1966 réponses à ce sujet

[Dammekos]

I'm not sure if the people at Bioware are still checking this thread, but as I'm working through my 2nd playthrough of ME3 I feel for some reason like I really need to give my opinion.

I just want to say first off that I've spent hundreds of hours in Mass Effect. Many playthroughs of ME1, many more of ME2 and I think it's biowares masterpiece.

Changes I liked in ME3

1. Guns/Armor

The guns and armor in ME1 were not very interesting, even more so with the fact that depending on your class you could only use a few and the rest were useless. ME2 was a step in the right direction, and while limiting your class to a certain weapon set there was increased variety of weapons and each weapon felt somewhat different giving more choices. Armor played a more intersting role but honestly there were few pieces worth wearing and rarely any reason to switch.Playing through ME3 I find the vast majority of guns to be satisfying and different enough to be interesting. Sticky bomb pistols, spike throwing shotguns etc. Armor also is much more interesting. As an Engineer I've spent a lot of time trying to mix and match my armor, more power? Faster Recharge? Better guns? The massive amount of choices gives lots of options depending on playstyle.

2. "Organic" Dialogue

In ME1 and ME2 characters were static unless Shepard interacted with them. In ME3 characters move around the ship, talk to, and interact with each other. While it sucks if you end up missing one, whoever did the Map Info gets a high five from me. Instantly allows me to check each floor and see what characters are there and where they are. While there is less wheel dialogue between shepard and each of the characters, I feel like this gives each of the characters more of their own personality while letting Shepard influence them at important junctures.  Bonus points for Joker/EDI. I wasn't sure how I felt about EDI getting a body for a little bit after it happend, but stellar writing for EDI and Joker made for great comic relief and memorable characters.

3. Genophage/Rannoch

These story lines were wrapped up beautifuly. I cried both times at the end of the Rannoch missions (Peace). Mordins end (Cure) was also very fitting. With Wrex and Eve alive there was a lot of hope that things might be better for the Krogan, if they can finally move past their bloodlust impulses. As for Rannoch, well Tali has always been a favorite of mine. Her loyalty mission in ME2 was by far my favorite and the Rannoch series was no different. The way that you guys chose to develop the Geth was tremendous. The first playthrough I was very nervous that peace was even possible until the very end. Great writing but some missed chances here which I'll talk about next.

4. Javik

I don't have a whole lot to say except that I love this character. Totally throws everything people thought they knew about the Protheans out the window. Great work here.

5. Music (Vigil)

Thanks for remembering how great this song is. A simple masterpiece and I will miss it.


Missed Chances in ME3
I want to preface this section by saying that I'm certain many of these things were discussed in depth in production, but I felt like they should have been included.

1. Tali Reveal

Okay this seems minor, but this feels like something that the series has been building up to since ME1. Obviously Tali is a popular character, and I feel the the end of the Rannoch series was a real missed chance to reveal her face. I enjoyed the picture but I felt like the whole series has been teasing a reveal. Wouldn't that have been a perfect time to reveal her face when she removes her mask on Rannoch? Why the tease Bioware? I think the most confusing thing here is not that you didn't show her face in game. If you had kept it a complete secret I would have been dissapointed, but understanding as a mystery in cases like this may be better than the truth. Instead we get kind of halfway there, a picture but still mask removal teases, even after Rannoch (For Tali LIs). Why not go all the way?

2.War Assets

I realize this has been beat to death so I'll keep it short. I spent a lot of time flying around scanning planets and building my war assets as much as possible, and I'll admit I did this in my 2nd playthrough as well however as a part of the game that was so publicized, and holds such a center stage in the main game they seem to have very little impact on the games ending itself. We see a few flashes of Geth and Quarian ships, the Destiny Ascension flying around but beyond that we get very little. Why not show me a Quarian saving a Geth Troopers life. A Krogan and Turian fighting back to back before being overrun with Husks. The ME series really did its best to work on an emotional level, so why is it ignored here?

3. The Ending and Harbinger

Once again, beaten to death and I understand both sides of the argument. I almost feel like here what happened is that the writers have all the answers, and through the course of time and knowing all the answers, maybe they thought that they're not so significant anymore. As players, we have only what you give us and I think everyone would have liked to know more. All the secrets? Maybe not, but what about the Keepers? Talked about in every game, speculated and poked and prodded and scanned, and yet we learn nothing new. Who created the Reapers? Whats their orignal story? Is this something you plan on telling us later? With the Relays destroyed and Reapers dead/gone/green why not let us know the secrets.

Also, Harbinger. What happened to this guy? In Mass Effect 2 he hounded me endlessely, turning those almost dead collectors into super collectors. He called to me by name, talked to my in arrival (I think) and in turn i did everything I could to ****** him off.He's present in the story, he has his own codex entry, he shoots me with a giant laser but he never makes any attempt to contact me or thwart my goals. I felt like he was forshadowed as a major villan but he fell to the wayside and the Illusive man took his spot. What would have been really cool is if Harbinger took control of the Illusive man a'la Saren and we got to have a little chat with him before we fired off the Crucible. In the game we don't even get to see him destroyed!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thats about all I have to say. I just want to say Bioware that I really love what you guys are doing with your games for the most part and I am always excited to hear more about your future projects. I think the whole triology idea is fantastic. While I loved DA:O I never felt so invested in the story as I did with Mass Effect. So many years in the game, I was excited for ME3 the as soon as the credits stopped rolling on ME1 (Faunts is pretty great!)

As for collecting feedback, here's my last personal request. A Mass Effect game (with a shepard style character) in a post ME3 universe. I think the best stories are told when we are given a character like Shepard and told to make him who we want, create a character from a template (Salarian swordsman!) and try and shove him into a story.

Keep up the good work, and thanks for everything.

[mupchu777]

Rather than write a whole length review let me just 2nd RavenNemain's review. The ending is the only thing that mares the game... I've been loving MP, Loved the content sans the ending. The ending is just ok and has a lot of plot holes and absolutely NO CLOSURE... I don't need a happy ending, just an ending. I actually thought it was going to be a Glory type ending (everyone dies)... what we do have is a mess of an ending that would be fine if it wasn't on a mass effect game... If we didn't care about the characters and the world that we've spent the last few years gaming in it wouldn't have mattered. That said I am conflicted on giving a review number but I'd probably still say 10/10 provided BW fixes it otherwise it would be an 8/10... It's not enough to absolutely ruin it for me, but it does mare the game. It will definitely give me pause before the next pre-order. I'm really disappointed as I have bought and consumed everything BW has put out.

[nikki191]

the major technical problem i had was the jouranl. when in this day and age with the 3rd game of a series i have to take a pen and paper and write things down to keep track of quests its a major failing. especially as its not a new feature.

also getting stuck on the bridge talking to edi was annoying.

ive only played one playthrough and that was playing a female shepard. i never complain about things like graphics, etc but the animation really needed to be adressed its shockingly bad for a main character you have to see walking around constantly.

the ending.. ive been trying to figure out for the last 2 weeks why it got to me so much. its not the plot holes, the different theme, etc. today i finally understood what it was. ive spent 3 games creating my shepards story, creating a journey through this world interacting with characters as i choose and then at the end it became biowares story not mine. entitled or not, artistic integrity or not, whether you are happy with the ending or not bioware. you took my shepards story from me and made it yours.

*edit* im not going to give a number for what i think its worth. but in 32 years of gaming Mass effect 3 went from my favourite game ever to something that i not only cant replay but made me not be able to replay the series and if i didnt have the pc version i would of sold them by now

Modifié par nikki191, 27 mars 2012 - 01:32 .

[SwordofMercy1]

yeah my turn!
70/100
Loved the gameplay and story. Intro was interesting since it didn't last as long as the one in ME2 (though that one was sooooo epic). Character creation cleaned up quite nicely. Character interaction was great, though I really missed doing loyalty missions... (Love you Garrus). I also liked how the weapon mods and GRENADES were put back in. How I could also buy the special armor (Terminus) that I couldn't get in the second one was awesome too. The fact that our Shepard actually shows more emotion and interacts with characters more emotionally is spectacular! Definately captures how the war is beginning to affect the protagonist.
Now for the cons of the game. Though dialog was deeper and more interactive, in some parts, it felt pretty short, and after that one occurance, there isn't much interaction after that. The journal was really confusing and sometimes unhelpful. I actually had to google some quests! Some of the other dialogs are automatic and say things that I wouldn't have picked in the first place... Well not on my Paragon anyway. Some parts of the game glitched horribly, such as the Magnetic Walls of Doom. I also really hated how I got stuck rolling between two walls for five minutes while being shot at!
Other than that it was great!...
Oh wait...
THE FREAKIN ENDINGS!!!!!!!!
Now I get where Bioware was going with this about sacrifice for salvation but that is just bulls***... Sorry
Anyway, it felt like I had no choice in the matter. I spent hundreds of hours on the two prior games making all the Paragon choices to be ready (I even had the Rachni on my team!!!!), and the ending basically said, "Very good. Now pick how your going to die and there will be no epilogue what-so-ever of what happens to the galaxy. Oh and we're also going to shoot you with a freakin laser to give you more plot holes". Okay I know that the game is choice-based, but choosing your death shouldn't count!!! I was really hoping that with all the right choices I could have continued to do the impossible, survive, retire, have turian-human babies with Garrus, and die happily. Nope, don't get that though!
Sorry if I sound like I'm ranting! This is my favorite series, and it really sucks how it ended. I kinda don't wanna replay it now until an ME4 comes out or another DLC is realised. Sorry Bioware, I still love you even though you made me cry.

[Lellandra]

So far I have finished ME3 only once. That was with my first character created way back when ME1 was launched.
A paragon vanguard named Julia. The sole survivor from Akuze made her want to save everyone else she could after that.

I'll start by saying Mass Effect is my favorite game series of all time, bar none. I have only played femsheps. Jennifer Hale work is amazing! FemHawk was pretty good also but Jennifer has now set up the bar so high the other actors need pole vaulting lessons. The ability to choose your dialogue choices and hear them delivered by Hale is just great. My first suggestion is hire her for every female character from now on! hahaha

Now I've rambled enough! Mass Effect 3 got a lot of things right in my opinion. Dialogue and scenes with characters you've grown to love throughout the game were top notch. I felt the lack of neutral choice but it didn't bother me much. I enjoyed the new Paragon/Renegade system but I will try to do one run full Renegade.
The little easter eggs spread through the game were great! Finding my VI was one of the best experiences of the game! Sooo funny!
Combat was improved but there was just too much bound to the Space bar.
The sound, OMG the sound!! Your audio team deserves several awards! Same with the soundtrack team. Just unforgettable.
I really liked my Shepard having more doubts and being able to show she wasn't an unfeeling hero. The nightmares were pretty powerful too.

Now that Journal needs serious work. Once you got a quest it would not change to show what was your next step. I got used to opening the map while on the Citadel and just scrolling through the maps to see if there was a name I didn't recognize or something called "console" or "terminal" that pointed me to a quest I needed to turn in.

And of course, the topic du jour, endings!
I must admit I was completely baffled by the ending. I didn't understand it at all. Why was I talking to the kid from my dreams? Where was Harbinger? I was pretty sure he was the villain at Arrival. Maybe this kid will turn into Harbinger after I tell him to eff off? No, that was the end, choose the galaxy's faith: control, destruction or synthesis. My Paragon Shepard could not destroy the geth so she picked the green one.
After the crash landing of the Normandy I was expecting a 50 years later kind of epilogue. Maybe showing my team mates' fate since I didn't get to see them fighting at all after the beam hit me. And of course, what happened to the galaxy I helped "save". It just wasn't satisfying to me at all.

I haven't finished my second playthrough yet. I'm trying to run a Destroy ending.

I believe the inclusion of a brand new character in the last 5 minutes left me confused and wondering what plot I missed. Why were we denied a chance to talk to Harbinger? Was this because of new players that did not play ME1 and ME2? What happened to everyone after we chose? I know some lived because of the Stargazer dialogue with the kid after the credits but that's it. So many questions, you start to get a little frustrated.

[Forc3 Abuser]

I have to say that the game as a whole was an astounding success. I felt like I was running through the galaxy and racing against the clock in trying to gather up enough military resources to take down the Reapers. The gameplay was awesome, the tweaks to the armor/weapon system hit the target right on the nose, and I thought there was enough crew interaction (even without the wheel for the most part) to make me feel as if this was the Normandy from ME2, but now just in the hands of the Alliance.

I love how you guys progressed the romance story, especially since I went with Ashley in ME1 and was able to strike it back up in ME3, even with all the problems that occurred in ME3. I look forward to seeing the romance stories for Liara and Tali in my other playthroughs, although I know that we don't get to see a full face reveal for Tali (maybe in patch or DLC?).

The other storylines were touching, especially Legion's and Mordin's deaths. Legion's pleading voice when telling Tali goodbye was gut wrenching, and I loved Mordin singing his song again at the end, even modifying it a little bit. Redemption is always a powerful thing in life.

As for the endings themselves, I have done the Synthesis ending and the best Destruction ending, and I have to say, once I was on Rannoch I pretty much saw the whole "Reapers are made by some celestial being thing and it thinks they're best for the universe." thing coming. I did not see the Citadel being the Catalyst, but you do pretty well with some twists in story. However, for me personally, the best destruction ending makes the most sense for the story of the previous two games to me. It explains why the Normandy is running from the Sol system in the Mass Relay: Joker is trying to save EDI at all costs. In addition, Shepard and those with him are hellbent on stopping the Reapers, especially destroying them. Even the Geth want them to die, and are willing to die to accomplish that feat, even if it means the eradication of their species.

Another problem I had was how Anderson died and how the Illusive Man was able to control him. How is that possible? I understand that he is able to control Shepard with his synthetic components, but Anderson has none that were mentioned in the games. I have to admit I haven't read the last two books that have come out from ME, but they weren't mentioned in the games. Anderson should have been bullrushing the Illusive Man and knocking the stuffing out of him. In addition, I realize that you needed to be perfectly paragon to convince the Illusive Man to not shoot Anderson, but I thought that bar was a bit too high. I randomly got a +5 Renegade halfway through the game and that messed it up. I always try to choose the Paragon option and unless I accidentally hit one of the renegade buttons on the quick paragon/renegade options, then I don't remember how I got any renegade. Its a small complaint, but annoying when you have a whole bar of paragon and one little itty bit of renegade that screws the pooch, especially when it was accidentally done.

I have a few problems with the Synthesis ending. The first is that the Catalyst thinks it knows everything, but it wasn't able to see ahead and see that Shepard and Anderson were going to be able to get to the Citadel and get the Crucible there. Then it thinks it can predict that biological life will create more synthetic life when it already realizes what synthetic life has done to biological life already in the ME universe. Additionally, you showed on Rannoch that organics and synthetics were able to coexist to some extent, so it does not naturally conclude that the organics and synthetics would tear each other apart.

Another thing is that the Catalyst assumes that bio-synthetic life is the ultimate end for all life. It assumes that when you mix the free will of an organic being with the cold, calculating logic of the machines that you'll get perfect beings. The problems with this is that for one, human beings have the capability to temper their will with logic, something we all have the capacity for since we are born reasonable beings.

Finally, the machines you have in the ME series definitely express emotions of their own. The Geth want to cooperate with their creators, the Reapers are all menacing and seem pissed when you blow up the Collector Base in 2 and even afraid when you are threatening their own survival, so the synthesizing of these two kinds of life won't make them perfect beings. What you get instead is a radically different being that at best is probably confused what to do with itself, and at worst is warring with itself, the organic free will fighting the cold logic of the synthetic portion of its being.

My last problem I want to discuss is one repeated often on this forum: please give us some idea what happens to the rest of our squad. Did Wrex make it out alive from that Reaper hitting the tower he was in? Was that Wrex? Did an Alliance medical team get to Shepard in time to save his butt so he can hook back up with his love interest and marry the gal/guy? It would be nice to see how they made out after the destruction of the relays. Was the remaining Council able to reproduce the crude Mass Relay that the Protheans were able to construct on Ilos and the Citadel, or is the "conventional" FTL capabilities all they have left? Some of these can be answered in another game or books or whatever, but the team member questions should be filled in, and if they died, hopefully they had meaningful deaths.

Again, this was a great game overall. This is probably one of the last video games I will purchase because I have little time for games anymore and they have to be great in order for me to play them. This game definitely cost me some time in researching my thesis, but I thought it was definitely time well spent and am glad that I bought this game, even the Collector's Edition.

The multiplayer was pretty darn good, especially since it was your first entry into the multiplayer market in the ME series. I enjoyed playing some random vanguard that ran around and worked COOPERATIVELY with other players. It makes it more fun when you can work as a team with other people to accomplish objectives and defeat enemies, or laugh at them (not over the mic of course) when they mess up and get themselves killed! I wish there wasn't a diminishing Galactic Readiness chart, but I heard that you can lock it once you promote or something? Anyway, you scored pretty high in my book with multiplayer.

The endings were OK but not great and I do hope that there is some conclusions for the entire team. Overall, I would give this game a 9/10 with the endings, 10/10 if the endings were more conclusive and thought out more to go along with the rest of the series. This series is one of my favorite game series of all time and is right up there with the best Final Fantasy games (6-10). Thank you very much for the ride you have given us with Shepard, and hopefully there are more good stories to be told from this universe, in book or game form!

PS: Sorry this is so long, but I am a BIG fan of this series!

[feldinor]

Overall 5/10

Combat system 8/10 - I like how weapons have weight increasing ability cooldowns, I like how the fighting works, but I just with that damn spacebar wasn't multifunctional. Spacebar messes up and doesn't do what I want it to do and is responsible for quite a few deaths.

Storyline 7/10 - Side missions are messy, especially at the start, where you pick up 10 new missions on the way to trying to finish one. Having the main mission marked as Priority while the side missions expire, is confusing (as you'd need to do the Priority mission last in case you want to do all the missions). Picking up missions you can't even complete yet makes this more confusing (as you want to finish any expirable missions before doing the next Priority mission). Additionally the storyline feels too liniar, with too little difference between going full Paragon or full Renegade.

Characters 7/10 - The characters I become to love the most, either had a minor role, or came late ingame. Especially the ME2 characters, which I loved the most. Miranda and Jack had little storyline, even when I had Jack as LI. Tali, my favourite character, only joins the crew very late ingame. Tali as LI is dissapointing as hell. A picture of her face? Really? I rather wouldn't have seen her face at all and keep it mysterious. The new squad... well... I'm not too fond of Garrus, I hate Liara, and Ashley isn't my favourite either. I liked EDI, though her LI with Joker was silly. I got to admit James is ok, but I rather have characters from ME2 in my squad (like Miranda, Jack, Grunt, Legion).

Weapon Modding 9/10 - I liked this. Somehow ME1 and ME2 weapon systems were confusing for me, with too many numbers which didn't mean anything to me. ME3 does it right, while I still think there's a little overdose of different weapons. The weapon mods are cool.

Multiplayer 6/10 - I like it, but it has some flaws. I realize it's new, so I'll give it a chance to be improved over time. The unlock lottery is quite a dissapointment, but that's been discussed a lot already. But getting into a random game is kinda silly too. Most games seem to gather 4 people queueing to put them directly in a game together. But ME3 places a player into a random lobby created by another player, which may or may not be full, and then people still have to check if they're ready. (If someone isn't ready, why would they search a game?). Additionally, if too many people hit the "create a game" button, there's an overload of half-full lobbies. This system works fine for people playing with friends or a specific team, but not for people who just want to play a random game with random people; too much hassle to get in a game. Secondly, if 3 of 4 people are ready, and the one not ready leaves the lobby, the game tries to start with only 3 people. Though I think it's fine that it's possible for people to play a game with less than 4, it shouldn't be possible for a random game. If people leave halfway a game, you're pretty much screwed too. ME3 multiplayer should have a queue-system, not a lobby-system for random pugs.

Starchild 1/10 - I mean the cutsceness, those were annoying as hell. Even worse, the kid annoyed me right from the first scene in the Citadel, but ok, I could live with that. But the dreams...
Worst thing is they can't be skipped.

The End 1/10 - Everything has been said about this already, and I fully support anyone not satisfied with it. One thing I want to add; I wasn't able to manually save the game after meeting Marauder Shields. When I picked the wrong ending (before I knew it didn't matter), because I couldn't lump back away again after approaching one ending (silly), I had to reload my Autosave to redo the whole part again staring at Marauder Shields. And with the terrible long conversation with TIM, it was annoying as hell that I couldn't skip, and couldn't save.

Additionally, I don't plan to buy any DLC before Bioware fixes the ending (for free, because I already payed for a proper ending when buying the game).

[Hot_Rod]

Chronological review:

1. Beginning: 8/10 -Incarcerated? She's a Spectre and saved the council anywhere but earth they'd throw parades to get her to visit!  Weapons boost this category as they are an improvement, I keep a Skorpion, SMG (almost weightless with mods) and a light sniper rifle.  Quick regen for powers when I'm not sticking limpet mines to heads & tails of Cerberous employees.  Crotch shots cause an amusing amount of panic as well.  

2. Gathering allies 9/10 - quick, easy straightforward except you couldn't get back most of the old crew. (At least they had good reasons why & parts to play)

3. Cerberus 3/10 - a humans first terrorist organization opts to make its troops non-human for combat performance increase... I had no loyalty to them despite the bogus death/rebuild beginning in 2, and I don't see any twisted attempts to explain this corruption, even using it on himself before trying to activate "control" at the catalyst, just makes no sense.

4. Exploring/Reapers 4/10 - Ok, you made a scanner that checks a large area, but took away the quiet option... Why? When you alert reapers to one star system in a cluster, why to they remain active in the other ones? I'd like to lead them on a merry chase, do a mission and go back & scoop the discoveries at least.

5. Rachini 7/10 - one queen, but she shows up with a whole fleet to aid you in the final battle? There should have been more missions to rescue her key "people" & make the missions last longer. I was glad Grunt made it out alive.

6. Geth 9/10 - Game in a game was fairly intuitive & explained, the historical data was interesting if sparce. Legion's sacrifice cemented my decision at the catalyst.

7. Alliances 6/10 - Perhaps paranoia really would make the Salarians prefer to die now to the reapers than later to Krogan retaliations, but they are supposed to be smart and analytical without emotions like fear...

8. Kai Leng 1/10 - Worth a full spot because all his scenes should have been fully animated not scripted battles. Why make me fight him if you guarantee he will get away (when he shouldn't have had a chance, my skorpion X is very good at taking out assault choppers and atlas mechs and as an adept I had him down 3x in 2 min). The last turn of his head after you skewer his cold heart and is lying on the floor for the second time that fight is just too much.

9. Ending battle (Part1) 9/10 - a great door-door battle in a shell shocked city, some tough fights (made easier by maxed out EDI and Liara at my side (also adept +reave) the fighting was varied & interesting.

10. Ending Battle (Part2) 2/10 - Scripted laser hit blows away your armor & weapons leaving you with a light pistol, and gut injuries. The slow walk might as well have been scripted too, it was just boring. Walking past the keeper but being unable to shoot it was odd now that you know its a reaper construct, again might as well have made it a movie for all the options you had. Talking with Anderson and TIM one of the few places your past decisions can alter the game, saving Anderson. Again you might as well have made a movie of the next bit staggering to the catalyst & listening to it explain what has happened and leaving it to you to choose. For my character the choice was obvious, but I had no idea what choice I made the first time as I just staggered straight into synthesis (which would have been my choice, Geth & Quarians are now equals as well as allies, Jeff & EDI might even have kids some day, and every race will have some common ground (probably allowing the Krogan to realize quickly what would happen if they spawn like they did in the past.)

Overall :58/100 less 50% for galactic readiness giving it a Final Overall rating: 29/100
Did I mention it was way to darn short? Many fewer missions than ME2 and the TMR seems a crude out of character mechanism for tracking missions complete.
Plot holes would poke another couple off the final score, but I really liked BW so they get a break on this.

Modifié par Hot_Rod, 27 mars 2012 - 08:06 .

[AllThatJazz]

Ending (s) aside, I think the game is wicked. Tuchanka, Rannoch and Grissom Academy are some of the best levels I've played in a videogame. Yeah, the fetch quests are a bit meh, as was scanning for minerals in ME2, and looking for rocks in ME1. But the 'proper' sidequests - bomb on Tuchanka, Grissom Academy, rescuing Admiral Koris, Grunt, the AY monastery etc - were really good, and quite substantial. Much, much better than sidequests in ME1 or 2, imo.

The 'big' moments (endings and beginning aside) were done very, very well. Mordin, Legion, Thessia, Sanctuary - I loved experiencing these. Also, really liked the Geth consensus. I felt like I was in 'The Last Starfighter', takes me back :3


Squaddies (in terms of conversations) are vastly better. I think they have far more meaningful stuff to say, I love that they interact with each other so much, and that taking them on particular missions really pays off (Ash/Kaidan on Horizon is another one). The Garrus and Kaidan romances are beautifully done, and Garrus is overall even better in this game than in the other 2. That moment when Shep is really down after Thessia and Garrus gives her a bit of a peptalk is just marvellous, as is the bit with him on the top of the Citadel. The fact that they can all be found around the Citadel is also a neat touch. James Vega was a lovely surprise. Freddie did a great job, and James was a major part of my team, which was very unexpected.

The Citadel itself is wonderful. I love the different areas, I love that it changes after the priority quests. Although, it could have done with undergoing one final change in tone after Thessia/Horizon. I was still hearing the soldier trying to send her kid to Thessia, after it had been destroyed ... Also, a glitch here. The 'teenage refugee' in the holding area, is talking to a human C-Sec guard. But by the third 'part' of the convo, guard has turned into a Batarian bloke. Space Magic?


Squadmates in combat are also much better - they can actually handle themselves and not die all the time.


Dialogue is on par with the other two games, and better in places. Drunk Tali was great, as was Blasto 6. Also Garrus and Liara throughout the game. Mordon and Legion's deaths were written beautifully.

I must be the only person who doesn't have an issue with the journal. I liked that it was barebones, I felt like I was doing everything myself, rather than being led around. I didn't have trouble finding anyone and I didn't fail any sidequests.

Sound - all great. Music, voice acting, environmental sounds, weapon noises etc. Top Notch.


That said, there a few elements I wasn't so happy with:

Lack of exploration - I think there was scope for a little random exploration, although there being less does make sense given the urgency of the main mission. When scanning planets, instead of finding a war asset, you could pick up a distress signal. Cue a mission to extract some civilians or help out a spec ops team or whatever. I was disappointed not to be able to rescue Elcor civilians from Dakuuna

Auto dialogue (Shep) - I did feel more passive than in the previous titles. I didn't love it, but it stopped bothering me part way through.

N7 missions - generally on a par with ME2's N7 missions. But in ME2, there were a couple of non-combat ones (Normandy crash site, for example) that provided a nice change of pace. Something like this would have been welcome.

Can't get Shep breathes ending without multiplayer - honestly, this is my biggest gripe with the game. I am locked out of in-game content that I've paid for, because I am unable or unwilling to play MP or get the app. Not cool.

Javik. Don't get me wrong, guy is really, really cool. Which is sort of the point. He should have been included in the core game. I got the CE, so I got him anyway, and yes, his content is purely 'flavour' - but great flavour! He really adds so much to the gameworld, and I can't imagine not taking him to Thessia, people who don't have him are really missing out there, I think. 

Harbinger. We needed him there as an antagonist, his absence was noticeable.

Endings. What can I say? Lack of closure, lack of clarification, lack of consistency with the rest of the game (and trilogy) and indeed with Shepard's character, lack of diversity, and rendered the choices made throughout the rest of the game essentially meaningless. The last hour or so does seem very rushed, and I firmly believe that you guys can do much better than rehashing the Deus Ex endings. I'll be honest, I didn't much like those endings when they were in Deus Ex, I certainly don't like 'em now.

I honestly don't see why you had to introduce all these new things just as the trilogy was wrapping up. A very simple ending, involving using the Crucible as a weapon to weaken the reapers, followed by cutscenes that showed your EMS affecting the outcome of the battle as the galactic alliance engages the weakened reapers in conventional war, would have more than sufficed. Followed by a choice of either a 'sad' ending, a 'bittersweet' one, or a 'heroic' one, all based on how many assets you'd gathered etc. It seems as though you wanted to do something complicated and thoughtful (lots of specualtion?) - but in my opinion simplicity, and something that reaffirmed the players' ownership of the series (rather than taking it away), would have been more successful.

That's my opinion, for what it's worth. Still a fantastic game, thanks so much for all your hard work over the past 5 years, and thanks for creating a series that I have loved like no other

[KingKhan03]

Awful Ending.

[majinbuu1307]

Chris Priestly wrote...

Hi Everyone

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

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

(Start with) My Mass Effect 3 score: X/100 (where X = your score. 95, 67, 42, 6, etc)
(And then why you gave it that score) I really liked/disliked ME3 and here is why.....

We want to hear from you.

Fan Review # 3836742
Fantastic Game....until the turd at the end of the long hard struggle.

[Edukhan]

 First of all I want to
thank Bioware for all the great adventures they created, all the stories they
told us in since the first Baldur's Gate up to the ME3. I'm not going to be
original - the ME3 is a great game, I was really excited to play it, and thank
you again for all of your titanic work. The graphics is great, the music is
awesome, and the story is intriguing and so on.

 

But. Yes. The ending. 

 

Most people I've read and
listen say the last ten minutes ruin the whole story from the very beginning. I
slightly disagree with that. As for me, the whole final battle from the space
part to the London part is a disappointing one in a scenario aspect. I'll try
to explain my point of view.

 

So, Cerberus base is
destroyed, Kai Len is dead, Crucible project is completed. All forces are
prepared for a final push toward the Reapers. It's the calm before the Storm.
Let's take a pause here.

The greatest battle in the
history of humankind, Earth, and the whole Galaxy. Think about it. The
generations of human, turian, krogan, asari, you name it - all the warriors
fighting in billions of battles - and here is the climax. The moment of truth.
For humans it's like a Marathon and Chalons, Trafalgar and Waterloo, Verdun and
Marne, Stalingrad and Midway - and much more, and all of them combined and
gathered in one place.

 

Here it comes. 

The battle begins from space
fighting and we see all this ships coming out, and all the Reapers. Yes, it
looks good, but as the battle rages on, as for me, there is no involvement in
it. Where all the strike ships we discovered as war assets. SSV Leipzig and SSV
Trafalgar, cruiser Shanghai, Council ship, etc. If you've mentioned them, please
show them fighting, show their victories or their downfalls. Show us command
bridges, all in flashing lights of alarm, orders and reports. Show us admirals
counting losses and making maneuvers. Please show the most important space
battle in Galaxy just in some more details, than panorama of fighting ships. It
would be great if you'd shown us the strategic briefing, so we could understand
the whole strategy of the Fleet. Shepard deserved it and so do we. I believe
there had to be more tactics, than simple "CHAAARGE!". Why do you
show us all this long unskipable dialogs, but not the full battle of Earth?

 

Now we are going down. 

London part. OMG. Again, some
anti-aircraft gun. Again, we have to destroy it. What, you don't want to give
us a cliché ending??? However, it seems we have this type of mission in every
ME game. And not only in them - take the recent Space Marine for example.
Moreover, we have this kind of task in ME3 - rebel scientists mission. And
again, the lack of epic battle involvement. Reapers have only ONE anti-aircraft
in London to prevent united forces from landing in strategic zone??? No way. If
you are so stuck on anti-anti-aircraft-gun missions, please make it look legit.
Show whole companies of specops forces (N7 and Shepard including, STG, asari
commando, etc) which have to disarm anti-aircraft system of the area. When the
cinematic trailer of the ME3 appeared, that scene with the girl and her ship,
it made me feel like "Give me the ****ing rifle and I'll show those
bastards they've just messed with the wrong planet!" and so on. I wanted
that full-scale charge with an army behind my back into the horde of enemies. I
wanted massive, epic, legendary battle together with friends against the most
dangerous threat in the Galaxy. I want heavy mechs (seriously, damned Cerberus
uses Atlases in every mission against you, are there any "good"
Atlases in the Galaxy?), I wanted tanks, not only those MAKOs, I wanted air and
artillery support, and so on. It's a war, after all, not another special team
operation! But I didn't receive it. Only typical "destroy anti-aircraft
gun with two companions" mission, then short camp episode and finally
"survive N waves of enemies" mission. This is it. THIS IS THE MOST
IMPORTANT FIGHT IN THE WHOLE SERIES. As for me, it has far less tension than
suicide mission in ME2 does. By the way, we destroyed the Reaper only with some
standard rockets, just with upgraded software??? So what the problem - upload
this new software on every artillery system and blow the a**holes apart!

 

And here is another problem.
Oh yes, the Reapers!

Do you remember Sovereign?
It's deep, threatening, mechanical voice filled with certain doom? "We are
Legion... We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness..." How
on earth they've become speechless big robots with death rays from "War of
the Worlds"? What did you say about clichés, eh? Sovereign was cold,
emotionless but smart and cunning creature. It was fighting alone against
several Alliance fleets and had chances to win! Reapers in previous parts were
unthinkable, mighty, mysterious, intelligent doomsday machines. Reapers in ME3
are just huge insect-like robots with a laser.

 

Those
<insert_your_adjective_here> final 10 minutes.

First of all I don't like the
idea of "zombie"-shep who walks so slowly, that you begin to fall
asleep. It begins with those dreams (Max Payne's nighmares were much more
impressive) and it's the same with the final walk of Shep. Nothing is
happening. You just walk through about several minutes! What? Is this some kind
of European-elite-festival movie (no offence, please)? Did Jarmusch or
Tarkovsky inspire you on that?  The scene with Illusive Man was not bad, I
agree, but blah-blah-blah is too long. And at last. The Catalyst. Who? What?
Why? - the great WWW of the ME3 ending. Seriously, Bioware, you wanted original
and non-cliché ending, so that is why you used cliché, which was invented
several hundred years BC??? It's called deus ex machina or apo mekhanes theos.
Do you really think it makes sense? And the variants of the endings inspired by
Deus Ex series? Is that some kind of joke, altogether? I cannot add something
about the nonsense ending, it all have been spoken already.

 

I don't know else can be said.
I'm disappointed, not even angry or sad. It looks like another team created the
ending in great haste. I don't believe in "Evil Absolute", in
managers with lashes that force developers to release the product no matter the
quality. Still I've got no idea about how has it come to this.  "End,
once and for all" is a masterpiece anyway. Just can't stop listening.
Thank you again. 



80/100 will be fair enough, I suppose.





Sorry for my English.

[Feirefiz1972]

After finishing mass effect 3 several times i would like to say (eventhough the ps3 version is near unplayeble) that it is one of the best games i ever played. It has excellent gameplay and an engrossing storyline. Highlights in the game are the moraly ambigiouss storylines in witch i as a player was involved in the outcome, namely liberating the geth and letting the quarians return to there homeworld, but most of all i have to say that i felt really good about curing the genophage. Mordins death was epic. I do not experience these things in any other games so kudos to you Bioware.

Now for the stuff i considert a bit of a letdown, all the descisions that i was curious about how they would play out did not seem to matter. The game plays out excactly the same wether you saved the rachi queen or not, it played out the same if you destroyed the collectorbase or not. It did not matter if you saved Mealons work on curing the genophage or not. You promised my choises would matter but they did not.

Now about the ending, at one point we were building a superweapon that would help defeating the reapers and i was expecting an epic finale to this theme.
But then at the very ending i am introduced to some poorly explained person that gives me basicly 3 options witch determine the outcome?!?
Sorry guys, i value youre artistic freedom but as an ending it feels tagged on and low on effort. All my previous choises did not matter in the end, it all boils down to the same ending. Choose option a, b or c wich are basicly the same. but the worst part is that i couldn simply not relate to it. So all in all eventough i did not get the epic final fight i hoped for mass effect 3 was a great game and i am already curious about the next mass effect.

[Thanatos144]

Loved the game....Loved the ending....Hate the fact that the PS3 takes so damn long to load.

[Radzwe]

I enjoyed the game. One of the most memorable moments for me was trying to resolve the Quarian/Geth, I thought if I pushed enough, the Quarians would back down and make peace. Then the Quarians and Tali died... and I felt horrible.

I will continue to play through the entire serious in order to see additional dialogue options.
I understand the ending and I appreicate it for what it is. I am very tired of all the fan "ending" venom.

Perhaps I have been indoctrinated.

[PhineasTLazarus]

You can add another first time poster to the list, here … I figured that the brouhaha (or kerfuffle, if you prefer) that has erupted over the game was inclining Bioware to read and review these forums maybe more carefully than they otherwise would, and so figured that it would be worth my time to be heard.
 
Let me start by saying that I have enjoyed the ME series more than almost any other game(s) I have played. And I started gaming way back in the days of Wizardry 1, Bard’s Tale, through Planescape and Baldur’s Gate, right up to DA and ME – and most everything in between. So, I kinda think that first statement says a lot: of all the games I have played, I have never played any so repeatedly and enthusiastically as I did the ME works. By my estimate, I have logged in somewhere between 500 and 1000 hours of play time on ME1/ME2/ME3. Uh, wow, that’s crazy.
 
Anyway – yes, so I had 9.5 playthroughs of ME1-2. (9 complete, plus one that used the “genesis” DLC.) I played because I loved the games, and also to track all of the storyline and class and character differences. My characters – oh, which I just MUST name here, ‘cos they rock: Aletheia, Alice, Ash, Atreides, August, Holly, Sabine, Siegrune, Ticonderoga, Victoria – each did things a bit differently from ME1 to ME2. It got so complex that I had to create a spreadsheet! (Yeah, that’s crazy too.)
 
All I’m sayin’ is: these are great games. I think a lot of people – as mad as they may be about certain aspects – acknowledge this with their very passionate responses here. Hell hath no fury like a gamer scorned, I guess.
 
But specifically regarding ME3, I’ll jot down my own review and/or list of good, meh, bad. So far, I have played through only one of my 9.5 characters to the end, so there is stuff that I may not know / haven’t seen / am not used to.
 
Positive
 
Characters: yeah, I know Bioware takes a lot of pride in this, but I do think it is worth saying again. I really think they did an amazing job creating some of these personalities. In ME3 specifically I liked Jack and her changing character (didn’t care for her much in ME2). “And I’ve always liked Tali, so no need to go there.”
 
Drinking: like everyone, I think, drunk Ash and drunk Tali were two highpoints in the game for me.
 
Locations: this gets placed in the positive and negative categories. I felt there were not enough locations (a common enough complaint) but that the ones we had in ME3 were all really good and really different and engaging. I loved Palaven – not even so much for the action but the scenery, with the image of the Turian homeworld burning in the sky above. I liked Earth a lot (during the finale). I loved advancing through artillery fire on one of the Tuchanka missions. The Asari homeworld and temple were very nice, etc.
 
Shooter mechanics: I really liked the FPS action of these games, and I say that as someone who doesn’t usually go for FPS. I hate Halo, never tried Modern Warfare, don’t know even any other titles to compare. But I liked this one. I think Bioware even got some grief for making a FPS that was less FPS-y than others … mebbe. I liked it.
 
Voice Acting: really top notch. Jennifer Hale is amazing. Minor quibble with Mordin (see below).
 
There are other things … I just really liked the games as a whole. I thought they were really well done and I applaud them for the work. I apologize in advance if the following (Meh and Negative) sections are longer than the Positives section. That’s just how constructive criticism works. It’s easier to describe what we don’t like than what we do, sadly. Again: these are the best games I have played in a long, long time.
 
Meh
 
Multiplayer: not interested, and haven’t yet played. I’m mildly annoyed that playing multiplayer did, in fact, help you in the campaign. The more I read, the more I think this may even preclude some ends, and that would really honk me off a LOT, and move this from the ‘Meh’ category to the ‘Nagative.’ I think MP is becoming very popular, and I understand Bioware’s desire to bring it into this game. I hope ME doesn’t become a MMORPG.
 
DLC: I hear Bioware getting a lot of flak for DLC, and I pretty much disagree. People are annoyed that DLC stuff is available immediately (“Bioware just broke it out as a DLC to make more money”) or that it is late (“I want the full game right away”) or just that they have to pay for it (“I already paid for the game”). I hope I don’t sound like a Bioware shill, but I am always amazed at the content we get for our dollar with these games. Seriously, the voice acting, motion capture, programming, story-telling … I just do not in any way feel ripped off by game costs – there is just too much good content. (Full disclosure: I’m an adult with a good job, so the price is not that big a hit on my pocketbook.) Man, the teasers and trailers alone (which, BTW, are free) are worth a lot to me. #forsunflowergirl!
 
Kinect: I actually bought a Kinect for this game. (I’ll use it for other stuff, but it just so happened that I bought it to try out voice commands on ME3.) Ended up not using it after a short while. It may be something I get more used to as I try it now and again, but in combat it seemed less accurate/immediate than command wheel, and in conversation and observation just seemed silly.
 
Negative
 
The loss of face when importing an ME1 character. My first playthrough I used my Genesis DLC character, so that came in OK. I just today started an older one and the face was lost. This really kinda seems like something that should have been caught in testing.
 
The ending: yeah, sorry, I gotta come out against the ending. I think plenty of people have said plenty of things about it, so I won’t go into detail, but here is my very short take. Nine and one-half playthroughs of ME1/ME2, and I guess I am not so very interested in seeing them all into the three-doom choice of the final episode. I’ll play through a few more characters, but probably not all. Also, I have to admit, some of the quotes people have been digging up from Bioware people saying how great the ending would be, and it would resolve things, and it wouldn’t be just A, B, C … well, that doesn’t seem to have happened. I’m not gonna say anyone was lying, but it sure doesn’t come off sounding too honest. (Note: I do believe some of the “indoctrination” theories going around – I just don’t know how/if that changes the ending or my view of it.) I would like (and would pay for) a DLC that “concluded” the game in a more coherent fashion.
 
Just on that subject: I guess I would land in the “happy ending” camp. I sorta play these games to enjoy a fantasy world of heroism and adventure. I think a lot of us do. To have (what I would call) a “post-modern” end to the story feels – to me – wrongheaded.
 
Anyway, not many other dislikes. I few niggling things … Disappointed that the voice actor for Mordin was not back (the substitute was OK). I agree with some that the journal system wasn’t very good this time around, and that the huge list of tasks I found when I opened it after a citadel visit was a bit off-putting. I also would’ve liked more contact with more NPCs (Jack, Zaeed, Kasumi, etc). This time around felt a little more constrained, too. Some have used the dreaded “L-word” -- linear. I think the lack of locations is to blame. No planet-hopping here. It seemed like I was pretty much always at the Citadel or Normandy.
 
One thing that I wonder about … I know this all comes down to money and time. I bet the design team would love to add in another 20 hours of game time for us, but resources are limited. How much time does it take to do things like change the weapon system or the character build system or add in MP or create the Hammerhead? I ask because I sometimes think while ME1 and ME2 were not perfect for those (or didn’t have them at all), would the community as a whole really rather see those upgrades knowing that the cost would be sacrificing more time with Jack or another level or whathaveyou - ? An open-ended and (probably) unanswerable question.
 
So, for what it is worth, I loved the game and yet sympathize with the “hold the line” movement afoot. I shall watch the future progress of Bioware with considerable interest as they navigate this subject.
 
Overall rating for all episodes: ME1 = 9/10, ME2 = 9/10, ME3 = 8.5/10 (and, yep the extra half-point off is for the ending). But, for perspective, I am not sure I can think of any game that would rate a 10/10!
 

[FemShepRed]

Here's my two cents. I'll skip over all the graphical bugs and quirks and other have doubtless covered them in detail already. The journal not updating once you've gotten a quest item and there being no other place to check to see if you have it was annoying, especially as it was present and working in the last two games. The last of explaination at times was frustrating with the geth multiple links to shoot, the targeting laser behaviour change from use two minutes ago (only activates omnce the panels opened), the heavy camera shaking on the big gun section on Earth which made aiming with my sniper rifle nearly impossible. Also in retrospect the absence of Harbinger from this game and a lack of a final boss battle was a tad strange.

On the plus side the writing was great, loved all the little touches and re-appearances of characters from ME1 and ME2 and seeing how things had changed. Missed Kasumi though, but I guess a optional DLC character would be tricky to put into the main game. I loved that we only not got resolution but were invovled in it for both the Genophage and Quarian/Geth conflict, I choose to release it and peacefully settle it. Thane death was good and Mordin's death was quite moving.
The ending my Shepard had was poignant but in keeping with her character and wrapped up her story nicely.

Yes, I'm one of the rare cases who didn't have a problem with the ending I got.

[Ahms]

Oh, yeah. I also like the fact that you guys paid a lot of homage to Mass Effect 1 in terms of campaign structure, like the main screen, how you go about through the Citadel like it's the main city (every RPG has to have that main city), and of course the many references to the original game.

Please, fix the endings. I know you've heard this eleventy billion times, but it needs repeating, and ultimately doing.

[BPriest24]

Dear Dr. Ray Muzyka and team Bioware,

 

I heard about it before I saw it, the ending to Mass Effect 3.  I thought
“it can’t be all that bad,” in my opinion I was wrong.  Before we get too far into this I want to
thank you for your letter about the criticisms and request for player feedback.
It was big of you to write that and ask players what they would like too
see.  Otherwise, the disappointment I felt at the end was profound and in no way were my expatiations met, however instead of getting angry I’ll break it all down for you from my point of view:

 

Choice?  “Every decision you've made will impact how
things go. The player's also the architect of what happens."  At no point in the three endings were the
decisions made in previous games presented, no matter what you did earlier you
were funneled into one of three static similar choices.  This makes no sense when the first two were
all about choice.

 

Futile.  The ending you choose is irrelevant, what we get to see is mostly the same for all endings and fails to elaborate on your choice.  What is the new organic/synthetic galactic race like?  What do you do with control of the reaper fleets?

 

Bad Editing or missing content.  If EDI went to Earth with me then how did she
end up on the Normandy
with Joker?  Why was the Normandy fleeing in the
first place if the reaper threat was being concluded at that moment?  If Harbinger messed me up with its beam wasn’t
the rest of my squad?  Feels like scenes
were left out explaining what actually happened in those moments.

 

The old man and the child.  This final scene implies to me that all three
games were just the interpretations of a story being told to a child.  Perhaps it’s a statement that life goes on
but if not then it’s a difficult hole you place your writers into.  How do you continue telling stories in this
universe when it was a childish interpretation to began with?

 

Sheppard in the end.  With hundreds of hours of play and no matter
what path you choose Sheppard is all about determination in the face of danger
and overcoming impossible odds.  This is
not reflected in the final moments, the Sheppard becomes more of the
sheep.  The Sheppard of old would not
have accepted that these three poor choices where the only option, He/She would
have fought for another preferable option, and not just taken the word of the
reaper master AI.  Sheppard at the end is
very out of character.

 

Relevance.  Was the point of the boy chasing dreams to
introduce him as the avatar for the catalyst? 
Why pick a form that brings pain without hope when many others would be
more appropriate?  In the intro when the
boys ship is shot down, that was powerful for both Sheppard and myself, it gave
strength to our resolve.  Please don’t
cheapen that moment by attaching it too a gimmick from bad movies, *cough
Contact cough*

 

Faceless.  Harbinger, I’m told at one point that its
broken off from the attack and headed toward you position.  So what? I don’t recall any dialogue between
you and it.  After the events of the
second game it seams like that character was strangely absent.  You lost the opportunity for some great
dialog there.

 

The Cruciwhat?  After all the talk about the crucible and
what it may or may not be there is no resolution here.  A vague statement that it brought new options
to the table for the reaper master AI is all we get.  Maybe I’m not looking carefully enough but a
decent explanation would have been nice… and made sense.

 

Scale.  A more important topic for me.  The ending of Mass Effect 2 was huge, forming
your team and a fire team, sending crew into immediate danger, making decisions
on the fly and possibly losing people along the way.  Mass Effect 3, take 2 members down and fight
your way too a missile truck then limp to the ending.  Kind of underwhelming.  Would have liked to have seen the same style
of operation on Earth as was on the collector ship.

 

Contradiction.  We spent time in the game to show that
organics and synthetics can get along only later to contradict that by having
the reaper master AI state that synthetics will always try to eliminate
organics.  This is odd as the reapers ARE
a synthetic race tring to destroy organic life so that life is not destroyed by
a synthetic race. Plot hole?  Attempt at
irony?  What?  No really what?

 

You said.  "There are many different endings. We
wouldn’t do it any other way. How could you go through all three campaigns
playing as your Shepard and then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone
gets?”



“Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the lore,
learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers, being able to
decide for yourself how all of these things come to an end.”



“You'll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless
of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide some
answers to these people.”

 

I don’t see any of this in the
game.  You took a hundred hours plus of
gameplay and decisions and routed it into three very similar endings.  I think Ive said this already but it’s worth
repeating.

 

 

I don’t want to make this all about the ending, so here are
some of my favorite Mass Effect 3 qualities:

 

Writing.  Good job, the characters really came to life
here and some of the deaths (Mordin, Legion) were really well done.

 

Combat.  Refining the gameplay to its current
incarnation has paid off.  I felt exhilarated
and challenged more here then in the other two titles.  I would like to see this combat engine used
again.

 

Multiplayer.  Outstanding, I didn’t expect to love it so
much and its given me ideas about an open galaxy (sandbox) mercenary game to
add to the franchise.

 

Loading.  Much better in this game then the previous
two, although I noticed where the loading points were it barely slowed down
overall game speed…unlike elevators.  It
was also nice to not watch textures load in during a cutscene.

 

 

What I would like to have seen.  In all of them I would have liked to see the
mass effect gates not be destroyed.  Here
is why.  The implications of blowing up
all the relays is staggering, everyone is stranded where they were (around
Earth,) the Quarians retake there home only to have most of them traped at
Earth?  Space travel and exploration as
it was known would be over.  That’s a
hard place to continue making Mass Effect games from.  Also, shooting someone before they execute an
old friend/superior officer is not a renegade action.   Like all of this these are just my opinions.

 

When all is said and done the
original endings to the Mass Effect trilogy failed to live up to the
outstanding storytelling and vision that was present everywhere else in these
games.  I hope my comments and
explanations can in some way help you and your team understand the communities
disappoint and guide you as you move forward.

 

 

p.s. Please don’t ruin it further by charging us for a DLC
ending replacement but instead patch it for free.  I can’t imagine the community backlash if it’s
not free seeing how “From Asses” is suspiciously already on the disc.

Modifié par BPriest24, 01 avril 2012 - 06:27 .

[macrocarl]

I already posted. But! I went back to redo the ending. At 1st I picked green. A big hero ending! HAZZAH! But then the indoctrination theory came out I was half way there in my own thoughts (the control or blue ending) seemed like a trap! But I thought, man I got my MP to 96%, every asset I could possibly get so the green one's pretty awesome. EDI 'lives', the Geth get to live, break the cycle blah blah........ but after reading up on the IT, it just rang so so true. So I picked me the red ending. I even went back and replayed certain parts (dream stuff) to see if I could hear or get a sense of what people were theorizing about.
I hope it's for real! I do! Anyway, man what a can of worms if it is. If you guys make DLC that's about the ending then sign me up! If the DLC announcement is stuff that takes place before the ending then, of course, I'll wait and see, but honestly that galaxy sized can of worms is along the lines of IT then you folks at BW better have some pretty crazy DLC for the story! Also, if that is, in fact, all about indoctrination, hats off. Thems some huge......... guts you have for doing this. Love it! Best game I've ever played. An hey, if the IT is wrong, still best game.

[tjc2]

75/100

Likes:

• Game Mechanics

Dislikes:

• Lack of interactivity between Squad Mates (I.E. Liara doesn't care if you sleep with Traynor)
• Ending
• Lack of interaction with Harbinger akin to ME2 (I am taking direct control)
• Kai Leng

Even though I have many more dislikes than likes I give the game a 75 because up until the ending sequence (being shot by Harbinger) I was really into the game, ME1 and 2 sold me on the Universe, even a half decent ending would have resulted in an 85.

[*]One question I always ask myself after playing a game is if I would have bought it had I known what the experiences was going to be... Considering my time with ME3 I think it is worth $40 and would have still bought it, but probably next year when it was on sale or included all the DLC.

Modifié par tjc2, 28 mars 2012 - 03:35 .

[riveraeg]

I give this game a B+

I mostly have positive things to say the game.

The General Story and the Music was well done. The effects for the game was outstanding and the integration of all the characters at times seemed a little too much, but it was done as best as possible.

I did like the majority of the story and unlike many people here I though the ending was a good work of art.

The Negative on the rage arise from different things. First, the lack of choices in responses. Most of the responses had two. A diplomatic (Paragon) option and a violent (Renegade) option. I personally like having more options in Mass Effect 2.

Another small negative note is the final strike. A part of me wished that I would have the choice to call in a character that is alive to help me in the final push. So everyone would have the opportunity to have their love interest.

[Kritonn]

9/10 if only to be fair about everything up till the last 10 minutes.

...dislikes...
Dream scene on the normand
Armor system- picking up armor was a waste of time.
Not seeing talis face.
Where was Shiala, I expected to see her for some reason.

The Ending takes the 9/10 and turns it into an .9/10.

ME1 and ME 2 had me coming back for more. I must have replayed those two games ten times each.
But now that I know the ending has no need for any of the choices made in these two games I cant see ever playing these games again.  I mean if Biowares happy with this ending it shouldnt bother me so much, Its just a game,although I did invest a 100+ hour in creating the character I wanted. Its just a slimy way to end a great game.

But wait.., the game was promoted to reflect all the decisions made throughout the series. So either it was rushed out the door or BW PR just up and lied about it.  Either way.., I will not be buying anymore Bioware software until I first read the reviews to see if I will enjoy the WHOLE GAME.

Still cant believe BW would just shoot itself in the foot with 10 minutes to go. Up untill this point the game was spot on.

[MrHibachi]

50/100 I felt that more than standing on its own merits, most of what was good in this game rode off the coat tails of the previous two games.

After completing ME3 I felt compelled to voice my thoughts for the first time here.  First I'd like to say that I loved the first two installments of the game.  I have often said that not only is Mass Effect one of my favorite video games of all time but one of my favorite sci-fi stories.  In my view, what made Mass Effect unique and great was how character driven the story was.  It was fresh, unique, immersive and interactive to the nth degree as you not only advanced the story but how the characters responded to you and even what their own values were.

Sadly I felt these components sorely lacking from beginning to end in the third installment of the game.  Ill start with what I liked and then move on to things that bothered me from start to finish.

Liked:  The death scenes were excellent.  Most of the death sequences were so fitting to the character involved and so meaningful (and believable), it really drove the story and tore at you while enhancing the feeling of just how dire and desperate the galactic situation was.
- Soundtrack and voice acting remain some of the best to be found in any game.
- Your crew changing locations and interacting with each other was a nice touch.
- The weapon varieties were very refreshing.  Not just different models but actually weapons that offered a different style of play themselves within their respective categories.
- The little side stories and conversations you overhear on the citadel
- Non static backgrounds like the reapers walking around actually changing location and blasting things to smithereens was a refreshing departure from what is common in games.
- New Scanning system a plus

Disliked:  Character Immersion and developement seemed strangly absent from most of ME3.  This was a hard pill to swallow as to me this was at the core of what made Mass Effect Mass Effect in the first place; indeed to me it stood as a pillar of BioWare games since I started playing KOTOR.  Once I got over the initial annoyance of not being able to import my old Shepard face, the thing that struck me from the beginning of the game was how little was said when I retook the Normandy.  Plenty happened between ME2 and the beginning of ME3 and the immersion seemed starkly absent right off.  With the beginning of the reaper invasion, your reinstatement and the
defection of many Cerberus agents it was a shock to me to find that barely anyone on my ship had more than a sentence to say to me to get the immersion ball rolling.  Kenneth and Gabby were silent - no welcome back Commander, no commentary about their leaving Cerberus; Joker had a sentence or two with no real conversation and little dialogue at all.  It felt empty.  Much much later some members of my crew began to pipe up a lot more but there was a long hollow silent gap between the start of the game and when my crew started a little dialogue.

This emptiness only grew worse as longstanding characters throughout the game often had nothing to say whatsoever about major developments in the story, and if they did say something it was a few sentences while facing the wall or a console as they utterly ignored my presence in the room.  It may seem like a subtle difference to remove the dialogue wheel, but me talking to someones back repeatedly clicking a button to see what, if anything, they were going to say next was not immersive.  This absence of dialogue through most of the game was very distracting.  I also had trouble with losing dialogue when a character would pause for a bit and just as I
clicked on them to see if they had something else to say they would begin another sentence and get immediately cut off.  This also occured as I ran up to characters to activate them but they'd start to spout off on their own through proximity to me just as I clicked on them causing more dialogue to be cut off.  Of course there is no
way for me to recover this dialogue or have them repeat it... 

There was also no continuity or fluidity to the romance subplot.  My Shepard stuck with Ashley from ME1; I gave her the Tennyson book, we hit it off, and then she treats me like a total stranger until the game was two thirds over where there was a little dialogue and then another long gap where her interactions went back to those of a stranger before a final meaningless sex scene. 

The last farewell to everyone who was left alive via vidcom before the final assault was ridiculous (they were all standing around available for a little chit-chat, and that alliance soldier had a personal direct line to each of them??) It felt like a cheap lazy way to try to clump some face-time and get some closure with many characters that weren't woven into the story well at all; it was awkward and didn't flow.

I played the game through at the same time as my sister and thankfully she and I had made some very different choices and we had had plenty of conversations about what our decisions would bring in ME3.  Sadly as we simultaneously advanced our plots we realized that there was virtually no difference whatsoever to what should have been major decisions in previous games.  What would happen if the original council was saved or replaced by a human dominated council?  What about the destruction or saving of the collector base?  None of it seemed to make any difference or even really be mentioned at all...that was a major disappointment.

Plot holes you could fly planets through in the end didn't help the situation either.  There are too many to mention and several of the things running through my head haven't even been voiced after three days of reading other people's observations about plot holes they found.  The very end aside, one inconsistency that is found just within the confines of what Mass Effect 3 was building up to by itself was that all throughout the game they keep talking about this massive buildup of reaper forces in London and how they are planning something big, and when you get there you make an all out assault on this massive buildup of.....oh..there's just..one reaper guarding the conduit... Harbinger was largely built up to be the main bad guy through the series and he was largely absent from both the game and the ending (in any meaningful way). 

The ending was a clear catastrophe and was akin to space aliens showing up at the end of LOTR The Return of the King to defeat Sauron and seemingly save middle earth before spiriting away all of the main characters to the stars and blowing the planet into tiny space dust.

It seems largely negligible at this point considering how bad the ending went but I was also marginally annoyed that in order to get the "best" ending possible, multiplayer suddenly became an absolute requirement.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the DLC (not crossing my fingers) but at this point I sadly feel as though what was one of my all time favorite pieces of Sci-Fi was largely obliterated by an ending that negated everything the first two games laid out.

Modifié par MrHibachi, 29 mars 2012 - 04:34 .