had to die (or had only really messed up other choices). Going in the last battle and sacrificing himself to save the galaxy is an absolutely OK ending.

But the weird explanation of the catalyst? The strange scene of teammates coming out of the Normandy after they just ran with you at the Citadel and presumably where hit by a Reaper firing at them (in my case it was Liara who I thought was dead too)? No great vid showing where does the galaxy stand after the Reaper defeat? Instead some grandpa human telling a kid stories about Shepard? Looked like the humans are alone on Earth again which doesn't make sense with all the other races in the orbit during the final battle with no way back to their planets if the Mass Relays really are destroyed. Also just because the Relays are destroyed - the knowledge of other races out there isn't. WTF were they thinking making such a bad end to an otherwise great game?

I still remember how pumped up I was after the suicide mission in ME2 even after half my crew died in one playthrough to keep on playing, now with that end I don't know why I should play ME3 a second time.

Modifié par T-Raks, 17 mars 2012 - 01:16 .

[Cris MacAuselan]

I had loads of great ME3 experiences.

Skipping back a few stages of my think-through about this whole subject of ME3's endings I'll start where I'd just finished the game.

It blew me away. I was amazed. I came on to these forums to write about how I found it and discovered... a lot of hate and disappointment. I was gutted, had I been tricked by Bioware? Had my enjoyment of the game been a lie? Had I just naively walked down a path, being reassured that all was fine and actually shown a stick-man drawing whilst being assured it was fine art and just... accepted it?

Yes!


Until I realised that, actually, joining in with the disappointment others felt didn't affect what --I-- had experienced. Sure, some elements were unwelcome (more later) or felt like shortcuts but my overall playthrough was a rollercoaster of brutal struggles and joy. It was a mammoth experience that shook me up for days.


I'd like to tell you about it.


I had loads of endings. One for every companion who'd joined up. Though I bitterly missed Tali's presence when dealing with the Geth and the Quarians. I knew that would have been smoother, that I wouldn't have had to stop Legion if she'd been there. If she'd have lived. That wrenched me. It hurt. Poor, sweet Tali was lost to us when taking out the Collector Base. I never even saw the round that did it. She just fell, her mask shattered, twists of broken flesh and bone beneath it. I lost the mystery of who she was inside in an ugly, almost absent-minded death. The pointlessness of her loss was bitter. Another weight on my shoulders.

Mordin's ending, one of the most memorable of the many endings in ME3 I experienced, was amazing. I teared up big time. He was a hero, a real hero, yet modest, kind and thoroughly un-masculine. His quick little mind always saw through to a decision and an action faster than mine.

I mean, I thought --I-- was going to be the Catalyst, a one-way trip, so I knew I was dead from about 25% of the game onwards. I knew what we had to win and that I'd be following Mordin to the Big Hereafter soon.

I could surrender my life for the cause... the whole fight had been hard on me. I knew that this third run was putting the strain on... I noticed when colleagues broke ranks to console me, when each loss, especially the failure on Thessia to (cliche-master) Kai Lang, bowed my shoulders and bent my neck to the shrine of possible failure...

Anyway, another great ending? Udina. Renegade conversation interrupt? Too right. Can't risk listening to indoctrinated speeches. That and he had it coming. I should have brought him down with my Spectre authority years ago.


Another ending was the Genophage... the choices made then were haunting. The Salarian Counsellor's suggestion that we sabotage the cure and not tell Wrex, in order to safeguard the future?... that was hard. Truly, hard. I could justify either option being 'good'. That was as hard as choosing Kaidan or Ashley (without being romantically involved with either of them). I felt ashamed to be considering the practical sabotage option.

I felt so ashamed in considering curing the Genophage that I thought 'screw this: I'm giving up ALL OF ME to save the whole frigging galaxy. SOMEONE ELSE can deal with the Genophage cure's outcome when it's all done with. I'm not taking this sabotage on my conscience... it's too heavy.'

So I 'fessed up to Eve and Wrex. I wouldn't sabotage the cure. The Salarians would have to muck in and help me anyway even after I rejected their offer... otherwise they'd be actively helping us lose and, if by whatever chance we won... after that, everyone would know that the Salarians failed to help. There would be repurcussions for them. There people wouldn't stand to be betrayed by their leaders.


Anyway, lots of other amazing experiences in a 99% flawless experience (a lot of us seem to agree on this!)



Gripes:
Kai Lang - characterless and cliched. But that's okay, I still enjoyed shivving the pillock because 'that was for Thane you SOB.'

No one told me why Udina was on the Council. It's probably in the Codex or a ME novel though so perhaps I should try harder!

The Normandy flying off with magically collected NPCs from London didn't make sense. I imagine it's to maintain EDI's existence for the next step in the franchise? Have us growing up on a pre-Civilised planet where the Normandy SR2's wreck is venerated or discovered? Before we step to the stars (by repairing it?) to discover where it came from?

Liara forgot we'd hooked up again in Lair of the Shadow Broker. This is a big plot hole that felt very important to me and I don't want to make excuses for the developers on that score. I had to remind her and that slightly broke my immersion in an otherwise hugely immersive experience.

The quest log was organised well.

James was too buff looking. That felt like a visual Gears of War intrusion. He was looooaaaads better than Jacob 'Captain Boring' Taylor though and I loved the conversations (him and Garrus boasting and counter-boasting in the mess was FABULOUS).



Summary:
This was the big one. Not all stories end happily. It would have been cheap if the game had ended in a simple fashion where everything went back to the way it had been. Happy families and lots of little blue Shepards (knowing I'd not live to see that was rough, however).

ME3 is packed full of endings - if you had closure with every character you'd met AT THE END it would have been 3 hours of goodbyes and hugs and so on before we even went to fight the flaming Reapers in London. It also would not have made sense. Narratively, they had to occur sequentially.

For the path that Bioware has put together for the ME franchise's future, the Relays had to be destroyed. I admit, it felt forced on us and could have been narratively included in a better fashion. That was possibly a weak element.

Despite that, I won. I. Won. I beat them. I didn't fall for their tricks (Synthesis? Seriously expect me to fall for that?). I didn't bleed out too soon (or at all, perhaps). I won. I had saved trillions upon trillions. As my heart beat slowed and the blood trickled lazily from my wounds, the pain went away. Liara's voice echoed numbly in my mind. I wept. I raised a finger at the Reaper corpses as the Catalyst reverberated and exploded beneath me. I smiled. I had won and fought, and fought, to the bitter end. This is humanity. Fear to anger us.

Modifié par Cris MacAuselan, 17 mars 2012 - 01:14 .

[mothbanquet]

90/100

This game was phenomenal and a true achievement in the medium of gaming. I will get the dead-horse beating out of the way and say right now that it would be a solid 98 or 99 in my books if the endings were more satisfying but that's by the by at this point. So then, let's begin.

The game opens with a rather jarring invasion of Earth. Once I'd stopped gawking in astonishment at our planet's imminent destruction, I quickly slipped back into the familiar control scheme and - wait, Shepard can jump over gaps and climb ladders now? He can roll?! How agitated Anderson must have been, watching Shepard gleefully rolling around the ground while the Reapers descended on Earth for no other reason than he finally could. Then came the first things to shoot and - wow, can you hear that? THAT is impact, my friends. That sounds and feels like I'm putting high-velocity slugs into the flesh of shambling abominations.

So, right off the bat, the feel of the combat was raised to a whole new level. That aspect of the game remained unquestionably awesome throughout the game. It was a perfectly honed and refined system that offered the simplicity and easy access of the second game with the wide variety of upgrades of the first. The weight aspect was a stroke of genius, making you think carefully about what loadout complemented your strengths and weaknesses, and especially in multiplayer (which I will speak more of later), where the balance between power recharge and having an extra gun to fall back in is a matter of life or death. The combinations are staggering. Do you have an engineer who packs serious heat but has to rely on squadmates to take down the majority of enemy shields or one that only carries a pistol but can rapid-fire energy drains and incinerates to his heart's content? The choices may seem simple but in the heat of battle, especially on higher difficulties, it makes a tangible difference to the style of play.

The graphics were what you'd come to expect from ME, and BioWare in general. Yes, there were some bugs but most of these only seemed to occur when I skipped through conversations; hence I didn't experience any in my first playthrough. Another issue was that the game seemed a little too dark. Nothing that can't be solved by adjusting the settings in the menu, of course, but it still seemed a bit odd.

The sound was exceptional. I was always a fan of the soundtrack in the first game, but not so much of the second, which seemed like a case of 'less sci-fi, more opera'. The music in this game, however, struck a perfect balance and the inclusion of some of the original scores when visiting the Citadel brought on some very potent pangs of nostalgia.

Enough of the technical side of things, though. The real joy of this game, as in the previous ones, lies in the story. Straight away, I was sucked into the fight for Palaven. In fact, the constant feeling of war, of suffering and loss is superbly established throughout the game. Each visit to the Citadel brings a new tale of a lost love or a home destroyed by the Reaper armada. Stories flood in of sacrifice and resistance and, at some point mid-game, I almost lost it emotionally at the sheer pressure of it all. It was powerful without being cliched or melodramatic, it was obvious without throwing it in your face and the many 'supporting' options where you can throw your weight behind two arguing NPCs is a great test of where your priorities truly lie.

It was bleak but not hopeless, the atmosphere was fantastic and I was introduced to something that continued throughout the game: interactions between squadmates. Hearing Garrus talk of his fear for his family, James explaining the saying 'fish in a barrel', it was the beginning of something that ME2 sorely lacked.

This continues throughout and, even better, all those old friends in ME1 that make a return share memories and recollections. There was little better than meeting Kirrahe again and have him give a nod to Garrus and Liara, though even this paled in comparison to Garrus' weary reaction to Tali and Shepard's mid-mission flirting was nothing short of golden. Some people may be dissatisfied, especially if they pursued romances with ME2 characters but then again, it stands to reason that the most fulfilling relationships will be with those whom you have spent the most time with throughout the trilogy.

These friendships are also given deeper meaning in ME3 and, in some cases, can lead to soul-wrenching decisions. These are also the moments where your past decisions can really catch up to you. Imagine how I felt when Mordin Solus had gone against everything he stood for in ME2, how he had become no better than the wayward student he had to stop. My own actions had seemingly killed the only person on Tuchanka capable of leading the krogan peacefully after the war and for that I berated myself quietly. But this was now, and with an unchecked birthrate along with a seemingly power-hungry Wrex, the next threat the galaxy would face could be its very saviours. I came clean to Mordin about the sabotage plan at the point of no return, hoping, praying that he would see sense again and realise that his own guilt would begin a cycle of destruction once again after the Reapers had been beaten. He ignored my warnings and didn't think I had the resolve to pull the trigger - but I did. I felt as disgusted with myself as Shepard evidently did - he tossed the gun aside contemptuously and walked away and the mission was a success. Every choice I had made previously sculpted not only the outcome but the manner in which Shepard played it out. That was the first moment in which I knew ME3 was a worthy culmination of all that came before it.

The second came in the war against the geth. From the very moment they attacked Eden Prime, they have been my enemy and my actions in both games were focused on one thing: defeating them once and for all and, if possible, winning Rannoch back for the quarians in the process. The handling of events leading up to that crucial moment was flawlessly orchestrated. I began to believe that the quarians' own thirst for the liberation of their homeworld had provoked the geth into response but they made a fatal - and unforgivable - error in allying with the Reapers. Though it saddened me to do it, I destroyed the geth and in doing so I felt I achieved something that had been years in the making. I felt like I had won a war for the quarians and the feeling of giving them back their home, free of compromise or catches, was the second moment of utter bliss for me.

And then we come to the big elephant in the room. The ending made all of the above completely moot for me. I put a lot of thought into making decisions that would shape the galaxy after the war. I didn't expect Shepard to survive (in fact, it would have been more fitting if he didn't), nor did I expect it to be anything less than a costly win, but I did expect to see some consequences of my actions. While I'd never go so far as to say that it spoiled the game, I would say that the ending has made me question if I was playing the game the right way. Should I have been viewing the game as an open-ended web of cause and effect or simply as a linear adventure with the luxury of choosing a couple of moral standpoints? It's hard to tell and this is what disappoints me the most about it; that I feel like I have completely misjudged the whole trilogy up until the last five minutes and I have been a fool to care about the things I did.

Ok then, now that's all out, let's talk multiplayer. I was one of the vocal opposition when I heard of MP in ME. I reviled the very idea of it, claiming it was a waste of resources and that the beautifully crafted ME universe would be reduced to cryings of 'u f***in n00b' and 'lol u suk coz u use ****gy locust'. How wrong I was.

The purely co-operative aspect of it is a winner, simply because it infuses that very real theme of the game itself into the MP element: unity. Teamwork is essential and the number of heroic moments I've had where I save or am saved by a friend, or manage to get an objective in the dying seconds, have been many. Still, the true genius of the MP lies in its simplicity. Pick a match, suit up, and go. That's it, and that's all it needs to be. The plethora of weapons and upgrades to unlock will keep me at it for a long time to come and I shiver in anticipation at the mention of something that previous made my toes curl: map packs.

The weight system really comes into its own here too. My salarian engineer is squishy and poorly armed, wielding only a Tempest, but he stands ready to provide the team with focused, specialist damage (all powers specced to recharge fast and deal max damage). On Silver, and definitely hard, having a dedicated armour-burning or shield destroyer can win the day and so a simple but effective sub-class system emerges under the general one and I honestly haven't had this much stress-free fun online since Left 4 Dead.

Ok then, drivelling over but I feel I've made my point. amazing game let down slightly by an unsatisfying ending. Whether or not BioWare do 'fix' the endings is up to them but I am happy on the whole with my purchase and look forward to working at those N7 Challanges when I get home!

[rhevakeane]

May I just add that my personal dissatisfaction with the game's ending aside, the climaxes and culminations of the individual sub-plots and character arcs were nothing short of breath-taking.

I am speaking of the resolution of plotlines concerning the Genophage, the Quarian/Geth conflict for example. I may be repeating myself here, but I think bioware truly outdid themselves with those stories. Nothing was simplified or over the top. Everything was just the right balance of triumph and sadness. Those were perfectly bittersweet yet satisfying endings. I was particularly impressed with the resolution of Samara's plot. What Falere and Rila had to go through at the end whilst spending their entire lives cloistered in a monastery for being what they are. Seeing Rila fight her indoctrination, get impaled by the beings she once called friends, and push the detonator. That was great story telling. That was awesome. It really showed the depth of heartache the Reaper threat brought; what the end of galactic civilisation entailed in the context of an already broken family. I can't praise it enough.

And Mordin singing to calm himself as the Shroud tower blew up. I almost cried. I really wanted him to study seashells too. But it all balanced out. He was the only one he could trust with the task, and in a way he had to pay for the crimes he committed and the countless lives he ruined with the Genophage. Really awesome. All these exquisite nuances in narrative were truly breath-taking to behold.

Of course, this just made the overall ending that much more disappointing.

[Nuke1967]

Let me just go with Pros & Cons.

Pros.
1.A well done story up to a point. Being able to solve issues with various alien races well done.

2.Bringing back the original crew. Though I wish Rex could have been added to your team. Also any love interests from Mass Effect 2 should have been added to the crew. If nothing else to cause a love/triangle jealousy side story.

3.The mutliplayer was a pleasant suprise. It is fun.

4.The combat for me was enjoyable.I like how you can set your own difficulty and play more for the story. That is always a plus for me in any game.

5.I am glad the scanning for resources was left out. It got kinda tedious in ME2.


In overall to pros. I think mainly the Mass Effect 3 story is well done again to a point. And I did enjoy playing the game.

Cons.
1.Lack of explorable places. In ME 2 you to got run around Omega,The Citadel,Illium,Tuchanka and The Normandy explore, talk to NPC's,see other various shops. Just a lot to do. ME3 was very much lacking in this regard you got The Normandy & The Citadel.

2.Face import bug, This is a huge bug for transfering your custom Shephard into the game. Not seeing how this could have been missed before launch, since importing your Shepard is a big part of the game.

3.How you got side missions is the same system as DA2 which reeks of cutting corners.Overhear someone talking get the side mission. Go fetch bring back. I prefer being able to open a dialogue with a quest giver.

4.Having to buy back equipment you already had. Not sure why this was done, is that supposed to mean that refit crews stole his belongings and sold them while Shepard was being held for a hearing? Or did the Alliance sieze them and sell them before Shepard had his say or judgement?.Did Shepard have to sell all his equipment to pay for a lawyer? You would think seeing his stuff gone would have pissed off Shepard,Kinda wish that might been explained more.

5.The Journal: It started you at the bottom everytime, what your were supposed to do on some quests were vague.

6.Not being able to go into the ladies bathroom on the Normandy with my pervert Shepard..(Just kidding not a real Con).

All in all in my opinion Mass Effect 2 is going to stand out as the best of the series. The Empire Strikes Back of it. Just so much more to do. and the ending so full of choices I played it at least 8 times. I just don't see ME3 giving me that sort of replay value at all.

Now to the End.
Yes like so many others the ending spoiled this great trilogy for me. Like watching a great movie and then having a very bad ending or having a great meal at a restaurant and when desert comes it's a  bad tasting piece of pie. Like anyone the bad is going to stick with you more than the good.

I always enjoyed the Mass Effect and like many I read articles with anticipation of the upcoming finale. Everything I read gave me and I am sure everyone else the impression that every choice we made in ME1 & 2 including ME3 would play a big part in the ending. I also believe I remember reading in a article if you stayed true to your romance from ME1 it would play a part. I think one thing I read was close to 1000 variables coming into play. And basically none of it did. The ending of Mass Effect 3 was basically the Mass Effect version of the Kobayashi Maru (No Win Scenerio).Everything you did bringing all the races together, building a fleet came down to meaning nothing. One overall choice which was pretty much everyone is screwed reapers or no reapers ending. Because yes you might have saved advanced sentient life as a whole, but billions more are still going to die in the aftermath.Logically the sole choice will more than likely lead to wars,starvation and probably extinction of some races anyway. Many races might see the reaper option as not so bad  if it meant quick death  once the smoke clears.

That wasn't the ending I was expecting, which is good to get the unexpected, but when it comes to a Mass Effect game, I thought I would be getting the same kind of your choices caused this type of ending. Which anyone who played the series would expect. When I finished  the game first thing that popped into my head  especially after the Normandy ending scene was the ending of Knights of the Old Republic 2. Which wasn't done by Bioware. It came to an abrupt sudden end.It also had a ending cut scene which made no sense. in KOTOR 2 the Ebon Hawk is show destroyed, them magically appears to pick you up at the ending,which everyone found out later was due to a rushed finish because of a deadline.

In short personally I believe I didn't get what was promised in the game. Does that make me whiny and entitled? I don't think so. No more than complaining about bad service in a restaurant makes me that way, or emailing my congressman when he votes on something against what he campaigned for. Video games unlike a lot of things you purchase (at least in the U.S.) for the most part once you open and play them, you can't return them no matter if you didn't like the product or not..You only option is trade it in for less than what you paid for it. So if a game doesn't live up to what the maker promised, I feel I have to right to say that. Not that it will change anything, but as a consumer it made me feel a bit better to have my feelings known.

Modifié par Nuke1967, 17 mars 2012 - 03:45 .

[BuddhaGeek]

 Hm.  I'll give it a 7/10 tops, but I find myself hard pressed to be generous.  And, I'm not going to comment on the multiplayer because I do not like multiplayer and do not play it and, thus, cannot give an accurate assessment of it

I will say this though.

The Good:  
I actually like the cover system, although at times I found myself barrel-rolling like someone set my sleeve on fire

Graphic upgrade is nice and the game has wonderful atmosphere

 I'm glad you brought back weapon modding.  In ME2, I felt a little sad that I just went into a dropdown menu on the ship to upgrade it.  I couldn't admire the weapons really.

Thank you for giving gay options! I was very tired of playing FemShep just so I could romance a guy

Voice acting is top notch (Jessica Chobot aside...but that's another kettle of fish)

:DThank you for not forcing me into a set of weapons based off of my class

 It's good to see Shepard have a dance besides the "Your insecure coworker at a wedding" dance.

:DYou actually made me cry manly tears with many of the past characters.

:DI dig the choice to make Javik sound African. Nice shout-out to the Cradle of Civilization

:DGarrus and Shepard still have the most awesome bromance in the history of gaming, in my opinion.

If it sounds like I'm damning this game with faint praise, it's because I am. Don't get me wrong, I loved a vast majority of this game, but there are a few things that stick out in my mind that just sort of waters down my enthusiasm.  Which brings me to....

The Bad:
<_<Planet scanning.... It was boring and irritating in Mass Effect 2.  It was something I did when I woke up in the morning and started the game because I was drinking coffee and I didn't have to actually work at it.  I didn't like the Mako (it handled like a drunk obese man on a Sequeway), but at least it gave the illusion of a huge world.  Yes, you only have to scan a planet once for an artifact.  Yes it gives you a percentage to know if you missed anything. But NOW in addition to scanning, I have the added inconvienience of being chased out of town when I have 2/3 items in a system by a bunch of Reapers. And they ALWAYS seem to show up and Game Over me the very second I find something.  I actually would scan the entire place and not pick up anything and then let the Reapers kill me so I could get it faster the second time around.  When you are actually hoping for a Critical Mission Failure, that is a bad sign.

<_<The quest log... Why.... No order, does not track progress, most of the quests are needless planet scanning busywork.  And Shepard is a nosy SOB. I actually kind of felt sorry for the random people I listened in on by the end. Stalwart Hero of the Galaxy or not! Boundaries, man!

<_<Smaller roster... It was great to see my former crew members out and about (Jack, I love you), but your actual active crew is just... eh.... Let's ignore the fact that one of them is Day-One DLC. Let's ignore the fact that another is just kind of there and you really get very little insight as to why I should care about him.  But I loved the variety of Mass Effect 2.  A dozen crew members, many of whom I would take on missions just because I wanted to hear their dialogue in relation to eachother.  This time? If you had an attachment to your previous squad members (Again...Jack... I love you <3), well tough crap.  You get to watch them play the "Who can have the noblest death" game.

<_<No loyalty missions... In a small way I can almost forgive this.  I mean, by now, most of the people that you have on your ship know you well enough to be loyal, but it was such a wonderful part of Mass Effect 2.  It really helped you connect with your crew.  Now I just kind of feel like they're there taking up space on my ship and siphoning all  my food and power...

<_<No "moment of glory" for your crew, past and present... How awesome would it have been if when you get to Earth, you could see your closest allies really getting into the fight.  Like, you see Jack (<3) and her biotic squad throwing people to and fro and Wrex and Grunt charging in and head-butting people to death and Zaeed cracking a Husk in the face with his rifle butt and spitting in his face when he's down. It feels like all those war assets, those people have come to love aren't even there and there's a tense battle going on that you never really get to see.  It's just really a let-down.

<_<Tali's face..... A stock photo....I.... We have waited and speculated for five years about this moment and to get that level of laziness just kind of hurts.  Remember this?  

You should!  One of your developers said it captured her perfectly.  Did that guy get fired or thrown down an oubliette or something? If you were going to rip off a picture that has already been made, then why not the one that you yourself said that was perfect?

<_<Jessica Chobot... WHY?!  Did you owe IGN a favor?  She's a terrible voice actress and Diana Allers is really unnecessary and out of place.

And finally.....
THE ENDING...  I don't even know where to start with this.. To quote Ben "Yatzhee" Croshaw (who was commenting on Sonic Unleashed: "[The ending] is so BAD, so utterly putrid that I can't even really get worked up about it. It falls off my critical spectrum into the black clawing void of dispassionate loathing".  It makes no sense, goes against the entire Shepard character and has plotholes so big that it makes you wonder if it was made by the same writers.  The last 10 minutes actually made me sit and stare at my screen for well over a half hour in disbelief. It singlehandedly destroys the entire series for me.  I feel lied to, betrayed.  I feel as if all that excitement over my choices having consequences was misplaced. I feel like my entire struggle, bringing the galaxy together, WAS POINTLESS! It just.... I'm actually physically stammering, trying to find words for this!!  If this is your plan all along, to drive your fans into bloodlust so you can psych us out, then that's just a dick move, I'm sorry.  And then to rub salt in our wounds, you have a nice little pop-up reminding us to keep shoveling you money! As if $60+ and a paid Day One DLC wasn't enough of a kick to the goolies!  Ugh....!

So yeah. 7/10 TOPS....  Take it for what it's worth.

[Killer3000ad]

WHen I first started playing Mass Effect 1, I had no expectations or prior knowledge of the game. I had not watched any promo vids, i had not planned to get it at all because it was XBOX only when it came out, with the PC version coming later. How I found out about it was a post in the games section of an anime forum discussing a FOX report on the infamous sex scene. Upon reading that, I found some vids on youtube and I thought,"INteresting". I still had no plans to get it.

Then one day whilst wandering around EB Games, I saw the PC version on the shelf. I thought,"Hey that's the game FOX does not like. Hmmm.. I am bored now, think I'll try it."

So I got home later, installed it, booted up the game, went into character creation. So far nothing stood out.

Then came, the intro video.

"OMFG!"

It was marvelous, I had seen nothing like it before, and when I told Joker to pipe down and heard Commander Shepard speak with an actual voice, I quit and started again just to watch the intro again. Did it 5 times.

And the game did not disappoint me for the next few days.

Then when I defeated Saren and emerged from the rubble in the Citadel, I burst with pride and happiness at Commander Shepard.

Then came Mass Effect 2, whose launch event I had attended in the city one cold morning. Despite not having slept, I'd persevered somehow to get to the city and line up for it as entry to the EB Games shop was first come, first serve. I remember seeing a girl with a shirt with the words,"Mako Mountain Climbing".

I went home straight away after acquiring my copy and immediately started playing. Ended waiting 1 hour before hitting the story because the blasted character creator was after a lengthy intro and didn't show how Shepard properly looked in-game. A minor annoyance though, as I busily built up my team and fought for their friendship and loyalty. And when I was rewarded with Shepard assaulting the Collector base and killing the proto-Reaper, and seeing my whole team and Normandy crew survive, I beamed with pride again at Commander Shepard, then chuckled and I told TIM to get lost.



Flash forward to 2012, I just watched the ending of ME3, 5 years after I had first read that FOX news article and all I could say was,"Why?"

Why would Bioware do something like this?

That all the memories, all those wonderful memories of ME1 and 2, the many hundreds of hours I have poured into them, five ME1 playthroughs, eight ME2 playthroughs, just got ruined, by the last 5 minutes and Casper, that the people who gave us ME1 and 2, could then fob us off with such a terrible terrible ending for such an epic trilogy. It was like a stab to the heart and to the soul. Betrayal was what I felt, utter dejection and betrayal. I felt like my soulmate had turned around, given me a kiss, then proceeded to stab me with a blade I'd given her for her birthday, then twisted it several times before pulling it out and stabbing me again.

I am sad, so very sad.

Why would you do this Bioware?

Modifié par Killer3000ad, 17 mars 2012 - 04:23 .

[geckosentme]

Gameplay: 9/10
Ending: Fail.

This game was good. Up until the last 5 minutes, which pretty much ruin it as well as the whole trilogy. Don't see myself doing any replays, buying any DLC.

Sorry.

[DrDetective]

Not going to go into too much detail; we have enough long-ass rants on the game:

Overall, the game was excellent. The combat was fun, the story was amazing, and everything about it was done very well, barring the occasional bit of laziness, like with Tali's portrait, or the relatively limited dialogue. Both are understandable, and I don't mind either detail that much.

But everything after the particle beam hits Shepard when you are running towards the conduit to get onto the Citadel, particularly after the elevator, was awful. It felt rushed, the tone shifted completely, and everything that had been done previously was disregarded. The theme of the game, the reason we had been playing, was changed for no reason. The Reapers were given a terribly simple and unrealistic reason for existing.

Without that last few minutes, easily one of my favorite games ever made. With, difficult to even think about playing it again.

[freshtoothpaste]

For a lot of people, the bugginess of the game puts you into the wrong mood while playing. Faces not getting imported. If you bought weapons or DLC, finding it all unavailable. But if you get past that, you start on a high note with the introductory action.

But from here, a lot of the character and exploratory depth falls off as bugs and clipped scenes creep in. Whether it's Shepard and Liara T'Soni talking in her new quarters, their necks twisting almost around their bodies as they look in strange directions, or squad members whose weapons seem to float out of their hands, or on top of structures, the game becomes less about RP and more about buggy combat grinding.

If you're like me, someone who's played from the beginning, you may not mind that stuff too much. Getting a chance to cure the genophage, or broker Quarian/Geth peace, see old characters come back, and settle old scores is pretty fun, and some of the best parts of the game.

It is impossible to raise your galactic readiness percentage without buying Mass Effect:Infiltrator (which has awful controls), Mass Effect:Datapad (aka the free 'Mass Effect Farnville). Or by playing multiplayer. I found the multiplayer experience dull, and a bit repetitive. Perhaps I am no longer the Mass Effect consumer, since most of these experiences seem geared toward people who want a light shooter experience. I prefer other combat games for that myself; the character interaction of Mass Effect seperates the experience from Halo. This felt like chasing Halo a bit to me.

Playing without that on the first run through, I came to a rather strange pre-climax scenario, where you have to defend two missile trucks against various husk creatures. With the Reapers destruction at the hands of two missile trucks and three special commandos, you start to wonder why the Reapers are such a threat.

I set it out of my mind, and started what, I thought, would be the boss battlle of the RPGS. Instead, it becomes a strange dreamlike experience, with an infinite ammo pistol, 3 husks, and a Marauder with Shields that you can take out with four shots. You find a pile of bodies, shoot your mentor while engaging In a short battle of wills with The Illusive Man, then suddenly, you meet a strange ghost child, apparently from your dreams, but manifested as the Crucible AI. You never find out why The Reapers didn't block all of the mass relays when they gained control of the citadel. You are given three choices that end the same way. The Normandy flees Earth and is stranded, your squad somehow magically ends up on the ship when it crashes, there is a cut scene featuring the voice of Buzz Aldrin, and then finally a commercial ti play again, and buy the DLC.

The game ends with a commercial, if you watch all the credits.

I was willing to forgive the glitches, the lack of depth, and the boring side quests, but when the best video RPG company I. The world delivers identical endings, plot holes, and a commercial, you end up less forgiving of the product in the end. I may buy or download DLC that fixes these things if it becomes available. But considering what I got, I am disappointed that I bought the preorder.

3/10.

Modifié par freshtoothpaste, 17 mars 2012 - 05:07 .

[spirosz]

I'll give it a 9/10.

I went through a roller coaster of emotions playing this game, from laughing, crying and much more. The gameplay was excellent, especially near the end when you're facing waves of Reapers defending the missile launcher, or that epic boss fight during Rannoch (that music during that scene was outstanding). I did my first playthrough on Insanity and didn't regret a thing, it had a good balance of fun, while still being difficult at certain points - but those grenades... lol. I really liked the way you implemented the enemies health/shield/armor aspect, especially playing an Adept, I felt very strong throughout the game and didn't feel the need to shoot at all, which is why I loved it, it was a good mix of ME1 and 2.

I absolutely love the soundtrack, but my minor complaint about it was I felt there was too many tracks from ME2 and some tracks were overused, but otherwise when there was new music playing like the "dream sequence" theme or what I stated above during the Rannoch boss, it really had me going.   Oh and the sound design team, you guys deserve awards, the Reaper sounds are haunting, while the gun and combat sounds are excellent.  Props to you guys! 

The story and writing was my favourite from the series and even though there was more auto-dialogue, it flowed better in my opinion and there was so many great banter moments between Shepard and his or her crew. For example, that moment with Garrus and shooting the bottles or whatever, I was laughing and just felt so happy seeing those two relaxing for a moment before the **** storm. Javik and Vega making jokes in the kitchen, Tali getting drunk, EDI and Joker's relationship, too many great moments.

The Geth/Quarian conflict has to be my favourite story element, especially seeing Tali's reaction and her "putting a mental image" of where she's going to build her home. Legion sacrificing himself and saying Keelah Se'lai... that was so sad. The Genophage conflict, seeing Wrex and Mordin again (oh how I love his singing), there's just so many great moments throughout the game, what a Journey. About the ending, I personally enjoyed it, even though I wouldn't mind a happier ending and having my Shepard find some peace with Jack... after all they have been through.

That relates to my one major complaint - the treatment of the ME2 crew and if you romanced any of them, I won't even go into it because it's generally known how much they were sidelined. I don't even mind them not being squadmates, it's the fact of how they were treated with that one aspect.

Modifié par spiros9110, 17 mars 2012 - 05:15 .

[LePetitRobot]

Just finished the game. I'm fairly new to the series, but have played ME1 & ME2.
Hard to give a rating, but I'll go with 75%.
A few points, major and minor (not mentioning the ending):

The Good

• I enjoyed the main missions, resolving race conflicts. Mordin's death quite touching.
• Combat is good, like the AI. Nice range of weapons, and great sounds. Weapon weight affecting power cooldown works well. I wasn't looking forward to weapon modding/upgrading, but actually enjoyed it. Spectre firing range a nice addition.
• Some great level design and beautiful environments (again).
• Planet scanning is OK (I didn't mind it in ME2).
• Loading times seem improved.
• Melee!
• Female Krogan well done, I thought.
• Dynamic range setting for audio. Thank you.
• Action/RPG/Story modes, though I haven't explored them yet.

The Not-So-Good

• Face import from ME1 characters (nuff said).
• Mission organisation. I walked around the Citadel and suddenly had 25 missions to do. No updating of minor missions' status i.e. "Return to the Citadel and speak to the Turian in Purgatory" would have been helpful.
• As I hadn't played all the ME2 DLC I didn't know why the Alliance had kept the Normandy, and didn't know (or care about) James.
• Thane died before I'd gone to see him. I didn't do much between receiving his message and going to the hospital - couldn't find him; then his name was on the list of the dead.
• Had to replay one mission, as all my credits were reset to 10,000.
• I would have liked another biotic squad member, or at least someone with Lift/Pull/Throw/Slam/Stasis... Playing as a soldier, I took Liara on almost every mission.
• If we're going to London, show us London!

OK, I'm going in for my first replay...

Modifié par LePetitRobo, 17 mars 2012 - 06:00 .

[JPLazyNinja]

Overall score - 75/100

"The Good"
- The implementation of solid atmosphere and tension throughout the game
- Improved Combat mechanics and streamlined powers trees while still retaining customization.
- Using recurring characters in interesting and occasionally heart-wrenching ways.
- Some impressive set-pieces and background visuals

"The Bad"
- Marginalized choice and conversation systems (No middle ground-only paragon/renegade, fewer opportunities to influence conversation)
- Combat is improved, but AI is still buggy with allies unable to assist and enemies ineffectual unless using overwhelming numbers or grenades.
- Lackluster side-quests typically "fetch-quests" with no actual player interaction with quest giver.
- Underutilized player interactions with crew members- Few actual player interaction, usually only simplistic monologues akin to bystanders conversations on Citadel.
- Ending was unsatisfactory.

Overall a solid game, but improved combat along the lines of a Gears of War game while undercutting some of the core aspects of the previous games - most importantly giving player choice in both major and minor situations and seeing the tangible effects of those choices.

[mahlerbone]

here's our review

Modifié par mahlerbone, 17 mars 2012 - 05:57 .

[Busternated]

 First of all, wall of text incoming. Been following the discussions on these forums a lot since the 6th of march and since then I'd wanted to do a review on the game once I was done with it. I just finished it so I'm just gonna write down my thoughts.

My Mass Effect 3 score: 60/100.

So now the why. Note that I'll be referencing my playthrough in this review. I play a male paragon vanguard Shepard with a Jack romance. I kept Kaidan alive on Virmire.

The start of the game was kind of mediocre for me. It was the first time I got introduced to the auto dialogue. Man did I hate it. Having played Mass Effect 1 and 2, where you basically retained control of Shepard throughout the game, this was kind of a let down for me. I do not understand why they would take it out either. It's been in in the last two games, why take it out now?

Anyway. I hoped the game would start with Shepard's trial, so I could justify my Shepard's actions and shove them into people's faces. Instead I got picked up by Mr. Vega, to be brought to the defense committee. I didn't really feel this dialogue was all that interesting. I did see Kaidan again, which was quite cool. After that the reapers attack and you try to get out of there. I kind of liked the mission. The kid is awkward though. Seeing as the indoctrination theory seems to be out of the picture right now, the kid is really weird. I have yet to meet a kid who told an adult "You can't save me". But obviously this is not just any adult. It's the legendary Commander Shepard, first human spectre. You would kind of expect for him to come with you.

Anyway, when you finally get to the Normandy and get out of there, Mars is up next. The idea to visit Mars was really cool, as it's something close to home. Meeting Liara there was also really cool as was James Vega's shuttle crash (what a hero, seriously, he was just about always in my team from then on). I liked Kaidan being hospitalized and him doubting you, I think that was well done. What I however did not immediately like is the plans for the Crucible.

So people have been discussing if the Crucible is a Deus Ex machina or not. People seem to say that because it was introduced at the start of the game, it should not be. However, it's introduced at the start of the third game. It's already 66% into the story. People have been looking into the Mars archives for a very long time and now all of a sudden, just as the reapers attack Liara finds the plans for it. Without knowing what exactly it does, we commit resources to it. After all the hesitation about knowing wether or not the reapers exist, I find this a bit odd. However I went with it. However, it did kind of confuse me.

Coming back to the Citadel I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the way it was divided up. I also loved that you could visit Kaidan in the hospital. Talking about trust and Cerberus, I think it was really well done. So, I had to start off by going to Menae, Palaven's moon. The turian councillor seemed a lot nicer (ofcourse because this time it was his people's asses on the line). I loved however, that I could tell him "I told you so". Been looking forward to that since I played Mass Effect 1 really.

Meeting Garrus on Menae was great seeing as I figure him to be Shepard's best friend. After that it went on to help the Krogan cure the Genophage. Another storyline that we know from ME1. I dislike the Dalatrass's stubornness, as to me it didn't make sense. Didn't she hear reports of Palavan and Earth burning? What chance did she think she had? I do love though, how Kirrahe and STG stood behind me, in spite of the Dalatrass decision to not help me.

Tuchanka was just bloody awesome. Seeing that reaper get destroyed by Kalros, it was just... beautiful. What I loved even more was Mordin's sacrifice. I had to try really hard not to make a fool of myself in the living room by crying over a video game (my parents could never understand ). Seeing him go out singing the scientist salarian, and him saying "someone else might have doen it wrong", it was just really good. His death had a lot of meaning for me. It also got me pissed to take the fight back to those bloody reapers.

So after that one of my wishes since the very start of ME1 happens: I get to kill Udina. When I heard he sided with Cerberus and he was trying to kidnap the Council, that just brought a smile to my face. Basically fighting along side Commander Bailey brought a smile to my face. This mission was really good, especially because of Kai Leng and Thane's sacrifice. Thane's deathbed was also really good, especially with Thane joking because the "assassin" had lost to someone with Kepral's syndrome. The prayer just made it near perfect.

Everything about the Quarian and Geth conflict was just bloody brilliant for me. Seeing Tali again, reclaiming the homeworld with Legion and Tali working together and in the end even making peace between Geth and Quarians. I especially loved the mission where you're plugged in to the Geth network. You learn some things about the Geth you otherwise wouldn't have known. It was really cool. The sense of accomplishment was also definitely there, after sitting down with Tali on the homeworld.

After this I went to Thessia, where my hatred for Kai Leng grew (which is a good thing in my opinion, hating your enemy in game). I loved the revelation about the Asari goddess though, and I absolutely loved Liara´s talk with Javik.

So after Thessia I was going after Cerberus. Sanctuary was gruesome. Compliments to you about that. It seriously disgusted me. Very nicely done guys. Meeting Miranda's father and saving Oriana was good. I just wonder why Miranda didn't know the location of The Illusive Man's headquarters herself, but I guess that has it's reasons (still, would've been great to ask her that really). After that I went to The Illusive Man's base. I shot up the place, but for some reason the leveldesign for me was really confusing. Escaping the Hanger, the tooltip it gives when you press V (for the mission objective) doesn't really describe "blow up the wall with the fighter you just turned around using the controls which are not placed very intuitively at all", but maybe that was just me. I loved the video fragments about Kai Leng, EDI and Shepard. Obviously I really enjoyed killing the bastard of a Kai Leng.

After this we're taking the battle to earth. This is where things start becoming weird really. So the start of the mission is really cool, destroying the Hades gun and seemingly meeting the Big Ben sniper (he claims he has been sniping from the Big Ben for a couple of days). I loved the last talks with my squad, and I also loved that you could have some sort of holocall with people that were not your squad mates. So, hearing that Jack was on earth relieved me, seeing as I already had the endings spoiled by the angry masses (intentionally, I might add). Knowing she was on earth relieved me, because I knew she'd not be on the Normandy as it strands on the unknown planet (Sur'Kesh?). Anyway, after a couple of things done on Earth, Anderson claims Hackett says a couple of Sovereign type Reapers headed away from the fight with Sword. Including Harbinger. Now really, I wonder how he knows how to recognize Harbinger. But alright, so I go to the beam, get shot down by I think Harbinger.

Waking up and hearing the people talk, it seems like a dream, really. I go to the beam, and I'm hearing Anderson talk. So we head up to the console, the Illusive Man comes in from I don't know where. We have the talk and he forces me to shoot Anderson. After that I shoot him (also been a wish of mine, sadly it did not feel as great as Udina/Turian Councillor for some reason). Anyway, the Crucible docks on. Anderson and me get front row seats. This moment was really good, perhaps you could even expand upon it.

So now we get to my problems with the ending (who would've guessed really). First off we have the paradox that is the reaper motivations. Reapers are harvesting us so that we're not going to be killed by Synthetics. Now seeing as no reaper actually has free will, or is indoctrinated (mostly the same, but meh), basically you're being killed. So basically it's synthetics killing organics because else synthetics would kill organics. There is no reason to convince the Catalyst otherwise, not even with the peace we've brokered, or by calling it racist. Seriously, this situation is the same as if I would shoot (no racism intended guys) a black man, because else that black man MIGHT be shot by a white man. The Reapers know that statistically this will happen, but statistics are sure as hell not always right. Furthermore, it seems to have a lot of gripes over synthetics killing organics. Catalyst almost seems to forget that organics kill organics all the time. Just look at Cerberus. What's the difference between an organic killing an organic and a synthetic killing an organic? Why can we not ask or convince Catalyst of this?

Anyway, so I think the choices are cool in that you basically get the choices from 3 major characters in the series. The Control ending, which was pursued by The Illusive Man. The Synergize ending which was basically, maybe not in this form, but still, pursued by Saren, and ofcourse the Destroy ending, which was basically pursued by Hackett and Anderson. So, me being pissed off with the Catalyst, I picked the Destroy ending. Shamefully, for some reason, it also kills the Synthetics. Well, atleast it puts the cycle to a definitive ending, as I can only imagine the Control ending will in the end, get you to be controlled through indoctrination and the synergy ending would make me extremely pissed if I changed into a man/machine hybrid in a single moment. So, mission complete. We see the folks cheering and then the credits roll but not before we see Joker flying for his life and crashlanding. Why was he even running away? He was in the battle at Earth not a bit sooner. Either he was running away from the fight which seems really out of character, or the shockwave also headed towards earth, in which case the entire fighting force is dead (The Normandy got torn apart. With my advanced plating, shields etc, I'd imagine any other ship would take much more damage).

So now I'll summarize my likes and dislikes.

Likes:
-Side with people on random banter. This is a true addition to your games and I think every game you guys make from now on should have it. I loved hearing random banter from refugees about stuff and you can side with the one or the other. I loved it, really.

-Lot of old familliars.  Basically everyone you've ever helped or ever had in your squad returns (I can't recall anyone I've missed actually). I was hoping I'd see Balak again and even add him to my team, as he and my Shepard are basically the same. He wanted to sacrifice a human colony for his people (be it in a terrorist way), I sacrificed a Batarian colony to get the galaxy some time. Shamefully he didn't join as a squadmate, but atleast it was great seeing him again. It happened this way with a lot of people. Come to think of it, I did miss Gianni Parasini. Shiala mailed me, even though I expected her to be in the game in person.

-Gameplay improved. Unlike a lot of people, I really like the ME2 style controls of having a lot of stuff on the spacebar. I didn't really mind it, as to me it felt like playing a fighting game. Space + left or right meant a dodgeroll, etc etc. I loved how tight the gameplay was and I loved the new skills for the different classes. A lot of classes feel really powerful now, for example the Vanguard. I really amused myself while I was raging through the enemies.

-Story. Besides me disliking the ending, the story in my opinion was really solid. You got a few big choices even before the ending which I think has not really happened before in this measure. Anyway, it really gave you the feeling you're fighting a galactic war. Shame you didn't see the fruits of your labor in these choices.

-Squadmate interaction. I loved not having the squadmates stationary in their rooms on the Normandy. I loved squadmates moving around and talking to eachother or playing poker. I loved Garrus and Tali getting together at the end, as with EDI and Joker (shame she's now dead in my playthrough). I loved Garrus and James talking about their adventures. This was really an addition to the game.

-Heavy melee. I loved this attack. Especially being close quarters with a vanguard, this attack just felt really good. It felt beefy. Never had so much fun meleeing stuff in a shooter before.

-New squadmates. I liked the new squadmates in the form of James and EDI. James is just my kind of guy, with him flying the shuttle into Dr. Eva's shuttle. He's also very much a respectable marine. I really enjoyed having him in my squad, as he makes a lot of funny comments. In my opinion, if there is going to be some kind of ME4, I'd like to see this guy again.

EDI was great in Dr. Eva's body. Even though I also liked the holographic pawn thingy she used in ME2, this was also great. I didn't take her with me on missions as much, but the interaction between her and Joker is, as it should be, great.

Dislikes:
-Gap at the start of the game. You start 6 months or so later than the ending of ME2. You don't get to see your trial, which is a shame, as it could've really helped fill this gap up. Sometimes it really felt like I missed some stuff.

-No epilogue. There is no epilogue or any way to see how the choices you've picked work out. The major choices in ME3 make you curious for the future, for example the Dalatrass warned you that curing the Genophage was a mistake. How does it actually turn out? I'd personally also really would like to see how the peace between the Quarians and the Geth turns out.

-Autodialogue. I disliked it in the demo and hoped that it was only to conserve space. Sadly this was not the case. The game lost a lot of interactivity because of it. It also made it so the dialogue scenes suddenly ran for 5 minutes without any type of break and no way to pause them. Really guys, I play your games because of the interactive story telling and this basically took a lot of it away. It disappointed me a lot.

-ME2 squad members. So, I for one really like the ME2 squad members. I really dislike the fact that basically every ME2 squad member is sidelined/quested. In the quests you don't even fight alongside them as you did with Anderson (which I had atleast hoped), but they got degraded to NPC's. I found this to be a shame really.

-Romances. So yeah, I did a Jack romance, but it surprised me how little of her I saw. I loved meeting her at Grissom Academy. The only time you actually see her besides your talk at the communicationshub thingy, is at the nightclub, and even there not much happens. However, I heard a lot of talk about other romances getting shafted. I looked up a video of someone with a Jacob romance and seriously guys? He cheats on you? That's a lame way of continueing a romance. Especially since I think it's 6 months since you left him to get ready for the trial? And he's already made some other girl pregnant? Seriously?

-Ending. Never saw that one coming did ya? I don't hate the ending as much as some other people seem to do, but I agree it could've been done way better. In fact I can't say any part of the ending mission was was "worth remembering" really. I would've loved to see your former squad mates fight with you there, for example Jack's team firing some biotic artillery's to help you, Samara helping, etc. What I imagined was that we would have an ending mission like the one of Guild Wars Factions. For those of you that don't know it, I'll explain it.

You and your team fight through a palace. To get through the palace you can select I think it was 3 (been a while for me) allies that help you in different ways. They can break down some doors, allowing you to take shortcuts, or pick off some enemies. Lots of different ways to move through the mission. It would really made the game complete for me in terms of squadmates. The ME2 ones really didn't get enough screentime for me, in my honest opinion.

I imagined the same idea would apply to ME3. Especially after the Suicide Mission system, this would, in my opinion, be a great idea. Having Jack and her students assisting that left flank for example so it doesn't fall, saving you stuff to kill. You get the idea.

-Catalyst. Because of my kind of long story above, I'll name it again. Obviously it's part of the ending, but I disliked this guy so much that I thought he deserved his own share of attention. Why do we talk to him really? Why couldn't it have been Harbinger? In my opinion it would be much better to talk this stuff over with someone you have already met, instead of introducing something/someone new at the very end. I also dislike that you cannot tell him his logic is faulty.

What I wonder most of all is this: how did the early civilizations find out about Catalyst itself, when the Catalyst adresses you as the first organic to set foot in his room? The Crucible doesn't get powered automatically, as Hackett explicitely says when he plugs the thing into the Citadel. How did the other cycles before this one figure it would work? They couldn't have known it requires the AI to power it, and they should know that the Crucible doesn't power itself... Maybe it has a reason but I can't see it. Even then, how did the previous cycles know the thing is named Catalyst? It's weird in my opinion.

-Aftermath. I'm not even going to point out all three (not sixteen) endings are basically the same, but I really dislike the Normandy crashlanding on some foreign planet. It just makes no sense. Seeing Joker work his ass of trying to keep the Normandy going was cool, but really he should've just crashed on Earth. He was in the fight for earth anyway, it doesn't even make sense for him to run. I think this is the scene that hurts the Mass Effect community the most, but then again I can only speak for myself here.

-Joker's weird face. So yeah, for some reason I can't get past this. I find his ME2 face a lot more detailed than his ME3 face. I don't know why it was changed, but his face kind of looks like he's crazy in the negative way.

-Multiplayer being required. So I've done ME1 to ME3 and for the best ending you need 5k EMS. I only had around 3500 by the start of the Cerberus base attack. I had to do 5-6 multiplayer matches to get it over 5k. While I don't mind multiplayer, in fact I'm actually starting to like it, I personally prefer to do multiplayer aspects of a game after I've completed the singleplayer aspect of it. This system had me interrupting my snigle player playthrough so that I could get the best ending. Didn't mind it that much, but I can imagine it'll be really crappy once people start playing multiplayer less and less.

So I've been writing this now for what, 3 hours I think. I think I've written down all my thoughts on this game. For me it's not as bad as a lot of people who can't even bear playing it again, but that's only because my Shepard was with Jack. I had enough EMS to seemingly survive the Destroy ending (which strikes me as odd, why would effective military strength determine if I'm able to survive an attack on all synthetics?). Seeing as Jack was on earth, she is now, as she put it so nicely "getting laid".

Anyway guys, I hope you guys improve upon this game and make it perfect. The reason I've scored it so low is basically because of the expectations gotten from the previous two games and ofcourse, Casey's promisses. It saddened me a lot to see a lot of promisses go up in smoke. But I still have hope, as the Stargazer is telling the kid one more story. I hope it's the one where we see what became of the universe and pull the Normandy out of the crap.

Oh, by the way, maybe someone can help me on this. How is Joker able to crash the Normandy and not have any broken bones? He gets his bones broken even when you hit him hard enough, you'd expect a crash would get him some broken bones (not that I'd want to ofcourse, Joker's awesome )

[Zix13]

Although the game overall was probably an 8/10 or 9/10, the endings were just so terrible I couldn't recommend this game to anyone.

[Toxeydoll]

 I felt ME3 was really amazing until the end - VERY disappointing in that regard

I can't say it didnt start out as being an epic game tho

Stuff I enjoyed

1. The dialog - I thot when you interacted with any of the characters it was written beautifully. Although I wish some of the ME2 romances had as much "umph" as the ME1 romances - I really can't complain about it because it was so well written that it felt satisfying regardless. I felt the interactions with past characters were extremely well done as well. - when you ran into a past character it felt very realistic in their response - I just thought while playing the game that it was a joy to watch when I interacted with anyone really (ending aside obviously) - I as also really pleasantly surprised to see some of the characters that showed up in this one!

2. the action - whether it was a near miss or shepard falling etc - I felt it kept the shock factor up. There were many times I found myself saying "OMG!" lol

3. the gameplay - I felt it played really smoothly - no complaints at all there - the graphics were top notch! 

4. multiplayer - I was extremely skeptical when I heard a multiplayer was being introduced, and I was still skeptical even when I played the demo - BUT i have to say when I played the game I felt it was well done and I liked it alot! I wasn't super big on it being integral to the storyline BUT with the N7 missions and everything it really was a refreshing change of pace to get to be a character that ranged in species and get to take on forces with friends

Stuff I didnt enjoy

1. the ending - its hard for me to say anything that hasnt been said - but I didnt like the ending at all lol -- when I was playing ME3 I got wind the ending was bad but in my head was like "idk what peoples issues are, even if its an ending i wouldnt personally want I'm sure its done really well because bioware are visionaries as far as their writing go" - and then I saw it with my own eyes and I could NOT believe how bad it was -- My dislike for it doesnt stem from the fact that it was not "what I wanted" either bc its obvious that you can't please everyone all the time - my issue was the fact that it was that not only was it a bunch of nonsense but it was so poorly explained which boggles my mind considering its a bioware title -- as well I felt like in the end none of my choices really mattered - it didnt matter who I romanced or who I befriended -- if anything I felt like i could have made everyone die in ME2, not gotten any forces together for the war, and still gotten the same ending lol - which i would have gladly accepted an ending where my choices didnt matter if it was done in a comprehensable fashion - idk it was just SO bad it was impossible to ignore lol - like..i just dont see what the point of being paragon or renegade really was lol

if you romanced a ME2 character are they dead now? are they waiting for you and your not coming back? what? theres zero closure on that or anything really

plus the whole "companions are on the planet with you and then suddenly on the normandy"

The ending was too bad to ignore and was the metaphorical "reapers" of my good time - so I'd personally give it a 6 or 7/10 

by comparison id give ME1 and ME2 perfect 10s lol

[Chucky141]

Pros:
-Main story right up until the end
-Improved combat
-High production value
-Immersive experience
-Excellent closure for Mordin and the Korgan, and the Geth and the Quarians
-Good dialogue with characters
-Clint Mansell's score
-Voice acting
-Shepard is humanized
-Kai Leng and the Illusive Man

Cons:
-Lack of interesting side quests
-Less dialogue options
-Multiplayer lacks depth
-Ending
-Tali's face
-Diana Allers
-Journal no longer displays current objectives
-Not enough squad interaction
-Joker/EDI relationship is weak and strange

[T-Raks]

mahlerbone wrote...

here's our review

This is great!

[Shepard_ME]

- I like excellent music in this game (first thing I noticed), increased difficult, updated combat system.
- Also like few things returned from first game. I believe, that ME3 is mix between ME1 and ME2.
- Dislike only ending (last 15 minutes), all except it just very nice. Just want to see DLC's with normal endings. 
- May be it don't have so many dialogue like it was in ME2, but story still interesting and exciting.
- Few side quests difficult to complete (had to check all systems), they aren't very different.

Finally, personal rating - 9/10.
ME2 was slightly better in few things, but ME3 is also good game.
Thanks, BioWare. Now I'll try to replay all games..

There also was little problems like inconvenient journal, stuck in Joker's cabin, lack of description for ship sections (about crew members), but they don't interfere with having fun.)

Modifié par Shepard_ME, 17 mars 2012 - 08:09 .