1966 réponses à ce sujet

[rolson00]

ok just done my playthrough and felt that the beginning was too rushed, i thought Bioware said we would be able to explore earth before the trail and that the game invastion would start halfway through that trail.
I also brought all of the Mass effect 3 invastion comics which said would conclude in Mass effect 3 but didnt.
I did love the squad banter my favourites being...
Shepard- want a dip in the pool?
Garrus- you obviously havn't seen a Turain swim, theres a lot of flaying and splashing with a frequant buots of drowning
also
Shepard- how are drinking it?
Tali- through an emergency valve port
Shepard- its a straw Tali
Tali-emergency valve port

Mordins death has to be one of the best scenes ever in the ME series  i was sat there thinking "i should be happy about the krogan being cured,but damn mordins dead!" and his last line "Has to be me someone else might get it wrong" was perfect.
i was hoping for bigger side story srcs like novera in me1 and omerga in me2
also i love the in game joke about shepard not being able to dance
Jack- shepard! every one knows you can't dance!
another was creating peace between geth and quarains that was awesome and legion dieing for his people that was a great moment too
in fact i loved all of mass effect 3 except the last 10 mins it wasnt the satifieing conclution i was hoping for.
but i would give ME3 8.5/10

[JPVS]

Being a great fan of the ME series, I feel like I should give my honest opinion about this last game in the franchise. This was the game that had the potential of putting the franchise in the level of my favorite (and in my opinion best) RPG franchise ever: Baldur's Gate. Unfortunately, that did not happen, and mostly because of ME3.

Soundtrack
ME3 soundtrack is quite good indeed. It fits the game like a glove. Clint Mansell and Sam Hulick did a terrific job, especially in the last two soundtracks ("I'm Proud of You"; "An End Once and For All"), filling the already emotional scene with even more emotion. The other compositors also did an excelent job, of course.

Graphics
I am not one to let graphics become the most important thing in a game, so I'm not the best person to talk about them. For me they are good. Not perfect, there are plenty of bugs and issues with the game graphics, especially when it comes to lightning and shadows, but still for me they are good.

Gameplay
Personally I think the gameplay is far better than it was in ME2, although it has also become far too simple. Yes you can have several different abilities but just like in the previous games you can easily get a strategy that applies to just about any encounter. And the weapons easily turn out to be no-brainer choices.
I was expecting a more tactical gameplay. You can't make it as complex as fantasy RPGs, since there is little variety in terms of enemies and abilities, but still enemies could have better AIs, have greater numbers (I kinda expected husk hordes) and even different resistances to weapons/powers other than "oh, this has lots of platting while this has lots of shield".
Still, I care much more about the storyline than the gameplay itself. Otherwise, I wouldn't have played (and enjoyed) Dragon Age 2.

Artwork
The scenarios were awesome and well detailed. Palaven burning, the
Geth's consensus, Rannoch, Thessia.. All them amazing pieces of artwork.

Storyline
Here is how the game climbs so high, only to fall just as much. Up until the ending, I'd easily give the game a 9/10. Here's why:

• The game's tone changes to an even darker one, which is extremely right given the state of galactic war. Don't agree much with a darker ship, simply because of realism questions (it would make working on it much difficult for those with limited eye-sight in the dark, like us humans) but that is nothing more than a small, easily ignored, detail.
• NPCs have more depth. Although still far from Baldur's Gate 2 NPCs, the NPCs from ME3 had a lot more depth than that found on ME1 and ME2 (which was something I immediately pointed out). In this one, however, NPCs interact with each other not merely on cinematics where you have to make choices. Their personalities seem to have been improved and carefully tailored to fit the galactic war events. They are richer than in ME1 or ME2. Also, having them wandering around the Normandy was also a great improvement.
• An emotional game: after playing ME1 and 2 (especially with the same character), one easily sees how much the franchise has improved in terms of emotion and character-NPC interaction. In the ME2 DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker you could already see an amazing work of "friendship bond and emotion" between Shepard and Liara. This game promised more, not merely with Liara, and it did not fail in that aspect.
• The emotions are not merely in the "friendships" between Shepard and the squad. They are also present in the romance. Although still lacks the depth of the one found in Baldur's Gate 2, the romance development and interaction is very good, far better than the one on ME1 and ME2.
• Making players emotionally invested in the storyline. In my opinion only ME3 achieves this. In ME1 you fought Saren because it was your job, you didn't fully understand the scope of the Reaper threat, and because the game lacked the emotional aspects of friendship and romance, it was easy not to become attached.
  In ME2 you are attached but mostly to your squad. Sure, the Collectors are abducting humans and doing terrible things to them, but they can still be easily stopped. You also feel that sooner or later the Alliance would get its act together and blow the Collector vessels out of the sky. So basically, stopping the Collectors just provides a "badass" emotional bond: you go kick their asses not because it is your job but mostly because they ****** you off.
  In ME3 you know the scope of the Reaper threat. You know your character won't survive if you don't act the way you think to be right. Not merely that, you are also confronted with both the concerns of having to fight the Reapers and ensuring the future of the galaxy, which includes you, your world and also your squad. ME3 also throws in something more: an attachment with Anderson, almost the need to have Shepard prove him he can do the job, that the old man can be proud of the commander.
  Bioware also tried to had more attachment to Earth and the people dying there at the hands of the Reapers by introducing the dream sequences. However, I think that was a bit of a failure. You only saw the kid a twice before he got shot, so his face easily becomes just another one behind the statistics. Maybe not for Shepard, of course, but for as players it does. A different approach, like allowing the kid to interact with the commander, prior to the Reaper invasion, or alter the dream sequence end (having him just surrounded by flames with no visual effect on the kid itself means little, in my opinion) could have worked better, I think.
• The Illusive Man was extremely rich and well interpreted. Amazing work by both the graphic team and Martin Sheen. You can feel his belief in his own convictions, and sense the conflict within himself.
• Protheans: altering what he imagined of the Protheans was a good shock and awe action that darkened the ME universe for the best. Especially considering Liara's reaction to Javik, as well as the other squad's interaction with him.
• The main sections were amazing, it allowed us to solve conflicts we'd been wanting to solve, that we worked to solve, like the Geth and the Genophage. It gave us some closure on those issues. And the choices, although obvious, weren't done without consequence. Failing to save the Krogan would lead to Wrex's death, and everyone just loved him. Saving the Krogan would lead to Mordin's death and personally I liked the guy. Choosing sides on the Geth/Quarian conflict was also hard again because we ended up liking Legion and Tali.
• The side sections were good as well. Seeing our decisions carry on to this game is exactly what the players wanted. And seeing that not all of them were exactly good or the best (example: letting Balak go on ME1 DLC Bring Down the Sky led to the death of many and could lead to nothing if we are unable to persuade him to join the war; or letting the Rachni queen go free on Noveria only to have her enslaved by the Reapers again).
  Other side missions against Cerberus were also refreshing but ultimately repetitive. Again, this is because the game lacked a richer tactical gameplay.
• The storyline itself is quite good, even if short.
• The battle for Earth was more intense that other battles, as it should be, with a lot more enemies to defeat. Still, it was short, more than it should. The entire game led us to believe there would be a massive and epic battle to retake Earth, but instead we got little more than a 30 minute arc. Somewhat disappointing.

All in all, everything I said so far would make me give ME3 a 9/10.
Then comes the ending and the game drops to half that.
Let's start by the good thing about the ending:

• Entering the Citadel through the Reaper conduit, ending up in the confrontation with The Illusive Man with Anderson by Shepard's side, which ultimately leads to Anderson's and The Illusive Man's death felt right. That entire scene is filling with a great emotion and I can easily say that I'd have loved the ending if it had, in fact, ended there, with both of them die while facing Earth, even without knowing if the Reapers were conquered or not.
  An open-ending like that would have been different from what the fans expected, and it would have been memorable. There would also be little disappointment because it would allow the fans to easily imagine the rest, while future DLCs could easily expand it.

But this is just the only good thing about the ending. Instead, the entire ending became a sequence of "space magic" and became empty and completely disconnected from the ME franchise. Here's why:

• You have "space magic" when Anderson somehow follows you through the conduit, ends up on a different tunnel but still manages to get to the exactly same control room that can only be accessed through the tunnel you were coming from. Unless the citadel managed to alter itself in the blink of an eye, you should have seen Anderson in the bridge over the chasm, at the very least, seeing as he was talking about it just about the same time you were exiting the tunnel. Still, this bit of "space magic" is acceptable because, like I said, it felt right having Anderson there in the final confrontation with The Illusive Man.
• So, TIM is dead. Anderson just died, and Shepard is bleeding to death. All this while facing a citadel with its arms opened and staring at Earth from space. That is, indeed, a spectacular sight and perfect sight, like TIM says before dying (depending on how you deal with him, of course). There it is, a good ending for the franchise.
  Instead Hackett says the Crucible isn't firing and Shepard is transported to the outside of the citadel. Now, I'll assume there were mass effect fields in place to allow shepard to breathe, otherwise, he'd have died in a few seconds from being in the vacuum of space. The Child/Crucible appears before the commander and tells you the entire reason for the Reaper's existance is to prevent what it deems to be an inevitable conflict between synthetics and organics.
  First off, that conflict, although present, didn't felt like the real reason for the Reaper's existance. However, I'll accept that justification. After all, it is an AI with countless years of existance, it has seen more we can imagine, so why doubt its word? It could be, that up until that point, each cycle proved the conflict was indeed inevitable. What I can't accept, and can't possible see how the game creator's accepted, was the fact that during the game our actions proved that conflict wasn't necessarily true. Our actions showed that an AI can feel alive and want to help organics (EDI), that peace between creators (Quarians) and creation (Geth) is possible. So why couldn't Shepard do one of his famous speeches, that solved plenty of situations during the other games? Why does he simply accept the three solutions present, that will clearly send the galaxy back to the stone age (so to speak)? That is not the Shepard Bioware created so far, the Shepard we grew to like.
  So here's the first real problem: no choice whatsoever. Our actions lead exactly to the same 3 similar endings because Shepard cannot use his knowledge and experience to chose differently. It accepts what the Master of all Reapers is saying, which no one, in his right mind, would without first lashing out against it. And in fact, showing the examples of EDI and the Geth would easily destroy the Child/Catalyst logic.
• For an extremely old and intelligent AI, the Child/Catalyst seems to be pretty damn stupid. So its solution to the synthetic-organic conflict no longer works because Shepard got up there. Acceptable. However, who brought Shepard up there? It was the Child/Catalyst. So if he had brought Shepard up there, there would be no ending to the solution. In fact, it would have forced the races of that cycle to say "forget the Crucible, it doesn't work so find another solution" to the next cycle, thus prolonging the Child/Catalyst solution for plenty more milion years.
  The only reason someone would give an enemy the possibility to destroy everything that someone worked for is out of respect and a sense of honor/duty. Being an AI, the Child/Catalyst as neither. It has calculus only. And it seems to have failed in the ending. So much for its extremely old and high intelligence...
• About the endings themselves, we have: destroy, control or synthesis. Well, the last one feels like it came out of a bad Deus Ex spin-off. It feels nothing but "space magic" having a device powerful enough to alter organics and turn them into synthetics. Because that's exactly what it did. And somehow, it was powerful enough to do that to ALL LIVING THINGS in the galaxy. You can't possibly present something like this and expect the fans to accept it without feeling betrayed, or without feeling that this isn't "space magic". At least the destroy or control endings didn't had that feeling.
  But they were far from good. They were empty, they barely connected with most of the players (when more than 85% of the online fans seem disappointed, depressed and/or angy with the endings shows just that. I could go on about why they are this empty, but fortunately there are plenty of articles that say it far better than I do (http://cruiseelroy.n.../03/the-ending/ or http://www.gamefront...fans-are-right/ for example). Here's a good quote from the first link to express exactly just why:
  "The critical mistake BioWare made was to confuse their fans’ investment in the characters with interest in the fate of the universe as a whole. The ending is supposed to be hopeful — the Reapers are no longer a threat, and organic life can flourish. But by attempting to wrap up the story arcs before the final battle, and then sketching out the conclusion with broad strokes in which everyone’s fate is left unresolved, they’ve betrayed a colossal misunderstanding of how the audience was engaged with the story.
  One of the most common complaints about the ending is that it makes the rest of the game feel “pointless.” With the Citadel and the mass relays destroyed, what difference does it make if the genophage is cured or if Rannoch is recovered? It feels pointless because, in the end, no one was really trying to save the galaxy; they were trying to save the people. Pulling the camera so far back that we can’t see anyone severs the emotional connection that the rest of the series built up. The implications of the three endings can make for interesting thought experiments — what does it mean to combine organic and synthetic life? — but they are just that: thought experiments. Abstract speculation about transhumanism is the ending to a story that was not being told."
• The ending is determined by one single thing: Effective Military Strength. Honestly, I don't know how could someone think of this and find it acceptable. The entire game was about choices, so the end should have been based on the character's choices. Instead, the character's choices funneled into one single parameter that led to very similar endings. Didn't bioware promised around 16? Well, I'd consider 16 endings if there were actual substantial differences. Instead you have exactly the same: the relays are destroyed, the Reaper's are no longer a threat, the squad dies of starvation and those left stranded on Earth will likely starve as well.
• Inconsistences due to bioware forgetting the universe they created. These are plenty in the endings presented. First, without relays it would take years to get to the nearest cluster. So basically, the Quarians could only return to their homeworld if their liveships survived and only after some half a century of additional travel. The Turians didn't had liveships, so they would starve on Earth, since they can't eat human food. The krogan would likely kill anyone just to get food. Salarians on earth would go extinct, since the females don't leave Salarian homeworlds. Earth would need to rebuild from scratch with only several million people helping. And the squad, stranded on an unknown planet, will likely starve, for they are soldiers not farmers.
  I'll even overlook the "mass relay's explosion" issue and accept that although a relay exploding releases just about the same energy as a supernova (shown on the ME2 DLC Arrival), enough to wipe out the entire star system, the explosions of the endings were somehow different.
• The very last sequence of the ending, right after the relays are destroyed, is filled with "space magic". Why was Joker leaving the battle for Earth in FLT travel? Was he warned somehow? How did the squad members came to be up on the Normandy? They teleported from Earth? Or wait, did Joker predict what would happen, abbandoned the battle, came to pick them up (especially the two squad members charging towards the conduit) and then decided to leave the system?
  And how does a guy with brittle-bone disease, who can't even suffer a somewhat smooth rough landing on the Collector base survive the extremely rough landing on a strange planet without the ship's systems and even engines (the explosion in space takes the engines out)? How does he manage to come out of the ship, after being rocked like that, without a scratch and enough broken bones to kill him?
  And how does Shepard survive the explosion of the citadel, the reentry in Earth's atmosphere, the fall of hundreds of kilometers, all this with his armor blow to hell, without an helmet to allow vacuum breathing and with most of his body shut-down because it was partially synthetic? Wonders.

I have seen plenty of sci-fiction shows and games (Deus Ex, Stargate series and movies, Babylon 5, Star Trek series and movies, Firefly, Farscape, Starcraft, Space 1999, etc.) but I can honestly say I don't remember one single episode of one of those with enough "space magic" to rival the amount of it found in the ME3 endings. And that makes it even more disappointing.

All this is why I don't give the game more than 4.5/10. And why I don't see myself playing the game again (I played ME1 and 2 5 or 6 times already), when I was actually hoping for a game that would want to make me play dozens of times (like the Baldur's Gate franchise did). And why I won't be buying DLCs for this franchise anymore (a shame, seeing as I bought every single other for ME1 and 2), since any DLC with events prior to the ending leads to just about the same empty and frustrating conclusion that has little to do with ME.
I have to say that the purpose of making an extremely replayable game failed by a long shot. Unfortunately, I also have to say that the purpose of making a memorable game succeeded pretty well, for the wrong reasons, by providing another failure to Bioware/EA list of failed games and providing the worst end to one of the best game franchises created since the beggining of the century.

Modifié par JPVS, 18 mars 2012 - 12:29 .

[DenizYe]

My Mass Effect 3 Score: 99/100 (For me, it's one of the best single players I've ever played) (Sorry for my bad english)

I liked:
+ the new and dark Normandy: I liked the new rooms as well as the design of it.
+ interactions between the crew on the Normandy and during the missions
+ the Citadel: my favorite hub-place of all three games (it's so big and I enjoyed visiting it, listening to many conversations and getting some mini side quests as well as some scanning quests)
+ the humor: It was so good to her some allusions and jokes (for example: The Shepard Dancing jokes, Garrus' calibration, Jack and her swearing "problem", Tali and Ashley drinking to much alcohol, etc...)
+ cameos of my ME2 squad members: I liked the development of Miranda, Samara, Thane, Mordin, etc... I was happy to see my old squad again fulfilling their own duties. (Best example: Jacob)
+ emotional moments like the death of Mordin or Miranda
+ the mission design: Many new fresh elements were introduced. I was really surprised about the Legion mission. It was just so new and cool to infiltrate the Geth "brain" and clean it up.
+ the dark sequences. Walking through tunnels and dark rooms with your flashlight was a fresh experience. (I dig the mission on Tuchanka in the lost city)
+ at first the story was quite predictable but later on there were many surprises.
+ N7 Missions felt a lot more important than before.
+ the final mission was just epic. I thought I died after Harbinger hit me but standing up and fighting my way to the beam and being quite a dead man was just unexpected and really well executed.
+ enemy diversity: We "only" have three fractions but all of them are so different and distinct because all of the enemies had up to 7 different types.
+ design of the reaper forced : for instance the Banshee. Wow meeting them the first time in the Ardat Yakshi Monastery was really scary and creepy.
+ the dreams of Shepard
+ romance scene (played it once and my LI was Liara)
+ Multiplayer: It is so much fun playing with other people against waves of enemies and using some alien forces. Playing with friends is even more satisfying.
+ EMS system: It quite forced you to do things. It became important that you help other people. I liked it. It showed that you need to gather all the help to win against the Reapers.
+ the content of the Collector's Edition
+ the prothean squad mate (DLC) and it's mission on Eden Prime
+ Kai Leng because he appears in situations you would not expect him to
+ the last dialog with TIM (Saren style)
+ and more...

My 5 favorite missions:
- Take Back Earth
- Tuchanka Missions
- Horizon (Wow...The experiments were so unexpected)
- Mars
- Ardat Yakshi
Honorable mention : Citadel II

My 5 least favorite missions (but still great)
- Moon of Palaven (while the scenery and the intro of the brute were great, the mission itself wasn't that exciting)
- Intro on Earth (I played it too often in the demo It got boring)
- N7 Benning
- N7 Noveria
- Priority Rannoch (At first I didn't get how the target locater thing worked so I died like 10 times till I got it to work and found out that it charges further everytime I aim at the reaper)

I disliked:
- some minor bugs including the disappearance of squad members while talking to them (really weird sometimes seeing shepard talking to a wall. Mostly with EDI :/ )
- the ending was too confusing. While I liked the mission itself and the whole scenery and atmosphere the game tricked me with the colors of the decisions at the end. But now... As I think about it, it is a masterpiece (so no real dislike)
- I wanted to have more missions on Thessia
- some weird graphical errors

____
To sum up: Mass Effect 3 is the best of the trilogy. I can't wait to replay it after my exams with my second Shepard ! (I finished it yesterday for the first time)

I hope for:
+ more DLC content for SP and MP (for instance the rumored "Take Back Omega" or an alternative ending for the people disliking or even hating the current endings)
+ patch to fix some issues

Thank you Bioware for this video game !

Modifié par DenizYe, 18 mars 2012 - 12:05 .

[tyranolol]

good things: history, places, the citys and places are spectacular and looks like that they have their own live, not like on me1 or me2 that citadel looks like, except you were, really lonely, music, nearly all is really good. Garrus has a 300% more of awesome and just like Tali and Liara, the old chars are really well, and i really become enloved of Tali's history, Genophage, etc... The conversations between all the crew, just like on baldur's gate, really nice touch that i miss for so long time, even on Dragon Age.

Bad thigs: EDI and James, nice chars but i think they are out of place, james try to fill up the place of Grunt / Wrex but is not the same, is a good char but not enough, EDI is completly outplaced, it coul be the same with her new corpse and being and npc like on ME2, and the protean, another good char, but only on DLC, sad.

The quest system really hard where you must to go, on me2 and me1 you can make a follow up really easy of each quests and know where you must to go, here is a reallly ****ing hell to know where to go and where to back to get your reward.

The multiplayer, the horde mode is fun but i would be happy if there was something of cooperative mode for multi, play with your friends the history of mass effect 3, or some missions that could be really cool, just like on baldur's gate, but i'm not so sad for the multi.

Really bad things: The ending, I suppose like 90% of people think the same thing, after getting 38 hours of funny combats, incredible historys, crying in some parts, being happy and jump out of my chair i get that ending and my troll face saying wtf?. ME3 is so good game and it REALLY worths a fantastic ending, don't want rainbows or ponnys but something that concludes the Shepard's history like the rest of this awesome trilogy, i have post nearly the same thing on other posts, and not an A, B, C ending with the only difference of the colour of the explosion and, if you made things well, the Shepard's breath. I'm really sure that you have a really good dev team and you could do it much better and let this trilogy, not only me3, as the best rpg of all times. I want to finish this game and do the same i do when i had finish me2 or KOTOR, go back and continue playing it with different decision and, at this moment, this is really far of my mind. Bioware I really trust on you and want to think you are going to do what fans demands, an awesome ending for an awesome trilogy, even on Forbes magazine are starting to talk all about the bad feeling on players that has let the ending of this game, i let here the link http://www.forbes.co...blic-relations/

Thanks for listening the players and I hope it gets results and changes on the game.

i give me3 60/100 , it could be a 100/100 but the ending.... makes me so sad!!

Modifié par tyranolol, 18 mars 2012 - 01:13 .

[weedyfun]

Mass Effect 3 made me feel exactly like this:

It's like having sex with someone who's incredibly attractive, seduces you in an unimaginably amazing way and doesn't make you come.

[Olive Oomph]

weedyfun wrote...

Mass Effect 3 made me feel exactly like this:

It's like having sex with someone who's incredibly attractive, seduces you in an unimaginably amazing way and doesn't make you come.

I must say, I had quite a few orgasms over the course of the trilogy and I regret nothing.
For me It's more like being suddenly thrown out of the bed by a person who  you just had an amazing one-night-stand with and who you really liked and you now wander the empty, nightly streets aimlessly trying to figure out what the hell went wrong! And Mass Effect wasn't a one-night-stand, it was a long-lasting relationship!
So now I am waiting for a phone call, asking me to come back and cuddle.

Modifié par Olive Oomph, 18 mars 2012 - 01:48 .

[Grim_85]

just thought i'd put my two penneth in, played the series since the ME1 release and always followed bioware games from the glory days of baldurs gate
so here goes ...
+ Garrus
+ pace of the game (getting ready for the war and the last battle)
+ enjoyed the mix of achievments (both SP and MP)
+ got my spacehamster back (minsc will be happy :happy:)
+ multipayer was a nice change of pace at times from the campaign and helped with galactic readiness and you could promote a character as a war asset
+ weapon sounds were huge improvement
+ soundtrack was a good mix and at times emotive
+ Tuchanka mission felt epic running through the artillery fire
+ Mordins death upset me and cried when he menitioned the sea shells
+ Thane still amazing despite being half dead when he took on Kai-Leng
+ TIM had interesting story arc towards the end
+ London !!!
+ grunt charging the rachni reapers redeemed the character same with Jack at Grissom academy
+ skill trees for the leveling up was better than ME2
+ shepard constantly looking worn out as ME1, 2 and 3 would take its toll
+ Cinematics and cut scene vids
+ Shuttlebay and the terminals there
+ weapon mods
+ reaper varients with each race
+ got to see david form overlord
+ spectre terminal got to use some of that special forces power

- fetch and deliver missions on citadel got very samey
- mission log didnt track objectives
- ending vids were same with different color blasts
- small datapad screen saying shepard became a legend (a DA1 screens with each plot would have been better)
- Javik mission was short despite being good character
- Why was the normandy fleeing leaving shepard to die and how did Garrus and kaiden get on the ship when they were in london with me?
- more reaper varients 
- would have like a bit more with salarian, asari and turian home worlds
- harbinger or the lack there of!!
- Kai Leng was introduced little late in the day (ME2 appearence briefly or have Miranda killing Thane)
- did seem that players who didnt get overlord or arrival in particular missed out on some important fluff
- lack of choices in conversation (i like fluff!!)
- diane allers could have been thought out more

i know people have slated the ending an i can understand why, lots of loopholes and little in the way of closure for many of the choices our shepards have made, but the idea of indoctrination and it was a 'dream' of sorts could work and i really cant see bioware messing up its most successful game and its own IP, there is going to be something DLC or another format that will explain everything. check out vids on the theory and there is a lot of weight behind it. i was furious it ended the way it did but have swung back in favour. im looking forward to see what bioware do regarding this.

[Marcin K]

i know i've rated the game already but let me put in some addition, or rather ask BioWare the same question "was it the case?" i've recently dug up the quotes from developers, let me just quote a few:

“Experience the beginning, middle, and end of an emotional story unlike anyother, where the decisions you make completely shape your experienceand outcome.”

Interview with Mac Walters (Lead Writer)“[The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in MassEffect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers.”

Interview with Mac Walters (Lead Writer)

“There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can’tsay any more than that…” 

Interview with Mike Gamble (Associate Producer)

so let me repeat the question: was it the case? 
...i think us fans know the answer to this question, the REAL question is Do you BioWare?
edit: formatting correction

Modifié par Marcin R, 18 mars 2012 - 02:05 .

[Lietuvis]

Well, all i did was just complain although i have to agree that this game was a total mindblow ( in a good way ) until the star-child
Graphics: Despite that fact it's the same engine, it was handled very well, everything looks realistic and well made. I would give 10/10 without argueing, it made me feel much more amazed, than for example Crysis 2 or other games that focuses on graphics.
Sound: I just felt in love with it, a little mix from old game made us remember that we are continuing from mass effect franchise. It was a nice touch for new players as well. Same here - 10/10, music really fitted everywhere and did a great job to summon emotions. Especially at scene where Anderson dies .
Gameplay: I'm actually glad nothing really changed much, and adding a roll into the game was a nice touch, i liked it, it have created new possibilities, i found few issues, but it was alright 9/10
Story: It felt a bit rushed off at the beggining. it might be alright for us, players who have played mass effect 1 and 2, but for newcomers it might seem as a rushed game. I think there should be a scene where Shepard is being asked what he did while he was with Cerberus, and he would explain about using their resources to defeat the collectors. Story was well made, i loved it. UNTIL the ending, i have to agree up to a point - it might be a decent and perhaps even a great ending to those who haven't played mass effect 1 or 2. But for us- true, loyal fans - it was a punch in the face. I literally was depressed whole day, not about that shepard dies - about the fact how bad the ending was. I just saw things i couldn't have imagined in my worst nightmare. If someone told me about those endings few months before - i would have called them crazy and say that Bioware is a great company and wouldn't screw up that hard. All i wanted - if i had made the right choices - shepard to survive and meet up with his LI or even normandy. Ofcourse where should be a bad ending, where shepard made bad choices and now has to pay up for it - he must sacriface himself in order to save the galaxy. And catalyst? I mean come on, what the hell happened to writers at the end? It seems like someone let a 5 year old kid to write the ending, it honestly does seem like that.
In conclusion i would give this game 9/10. But in my heart bioware screwed the best game ever for me - i can't force myself to play mass effect anymore. Bioware, i always have trusted you and i know you always were there for fans - looking at their opinion and adding it to the game - so now i beg you, please, oh god please fix the endings, make a dlc, anything i could pay up any ammount of money neccesary just to have a logical ending wich makes sence.

[SolveighS]

My review.
First of i had another post earlier in this thread but that was directly after i finished the game and it was about 0200 AM and i was already a little tired.

Now that two days have passed and i took some time thinking about the game and comparing it to its predecessorsand i am writing another review.

I give Mass Effect 3 30 of possible 100 points. The negative rating results from various parts/features from the game.

To be honest, the 30 points are almost entirely based on the combat system. Mass Effect is described as an Action RPG. So i split the 100 points into 50 for combat and 50 for RPG.

Combat:
The Combat was solid action but not rich in variety. I played as an adept on insanity for my first (and only so far) playthrough.
The combat usualy was comprised of the common cover based shooting with relatively easy enemies. At some points there were just a whole bunch of them but not really hard. Every now and then the developers just threw in a bunch 'wannabe bosses' which  rendered the cover system useless (the banshees, brutes for example). Then i just had to run and try to get away into another coverposition before getting killed by the cannon fodder enemies.
That part was one of the alternations from ME2 i noticed. The second one were the grenades which they used to force me into another cover or out in the open. Over the time it became the primary routine to '-> get into cover -> use powers/weapons to kill the first enemies -> switch cover because of grenades -> kill another bunch of enmies -> switch cover again because of grenades -> finish the rest'. The smoke grenades are not worth mentioning from my point of view. Just waited them to clear and continued my routine.
As said earlier sometimes there was a small alteration because of the 'bosses' that only added '-> run away into another cover before getting gunned down ->' into the procedure.

Weapons:
Again i have a whole pile of Weapons to choose from. The weight System i got used to but it's still not as good as the mechanic from ME1 where i had my four weapons, seperate Cooldowns on each of my powers. Some Weapons i was trained on and some i wasn't. After my first playthrough i could choose an extra trait for example Assault rifles for my Adept. And it rocked.

Now in ME3 i can pickup any weapon, use it but if i take up to much weight my powers suffer... ok i can cope with that.

The Weapon upgrades are ridiculus in my opinion. Adding a mod changes the color of the weapon? The Barrel extends add a small piece of graphics which look kinda stupid. Mods ok but it didn't have to alter the looks of the weapons. they were fine as they were.
The Ammunition (yes ammunition! No matter how you look at it, it's ammunition.). Again i liked the version from ME1 best. The explanation why the weapons didn't need to be reloaded was quite good and there were mods to add features like incendiary ammo or the heat sinks for a quick cooldown.
At least you put more ammunition into the levels as you did in ME2 which made the usability of the weapons comparable with ME1. The best would have been some hybrid between Me1 and 2 with clips for instant Cooldown or just wait 20 seconds when you run out of Ammunition (these are just my two cents).
All in all the weapon design wasn't that bad for a 'shooter'.
(BTW. I like an inventory System, Yes i really do!)

Leveldesign:
The leveldesign didn't differ much from ME2. The levels were either completly linear point to point or some small squarelike areas you could circle through. There was not even a single "whoooa" effect (i had several in ME1). Especialy the level with the Rachni looked like a cheap aliens rip off. The eggs and the krogans that were glued to the wall with goo in the queens chamber like the Colonists in Aliens. Also the queen itself looked a little like the queen from Aliens.

There were no real interactions in the levels just the shooting ranges. I remember the Researchbase on Noveria where i fought my way to the scientists and assisted them. That was something i hoped would be back in Me3.
The total absence of vehicle-based exploration was a major step back in my opinion as well as the inability to holster my weapons while not in combat.
The rest was simply cover for the shooting range.
Compared to ME1, ME2 and 3 were a major step back considering the large explorable Areas like the Citadel/Planets/Questhubs. ME3 carried that to extremes.

RPG:
In my opinion there were not really RPG features. The Dialogues with my crew and or other people were short and lacked the large variety of options from ME1 (ME2 lacked them also). In ME1 i could talk to people about several different topics and every topic had several subitems. These conversations gave me a deeper insight on what happened around me or what my Crewmembers/conversation partners opinion was.
Talking to the Crew was also mostly stripped down to just 'click' them and listen to a scripted conversation which neither involved the typical closeup nor the ability to choose dialogue options at all.
Every now and than i could listen to a debate some NPC's had and could side with one. But that also just involved in 'clicking' my choosen side without getting deeper into the conversation.
Regarding the freedom of 'exploring the Galaxy' which was very good introduced with ME1..... there was little in ME2 and none in ME3.

In ME1 i could orbit a planet and on some of them i could land and explore either on foot or with the Mako (R.I.P my friend you were fun to drive). ME1 had Questhubs (Like Ferros, Noveria, the great Citadel) i could revisit and travel seamles maybe to finish another quest i picked up somewhere else in the Galaxy, talk to my squad listen to their comments and so on.

In ME2 the Mako was stuck on Alchera and i just used the Kodiak Shuttle to get to my Missions. Ok, later they added the Hammerhead, but the levels were more like racetracks and i wasn't able to exit the vehicle.
I still had some Questhubs like Omega, Ilium or the no longer great Citadel (That now only consisted of a few levels from which three or four were just one small level with several quicktravel points. I still had my Squad with me could talk to a few people and initiate comments at key points on Hubs.

In ME3 i ONLY have the Citadel i can visit (i don't count the Normandy as a Hub in all three games). I cannot travel seamlesly, i have to use the elevator. Completing quests on the Citadel usualy involves running from one end to the elevator and vice versa. Other locations i visited i cannot visit again.

I would have loved something like getting special Equipment from one location like Menae to Thessia for example. Something like that. But i only visit once and off to the next firing range, maybe with a quick stop jogging around the citadel hoping to catch some people talking about some stuff i might do for them.
Also on the Citadel i am now only wear casual cloths and seem to have forgotten my weapons on the Normandy while the largest war in history rages outside. I don't even carry a pistol... right. So sometimes when someone points a gun at me i can only talk them down or depend on others.

My crew ist scattered all over the citadel which involves more running around. Just to get a scripted text from them.
The quests are usualy linear and don't offer much choice except for some like the genophage. I can either cure it or sabotage it. But no i can only choose if i let Mordin cure it or i kill him. Ok thats a decision i can make but again its only a 'yes' or 'no' between the shooting range.

The sidequests are mostly one small level with enemies and maybe an item to collect and then leave. Plays like 'Enter level -> kill bunch of enemies -> click item -> kill again -> leave level'. Again no real decisions here.
Some Quests which i acquired i can only complete after a specific priority misson opens up another area. But i have to be carefull which other mission i complete because i might be unable to finish the sidemisson afterwards. It's down to a try and error way.

As for the Character design. Ok i have a larger skill tree but at level 60 nearly all of the skills are maxed out just the effect differs a little. My Armor again is either modular like in ME2 or a fixed Set (some seem to be stolen from me because i already owned them in ME2) from which i cannot hide the damn helmet except in conversations (is it really that hard to implement a button/option/checkbox that turns off the helmet model in general? Worked like a charm in ME1.)

I cannot make several decisions like in ME1. There i was able to wait and recruit Liara just before the Ilos Mission. I got missions by talking to the Crew (like Wrex familiy armor) or i got a small pendant Sha'ira which i could use on a planet to trigger a small story. Now i am forced down a specific fixed way of levels and quests. All those details are missing.

Then there were the dreamsequences... I imaginge a pure renegade, happy trigger Shepard... does someone really think she/he would care about that boy? I don't think so. They just don't fit into the whole game.
The new Paragon/Renegade System combined with reputation i got used to, but the lack of Paragon/Renegade options/answers i didn't. There were just to few conversation options.
Then there is the new gathering minigame. As with ME2 it was to much. Planet scanning, elude reapers, pick up War assets. Why not scan a planet and then land on it, do some missions to collect the stuff. It was as boring as the excessive Hacking/puzzling/scanning in ME2.

In my opinion ME3 no longer an Action RPG, it's guided gameplay like CoD MW or Gears of War.

Old Friends/Crew:
The interaction i had with my old Squadmates from ME2 were a little short. Hey ok no need to readd them as a Squadmembers again, but let me do something more with them than just a mission and a smalltalk afterwards. They should have been implemented somehow. Maybe visit the Normandy (which is/was the center of operations for the Reaperwar).

The Character of Diana Allers was unnecessary and the least usefull one. Did you own IGN a favour? I would have added a familiar one like Emily Wong instead.

I would have also liked to revisit old locations in Person like Feros/Noveria Port/Ilium and all the other old locations. Not only get help from the Leaders of the Species but also from the corporations like Sirta.

Multiplayer:
Ok i am not the Multiplayertype. I don't really like do play MP. Personally i think it should have been completely separated from the Singleplayerpart. Let the guys who want to play it but leave it out of my Singleplayer entirely.

It shouldn't have been connected at any point to the Singleplayer Story. Same goes for the 'Galaxy at war' feature and the Infiltrator App. To be honest you should have concentrated on devoting all of your 'War assets' to deliver a great game like you did with ME1. I think you sacrificed one of the best Games for this unneeded stuff.

Graphics/Technical stuff:
There ist not much improvement on the Graphics since ME2 that i would have noticed. At least not on the PC. Personally i missed the FilmGrain Filter. The movement Animations looked clumsy (especially while running in Casual Outfit).

The Smoke Grenades were just simple Sprites which didn't really looked good. I would have omitted them.

Removing the Holstering option to conserve memory (on the consoles) for other animations like the combat rolls, jumping etc. didn't add to the game for me.

Dismemberment is also an unneded addition to the game.

Several issues with the characters not looking in the direction they should look during the few conversations.

During cutscenes, standard weapons like the M-8 were used instead of my equiped weapons.

Clipping errors, Crashes and the facial import issue.

The flashlight in the few locations where it was used was in the Barrel of the guns.

Now for the ending:
I was simply dissapointed. All those hours of Gameplay and it all comes down to three endings which are all bad (my first words were actually 'wtf'). My war assets didn't really matter, all my doing, sacrifices etc. didn't matter it all came down to my death and virtually the destruction of the advanced species (yes i know the videos about the one ending with the Dogtag and the single inhale at the end but i didn't got that. So far as i am concerned... i am dead.).
In my opinion, the fate i can choose is as worse as the reapers. Why, because i destroy the Massrelays. I doomed the Armada i amassed and ordered to earth to stay in the wrecked Sol System with no real resources to survive. The leftover Species have to try to rebuild what was left from the reaperattack and most likely get extinct.
What was all the work for... nothing?

Another thing is the Normandy. How did my Squadmembers, who were with me during the last assault, get back on the ship? Why did Joker flee. Ok maybe he tried to outrun the explosion of the Massrelays... But how did he know that this would happen? Open questions everywhere.

Why such an open ending with the ship crashed on an remote tropical planet? To be honest that would doom them also, just postponed their deaths. How comes Joker walks out of the Airlock so easygoing? After the crash on the Collectorbase he said something about having "a rib broken, no all of them".

Than there is the 'Starchild AI'....  Ok the boy in the Prologue was to show how gruesome wars are and that the reapers don't care what they destroy. But why does the AI assume his form? Why/how is this AI controlling the reapers, why do they use organics to produce other reapers? Who was initially responsible? Who constructed the reapers/citadel/'Starchild' and so on. Why wasn't i able to get a happy ending.

If this was a book or a movie on which i didn't have any infulence an just followed the story, ok i would have lived with that because i invested 2-6 hours max., but it's an interactive Story which i forged from the beginning. Why did you deny me an ending that would be happy. I would have liked something like being reunited with my crew and friends, some sort of big party, mass hugging because we defeated the reapers on the still intact citadel (rember Starwars Episode VI).

Maybe an interactive epilogue on earth with all the remaining major characters standing on some sort of hill overlooking a destroyed reaper and talking about rebuilding and starting over. Something like that. As for the Stargazer epilogue. Hey don't tell me that many details were lost. Tell me that i had a good life and some more thrilling adventures with my friends during the rest of my active duty and something about descendants and so on. Leave it open for another game/DLC.

What i also would like to see would be some more RPG intensive DLC's that play Postwar. Damn let me rebuild and help the galaxy get back on their feet. There is so much to do. That's something i would be willing to pay for as an DLC (You hear me EA? WILLING TO PAY).

Honestly the real world is full of bad things. Is it that hard to give us a good nice ending in a Game? I played hours over hours, was always eager to help the people, damn i was even unable to play a fully renegade Character once. And now it all comes down to this ending where i can do nothing at all and everything is going to rubble.
I certainly support an 'Alternative ending DLC' (But this one for free!). At the moment the series is ruined for me.

Overall:
The game was a nice shooter but didn't live up to it's predecessors by far. Replayvalue is zero at the moment because it all comes down to the three bad endings that only differ slightly.

The promised reeadded richer RPG Features that were missing from ME2 were reduced further and the combat was again 'enhanced' to get some more of the GoW crowd.

Personally i must say that Bioware doesn't live up to it's old reputation to deliver great storydriven games like they did with NWN, SWKotoR, MASS EFFECT 1.

Best regards,

Sol

Modifié par SolveighS, 18 mars 2012 - 04:17 .

[Fiannawolf]

HERE! THIS SO MUCH! Frustration is key as far as my replayablity of the series.

Just as a side note, Im telling people closest to me not to buy ME3 until the endings are expanded upon. I dont want them to be as frustrated as I am with ME3s ending. All that build up for that kind of send off for shepard and crew? Need Results to our actions please. In fact I dont care if more of my Sheps die because of decisions, we need true variations. Some Sheps will live due to actions and some will die ect. Some will see family and friends again and some wont.

What happened to our fleet? Was Shep indoctrinated? Did she wake up or die in the rubble in London? Did our ME2 and 1 crewmates make it? Did Joker really run from the Battle? WTF was that? Is the citidel really destroyed? Are those mIllions dead? What about the cruicble fleet and science people>? Will they rebuild relays? Will some speices starve because they are stranded at Earth? Will any civilaztions rebuild? The grandpa and kid are silly..are they decendents or other people that found Liara's history accounts? WTF WTF ect, EXPLAIN, dont keep us sitting here trying to dream up Fan fic endings or IMAGINE what happends. ITs HOLLOW victory.

Modifié par Fiannawolf, 18 mars 2012 - 04:09 .

[Brirun08]

My quick review: 9.2/10. Overall I liked it.

Pro's:
Improved graphics over ME2
Improved, faster, more "in-your-face" combat
Level Design, much improved since ME 2. I liked the fact that many of the levels were open areas where there were different options about how to manage the battle field.
Variety of weapons and weapon customization.
Sound and Soundtrack were amazing
Overall, I liked the story, and the decisions that were posed.

Cons:
I find it kind of hard to believe that an organization will throw a vast amount of resources toward building something that they don't really know what it is supposed to do, especially several advanced societies. "Hey, we don't really know what the outcome will be. . . . but lets throw a ton of resources and build this thing and see what happens?" Then the largest galactic display of cross-species groupthink occurs and away we go.
LI dialogue: Need more, even if it is just little things. Ashley was my Shep's LI, but there wasn't much there to really build a foundation. The conversations that did occur were quality, but too few and far between. She kind of blew Shep off in ME2, tried to make up for it kind of in a letter in ME2. Then in ME3, the hospital scene kind of rekindles things a bit. My Shep takes the "starting over" dialogue branch. Then a brief scene before boarding the Normandy . . .followed by Zayeed mode in the Normandy. Then a drunken moment, then a little make out session on the Citadel. . . .followed by more Zayeed routines. . . . .then the big send off before the endgame. It just seemed kind of hollow. Needed more dialogue trees while on the Normandy, between the bigger moments. The big moments were well done and tasteful. . . but needed more of a foundation.
Need to update the Journal more with current objective status.

Ending:
I didn't mind the endings, but I didn't like the execution. For lack of better words, I was momentarily distracted when the AI was giving the review of choices. . . . .I caught the synergy dialogue, and that destruction means the death of all synthetics, but I felt I missed some of the details. That conversation ended, and I am left standing on the walkway. I check the journal. . . nothing useful there. I look around, I see the column of light where the kid was talking about the synergy option, that is obvious. I then figure out that the other two paths must result in control reapers, or destroy reapers. . . . .but I forgot which color was which because I was distracted! So I figure, blue is Paragon, and that usually works out ok. I knew I didn't want synergy since that is basically forcing everybody and thing to re-write their DNA, and I wasn't to keen on killing all synthetics in the destruction option since the Geth and Quarians seem to be getting along. So I start the slow march down the blue path, and I realize that's the setup the Illusive Man was using to control the reapers during the kid's conversation. I have second thoughts and try to walk away. . . . but I can't!! I can no longer do the slow walk back towards the other options! I am stuck! So I pick the control option, and that's that.

I really am starting to lean towards the indoctrination theories. Especially, since once I got to a certain distance along the path, I couldn't reverse course. If the indoctrination theories are true. . . then it looks like nothing has been definitively wrapped up, except either the reapers won, or the battle is still going.

I am not really looking for a rosy, happy-go-lucky, everybody is holding hands looking into the sunset ending, but definitive closure to the trilogy would be nice, currently it is really open ended. And if my Shepard messed up and allowed himself to become indoctrinated and a thrall of the reapers, so be it. Even a little text box like the prologue in Dragon Age would have worked. "Shepard allowed himself to fall to indoctrination, and blah blah blah. . . . this is what happened to every body else. . . ." That is definitive closure.

On the financial side of things, even if there was a definite text box describing the ending, DLC is still viable by adding premium and free content during the core of the single player campaign, and multiplayer. They could still keep the cashflows going. The more I think about it. . . even if there was a text box ending stating that Shep was indoctrinated, or laying on a pile of rubble on Earth. . .you could still tack on post game DLC.

One last thought: What would probably turn the forums vitriol to 11?. . . . is if additional end game premium DLC is released. . . . . .I am sorry, but that would probably cross the threshold from trying to make a profit, into exploitation. I can see somebody thinking, "Hey. . . I just put 90-100 hours into a character, bought all three games, I am a big fan so I bought various DLC at a premium. . . .now I have to pay $10 to see how the core story really ends? WTF?"

I have no issue with Day 1 DLC, I believe the statements about development cycle and allowing additional content to be created after final approval process has been started for the main game are true. I also understand that EA/Bioware exist to make a profit for shareholders, and this is a way to capture a premium from those who are willing to pay. But having a core plot element tacked on a premium DLC. . .hold on tight. . . if that happens these forums are going to explode like no other , and I cannot really blame the forum members if that does happen. Long term profits for EA/Bioware would be impacted.

[galaxidj]

My Mass Effect 3 score: 80/100

Reason for this score?
Its simple realy.
The game itself is perfect. Loved the fights, loved the extra time with characters like Liara. Realy loved the end of the Genophage and the war between Quarian and Geth.
The game builds up to an epic end, only to be led down.
I would have given ME3 a 95/100 if the end was what we were promised.
If you ask me you have realy let yourselfs down with this, not just us.

[BountyHuntress16]

Score: 90/100

I have to say that the majority of the game was incredible. You combined great characters with great story, had me laughing/crying/scared out of my mind at different times. The game was beautiful, the combat just challenging enough to engage me but not so much that I threw my controller down in exasperation.

Two things kept it from being a perfect score:

(1) The ending. Plenty of other people have outlined exactly why the ending does not work. I'll try not to re-hash all of it and boil it down to the bullets:

• An ambiguous ending did not fit with a game series that is open-ended BUT where every choice ends in tangible results
• Shepard has proven in the game that synthetics and organics need not always be at war.
• On a personal level, I feel that if you put your main character through hell (as you did in ME3 which had some many beautifully tragic moments) then there needs to be a possibility that they earned their happy ending. The poster child for this sort of thing are Don Bluth's good movies: he puts his main characters through gut-wrenching storylines and the character (and audience) is rewarded with a happy ending. And since the game has been a portrait of loss and hardship, a happy ending for Shepard would not mean all butterflies and rainbows. Shepard has still lost friends, crew members have lost families and Thessia, Palaven and Earth all need to be rebuilt.

2) I applaud you for upping your inclusiveness in this game, Bioware. We saw humans of different nationalities and the options for both male and female Shepard to pursue same-sex relationships. We saw both men and women human soldiers taking charge in military operations.

But where are all the female salarians and turians?

Because Turians reward military prowess and expect all their people to serve, the lack of turian women on the battlefield/in the refugee camps was conspicuous. The same goes for the Salarians--they value cunning/knowledge and one would think there'd be female Salarians among the STG.

I could understand that there wasn't time to create female versions of the aliens but ever since the video where one of the staff said something to the effect of "how would we make a female turian? slap some lipstick on her?" I am wary of time being the reason. Honestly, it comes off as "well we can't make these aliens attractive so we won't make them." Which was reinforced when I saw a salarian female in the citadel, swaddled in robes. I can understand the dalatrass wearing such a costume (robes being very Councilor-like) but it seems odd that an everyday Salarian would wear such an outfit. It doesn't fit with what we know about the race. The implication of "its not attractive so don't show it" is reinforced.

I don't want to devalue the time and energy it takes to create characters in games. But honestly, I would have taken giving the female turians/salarians different colored skin and changing the bodies. The male turians/salarians have human-like bodies, I'd have accepted a pair of breasts as an acceptable differentiation. Just as long as there was something.

So again, overall Mass Effect 3 was amazing and with a different ending it would have been the best game I ever played. (As it stands, Mass Effect 2 is my all-time favorite game so be proud of that.) Yes I do have some lingering issues about the female representation but since you've been improving your inclusiveness with each game, i hope that will change in future installments of the franchise.

And I will say that whatever I may think of the ending, I am glad that you contained this story in a trilogy. Because one of the biggest mistakes people make is creating a great story and then once the story is done, dragging things out. So congratulations on all you did right.

[G00N3R7883]

My Mass Effect 3 score: 10/10
Absolute perfection is impossible to attain, but ME3 gets extremely close. Apart from than the controversial ending, any other negatives I experienced were very minimal. I can now confidently say that Mass Effect is my favourite game series ever. Bioware, you delivered a really wild, emotional, epic ride. Thank you.

Obviously there will be spoilers from this point onwards. And of course I'm sure certain things will be different depending on my choices. I haven't yet done any research on how all the different variables play out, so from a certain point of view this is a review of "my" Mass Effect 3.

Story
- Overall I felt that the story was appropriately epic.
- The Reapers felt like the all powerful force that the first two games made them out to be. Every time one or more of the larger Reapers was on screen, there was the feeling of "how can we possibly win this?".
- As we moved from Earth to Palaven to Tuchanka to the Quarian homeworld (forgot the name ) to Thessia and back to Earth, and we saw the Humans, Turians, Krogan, Quarians, Geth, Asari all fighting the Reapers, it truly felt like a galactic war.
- Up to the last 15 minutes, I totally bought into everything about the Crucible, the Catalyst, and Cerberus' actions.
- I'm pleased that the N7 side missions tied into the larger conflict, rather than just being an excuse to grab some bonus XP.
- I'm pleased that it never came down to Shepard vs Harbinger. I was worried that Harbinger was getting too obsessed with Shepard during ME2, so I'm thankful that ME3 focused on the larger conflict.

Ending
- Like many players, those last 15 minutes were disappointing for me. The game went out on a "huh?" rather than a "WOOOOO YEAH!!!"
- The moral choices themselves were acceptable, but I thought they were very poorly implemented.
- I didn't really feel good about the final twist with the Catalyst being an AI that controlled the Reapers to "save us by killing us" or whatever. I didn't feel that the Reapers actually needed any more explanation. There would have been no problem in my eyes with leaving the Reapers' origins a mystery. As Sovereign said on Virmire, they are so powerful and so ancient that we couldn't comprehend anyway. That mystery helped give them their power.
- But the biggest problem for me, was the uncertainty about what happened to everyone else after I made my choice and activated the crucible. As I approached the conduit, I had Garrus and Ashley with me. I assumed they both died when Harbinger fired. But my ending cutscene had Joker, James and Ashley. How did Joker save Ash? What happened to Garrus? What happened to the rest of my ME3 crew? What happened to my surviving ME2 crew? What happened to Admiral Hackett? How much of the various alien fleets survived? Are all the civilians on the Citadel dead? How much of Earth's population survived? There's just too much still left unresolved to feel a proper closure.

Companion Characters
- Always the strong point of the Mass Effect series, and Bioware games in general. They were mostly high quality again, both in terms of writing and voice acting.
- Ashley was amazing. She was my male Shepard's LI in ME1, didn't quite get there in ME3 (maybe because of Miranda ...) but still, every scene with her and my Shepard was full of emotion.
- Garrus became one of my favourites in ME2 (didn't use him too much in ME1 because Ash/Wrex were stronger in combat), and he was my number one favourite in ME3. Again, every scene with Shepard was full of emotion, but from a brothers in arms perspective. And his developing relationship with Tali, leading up to the time I walked in on them together on the Normandy, was cute and hilarious.
- I like Tali as well, might be partly because I find the Quarian culture in general so interesting. The development of both Garrus and Tali into leadership roles amongst their people was interesting.
- Liara was never one of my favourites, but I don't dislike her either. She was pretty funny at times though, especially her interactions with Javik.
- Javik was the best new character. Learning about the Prothean culture and his insights into the previous Reaper cycle was very interesting. However I think it was wrong to have such an important character as paid for DLC. Its impossible to argue that ME3 is complete without him.
- EDI at first felt underwhelming, but I really grew to like her as the game went on. I liked her relationship with Joker, and her attempts to understand her place in the world.
- James was my least favourite character, but again I didn't dislike him. He just felt like a dumb military guy, which might actually have been the point. Didn't seem to be much interaction between him and Shepard on the Normandy or the Citadel. If you absolutely had to have a DLC character, who is not really important to the game, it should have been James.

Support characters
- Again, very high quality.
- Admirals Hackett and Anderson were awesome. Both provided a sense of urgency and importance in mission briefings, and some cool motivational speeches.
- Joker was his usual funny self.
- Traynor was very good, I liked her shy nervousness, and how she was more plot relevant than Kelly Chambers.
- Cortez was pretty good, had a couple of nice heroic moments while piloting the shuttle.
- The Illusive Man and Kai Leng were both quality antagonists, with their devious plotting and powerful speeches.
- I had alot of returning ME2 squad mates, and I was very pleased that they at least got their own side mission.
- Wrex was obviously badass, but I was impressed with Grunt as well. Previously I thought Grunt was very poor compared to Wrex, but in ME3 he was almost an equal on the badass meter.
- Miranda's storyline with her sister/father, plus her status as my Shepard's ME2 LI, provided some strong emotional moments.
- Mordin was cool as usual, and although I was sad to see him die, I actually thought it was a perfect moment for him, sacrificing himself to undo a previous wrong.
- Legion wasn't one of my favourites in ME2, but I liked his sacrifice as well.
- Samara and Jacob were okay, learning more about their families was nice.
- Zaeed's mission seemed to be kind of low quality, so his death didn't have any emotional impact for me.
- Jack and Thane both died for me in ME2 so I didn't see their ME3 missions.
- Didn't see Kasumi in ME3, although I wonder if its because I recruited her after the suicide mission in ME2?

Gameplay
- I think the combat has improved from each game to the next. In ME3 there was a good flow, the fights moved fast which helped Shepard feel powerful (but not too fast which would have just felt like mindless violence) but were also tactical because of the way powers interacted with shields and barriers, or to drag enemies out of cover.
- I liked how the Cerberus, Reaper and Geth forces all had different tactics regarding using cover, gadgets, attacking from long distance or melee range.
- Any occasion where the enemy attacked in waves was handled so much better than in DA2, because each wave entered combat in a natural way from a logical position (ie, didn't just spawn on top of me).
- I also liked the times when missions started with a shuttle insertion to a battle already in progress, which felt cinematic.
- The main negative during combat was the same button being used to dodge and take cover. I felt like the vast majority of my deaths came because I attempted to dodge, but instead stuck myself to a wall, and then by the time I realised what happened, I was dead.
- The detection distance for interactable objects like doors and consoles seemed to be reduced compared to ME2, and this was a good thing. In ME2 it hurt my immersion a little bit to "see" a console from a mile away. In ME3 I was able to focus more on finding things by exploring.
- I have mixed feelings about the removal of hacking terminals and bypassing locks. It helped keep the flow of missions going, but also felt a bit too easy. Then again I don't think I ever failed a hack in ME2 anyway.
- The customisation of powers, weapons and armour was very good, felt deeper than the previous ME games.

Environment
- I don't recall seeing a reused map layout, each map seemed unique.
- I think most maps were probably, at their basic form, narrow corridors with only one way to progress, but the aesthetics helped to disguise it pretty well.
- The two major locations that I returned to on a regular basis, the Citadel and the Normandy, felt much more alive than Kirkwall in DA2. Characters moved around to different areas (or even just a different position within the same area), and I didn't encounter alot of reused civilian or crewmember dialogue (although there was some).
- Many times I just stood around for a minute or two listening to the civilians or companions talking to each other about their war stories, which helped make this war seem real.
- The memorial on the Normandy listing the names of all the crew that died under my command, was a nice emotional touch. I actually stood there and read through all the names before Garrus did.

Impact of choices
This might be something where my opinion changes drastically after I do a second play through, and as I read other player's experiences. Right now, I get the feeling that my choices counted for something. Maybe not in the ending. But during the journey to the ending. I know that my choices in ME2 contributed to who lived and died on the suicide mission, and I know that impacted who showed up in ME3. I got the feeling that many choices from ME2/3 could affect how the Krogan genophage, and Quarian/Geth conflict turns out.

Bugs/stability
Didn't encounter a single crash in the 360 version. I did have a few occasions where a line of speech cut off prematurely, thankfully I play with subtitles on so I didn't miss anything. Had a couple of framerate stutters, but I think that's more to do with the 360 being old hardware. Overall seemed very stable.

Multiplayer
- Haven't played it, and will not ever play it on principle. I do not want competitive multiplayer in my single player story driven games, and I do not want coop in my single player story driven games.
- In the event that a future game like ME/DA ships with a multiplayer mode, I certainly do not want these modes to impact my single player story/character in ANY way. The feeling that I have to play multiplayer to achieve something in single player is offensive. Please do not repeat the galaxy at war thing in any future game.
- I would also strongly recommend a future patch to remove the link between singleplayer and multiplayer in ME3. Literally the only reason a player should have to play multiplayer is "I enjoy the multiplayer".

[Mikeuicus]

Overall, I loved the game. A great conclusion to the series...until the ending that is.

I just feel like something was off with the way the endings play out, not the themes at play within them.

I had gotten emotional when Legion died, when Mordin died, and hell, even when I had the last chat with Garrus before the final battle. When I
picked "Control" it was an agonizing choice...it felt wrong to control
the Reapers, but who was I to play God and synthesize new life or condem
all synthetic life (the Geth, EDI, and without the Geth to help them
adapt to their retaken home, the Quarians), so I made the only choice that made sense to me out of the three: Take contol of the Reapers. I can't stop hearing Shepard ask the Catalyst, "...and the Reapers will obey me?" it's a haunting choice, and the desperation and doubt in Mark Meer's delivery is perfect.
And yet, watching Shepard agonize as he dissolves, choked me up just
like those other character moments I just listed. We see that it
worked...that the Reapers leave Earth and everyone celebrates...and
then......

...the Normandy is going somewhere? Joker looks to be panicking? The ship crashes on some alien world? My
squadmates from the Conduit charge are alive? Way too much new
information is thrown at the player, and it introduces so many questions
it isn't funny. Worse, it killed the dramatic feeling I had watching my
Shepard sacrafice himself and left me scratching my head when I had just moments ago been on the verge of tears.

All
I want, really, are some scenes underscoring that this sacrafice was
worth it. I want to see, after we see the soliders cheering as the
Reapers leave, my squadmates dust themselves off. I
want to see Ashley (or the applicable love interest) mourn Shep at a
memorial wall. I want to see Tali on her homeworld. I want to see Wrex
with a brood of Krogan. These scenes can be silent, no VO needed, but I
want an epilogue of some kind that shows me life goes on after Shepard's
choice. Did my squadmates from the Conduit charge survive? If not, I want to know. I want to mourn them, even if its a silent bow of Shepard's head. Their
fate is shown in a deleted scene, but the crash landing scene seems to
disprove the canonicity of this scene (also, I didn't see anyone die,
they seemed to clear the blast, to me anyway).

If this comment
seems like it's about the endings, it's just because that's where my
main criticism of the game comes from. I actually am pretty fond of the
choices at play here, just not the execution of the final cutscene.

Modifié par Mikeuicus, 18 mars 2012 - 05:53 .

[av196vad]

My Mass Effect 3 review:

Pros:
+ Great campaign
+ Fun multiplayer
+ Long campaign (30+ hours)
+ Great replay value
+ Freedom of choice
+ Great level of customization
+ Very emotional (in a good way)
+ Best damn combat system ever made


Cons:
- Endings weren't exactly stellar
- Forced to play multiplayer in order to get the best possible ending


Not really con but a bit of a disappointment:
- A stock photo of Tali. Really?


Final score:
8.5/10

This review is just my opinion, please don't hate

Modifié par av196vad, 19 mars 2012 - 07:21 .

[Blue Liara]

Ending Ruined the entire game for me. I feel to dejected to write a proper review. But here goes a small one with regards to the characters and the Romances.

Romances
All I will say is I feel like the Romances and relationships were not nearly fleshed out enough. If this is supposed to be the END. Considering this is meant to be the end of the Galaxy and a lot of these romances carry over from previous saves I was expecting a lot more. I know its not a Sims dating game but the romances are something that fans have told Bioware they wanted to see more of. This could have been done better in my opinion. Things like an interaction with your romances that is more then just a quick chat. For example, a date on Thesia with Liara before it gets destroyed I don't know just something with a bit more substance to make you feel like you really want to defeat the reapers so you have something to come back to. Also the revealing of Tali's face was AWFUL. Complete epic FAIL on the part of bioware. Using a stock badly edited photo REALLY?! All the speculation and build up and we get that. I guess it mirrors the disappointment and disbelief that was the endings.

Characters
This leads me on to the relationships with the other characters in your squad. Some of these things I think were done very well in fact most of it was. The shooting competition that Shepard and Garrus had I thought was great. This is last time you will get to see these characters, I feel like a lot more could have and should have been done to flesh out the characters relationships. If not all the characters maybe have it so the ones you talk to the most/take with you the most on missions receive the most fleshing out. I think at the end the conversations your Shepard has with them before the final battle are mostly very good. I just feel that throughout the game there wasn't enough their. Not a major flaw or anything I just feel like a little more would have been good.

Summing Up
Well thats all I can bring myself to write. I actually think that most of the game was fantastic. It is all retrospectively ruined for me though. The things I've criticised here even if they were changed would still seem pointless to me if the endings do not undergo a DRASTIC change. Whats the point of any of the choices or relationships if in the end they don't mean anything because CASPER decided he was going to spew some pseudo-philosophic nonsense and then let you choose what your favourite colour explosion was. Sorry I'm not trying to be sarcastic or nasty. I just feel when something is as ridiculous and absurd like the ending was I have to act like Joker and just make a joke about it. Only way I can bring myself to talk about it without getting mad.

[Aluinie]

well here goes with my review from one who has played all 3 on pc.

1st Music fantastic and suits the game style well. In fact music across all 3 games have been high quality and you cant fault any of the composers.
2nd Graphics well not a vast improvement since number 2 still a large number of low res textures but some of the locations are done well.
3rd story great for 99% of the time the feeling of doom and despair really done well and the feeling of the weight of the galaxy does get you. I did wish for some more time and narrative for the excape from earth another level or two would have helped especially having the normandy picking you up next beside a reaper who was blowing all other flying vessels was weird.
4. Characters apart from James who i tended to leave on board all the others where great. I loved seeing old faces from the first 2 games and the death of a few really got me.
5 Voice acting for the most part was excellant Jennifer Hale as useual was great and Martin Sheen was perfect as TIM all other actors where just as good and i always love Lance Henrikson who i feel is a 1st rate actor.

Sadly not all is great.

Was assets and combat readyness why why why cant you improve the combat readyness in single player. The fact you cant get cerain ending in singleplayer without playing multiplayer is bot baffiling and annoying. Why force people to play mp in a game series that is a sp at heart. I managed to get over 7000 in war assets thinking he that should be enough only to find nope your shep died because you not  done mp.

Ending ok i am going with the inductioation? cant spell ending as makes most sense if not then i dont know what the writers where smoking when they wrote it and hope they get treatment for whatever it is they are using. It made no sense,No choice,Introduced a npc which altered the entire reaper war for me, the normandy crash and my npcs in london on that ship it just goes on. When i did reach the end and seen the endings (again my shep died thx to the combat efficency at 50%) i felt first depressed then really dispaointed and spent the night thinking about it. If the writers wanted us to think about the ending fine they have but for all the wrong reasons and suddenly i felt hello this feels like the matrix trilogy not mass effect trilogy.

Will i play this game again hell yes but the taint of the ending will still haunt me unless it is fixed in some dlc or a large expansion (remember them not some 1 hr dlc but a 10-15 hr addition to the game). If they do fix the ending great fantastic if not well this will be my last bioware gae (having played DA2 and hated that ending to i have lost almost all faith in bioware and i have been a fan dince Baulders gate)

Modifié par Aluinie, 18 mars 2012 - 07:53 .

[Capulous]

Game 7/10. I would have given it a 9.5 - 10, if the ending didn't disappoint me so. Still, IMO, Mass Effect is the best series this generation and up there with the best games of all time. Just a few things off the top of my head:

Disappointments:

• The ending(s); all are disappointing.  It really put the whole series in a negative light for me. All that work and decisions seems to have meant nothing in the end.  It doesn't take away from my enjoyment of the series, as a whole, but it was a very disappointing ending.  I’m sure you know all the complaints, below are just a few.
  
• I do not think the Mass Relays should not be destroyed.  The series is called Mass Effect, this should be self explanatory.  If the focus in future games is going to be events prior and during the Reaper invasion, it can still be the focus of those games.  Leaving the Mass Relays will not prevent that.
  
• Shepard should not die (again).  After all that the character has been through, the option for a happy ending should be available.  There should be multiple endings based on everything you’ve done in the games.  Victory and survival, Victory due to sacrifice, Defeat and survival, Defeat and total lose, etc… This is want I come to expect, your choices and decisions throughout determines the outcome.  Even if you want to end the Shepard trilogy, it wouldn’t be bad to have the character there for possible future endeavors.
  
• I was expecting a big battle at the end. Similar to the endings of the first two. The Illusive Man sequence...can you even call it a battle; was underwhelming.
  
• Actually seeing Tali's face in the game and not just on a picture would have been nice.
  
• Some things didn't seem to carry over from other games.  This seemed to have happened with ME to ME2 as well.  Like Shi’ira, the consort; even if you resolved the issue in 1, you would hear that she left the Citadel.  I completed the overlord mission in ME2, but Shepard didn't seem to know anything about it. When you speak with the scientist that was running project, Gavin Archer, in the mission you find Jacob, he doesn't recognize Shepard either.  It could be possible that it is just issues with my save game.
  
• The flashbacks in the end sequence do not make much sense either, assuming they were Shepard's flackbacks. You do not even think about you love interest at the end, but you see Anderson, Liara, etc...
  
• Closure - Celebrations, followed by summaries of what happens to the galaxy, as well as each individual race, and of course your friends/teammates.  A better and more detailed explanation of the Reapers was expected, that thing with the Catalyst was just ... bad.
  
• Female Shepard's face.  The picture on the case is great, but (IMO) it did not translate well into the game.  It just doesn’t look like the same face to me.  The design for Hawke in Dragon Age II was done well.
  
• I would like the ability to skip the opening sequences like you can through most conversations throughout the game.  I don't mind going over it a few times, but every time I start a new game, I do not want to wait through that whole part over and over.
  
• Dream sequences.  Do they serve a purpose?
  
• The Crucible as a Deus Ex Machina.  I'm not too fond of those, and didn't think it worked in the ending.  I don’t know, but I was expecting the Unity of all the races would be able to beat the Reapers. Of course this is what most people probably expected, but it doesn’t mean that it would have been bad. The amount of races you have on your side, and level of Galactic readiness determines the amount of loses and such. Depending on how it unfolded, I probably would have enjoyed it more than a Deus Ex Machina. At least not something you just activate and bam the war ends and all the Reapers everywhere are defeated.
  
• Multi-player host should be able to kick people.  People join lobbies and just sit there. Force others to leave lobby to start a new game.  I’ve had this happen multiple times.
  
• The end of the current series.

Good:

•  I enjoyed pretty much everything else.  Being able to coverse with all your close allies before heading off to the final confrontation, being able to run for more than 5 secs, multiplayer, etc... 

It would be nice to have some mini stories where you played through a small part as one of your teammates. Maybe each of them would have at least one solo side quest.  What happened to them during the time they were not with you (or possible flashbacks to earlier events).  Maybe even the ones that do not re-join you as playable.
For example:
Miranda: play through her journey from before she meets you on the Citadel to when you save her sister in Horizon.
Zaeed : hunting down Vido and up to the point he meets you on the Citadel.
Stuff like that.  Maybe some missions on the roles of your allies not with you during the battle on earth as well. 

There are a lot of other things I probably could and may mention, but this post is long enough already.

Modifié par Capulous, 18 mars 2012 - 08:32 .

[culletron1]

My score - As a game its a 9.5 though as a piece of art its either a 10 or a 6 (depending on whether indoc is true or not)


Intro
I took the last two weeks off work (technically I worked from home) to play all of the the Mass Effects in a row. Over 150 hours of gaming. I'm quite sad its all over really... I'll break the review down in to segments below


Gameplay
+
A definite improvement over ME1 and ME2. I liked the platforming elements. I liked the new combat and I liked the extra RPG mechanics. 
The cinematics were also spectacular, simply amazing.
The level design was so varied and for the most part excellent. It's amazing how far things like this have come since ME1. 

-
I didn't like how Shepard seemed to talk way too much on his own. I prefered it in 1 and 2 where I controlled his dialog more. For a while I thought I had somehow picked story mode by accident...


Soundtrack
+
Absolutely stunning... beatiful, haunting, sad and sweet. As good as anything I've heard in games or movies.


Characters
+
Fantastic. Again the characters are the best part of Mass Effect. From the individual moments with the crew to getting sh!t faced and waking up beside Aria to Blasto. It is the little things that make Mass Effect so wonderful. 

Characters moving around the Ship was brilliant and walking in on their conversations was great.

Not entering into a new camera angle when they have nothing new to tell you was also a nice touch.



The Story
-
They were always going to have a very hard time tying up the series.  From what we had been shown in ME1 and ME2 there was no way to defeat the Reapers without resorting to a deus ex machina (and from my point of view I would rather a sad ending that a fairytale and unrealistic ending). 

The crucible was a horrible plot device.  It was never seeded or foreshadowed in the previous games. To think that there was actually some weapon lying around all this time on Mars that could defeat the, up to now, indestructable reapers is just so ridiculous. They might as well have found a magic stick that kills the reapers if you touch them with it or had Conrad Verner come back from the dead to talk them to death.
Also uniting the Galaxy was pretty cool but for me it was far too similar to the story of Dragon Age: Origins. 

Now on to the endings...
If we take the ending presented at face value it really is quite horrible. The six different endings are all the same, they are incoherent, they are deux ex machinas of the worst possible kind. Every single thing that happens after Shepard get zapped by the beam is a disaster story wise. 

What the hell is that star child? Why is there no expanation for any of it. How is shepard breathing? How did Joker escape and somehow luck his way onto a habitable planet? How did Anderson get to the citidel before shepard? None of it makes the slightest bit of sense and for Mass Effect that is the ultimate sin... The story and characters has been the most important part of Mass Effect for a lot of us fans. To butcher it at the end is to butcher the whole series.

Oddly enough the indoc ending (which also has a hole or two in it) is the one that makes the most sense to me. From the very begining we have been told that there is no way to destroy the reapers. Our extention is inevitable, the cycle has gone on for millions of years... Why would we be able to break it? In which case the final battle was only a battle for the mind of shepard and whether the machines could break him or not.  If that is what was intended then it was badly executed though quite beatiful, bittersweet, brilliant and brave. 

I guess we'll never know if they intended it or not. I hope they did but Occum's Razor dictates that they probably just messed up so badly that it made indoc look plausable.  

Summary
Mass Effect 3 is an utterly amazing game let down by its ending (assuming indoc theory is wrong). Unfortunately for bioware the attachment to Mass Effect has always been about story more than gameplay and butchering the story mars the whole experience.

This is Mass Effect. To me it is more like A Song of Ice and Fire than it is like Crysis or Call of Duty and an inconsistent ending does a *LOT* of damage to the experience.

On the other hand if indoc theory is true... Then we really really have something special here. 

Modifié par culletron1, 18 mars 2012 - 08:43 .

[lothvamp]

I'm sure I missed something, but this is my impression of Mass Effect 3.  Which I would say is about 85/100


Pros:
I loved the conversations and character development, along with party interactions on the Normandy.


Up until the end, I found the story very emotional and compelling. It was great to be so emotionally invested in the plot, and the futures of all the characters and races I love.


It was cool having certain choices come back to bite you later in COMPLETELY unexpected and very heart-wrenching ways. “I know what you did.” I cried.


The customization, character building and gameplay were all very fun. I was totally immersed in the story and gameplay up until the very end.


Even not caring for the ending, I still immediately wanted to play again to hear conversations I'd missed, take different paths, etc.



Cons:
I've always started with a more “neutral” playthrough that reflects my own choices... but for the most part I was forced to choose paragon or renegade -no in between o.O?


Lack of significant interaction with non-council races (Except Geth/Quarians). Drell, hanar, elcor, volus, yahg, batarian, etc. And lack of female representation in aliens... again. One. Count it, ONE, female krogan. 1 (or 2)
female salarians. Still no turian women (or batarian, drell, etc.).  Or children. It kind of felt like that one human kid was the only child in the galaxy.


I was a little disappointed that the Citadel was the only hub-world, but it at least made some sense.


ME2 continued romances that aren't party members were a little lacking. Specifically: Though I could understand Thane dying (Not that I liked it :'( ) It was a little irritating that I'd only had one real conversation with him, and
after he died no one said anything or cared that Shepard just lost their LI.


Choices. There didn't always seem to be a diversity of options on how to go about things like I'd been led
to believe there would be, and my previous choices always seem to make much of a difference (ie the Collector Base. One of the biggest decisions of ME2 and it barely had an impact on 3)


It was REALLY annoying not to be able to save at the Anderson's base of operations on Earth when you talk
to all your squad-mates. What was the point of not being able to save there???


The end. Yes, I'm going to say it.  The end was very disappointing. Not because of the sacrifice or the sadness, though it was bad that there was only one way that could go, but because of all the other reasons everyone has said: It didn't seem like I'd really had a choice in how things were going to go down, and it was hardly a victory. No matter what the mass relays are destroyed... Really!? Besides the fact that this would destroy
many, if not most or all, of the sentient race's main worlds, it would destroy the entire massed forces that had come to fight the reapers. Now, let's say it somehow didn't wipe everyone there out... It's been stated before, but I'll say it again. The turians and quarians could not survive on Earth. The combination of humans,
krogan, asari, volus, drell, hanar, etc, etc. would not be able to survive on one planet. Next: the Normandy. They just barely escaped the blast with their lives... to randomly land on a garden world o.O
Also, it seemed that the Stargazer and child were on the same planet, and were human -so Garrus and Tali wouldn't have made it. And if I chose to destroy the reapers, it doesn't matter that I did my best to
make EDI feel like a real person and part of the crew, or that I sympathized with the Geth. Both my friend and an entire race are wiped out.



I enjoyed the game enough that I easily looked past most of the cons without issue, right up to the point of
meeting the “Starchild”, or energy being or whatever it was...  It was then that my immersion in the game was broken and things took a turn for the wtf? All in all, it left me feeling like there was a
lack of closure to what was otherwise an excellent saga.


PS. On the note of Shepard living (I didn't get that ending as I can't -and don't want to- play multiplayer) and/or the other ending theories (indoctrination, hallucination, etc):  We were promised a conclusive end to Shepard's story, that is not true for either of these cases. I don't mind a little bit of ambiguity, but having just about everything left in the dark is a little much.

Modifié par lothvamp, 18 mars 2012 - 09:07 .

[Sierra Crysis]

SCORE: 85/100

Background:
This review is coming from a long time fan of Bioware since KOTOR and someone who preordered and got the collector's tin of all three of the ME Franchise games. The very same individual also has all of the novels and comics, and though I haven’t posted very often on the forums, I've been a frequent visitor nearing the release of Bioware's last 5 big console releases. I've bought and played all of the ME DLC (Even Pinnacle Station) and have continued to be a lunatic, for lack of a better word, when it comes to the series. Naturally, the review listed below may be biased to some degree towards the series, but if you're in the same boat I am, you might see it as I do.

Pros:
+Fleshed out, amazing conversations and interactions with the best ME squad to date.
+Numerous references to the memes and fan base reactions to the previous ME games.
+Intricate, beautiful voice-over work by the game's cast to deliver truly awesome moments.
+Increased role-play elements with multiple power evolutions, weapon modifications, and armor kits.
+Masterful nods to prior ME games and the ability to relive some of the best interactions you made.
+An inspiring, awesome soundtrack that makes those sensitive moments that much more amazing.
+A fine attention to detail in background environments and in things such as making every firearm feel and sound unique.
+High speed, involving combat that delivers multiple options to confront each encounter.
+The best mineral/asset gathering minigame to be introduced to the series to date.
+The squad mates aren’t always in the same spot and interact liberally amongst each other!
+Gripping and compelling storyline that drags you screaming to the end of the game.
+An enjoyable, balanced cooperative multiplayer experience, with fun time-killing elements.
+Increased viability of biotic characters above the normal game difficulty.
+Multiple game options to appease a spectrum of players' play types.

(I'll nitpick with the cons to varying degrees)

Cons:
-Literally destroys your euphoric high of the game within the last clutching moments of the story.
-The ending lacks depth and explanation of exactly what's going on and numerous plot discrepancies.
-A lack of any sort of epilogue or closure to the trilogy.
-An introduction that throws new players to the dogs, riddled with the worst dialogue in the entire game.
-Less conversation choices, though this honestly bothered me to a minor degree
-The inability to have certain plot elements happen at the ending without playing multiplayer.
-Downplaying/Ret conning numerous player choices that were made in previous ME games.
-Some game play elements had me confused, such as not being able to visit systems with reapers over them towards the end of the campaign, or if there were any assets in the system due to a lack of completion percentages over them.
-That there is only one quest/store hub in the game
-The map system in the quest hub is misleading/confusing, pointing out some key characters and completely disregarding other quest givers.
-The item/quest giver reticule is limiting and allows players to easily walk past assets/quest givers/mods without notifying you.
-The inability to store temporary or one-time use heavy weapons within missions and the lack of any notification that by switching weapons the player is throwing away the gun.
-The graphical upgrades to the game's engine interfering with (mostly) female created Shepards, making them at times look drastically different than their ME1/2 counterparts.
-The game's taunting of Femsheps by giving much more attractive hairstyles to default Femshep, Ash, and Miranda while simultaneously making the created Femshep's only long haired option look unnaturally poofy/pillowy in the back in many cut scenes.
-And finally, default Femshep's huge jaw, unnatural green, enormous eyes, and unavoidably obnoxious freckles.
 
Final Impressions:
Mass Effect 3 was the long awaited conclusion to easily my favorite game series to date, combining science fiction, involving Bioware’s addictive squad mates, real-time action, and the ability to become a large scale hero, even on a romantic level. About a week before the game’s release I accidently stumbled upon a spoiler for the game’s ending, and it honestly made me drag my foot about playing the game despite having it available to play over my spring break open hours, but I played through and completed every bit of the content that I could find on my first play through because, how could I not? I had to see it for myself and experience it with at least one of my Shepards, and to say that I’m happy that I did is an understatement.

The story, the conversations, the moments of silence eerily progressed by that beautiful, haunting soundtrack, they all had me blown away at wet at the eyes in sympathy for their fictional plights. I wanted so badly for it to work out for everyone, and hoped upon hope that somehow the ending in my game would be different from the spoilers I’d read, but it wasn’t. In fact, the ending didn’t even make that much sense to me. Some elements seemed to be thrown in there just for the sake of creating drama without any genuine explanation for them in or out of character. I can look back at the ending and scratch my head and wonder how X character got from here to there, or why it makes a lick of sense that another would do X. I know it’s an awful thing to do to open the gateway and enable developers to start giving weird endings to franchises in hopes that they’ll buy ending-changing DLC, but I would gladly pay for an explanation/ending with genuine closure, because I’m frankly saddened by how it all came to this.

On the subject of auto-dialogue, there is definitely a legit issue there, where there are only two choices to select maybe 75% of the time, with a third and fourth being paragon and renegade choices. Occasionally there will be a third investigating choice which may or may not progress the dialogue to another choice. A final investigating option will open additional options for players to learn about the ME characters and lore, but this option seems more rare than the others. What happens is that instead of typically choosing what Shepard says 5-6 times in a conversation, where Shepard would say small, choppy sentences, He/She will instead talk for much longer about whichever option you picked. This isn’t the boogeyman that I was lead to believe it was coming into the game, because, and this might just be my experience only, I never ran into a point into the game where Shepard said something I didn’t want her to. So, for me it was a non-issue despite being able to understand the complaints. In fact, this game was much better about not putting words in my mouth than ME 1 and 2 were.

In closing, Mass Effect 3 is an amazing game that will go on to be played in multiplayer until some campaign DLC is released. I personally love the addition to the series, but will forever and always be wishing for some alternate ending on the inside, not just because I want my Shepard and her crew to have some fairytale ending, but because I want it to make sense and because I fear for the lack of direction the series will have if the current ending stands. I hope this review helps anyone conflicted on buying or playing the game, because even with the endings we’re currently given I personally believe the title is worth every penny to play.

Modifié par Sierra Crysis, 18 mars 2012 - 09:17 .

[VotableDread91]

 







 ME Rating: 87/100


Good

Enjoyable gameplay: fun and each situation hardly ever feels repetitive
Emotional focus on Shepard: you can see how everything begins to take a toll on him and reminds players that he's only human and how dire the Reaper threat is
Social interactions with squadmates: all the conversations and citadel "dates" you can have with them really providesomething refreshing to the game. My favorite was Garrus’. Adding more could only benefit the experience!
Cameos: almost all cameos fit well and provide some closure for each of them. I especially enjoyed Thane’s cameo and departure.
Cinematic epic cutscenes that all have an emotional purpose
Seeing how my past decisions had an impact on my EXPERIENCE (note: not END)
Longer LI scene before the final fight.
As always, incredibly gripping and engaging story
Planet scanning system is not tedious like in ME2
Fun Multiplayer


Average

Love interest: I enjoyed being able to have much conversation and citadel “dates” with them but i feel like one more couldn’t hurt if it was clear that the NPC was your love interest
Dialogue: The ‘auto-dialogue’ kinda bothered me but they still flowed well and it wasn’t so irritating that it couldn’t be overlooked


Bad

Ending: it betrays everything my Shepard is about, i can’t ask star child questions, there’s only 3 distinct endings, I don’t understand why Joker would leave me, and my decisions didn’t really have an impact on the end, like they did for my experience up to that point.
Also, I’d like to see how my decisions had an impact on the galaxy in an epilogue but a cut-scene is preferable especially one where, if Shepard lives, I can reunite with friends and my love interest, celebrate, and end it saying what I’m gonna do next like in DA:O.

• Tali: I can understand not showing Tali, but showing Quarians in general should atleast   be in there or in an epilogue with Geth and Quarians working together (if players did that). You could show Tali only if she was that person’s love interest, so that way it feels special, or at least use an original picture for her
• Side quests weren’t organized well, in my Journal: With all the quests, I forget if i got the item i needed and i forget where the person even is on each level. It’d be nice to see whether-or-not I have the item and have the person marked on my map.
• Inability to change class when i import an ME3 character to a new play through: it diminishes some replay value.

Overall, Me3 is the best of the three games. Mass Effect is the greatest series of games I've ever experienced! Keep up the good work Bioware, and please continue to listen to fans!

Modifié par VotableDread91, 18 mars 2012 - 09:20 .

[T-Raks]

OK, two days after finishing my first playthrough I wanna add to my "great until the end" review and go a little more into detail what I liked until the end. If the plot holes in the end get fixed, I still think ME3 has the potential to be the best game experience one can have.

The characters were great, I don't know if anyone else had the feeling but I was often in the middle of a mission (Thessia for example) and was thinking I couldn't have chosen better squadmates to play this mission (in this case Javik and Liara) because of how well they interacted dialog wise on their own. There were just some priceless conversations going on between my squadmates and me and that I didnt have to urge them to speak with me was a great new feature. I'm sure when I pick other squadmates for the same mission in my next playthroughs (yeah, after all, I will play again at least until Marauder Shields shoots me) there will be lots of more great conversation going on which makes the experience unique again.

Also the nearly flawless transition between vids and actual gameplay getting thrown right in the middle of a battle was great.

New ways of fighting (interacting between my "storm troop" on the ground and others in the air for example) were fun.

The soundtrack was very solid again - though I would've liked the battle song in London to be on the actual soundtrack (I guess it was "Protectors of the Earth" from "Two steps from hell" if I'm not mistaken) which was the heroic sound I wanted to hear in the final battle.

Some touching scenes between Shep and Liara were also fantastic, looking forward to explore what is in store when I rekindle my Ash friendship or Miranda as LI in my next playthroughs...

The ME2 characters were a little bit underrepresented IMO though the cameo appearances of some (Grunt is still my favorite battlemate) were good. Miranda not going to fight the Illusive man with me together is a critique point for me. IMO she should've been the one that shoots him.

All this good stuff makes an end that makes actually sense and has not so many mistakes all the more important. If Shepard gets the end he deserves I will be a happy camper. A patch that fixes the strange Normandy stuff (my presumably fallen squadmates on it etc.) and shows what I accomplished in defeating/destroying the reapers (there is no other choice for my Shepard because he never intended to play god - so control is no option because he would just do to the reapers what they did to others/though maybe not as grueling - and the third option is the worst, because that would mean to him that he would give in to the Reapers and let them merge organic life into another race of brainless collectors - that's what the Protheans ended up) would be a start.

Bioware please just show us where the galaxy and the characters we cared about stand post war (an epilog as patch would be great, maybe showing the squadmates looking out what happened to me as the start) and not these unlogical grandpa speaking to grandson scene that was out of place as the ending, because it looked like the humans being alone and having forgotten about the other races though the knowledge should not be lost and more importantly the races were already spread out through the whole galaxy pre-mass relay crash.

Modifié par T-Raks, 18 mars 2012 - 09:46 .