I hadn't bothered posting here because, well, I didn't see the point and I've made my disappointment fairly obvious in my numerous posts on these forums. Yet, I thought I should at least detail what it was about the 1% (endings) that ruined the other 99% for me.
1. Everything I had labored to accomplish in the series, such as finally sharing my first moment with my love interest, to brokering a peace between the Geth/Quarians and the Krogan/Turians, to bolstering the Citadel defenses, to uniting the galaxy in one shared purpose, was completely rendered moot by the ending(s). The Citadel was taken by the Reapers with little or no resistance and everyone on board was slaughtered. The Mass Relays were all destroyed thereby marooning everyone wherever they happened to be at the time, not to mention the combined fleets of the galaxy and all the other races among them now stuck in the Sol system (because even at FTL speeds, without the relays it would literally take decades if not hundreds of years to travel back to their homeworlds), Wrex who was supposed to lead the Krogan along with Eve into a new future is also stuck in the Sol system now, and the Geth (along with EDI) and all they fought for to become recognized as a new, sentient species are summarily destroyed along with the Reapers (if you chose the "destroy all synthetics" ending). Everything you accomplish in the game before the conclusion is essentially pointless.
2. Shepard, throughout the series, fought for the idea of value through diversity. Every species was worth something, and our differences is what made us greater collectively. This theme was even reinforced earlier in the game when Javik, the last Prothean, admits that the reason his people lost in the last cycle was due to their lack of diversity and inflexibility when confronted by the Reapers. Yet the "ideal" ending was synthesis, where organic and synthetic life become merged in the final evolutionary step of the galaxy. In other words, homogenization, which is diametrically opposed to Shepard's ideals that were represented in the series.
3. Our entire squad was on Earth during the final ground assault to get onto the Citadel, yet, they all manage to somehow get back aboard the Normandy which had returned to the massive space battle above the planet, and then Joker leaves the battle to outrun the Charon relay explosion and crash lands on some distant lifebearing planet. Huh? How was that even physically possible, let alone the complete contradiction of character traits in a squad that was fiercely loyal to Shepard. Either they all would have died on Earth, or they wouldn't have left until they knew what had become of Shepard. And Joker wouldn't have left the battle. If anything, he would have drove straight toward the Citadel to see if he could rescue Shepard and anyone else that managed to get up there with him. Instead, we get some horrible sci-fi version of Gilligan's Island, sans Shepard.
4. The logic that the Reaper god-child used to explain the Reaper cycles was completely circular and nonsensical. The Reapers, themselves synthetics, are hitting the reset button on the galaxy every 50k years so that synthetics don't ultimately destroy organics, so that in another 50k years, they can do it all over again. Destroying us to save us? Really?? And didn't the newly made Geth-Quarian alliance totally disprove that theory? Not to mention Legion and how pivotal he was to the Geth, and to helping us stop the Collectors. And why choose the boy that haunted Shepard's dreams as the form it appears to him as, unless it was some cruel means meant to torture and taunt him with? If it wanted to appear as something familiar, why not something more benign? Why not appear as the first race it had extincted over hundreds of millenia ago? And then to suggest that the "crucible" was essentially a Reaper introduced test to determine when the galaxy was ready to evolve instead of being annihiliated again was just the icing on a deterministic cake. Frankly, I found it insultingly ironic to a series based on the premise of personal choice.
5. There's ZERO closure. I'm not sure I can comprehend the reasoning behind that for a game series of this magnitude. At least in DA:O when you sacrifice yourself, they had the decency to throw you a funeral and give you a speech about your heroic deeds. In ME3, you get no such consolation. Your love interest doesn't weep uncontrollably at the love lost, your crew doesn't mourn your death, nor the galaxy celebrate your sacrifice. I'd be ok with self-sacrifice in the game if I at least got some acknowledgement by the people that mattered to me - not some grandfather telling stories about me to his grandchild. And why does a bittersweet ending even need to be necessary? Why not give us the option to have the happy ending where you ride off into the proverbial dawn of a new day with your love interest? We don't play video games to be reminded about the real world with a cold dose of reality. We play them to enjoy a world where everything does work out right for a change.
6. The choices weren't really choices. I touched on this earlier for other reasons, but the idea that no matter what we did in the game doesn't change the fact that we all get the same canned three endings, none of which are appealing, was just profoundly disappointing and depressing. In order to destroy the Reapers, I have to destroy the Geth and EDI along with them. What kind of choice is that? That's not a fair dilemma to put us in, because the other option of controlling the Reapers only removes them as a threat for this cycle. It doesn't mean that they won't come back again, not to mention the very thought of becoming a Reaper is repulsive. They represent everything the Shepard stood against. Synthesis I've already covered, but it's only slightly less appalling than controlling the Reapers. So to deal with the Reaper threat once and for all, I have to destroy the Geth and EDI. I feel like it was the Kobayashi Maru - a no win scenario.
7. Bioware promised through multiple press releases and media coverage interviews that the ending(s) of ME3 would give the players closure and it would reflect all the choices we had made up to that point. What was delivered was the exact opposite.
8. While the series was amazing and in many ways set a new standard for the RPG video game industry, the overall satisfaction and enjoyment of it was utterly marred and sullied by the god-awful conclusion.
There you have it, for whatever it's worth.
Mass Effect 3 Fan Reviews (May Contain Spoilers)
Débuté par
Chris Priestly
, mars 06 2012 04:24
Retour en haut
#1452
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 01:39
Darsoul
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- Members
- 70 messages
I went in head first, I had already planned a vacation days at work for march 6th and 7th. I told my friends not to call, I was not leaving until I completed this story.
I don’t want to repeat the same WTF ending like most but I will say this. How in the hell do you add a character in the last ten minutes of a 60 plus hour story that upsets the very fabric of the theme of the story, of which to me was, against all the odds, loyalty and teamwork and a whole lot of ammo, WE can can save the galaxy. Don’t get me wrong I knew from the moment I played the demo, when Sheperd declared “ we all must be willing to die” He would not live at the end.
Deep in my soul I realized that the true theme of ME3 was self sacrifice. The more I played the more the truth came to light. Mordin’s death showed this to be true, He created the genophage and would give his life to correct that mistake. Thane, even a dying man would risk his short time left to save his friends. And last Legion, this hit me the hardest, it was like I was a child again and they shot Old Yeller. I had to get up and walk away from the computer.
The Mass Effect storyline has kept me on a emotional rollercoaster. I’ve play ME1 over 20 times, ME2 just as many. ME3 I don’t see a reason to go back. I can not change this ending. Red, Blue and Green are all the same. The Fleets of the galaxy are orbiting a destroyed Earth with no way home to their homeworlds. The Normandy crashes on a planet we can only describe as Eden. No-one seems to understand the odd ending, the music, the sounds, was it a dream. was it all a dream. I think I better ending would have been a pimpled face college intern waking up from a nap in front of his computer in stale boring office cubicle with a voice of Tali or Liara over the intercom asking “are those TPS reports done yet Johnny boy!"
They say it’s best to leave them laughing, but in the end I would like to thank all those that have worked so hard to bring me this tale. The sleepless nights, the hundreds of hours of near perfect game play. But those last 10 minutes you can stick back up where the sun doesn’t shine.
Thank you all, Peace
[/b]
Modifié par Darsoul, 21 mars 2012 - 01:40 .
#1453
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 03:03
Coder4Hire
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- Members
- 169 messages
7/10
The entire game seemed rushed; Would have waited another year and not been upset.
You guys did outstanding work, no doubt about it. Best combat in the series, hands down!
It's still a bit too easy, but it's the only reason you get a 7 from me.
My issues:
-Ending (Surprised right?)
-Visual inconsistencies
When Joker's face seems lifeless compared to the rest of the cast because it just didn't receive the same amount of attention/time/love as others ... it shows. There was a scene when Seth Green was talking over a radio, but you forgot to put in the "radio filter" or sound effects (if that makes sense).
During Jack's mission, half the students didn't even look in the correct direction when speaking.
"I will destroy you!", one yells. I laughed because of how silly her character looked. Their heads may be facing the right way, but their looking off in the distance. That stuff really sticks out when compared to the work you put into Liara's face (or even EDI's). I guess the faces are just inconsistent. Sure, you can't make them all as sharp as Liara or Shepard. But, they were better in ME2; they never seemed like such eyesores.
Then the auto dialog. I'd be fine it I couldn't accidentally skip over it. Joker's telling a funny joke, oh wait, my thumb slipped so I missed it. Period. And the lip sync. Again, it's been fixed for most characters, Ashley not included. It's distracting mostly because the voice acting is so good it seems silly to see a "lifeless doll" pretending to speak. Go back to the ME2 style, please.
I won't mention the sheer amount of bugs I encountered. For shame!
The entire game seemed rushed; Would have waited another year and not been upset.
You guys did outstanding work, no doubt about it. Best combat in the series, hands down!
It's still a bit too easy, but it's the only reason you get a 7 from me.
My issues:
-Ending (Surprised right?)
-Visual inconsistencies
When Joker's face seems lifeless compared to the rest of the cast because it just didn't receive the same amount of attention/time/love as others ... it shows. There was a scene when Seth Green was talking over a radio, but you forgot to put in the "radio filter" or sound effects (if that makes sense).
During Jack's mission, half the students didn't even look in the correct direction when speaking.
"I will destroy you!", one yells. I laughed because of how silly her character looked. Their heads may be facing the right way, but their looking off in the distance. That stuff really sticks out when compared to the work you put into Liara's face (or even EDI's). I guess the faces are just inconsistent. Sure, you can't make them all as sharp as Liara or Shepard. But, they were better in ME2; they never seemed like such eyesores.
Then the auto dialog. I'd be fine it I couldn't accidentally skip over it. Joker's telling a funny joke, oh wait, my thumb slipped so I missed it. Period. And the lip sync. Again, it's been fixed for most characters, Ashley not included. It's distracting mostly because the voice acting is so good it seems silly to see a "lifeless doll" pretending to speak. Go back to the ME2 style, please.
I won't mention the sheer amount of bugs I encountered. For shame!
#1454
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 03:22
DannieCraft
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- Members
- 233 messages
Mass Effect 3, bringing down the entire series from scores 10/10 to 5/10. Why? How? Continue to read. Short review.
Mass Effect 3 is the conclusion to the most epic game trilogy of all times. It is an emotional rollercoaster, including a series of conclusions to the difficult choices made throughout the previous two games.
At the beginning of the game it feels linear, a direct opposite of it's previous games, as you have no control of what to do, how or when to do it. This, however changes over time and brings you in on the darkest chapter of the trilogy.
Shepards humanity is starting to show through. One can only see so much war and deaths before it takes a toll on you. Shepard is haunted by the vision of a little kid the game mechanics would not let you save in the beginning of the game. It leads to many doubts and emotional moments. Will the game mechanics take my choice away throughout the entire game? I did not want to cure the genophage, yet I had to save the female in order to secure an Alliance that otherwise would have been impossible. Yet again, not necessarily a player choice, but you have to do this if you don't want a "critical failure" text on your screen.
The choices becomes more as time goes though, and in the end you are forgetting about the small choices you didn't get to make. Until, the end. Just as expected by the linear play in the beginning, the end disregards your previous choices, and presents you with 3 new ones. The end comes out weak, and is probably the only truly important moment throughout the entire series you remember the least. It does not in any way come out as "THE end to the most epic sci-fi game trilogy ever told", but as weak, and therefore the impact of the game is diminished.
If the entire game series have led up to this one moment, with scores 10/10 best games of all times, the ending just brought it down to a 5/10. Let's face it. There is nothing as important as a really good ending.
Considerations. If the ending was weak because BioWare is now playing on the thought of a 4th installment in the game series, then the ending could somewhat be forgiven. But there is a problem to this consideration - BioWare have stated that this is the end to the trilogy. Shepards story have reached it's end. (but somehow entire chapters of his life, previously blanked out, will be available as DLC for those who wants it, me included).
Mass Effect 3 is the conclusion to the most epic game trilogy of all times. It is an emotional rollercoaster, including a series of conclusions to the difficult choices made throughout the previous two games.
At the beginning of the game it feels linear, a direct opposite of it's previous games, as you have no control of what to do, how or when to do it. This, however changes over time and brings you in on the darkest chapter of the trilogy.
Shepards humanity is starting to show through. One can only see so much war and deaths before it takes a toll on you. Shepard is haunted by the vision of a little kid the game mechanics would not let you save in the beginning of the game. It leads to many doubts and emotional moments. Will the game mechanics take my choice away throughout the entire game? I did not want to cure the genophage, yet I had to save the female in order to secure an Alliance that otherwise would have been impossible. Yet again, not necessarily a player choice, but you have to do this if you don't want a "critical failure" text on your screen.
The choices becomes more as time goes though, and in the end you are forgetting about the small choices you didn't get to make. Until, the end. Just as expected by the linear play in the beginning, the end disregards your previous choices, and presents you with 3 new ones. The end comes out weak, and is probably the only truly important moment throughout the entire series you remember the least. It does not in any way come out as "THE end to the most epic sci-fi game trilogy ever told", but as weak, and therefore the impact of the game is diminished.
If the entire game series have led up to this one moment, with scores 10/10 best games of all times, the ending just brought it down to a 5/10. Let's face it. There is nothing as important as a really good ending.
Considerations. If the ending was weak because BioWare is now playing on the thought of a 4th installment in the game series, then the ending could somewhat be forgiven. But there is a problem to this consideration - BioWare have stated that this is the end to the trilogy. Shepards story have reached it's end. (but somehow entire chapters of his life, previously blanked out, will be available as DLC for those who wants it, me included).
#1455
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 03:22
ishii0615
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- Members
- 8 messages
I have posted nothing on this issue until now. I remember when Dragon Age 2 was about to be released, I was pumped. Dragon Age Origins was one of the best games I had played and looked forward to continuing the experience. What I got was a complete failure at every level. Choice mattered very little in my opinion and nothing from Origins was impactful to DA2 at all.
After getting over the failure of DA2, I played ME1 and forgot about DA2 completely. I was fascinated by how big the game was. It was really in my opinion the new generation Star Wars, at least that's what I compared it to. There wasn't a race in the entire game that I didn't like. The story was superb and I was scared ****less of Sovereign when I had that nice little chat with him on Virmire. After completing the game, I rushed to Gamestop to grab my copy of ME2.
Again I was blown away. I didn't dig Hawke in DA2, but Shepard was different. I molded him from ME1 and carried right over to ME2 with all the major choices I had made in the first entry. That alone impressed me because choices didn't seem to translate between DAO and DA2 to me. I really enjoyed the story and the experience of purging the Collectors and giving the middle finger to the Illusive Man.
Enter ME3. I have never in my life looked so forward to a release like ME3. I've been a gamer since I was 5 years old playing Mega Man 2 on NES. I have been very priveleged to play many great games over the years, but nothing compared to ME3. Skyrim was a great game to me, but it lacked the story that the ME series provided.
I watched every trailer countless times leading to the release. I read articles stating we would get closure, that our choices would matter, and I couldn't wait. After waiting 4 hours in the rain leading up to midnight, I played ME3 constantly. There was no phone calls, no card night with the boys, no romantic dinners with the wife, just me, some redbull and ME3. After booting it that first time, I was hooked.
The game was so epic. Bringing peace to the Turian/Krogan and Geth/Quarian felt so rewarding. Re-establishing relationships with both friends and romances were absolutely great experiences. I continued the grind at a hard pace, talking to everyone, doing every little side quest, weighing every decision I had to make along the way. But than something happend. Something catastrophic.
I reached the Conduit? I guess, and ran into a VI I'm assuming, that just so happened to take the form of the boy I watched get obliterated by the Reaper. Immediattely I was stunned, I was offered option A, B, and C. I sat there in front of the left, middle, right choice for about 30 minutes in shock. Was I really just offered just these choices, that doesn't fit with me at all.
Shepards very nature in my opinion was rebellious. I don't feel he would have ever chose to even listen to the kid, but I had no choice. I watched the ending with great dissapointment. My brother-in-law approached me the next day and he had also beaten the game. The look on his face said it all, and we both vented for hours trying to make sense of what the ending was.
If the relays really are all gone to ****, how did the fleet make it home? If you choose to kill the synthetics, then the whole brokering peace between the Geth/Quarians was pointless. Our allies now have no way of getting home, so what was accomplished, what was the end result? I'm still trying to make sense of it all and just can't.
Bioware I hope your listening. This game could have been one of the best made, but I think it will go down as one of the biggest let downs in the history of video games. 17 different endings? Just what exactly seperates one from the other, a minor detail?
DA2 was dissapointing, but the ending of ME3 is on a very different and extreme level. Like I did with DA2, there will be no purchase of DLC. After I experienced the failure that was DA2, it was traded immediattely. For people who loved the ending, I am honestly happy that you were satisfied. But what about the people like me, and so many others? Are we not also entitled to that same experience? I think so.
I've googled articled on ME3 every single day since I experienced the horrible ending. I've seen many sites bash us because we want a different ending. It will not set a bad precedent for you as a company to make it up to us. I loved ME3 until the end. I've loved the entire series for that matter.
I plead you Bioware, hear us and make something happen. We as customers deserve what we paid for. I have enjoyed Bioware games for a long time, but if the ME3 ending isn't changed, I will not anymore. The DA series will never be the same for me after the debaucle that was DA2. I believe in you guys, and I also believe that you can be reasonable and address what I would say is the majority of ME fans and give us the ending we deserve. Hold the Line.
After getting over the failure of DA2, I played ME1 and forgot about DA2 completely. I was fascinated by how big the game was. It was really in my opinion the new generation Star Wars, at least that's what I compared it to. There wasn't a race in the entire game that I didn't like. The story was superb and I was scared ****less of Sovereign when I had that nice little chat with him on Virmire. After completing the game, I rushed to Gamestop to grab my copy of ME2.
Again I was blown away. I didn't dig Hawke in DA2, but Shepard was different. I molded him from ME1 and carried right over to ME2 with all the major choices I had made in the first entry. That alone impressed me because choices didn't seem to translate between DAO and DA2 to me. I really enjoyed the story and the experience of purging the Collectors and giving the middle finger to the Illusive Man.
Enter ME3. I have never in my life looked so forward to a release like ME3. I've been a gamer since I was 5 years old playing Mega Man 2 on NES. I have been very priveleged to play many great games over the years, but nothing compared to ME3. Skyrim was a great game to me, but it lacked the story that the ME series provided.
I watched every trailer countless times leading to the release. I read articles stating we would get closure, that our choices would matter, and I couldn't wait. After waiting 4 hours in the rain leading up to midnight, I played ME3 constantly. There was no phone calls, no card night with the boys, no romantic dinners with the wife, just me, some redbull and ME3. After booting it that first time, I was hooked.
The game was so epic. Bringing peace to the Turian/Krogan and Geth/Quarian felt so rewarding. Re-establishing relationships with both friends and romances were absolutely great experiences. I continued the grind at a hard pace, talking to everyone, doing every little side quest, weighing every decision I had to make along the way. But than something happend. Something catastrophic.
I reached the Conduit? I guess, and ran into a VI I'm assuming, that just so happened to take the form of the boy I watched get obliterated by the Reaper. Immediattely I was stunned, I was offered option A, B, and C. I sat there in front of the left, middle, right choice for about 30 minutes in shock. Was I really just offered just these choices, that doesn't fit with me at all.
Shepards very nature in my opinion was rebellious. I don't feel he would have ever chose to even listen to the kid, but I had no choice. I watched the ending with great dissapointment. My brother-in-law approached me the next day and he had also beaten the game. The look on his face said it all, and we both vented for hours trying to make sense of what the ending was.
If the relays really are all gone to ****, how did the fleet make it home? If you choose to kill the synthetics, then the whole brokering peace between the Geth/Quarians was pointless. Our allies now have no way of getting home, so what was accomplished, what was the end result? I'm still trying to make sense of it all and just can't.
Bioware I hope your listening. This game could have been one of the best made, but I think it will go down as one of the biggest let downs in the history of video games. 17 different endings? Just what exactly seperates one from the other, a minor detail?
DA2 was dissapointing, but the ending of ME3 is on a very different and extreme level. Like I did with DA2, there will be no purchase of DLC. After I experienced the failure that was DA2, it was traded immediattely. For people who loved the ending, I am honestly happy that you were satisfied. But what about the people like me, and so many others? Are we not also entitled to that same experience? I think so.
I've googled articled on ME3 every single day since I experienced the horrible ending. I've seen many sites bash us because we want a different ending. It will not set a bad precedent for you as a company to make it up to us. I loved ME3 until the end. I've loved the entire series for that matter.
I plead you Bioware, hear us and make something happen. We as customers deserve what we paid for. I have enjoyed Bioware games for a long time, but if the ME3 ending isn't changed, I will not anymore. The DA series will never be the same for me after the debaucle that was DA2. I believe in you guys, and I also believe that you can be reasonable and address what I would say is the majority of ME fans and give us the ending we deserve. Hold the Line.
#1456
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 04:00
destroyer 654
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- Members
- 26 messages
I am going to try to make this review as honest as possible without getting too bias. Im going to go over some of the good parts of the game and some of the bad parts.
Story-
The story in this game was amazing, it had some of the most touching and beautiful scenes I have ever witnessed in a game. This is the only game that has made me actually cry. When you were going out in the galaxy you really did feel pressured to get the biggest fleet you can possibly get for the final battle, you really truely did feel like the galaxy was at stake and only you could save it. Almost every mission i played in this game had meaningful story and went above and beyond expectations. However there was one major Black dot on this amazing story, the ending. The ending was one of the worst pieces of writing i have ever scene in any form of entertainment. The amount of plot holes were unbeleviable, however if it was indoctrination it was genius. However that is the only bad part about the story, overall it was one of the best pieces of writing in any form of entertainment to date.
Story: 9/10
Gameplay-
The gameplay in this game was awesome, especially for an RPG. I had so much fun sending my enemies flying with biotics or going in slow motion blasting enemies away. The combat in this game was one of the most fun i have had in a third person shooter. I dont know how you guys managed it but you made the best combat to date in an rpg game. People need to remember RPG does not mean it has to be like wow. I noticed only a bit of lag issues but it was very minor out of the 30+ hour experience. I loved the addition of the heavy mele attacks, i also loved that each class had a unique heavy mele attack so you didnt have one generic attack. Overall the combat in this game was amazing for an RPG, i have had and will continue to have many fun hours with this combat system.
Gameplay : 10/10
Graphics- The graphics in this game are top notch, this has some of the most impressive graphics that i have seen in a video game. I really did feel like i was in a science fiction world with these graphics, sometimes i would be like, wow it looks like it could be real. Now obviously its not the best graphics ever made but its damn fine job, you guys really did a great job with the graphics in this game. I only had a few issues with textures and some other minor issues. Overall the graphics are top notch in this game.
Graphics: 9.5/10
Exploration- Mass Effect has always had an amazing exploration system and continues to. You have a large, large galaxy full of many planets to explore. Each planet has a full description of its past, climate, any species that might live there. It also shows how long it takes to orbit, the population. You can have hours and hours reading planets and exploring the galaxy. Now a great reviewer called Angry joe once asked for space traffic,you guys obviously listened to him by adding in reapers that can attack you if you scan a star system a bit too much. This is a fun system because it really gives you the feeling of you have to get in and out fast. The war assets are an awesome improvement to the game., i spent hours searching for new war assets to help me fight the reapers. Whenever i found a war asset for scanning i would wonder what it was. The exploration system in this game is very top notch and can consume you for hours
Exploration: 10/10
Characters: Every character in the game has a unique personality and many traits, however i missed having a bit 11 or 12 member team. In Mass Effect 3 the core squad members you had in both of the previous games remained and almost all of them as long as they lived at least appeared in the game as cameos. Unfortuanetly there really are not any new characters introduced besides James Vega and Javik the prothean who you had to pay money on if you did not get the collecors edition which i will talk about later. Going down the list of squad members There are 4 maybe 5 that stand out and the rest are good/ok. Honestly i was dissapointed by the lack of new squad members in the game however the excellent personality the returning characters had made up for it. Squad members however are not the only characters in the game, we get to explore commander shepard a bit more in the game and get to feel a bit more connected to him as the main character. Also when i would walk onto the citadel i would hear tons of people talking about things that are occuring in their life, this was awesome because again it made you feel immersed into the universe of Mass Effect and this is the main saving grace for this score.
Characters: 9/10
Day 1 DLC:
This will not affect the score of be given a score however i need to adress this as a consumer and a fan. I bought the collectors addition so this doesnt affect me, however the fact that you needed to pay for a character that was already on the game disc was just insulting and an outrage. You should not have to pay for a character that was already included on the disk, I know EA had their hands all over this but bioware i expected better from you. Hopefully we will never see something like this again from a bioware product.
Ending-
The ending to Mass Effect 3 was one of the most anticipated moments in gaming history, we were going to go make the final assault on the reapers and all of our choices would affect the final outcome. Unfortunately that was not true, we had 6 endings, all of which were different by 1 or 2 percent. We were promised that our choices from both of the games would matter, effect the outcome. However that is not true, the choices you made affect a cutscene of a space battle that lasts for a minute. Yep thats what your 100 hours of Mass effect before that affects, a 1 minute cutscene. Also as if that wasnt enough there were sooo many plot holes, why the hell was joker escaping the sol relay HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT. Shepards team was commited, they would not leave him in the battle. Why cant you tell the god child that you will not listen to him and you will watch what happens as your fleets get destroyed or defeat the reapers. Shepard does not act like himself at all during the ending. There are so many plot holes it is unbeleviable.
How come we could not have an ending where the reapers continued the cycle, or the opposite where everyone lives and the reapers are destroyed. Or even a middle option where there is some damage done. How come characters like grunt or samara couldnt have cutscenes showing their epic final moments, how come you couldnt see the rachni attack the reapers, how come we could not see the krogan army slaming into the reaper forces. This was not the ending we were promised at all, i could not believe my eyes when i finished this game.
The indoctrination theory is a theory i support 100%, if it is true then you did not craft the worst ending in history but one of the best. The indoctrination theory states that everyting after shepard getting hit by harbingers beam was all a hallucination and the reapers were trying to indoctrinate you during it. ( Also why in gods name did harbinger not get a single line of dialogue in the game, unless he will in dlc, but still.) Im not going to go too much into the indoctrination theory however if it is true the score will definetly be changed.
Overall the ending ( unless indoc theory is true) is one of the worst i have ever seen in a game. It is not what were promised, it does not make sense, it has a rediculous amount of plot holes. Everything about it is awful besides the nice looks of the cutscenes. Really bioware some of this stuff is obvious, I really hope you fix this ending
Ending: 1/10
Ending with Indoc theory- 9-10/10
Overall the game is one of the best games i have ever played minus the last 15 minutes of the game. This is a must buy for any fan of RPGs as long as you can stand a heartbreak at the end. I will continue to play this game and hold the line unless i get word from bioware that they will not change the ending. Please bioware if you do not change this ending you will loose alot of fans and customers AND IM TELILNG YOU BIOWARE IF YOU MAKE THIS DLC NOT FREE I WILL BE PISSED. You should not charge us for the REAL ending or FIXED ending of the game. I will personally buy it to find out the end of the story but i am telling you bioware you will loose over 70+% of your customers if you make us pay for ending DLC. Making us pay for it will not help you business wise but ruin you for Mass effect 3 and maybe even future games.
Overall Mass Effect 3 rating: 9/10
Now one last thing, this game should be an easy 10/10 no doubt about it and it is without the ending. Instead it went from a no doubt about it 10 to a doubtful 9. Please bioware fix these endings, untill then WE WILL HOLD THE LINE.
One more thing i forgot about the ending. WHY ARE THE MASS RELAYS DESTROYED. This means A) the galaxy is fcked because destruction of mass relay destroys the system.
ok its a different type of explosion so galaxy is fcked because majority of species are stuck on earth which can barely support humans anymore. C) Nearly impossible to make any more mass effect games since they practicy revolve around the mass relays. This is why i believe in the Indoctrination theory, bioware would not do this, they are smarter then this. Lets hope im right,
Story-
The story in this game was amazing, it had some of the most touching and beautiful scenes I have ever witnessed in a game. This is the only game that has made me actually cry. When you were going out in the galaxy you really did feel pressured to get the biggest fleet you can possibly get for the final battle, you really truely did feel like the galaxy was at stake and only you could save it. Almost every mission i played in this game had meaningful story and went above and beyond expectations. However there was one major Black dot on this amazing story, the ending. The ending was one of the worst pieces of writing i have ever scene in any form of entertainment. The amount of plot holes were unbeleviable, however if it was indoctrination it was genius. However that is the only bad part about the story, overall it was one of the best pieces of writing in any form of entertainment to date.
Story: 9/10
Gameplay-
The gameplay in this game was awesome, especially for an RPG. I had so much fun sending my enemies flying with biotics or going in slow motion blasting enemies away. The combat in this game was one of the most fun i have had in a third person shooter. I dont know how you guys managed it but you made the best combat to date in an rpg game. People need to remember RPG does not mean it has to be like wow. I noticed only a bit of lag issues but it was very minor out of the 30+ hour experience. I loved the addition of the heavy mele attacks, i also loved that each class had a unique heavy mele attack so you didnt have one generic attack. Overall the combat in this game was amazing for an RPG, i have had and will continue to have many fun hours with this combat system.
Gameplay : 10/10
Graphics- The graphics in this game are top notch, this has some of the most impressive graphics that i have seen in a video game. I really did feel like i was in a science fiction world with these graphics, sometimes i would be like, wow it looks like it could be real. Now obviously its not the best graphics ever made but its damn fine job, you guys really did a great job with the graphics in this game. I only had a few issues with textures and some other minor issues. Overall the graphics are top notch in this game.
Graphics: 9.5/10
Exploration- Mass Effect has always had an amazing exploration system and continues to. You have a large, large galaxy full of many planets to explore. Each planet has a full description of its past, climate, any species that might live there. It also shows how long it takes to orbit, the population. You can have hours and hours reading planets and exploring the galaxy. Now a great reviewer called Angry joe once asked for space traffic,you guys obviously listened to him by adding in reapers that can attack you if you scan a star system a bit too much. This is a fun system because it really gives you the feeling of you have to get in and out fast. The war assets are an awesome improvement to the game., i spent hours searching for new war assets to help me fight the reapers. Whenever i found a war asset for scanning i would wonder what it was. The exploration system in this game is very top notch and can consume you for hours
Exploration: 10/10
Characters: Every character in the game has a unique personality and many traits, however i missed having a bit 11 or 12 member team. In Mass Effect 3 the core squad members you had in both of the previous games remained and almost all of them as long as they lived at least appeared in the game as cameos. Unfortuanetly there really are not any new characters introduced besides James Vega and Javik the prothean who you had to pay money on if you did not get the collecors edition which i will talk about later. Going down the list of squad members There are 4 maybe 5 that stand out and the rest are good/ok. Honestly i was dissapointed by the lack of new squad members in the game however the excellent personality the returning characters had made up for it. Squad members however are not the only characters in the game, we get to explore commander shepard a bit more in the game and get to feel a bit more connected to him as the main character. Also when i would walk onto the citadel i would hear tons of people talking about things that are occuring in their life, this was awesome because again it made you feel immersed into the universe of Mass Effect and this is the main saving grace for this score.
Characters: 9/10
Day 1 DLC:
This will not affect the score of be given a score however i need to adress this as a consumer and a fan. I bought the collectors addition so this doesnt affect me, however the fact that you needed to pay for a character that was already on the game disc was just insulting and an outrage. You should not have to pay for a character that was already included on the disk, I know EA had their hands all over this but bioware i expected better from you. Hopefully we will never see something like this again from a bioware product.
Ending-
The ending to Mass Effect 3 was one of the most anticipated moments in gaming history, we were going to go make the final assault on the reapers and all of our choices would affect the final outcome. Unfortunately that was not true, we had 6 endings, all of which were different by 1 or 2 percent. We were promised that our choices from both of the games would matter, effect the outcome. However that is not true, the choices you made affect a cutscene of a space battle that lasts for a minute. Yep thats what your 100 hours of Mass effect before that affects, a 1 minute cutscene. Also as if that wasnt enough there were sooo many plot holes, why the hell was joker escaping the sol relay HE WOULD NEVER DO THAT. Shepards team was commited, they would not leave him in the battle. Why cant you tell the god child that you will not listen to him and you will watch what happens as your fleets get destroyed or defeat the reapers. Shepard does not act like himself at all during the ending. There are so many plot holes it is unbeleviable.
How come we could not have an ending where the reapers continued the cycle, or the opposite where everyone lives and the reapers are destroyed. Or even a middle option where there is some damage done. How come characters like grunt or samara couldnt have cutscenes showing their epic final moments, how come you couldnt see the rachni attack the reapers, how come we could not see the krogan army slaming into the reaper forces. This was not the ending we were promised at all, i could not believe my eyes when i finished this game.
The indoctrination theory is a theory i support 100%, if it is true then you did not craft the worst ending in history but one of the best. The indoctrination theory states that everyting after shepard getting hit by harbingers beam was all a hallucination and the reapers were trying to indoctrinate you during it. ( Also why in gods name did harbinger not get a single line of dialogue in the game, unless he will in dlc, but still.) Im not going to go too much into the indoctrination theory however if it is true the score will definetly be changed.
Overall the ending ( unless indoc theory is true) is one of the worst i have ever seen in a game. It is not what were promised, it does not make sense, it has a rediculous amount of plot holes. Everything about it is awful besides the nice looks of the cutscenes. Really bioware some of this stuff is obvious, I really hope you fix this ending
Ending: 1/10
Ending with Indoc theory- 9-10/10
Overall the game is one of the best games i have ever played minus the last 15 minutes of the game. This is a must buy for any fan of RPGs as long as you can stand a heartbreak at the end. I will continue to play this game and hold the line unless i get word from bioware that they will not change the ending. Please bioware if you do not change this ending you will loose alot of fans and customers AND IM TELILNG YOU BIOWARE IF YOU MAKE THIS DLC NOT FREE I WILL BE PISSED. You should not charge us for the REAL ending or FIXED ending of the game. I will personally buy it to find out the end of the story but i am telling you bioware you will loose over 70+% of your customers if you make us pay for ending DLC. Making us pay for it will not help you business wise but ruin you for Mass effect 3 and maybe even future games.
Overall Mass Effect 3 rating: 9/10
Now one last thing, this game should be an easy 10/10 no doubt about it and it is without the ending. Instead it went from a no doubt about it 10 to a doubtful 9. Please bioware fix these endings, untill then WE WILL HOLD THE LINE.
One more thing i forgot about the ending. WHY ARE THE MASS RELAYS DESTROYED. This means A) the galaxy is fcked because destruction of mass relay destroys the system.
ok its a different type of explosion so galaxy is fcked because majority of species are stuck on earth which can barely support humans anymore. C) Nearly impossible to make any more mass effect games since they practicy revolve around the mass relays. This is why i believe in the Indoctrination theory, bioware would not do this, they are smarter then this. Lets hope im right,
Modifié par destroyer 654, 21 mars 2012 - 04:32 .
#1457
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 04:05
wtf calibrations suck
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Just thought that I would throw one more on the pile. I was heartbroken by the ending. I had the utmost faith in Bioware, and my trust has been shattered. I've only been a fan of the series for about a year and a half, but in that time its become a huge part of my life. I preordered the Collector's Edition, something I've never done before, and fully expected the game to blow all my expectations, and it did, until those last 5 or 15 minutes. I'm okay with a bittersweet ending, I expected it (although I would have been ECSTATIC with a completely happy ending). But not this. The ending as it stands is riddled with plot holes, goes completely against previously established themes and character traits, and takes the universe that I've come to adore and treasure and tears it completely to shreds with the inevitable destruction of the Mass Relays and the stranding of all the fleets. Before Mass Effect 3 came out, I was fully planning on buying a shirt or two from the Bioware store, and maybe a few action figures. I'm postponing my plans indefinitely, waiting for word on this fiasco. I certainly will never preorder any game ever again, let alone a Bioware game, considering how much this game has torn me apart. And any DLC that comes out, which I would have gladly thrown all my money at before, will be a hard sell for me.
#1458
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 05:43
Eludicous
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The game seemed a little rushed. Gameplay was great. Multiplayer was just an added bonus in my eyes. Graphics and load times were improved. Some bugs where the camera would pan to no one or they wouldn't show up.
9 out of 10 before the ending.
2 out of 10 after the ending.
Somethings I didn't like was running around after each priority mission looking for side missions to get all my war assets. They did add to story a bit. Like soldier in the hospital.
The ending was not anything I expected. I mean mentioning there is an external driving force for the extermination cycles then surprise the godchild is telling me to wake up. There was massive plot holes then. It was like watching a foriegn film where it loses something in translation. The whole stargazer and child had me going wtf. I won't even comment on the joker on the normandy running away from the mass relay blast that would take out the solar system. I was so disappointed that I haven't touched the sp campaign since. What was the point of having me import my save me1 through me2 to me3 just to find out shep becomes a legend with no real closure?
My only hope to this bs ending was seeing shep wake up afterwards...
Sadly I am going to hold the line on this one.
9 out of 10 before the ending.
2 out of 10 after the ending.
Somethings I didn't like was running around after each priority mission looking for side missions to get all my war assets. They did add to story a bit. Like soldier in the hospital.
The ending was not anything I expected. I mean mentioning there is an external driving force for the extermination cycles then surprise the godchild is telling me to wake up. There was massive plot holes then. It was like watching a foriegn film where it loses something in translation. The whole stargazer and child had me going wtf. I won't even comment on the joker on the normandy running away from the mass relay blast that would take out the solar system. I was so disappointed that I haven't touched the sp campaign since. What was the point of having me import my save me1 through me2 to me3 just to find out shep becomes a legend with no real closure?
My only hope to this bs ending was seeing shep wake up afterwards...
Sadly I am going to hold the line on this one.
#1459
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 07:02
Christopher89918
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I would rate ME3 70/100. It was an amazing game but the ending took alot out of it.
The Good
1. One of the things I loved most was what ended up with alot of the characters from previous Mass Effects. That was a job in its own. I damn near cried during Thanes death scene... it didnt help to hear that the prayer was for me *tear*. Naturally Miranda would be busy keeping tabs on her sister. Jack's was another great one turning a psycopath into a great person that just needed something to care for. Everyone had a great backstory to what they have been up to and everyone for the most part had a great end. I only have a problem with 3 of the characters and I'll throw that in the bad section later.
2. The OVERALL story left me needing more everyday. I played 3 days straight doing nothing else. It was much shorter than the other two but I do understand its all out war, you dont really have time to go hang out at space hubs for hours on end.
3. The new combat including melee. Much more gamer friendly, seemed a bit too much like GoW but thats probably because they figured out the perfect type. From here on out every new game like GoW is a copy cat... and theres nothing anyone can do about it. Its just a good combat control period. So nice
4. The variety of faces on some of the species, like asari and salarian. I will elaborate on other species in Bad.
5. The Citadel. One of the only things I disliked about ME2 was the Citadel feeling like a 3 story apartment store. However 3 went back to the older style Citadel with multiple areas that feel connected.
6. BLACK WIDOW... Im a sniper and the alliance has done me proud with that weapon.
7. Getting rid of the time consuming mining. I wish mining wasnt taken out of the game intirely, probably could have had EDI do a planet wide scan and adjust what minerals you want to look for and after that Normandy just blasts however many probes will do the trick... I like that idea better than no mining at all
8. Multiplayer. Its a great addon to give replay value, mostly because of the random packs. I would have rather been able to earn credits and spend it on what I please but I see the reason for the randomness.
The Bad
1. Vega... period I hated him. It felt like you tried to take a character out of fast and the furious or jersey shore and throw him on the Normandy, and that hurts. He is my least favorite character in all of Mass Effect, and that includes D-Bag doctor from Overlord. I get we needed a tank and I will be getting to that Now.
2. After you do Grunts mission with the Rachni Queen, his entire team is dead. Why does he go start a new team, that doesnt make sense. What would have made sense is he joins your team because of the insane battles you go into, a pure breads dream. I thought it against Grunts personality. I even thought thats what was going to happen when I saw him covered in blood (that entire scene where hes kicking ass but sacrificing himself also made me tear up, but that quickly left when I could find him no where on my ship). Honestly, where is my Krogan
3. Writing Legion off to sacrifice him. I loved Legions story, even as it is. It was another teary part. However I dont understand the need to kill him. Could have easily been written differently to become a squadmate.
4. The squadmates period. I get yall wanted to keep the squad light. However EDI becoming a squadmate didnt make sense. Every interaction I had with her could have easily been done as an NPC. Even in the Illusive Man's hold up it could have been easily rewritten for maybe Legion to be able to do it Lickedy split. And Vega sucks... did I say that yet. So thats two open spots to fill with Legion and Grunt (Do I hear an anniversary addition like this PLEASE)
5. The textures seemed reused alot, kind of lazy
6. Same thing with the Turian Faces. I Noticed alot of them had the same kind of head. I noticed 5 different ones different ones. 2 Being general NPC's while the other 3 where important NPCs. I was adjutated that no one had a head like Saren except the Marauders. If you want that look to be only an indoctrinated thing fine, but his brother looks like that, and if he actually changed when indoctrinated, the council in ME1 would have mentioned something to him about the radical change. He probably would have been put in the med bay for an extended period of time.
7. What yall did to try to show us tali's face was clever, but lazy. The stock image hurts. The BAD photoshop HURTS. Why did you make her eyes look so sickly, its like she had some sort of child birth problems and its weird and disgusting. I cant believe yall took something so significant to so many and brushed it off on a crap job of photoshoping stock images. The after credit stock image just hurts the blow a little more. Why?!?! why... *dispair*
8. The dream sequences where too long, quick 10 second video would have been way way way way better. Each dream sequence was a waste of my time and I dreaded seeing it. I even had the subtitles on and felt this way.
9. Only one extra dialog option for alot of the dialog. Not only that but no dialog wheel in dialog, instead just clicking them over and over. That was dumb and hurts
10. No end game boss besides Marauder Shields, and I have come to know him as a friend protecting me from...
11. THE ENDING. After the ending I felt betrayel and sadness. After the second ending I felt more. After I did the last ending in the green I just had a big WTF moment. Actually Im gunna give this its own section.
The Ending
What I liked about it
- I liked what yall tried to do, honestly with the reapers being all the people from the cycles before. I like it.
- I loved the ships fighting reapers. for the most part
What I hated about it
- The plotholes... every one has pointed them out. I dont think I have to point them out they are obvious by now I hope.
- I never got to see Rachni F**K S***T up and I've been waiting for that moment the day I let her go... it hurts
- Basically there should have been more video of assets fighting. Each asset getting their own time in maybe 2 or 3 seconds, putting together the ones that you have to be dumb not to get. But I should have seen Drell, Batarian, Hanar, Rachni, Jack and her squad, Grunt and his squad, Wrex, assume youre looking at a player who gets 100% war assets everytime. I want to see that have reward.
- No questions... so you meet ghost kid and he tells you whats happening. You get one chance to hear everything he says and thats it, now go make the biggest decision of the universe. REALLY???
- The lack of Shepherd being Shepherd. None of those decisions fits into what Shepherd would have believed in. He would have just said Fk it and said crucible is a no go give um hell.
- 'Final Moments' opened my eyes and I got to see just how yall came up with the ending.
- The endings were thought up by a guy who said on his twitter last year how much he loves Deus Ex, and then the endings were just like them. Unbelievable and sad... just sad.
- Making Buzz Aldrin say my sweet... I hope he didnt ask to say that, that was just one more nail in the coffin. Its creepy, and weird.
All in all it was a great game, the Ending was terrible. It has some replay value because of the multiplayer however the main story wont be completed again by me unless some dlc is released that fixes the end.
The Good
1. One of the things I loved most was what ended up with alot of the characters from previous Mass Effects. That was a job in its own. I damn near cried during Thanes death scene... it didnt help to hear that the prayer was for me *tear*. Naturally Miranda would be busy keeping tabs on her sister. Jack's was another great one turning a psycopath into a great person that just needed something to care for. Everyone had a great backstory to what they have been up to and everyone for the most part had a great end. I only have a problem with 3 of the characters and I'll throw that in the bad section later.
2. The OVERALL story left me needing more everyday. I played 3 days straight doing nothing else. It was much shorter than the other two but I do understand its all out war, you dont really have time to go hang out at space hubs for hours on end.
3. The new combat including melee. Much more gamer friendly, seemed a bit too much like GoW but thats probably because they figured out the perfect type. From here on out every new game like GoW is a copy cat... and theres nothing anyone can do about it. Its just a good combat control period. So nice
4. The variety of faces on some of the species, like asari and salarian. I will elaborate on other species in Bad.
5. The Citadel. One of the only things I disliked about ME2 was the Citadel feeling like a 3 story apartment store. However 3 went back to the older style Citadel with multiple areas that feel connected.
6. BLACK WIDOW... Im a sniper and the alliance has done me proud with that weapon.
7. Getting rid of the time consuming mining. I wish mining wasnt taken out of the game intirely, probably could have had EDI do a planet wide scan and adjust what minerals you want to look for and after that Normandy just blasts however many probes will do the trick... I like that idea better than no mining at all
8. Multiplayer. Its a great addon to give replay value, mostly because of the random packs. I would have rather been able to earn credits and spend it on what I please but I see the reason for the randomness.
The Bad
1. Vega... period I hated him. It felt like you tried to take a character out of fast and the furious or jersey shore and throw him on the Normandy, and that hurts. He is my least favorite character in all of Mass Effect, and that includes D-Bag doctor from Overlord. I get we needed a tank and I will be getting to that Now.
2. After you do Grunts mission with the Rachni Queen, his entire team is dead. Why does he go start a new team, that doesnt make sense. What would have made sense is he joins your team because of the insane battles you go into, a pure breads dream. I thought it against Grunts personality. I even thought thats what was going to happen when I saw him covered in blood (that entire scene where hes kicking ass but sacrificing himself also made me tear up, but that quickly left when I could find him no where on my ship). Honestly, where is my Krogan
3. Writing Legion off to sacrifice him. I loved Legions story, even as it is. It was another teary part. However I dont understand the need to kill him. Could have easily been written differently to become a squadmate.
4. The squadmates period. I get yall wanted to keep the squad light. However EDI becoming a squadmate didnt make sense. Every interaction I had with her could have easily been done as an NPC. Even in the Illusive Man's hold up it could have been easily rewritten for maybe Legion to be able to do it Lickedy split. And Vega sucks... did I say that yet. So thats two open spots to fill with Legion and Grunt (Do I hear an anniversary addition like this PLEASE)
5. The textures seemed reused alot, kind of lazy
6. Same thing with the Turian Faces. I Noticed alot of them had the same kind of head. I noticed 5 different ones different ones. 2 Being general NPC's while the other 3 where important NPCs. I was adjutated that no one had a head like Saren except the Marauders. If you want that look to be only an indoctrinated thing fine, but his brother looks like that, and if he actually changed when indoctrinated, the council in ME1 would have mentioned something to him about the radical change. He probably would have been put in the med bay for an extended period of time.
7. What yall did to try to show us tali's face was clever, but lazy. The stock image hurts. The BAD photoshop HURTS. Why did you make her eyes look so sickly, its like she had some sort of child birth problems and its weird and disgusting. I cant believe yall took something so significant to so many and brushed it off on a crap job of photoshoping stock images. The after credit stock image just hurts the blow a little more. Why?!?! why... *dispair*
8. The dream sequences where too long, quick 10 second video would have been way way way way better. Each dream sequence was a waste of my time and I dreaded seeing it. I even had the subtitles on and felt this way.
9. Only one extra dialog option for alot of the dialog. Not only that but no dialog wheel in dialog, instead just clicking them over and over. That was dumb and hurts
10. No end game boss besides Marauder Shields, and I have come to know him as a friend protecting me from...
11. THE ENDING. After the ending I felt betrayel and sadness. After the second ending I felt more. After I did the last ending in the green I just had a big WTF moment. Actually Im gunna give this its own section.
The Ending
What I liked about it
- I liked what yall tried to do, honestly with the reapers being all the people from the cycles before. I like it.
- I loved the ships fighting reapers. for the most part
What I hated about it
- The plotholes... every one has pointed them out. I dont think I have to point them out they are obvious by now I hope.
- I never got to see Rachni F**K S***T up and I've been waiting for that moment the day I let her go... it hurts
- Basically there should have been more video of assets fighting. Each asset getting their own time in maybe 2 or 3 seconds, putting together the ones that you have to be dumb not to get. But I should have seen Drell, Batarian, Hanar, Rachni, Jack and her squad, Grunt and his squad, Wrex, assume youre looking at a player who gets 100% war assets everytime. I want to see that have reward.
- No questions... so you meet ghost kid and he tells you whats happening. You get one chance to hear everything he says and thats it, now go make the biggest decision of the universe. REALLY???
- The lack of Shepherd being Shepherd. None of those decisions fits into what Shepherd would have believed in. He would have just said Fk it and said crucible is a no go give um hell.
- 'Final Moments' opened my eyes and I got to see just how yall came up with the ending.
- The endings were thought up by a guy who said on his twitter last year how much he loves Deus Ex, and then the endings were just like them. Unbelievable and sad... just sad.
- Making Buzz Aldrin say my sweet... I hope he didnt ask to say that, that was just one more nail in the coffin. Its creepy, and weird.
All in all it was a great game, the Ending was terrible. It has some replay value because of the multiplayer however the main story wont be completed again by me unless some dlc is released that fixes the end.
#1460
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 07:06
DarkCloudd
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I don't normally write reveiws to games but since I was disappointed with the ending of ME3 and they are asking for feedback here goes. I know most of what I'm going to say has been said before so I'll try to keep it short.
Overall the game is a wonderfully crafted story that has managed to keep me occupied for quite some time. There are some bugs that I have noticed but nothing too game breaking. I will try to break this down into sections so its not a holy wall of text.
Combat: It was an improvement over ME2 mainly because of the improved cover system. I absolutely loved the way it was alot more fluid and made it easier to get around the battlefield and open up different angles of attack. My only complaint about it was the fact that the Use/Cover/almost everything command was the same button. It does cause you to take cover when you are actually trying to use whatever item you are looking at. Its not game breaking or anything but just one of those little goofy things that crop up sometimes. 9/10
Story: Ending aside (which I will cover at the end and in the other thread), the story was some of the most moving that I have every played. The dialog between characters at times was so wonderfully written and the VO actors did such a wonderful job with it that it had me in tears on several occasions. It was definately wonderful to see that all of the little decisions that I had made over the course of the game be brought back up and addressed, everything from the Genophage and the Geth/Quarian War, the the couple that was arguing on the citadel about the yet to be born child from the first game. 10/10
Questing: Wasn't too terrible. My biggest complaint is that fact that the quest journal wasnt really all that helpful, either in tracking what had been done or giving more information to you about where to find certain items. Some of the N7 missions could have had the special data that you were looking for in a better locaion or could have been more obvious that it was there but thats just me sometimes I miss things. 7/10
Exploration: Most of the exploration was nice. The new locations on the Citadel and the actual planets were very well done. Everything looked beautiful while other locations definately fit the mood of the mission. I'm looking at you Rachni planet mission.
My biggest complaint about the exploration has to do with the system scanning and the Reaper Awareness. Overall it was a nice change from the standard planet scanning for minerals in ME2 but there were some systems that you would only get 1 scan before the awareness bar would fill up to 95% of the way full. Which is very annoying if its a large system and the planets are spaced way too far apart for the in system scan to get more that 2 at a time. Makes it really difficult to locate assets without visiting systems several times just to find 1 thing and then you have to leave since you dont get another scan. 8/10
Ending: I figured that the ending should get its own section since this is what makes the story difficult for me to give the game a perfect score. Everything up to the run down to the beam was just as good as the rest of the game. The look of destroyed london and the Reaper foot soldiers everywhere seemed very fitting. After the run everything starts to get a little iffy. I can handle most of it up the the Elevator to Heaven but after talking with the(I dont know what to call him) child, everything just seems so out of place and not with the way the ME universe was set up. I'm not going to go into specifics since the horse has been beaten to a bloody pulp but suffice to say I happen to agree with pretty much everything Gamefront, Jeremy Jahns and Angry Joe have said about it. Its just too much suspentions of disbelief for me to handle. I don't know if it was just lazy writing on the part of Bioware or something else but its just wrong to put it plainly. 4/10
Overall the game was wonderful up to the last bit and I will most likely play it again just to enjoy the story. To me, if Bioware doesn't fix anything, the game will end at the FOP in London and I will just headcannon the rest. Overall score 8/10
That being said if this and the way DA2 is being handled this very well might be the last time I buy a Bioware game. I respect the complany greatly but I can't in good conscience buy any other games from them if they do not adress the fan issues with the game.
Overall the game is a wonderfully crafted story that has managed to keep me occupied for quite some time. There are some bugs that I have noticed but nothing too game breaking. I will try to break this down into sections so its not a holy wall of text.
Combat: It was an improvement over ME2 mainly because of the improved cover system. I absolutely loved the way it was alot more fluid and made it easier to get around the battlefield and open up different angles of attack. My only complaint about it was the fact that the Use/Cover/almost everything command was the same button. It does cause you to take cover when you are actually trying to use whatever item you are looking at. Its not game breaking or anything but just one of those little goofy things that crop up sometimes. 9/10
Story: Ending aside (which I will cover at the end and in the other thread), the story was some of the most moving that I have every played. The dialog between characters at times was so wonderfully written and the VO actors did such a wonderful job with it that it had me in tears on several occasions. It was definately wonderful to see that all of the little decisions that I had made over the course of the game be brought back up and addressed, everything from the Genophage and the Geth/Quarian War, the the couple that was arguing on the citadel about the yet to be born child from the first game. 10/10
Questing: Wasn't too terrible. My biggest complaint is that fact that the quest journal wasnt really all that helpful, either in tracking what had been done or giving more information to you about where to find certain items. Some of the N7 missions could have had the special data that you were looking for in a better locaion or could have been more obvious that it was there but thats just me sometimes I miss things. 7/10
Exploration: Most of the exploration was nice. The new locations on the Citadel and the actual planets were very well done. Everything looked beautiful while other locations definately fit the mood of the mission. I'm looking at you Rachni planet mission.
My biggest complaint about the exploration has to do with the system scanning and the Reaper Awareness. Overall it was a nice change from the standard planet scanning for minerals in ME2 but there were some systems that you would only get 1 scan before the awareness bar would fill up to 95% of the way full. Which is very annoying if its a large system and the planets are spaced way too far apart for the in system scan to get more that 2 at a time. Makes it really difficult to locate assets without visiting systems several times just to find 1 thing and then you have to leave since you dont get another scan. 8/10Ending: I figured that the ending should get its own section since this is what makes the story difficult for me to give the game a perfect score. Everything up to the run down to the beam was just as good as the rest of the game. The look of destroyed london and the Reaper foot soldiers everywhere seemed very fitting. After the run everything starts to get a little iffy. I can handle most of it up the the Elevator to Heaven but after talking with the(I dont know what to call him) child, everything just seems so out of place and not with the way the ME universe was set up. I'm not going to go into specifics since the horse has been beaten to a bloody pulp but suffice to say I happen to agree with pretty much everything Gamefront, Jeremy Jahns and Angry Joe have said about it. Its just too much suspentions of disbelief for me to handle. I don't know if it was just lazy writing on the part of Bioware or something else but its just wrong to put it plainly. 4/10
Overall the game was wonderful up to the last bit and I will most likely play it again just to enjoy the story. To me, if Bioware doesn't fix anything, the game will end at the FOP in London and I will just headcannon the rest. Overall score 8/10
That being said if this and the way DA2 is being handled this very well might be the last time I buy a Bioware game. I respect the complany greatly but I can't in good conscience buy any other games from them if they do not adress the fan issues with the game.
#1461
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 07:23
Arad-Tzui
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I only just realized I'd forgotten to critique the multiplayer properly, so here goes:
Multiplayer Review
What I envisioned:
Need I even say this? The first press releases told me I could finally play Mass Effect with friends, so I figured I'd get to play *MASS EFFECT*, not some Horde Mode. I wanted real missions, with real objectives, which I could complete with 1-3 friends, and the difficulty would scale accordingly.
Having said that, I could also envision a horde mode where 32+ people with autorespawn have to seige a reaper or a stronghold of some sort. This would have been a cool thing to help make the scope of the battle for the universe real. People dying left and right, the sheer numbness of the experience, and then have it culminate in a cutscene. Have a timer, allow the thing to fail, punish failure, reward achievement. Make it count.
There's a lot that could have been done with a ME multiplayer, but instead the bare minimum was done.
What we got:
Horde mode. With unlockable items. And grinding. Are you excited yet? Yeah, not that easy to get all pumped up about this.
What was good about it:
The gameplay of multiplayer is actually pretty fun, you get to fool around with other classes, other races, and it can be a decent experience with friends. If it hadn't been for the potential squandered, it wouldn't have been so bad.
What was bad about it:
If we disregard the complaint that it's blatantly the least possible effort and has no real significance in any way, there are still actual issues about the implementation. I've yet to figure out if there's any kind of scaling, due to levels or such.
When people drop out, the number of enemies doesn't decrease, instead the rest are punished because some random decided to quit mid game. Granted, I think friends have the ability to blindly connect into your game in progress, but in practice this doesn't happen. And speaking of friends, I may spot a friend playing the multiplayer, and want to join. But in order to get in there, he has to finish his game, which may take 20-30min, and then we need to recreate the whole party. And kicking people out of your party is a pain, it's hard to ever get it done when randoming.
Turians not having a way to sidestep is quite...confusing. It doens't make sense, and it's just damn annoying in practice. The melee combat is very haphazard and clunky. I suppose it's always been, but when it becomes such an integral part of the Krogan playing style, things start to break down. And really, there's not much reason to ever carry any other gun than a high level assault rifle on most classes.There's a pretty big imbalance in terms of the guns generally.
The gameplay quickly gets rather monotonous and grindy. The entirely random nature of the upgrades you get means it's a pain in the ass to actually get a weapon you want, and to level it up. I've played a lot of multiplayer (since I'm bored, and I can't get past 5 minutes of a re-play of the single player campaign before I have to quit in disgust over what it now represents to me), and I'm still missing a number of race/class combinations entirely. Combinations I'd actually like to play.
Conclusion:
It's not all bad, but the fact of what it is is clearly overshadowed by the potential of what it could have been. Even so, there's a lot of polish needed, and it will drop off over time, meaning latecomers to the series will have a really hard time actually finding anyone to play multiplayer with in order to max out their war assets. Which would be a bad thing, if war assets did anything. At least for this part of the game, BioWare has no excuse of "artistic vision" standing in the way of fixing this part of the game, so by the time some of my friends who were busy with real life engagements at the time of launch get around to playing this, there might actually be some content worth it for me to joing them and help them get their war assets. That is, if there is any reason for them to get any war assets.
Multiplayer rating: 5/10
Multiplayer Review
What I envisioned:
Need I even say this? The first press releases told me I could finally play Mass Effect with friends, so I figured I'd get to play *MASS EFFECT*, not some Horde Mode. I wanted real missions, with real objectives, which I could complete with 1-3 friends, and the difficulty would scale accordingly.
Having said that, I could also envision a horde mode where 32+ people with autorespawn have to seige a reaper or a stronghold of some sort. This would have been a cool thing to help make the scope of the battle for the universe real. People dying left and right, the sheer numbness of the experience, and then have it culminate in a cutscene. Have a timer, allow the thing to fail, punish failure, reward achievement. Make it count.
There's a lot that could have been done with a ME multiplayer, but instead the bare minimum was done.
What we got:
Horde mode. With unlockable items. And grinding. Are you excited yet? Yeah, not that easy to get all pumped up about this.
What was good about it:
The gameplay of multiplayer is actually pretty fun, you get to fool around with other classes, other races, and it can be a decent experience with friends. If it hadn't been for the potential squandered, it wouldn't have been so bad.
What was bad about it:
If we disregard the complaint that it's blatantly the least possible effort and has no real significance in any way, there are still actual issues about the implementation. I've yet to figure out if there's any kind of scaling, due to levels or such.
When people drop out, the number of enemies doesn't decrease, instead the rest are punished because some random decided to quit mid game. Granted, I think friends have the ability to blindly connect into your game in progress, but in practice this doesn't happen. And speaking of friends, I may spot a friend playing the multiplayer, and want to join. But in order to get in there, he has to finish his game, which may take 20-30min, and then we need to recreate the whole party. And kicking people out of your party is a pain, it's hard to ever get it done when randoming.
Turians not having a way to sidestep is quite...confusing. It doens't make sense, and it's just damn annoying in practice. The melee combat is very haphazard and clunky. I suppose it's always been, but when it becomes such an integral part of the Krogan playing style, things start to break down. And really, there's not much reason to ever carry any other gun than a high level assault rifle on most classes.There's a pretty big imbalance in terms of the guns generally.
The gameplay quickly gets rather monotonous and grindy. The entirely random nature of the upgrades you get means it's a pain in the ass to actually get a weapon you want, and to level it up. I've played a lot of multiplayer (since I'm bored, and I can't get past 5 minutes of a re-play of the single player campaign before I have to quit in disgust over what it now represents to me), and I'm still missing a number of race/class combinations entirely. Combinations I'd actually like to play.
Conclusion:
It's not all bad, but the fact of what it is is clearly overshadowed by the potential of what it could have been. Even so, there's a lot of polish needed, and it will drop off over time, meaning latecomers to the series will have a really hard time actually finding anyone to play multiplayer with in order to max out their war assets. Which would be a bad thing, if war assets did anything. At least for this part of the game, BioWare has no excuse of "artistic vision" standing in the way of fixing this part of the game, so by the time some of my friends who were busy with real life engagements at the time of launch get around to playing this, there might actually be some content worth it for me to joing them and help them get their war assets. That is, if there is any reason for them to get any war assets.
Multiplayer rating: 5/10
#1462
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 07:53
Geneaux486
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- Members
- 2 248 messages
Took me two solid days of mulling the endings over in my head before I knew just exactly what the hell to think about them, but now I have some idea. I liked them. Now I'll try to explain why, or rather, why the things that bothered the majority of dissapointed fans didn't bother me, in some cases why they shouldn't bother anyone.
A lot of people seem to feel the game lacked closure. Shepard is separated from his friends and comrades, and though we see the effects of his final choice on a galactic scale, we only see the survival of a select few characters and no one else. But when you think about it, aside from choosing the destruction option when your military strength is low, which kills everyone, you know everyone who you last saw alive on Earth and everywhere else lived, and you already know what's next for each of them. You basically get to adress each member of the cast one last time before making that final push to the Citadel beam, and most of them talk about their plans should they survive, and to me at least, it felt like Shepard was saying goodbye, so I guess I already went into it assuming he wouldn't be coming back.
We also already know what's next for each race of the galaxy. We know whether or not you actually cured the genophage, and whether or not the Krogan will have a leader who will uphold ideals of peace. We know that between the Geth and Quarians, one claims Rannoch and one is extinct, or they are living together in peace. We know that the turians, asari, and Batarians have to rebuild after losing as much, or possibly more than humans have lost, and we know whether or not they have the resolve to do so in each of our playthroughs.
We know that the galactic races have a tough road ahead without the Mass Relays and the Citadel, but we also know that the ones who showed up to help take back Earth are more unified now than ever, and most know how to acheive faster than light travel, and that Protheans knew how to build Mass Relays. They could have done an epilogue to remind us of all of that, but it would have been redundant.
Even the best ending is still bittersweet, and most of the galaxy still gets messed up, but honestly, how else could an all out war with the Reapers have ended? A race of unfathomable techno-organic monsters that have harvested entire advanced civilizations hundreds of billions of times over without missing a beat, who the races of this cycle waited until the last minute to prepare for, obviously survival would require tremendous sacrifices on a personal level and galactic scale. A happy ending would have made no sense with this in mind.
As for the whole "killed by synthetics to not be killed by synthetics" thing, even that makes sense to me now to. It's a story as old as science fantasy itself, man gets too technologically advanced and in his own hubris destroys himself with it. The Reapers are a sort of organized chaos in that sense. Organic life inevitably tries to go beyond its own limits and creates something it can't control. The Reapers theoretically remove and preserve these civilizations before they can obliterate themselves and other organics completely. They believe this is the only way to ensure the continued existence of organic life in the galaxy.
Shepard, coming face to face with the Catalyst, represented a stage of evolution on a galactic scale that had been trillions of years in the making: a galaxy strong enough to resist the Reapers. Not only that, but a synthetic race among them that empathized with and respected the right of all living things to exist. The Catalyst's solution would no longer work, and was no longer necesarry, hence why it left Shepard to decide how to procceed.
Basically I think this game is as good as it can be, with an ending that respects the intelligence and maturity of the gamer.
10/10
I hope the ending remains unchanged.
A lot of people seem to feel the game lacked closure. Shepard is separated from his friends and comrades, and though we see the effects of his final choice on a galactic scale, we only see the survival of a select few characters and no one else. But when you think about it, aside from choosing the destruction option when your military strength is low, which kills everyone, you know everyone who you last saw alive on Earth and everywhere else lived, and you already know what's next for each of them. You basically get to adress each member of the cast one last time before making that final push to the Citadel beam, and most of them talk about their plans should they survive, and to me at least, it felt like Shepard was saying goodbye, so I guess I already went into it assuming he wouldn't be coming back.
We also already know what's next for each race of the galaxy. We know whether or not you actually cured the genophage, and whether or not the Krogan will have a leader who will uphold ideals of peace. We know that between the Geth and Quarians, one claims Rannoch and one is extinct, or they are living together in peace. We know that the turians, asari, and Batarians have to rebuild after losing as much, or possibly more than humans have lost, and we know whether or not they have the resolve to do so in each of our playthroughs.
We know that the galactic races have a tough road ahead without the Mass Relays and the Citadel, but we also know that the ones who showed up to help take back Earth are more unified now than ever, and most know how to acheive faster than light travel, and that Protheans knew how to build Mass Relays. They could have done an epilogue to remind us of all of that, but it would have been redundant.
Even the best ending is still bittersweet, and most of the galaxy still gets messed up, but honestly, how else could an all out war with the Reapers have ended? A race of unfathomable techno-organic monsters that have harvested entire advanced civilizations hundreds of billions of times over without missing a beat, who the races of this cycle waited until the last minute to prepare for, obviously survival would require tremendous sacrifices on a personal level and galactic scale. A happy ending would have made no sense with this in mind.
As for the whole "killed by synthetics to not be killed by synthetics" thing, even that makes sense to me now to. It's a story as old as science fantasy itself, man gets too technologically advanced and in his own hubris destroys himself with it. The Reapers are a sort of organized chaos in that sense. Organic life inevitably tries to go beyond its own limits and creates something it can't control. The Reapers theoretically remove and preserve these civilizations before they can obliterate themselves and other organics completely. They believe this is the only way to ensure the continued existence of organic life in the galaxy.
Shepard, coming face to face with the Catalyst, represented a stage of evolution on a galactic scale that had been trillions of years in the making: a galaxy strong enough to resist the Reapers. Not only that, but a synthetic race among them that empathized with and respected the right of all living things to exist. The Catalyst's solution would no longer work, and was no longer necesarry, hence why it left Shepard to decide how to procceed.
Basically I think this game is as good as it can be, with an ending that respects the intelligence and maturity of the gamer.
10/10
I hope the ending remains unchanged.
Modifié par Geneaux486, 21 mars 2012 - 07:56 .
#1463
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 08:10
JexyG
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- Members
- 71 messages
Hard to say on a review as all DLC is not out and I hope there will be major DLC that offer changes in more than just the ending. I love the game, but I am very disappointed by it at the same time if that makes any sense. Let's go with an 80/100 for now. That being said, I'd give both ME1 and 2 a 100/100.
First off, I'd like to say that Mass Effect 3 is a very good game. It's
clearly more polished than the previous games as far as combat goes,
and it's full of interesting missions. Let it also be known that I
pre-ordered the Collectors Edition so I didn't feel forced to purchace a
main part of the story that should have either come with the game, or
been a free day of release download. But to me, the Mass Effect series
isn't just good, or even great... it's phenomenal. My two favorite
games ever are Mass Effect 1 & 2, and I still can't decide which I
like more. Let me also say that I've played 1 and 2 about 7 times
each. Got all the DLC, all the achievements. I play on hardcore just
for fun, that's just how I like it.
Second, the multiplayer is
great. It's tons of fun. I always wondered what multiplayer would be
like with all the different species, abilities and weapons. You can
tell they put a lot of work into it. The graphics overall are awesome,
just as expected. I'm happy my Shepard doesn't have two grayish black
front teeth like he seemed to have in half of the up close scenes in
ME2.
But wait... Mass Effect is an RPG. It says that on
websites under classification. But is it? Combining single player and
it's multiplayer aspect, I feel as though I'm playing a shooter with
SOME RPG elements. If I wanted just a shooter, I have Gears of War,
Halo, CoD etc... but when I want to relax and explore, I pick up Mass
Effect... well, I guess until now. I don't know if the idea was to sell
more because CoD and Battlefield and all the other big games out there
are shooters, or what. What I do know is that clicking the A button to
upgrade a weapon is not the same as in ME1 where I had to look in every
nook and cranny to pick up an upgrade during a mission. I want to buy
and sell things. You do that in an RPG from what I'm told... although
DA2 forgot that, but it's sales and reviews reflect all of it's
downsides.
What makes Bioware and Mass Effect in particular stand
out for me though, is that your choices had some sort of impact on what
went on in that game, the next, and the ending. I save the council in
ME1, aliens love me, but the Alliance is shorthanded. If I let them
die, aliens hate me and humans, but the Alliance and humans are strong.
I save the Rachni queen, she says whats up in ME2 as she rebuilds, and I
get her again in ME3 and what do I get out of it? My military bar goes
up a couple hundred. No cutscene of them killing Reaper troops or even
of them building the damn Crucible. At least give me a cutscene of
them knocking at the door and freaking everyone out... not just Liara's
letter saying thats what happened. Of course, its all moot, since
Rachni or not, it doesn't change anything. That decision didn't
matter. I'll get to that later though.
In ME2, things I did or
didn't do mattered in the ending. Did you collect all of the ship
upgrades? If you're an RPG fan, you did, but either way, it affects who
can die. First time thru, I sent Thane in the ducts and he died. I
also waited too long to go and some of my crew died. I didn't send
Mordin back with the rest of them, brought him along and he died. It
was intense. I didn't expect it. Garrus led my second team both times,
and when he took that bullet at the end, I was like noooo. But he
lived. Suspense. Intense. If you listened to Miranda about the
bubble, she dies. Lots of options, lots of endings with tangible
results you could see. Not to mention saving the Collector base, or
destroying it. It was satisfying once I did everything right. I felt
like a boss at the end of ME1 seeing myself standing all awesome like. I
felt unstoppable after destroying the Collector base and leaping to my
ship with Joker tearing it up without breaking anything.
Here's
how I felt at the end of ME3 after choosing to kill the Reapers and non
organics: Why did Joker just crash land into a tree and what does that
have to do with all of my choices? The answer: I don't know, and
nothing.
I know many are complaining about how the side
characters were basically left for dead in ME3. What happened with
Gianna Parasini? She was always kind of saucy, I get a kiss from her in
ME2, after helping her in ME1 and then... really? There couldn't have
been something that involved her in ME3? Emily Wong was my buddy in
ME1, since I was too busy punching all other reporters. I was sad to
see her not in ME2, but at least she said, hey, you're punching
reporters when we could be having normal interviews? And in ME3...
zip? Nada? Nothing? What do I care about Diana Allers? Put Emily
Wong on the Normandy. Jeez. I have no problem with Steve Cortez or
Samantha Traynor, but we already had a reporter that could have been.
So
Aria is back. Awesome. Always liked her badassness. The mission is
to help her take back Omega from Cerberus while getting all those merc
groups I spent so much time fighting previous to fight with me. Cool.
Ermm.. wait... does she get back Omega? I know I never help her take
it back. Did she finally leave the Citadel and go there? What
happened? I couldn't have helped kill Cerberus guys? And why were they
there to begin with? I shouldn't have investigated that? I saw that
early scripts actually had this as part of the game. Was it cut?
There's no reason why it should have been. Can't go wrong with another
mission to kill some Cerberus jerkfaces and help a baddass ally in
Aria. Plus, that could have unlocked at least ONE other place to
purchace weapons, armor, etc other than JUST the citadel, mainly, the
presidium. In ME1, the citadel felt huge, and you went all over the
place. Presidium, wards, C-sec, different clubs with different
missions, etc etc. In ME2, the Citadel was obviously a disappointment
in regards to moving around, but we got Omega to make up for it. Now
granted, the Citadel is better than it was in ME2... but compared to
everything in 1 and 2... it's the worst. It looks great, and lots of
conversations going on... but nothing face to face, just clicking the A
button, and no Omega. Will it be a DLC? Maybe. It should be. But why
not with the release? No clue.
Not sure how many people Bioware
employs, or if it's EA's bad influence that they seem to have on
everything now, but they seem to be spread too thin. I mean, you take
away a great writer of the Mass Effect books, which are awesome, put him
to work on SWTOR which I and everyone else I know who bought the game
stopped playing... then the guy to replace him (not his fault) messes up
and the book needs to go back for a rewrite because timelines and tech
didn't line up with the Mass Effect universe... and meanwhile, the end
of ME3 just seems like a rush job. I don't mind the way some of the
endings were... but there was little explanation or reason. It
unfortunately seemed very lazy. I can see some of those endings, or
choices at least, being viable if I say, forgot to do certain missions,
or made some bad decisions. But they aren't all that different from
eachother. And the things we CARE about, are left unknown and
unresolved.
No explanations, no closure regarding anything
really. I've only done the Jack romanceso far, but my previous Ashley
romance did not interfere whatsoever, and all I got was a Shepard
shuffle with Jack? Why does Joker speed away? Was he not on Earth
fighting like in the cinematic trailer? Am I to assume the Mass Effect
relays destroyed everything? Or were they blown up differently than in
ME2 with the asteroid? Do I get a scene of the Rachni doing something
cool in the final battle? No. So why did I save them in ME1 and talk
about it with an Asari in ME2? Do I see Krogan fighting along side
Turrians on Palaven? Nope. What happened to them? I dunno. Do I see
the geth do anything? Do I see the Quarians do anything? What about
the Asari or salarians? I saved Major K in ME1, so he supports me in
ME3, and I get... nothing? Nothing of the STG squad doing anything
worth while?
Onto the romances... Like I said, I only have done
the Jack romance so far, but she is the badass of all sexy badasses in
games, and I do a Shepard shuffle with her?! THAT is the big love
scene?!?! And why can't she be a squadmate? She's too busy having
shore leave and writing notes about her students? Really? Jack?
Please. I love the tie in of her with the other biotics at the academy
with the Overlord tie in (at least that DLC tie in was done right), and
working with Kahlee Sanders from the books. All of that is awesome.
But really? Just two conversations with her face to face? And one is
just catching up about what the hell she's been doing with the other
basically a yes or no about the romance? What happened to the writing?
Take Morrigan in DA1 for example... very similar characters to romance
in terms of them being standoffish at first, badass, reluctant, not used
to people being nice to them or into them etc... and the dialogue went
on even past the first romance with her. Lots of things to talk about,
and different things to say with different results. This is just a
black or white, we together or not? And then she disappears forever. I
thought she would be all about the shore leave? Guess not. And then
all I get is a hey what's up, I'm doing barriers/fighting and we're
having sex after this war. Well ok... was that wrapped up? I don't
know. Did I live? If so, did I heal? Did I see ANY of my squadmates
again? What happened to them any way? I mean c'mon... people want
closure. Unless you tell us that a ME4 is coming, then everyone at
Bioware, I know you can do better.
And just for the record, I
have no problem with there being a gay relationship, just as I had no
problem with it with Zevran in Dragon Age. I say I like women, they say
cool, problem solved. And I like that they didn't make Jack cliche and
bisexual especially given what she said previously. Liara already has
that covered. And we all know DA2 went a little overboard with that to
the point of it not being believable that Anders and Fenris would both
be into that. But at least we got to talk with them. And see where
things went. What happened to those RPG elements and famous interesting
writing that Bioware is famous for? Please, somehow, bring them back
to ME3.
I can go on and on but this won't go away for you fine
gentlepeople at Bioware. I have a few friends who are 4chan people who
make fun of me for liking Bioware and Mass Effect, as they say it's just
a dating sim. I brush it off because what do I care what they think
about ME1 and 2, DA1, etc? Those are amazing games and I loved them.
Critis loved them and fans as well. But now he's loving it that Amazon
AND Origin are now accepting refunds from people who are dissatisfied
with the ending? Really? Are the people at Bioware proud of this?
I've never heard of this happening before. I don't get refunds when I
see a movie that has a bad ending. To be honest, this sucks if this $
comes out of Bioware's pocket, but it should be a wakeup call that the
communities and fans have spoken and their word carries weight.
Is
this as much of a downer as DA2 was? No. DA2 disappointed many
reviewers as well. Mass Effect 3 is still a very good game. But as you
can see, it's fans are far more into it's universe than maybe any other
game universe ever. I was reading an article a few months ago that
said that Mass Effect's universe rivals Star Wars and LOTR's and the
greats like that. That's how awesome it is. It's new, its fresh, the
movie rights have been bought, etc. You have people who love it with
all their heart (me included)... and we know you can do better. We know
this because you have done better. Do not listen to the reviewers who
say, it's a great game, I don't see the problem, but then again, I never
played the first 2. We both know that's not who you cater to, or
should even bother with. We know that you do listen to the fans too, so
that shouldn't be an issue. And we respect your decision to have your
own creativity. But what made these games loved is OUR ability to make
choices that affect outcomes. And that was taken away from us in ME3.
We want our choices to matter like they always have. That's what made
Mass Effect have such a loyal and rabid fan base.
That's why
this loyal and rabid fan base is trouncing Metacritic, Amazon, etc for
every version of the game. Sure, people who rate it a 1 are being
childish, especially since many of those ratings came within hours of
release, but is it a 94 like Metacritic says? And even if it is
compared to other games, you can kiss that game of the year award
goodbye. I agreed with IGN when they rated Mass Effect 1 the best 360
game of all time, and then when they updated their list once ME2 was out
and then THAT was the best 360 game of all time. I can't see them
doing that this time. Not unless major changes are made with free DLC
and excellent DLC add ons... (to single player, not multiplayer. Stop
appeasing the CoD fans). You guys are the best in my opinion, and in
many people's opinion, and we know that you know that you made a blunder
between the Prothean DLC, the ending, the lack of choices, and lack of
RPG elements.
And you know what? I'll pay for those add ons. I
except some free ones, especially since I bought the Collectors
Edition, but I'll pay for a DLC that is an "RPG pack" that gives me more
RPG options, you know I'll pay for the "New endings pack" and I'll
definitely pay for some character add ons.
To be honest, since
the endings in ME3 aren't too different from eachother, it might as well
be like taking Gears of War 3, putting conversation choices in it, and
adding some stores and weapon mods, but not change the ending at all. I
mean... whats the difference? Hardly anything we did matters any way.
Once again, not sure how much time was given to multiplayer, but all
the complaints are from people who don't really give a darn about
multiplayer in their favorite RPG.
P.S.
Despite this
clearly being the most fluid as far as moving around game of the series,
and the best graphically, there were also the most glitches for me. In
a conversation with Liara, my head can't look at the camera, but my
eyes do, and I'm like some circus freak seeing how far my neck can
bend. Has happened in both playthrus. In the Illusive Man's base,
after climbing up a ladder, I fall back down after an autosave point,
trying to avoid a rocket, and after the battle is over, I cannot get
back up it, not an option, had to restart. In one part, I fell thru a
floor and had to restart... remenincent of old PC games when you could
walk off the map, or in games now when you glitch out of the map. Sure
the graphics loaded slowly in ME1, and randomly in ME2 would some
squadmates would be magically floating occasionally a foot off the
ground, but I never got lost or stuck permanently. These points are
just nitpicking, since compared to the other things, they are nearly
meaningless. Just found it interesting that they happened though.
First off, I'd like to say that Mass Effect 3 is a very good game. It's
clearly more polished than the previous games as far as combat goes,
and it's full of interesting missions. Let it also be known that I
pre-ordered the Collectors Edition so I didn't feel forced to purchace a
main part of the story that should have either come with the game, or
been a free day of release download. But to me, the Mass Effect series
isn't just good, or even great... it's phenomenal. My two favorite
games ever are Mass Effect 1 & 2, and I still can't decide which I
like more. Let me also say that I've played 1 and 2 about 7 times
each. Got all the DLC, all the achievements. I play on hardcore just
for fun, that's just how I like it.
Second, the multiplayer is
great. It's tons of fun. I always wondered what multiplayer would be
like with all the different species, abilities and weapons. You can
tell they put a lot of work into it. The graphics overall are awesome,
just as expected. I'm happy my Shepard doesn't have two grayish black
front teeth like he seemed to have in half of the up close scenes in
ME2.
But wait... Mass Effect is an RPG. It says that on
websites under classification. But is it? Combining single player and
it's multiplayer aspect, I feel as though I'm playing a shooter with
SOME RPG elements. If I wanted just a shooter, I have Gears of War,
Halo, CoD etc... but when I want to relax and explore, I pick up Mass
Effect... well, I guess until now. I don't know if the idea was to sell
more because CoD and Battlefield and all the other big games out there
are shooters, or what. What I do know is that clicking the A button to
upgrade a weapon is not the same as in ME1 where I had to look in every
nook and cranny to pick up an upgrade during a mission. I want to buy
and sell things. You do that in an RPG from what I'm told... although
DA2 forgot that, but it's sales and reviews reflect all of it's
downsides.
What makes Bioware and Mass Effect in particular stand
out for me though, is that your choices had some sort of impact on what
went on in that game, the next, and the ending. I save the council in
ME1, aliens love me, but the Alliance is shorthanded. If I let them
die, aliens hate me and humans, but the Alliance and humans are strong.
I save the Rachni queen, she says whats up in ME2 as she rebuilds, and I
get her again in ME3 and what do I get out of it? My military bar goes
up a couple hundred. No cutscene of them killing Reaper troops or even
of them building the damn Crucible. At least give me a cutscene of
them knocking at the door and freaking everyone out... not just Liara's
letter saying thats what happened. Of course, its all moot, since
Rachni or not, it doesn't change anything. That decision didn't
matter. I'll get to that later though.
In ME2, things I did or
didn't do mattered in the ending. Did you collect all of the ship
upgrades? If you're an RPG fan, you did, but either way, it affects who
can die. First time thru, I sent Thane in the ducts and he died. I
also waited too long to go and some of my crew died. I didn't send
Mordin back with the rest of them, brought him along and he died. It
was intense. I didn't expect it. Garrus led my second team both times,
and when he took that bullet at the end, I was like noooo. But he
lived. Suspense. Intense. If you listened to Miranda about the
bubble, she dies. Lots of options, lots of endings with tangible
results you could see. Not to mention saving the Collector base, or
destroying it. It was satisfying once I did everything right. I felt
like a boss at the end of ME1 seeing myself standing all awesome like. I
felt unstoppable after destroying the Collector base and leaping to my
ship with Joker tearing it up without breaking anything.
Here's
how I felt at the end of ME3 after choosing to kill the Reapers and non
organics: Why did Joker just crash land into a tree and what does that
have to do with all of my choices? The answer: I don't know, and
nothing.
I know many are complaining about how the side
characters were basically left for dead in ME3. What happened with
Gianna Parasini? She was always kind of saucy, I get a kiss from her in
ME2, after helping her in ME1 and then... really? There couldn't have
been something that involved her in ME3? Emily Wong was my buddy in
ME1, since I was too busy punching all other reporters. I was sad to
see her not in ME2, but at least she said, hey, you're punching
reporters when we could be having normal interviews? And in ME3...
zip? Nada? Nothing? What do I care about Diana Allers? Put Emily
Wong on the Normandy. Jeez. I have no problem with Steve Cortez or
Samantha Traynor, but we already had a reporter that could have been.
So
Aria is back. Awesome. Always liked her badassness. The mission is
to help her take back Omega from Cerberus while getting all those merc
groups I spent so much time fighting previous to fight with me. Cool.
Ermm.. wait... does she get back Omega? I know I never help her take
it back. Did she finally leave the Citadel and go there? What
happened? I couldn't have helped kill Cerberus guys? And why were they
there to begin with? I shouldn't have investigated that? I saw that
early scripts actually had this as part of the game. Was it cut?
There's no reason why it should have been. Can't go wrong with another
mission to kill some Cerberus jerkfaces and help a baddass ally in
Aria. Plus, that could have unlocked at least ONE other place to
purchace weapons, armor, etc other than JUST the citadel, mainly, the
presidium. In ME1, the citadel felt huge, and you went all over the
place. Presidium, wards, C-sec, different clubs with different
missions, etc etc. In ME2, the Citadel was obviously a disappointment
in regards to moving around, but we got Omega to make up for it. Now
granted, the Citadel is better than it was in ME2... but compared to
everything in 1 and 2... it's the worst. It looks great, and lots of
conversations going on... but nothing face to face, just clicking the A
button, and no Omega. Will it be a DLC? Maybe. It should be. But why
not with the release? No clue.
Not sure how many people Bioware
employs, or if it's EA's bad influence that they seem to have on
everything now, but they seem to be spread too thin. I mean, you take
away a great writer of the Mass Effect books, which are awesome, put him
to work on SWTOR which I and everyone else I know who bought the game
stopped playing... then the guy to replace him (not his fault) messes up
and the book needs to go back for a rewrite because timelines and tech
didn't line up with the Mass Effect universe... and meanwhile, the end
of ME3 just seems like a rush job. I don't mind the way some of the
endings were... but there was little explanation or reason. It
unfortunately seemed very lazy. I can see some of those endings, or
choices at least, being viable if I say, forgot to do certain missions,
or made some bad decisions. But they aren't all that different from
eachother. And the things we CARE about, are left unknown and
unresolved.
No explanations, no closure regarding anything
really. I've only done the Jack romanceso far, but my previous Ashley
romance did not interfere whatsoever, and all I got was a Shepard
shuffle with Jack? Why does Joker speed away? Was he not on Earth
fighting like in the cinematic trailer? Am I to assume the Mass Effect
relays destroyed everything? Or were they blown up differently than in
ME2 with the asteroid? Do I get a scene of the Rachni doing something
cool in the final battle? No. So why did I save them in ME1 and talk
about it with an Asari in ME2? Do I see Krogan fighting along side
Turrians on Palaven? Nope. What happened to them? I dunno. Do I see
the geth do anything? Do I see the Quarians do anything? What about
the Asari or salarians? I saved Major K in ME1, so he supports me in
ME3, and I get... nothing? Nothing of the STG squad doing anything
worth while?
Onto the romances... Like I said, I only have done
the Jack romance so far, but she is the badass of all sexy badasses in
games, and I do a Shepard shuffle with her?! THAT is the big love
scene?!?! And why can't she be a squadmate? She's too busy having
shore leave and writing notes about her students? Really? Jack?
Please. I love the tie in of her with the other biotics at the academy
with the Overlord tie in (at least that DLC tie in was done right), and
working with Kahlee Sanders from the books. All of that is awesome.
But really? Just two conversations with her face to face? And one is
just catching up about what the hell she's been doing with the other
basically a yes or no about the romance? What happened to the writing?
Take Morrigan in DA1 for example... very similar characters to romance
in terms of them being standoffish at first, badass, reluctant, not used
to people being nice to them or into them etc... and the dialogue went
on even past the first romance with her. Lots of things to talk about,
and different things to say with different results. This is just a
black or white, we together or not? And then she disappears forever. I
thought she would be all about the shore leave? Guess not. And then
all I get is a hey what's up, I'm doing barriers/fighting and we're
having sex after this war. Well ok... was that wrapped up? I don't
know. Did I live? If so, did I heal? Did I see ANY of my squadmates
again? What happened to them any way? I mean c'mon... people want
closure. Unless you tell us that a ME4 is coming, then everyone at
Bioware, I know you can do better.
And just for the record, I
have no problem with there being a gay relationship, just as I had no
problem with it with Zevran in Dragon Age. I say I like women, they say
cool, problem solved. And I like that they didn't make Jack cliche and
bisexual especially given what she said previously. Liara already has
that covered. And we all know DA2 went a little overboard with that to
the point of it not being believable that Anders and Fenris would both
be into that. But at least we got to talk with them. And see where
things went. What happened to those RPG elements and famous interesting
writing that Bioware is famous for? Please, somehow, bring them back
to ME3.
I can go on and on but this won't go away for you fine
gentlepeople at Bioware. I have a few friends who are 4chan people who
make fun of me for liking Bioware and Mass Effect, as they say it's just
a dating sim. I brush it off because what do I care what they think
about ME1 and 2, DA1, etc? Those are amazing games and I loved them.
Critis loved them and fans as well. But now he's loving it that Amazon
AND Origin are now accepting refunds from people who are dissatisfied
with the ending? Really? Are the people at Bioware proud of this?
I've never heard of this happening before. I don't get refunds when I
see a movie that has a bad ending. To be honest, this sucks if this $
comes out of Bioware's pocket, but it should be a wakeup call that the
communities and fans have spoken and their word carries weight.
Is
this as much of a downer as DA2 was? No. DA2 disappointed many
reviewers as well. Mass Effect 3 is still a very good game. But as you
can see, it's fans are far more into it's universe than maybe any other
game universe ever. I was reading an article a few months ago that
said that Mass Effect's universe rivals Star Wars and LOTR's and the
greats like that. That's how awesome it is. It's new, its fresh, the
movie rights have been bought, etc. You have people who love it with
all their heart (me included)... and we know you can do better. We know
this because you have done better. Do not listen to the reviewers who
say, it's a great game, I don't see the problem, but then again, I never
played the first 2. We both know that's not who you cater to, or
should even bother with. We know that you do listen to the fans too, so
that shouldn't be an issue. And we respect your decision to have your
own creativity. But what made these games loved is OUR ability to make
choices that affect outcomes. And that was taken away from us in ME3.
We want our choices to matter like they always have. That's what made
Mass Effect have such a loyal and rabid fan base.
That's why
this loyal and rabid fan base is trouncing Metacritic, Amazon, etc for
every version of the game. Sure, people who rate it a 1 are being
childish, especially since many of those ratings came within hours of
release, but is it a 94 like Metacritic says? And even if it is
compared to other games, you can kiss that game of the year award
goodbye. I agreed with IGN when they rated Mass Effect 1 the best 360
game of all time, and then when they updated their list once ME2 was out
and then THAT was the best 360 game of all time. I can't see them
doing that this time. Not unless major changes are made with free DLC
and excellent DLC add ons... (to single player, not multiplayer. Stop
appeasing the CoD fans). You guys are the best in my opinion, and in
many people's opinion, and we know that you know that you made a blunder
between the Prothean DLC, the ending, the lack of choices, and lack of
RPG elements.
And you know what? I'll pay for those add ons. I
except some free ones, especially since I bought the Collectors
Edition, but I'll pay for a DLC that is an "RPG pack" that gives me more
RPG options, you know I'll pay for the "New endings pack" and I'll
definitely pay for some character add ons.
To be honest, since
the endings in ME3 aren't too different from eachother, it might as well
be like taking Gears of War 3, putting conversation choices in it, and
adding some stores and weapon mods, but not change the ending at all. I
mean... whats the difference? Hardly anything we did matters any way.
Once again, not sure how much time was given to multiplayer, but all
the complaints are from people who don't really give a darn about
multiplayer in their favorite RPG.
P.S.
Despite this
clearly being the most fluid as far as moving around game of the series,
and the best graphically, there were also the most glitches for me. In
a conversation with Liara, my head can't look at the camera, but my
eyes do, and I'm like some circus freak seeing how far my neck can
bend. Has happened in both playthrus. In the Illusive Man's base,
after climbing up a ladder, I fall back down after an autosave point,
trying to avoid a rocket, and after the battle is over, I cannot get
back up it, not an option, had to restart. In one part, I fell thru a
floor and had to restart... remenincent of old PC games when you could
walk off the map, or in games now when you glitch out of the map. Sure
the graphics loaded slowly in ME1, and randomly in ME2 would some
squadmates would be magically floating occasionally a foot off the
ground, but I never got lost or stuck permanently. These points are
just nitpicking, since compared to the other things, they are nearly
meaningless. Just found it interesting that they happened though.
#1464
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 08:22
JexyG
-
- Members
- 71 messages
To add onto this, was it just me, or did Javik have the most things to say in general and most responses to others when he was in your party? A DLC character that should have been free should not have more lines and more interesting things to say than anyone else in the game. And yet that is the case. And I'm not saying he should have less either. I'm saying everyone else should have more. The time spent on him should have been the same time spent on everyone else.
As for more on the ending: Closure and finding out if any of your decisions actually mattered. Also, any explanation of who the hell is controlling the Reapers and why. This doesn't need to be left up to our imaginations Bioware. It is your universe and you're writing it, and leaving us with fewer decisions than ever before (and even fewer that matter). There is no reason to leave that out. That volus talked about "beings of light" protecting organics from the machines... well, was that these people? Were these the beings of light? Do we get some back story or reason on any of this? I hope so.
As for more on the ending: Closure and finding out if any of your decisions actually mattered. Also, any explanation of who the hell is controlling the Reapers and why. This doesn't need to be left up to our imaginations Bioware. It is your universe and you're writing it, and leaving us with fewer decisions than ever before (and even fewer that matter). There is no reason to leave that out. That volus talked about "beings of light" protecting organics from the machines... well, was that these people? Were these the beings of light? Do we get some back story or reason on any of this? I hope so.
#1465
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 08:57
maverikkix
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- Members
- 2 messages
My Mass Effect 3 score: 100/100My Mass Effect series score: 110/100
(No devastating spoilers)
Mass Effect 3 got rid of many of the distractions in the series: Mako driving, repeating mini games, scanning etc. It was by no means a perfect game, but it might be the best still in its own category. I will be mostly thinking back at the whole series.
The overall backstory and the universe was grandiose enough. I did not need to know all the details and explanations for little things so I will not be nitpicking about them. (Explaining minichlorians killed one series of movies for me.) It felt like a mix of Star Control with some Iain M. Banks swashbuckling action in it. I liked exploring the different star systems even though the rewards were quite small.
The part I loved about the game were the characters in the world. I felt emotionally connected to the characters in the game like in no other game I've played. I wanted to help them sort their own problems and have them respect me. I wanted to hurt other characters in game. They meant something. I cannot think of a game where I have had this kind of a connection to npcs. Well done.
Facing tough decisions was great. I had to make lots of decisions during the game, and I liked how the things still mattered in the last part. Seeing all the old acquaintances and being able to talk to them was great. Particularly the possibility to radio certain characters before the last mission was a very nice touch. I just couldn't stop playing after that point, I had to see where the story goes.
I cannot remember how the actual FPS elements were in the first one, but second and third games were quite fun to play on the tougher difficulties. The pacing of most of the missions was great, there was just enough shooting and exploring and dialogue.
There has been a lot of controversy over the ending, but I am fine wit it. I did not need any spoonfeeding of explanations in the end. I had always envisioned an ending like that. I think there have been some clues about what is to happen there somewhere. I think the ending was good enough for the series. For me the the series was not about the destination but the journey.
On my list of great games there has always been couple of outstanding entries. Planescape: Torment for making you think about your actions and the world around you. Star Control 2 for the universe and grand story. System Shock and later Bioshock for terrific atmosphere and story. I think that Mass Effect as series combined all these in a perfect package.
Thank you.
(Edited: line breaks.)
(No devastating spoilers)
Mass Effect 3 got rid of many of the distractions in the series: Mako driving, repeating mini games, scanning etc. It was by no means a perfect game, but it might be the best still in its own category. I will be mostly thinking back at the whole series.
The overall backstory and the universe was grandiose enough. I did not need to know all the details and explanations for little things so I will not be nitpicking about them. (Explaining minichlorians killed one series of movies for me.) It felt like a mix of Star Control with some Iain M. Banks swashbuckling action in it. I liked exploring the different star systems even though the rewards were quite small.
The part I loved about the game were the characters in the world. I felt emotionally connected to the characters in the game like in no other game I've played. I wanted to help them sort their own problems and have them respect me. I wanted to hurt other characters in game. They meant something. I cannot think of a game where I have had this kind of a connection to npcs. Well done.
Facing tough decisions was great. I had to make lots of decisions during the game, and I liked how the things still mattered in the last part. Seeing all the old acquaintances and being able to talk to them was great. Particularly the possibility to radio certain characters before the last mission was a very nice touch. I just couldn't stop playing after that point, I had to see where the story goes.
I cannot remember how the actual FPS elements were in the first one, but second and third games were quite fun to play on the tougher difficulties. The pacing of most of the missions was great, there was just enough shooting and exploring and dialogue.
There has been a lot of controversy over the ending, but I am fine wit it. I did not need any spoonfeeding of explanations in the end. I had always envisioned an ending like that. I think there have been some clues about what is to happen there somewhere. I think the ending was good enough for the series. For me the the series was not about the destination but the journey.
On my list of great games there has always been couple of outstanding entries. Planescape: Torment for making you think about your actions and the world around you. Star Control 2 for the universe and grand story. System Shock and later Bioshock for terrific atmosphere and story. I think that Mass Effect as series combined all these in a perfect package.
Thank you.
(Edited: line breaks.)
Modifié par maverikkix, 21 mars 2012 - 08:58 .
#1466
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 09:08
Rilke21
-
- Members
- 222 messages
I didn’t expect to like Mass Effect 3.
I built myself up for the second Mass Effect (I even built a swanky new computer), and I was badly let down by the streamlining and trite story-telling. Not many people shared my opinion. But when the reviews for the latest game came pouring in, it seemed like the same people who praised ME2 where inexplicably knocking ME3 for following the same streamlined pattern. This bit of hypocrisy actually peaked my interest, and (in spite of Origin) I bought ME3 out of curiosity, and the small hope that it would draw me in like the first game did.
I couldn’t believe my surprise.
For me, the defining quality of an exceptional role-playing game is subtlety mixed with great story-telling. ME2 grated on my nerves because the story-telling was ham-handed and there wasn’t a lick of subtlety in the design. The flavour of ME2’s “world” relied heavily on uninteresting minor characters from ME1 showing up for no reason and blathering on about their lost cats...it was repetitive and grossly uninspired. (“I’m Commander Shepard...and this is me having the same conversation for the 20th time.”)
But while the world of ME3 is definitely streamlined in comparison to conventional RPGs, there was a remarkable amount of detail and subtle flavour that completely brought the world alive for me.
I loved stumbling across the Blasto movie on the presidium, listening in to the expertly scripted npc stories that are found all around the citadel, and conversing with squad members that were actually interesting. I also got a kick out of running away from reapers while snagging the last war assets from a system...much more entertaining than playing the same dull hacking game over and over.
At the end of every mission, I was rewarded by exploring the ship and the citadel for new conversations... and actually finding them! The quality of the story-telling drew me right back into the world that I left in the original Mass Effect. It was the experience I bought a new computer for two years ago, and I couldn’t believe that I was actually getting it two years later. (I was so impressed that I even bought the terribly over-priced DLC!)
But alas...the experience came crashing down into drivel and disappointment. I finished the game about 3 hours ago, and it is embarrassing to admit this, but I actually feel sick to my stomach.
When it comes down to it, Mass Effect is a classic story of friendship and love, and a battle against impossible odds. (It doesn’t need to be said, but the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are two great examples of this story arc.) Mass Effect 3 manages to tell a cinematic story in the context of a roll-playing game, where true emotional bonds are forged between the player and the imaginary characters of the universe. (I think that this type of story-telling is an exciting new interactive media that goes well beyond mere gaming, but unfortunately the artistic potential of games is rarely more than hinted at.)
But instead of tying the story together in a satisfying close, the characters are scattered in a nonsensical ending that resolves nothing. It left me wondering if the lead writer had vacated the premises, leaving his 5-year-old to finish the last chapter.
I asked EA for a refund, but apparently I’m not getting one. I couldn’t be more disappointed. I sincerely hope that Bioware takes it upon themselves to fix this terrible ending. I’d even offer my services for a story-board think tank, free of charge.
I would love for there to be a satisfying ending to this otherwise exceptional adventure.
I built myself up for the second Mass Effect (I even built a swanky new computer), and I was badly let down by the streamlining and trite story-telling. Not many people shared my opinion. But when the reviews for the latest game came pouring in, it seemed like the same people who praised ME2 where inexplicably knocking ME3 for following the same streamlined pattern. This bit of hypocrisy actually peaked my interest, and (in spite of Origin) I bought ME3 out of curiosity, and the small hope that it would draw me in like the first game did.
I couldn’t believe my surprise.
For me, the defining quality of an exceptional role-playing game is subtlety mixed with great story-telling. ME2 grated on my nerves because the story-telling was ham-handed and there wasn’t a lick of subtlety in the design. The flavour of ME2’s “world” relied heavily on uninteresting minor characters from ME1 showing up for no reason and blathering on about their lost cats...it was repetitive and grossly uninspired. (“I’m Commander Shepard...and this is me having the same conversation for the 20th time.”)
But while the world of ME3 is definitely streamlined in comparison to conventional RPGs, there was a remarkable amount of detail and subtle flavour that completely brought the world alive for me.
I loved stumbling across the Blasto movie on the presidium, listening in to the expertly scripted npc stories that are found all around the citadel, and conversing with squad members that were actually interesting. I also got a kick out of running away from reapers while snagging the last war assets from a system...much more entertaining than playing the same dull hacking game over and over.
At the end of every mission, I was rewarded by exploring the ship and the citadel for new conversations... and actually finding them! The quality of the story-telling drew me right back into the world that I left in the original Mass Effect. It was the experience I bought a new computer for two years ago, and I couldn’t believe that I was actually getting it two years later. (I was so impressed that I even bought the terribly over-priced DLC!)
But alas...the experience came crashing down into drivel and disappointment. I finished the game about 3 hours ago, and it is embarrassing to admit this, but I actually feel sick to my stomach.
When it comes down to it, Mass Effect is a classic story of friendship and love, and a battle against impossible odds. (It doesn’t need to be said, but the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are two great examples of this story arc.) Mass Effect 3 manages to tell a cinematic story in the context of a roll-playing game, where true emotional bonds are forged between the player and the imaginary characters of the universe. (I think that this type of story-telling is an exciting new interactive media that goes well beyond mere gaming, but unfortunately the artistic potential of games is rarely more than hinted at.)
But instead of tying the story together in a satisfying close, the characters are scattered in a nonsensical ending that resolves nothing. It left me wondering if the lead writer had vacated the premises, leaving his 5-year-old to finish the last chapter.
I asked EA for a refund, but apparently I’m not getting one. I couldn’t be more disappointed. I sincerely hope that Bioware takes it upon themselves to fix this terrible ending. I’d even offer my services for a story-board think tank, free of charge.
I would love for there to be a satisfying ending to this otherwise exceptional adventure.
#1467
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 09:41
michal9o90
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- Members
- 1 198 messages
I'm Inviting particularly Bioware workers (i wold like to hear opinion from Chris Priestly) and ofcourse all gamers to my topic about FTL speed, and joker escaping. I did some calculations for prove that ending is illogical. I hope you will enyoj this 
http://social.biowar...ndex/10338578/1
http://social.biowar...ndex/10338578/1
Modifié par michal9o90, 21 mars 2012 - 09:42 .
#1468
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 10:06
AllThatJazz
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Still going with the game. I'm really liking how the Citadel changes after the Cerberus attack. There's more suspicion, a bit of paranoia, a little more desperation. A definite response to in-game events - very different from Kirkwall in DA2. I also liked the 'lift' sequence on the citadel, very cool and kept me on my toes. Also, Thane 
( Good send off for the character, though I can't imagine I'd have been too pleased if he'd been my LI. He could have done with a few extra scenes.
I remain very frustrated with my inability to get enough EMS in singleplayer to get the Shep breathes ending. Really annoying. Please fix.
Adored Tuchanka. The whole level was fantastic, as were all the quests - the design of it, the plot, Mordin :'(, learning Eve's real name, Kalros v Reaper. One of the best levels I've ever played in a game. Also, Garrus had some good dialogue throughout the level, definitely the right squaddie to take along.
( Good send off for the character, though I can't imagine I'd have been too pleased if he'd been my LI. He could have done with a few extra scenes.I remain very frustrated with my inability to get enough EMS in singleplayer to get the Shep breathes ending. Really annoying. Please fix.
Adored Tuchanka. The whole level was fantastic, as were all the quests - the design of it, the plot, Mordin :'(, learning Eve's real name, Kalros v Reaper. One of the best levels I've ever played in a game. Also, Garrus had some good dialogue throughout the level, definitely the right squaddie to take along.
#1469
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 12:14
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DSGrant wrote...
I hadn't bothered posting here because, well, I didn't see the point and I've made my disappointment fairly obvious in my numerous posts on these forums. Yet, I thought I should at least detail what it was about the 1% (endings) that ruined the other 99% for me.
1. Everything I had labored to accomplish in the series, such as finally sharing my first moment with my love interest, to brokering a peace between the Geth/Quarians and the Krogan/Turians, to bolstering the Citadel defenses, to uniting the galaxy in one shared purpose, was completely rendered moot by the ending(s). The Citadel was taken by the Reapers with little or no resistance and everyone on board was slaughtered. The Mass Relays were all destroyed thereby marooning everyone wherever they happened to be at the time, not to mention the combined fleets of the galaxy and all the other races among them now stuck in the Sol system (because even at FTL speeds, without the relays it would literally take decades if not hundreds of years to travel back to their homeworlds), Wrex who was supposed to lead the Krogan along with Eve into a new future is also stuck in the Sol system now, and the Geth (along with EDI) and all they fought for to become recognized as a new, sentient species are summarily destroyed along with the Reapers (if you chose the "destroy all synthetics" ending). Everything you accomplish in the game before the conclusion is essentially pointless.
2. Shepard, throughout the series, fought for the idea of value through diversity. Every species was worth something, and our differences is what made us greater collectively. This theme was even reinforced earlier in the game when Javik, the last Prothean, admits that the reason his people lost in the last cycle was due to their lack of diversity and inflexibility when confronted by the Reapers. Yet the "ideal" ending was synthesis, where organic and synthetic life become merged in the final evolutionary step of the galaxy. In other words, homogenization, which is diametrically opposed to Shepard's ideals that were represented in the series.
3. Our entire squad was on Earth during the final ground assault to get onto the Citadel, yet, they all manage to somehow get back aboard the Normandy which had returned to the massive space battle above the planet, and then Joker leaves the battle to outrun the Charon relay explosion and crash lands on some distant lifebearing planet. Huh? How was that even physically possible, let alone the complete contradiction of character traits in a squad that was fiercely loyal to Shepard. Either they all would have died on Earth, or they wouldn't have left until they knew what had become of Shepard. And Joker wouldn't have left the battle. If anything, he would have drove straight toward the Citadel to see if he could rescue Shepard and anyone else that managed to get up there with him. Instead, we get some horrible sci-fi version of Gilligan's Island, sans Shepard.
4. The logic that the Reaper god-child used to explain the Reaper cycles was completely circular and nonsensical. The Reapers, themselves synthetics, are hitting the reset button on the galaxy every 50k years so that synthetics don't ultimately destroy organics, so that in another 50k years, they can do it all over again. Destroying us to save us? Really?? And didn't the newly made Geth-Quarian alliance totally disprove that theory? Not to mention Legion and how pivotal he was to the Geth, and to helping us stop the Collectors. And why choose the boy that haunted Shepard's dreams as the form it appears to him as, unless it was some cruel means meant to torture and taunt him with? If it wanted to appear as something familiar, why not something more benign? Why not appear as the first race it had extincted over hundreds of millenia ago? And then to suggest that the "crucible" was essentially a Reaper introduced test to determine when the galaxy was ready to evolve instead of being annihiliated again was just the icing on a deterministic cake. Frankly, I found it insultingly ironic to a series based on the premise of personal choice.
5. There's ZERO closure. I'm not sure I can comprehend the reasoning behind that for a game series of this magnitude. At least in DA:O when you sacrifice yourself, they had the decency to throw you a funeral and give you a speech about your heroic deeds. In ME3, you get no such consolation. Your love interest doesn't weep uncontrollably at the love lost, your crew doesn't mourn your death, nor the galaxy celebrate your sacrifice. I'd be ok with self-sacrifice in the game if I at least got some acknowledgement by the people that mattered to me - not some grandfather telling stories about me to his grandchild. And why does a bittersweet ending even need to be necessary? Why not give us the option to have the happy ending where you ride off into the proverbial dawn of a new day with your love interest? We don't play video games to be reminded about the real world with a cold dose of reality. We play them to enjoy a world where everything does work out right for a change.
6. The choices weren't really choices. I touched on this earlier for other reasons, but the idea that no matter what we did in the game doesn't change the fact that we all get the same canned three endings, none of which are appealing, was just profoundly disappointing and depressing. In order to destroy the Reapers, I have to destroy the Geth and EDI along with them. What kind of choice is that? That's not a fair dilemma to put us in, because the other option of controlling the Reapers only removes them as a threat for this cycle. It doesn't mean that they won't come back again, not to mention the very thought of becoming a Reaper is repulsive. They represent everything the Shepard stood against. Synthesis I've already covered, but it's only slightly less appalling than controlling the Reapers. So to deal with the Reaper threat once and for all, I have to destroy the Geth and EDI. I feel like it was the Kobayashi Maru - a no win scenario.
7. Bioware promised through multiple press releases and media coverage interviews that the ending(s) of ME3 would give the players closure and it would reflect all the choices we had made up to that point. What was delivered was the exact opposite.
8. While the series was amazing and in many ways set a new standard for the RPG video game industry, the overall satisfaction and enjoyment of it was utterly marred and sullied by the god-awful conclusion.
There you have it, for whatever it's worth.
Thank you for this great review. At least i'am not the only one who thinks like this!
#1470
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 12:39
R3MUS
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Modifié par R3MUS, 21 mars 2012 - 12:40 .
#1471
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 02:17
jak11164
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my score is:
MassEffect 1 100/100 super story ..... and mystery mystery exploring galaxy was fun you could land everywhere come back everywhere
MassEffect 2 50/100 story was worse but still you had couple of paces you could come back too scanning planets was bad much less gear modification -> gear didn't represent class of Shepard
MassEffect 3 20/100 rather disappointing shooter whole galaxy is build from Citadel and locations you can go kill everybody and never return.... Why cant you come back to Tuchanka why you cant come back to Rannoch or Eden Prime or other places? at the end u have one devastating ending after which you don't want play game again cauce no matter what you did before you have to kill Shepard to have best solution. Game one bright side - relationship EDI with Joker
MassEffect 1 100/100 super story ..... and mystery mystery exploring galaxy was fun you could land everywhere come back everywhere
MassEffect 2 50/100 story was worse but still you had couple of paces you could come back too scanning planets was bad much less gear modification -> gear didn't represent class of Shepard
MassEffect 3 20/100 rather disappointing shooter whole galaxy is build from Citadel and locations you can go kill everybody and never return.... Why cant you come back to Tuchanka why you cant come back to Rannoch or Eden Prime or other places? at the end u have one devastating ending after which you don't want play game again cauce no matter what you did before you have to kill Shepard to have best solution. Game one bright side - relationship EDI with Joker
#1472
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 02:52
uDoh
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My score for Mass Effect 3 would have to be an 7 our 10.
Overall it's a very good game, but with a couple of really BIG issues.
Issue 1: Being a long time Mass Effect player, i created my Shepard back in 2007 with Mass Effect, and since then she has been killed and then rebuilt (by Cerebrus) her face was successfully reconstructed, but after only a few months in an Alliance "prison" the facial reconstruction system was unable to make my original Shepard. It was a bad start to the game, as the person I was playing felt like a stranger.
Issue 2: The very odd and strange jumps during some of the cutscenes, there was one point (can't remember exactly when) but my Shepard was happily talking to an old friend and a second later after the cutscene jump she sounded angry. There were quite a few odd jumps in the movies.
Issue 3: The Ending. I don't see much point in going over all the details with regards to the ending, as it has already been said thousands of times before: When Casey Hudson used the word "polarized" in regards to the ending, I think it's actually spelled "pissed off". That's how I felt anyway.
I remember finishing ME2 and immediately started all over again, just to see what happened, but with ME3, it's been nearly 2 weeks (feels like a couple of months) and I really can't bring myself to play the ME3 single player. Which is a shame, as I know, deep down it's an AMAZING game.
Overall it's a very good game, but with a couple of really BIG issues.
Issue 1: Being a long time Mass Effect player, i created my Shepard back in 2007 with Mass Effect, and since then she has been killed and then rebuilt (by Cerebrus) her face was successfully reconstructed, but after only a few months in an Alliance "prison" the facial reconstruction system was unable to make my original Shepard. It was a bad start to the game, as the person I was playing felt like a stranger.
Issue 2: The very odd and strange jumps during some of the cutscenes, there was one point (can't remember exactly when) but my Shepard was happily talking to an old friend and a second later after the cutscene jump she sounded angry. There were quite a few odd jumps in the movies.
Issue 3: The Ending. I don't see much point in going over all the details with regards to the ending, as it has already been said thousands of times before: When Casey Hudson used the word "polarized" in regards to the ending, I think it's actually spelled "pissed off". That's how I felt anyway.
I remember finishing ME2 and immediately started all over again, just to see what happened, but with ME3, it's been nearly 2 weeks (feels like a couple of months) and I really can't bring myself to play the ME3 single player. Which is a shame, as I know, deep down it's an AMAZING game.
#1473
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 03:03
Natureguy85
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Foolsfolly wrote...
As for the focus, the focus should always be on the Normandy and crew. It's weird that I have to say this but the whole bunch of them from ME1 to ME3 should have played a part in the finale. This is all of their fights. And we care about them and want to know what happens to them. Same with wanting to see all the fleets, I didn't see batarian fleets or Blood Pack guys or rachni in the fight. I really wanted to see all those desperate elements coming together.
They didn't.
But really, the crew. Take Shepard's big final Shepard Speech. Why couldn't all of the guys be there? Wrex, Samara, Zaeed, Miranda, Jacob, the whole lot of them? Why couldn't the plan just keep those non-squad mates doing tasks around the massive London battlefield? Why are they a few lines in a holograph with no closure at all?
This is a great point and another example of ME3 being disappointing because Bioware did it right previously. Compare this to the Suicide Mission from ME2. That felt like a real commando operation, a strike inside the base. And your crew was really involved in that you had to select people for particular roles and the scenes breaking the different parts of the mission, as well as those showing the death of squadmates, were excellent. The final mission on Earth should have been like that.
#1474
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 03:15
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Everything here first is without the ending.
1. Sound and soundtrack 10/10 amazing, gripping quality to the core.
2. Graphics 9/10 some minor issues, but background, combat and characters are verry well portrayed. Especially the view of a galaxy at war!
3. Story 10/10 amazingly good, albeit a bit linear. To emotionally gripping for it to take points away though.
4. Characters 8/10 a bit to few squadmates, but the ones that are there are verry good for the most part.
5. Quest log 2/10 it is pretty much useless.
6. Exploration 9/10 lots of lore description and a decent minigame. Could maybe use a bit more flair.
7. Gameplay/combat 8/10 a bit supid AI, overuse of smoke grenades, some minor glitches with powers used, and companions not always that smart. But still extreemly enjoyable.
8. Voice acting 10/10 (9/10 if ur male shep, peronal prefrance i just like femsheps voice acting better!) Amazing!
9. Technical 7/10. Bugs where u get stuck, face the wrong way in conversations, missing stones. Always stock gun and rifle pops upp etc. minor stuff. but can be annoying.
10. Implementation of EMS 4/10. Therse no real impact, or rewards for them. Look at DA:O they got it right.
Now the game for me except the ending is a 9/10. Theres flaws, and stuff missing. But the story and core gameplay is to good to let it be dragged down to much. The emotional attacment you have after playing all the games make it an extreemly enjoable experience. Perhaps if i was brand new to this series i would drop it to an 8/10 because of theese flaws.
Now the ending, i will give a 0/10. It has no place in Mass effect, gives no closure and to many questions. It also breaks the extreemly good formula they have for the other 99.99% of the mass effect series. Which is emotional attachment, choice, consequences and staying true to the lore. It also has way to many plotholes to have any redeeming qualities. It is also the worst almagation of Sci-fi cliche you can have. Bpth divine intervention and the abandoning of tech to be saved.
Now even with the ending the game is good. But only if you stop caring at the end. Im giving the game combined a 6.5/10. Without the ending its a 9/10. Had it had just as gripping an ending as it had its story upp untill that point i would have given this game a 10/10. None of the flaws would have mattered at all to me. But with the end what it was, the flaws does popp into my mind as something the game should suffer points for.
1. Sound and soundtrack 10/10 amazing, gripping quality to the core.
2. Graphics 9/10 some minor issues, but background, combat and characters are verry well portrayed. Especially the view of a galaxy at war!
3. Story 10/10 amazingly good, albeit a bit linear. To emotionally gripping for it to take points away though.
4. Characters 8/10 a bit to few squadmates, but the ones that are there are verry good for the most part.
5. Quest log 2/10 it is pretty much useless.
6. Exploration 9/10 lots of lore description and a decent minigame. Could maybe use a bit more flair.
7. Gameplay/combat 8/10 a bit supid AI, overuse of smoke grenades, some minor glitches with powers used, and companions not always that smart. But still extreemly enjoyable.
8. Voice acting 10/10 (9/10 if ur male shep, peronal prefrance i just like femsheps voice acting better!) Amazing!
9. Technical 7/10. Bugs where u get stuck, face the wrong way in conversations, missing stones. Always stock gun and rifle pops upp etc. minor stuff. but can be annoying.
10. Implementation of EMS 4/10. Therse no real impact, or rewards for them. Look at DA:O they got it right.
Now the game for me except the ending is a 9/10. Theres flaws, and stuff missing. But the story and core gameplay is to good to let it be dragged down to much. The emotional attacment you have after playing all the games make it an extreemly enjoable experience. Perhaps if i was brand new to this series i would drop it to an 8/10 because of theese flaws.
Now the ending, i will give a 0/10. It has no place in Mass effect, gives no closure and to many questions. It also breaks the extreemly good formula they have for the other 99.99% of the mass effect series. Which is emotional attachment, choice, consequences and staying true to the lore. It also has way to many plotholes to have any redeeming qualities. It is also the worst almagation of Sci-fi cliche you can have. Bpth divine intervention and the abandoning of tech to be saved.
Now even with the ending the game is good. But only if you stop caring at the end. Im giving the game combined a 6.5/10. Without the ending its a 9/10. Had it had just as gripping an ending as it had its story upp untill that point i would have given this game a 10/10. None of the flaws would have mattered at all to me. But with the end what it was, the flaws does popp into my mind as something the game should suffer points for.
#1475
Posté 21 mars 2012 - 03:22
somecthemes
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I'd say a 89 out of 100, with the last 11 being the ending, still it's almost a A.
The things you got totally right: a) the romances, even the little romance I had with Kelly got some resolution of sorts, which I totally loved and can easily see myself replaying the game a couple of times to see others.
You nailed the epic return of Grunt, Jack, Mordin (oh, God, this out shines them all!), and included our squaddies Tali and Garrus. The inclusion of the VS was nice, probably something I'll enjoy pursueing in subsequent playthroughs.
c) Most of the ending was spot on, pretty much a great wrap up, right until you see Shep collapse and the flooring suddenly levitate him into a alternate reality, though the music during that scene was freaking epic. More on that later.
d) Music, every where from the beginning movement to the final note, every piece should be on every ipod on a loop, just awesome stuff. It has me still tear up at the beginning when the kid dies, and I've seen it about 4 times now. Just every single time it take the forefront from dialog, you know it's going to get good.
e) the banter and new dialog systems are inovative improvements from ME 2. Took about half a game to really get where I wasn't wanting to pull up a dialog wheel during every conversation, but after that it's just excelllent to wander the ship, get nailed with something interesting or sweet with literally every person on the ship and the only input required of me was using the button to trigger the elevator, just inspired.
f) the story, it just couldn't have been better, it had everything I'd hoped for and so many little treasures of the things I'd not concidered beforehand, That and the radical shifts in tempo from my world when I switched to a career where I'd followed the renegade paths, even with a lot of the wheel options removed for autodialog, what was said was different and interesting even after my third playthrough.
Lastly, the ending. It bummed me out. Left me with a lot of philisophic questions about whether rewriting was truely a option, since your essentially depending on the Catalyst to define the level of rewriting. Ethics of each decision aside, the sudden revelation of the kid being there, the whole of the battle like a movie in the huge theatre your suddenly shifted to, the shift is rather sudden and halting given that it's the end of a series.
I think some simple inclusions throughout the game that hinted at his existence, something that implied that he was the absolute only way to resolve the war, a direct statement that no how big you can build your army it is only enough to hold the reapers for a moment while Shep works and that you have to have a magic button to kill the Reapers, as the moment Shep fails to have a instant win option occur, the Reapers over a period of a couple of hours will wipe out the entirety of the combined galactic forces.
Without those moments of clarity being injected, I as the player was kinda lumped with indecision in the walk up to the big decision. "Why am I doing this, can't I just wait here for my friends to win the battle? And just who the heck is this kid and why can't Shepard at least ask a question, like where are you from or why did you decide to begin a cycle of exstinction, and why make the citadel?", and a ton of other really pertenant questions.
So, after doing what I though was literally everything in prep for a war to end all wars, I mostly slip in the back door to the Citadel's secret contol and observation room while my galactic posse is mostly just there delay the Reapers a moment, and doing the true alliance marine act, swap a galvanized nail for their fuses and flick the switch.
Is it kinda a let down, YES! And a future dlc where Shep lives and plays after the ending would be sweet, but hope and dreams for such is better for building castles in the clouds, not pleasing a bunch of gamers with years of devotion. To such ends, the quickest and easiest way I see to fix things is to put one heck of a introductory dialog wheel for the first meeting with the kid. One that will let a person question the kid and hopefully with 4 or 5 answers will resolve 90% of the points of irritation at the ending. Since you won't make everyone happy, don't try, but I imagine there's the draft to a edit to the game in the works that is aimed at including 30 more lines of dialog and split second additions to the ending cinematics, but most of the missing elements could be explained, with a initial setup by the kid, fairly easily.The ending wasn't altogether bad, just it needed a lot more foreshadowing. It was literally a great ending to another game, but needs more story elements to cement it as the ending to the ME series.
The things you got totally right: a) the romances, even the little romance I had with Kelly got some resolution of sorts, which I totally loved and can easily see myself replaying the game a couple of times to see others.
You nailed the epic return of Grunt, Jack, Mordin (oh, God, this out shines them all!), and included our squaddies Tali and Garrus. The inclusion of the VS was nice, probably something I'll enjoy pursueing in subsequent playthroughs.c) Most of the ending was spot on, pretty much a great wrap up, right until you see Shep collapse and the flooring suddenly levitate him into a alternate reality, though the music during that scene was freaking epic. More on that later.
d) Music, every where from the beginning movement to the final note, every piece should be on every ipod on a loop, just awesome stuff. It has me still tear up at the beginning when the kid dies, and I've seen it about 4 times now. Just every single time it take the forefront from dialog, you know it's going to get good.
e) the banter and new dialog systems are inovative improvements from ME 2. Took about half a game to really get where I wasn't wanting to pull up a dialog wheel during every conversation, but after that it's just excelllent to wander the ship, get nailed with something interesting or sweet with literally every person on the ship and the only input required of me was using the button to trigger the elevator, just inspired.
f) the story, it just couldn't have been better, it had everything I'd hoped for and so many little treasures of the things I'd not concidered beforehand, That and the radical shifts in tempo from my world when I switched to a career where I'd followed the renegade paths, even with a lot of the wheel options removed for autodialog, what was said was different and interesting even after my third playthrough.
Lastly, the ending. It bummed me out. Left me with a lot of philisophic questions about whether rewriting was truely a option, since your essentially depending on the Catalyst to define the level of rewriting. Ethics of each decision aside, the sudden revelation of the kid being there, the whole of the battle like a movie in the huge theatre your suddenly shifted to, the shift is rather sudden and halting given that it's the end of a series.
I think some simple inclusions throughout the game that hinted at his existence, something that implied that he was the absolute only way to resolve the war, a direct statement that no how big you can build your army it is only enough to hold the reapers for a moment while Shep works and that you have to have a magic button to kill the Reapers, as the moment Shep fails to have a instant win option occur, the Reapers over a period of a couple of hours will wipe out the entirety of the combined galactic forces.
Without those moments of clarity being injected, I as the player was kinda lumped with indecision in the walk up to the big decision. "Why am I doing this, can't I just wait here for my friends to win the battle? And just who the heck is this kid and why can't Shepard at least ask a question, like where are you from or why did you decide to begin a cycle of exstinction, and why make the citadel?", and a ton of other really pertenant questions.
So, after doing what I though was literally everything in prep for a war to end all wars, I mostly slip in the back door to the Citadel's secret contol and observation room while my galactic posse is mostly just there delay the Reapers a moment, and doing the true alliance marine act, swap a galvanized nail for their fuses and flick the switch.
Is it kinda a let down, YES! And a future dlc where Shep lives and plays after the ending would be sweet, but hope and dreams for such is better for building castles in the clouds, not pleasing a bunch of gamers with years of devotion. To such ends, the quickest and easiest way I see to fix things is to put one heck of a introductory dialog wheel for the first meeting with the kid. One that will let a person question the kid and hopefully with 4 or 5 answers will resolve 90% of the points of irritation at the ending. Since you won't make everyone happy, don't try, but I imagine there's the draft to a edit to the game in the works that is aimed at including 30 more lines of dialog and split second additions to the ending cinematics, but most of the missing elements could be explained, with a initial setup by the kid, fairly easily.The ending wasn't altogether bad, just it needed a lot more foreshadowing. It was literally a great ending to another game, but needs more story elements to cement it as the ending to the ME series.
