1966 réponses à ce sujet

[MWells]

I agree. Great game throughout until the ending. No option that wasn't depressing to say the least.

[RolandX9]

I've been wrestling with my feelings about ME3 and its ending since before the game came out (spoilers, you know), but wasn't going to review it until I'd played the entire game at least once all the way through. Now that I have, here are my thoughts.

First, the 800 pound elcor in the room: the ending. It was bad. Really, really bad. Not because it was sad, mind you, but because it was a) barely an ending at all,  such an obvious reset button that it might as well have had "to be continued" in place of the post-credits bit, and c) because it was an ending, singular. I'm sure there will be some sort of consequences for the choice of color on the reset button, but...unsatisfying doesn't even begin to cut it. Yes, I wanted a chance for blue children in one of my endings. Yes, I'm disappointed that there wasnt' a single "Shepard lives" ending. I could have lived with that, though, if ME3 had had a complete ending. It did not. As for the destruction of the mass relays...WTF? Aside from that I love the Mass Effect setting and hated seeing it die, could you have buried the franchise any deeper? Every genre setting that has lasted in the fen collective has had a continuity -- even Star Wars, which charts the fall and resurrection of a galactic republic, will always have a certain feel to it. The tech, the characters, the Force, they all flow through all things and bind the galaxy together. You've destroyed the language and the architecture that we as a fan community share. It could have been a great way to send off ME anyway, if it had been done well.

It really drives me crazy for several reasons, but the second-most frustrating thing about it (right after how empty it felt) was that for the most part, the rest of the game was amazing. I wept several times. The final showdown with Kai Leng was one of the best boss encounters I've played. The gameplay was rock solid. The control over cooldown fixes the single-cooldown meter IMO, the Particle Rifle means I can forgive thermal clips for all other weapons (though I'd pay extra to have cooldown as a weapon mod, hint hint), and the unified Reputation meter was the perfect fix for the Paragon/Renegade dilemma, again IMO. And, well, most of the rest of the story was amazing. The shameless emotional manipulation did get a little too shameless on occasion, but for the most part it was the best stuff in the series. So many emotional beats, large and small, were spectacular. I especially want to thank you folks for making various nods to earlier complaints, from the explicit addition of a biotic element to Tech Armor all the way to not forcing Shepard to have been the agency behind the events of Arrival.

This is not to say that the rest of the game is flawless. I don't know who decided to muck with the mission log, but putting all the assignments in with the priorities and ripping out the breadcrumb trail made keeping track of everything a pain in the cloaca. Putting both running and taking cover on the A button was infuriating on occasion and even got me killed a few times. A few glitches were frustrating, especially the Liara-forgot-LotSB one in the conversation section, though that's nothing on the game crashing when I try to use the Spectre firing range. The game was also more linear than I would've liked, especially in the reduction of conversation wheel options and the far-too-common auto-dialogue on Shepard, though I understand that the latter was more honest than the illusion of dialogue trees in earlier games. And the fetch quests...dear goddess, the fetch quests. Most of which were tied to mining 2.0 instead of, well, actual assignments.

Okay, so I have several complaints. Still, I was able to get past those and have a blast -- I really wish Bioware had been clearer about the multiplayer maps all being SP assignments as well, I can readily forgive the existence of MP since most of the work made into Shepard's adventure -- until the ending. The return of weapon variety, the increase in power development and options, the vibrant and "real" characters for which Bioware is rightly famous, the return of old friends and appearance of new ones, all were top-notch. Until the ending.

I can't fairly give ME3 a numerical score. Too much is tangled up with the unsatisfying conclusion of a spectacular series. I hope you can set this right. Mass Effect is too tremendous an achievement to end in so ignominious a manner.

Edit: Thinking about the A Button issue, it isn't so much that it's both run and cover (which it's been through the whole series), but that it has had roll and climb/slide over cover as well. Trying to get over cover and sticking to it, or trying to take cover and jumping over it, or rolling to the side and sticking to "cover" that leaves me barely mobile and exposed...those are the problems. Having a second button to hold down (maybe a bumper or trigger) while using the A Button for sliding over cover and/or not sticking to it would be nice. On the 360, the LT would probably work for this since you can't zoom-aim when you're running anyway. Maybe make it a switch that can be flipped in the options on a future patch. Just my two bits.

Modifié par RolandX9, 22 mars 2012 - 06:54 .

[Kyp]

My Score for Mass Effect 3 is a 97 out of 100

***There are ample Spoilers in the following and my review is based on my experience with the 360 version. I solely played the Single Player campaign, and have not touched the multiplayer at all***

Without doubt, the first thing to note that this game is, overall, a very bittersweet experience for gamers like myself who have now been with Shepard and his friends for the last 5 years. The pain of having to say goodbye to fictional characters you've come to care about is almost as strong as saying you final goodbyes to friends and loved ones. That such feeling of pain has come out in many of the players of the game - myself included - is a testament to the masterful work that the Mass Effect Team has accomplished with their remarkable trilogy. For that, alone, I applaud and thank you all.

Without a doubt in my mind, I would say that Mass Effect 3 is the best game in the series and has replaced its predecessor as the game I talk about when people ask me for my favorite gaming experience. The Unreal Engine 3 hardly shows any signs of age, as I found the vast majority of the visuals to be breathtaking and awe-inspiring. The scene on Menae where newly anointed Primarch Victus looks down upon his burning homeworld presents an image so remarkably touched with emotion that it is beautiful because of its dark themes. The presentation was really remarkable, especially when one considers many frantic battle scenes that hardly skipped a beat.

The music, which I had felt took a step down from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2, absolutely blew me away. Not only did the score help create a sense of the various locales, but it truly helped convey the emotions being felt by Shepard, his crew, and the whole cast. The piece played while Shepard is leaving Earth is a particularly wonderful melody, the melancholy piano themes mixing with the deep rumble of bass create a haunting mix of emotions where you realize - right then and there - that this fight may be impossible to win, will almost certainly claim your life, and that the menace truly forces you to run from it until you're fully prepared. The return of the sad piano themes at the end of the tale without the rumbling bass creates an equally incredible set of emotions, where you know for sure that Shepard is all but surely dead but that the menace has seemingly been solved for everyone else. Truly the entire music team deserves a standing ovation. (Thanks to my Collector's Edition purchase, I can experience the soundtrack over and over again.)

The refined combat system was yet another place where the Team shined. For the first time in the Mass Effect series, I became well and truly frustrated with combat situations. In Mass Effect I was able to hide behind walls and shoot when I was almost guaranteed a shot. (I actually got that achievement about losing more shields than health over the course of the first game) In Mass Effect 2 the combat system was made a bit more frantic, but I was still able to handle it with relative ease and a lot of jumping around with the Biotic Charge (and a lot of med-packs). In Mass Effect 3 I tried to duplicate my conduct from Mass Effect 2...and I died. Quite a bit, and often in embarrassing ways. The frustration with the combat system made me try harder, to think more tactically, and to realize that, in the bigger battle scenes, strategic withdrawals to more secure locations were tactically necessary. Put another way, the combat in Mass Effect 3 was an absolute blast that required more thought on my part and was remarkably challenging. There were a few moments when the new rolling and moving from cover to cover controls got in the way, but, on the whole, very well done.

Of course, good graphics, music, and gameplay can be found in many blockbuster videogames these days, but what makes a Bioware game a Bioware game is story, and what makes a Mass Effect game a Mass Effect game is the impact of player choice on that story. As the climax and conclusion of the series, the story of Mass Effect 3 is fantastic...right up until the very end. The end, however, was not enough of a misstep for me to find the whole game unsatisfying. In fact, the rest of the game's story and character moments vastly outweigh the game's conclusion. Having been a fan from the first game (you hooked me on your games with KoTOR), I most definitely expected an epic. I expected for Reapers to descend on planets, rapidly indoctrinate hordes of planetary life, and for massive amounts of destruction to ensue. I expected that this tale would take its toll on Shepard and his ragtag group of friends he's collected throughout the years. What I didn't expect was that the story would take its toll on me.

I must admit that Repaers on Earth didn't suck me immediately into the game - I'd seen that already in a huge number of previews and trailers. The Council telling me they could do nothing was hardly a surprise considering our history, so the frustration that Shepard felt there did not spill over into me. Even on Menae the story was an epic I was watching, rather than experiencing (though emotions were stirring because of the soundtrack), until that final moment when Victus looks down on the ruin that was Palaven. That moment right there made me think of what Earth must look like this far into the invasion, a brief moment of fear for my home planet then infected me (leading me to skip over a pair of sidequests that I later lost the ability to complete). Still, though, I was not fully emotionally invested. Then Mordin came back on Sur'Kesh, telling me about how he betrayed his government in order bring hope for a future back to the Krogan. Then Grunt came back, risking his life to save my team and I in the artificial Rachni (I killed the Queen in the first game because I didn't trust her) caves. By the time Wreav (Ashley decided to kill Wrex on Virmire because he seemed too irrational) was urging me to activate the hammers on Tuchanka, it was truly me that was running like hell past swarming enemies and stomping Reaper legs to summon the Mother of All Thresher Maws to take on the Reaper. And it was me that said goodbye to Mordin when he sacrificed himself to correct the wrongs his people had committed against the Krogan.

Indeed, Mass Effect 3's story truly sucked me in as all the best tales due, and Shepard became my avatar in the world presented to me rather than the guy I was watching. The smaller moments, however, are the ones that stole the show, like when the Turian C-Sec officer kept talking to the young blonde human girl on the Citadel or when Tali gets to step foot on Rannoch and claims herself a plot of land. The character moments where teammates moved around the Normandy to have different conversations with each other were absolutely incredible. Ashley hungover and Tali drunk were incredibly human moments, and shooting bottles with Garrus on the Citadel felt like old friends wanting a break to catch their breaths when the world was pressing down against them. When Thane was being read the Drell version of the last rites in the hospital by his own son, I was blown away. Tali telling Legion that he did, indeed, have a soul and him referring to himself as "I" drove home the character development that I personally had a part in causing. I felt terribly sad when Anderson died next to me without having been able to have a future with Kahlee Sanders, and I felt disgust when I realized that the Reapers seizing the Citadel meant that all those refugees that had gone their for solace had found just a delayed death. Of course the bigger moments were not slouches; the fall of Thessia drove home the utter horror of failure, and taking on a Reaper face to face was incredible.

This immersion, really, is what makes the very end so weak. Anderson dying was a heartfelt final moment that felt perfectly on point, the Illusive Man's insanity due to long-term indoctrination felt very real given the game's mythos, and even the Citadel AI (or VI) controlling the Reapers didn't feel off. The lack of a final "boss" felt very in line with the tale being told, and I didn't miss the idea of a boss fight one bit. The problem, as I see it, is three-fold.

My first gripe with the finale is that a person has to play multiplayer in order to get the perfect ending with 4,000+ Effective Military Strength (where Shepard wakes up after choosing destruction, which I chose on a second way through the end just to see). While I like multiplayer aspects of some games, I buy Bioware games for the stories that Bioware is telling me and immersing me in, and I felt rather betrayed that all the work I did in the game to collect war assets and complete side missions was partially in vain because of an arbitrary calculation based upon how much you played the multiplayer component that was not a part of any of the previous installments. My 6600+ Total Military Strength meant nothing because it was being cut in half because I didn't feel like playing on Xbox Live. I understand that the Team wanted interconnectivity, but there ought to be a way to make up for it for players like myself who did not want to play online.

The second problem I have is the ending cinematic, itself. I don't care about the coloring of the shockwaves, but I do have a problem with the fact that we don't see anyone fighting in that final scene but human Alliance soldiers. Where are the Geth Prime paving the way through (and you way through the earlier parts, for that matter) the Reaper forces? Why don't I see Victus's squads celebrating? How come the Grissom students are nowhere in sight? Or Grunt's forces? What about the Geth and Turian fleets? Wouldn't an image of the two of them fighting alongside one another have been a stirring one? What about Joker and my team? Not a one of them would ever flee the battle like that, not without confirmation that all was lost; all their character development and demonstrated loyalty and the history we had together was thrown out the window for a cheap demonstration that some beloved members of the team were alive, seemingly in hopes of giving a minor amount of closure to the fans, which didn't work. Hell, I'd have preferred to see them all die in a blaze of glory than that. A better cinematic would go a LONG way to fixing the ending.

The final problem is the most trying for me, and it’s in the choices presented to you at the end: destruction, synthesis, and control. The choices were utterly imperfect and their imperfection seems to stem from the imperfection of the AI, itself (which was a perfectly acceptably flaw to explain the reasoning behind the Reapers). Destruction was wrong for me because I could hardly condemn the Geth and EDI to death just to save others, not after I'd depended on them and told them of their humanity. Control could not be considered since we just talked to the Illusive Man about how that was futile, and ultimately impossible. And Synthesis - which my Shepard chose as the least of three evils - was a forced change that is both utterly unnatural and basically exactly what the Reapers and their AI were trying to accomplish all along, just less violent. The fact that the Mass Relays were destroyed seemed utterly arbitrary, and felt like I was betraying all the races I'd asked to trust me. If there was a reason for this tied to gameplay - i.e. you didn't properly build the crucible by not collecting enough resources - it would have been perfectly okay. Shepard sacrificing himself was perfectly within character - though I felt like he deserved to shot more bottles with Garrus and to settle down with Ashley - and I was willing to accept it, but even here I felt that prior decisions could have played a part. At the very least, though , it would have been nice for Shepard to tell the AI it was wrong, that he had just brought together synthetics and organics. It felt like the idea of the AI was rushed and poorly execute in favor of getting the game to market.

Still, despite that long rant about the ending, the story was truly engrossing and remarkably emotional. As I said before, the game is absolutely amazing and should easily win several Game of the Year awards. I'm sad to say goodbye to Shepard and the Normandy crew, but it's been great to serve with them all. Thank you for an amazing experience, and a wonderful tale. If you could change a bit of the end, though, I'd not mind at all.

[susanwb]

I posted part of this in the "we're listening" thread but will also post it here and add a bit more of a review:

A) On the plus side: gameplay was awesome. Enemies were smart and varied, weapon choices really mattered, levels were interesting and unique.
On the negative side:  the game was buggy: 1) frequently cutscenes would pan to a companion, whose voice I could hear, but who was mysteriously invisible. 2) In several dialogs Shepard and companion (most notably Liara and Dr. Chakwas) kept trying to look back over their shoulders instead of at each other. 3) About 50% of the time, midway through a tough fight, the HUD went dead - nothing I clicked on fired. Got me killed many times since I couldn't use my powers or my companions' powers. 4) And worst of all, I couldn't import my Shepards from the first ME! I had to reconstruct them and they just didn't turn out right.
C) Also negative: custom Shepard's appearance was not nearly as good as any of the NPCs. She looked like a barbie doll next to Kaidan. (Mainly this is a texture issue.) So not cool.
D) Positive: 95% of the story was amazing! The endings of the genophage story and the Quarian-Geth story were epic, beautifully-written, and powerful. Also, there were many moments of spot-on humor, such as Tali getting drunk, and wonderful character interaction like the sparring with James, and the inter-NPC conversations like Garrus and Joker trading jokes. Also Kaidan's romance with FemShep was so sweet and tender. Wonderful stuff!
E) Also positive, the music and sound design. Amazing, just amazing.
F) Avoiding the Reapers mini-game was a nice touch. It made planet-scanning risky! I thought that really worked.

BUT.... then there's the ending. The ending I just don't understand....

Begin Repost:
I just finished the game last night, and having heard a lot of outrage about the endings, my hopes were not very high. That being said, I didn't find it nearly as awful as some players seem to have. But, I didn't think it was up to BW standard, either. The ending was kind of mediocre in my assessment. I did expect more from you guys. Here's what worked and didn't work for me:

On a whole, I did really enjoy playing the game. There were many moments that were perfectly executed - Garrus and Shepard shooting bottles over the Citadel, Kaidan's romance arc, Mordin curing the Genophage (I cried like a baby for brave, noble Mordin!!), Legion's sacrifice and Tali mourning him, even Anderson's death at the end. Couldn't have been better, IMHO.

But, then the game ends and instead of that mixture of elation, relief, grief and horror that I expected to feel, I mostly just felt confused. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what happened. That's not a good ending note. I had an EMS of over 6000 and chose to Destroy, so Shepard lived - or at least it's hinted that she lived, I don't actually know that for sure. Maybe nobody came to look for her body and she just expired there lonely and weak and hopeless. Who knows?

What happened to all those fleets Shepard brought to Earth after the relays blew up? The poor Turians and Quarians probably starved to death (no dextro food on Earth, you know). But what about the others? Did they all start working together to rebuild Earth? Did they try to get home somehow? Did any of my companions and friends and allies survive?

But all of that uncertainty I could live with, if only it weren't for this: why in the name of all that is holy did Joker take the Normandy and flee the battle? Why were they anywhere near the relay when it blew? This is just beyond baffling. I suppose that this scene is included so that if you choose Destroy and your EMS is low (so that Earth is destroyed) you are left with some kind of hopeful ending - at least Joker got out alive! But in the case where Earth is intact and Shepard still breathing, it makes not one bit of sense! And how did Garrus and Kaidan get on the Normandy anyway? One minute they're sprinting with me and Anderson towards the light, then they're gone? Huh? I just don't understand.

It seems like, if you have a high enough EMS to save Earth, a different scene should play where instead of getting stranded in Jurassic Park, the Normandy comes to the Citadel to recover Shepard's body. First they find Anderson and the Illusive Man, then finally they find Shepard. If Shepard is dead (and yes, I'm perfectly fine with the potential of Shepard being dead, I didn't choose Destroy just to save her, but because the other options just sounded like vile lies)... anyway, if Shepard is dead, then they recover her body and we get a scene with the gathered survivors giving her a hero's burial. You see them wipe their eyes, straighten their shoulders, look each other in the eyes, nod, and turn back to the work of rebuilding. In mourning, yes, but moving forward with hope for the future. If Shepard is still alive, you get the same scene except that it's Anderson (and any other non-surviving friends) we are mourning, and Shepard is the one who turns our attention back to the work at hand.

All in all, I want to say that no, I didn't expect a "happy" ending to a story this terrifyingly harsh. I did, however, in the tradition of past Mass Effect games, expect a HOPEFUL ending. One that has closure and holds together logically. One where we see not only how much has been lost, but also how much has been saved. I got part of that with the cheering Alliance soldiers watching the Reapers crumble, but no closure when it comes to the characters I cared about. I got too much ambiguity... too many baffling unanswered questions, and not enough tying things together. Yeah, I just want to know what happened, you know? It's hard to feel the powerful emotions (both good and bad) of the Pyrrhic Victory when you don't know if you actually understand what you just experienced.

Modifié par susanwb, 19 mars 2012 - 08:46 .

[Horus Blackheart]

Having just compleated my second playthough and after some tome to colect my thoughts, I feel i'm ready to write a review. From the fery first moment I was hit over the heat with 'this is the dramatic end, which was not exactly subtal. I have to wonder if the writting teams idea of depth and drama (in some points of the game) was ti have jack bower screaming 'this is dramatic and artistic at the top of his lungs.

There is an over relience on scripted quick time events (those dream sequences are cheap and tacky). Another example is that iratatting encounter with a reaper armed only with an over sized laser pointer. There are other examples but thiose anoyed the most.

To be clear the first time though what i mentioned whas farly minor because most of the other elements were quite well done. The story for the most part is exelent, The way recrutment and choice in genral was handeled was 2 of the 3 bigest problems in this game.

EDI and vaga were team members i would have ignored if i had that option. I'd rather have had wrex or an me2 member insted.. The point is it should have been my choice. This is made worce by the galaxtic readynes stuff. The people i dont recrute are reused to a vague number and you never hear from them again in any meaningful way again, unless you count that last chat meaningful

Missions initaly feel impactfull and i relise its a war and all but theres only somuch action/ explosions and shooty pew pew i can take. I'm sory to say that this really hurts the replay value. Bioware used setpeaces to create the drama far to much rather than leting it build natruly. Throwing in shepards emotnal state in to that just feels cheap because of it.

costomisation was well done but there should have been more options there. The sidquests were prity crapy mostly.there should have been more fleashed out sidequests and more hub locations. the quest log is totaly usless, how could somone mess up somthing so basic? Do we have to guess whare stuff is or if weve actualy compleated somthing?

Now before i get tofar off track I need to mention the much hyped co-op mode and themeta game it feeds in to. Theres no way i can suger coat this so i wont even try, Both are utterly pointless, the co-op its self is basic stale and totaly redundent I played a few matches just to get my ems up thats all i cared about. Even then there was no real point to it. Such wasted potental Droping in vague and untested concwpts at the end of a trilogy is not progressive. It confuses newcomers (the people bioware was so desprit to atract it seems, need i remind you of how well that worked in DA2?) or it bemisews and disconects with long term fans.

Perhaps the developers were to close to the project to see these sorts of issues The game even with the issues i mentioned was goot right up untill the battle for earth. again setpeaces and waves of enemys galore. no real impact no real sense of acomplishment.. There was no way to actualy utlise all thise war assets. no stratagy, no tactcal deployments squad mwnbers past and present aparently do nothing, Thats really slopy and disconectiing, Then we get the ending the fing ending. All i san say here is what the hell were the devs thinking mass effect id not deus ex that dose not fit here I could go in to why it works for deus ex but thats off topic. That abomanation of an ending is so full of fail I cant articulate it with out reliving the anger. Way to mess up your trilogy bioware. Imagin if you read all of lord of the rings only to find the last 10 pages missing? You would be upset no? Cause thats how this feels.

I respectfully request that you fix it and do it right this time. There are ways of endiong the shepard story retirement mia somthing aslong as we get reaction and some proper closure.

I think ive covered everything.

[dedhd]

 My Mass Effect 3 Score: 92/100
My rating is based on the impact of certain moments throughout the game, and actual game design itself. I've given Bioware the benifet of the doubt and started at 50 rather than 0, and I'll add and subtract from there.

• A very "solve everything" deus ex machina ending with the crucible (-5)
• Making the reapers only purpose to stop organics from building synthetics, rather than the divine purpose sovereign made it sound like they had (did not live up to my expectations) (-6)
• A focus on interpersonal relations between an already interesting cast of characters (+6)
• Thrilling cut-scenes and action packed events (+7)
• Cheesy scripts at some parts (-1)
• Excellent voice acting (+5)
• Balanced multiplayer with good difficulty scaling and emphasis on cooperation (+8)
• Choice driven story with morality as a driving aspect (+7)
• Massive sense of futility at the ending, souring an otherwise excellent series (-9)
• Great attention to detail in the graphic design (+7)
• Bad shading (-1)
• Innovative settings and scenery (+5)
• Overused gameplay components (husks mimicing zombies, burning webs to continue) (-3)
• Majestic introduction for players new to the series (+4)
• Staying true to the 3 unities of story-telling
(time, place and action) and the lore set out in ME1&2 (+3)
• Glitch-free power based combat system (+6)
• Decent 3D graphics (+2)
• Effective level-up system (+4)
• Adjustable difficulty with fair enemy scaling (+2)
• Interesting/simple achievements (+1)

And that's all I can think of right now.

[rapscallioness]

I've been mostly checking out the "Endings" threads. But even while thinking about the ending stuff, I still couldn't help but remember all the great things.

That last scene with Anderson and Shepard....omg. It was so gripping. So fitting.

And Shepard's facial animation...wow. I could see the extremely subtle facial expressions. In fact, the whole game was like that. At least for my Shep. It was very well done.

I noticed FemShep did her little run/jog like in ME1 again. Much better than the ME2.

The writing. The stories. Oh, Tali and Legion. Where she says, "Yes...you have a soul." and Legion says, "I know," in that Legion-y way. Mordin's farewell. It was beautiful.

Coming around in the Normandy to see Mars. Massive.

And I thoroughly enjoyed the battles. So many great things about this game....

You guys did an amazing job. tbh

[Merwanor]

I finished this game today and If you cut out the ending and the fact that we do not get to see a "real" look at Tali's face. This is a 10/10 game for me.

The cinematic presentation is by far the best I have seen in any game so far.
The epic scale is beyond any game I have ever played and the characters and stories are so well done it just amazes me how talented the people at Bioware really is.

The action is the best I have had in a third person shooter, and that includes the big ones like Gears of War and such, it just is so much more dynamic and fun.

I also want to praise Bioware by being able to conclude small choices I made in Mass Effect 1 that I thought would be forgotten, like the choice I did on the Bringing down the Sky DLC.
The series is unique in this medium as it is a series that really tells your own story and your choices.

So now I wonder how on earth they could destroy this series for me wtih only 5-10 minutes at the end!!

Before those last 5-10 minutes I thought that the game was sure to win GOTY this year and become one of my all time favorite games ever, I was thinking that I would start to replay it again while the last moments with Shepard and Anderson was playing out on my screen. And then the moment Anderson closed his eyes, the Mass Effect series died with him.

They completly ruined the whole series for me, I had no real choice in the end, nothing of what I have done in this series had any impact on the ending. And not only that, I tried all 3 of them and they are all the same ending with just different colors and some small details. And it makes no sense, why are Normandy and its crew out flying. and how on earth is Liara and the others suddently on the ship? What is actually going on?! why is the kid from erlier in the game some kind of entity? Where is the closure?! I expected a fatal fate for Shepard, but I also expected an ending that made some sense.

I feel betrayed and hollow after today and extreamly sad, I can't believe Bioware intended the series to end like this. And because of this I can't give this game a true rating as I am torn, the game itself is a masterpiece, but it has such a horrid ending that it just breaks the whole series for me. I don't feel like replaying it anymore because what is the point of doing anything different as it all leads to a inevitable disappointing ending.

No game in my lifetime has made me feel like this, and it is just horrible that I have to go to bed and know that the best Sci Fi series ever ended as it did. I will have nightmares about this ending.

Modifié par Merwanor, 20 mars 2012 - 01:08 .

[Biggtuna]

Score: 54/100
Inability to import ME2 face was pretty disappointing.
Much lower than it should get; the ending was broken.


I'm just another one of many who share this opinion: 99% of the series was spectacular. 1%, and probably the most critical 1% - the end of Mass Effect 3 - was a complete and utter disaster.

Combat for this game was great. Varied weapons allowed me to pick loadouts for maximum chance of success, especially on Insanity. Graphics were, of course, flawless. The soundtrack wasn't as good as the first two games, but I'm OK with that. The songs from ME1 and 2 are what really makes this series have a beautiful soundtrack.

Characters were just as good as before, interesting, and with memorable moments. Seeing Mordin, Tali, Wrex, Garrus, Joker, EDI, Kaidan, Miranda, Grunt, and Liara, along with others was another experience that made me love this story of Shepard's adventure.

Retrieving artifacts for people felt a little trite to say the least. Doing those just felt like a waste of time. I much preferred Citadel side quests and N7 missions. Those were always fun. The main plot was intriguing; I loved seeing Tuchanka and helping with the genophage cure. Having to part ways with Mordin in such fashion was gripping. The emotional impact of the game was there throughout. Knowing I helped the krogan species was satisfying, and I always felt nostalgic whenever Wrex was involved. Garrus being there for the third time was fitting, along with Tali. Helping the quarians reach their homeworld and solving the geth question by destroying all of the soulless machines solved a crucial plotline well.

Once in London, I was completely satisfied, until the last dream-like sequence.

The conversation with Anderson and the Illusive Man was intense. I enjoyed those moments. Anderson dying was tragic and well-done. Unfortunately, this all was irrelevant in the end. Once the Catalyst and Shepard talked, it proceeded to become  jarring and bizarre. Let's take one choice. By choosing Destroy , I really don't know if by wiping out the Reapers, I inadvertently killed billions of people once the relays all exploded. I kind of want to know that. Really, it seems important. Even if all those on Earth who came to fight survived, they're stranded there. Apparently, with nowhere near sufficient resources for survival, with no relay to escape for more supplies, they will ultimately die. An unbeleivable conclusion, but the logical one. Again, no one truly knows their fate. The Normandy somehow escaped, and Joker miraculously survives seemingly unscathed - with brittle bones. Not even a broken leg or arm or neck. Also, my squad made it to the Normandy and are there with him on a deserted planet doomed to, presumably, die by starvation. There's also the question of Shepard making it to Earth and taking a breath in the wreckage when there was no obvious exit from the Citadel. But I've covered enough plot holes.

Is this really a resolution? It is a glaring error and a blight on the whole story. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth after a previously near-perfect series.

Modifié par Biggtuna, 20 mars 2012 - 01:48 .

[waijai]

95/100

The story was very well told. The game kept me very captivated from start till I shot Illusive Man.

Right from the start I felt the urgency to get off Earth and go get as much help as possible to save everyone. The progress of going from world to world and bumping into old crew members continually made me think "Who's up next? Oh wow! There s/he is."

The combat was fairly well done, I found that it was a good balance between it being a first person shooter and some RPG. A bit of strategy was needed to get through places and it wasn't just me running through guns-a-blazing.

The music brought a lot to the game as well, I believe the score was done fairly well. It brought a lot of emotion to the game.

The ride was a great one but unlike the first 2 games, I do not have the urge to go replay it again to play through as a Renegade. From the start, I was playing with the thought that this is going to be a closure, the ending to a great trilogy. So without a next ME in line, I don't have much of a drive to go through the game again just to have a Renegade import ready.

Looping back to that lost 5% and the "after shooting Illusive Man" piece. As with many other people, I felt that the ending was somewhat disapointing. I guess it is much like a roller coaster right, great when I was on the ride with all the ups and downs, twists and turns, but as the ride was coming to an end, usually the cart slowly chugs into the ending area and goes into a full halt, the fun has ended.

I would have liked to hear about what happened with all of my crew members after the journey. But I will accept that they all survived (I chose GREEN), and will find a new means of living. I did think that the ending clip with the older man talking to the child gave somewhat of an answer about Shepard, but also ruined a bit for me. I interpreted that my Shepard lived because the older man was going to tell another story of the Shepard. But also, it kinda got me thinking if it was all just story telling and a lot of what I chose or did in the game never took place, I was always that old man telling a story to a child. Too philosophical.

Also, as many other people said, how in the world did my crew suddenly go from being on Earth, fighting with me, almost getting wiped (except Anderson came with me) to ported back onto the Normandy and crash landing somewhere. Just didn't seem logical to me, and I cannot connect dot A to dot B there.

Otherwise, loved every second of the game. I chose GREEN and I'll leave it at that.

[Robnof]

Fantastic game right until before the starchild endings. Seemed either rushed, or made as such to sell more dlc. Either way it killed the replay of all three games, and destroyed the story line.

[Brian.V3]

It had it’s moments both good and bad. Leaving the end in an ambiguous matter could be seen as both brilliant or disastrous. I’ll come back to that.

First the gameplay mechanics which was tweaked from Mass Effect 2. I will not consider it the best Third Person experience when you consider games like Gears of War 3. A lot of great tweaks to features and everything makes it a much more better experience all around. I honestly can’t fault anything Mass Effect 3 has done. The only thing that should be of note for any future iteration is the famous no-holster option. It’s minor but should have been otherwise included.

Next the sound. There is no doubt if there is a no knock on a BioWare game it’s the they know how to bring in Voice Over talent and use it wisely. The whole gang is back and like before perform great lines from rousing speeches to confrontational banter to even certain people’s last words. The delivery is nothing short of spectacular. You felt it and it was what got you emotional. Certain knocks where the new ambient feature where if you somehow cut it off will never know what was said since it was a one time thing. Certain speeches or dialogue also transition awkwardly I only spotted one in particular only because on how big that scene was. Finally the score was not as riveting as Mass Effect 2. The final push, the arrival of the fleet back to Earth, all the things in the end fell short of it being memorable.

Next the animation. Looks like from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2. There is always the latency and popping textures issues. Well the issues have not gone away it’s still there. Sadly they are more and more magnified in this game. I also can’t help but the dialogue scenes have been played down indefinitely in this game compared to Mass Effect 2 or Mass Effect. Where a majority of these scenes play out similar to Kasumi and Zaeed DLC in Mass Effect 2 in Normandy interactions.

Finally the Multiplayer, Kinect and the extra stuff.
Multiplayer: It’s both fun and a challenge. There is no real knock on it that I could actually speak of. WIth what I have played I have enjoyed. I did ran into a couple of griefers for some reason. Didn’t expect to see that in this game but I guess there is no way it will not happen.
Kinect: for what it’s worth it makes the auto real time power strategy part of the game easier. Especially if you want to use your squadmates other powers aside from what you set the auto too.
Extra Stuff: Did not get infiltrator but did get the datapad app. Has it’s own meta game that reflects on Galactic readiness level like MP. It also adds the mail portion that adds more insight from characters in game. And of course your very own codex that is the same as the in-game so you could dive into the ME lore without having to turn your game on. Best part is that it is indeed free.

Special part.
The ending...
My thoughts on the ending is that it did what they may have set out to do which was do the unexpected. We all had theories and thoughts on how the end of the trilogy would be like whether Shepard lived or died. But none saw the end of the Mass Relays or the whole catalyst avatar being the kid you saw early on the game then the ambiguous what happened after for the Normandy crew and the rest of the galaxy.

There is a lot of debate about the ending. I’ll just leave it as I was disappointed with it especially the part with the Normandy and the crew and the state of the galaxy more than anything else that transpired in that ending.

With that said I will say this. If you haven’t finished the game and only formed your opinion about the ending based on BSN users and what you saw from IGN and YouTube. I highly would say consider playing the game finishing it and forming your own opinion.

My final take is... game is worth an own it stamp.

[QwertyMusicMan]

ME3 score: 9/10 w/o ending, 7/10 w/ ending

To call me a huge fan of the Mass Effect series would be an understatement. I’ve played through the first two games in the trilogy six times each within the last year, nearly accounting for every possible outcome to most situations in both games. I absolutely love the universe, characters, and story – more than any other trilogy, in any medium – and Mass Effect 3 lived up to the hype. Almost every decision and storyline from the past two games is resolved in ME3. That’s no small feat. Each major and the vast majority of minor characters you’ve met in mast games make an appearance in ME3, and they all are given an appropriate and effective sendoff. The story and writing is nearly impeccable, and easily presents the most ethically questionable and emotionally moving scenes in games, period. Oh, yeah, and the gameplay and graphics and stuff are better too. So what holds Mass Effect 3 back from greatness? Every game is plagued by a number of issues, Mass Effect 3’s most notable being the lack of a proper journal, tedious sidequests, the requirement of multiplayer, and the artistic treatment of female characters. However, those don’t do anything to hurt what Mass Effect 3, and Mass Effect as a series has accomplished; the true offender is the ending. It kills everything that the Mass Effect series has stood for, diminishes the impact of its decisions, and raises more questions and plot holes than it provides answers. Thus, I find it hard to continue to experience my favorite series of all time, when I know it’s all for nothing.

[redsoxfan2459]

I want to preface this by saying that I've been a huge fan of this series from day one. I really believe that these games are the best anyone has produced in the last five years. For the most part that excellence carries through into the third game. The graphics and sound are still great. The characters you've grown to love are all back, most with excellent new chapters to their stories. Combat comes close to perfection and the new score is fantastic. Even the multiplayer is a fun distraction.

When I was about three quarters of the way through the story I was entirely prepared to give this game a great review, minor problems with the side quest structure aside. Around that time I saw that the game had a two star average on Amazon. I knew that people were angry about the day one DLC, and despite my best efforts to avoid spoilers I had heard some grumbling about the ending. But the ending couldn't be bad enough to justify a two star rating for an otherwise outstanding game, right? Right?

Wrong. Very, very wrong. As one professional reviewer (writing for the California Literary Review) put it, "the ending, by which I mean the final five to ten minutes, of Mass Effect 3 is easily the worst finale I've seen compared to the preceding quality that came before it - in any medium. At literally every level, it's objectively terrible." It's honestly hard to believe that it was written by the same people that developed the rest of the series. Some have tried to dismiss complaints about the ending as the whining of entitled fans who wanted a happy ending. I promise you it isn't that simple. Let me explain why this goes beyond players' preferences as to how the story should wrap up.

***SPOILERS TO FOLLOW***

First off, there are plot-holes galore. Huge gaping plot-holes. Squad mates who were with you on Earth magically appearing back on the Normandy. Joker randomly deciding to flee before the Crucible even goes off. Anderson saying he's behind you then magically appearing in the room ahead of you. The Illusive Man appearing on the Citadel with no explanation. Etc.

Secondly, there is a complete lack of choice as to how the game ends. Nothing you've done in the previous 120 hours has any bearing on the options available to you in the end. Nothing. Your choices did not matter at all. No matter what you did you are offered three choices as to how to finish off the Reapers. They sound different, but the only difference between the three endings is that you get to watch a different colored explosion. Really, that's it. In a series that was all about real choices with real consequences this is completely unacceptable.

Thirdly, you get no sense of closure. You watch the Reaper attack end, the Mass Relays blow up, the Normandy crash land on a planet, and possibly Shepard draw a breath, proving that he lives. Roll credits. What? Are you kidding me? Is my crew just going to die on that planet? Will Shepard ever see his love interest again? What will happen to Galactic civilization without the Mass Relays? Are all the peaces I brokered between the different races meaningless now that they're never going to see each other again? (In this way choices you made hours ago are completely negated.) What about that giant fleet that gathered at earth and is now stuck there? Are they just going to starve to death? I have no idea what the future holds for all the characters I've come to care so much about.

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, the ending goes completely against everything the rest of the series has stood for. For three games Shepard has been running around trying to convince everyone to work together against a common enemy. He has forged deep friendships with members of every species and solved centuries old conflicts (including, importantly, that between the Geth and the Quarians). They drive home the point that the Protheans were doomed by their homogeneity and that this cycle has a better chance because it consists of diverse races working together. Peaceful coexistence and cooperation are encouraged again and again and again.

Then Shepard reaches the the Crucible and the Starchild says that war between synthetics and organics is inevitable. You have three choices for how to deal with this: genocide (kill all synthetics, including friendly ones, [red]), slavery (take control of the Reapers, [blue]), homogenization (merge all synthetic and organic life [green]). Shepard responds by fighting back and saying that there must be another way. His presence there is proof that cooperation is possible. He demands another solution that doesn't involve destroying the Mass Relays or synthetic allies like EDI and the Geth. Oh wait, that's not what he does at all. HE JUST GOES ALONG WITH IT AND PICKS ONE OF THE THREE AWFUL CHOICES. Are you @#$*ing kidding me Bioware? After all that Shepard just abandons everything he believes in without a fight and picks a color coded ending? This is about as believable as your whole crew suddenly turning into cowards and running away before the fight ends.

Finally, the (only) ending is incredibly negative and depressing. If you want to say that I'm whiny and want an ending that's full of rainbows and unicorns and ice cream, fine, but hear me out. First consider how bleak the existing ending really is. The Mass Relays are gone. The civilization that you've come to know is torn apart completely. All the races you've just united really aren't going to interact anymore. The giant fleet hanging over the smoking ruin that was earth has no way to get home. Are they just going to starve to death? Where the hell is your squad? Will they ever get off that jungle planet? Are Tali and Garrus just going to starve to death (they can't eat the same food as us, remember)? We're left with small numbers of survivors cut off from each other on ruined planets. Call me crazy, but I don't think this is much better than letting the damn Reapers win.

I don't object to the fact that this ending is possible. I object to the fact that its the only ending possible. As I've said, choice is a huge part of this series. If you did things a certain way in ME 1 you could convince the final boss to shoot himself in the head. If you were adequately prepared in ME 2 you could have a 100% survival rate on a "suicide mission." If I've been a solid paragon and completed every side mission for three games straight (which I did) I want the possibility of a happy ending. Screw this "the hero has to die" nonsense. This is Mass Effect! The hero doesn't "have to" anything! I want endings that differ in respects other than color of explosions, and I want at least one of them to be somewhat happy.

***END SPOILERS***

I can't see how anyone at Bioware thought that this ending was a good idea. It's so bad that it degrades everything that comes before it. I have no motivation to play this game again, or the earlier ones for that matter, simply because I know what they lead to. I've honestly been kind of depressed since I finished the game a few days ago. I desperately want a rewritten ending, and I may have to part ways with my favorite developer if I don't get one. It's really that mind-blowingly bad. Bad enough to overshadow everything else in an otherwise superb game.

Modifié par redsoxfan2459, 20 mars 2012 - 04:55 .

[Natureguy85]

dedhd wrote...
• Making the reapers only purpose to stop organics from building synthetics, rather than the divine purpose sovereign made it sound like they had (did not live up to my expectations) (-6)

Thank you, I totally forgot about that. That actually started in ME2. Sovereign had such contempt for organics. It was Harbinger who began the talk of "ascension" and "salvation", but that could have been seen in terms of being made into Reapers and getting to join the collective. Now it's about saving organic life. A shift with each game. Makes Sovereign seem like a rogue. However,

dedhd wrote...
(time, place and action) and the lore set out in ME1&2 (+3)

I thought they changed a lot of the lore, reference the first paragraph for example.

waijai wrote...
The ride was a great one but unlike the first 2
games, I do not have the urge to go replay it again to play through as a
Renegade. From the start, I was playing with the thought that this is
going to be a closure, the ending to a great trilogy. So without a next
ME in line, I don't have much of a drive to go through the game again
just to have a Renegade import ready.

Exactly how I feel. I played ME1 and ME2 multiple times. With ME2 I went several in a row. With this, I'm still having fun in Multiplayer, and I went back into the campaign to raise my score, but I barely want to go at the end again now that its high enough to be at the top.

I'm mixed on starting over. The end kills it, but at the same time there was so much good stuff in the main part of the game. Although I wish there was an early dramatic moment like when Tali first sees Shepard in ME2.

Modifié par Natureguy85, 20 mars 2012 - 07:42 .

[Raid]

 Before the endings, 8/10, after, 5/10.

The Good
+ Atmosphere, design, music are excellent
+ VA's are talented, great chatter between characters. Both Sheps were outstanding.
+ Story was very gripping in places
+ Romances were very well done, in particular Liara and Garrus.
+ Combat was fun and fast, very fluid.
+ Multiplayer, despite my original reluctance, is utterly addictive and enjoyable.
+ Banshees. This was such a great idea.

The Bad
- Bugs and glitches, i.e. the Hanar Diplomat quest, and occasional character twitches.
- Auto-dialogue. It was written well, but I would have preferred a choice in what Shepard replies.
- Some parts feel very rushed, and some levels were recycled (N7 missions = MP levels)
- Some of the textures are poor, and the background sprites too.
- Aside from ME2 character-cameo levels and N7 MP maps, there weren't many side-levels.
- Lack of dialogue choice. Not many choices overall outside of plot related paragon/renegade decisions.
- That child. The dream sequences are well done, but not with the child staring at me.

The Ugly
~ Everything after TIM's scene.~ Plotholes.

• How did my ground team magically warp up to the Normandy?
• Why was Joker running when he was in Earth's orbit? Surely the multicoloured explosion would have hit him first of all ships. Did everyone else just sit there?
• If the relays blew up, then how did Joker get outside of Sol to magically crash on a habitable planet?
• Do Garrus and Tali just.. starve? Like the rest of the fleets stuck outside Earth?

~ Why are all 3 endings practically identical when you promised otherwise?
~ Where is the closure you promised?
~ Why are people who carried their files across all 3 games rewarded with the same 'bespoke' ending as people who picked it up for the first time? Didn't you explicitly say this wouldn't happen?
~ The Reaper-Child thing. It explains nothing, both in game and out. It felt like a cop-out.


So yes. All in all I was thoroughly enjoying myself until the Catalyst section. However, my entire experience of Mass Effect has been tarnished by the ending. There was no closure, no questions answered, and nothing explained. Making information 'high-end' isn't the worthy ending this fantastic universe deserved.

Because of the ending, desire to replay has been reduced to nothing. Why bother when everything always ends up the same?

You've done such a fantastic job on ME3, Bioware - but please, finish the game how it was meant to be finished. Closure, answers, farewells... a non-condescending epilogue. These endings simply aren't up to the standard you guys are capable of.

Modifié par Raid, 20 mars 2012 - 09:25 .

[Klimy]

Before I go into details, I would like to say that I liked the game, but endings did suck.

I really enjoyed the game. There are many emotional moments, graphics are improved and game is packed with content from weapons and armor to side quests. 

No matter what Bioware say about "From Ashes" DLC, it is crutial to the game, because you get SO much more information from prothean if you take him everywhere. There are also some places in the game that you can see without this DLC that will have more meaning from this DLC (if you will look at every painting on the wall and look for clues in the landscapes).

The combat feels more FPS-ish and finaly all classes are hell of a fun to play with ability to spam skills, thus making it a no problem to run with just a pistol. Making it worth to replay the game just in order to try other classes, if you didnt like them in previouse itterations of ME.

But when it comes to ending then its all fine up to the last sequence. Right after last dialog with antagonist of sorts things gets bad. The endings are almost a pure copy of Deus Ex: Human Revolution - you get three "buttons" with same video for all three. The video has no info on what happened with galaxy and everyone in it. Also it is packed with "WTF" moments because there is no way to explain them:
- why the boy from the begining was there.
- why Normandy was making a mass relay jump when they were exploding (did Joker decide to betray you?)?
- why crew whom I took on the last mission was on board of Normandy safe and sound, while they died a minute ago on the battlefield? Or they just decided to betray you and leave you to die when you was knocked out?

There are many more things that just dont tie in the story or in any common sence. So when Bioware talking about art and how good ending is, its just thier usual propaganda to cover their misstakes, so dont listen to it.

The endings themself are not so horrible, you can live with it. Its just makes the overall process into "play and forget". A great ending of a trilogy had a hick up in the last part, thus rendering whole game obsolete and forgetable. Its worth a full price if you are fan and if you are not that much into Mass Effect, then wait for a price drop or buy second hand.

As about a multy-player, then its fun, you can easily spend few hours in it now and then. Race has no real impact on gameplay aside of what skills they can use. But because on higher difficulty level of the game its easy to die, thus it usually comes down to skill set rather than prefered race. For example I would like to play a Quarian, but their skills sucks, so I take another race of same class.

With every game you get money and XP, xp goes into improving your char, while with money you can buy packs that contain new weapons/mods, abillities and/or new chars. Contents of the packs are random, so you can easily get same things as you already have. There are three types of packs that contain better stuff the more they cost - for example spectre pack might contain char with 12000XP while basic pack will have same char with 1000XP (not sure about the exact numbers).

Also its worth saying that you can buy these packs with real money, but due to random content, you can keep buying same things or even paying for "one-time-use" abillities (because pack migh have only abilities without mods, weapons or chars). So I discourage you from spending real cash on it.

The multiplayer has no direct impact on singleplayer, its just in singleplayer you gether points that represent how much you are prepared for a final battle (pure rip off of Fable 3 with their final cash thing). And the more you play multiplay the more points you get (from the start you get only half of the total amount, but for every multiplay match you get +4% to it). Its not much of imact because at the end of a game you have so much more than needed of those points.

So as a result Mass Effect 3 is a solid game, with interesting story that answeres most (not all, but 70%) of things in mass effect universe. But it shamelessly copied a lot of things from other games such as:
- Tali's face is just a picture from the internet
- Galactic readiness is a copy of Fable 3 readiness concept.
- Endings are again fully copied from Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
And end of the game lacking everything and barely reaches "Meh" level. 

Thus its a good game but not a "game of a year" nominee and will not stay in memory for more than a month after you completed it.

[Catastrophy]

"This is it!"

Someone in here analyzing this ****storm? This is an interesting one.

Seems to me Bioware didn't realize the extent of affection players would develop for Shepard and the series over the last couple of years.



The Mass Effect series is actually like a book - a space opera coming in several volumes. Reading a book offers room for ones interpretation,  playing a computer game ties your reception strongly to that what the avatar lives through. The way the gameplay offers immersion into the development of characters and the gruesome struggle tp prevail is unique to computer games. I remember people talking about interactive film and story telling, I don't know how long ago  - Mass Effect is one of the few that manage to define this genre.

So we were given an intense experience and i won't speculate what my fellow players had in mind, but I think it had maybe to do with: "We cando it! If we only try harder and suffer grief to strike back the harder, things will work out."

Reprocessing people is a sick way to wage war and I think I was totally with Shepard when she made clear that this had to end in part 2. I had myself mentally prepared of what would come in part 3 and there it was: a galaxy-wide biocide unfolds. All that stands between extinction is my divine guidance I am lending Shepard commander.

At least until the Thessia mission where we were confronted with defeat. From that point, I had a nagging feeling. Since then, doubt was a  steady companion. Nicely done, but consider meddling with our emotions. There is no game that had me shed more tears and stimulated more stifled sobbing than mass effect. There is a lot of tale
telling that goes right to the heart. And things you take to the heart are hard to argue with.

What I think:

I got aware that many protests were heaping up before I ended the game, so I stopped reading to see for myself. I actually enjoyed the game from some point. I found the start to be quite weak compared to the other parts, especially part 2.

I even got annoyed about some things (fetch missions, running to and fro). You now tried three times to incorporate some mechanism stretch game time. There was the Mako - mostly fun, but lenghty, with bumpy maps
and suspension and generic superstructures. We had the Normandy scan entire planets for ores - my index finger still aches only thinking about it. And we now got the streamlined, index-finger friendly system pinging. I found this one really annoying, but well, better luck next time.

So, while happily piling war assets and enjoying kicking Cerberus where it hurts I finally neared the end. I did mention the doubts after Thessia? Now it was a general feeling of doom (the bad one) lurking around.

When Shepard neared the Citadel access thing and got knocked out I was like: "Damn! That didn't hit me! Don't give me another crappy reaper face-off like on that Geth planet!!!" Seriously, I had to look up, how to blow that **** Reaper up with that **** laser designator. I'm sure Shepard knew how to handle that piece - it would have just been nice forme to know that the fire solution would not reset once you move.

So Shepard got grilled
and grilled
and grilled
and grilled by just a tiny margin
and grilled
and grilled
while trying to acquire that **** fire solution in one go.

You get the idea and I spare you the rage about it. Was a cakewalk after I read about how the designator really works. This sequence is a console thing right? They always look like this.

That was my impression when I entered the dream like Citadel sequence. I sat back, watched, made my decision.

The end had emotional moments, I'm fine with letting Shepard die in a desperate or necessary sacrifice. Wouldn't call that a bad ending. But the unraveling, the whole resolution of why this worked out... A Monty Hall Dilemma? Seriously?

Well, I marked that one off as "another trilogy ending gone bust".

However, here's a German saying which is hard to translate: "Der Weg ist das Ziel" - it's about not finding what you seek at your destination but collecting it during the journey there (and realizing that in retrospective). I had a terrific journey with Shepard, thanks for that Bioware.

For all, who utterly feel disappointed: There are great ideas on this forum. (Like this one)

Modifié par dr_random, 20 mars 2012 - 10:06 .

[Primalrose]

Pros:

This game has some of the most memorable scenes in video game history. And from somebody that is highly critical of any game I play, that's a hell of alot for me. Rare is a game makes you feel true grief, sadness and guilt. I've never felt bad about a character dying until now. That prime example would be Mordin, which is kinda strange to me because he was far from my favourite character, even though I enjoyed his eccentricity and humor. Having picked the renegade option and killing Mordin to prevent him unleashing the cure, I felt true grief. This was a guy who trusted and respected me and who I trusted and respected too and I felt like an evil sick monster for what I did. The music, seeing Mordin die through his perspective, seeing the smiles on Wrex and Eve's face thinking the cure had been unleashed..damn it was incredible.

Another example is Legion's death and wiping out the Geth. After I went through with it I literally couldn't handle it and had to go back to an earlier save! I felt horrible! But it was so well done and so beautiful. Wrex is the same. I definately did not expect that Krogan to come storming into the Citadel about to blow my head off for figuring out I had betrayed his people. Seeing him die in such an awful manner was hard for me. I liked the Krogan and slowly grew to like Wrex over the course of the trilogy. This pretty heart-breaking to me.

Lastly, Shepard felt more human this time around and had more personality. To see him/her show signs of extreme stress and doubts was fantastic. That goes goes for the other characters, like Tali, Garrus, etc. To see the effects of war in a gritty, non-sugar-coated fashion added depth and realism.

Touching romance scenes for ME1 love interests: This ties in with memorable scenes, but deserves its own mention. I romanced Kaidan from the start, and felt it was really worth the wait. The scene in Apollo Cafe made my heart melt, and the love scene was very well done; realistic animation, intimate and touching. The build up felt real. Liara's was argubly the best out of them all and I think Ashley was very good as well.

- The combat was great. I definately liked the improvements and its the best iteration of the trilogy. I played an infiltrator and loved the class. Weapon modding was a nice touch. I really have nothing much to say about this. It just felt polished and fun.

- Squadmate comments througout the missions. I appreciated this alot. It definately made them feel more alive, fleshed out and part of the missions, instead of just robots following you. (No offense to you EDI!)

- Citadel felt moving and more alive. I personally got that sense, anyway. Thought it was nice touch.

Cons:

Auto Dialogue. While I grew used to it, I couldn't shake the irritation of having a loss of control of my Shepard. I primarily like ME becauseof its strong RPG elements. I think it was a mistake to frequently take this away from the player because its a fundamental part of this series.

Bioware, please don't try to appeal to the classic FPS crowd who just want straight action. You'd have to have no story at all to make them not be annoyed by too much dialogue and even then, why would they play ME? They'd go play the "real thing", like Gears of War. This is the same mistake companies do over and over trying to steal World of Warcraft's playerbase. Unless you create something revoltionarily mind-blowing, they will grow tried quickly and go back to the original, more polished thing! Stick with the roots of Mass Effect, what your fanbase truly love about this series whilst adding features that enhance it!

Space exploration I feel is still a weak point. It wasn't terribly exciting at all, even if the whole process of scanning planets and all was streamlined further. Having to reload over and over due to repears coming to get me got annoying more then anything else, even if it did add a sense of urgency. I think this ties in with many of the side missions. It would have been wonderful to be able to explore a bit for Dekuuna to help that Elcor, for example.

Bad Journal I'm not sure how or why the journal has devolved from the previous games. It's missing the whole point of a game journal, to help you keep track of things! The journal does not update whether or not you've collected what you're supposed to go collect and it got confused after a whole with the buttload of side missions I was getting.

ME2 romances not satisfyingly wrapped up in ME3: Need I mention Jacob or Thane, especially? I didn't know Thane and Shepard's idea of private area was a public area of a hospital with a completely open window.

Ending I didn't want to add this, but unfortunately I have to =(  It is filled with too many glaring plot-holes, gives no closure to almost anyone we've come across but most disatisfactory of all, is a very painful lack of choice. I will say I appreciate Bioware trying to go for a less cliche ending.  The ending we have currently feels incomplete. Most players would want to see their War Assets in action and I was baffled as hell when I saw Kaidan walk off the Normandy on an unknown jungle planet, the guy who would be with me to the ed of time. 

[Bradagan]

My Mass Effect 3 Score: 80/100

Mass Effect as a whole Score: 95/100
Mass Effect 3 Ending Score: 15/100
Mass Effect 3 Score (if the ending hadn't ticked me off so much ): 95/100

I love love love the Mass Effect series. I really liked this game. A few flaws though meant that for me it fell quite short of greatness. 

Up until the ending, I'd been having an absolute blast and would probably have rated the game a lot higher. The ending was a wholly dissatisfying way to round out a trilogy though, which made me feel grumpy and critical and less likely to let things slide if I didn't like them. 

The game's a little more shallow than I'd prefer with regard to things like side-quests, minigames and extra areas for exploration. If I'd never played ME1 or ME2, I wouldn't miss things like loyalty missions, planet exploration, the mako / hammerhead, hacking, or the ability to upgrade the Normandy. As it is though, that side of the game is sorely missed, and would have added a lot of replayability. 

The story (up until the ending anyway) is brilliant. Although my "Good" list is shorter, the majority of things in that list are so polished and satisfying that they far outweigh most of the stuff in the annoyances list.

The "Bad" list is stuff that royally ticked me off though. 

The Good / Fantastic / Downright Excellent: 

• The Voice acting is absolutely superb.
• The large majority of the writing is brilliant, with story and character arcs that feel satisfying when they come to their conclusions.
• Setpieces within cutscenes are gorgeous and emotive. Eg Palaven's moon as you recruit the turian general who looks up at his planet in flames before finally coming with you says so much with very few words.
• The Rannoch mission from beginning to end was totally compelling. From being inside the Geth server and seeing their memories, to bullying / charming the migrant fleet into standing down as Legion uploads upgrade code to the Geth, Legion's final moments were absolutely beautiful and had me crying manly tears.
• The Tuchanka mission was also completely stand out. Mordin's attitude as he rides his way up the atmosphere tower was wonderfully sweet, and it's themes of heroism and redemption were perfect. When the tower blew and the Krogan look up to the sky to see it raining the Genophage cure... again. Manly tears.
• Combat and cover mechanics work really well and combat feels really frenetic.
• Walking in on Characters having conversations arguments and discussions (Garrus and Tali hooking up, Liara chatting to people on the Comm, Adams and Dr Chakwas discussing the nature of sentience.) makes the gameworld feel much richer and more lived in. I wish there'd been more of this on the ship. 

Minor / Moderate Annoyances: 

• No hacking of any sort means every mission is now almost entirely focused on combat. It's *good* combat... but variety would be nice.
• Dotting weapon and armor upgrades around combat zones means I have to explore every area in full before I'll move onto the next one. This removes feelings of urgency.
• Planet scanning minigame felt too shallow and after a while got boring. Objects in space would always be fuel. Mini missions with derelict ships / extra mini stories would have been preferred. War assets and credits are nice... but don't seem to add much (see below) 
• War assets didn't seem to affect endgame content in any real way. It would have been nice to see Rachni / Mercs / Geth / Hordes of Krogan / Jack's biotic company in action. 
• For me, the game's peak was the Tuchanka / Rannoch missions. Cerberus base and Earth sections were very good, but didn't manage to make me feel like the stakes were as high. Maybe this is because we never really got to spend much time on earth or hear much about it. Wrex and Tali's Krogan and Quarian storylines are written so well that I felt far more invested in their stories than Earths.
• Some side characters and races felt underused. (Joker, Kelly Chambers, Diana Allers, The Salarians, The Batarians) 
• Quest management system was awful. I'd be told to go to a planet, but wouldn't know what system or quadrant of the galaxy it was in. Once there I wouldn't know if I had an item in my inventory or not. I ended up using the Mass Effect wiki a lot in order to keep track of where I should be going.
• Weapon modding system didn't seem very interesting and offered only minor upgrades. 
• Shadowbroker bonuses are too small and too few for me to really notice them. 

The Bad / Gamebreaking Stuff:

• Making a Prothean character DLC feels like a money grab when the protheans are so intrinsic to the Mass Effect story and he has so much backstory to add to Liara, The Reapers, Previous cycles, etc.
• I enjoy multiplayer, but making packs purchaseable with BW / MS points feels like another cash grab.
• I already paid £56 / $90 for the Collectors Edition of ME3 and bought the majority of DLC for ME2. I get it. You make DLC. Yes, I'm probably going to buy most of it! Don't make your final message on completing this game "Now go buy DLC!" though as that just looks like even more of a cash grab.
• I really wanted to see Tali's face. Reclaiming Rannoch would have been the perfect time to see her. No a photoshopped stock photo cooked up in 20 minutes is *not* Talizorah Vas Normandy.
• The A B C ending feels cheap, rushed, nonsensical and seems to funnel players down routes their own personal Shepard would never have taken. Lack of any kind of boss fight. Lack of ability to talk / question / move the conversation down anything but pre-defined routes. Introduction of a new antagonist character who uses dumb cyclical logic: "Organics will create synthetics who will kill all organics, so we've created synthetics to kill all organics to stop that." is the worst motive ever. 
• The Reapers in the first and second games were ancient malevolent unknowable creatures. "You exist because we allow it. You will end because we demand it!" The Catalyst's "For the greater good" motives seem at complete odds with that.
• The last 20-30 minutes of the game are spent limping, clicking "next" in conversations and then being baffled by the idiotic starchild. The actual ending gives no real sense of victory, achievement or closure.
• The aforementioned satisfying character arcs feel negated by the ending. The ending hurts replayability. (If all stories are going to end the same way, why roll another Shepard?)
• Too many weird inconsistencies in the ending. (Gun doesn't need reloading, Squadmates magically make it to The Normandy, Starchild can't be spoken to a second time or argued with. Shep meekly accepts what she's told. Shep can't turn around once she's standing by the A B or C button.) Is it meant to look like a dream? If it is, that's not an ending. 
• Ending the series by stranding the entire fleet at earth and destroying every Mass Relay feels like a death sentance even ignoring the idea that exploding relays = supernovas.

Improvements

• I seriously hope the ending turns out to be an indoctrination attempt.
• Multiplayer is fun, but I'd like to see more modes.
• I'd have loved to see a cross between the Mako missions of ME1 and the Hammerhead missions of ME2
• It would be nice to upgrade the Normandy further as in ME2, maybe adding the ability to move faster than the Reapers / Immobilize them / Limited Cloak / Improved Fuel Efficiancy / etc.
• What little we see of the Salarians is focused largely on the Krogan, I'd like to see more of the Salarians themselves and their technology, particularly possible uplift technology.
• New technology / propulsion methods being available would stop the fleet becoming stranded at earth from feeling like a death sentance. Yes the galaxy's being invaded, but that feels like the only story going on. Curing the Genophage and Reclaiming Rannoch are good examples, but I want to know that the galaxy as a whole isn't boned now the relays are gone. 

All in all, a damn good game but with a really bitter aftertaste. And it *is* just bitter. Not bittersweet. I'm all for heroic sacrifice if it feels like it meant something. I don't need sunshine and unicorns, but I need something that gives some closure to that particular character and makes me care enough to want to play it again. I'm sorry for complaining Bioware. But the ending is the legacy you leave us with. Silly as it sounds, if you'd left us with high fives all round and triumph flavoured cupcakes, you'd be getting people saying it was a bit corny... but we'd feel the same. If you leave people with uncertainty, disappointment no closure and unanswered questions, this is what you get.  

As it is, I'm still heartily recommending the series to any and everyone interested in sci-fi... I'm just telling them to stop playing after Harbinger's beam hits. 

Modifié par Bradagan, 20 mars 2012 - 11:21 .

[DragBahamut]

I think I'll give Mass Effect 3 a score of 90/100 I've never been a fan of stories guided by fate or destiny but luckily it doesn't feel like this story is until its final moments.

I'd have to say it's the smaller details that make ME3 great, first of many right in the starting sequence when we see a Reaper destroying two shuttles, one of which had the small kid onboard. It may be a bit wrong, but was so happy when playing that scene for the first time in the demo, not becuase I just watched a child explode but because Bioware had done what most folks seriously dislike... the killed a child and showed it happening.
I could list all the things I loved but you would be better of playing the game so I'll give you some highlights;
The overall feel of the gamplay is rushed, it truly feels like I'm in a war... and losing, everytime I search for war assets and the Reapers show up I have to get the [censored] out of dodge, everytime i go back to the Citadel after a mission and the are more wounded in the hospital, more refugees in the docks, more concerned citizens in the Embassies... more greedy Volus trying to make easy credits from the galaxies suffering.
My favourite experience throughout the entire game is without a doubt Garrus, I love Garrus, keep as a constant squad member through ME1, recruit him first and keep as squad member (until Collector base) in ME2 and is still a constant squad member in ME3. The bromance that has been shown between Shepard and Garrus is so well played it reminds me of my real life relationship with my own friends, even taking Garrus on missions involving previous squaddies shows the bond that has been built up between the crew (past and present) of the Normandy.
Space hamster... need I say more? I call him Jimmy.
Shepard demeanour is also very interesting, I don't know if it's pregrammed this way but, I play a rather neutral character, nice guy when he doesn't have to be mean, as the game progresses he seems to get more and more pissed off with everything, not just my choice of dialogue but some of the smaller things he says while walking down hallways or over the corpses of falllen foes. Instead of being friedly or even polite like earlier in the game, he would be barking orders and demanding, with force, answers or supplies.

I think I'll come to the ending, since it's such a big talking point at the moment and voice my opinion.
The entire ending sequence-starting from attacking the Illusive Man's base right up until shooting the Illusive Man is fantastic, it was at this point it went downhill, going up in the elevator and talking to an image of the little boy that I previously watched burst into flames more than once with no explenation as to why he looked like that, and then having the option to choose my ending.  I wasn't expecting such a mystical feel to it, nor such an abrupt end to the Reaper war. I have replayed the last Citadel section four times with my character (one for each option and one to find out what happend when the Illusive Man shoots me, not sure about that being a renegade option though) and I can say I'm dissapointed with the cutscenes for each end, all three are the same with some colour changes and one or two details chages, like cybernetics through everything, I think the biggest thing though is, why the Normandy left the battle with her crew, taking the time to go down to earth and pick up the crew. It doesn't seem right that the crew of the Normandy would leave Shepard behind, even if the Citadel was exploding.


Finally I must congratulate Bioware for such an immense story and giving me such an amazing experience each time I create a 'new' Commander. Now if you will excuse me, I have to meet Gurrus for a snipers picnic.

[Norker]

79/100

That's the score I give ME3 right now. ME3 is a good game and I enjoyed playing it. There are some issues with it that prevent it from being a great game.

Combat

I really like how combat has improved throughout the series. Fighting is enjoyable on its own and is not just an obstacle to get to the next cutscene or conversation. The Shield/Barrier/Armor/Health system is brilliant and shows that you do not need 30 skills/powers to make a compelling combat system (Side note: Wish SWTOR took that hint...).

What put me off a bit where the length of the combat scenes. Vancouver and London are just way too long while a lot of the N7 and non-priority mission were a tad bit short.

Then there were those combat scenes using different meachanics. The slow-mo scenes were good, I enjoyed those though I really messed up with Dr. Eva as I had no idea what was going on (I thought it was a cutscene and didn't do anything...).
The Rannoch Reaper was awful though. The problem with using different mechanics is the difficulty level. People that are used to similiar things are hardly challenged at all while folks like me get frustrated like hell. It took me a long time to figure it out and then even longer till I got it right (I really hate it when there is no room for error and you have to make 4 right moves correctly or you have to start over again). Not fun...

Multiplayer was surprisingly good, didn't expect it to be honestly. I had gotten the Demo to check how my PC could handle the game and chose the multiplayer part because I didn't want to spoil anything storywise.
I ended up playing several hours and had a blast. Still am playing multiplayer as it still is fun.

Story

I have mixed feeling about the game being much more linear. It does convoy a more pressing urgency than was felt in ME2 which is good, but it does take away a lot of experimenting (What happens if I do Therum last etc.) and it felt loads more like railroading than ME1 and ME2 even though those two were linear as well.

That some missions disappear/fail if not done before a certain other mission is a nice touch, but it fails at what I think the intent was (create a bigger sense of urgency). I'd have rather prefered decision trees (You get two priority missions and can only do one. Do you help the Elcor or do you help the Volus? Or even make both playable but have the second have a lesser outcome (less people get saved, someone important get killed, etc.)).
The way it works now is that you do everything that is not priority before moving onto the priority mission (That is if you do not want to fail any mission).

I disliked the humor I found sometimes. Too much of it was breaking the fourth wall. Yeah, nice of you to reference internet memes, but it clashes with the dark setting and immersion.

Then there is the ending...
That was a WTF moment right there! I will not go into detail here, I think the point why the ending (note singular! Using the same footage just coloring it differently doesn't make it several endings) is bad has been made.
It kills replayability, there is really no reason to play through another game of ME3 for the ending. Subsequent plays can stop just before the Cerberus HQ because after that point there is really no effect to your decisions anymore.

Paragon/Renegade/Reputation

While the reputation thing is a nice idea, the effects are... meh.

I can count the number of times there were Renegade/Paragon choices on one hand (excluding the TIM ones, but I wouldn't count those because it seems as if taking these doesn't matter at all).

And then where there really are important decisions that could be tied to Paragon/Renegade those are tied to different meachanics (the worst of those being the Geth-Quarian peace decision).

Add to it that there is really no influence on the ending or your decisions if you are Paragon, Renegade or Paragade. Take the reputation system out of the game and you wouldn't change anything at all.

The Cast

I found it hard to form attachment to the new Crew. Liara, Tali, Garrus and Kaidan/Ashley have been with me for so long I felt it hard to bond with anyone new.

Vega? Really, a latino version of Jacob? He's just a stereotyped and cliched grunt (No offense to Grunt). And he starts out being more familiar with Shepard than Ashley or Kaidan in ME1. If I could've thrown him off the Normandy I would have.

EDI!!! Love her. Not really a new character, was great that Bioware was aware how much the fans liked her and gave her a greater role.

Javik... Well nice to see that the expected cliche I expected (the wise beyond their years scientist race) didn't come true. While he as a person is not likeable he sure is a nice character. And unlike Vega he develops as time goes by.

I liked how you got some closure for ME2 characters, strangely enough where those characters died were the most satisfying ones (Thane and Mordin esp.). Would've prefered to have one or more ME2 characters join up the fight again.

The Scanning

Bioware still seems to be struggeling with this. It's the 3rd attempt and it still leaves a stale taste in my mouth. All of them are just timewasters that aren't fun. It also goes counterpoint to the whole urgency theme (Okay, I should really go to Palaven to rescue the Turian Primarch. Let me just scan 3 more systems before I go...).

Did this element add anything to the game? No.
And isn't that gamedesign 101? When considering a feature ask yourself "Does it add to the game?".

Resources

Credits were a plenty in ME1, finding the right equipment was difficult though. ME2 was stingy with credits and you had to be sure to check each area carefully less you miss out on some goodies.

ME3 throws this all overboard. You get showered with credits and if you miss something on a mission you can just buy it later. While it is nice to be able to get stuff you missed it really takes away from exploring.

Speaking of exploring, some of that stuff is really easy to miss. Even mission critical stuff (I usually pride myself on exploring every nook and cranny, but even I had to buy things for missions from the Spectre Terminal).

A middle ground would've been preferable. Make credits limited so that you can buy the stuff you need/want, but not buy everything. Make things easier to find in missions, but more expensive to buy if you miss them.

Technical

The amount of bugs are pretty much par for Bioware. There are some, but none that really wreck the game (No backwards flying reapers, thank you!).

I did have some issues with the two latest Nvidia drivers (using an older one is working just fine, but the latest one gives me slowdowns and bluescreens), but mostly everything works fine.

Multiplayer stability was a nice surprise as well, it actually performs better then single player for me and while I did have a few crashes/problems in single player multiplayer has been free of those.

Conclusion

It took me 53 hours to complete ME3. I did do everything that was possible, every single mission, talked to every NPC and checked with my crew after every mission.
Now that number doesn't tell you anything on its own, so let me compare it to ME1 and ME2.

ME1 my first playthrough (Same as ME3 and ME2, I try to do everything. I don't want to miss anything) took me around 80 hours, my fastest playthrough took me some 40 hours. ME2 the first one took me 60 hours and the fastest took 35 hours.

It's not fair to say that the games have gotten shorter because some of that playtime was "bloat". The Mako stuff in ME 1 took a lot of time. Planet Scanning in ME2 didn't take as much time, but was a pretty significant chunk of time as well. ME3 Scanning does take time, but not nearly as much as in ME2.

I reckon I got the same amount of content in all 3 games if I just consider one playthrough. ME3 doesn't have near the replayability of ME2 or even ME1.
ME2 is the one I played through the most because there were really a lot more options to explore and endings (meaning the Suicide mission and who lives and dies) to experience.

It's the lack of replayability that made me give a 79. I'd easily up that mark by 10 points if there was a sense to replaying.

Not really part of the review:
I am disappointed. One thing that really put me off about the ending was that Bioware had claimed there were several different endings and that your choices mattered. It's hard to say if I had been as frustrated if Bioware had not made such a claim.
Then there are the differences between the endings: That's a slap in the face! I'd have taken it much better if you had just given us one ending instead of this fake choice. Aside from the colors it's really hard to spot differences between the endings at all and no meaningful differences at all.

Less hype about the "many" "different" endings and just given one ending would've gone much smoother.

And choosing the ending? No matter what you did or how you did it (assuming you get good enough EMS) you get to make a choice of the ending? Replayability = 0. I just took the Autosave before the decision, backed it up and saw the endings. If there is no effect on the ending (or the availability of choices) why play through again?

[BaKaNoOB]

Norker wrote...

79/100

That's the score I give ME3 right now. ME3 is a good game and I enjoyed playing it. There are some issues with it that prevent it from being a great game.

Combat

I really like how combat has improved throughout the series. Fighting is enjoyable on its own and is not just an obstacle to get to the next cutscene or conversation. The Shield/Barrier/Armor/Health system is brilliant and shows that you do not need 30 skills/powers to make a compelling combat system (Side note: Wish SWTOR took that hint...).

What put me off a bit where the length of the combat scenes. Vancouver and London are just way too long while a lot of the N7 and non-priority mission were a tad bit short.

Then there were those combat scenes using different meachanics. The slow-mo scenes were good, I enjoyed those though I really messed up with Dr. Eva as I had no idea what was going on (I thought it was a cutscene and didn't do anything...).
The Rannoch Reaper was awful though. The problem with using different mechanics is the difficulty level. People that are used to similiar things are hardly challenged at all while folks like me get frustrated like hell. It took me a long time to figure it out and then even longer till I got it right (I really hate it when there is no room for error and you have to make 4 right moves correctly or you have to start over again). Not fun...

Multiplayer was surprisingly good, didn't expect it to be honestly. I had gotten the Demo to check how my PC could handle the game and chose the multiplayer part because I didn't want to spoil anything storywise.
I ended up playing several hours and had a blast. Still am playing multiplayer as it still is fun.

Story

I have mixed feeling about the game being much more linear. It does convoy a more pressing urgency than was felt in ME2 which is good, but it does take away a lot of experimenting (What happens if I do Therum last etc.) and it felt loads more like railroading than ME1 and ME2 even though those two were linear as well.

That some missions disappear/fail if not done before a certain other mission is a nice touch, but it fails at what I think the intent was (create a bigger sense of urgency). I'd have rather prefered decision trees (You get two priority missions and can only do one. Do you help the Elcor or do you help the Volus? Or even make both playable but have the second have a lesser outcome (less people get saved, someone important get killed, etc.)).
The way it works now is that you do everything that is not priority before moving onto the priority mission (That is if you do not want to fail any mission).

I disliked the humor I found sometimes. Too much of it was breaking the fourth wall. Yeah, nice of you to reference internet memes, but it clashes with the dark setting and immersion.

Then there is the ending...
That was a WTF moment right there! I will not go into detail here, I think the point why the ending (note singular! Using the same footage just coloring it differently doesn't make it several endings) is bad has been made.
It kills replayability, there is really no reason to play through another game of ME3 for the ending. Subsequent plays can stop just before the Cerberus HQ because after that point there is really no effect to your decisions anymore.

Paragon/Renegade/Reputation

While the reputation thing is a nice idea, the effects are... meh.

I can count the number of times there were Renegade/Paragon choices on one hand (excluding the TIM ones, but I wouldn't count those because it seems as if taking these doesn't matter at all).

And then where there really are important decisions that could be tied to Paragon/Renegade those are tied to different meachanics (the worst of those being the Geth-Quarian peace decision).

Add to it that there is really no influence on the ending or your decisions if you are Paragon, Renegade or Paragade. Take the reputation system out of the game and you wouldn't change anything at all.

The Cast

I found it hard to form attachment to the new Crew. Liara, Tali, Garrus and Kaidan/Ashley have been with me for so long I felt it hard to bond with anyone new.

Vega? Really, a latino version of Jacob? He's just a stereotyped and cliched grunt (No offense to Grunt). And he starts out being more familiar with Shepard than Ashley or Kaidan in ME1. If I could've thrown him off the Normandy I would have.

EDI!!! Love her. Not really a new character, was great that Bioware was aware how much the fans liked her and gave her a greater role.

Javik... Well nice to see that the expected cliche I expected (the wise beyond their years scientist race) didn't come true. While he as a person is not likeable he sure is a nice character. And unlike Vega he develops as time goes by.

I liked how you got some closure for ME2 characters, strangely enough where those characters died were the most satisfying ones (Thane and Mordin esp.). Would've prefered to have one or more ME2 characters join up the fight again.

The Scanning

Bioware still seems to be struggeling with this. It's the 3rd attempt and it still leaves a stale taste in my mouth. All of them are just timewasters that aren't fun. It also goes counterpoint to the whole urgency theme (Okay, I should really go to Palaven to rescue the Turian Primarch. Let me just scan 3 more systems before I go...).

Did this element add anything to the game? No.
And isn't that gamedesign 101? When considering a feature ask yourself "Does it add to the game?".

Resources

Credits were a plenty in ME1, finding the right equipment was difficult though. ME2 was stingy with credits and you had to be sure to check each area carefully less you miss out on some goodies.

ME3 throws this all overboard. You get showered with credits and if you miss something on a mission you can just buy it later. While it is nice to be able to get stuff you missed it really takes away from exploring.

Speaking of exploring, some of that stuff is really easy to miss. Even mission critical stuff (I usually pride myself on exploring every nook and cranny, but even I had to buy things for missions from the Spectre Terminal).

A middle ground would've been preferable. Make credits limited so that you can buy the stuff you need/want, but not buy everything. Make things easier to find in missions, but more expensive to buy if you miss them.

Technical

The amount of bugs are pretty much par for Bioware. There are some, but none that really wreck the game (No backwards flying reapers, thank you!).

I did have some issues with the two latest Nvidia drivers (using an older one is working just fine, but the latest one gives me slowdowns and bluescreens), but mostly everything works fine.

Multiplayer stability was a nice surprise as well, it actually performs better then single player for me and while I did have a few crashes/problems in single player multiplayer has been free of those.

Conclusion

It took me 53 hours to complete ME3. I did do everything that was possible, every single mission, talked to every NPC and checked with my crew after every mission.
Now that number doesn't tell you anything on its own, so let me compare it to ME1 and ME2.

ME1 my first playthrough (Same as ME3 and ME2, I try to do everything. I don't want to miss anything) took me around 80 hours, my fastest playthrough took me some 40 hours. ME2 the first one took me 60 hours and the fastest took 35 hours.

It's not fair to say that the games have gotten shorter because some of that playtime was "bloat". The Mako stuff in ME 1 took a lot of time. Planet Scanning in ME2 didn't take as much time, but was a pretty significant chunk of time as well. ME3 Scanning does take time, but not nearly as much as in ME2.

I reckon I got the same amount of content in all 3 games if I just consider one playthrough. ME3 doesn't have near the replayability of ME2 or even ME1.
ME2 is the one I played through the most because there were really a lot more options to explore and endings (meaning the Suicide mission and who lives and dies) to experience.

It's the lack of replayability that made me give a 79. I'd easily up that mark by 10 points if there was a sense to replaying.

Not really part of the review:
I am disappointed. One thing that really put me off about the ending was that Bioware had claimed there were several different endings and that your choices mattered. It's hard to say if I had been as frustrated if Bioware had not made such a claim.
Then there are the differences between the endings: That's a slap in the face! I'd have taken it much better if you had just given us one ending instead of this fake choice. Aside from the colors it's really hard to spot differences between the endings at all and no meaningful differences at all.

Less hype about the "many" "different" endings and just given one ending would've gone much smoother.

And choosing the ending? No matter what you did or how you did it (assuming you get good enough EMS) you get to make a choice of the ending? Replayability = 0. I just took the Autosave before the decision, backed it up and saw the endings. If there is no effect on the ending (or the availability of choices) why play through again?

I must add messy Quest system  but i agree with the op 
69/100

[jhoe06]

I recently played through ME1 and 2 (this was my second playthrough), and then I realized it was the first time I'd really come to love a fictional universe. In my review, I'll do my best to come up with constructive feedback.

My first impression with ME3 was that it was different. I felt like I didn't have control over dialogue, but after a while I got used to the idea - rather than giving me an illusion of choice every time Shepard has something to say, it lets me choose only when it matters. It might just be a better solution. Then there was combat. At first it felt a bit awkward, but I got used to it quickly and I'd argue that gameplay in ME3 feels more responsive and fluid than that of ME1 and ME2.

ME3 was much more than any other game I've played able to create an emotional response in me. I shot both the Illusive Man and Udina without even thinking. As I didn't have all the groundwork, I couldn't save both the Quarians and the Geth - choosing between them was the hardest choice in the game. The choices had me engaged throughout the whole game. Excellent.

Although the story was magnificent for the most part, I still have some questions left unanswered. What was the point of a human reaper, for instance? EDI speculated that reapers resemble the species that is used to create them, but this doesn't explain why all all other reapers are alike in shape. I also wonder how species throughout history could have made improvements to the Crucible, considering it was reaper technology that no one fully understood. And I wonder what was up with the star Tali did research on in ME2.

I must also criticize the place of multiplayer on the effective military strength. I have a feeling it's too difficult to have a good military strength without having played multiplayer, and too easy if you have played multiplayer. To be entirely honest I don't think there should be a connection at all. I think achieving great military strength should be very difficult (but not impossible) regardless of multiplayer.

Throughout the whole game I had a strong feeling that everything I did was building up towards the ending. Which is absolutely excellent, as long as it lives up to expectations. The suicide mission in ME2 is a brilliant example. The suicide mission made me feel that my previous choices really had an impact. The work I'd done throughout the game - loyalty missions and recruitment - truly mattered. There are a wide variety of different outcomes. You could come out victorious with everyone alive or you could even die yourself. THIS is exactly what I wanted, and what I expected (ME2 set the bar high) from the last mission on earth. It shouldn't be a walk in the park; you should be able to lose against the reapers, but if you did everything right Shepard and at least many of the crew should be able to come out alive.

The lack of control during the ending set aside, the confrontation with the Illusive Man and Anderson was beautiful and very emotional. And then you meet the Catalyst. The Catalyst is something, it is the Citadel (somehow), and although it behaves more like an AI its thought pattern makes me think it's a VI. Its vague descriptions doesn't really answer my questions of what it is or where it comes from. I get its motivation is to keep order in a chaotic universe - its reasoning is not comprehensible to me, but all right, I'll buy it.

Then you have to make your choice. I don't get why EMS affects the choices the Crucible gives you. I made my choice, and I see the cutscene. It didn't provide any answers. It would be like ending Lord of the Rings the moment the ring is thrown in to the pit and the tower of Sauron fell.

[Ap0c_NL]

My review in short without spoilers

ME3 must have game, best game ever made, worth every penny, i take all my bad words back, sorry Bioware and thank you for this experience. the end with the boy i found a bit weird to be honest but hell i enjoyed the ride and the ending wasn't that bad at all. Depends entirely on how you play the game. Apperently most people have to practice a little more and keep people alive.

Ok some spoilers then.

Miranda died because of her own path, no big deal anyway but a shame that beautifull body goes to waste before some nice sex scene.

Tali'zora commited suicide because i choose the geth over her flotila of ignorant quarian people.

For the rest, in the end all died of my team i wanted to play the most with, very funny bioware  Next time i pick the ones i would not mind seeing dead. Then Anderson.. that was tricky. thought being evil was to shoot anderson himself so the first time waited. will try that again.

Overal this is the very best interactive film i have ever played.

Thank you.