1966 réponses à ce sujet

[TheWerdna]

Not Counting endings 9.5/10

With endings: 8/10

[TwentyDunhills]

Not counting the ending: 8/10 

- An even more polished product than ME2 and great storyline.  Some parts felt a bit compressed and rushed in writing.
- I was not a big fan of the weapon weight system, which became torturous to balance later on, and the inability to bring a big weapon with you like you could in ME3.  Instead they  would miraculously appear for in random spots for a brief fight. 
- Too much seemed contrived for the ease of convenience.

From Ashes was terrible as a mission.  I thought it was rather shameless to make pre-release story content a premium purchase.  I know you're in the business of making money but come on - just because you can does not mean you should.  And this is coming from someone with money to spare, now lets see if I buy any of the other DLC content?

The ending....sigh. 1/10 - because someone deserves an A for man hours.  It felt like that someone was literally one guy who did not actually play the series, follow the story, or talk to the writers that wrote the other parts of this game.  Kind of ruined it and made replay pointless.  Like looking at a mona lisa after some kid draws a big mustache and horns with a sharpie on her.   

[FireRyder]

First off I have wanted to say for a long time how much I love Bioware and I am proud that some fellow Canadians have taken the world of gaming by storm by providing gamers with consistently incredible games.  Not only has Bioware been a world leader in putting the story first, but in bringing role playing to its current popularity.  With the exception of a few titles I have purchased every title since Baldurs Gate 2 so we have a long history.

ME and ME2 I would give at least 8/10 as although there were some problems, bugs, and other issues, they were solid titles that broke new ground.  ME3 however is 1 step forward and 2 steps back for a number of reasons. 

The Good
The gameplay and mechanics improvements were excellent.  The missions and maps were damn good. The moves out from cover into a run seem a bit sticky when compared to the rolls from cover to cover.  The voice acting is top notch and it was nice to see the economy with upgrades come back as it adds to the role playing investment.  All of the missions linking past characters were pretty good even if the stories were not very original which i will discuss later.  The multiplayer tie in which I questioned at first was a nice addition and I am still enjoying it.  I hope you plan to flesh this out in dlc as well with new maps and story impact if possible.  Weapon variety and design was excellent.  Some of the new weapons make experimentation fun.

The Bad
Now I do respect the Dr.'s comment that this is art and artists do deserve some creative control, but let's be honest here....too much of the story is much too close to existing narratives.  The Rachni were fine until you gave them the instantaneous galaxy wide communitcaton and hive mind of the "Buggers" from the Enders Game books.  Jacobs side mission is taken from the Empire Strikes Back Hoth base escape: The snowy world, the base invasion, the guns creating openings for the shuttles to escape and even the dialog is (wink) similar.  Until the female Krogan showed up in Middle Eastern themed attire I was happy to let the Thresher Maw parallels with the sand worms of Frank Herbert's Dune series slide but I think that one was getting a little too close in ME3 as well too consider at least a part of the narrative artistically created content.  The endings of ME3 and Deus Ex are also a little to similar as well.  Although ME and ME2 were following the typical elements of the tragic hero formula it was forgiveable as a lot of it was fresh, exciting, and new.  

The graphics did not seem as polished as ME2 and the facial animations during cutscenes were terrible at times.  With the exception of a few very polished characters, speech animations look like they are a single hinged puppet.  By having such detail put into the faces of a few characters, it took away from all of the rest; making them seem almost cartoonish in comparison.  The weapon upgrades could have been done better as they just seem to be a cash sink for that purpose alone.

The Ugly

The game starts on a "sour note" by avoiding what has happened since ME2.  Many of the new character additions seem to have been shoe horned in and only take away from the narrative rather than adding to it.  Vega especially always seems, from start to finish, to be some outsider along for the ride.  Having him as Shpard's right hand man at the start would have made more sense with some backstory, and would have given him the connection the character deserved.  What happened after the Arrival DLC?  Everything after the Harbinger beam attack feels similarly out of place.  ME3 has man people feeling all twisted up and conflicted.  The ending and many of the story elements felt so out of place that it was like falling in love with someone only to find out later you are related somehow.....the ending turned out much like the offspring of first cousins.  However I am still hoping this was all a plan for one kick ass massive DLC or a number of them.  I will buy them all regardless but I may have to be more cautious with my pre-orders and day one purchases.

The ending is almost a dead horse discussion now but up until ME3 things were going so great.  The ending had me feeling the same way I did after the 3rd in the Matrix series.  However the Wachowski brothers had not intended for the Matrix to be a triolgy and were co-erced into it by Warner Brothers.  I am begining to fear as with Atari that Bioware is losing its artistic flair and creativity to their big corporate overlords.  Although I am not privy to the inner workings of the work evnironment since the merger with EA, it is obvious that things have changed.  Although in the 80s Atari was the most profitable game publisher, WB though that the work enviroment was madness and changed everything from a place that fosters creativity, to your typical corporate hq where you cannot tell one cubicle from the rest, people are quiet and fearful for their jobs, and the bottom line is the only line.  WB did not give the Wachowski brothers time to write out proper sequals and they are not happy how they turned out.  When one of the lead writers quits, and things turn out they way they have it is hard not to wonder what forces were at play here.  

Removing the mini-game time sinks for backtracking is a serious step back and was not the improvement we have come to expect from subsequent Bioware titles.  This new system of planet scanning and backtracking makes me long for driving around in the Mako.  It was nice to see the ruturn in a way with the Hammerhead in ME2 which leads me to the next point.

Why give the Firewalker pack and a squad character for free in ME2 then charge for a Prothean this time around on day one.  It probably would have been a good idea to push that release forward a month at least to help give some re-playability to the single player game.  Mr. Hudons defense of the day one release, and the issues people took with the lack of choices in the ending, along with IGN's rant about entitlement just angered many people more.  For those of us who pre-ordered, waited, and played the demo to death, there was a huge divide between what Mr. Hudson was promising in interivews and what we actually got.  I guess only time will tell what the intent was with the ending as it sure "got people talking".  I personally believe that many of the reivews given by the major sites are losing their value in the same way the mainstream media lost all poltical credibility.  Those who pander get exclusives and access, the others get ignored.  IGN is the worst of the lot.  They are so entrenched that one of their employees got a character in the game.  I have also noticed on the rare occasion that they have to give certain titles less than stellar reivews they will push the review until after release as not to hurt day one sales.  In my opinion many of these sites are nothing but another paid advertisement anyhow so their reviews are biased and therefore of little value.  

So to be realistic and fair in rating the game I will break it down.  The mechanics, gameplay, voice acting, and layouts deserve a 8.5/10.   Graphics, polish, and animations deserve a 7/10.  The story based on the lack of originality, the lack of choice, and the ending is a 2/10.  Therefore 6/10 is where I currently stand but I am begging DLC can address a small part of this and redeem it.  If the ending and Shepards last breath was alluding to DLC you probalby should have explained that rather than claiming the title was the close.   The old man and boy are another new character set out place.

[GundamHeavyarms]

97/100

The Good

+ I loved the opening. Started out slow, then BAM!!! The Reapers arrive in full force. The frantic race to the shuttle. Parting with Anderson, praying that he'll make it through all of this. Watching Reapers land as you leave.

+ Weapon customization. Do you want more ammo, dish out more damage, have a greater range, be more accurate? You can only choose two, though. Really makes you think what you want. Low damage but increased accuracy and ammo?

+ The score was amazing. For me, it rivals Skyrim's soundtrack.

+ Javik. I get to him ASAP and once he's available, rare is the moment when he's not in my squad.

+ An emotional thrill ride right up to the end. Moments made me cry, made me angry, made me regret, filled me with joy, or any emotion in between. I was really happy with how some things played out. Saddened or angered by others. Over the course of the trilogy, I grew to care fore these characters. This, however, is also a negative aspect. (Look below)

+ Kai Leng, Khalee Sanders. Bringing in characters from the novels was a nice touch. Also, I like how the Illusive Man's motives have changed.

+ The Citadel is alive, more than ever! Makes me smile every time I go there. Also, I like not having the sqadmates with you while exploring. Personally, that's bugged me since the first game, despite the sometimes funny banter. (Tali and Garrus in ME 2)

+ Multiplayer was well done. Even if Biotics are sometimes a big pain in the arse.

The Bad

- Most of the squadmates/Love Interests got crapped on. Grew to care for them, then had them either killed or handed to Hackett to help build the Crucible. Let us choose who we want in our squad, please. I'd like to have some of the ME 2 as permanent squad members. Give us a choice of who stays and who Hackett gets. Please?

- No Genesis. I understand your reasons for not having it; however, my 360 crashed a week before ME 3 came out. Not wanting to miss it, and not wanting to wait until summer to get a new 360, I bought ME 3 on Origin. (I'm somewhat tight with my money right now, as I'm a full time student and am getting little hours at work, not going to spend $200-$300 on a new system right now.) However, starting ME 3 fresh I got the crappy side of the deal with Wrex and Thane dead, never meeting Legion, Tali getting exiled... ect. Although I'm now on my second playthrough on PC, I know it won't be the same. Could you release Genesis or something similar?

- Galactic Readiness in decline when I'm not in game. As stated above, I'm a full time college student. I'll play some campaign or multiplayer when I can. However, when I can't get to it for a few days, the readiness level I've attained has dropped. Have it drop while I'm in the campaign, that way I'll know about it. Right now, I almost feel pressured to constantly play multiplayer.

- No interaction with Harbinger beside the pew pew at the end run as you rush towards the beam to the Citadel. On another note, were the Collectors completely exterminated when we destroyed their base? Are they extinct in ME 3? Or were they going to be in the game, but got cut?

The Superb

+++ Hackett's "Stand Strong, Stand Together" speech. Simply, purely epic. One of the greatest speeches in a game or film, ever. Period.

+++ The voice acting was spot on, except for the change in Mordin's VA. Garrus and Joker exchanging jokes on the bridge. Drunk Tali, Javik's response to said drunk Quarian. Arguments between Liara and Javik. Javik's quote about the salarians. "Would have liked to experiment on seashells."

[Imulo]

Fisrt off id just like to give a big shout out to the devs for the mass effect franchise never has their been a series of video games that has so enthralled me to the story that it just engulfs the spirit into a true avatar where you feel every decision you make.

Now with that being said my ranking on ME3 would have to equate to a 90.

Impact of descions made during the adventure top notch. I don;t know about most players but I know I felt true rage and the need to destroy Cerberus especially after finding out that one of my crew members was blatantly shot point blank. (( also touchy subject was not happy that Kelly chambers name does not appear on my plaque of Normandy Fallen))

Story top notch draws you in like watching an old time epic movie that you just can't wait to see what happens next. From the time you are made a specter to the time when you are having a one on one with Admril hacket about why choose me. Moving, exciting, aggrovating cause you want to do more, and just one heck of a thrill ride from beggining to ah well near ending I should say.

Visually Stimulating graphics are superb
(( granted their are a few glitches here and there with skins and vertices ))

Thankfully the bugs are rather small and do not detract to much or hinder the overall play of the game.
Minor bugs like Two soldiers talking about deployment over and over again even though you already approved the change that was asked.

Things that could be worked on is like the dream sequence I can kinda see why shepard would be seeing it after all the scene made me want to hunt reapers and take it to them (( of which I can thankfully take out my aggression on them in multiplayer)) but it seemed to be missing something no real message or punch to it kinda like it was just thrown in as a intermission like they used to have in movies back in the day. Then their is the let down of Cerberus taking the Citidal like no matter what you did to boost it's defenses or stopping certain individuals didnt mean anything at all. Where was C-sec where was the option to respond to a Distress call to rescue or something. And last of all you end up with this on rush of adrenalin from rushing your target on earth to get to the catalyst and blam. Uh what just happen? did I miss something, was their a mistake I made? did I miss a checkpoint? did I miss a button?, did I miss a tank? did I let to many vehicles die? did I take to long trying to get to that final hammer push? was it the fact that air support was shot down? all in all to many questions pop up at that moment only to find that no matter what you do or how many assets you have it all comes down to absolutely nothing. Thats right no matter what you do it all means nothing at that point of impact. All you end up with is questions and then when it is all said and done you are left with what happen to my squadmates? or how exactly did they end up where they end up and wonder where they are. Now the final let down finish the game and endings basicly all the same no real change to them  (( granted have not gotten to special ending yet currently working on that... not to mention heard something about fish?? so we shall see if the ending still turns out the same))  but all in all it was one heck of a thrill ride and nicely done. Now the only problem I have with my game play is that when I go back to make changes in ME1 and ME2 I have a hard time with combat cause I can't roll or heavy melee.

Finally I do ask please come out with a patch that will fix the glitches in the multiplayer Don't like loosing my credits sinse they where well earned.  Thanks again for the amazing adventure.

[lustpuppet8u]

I would give the game an 85%.

I didn't have the same same upset reaction that almost everyone else seems to have had about the ending. I liked the new characters, although having to pay extra for Javik wasn't cool. EDI was really fun to have in my squad. The gameplay was pretty smooth, although I am constantly trying to get out of cover from running to close to a wall. I'm doing a playthough now that's from ME1 to ME3 and everything feels tied together with the characters.

I preferred ME2, I found it much more fun, due to the tone, and getting to dilly-dally and romance, instead of having to worry about what order I needed to do things in so my side quests wouldn't disappear while I was trying to get Kaiden on my squad.

[farhansdisplayname]

My Mass Effect 3 score: 50/100. I'm sorry. I absolutely HATE to give it that score because the ME universe is so amazing and all, but the ending of the trilogy made me feel like someone took a dump on my chest.

That child being came out of nowhere and it's solution's reasoning is confusing as hail!

The ending gave us no real choice, all three basically lead to the same things happening.

I understand the whole "philosophical" ending that y'all were going for, but really, I was hoping for a good old fasioned "we did it! We took Earth (and the galaxy) back!" kind of an ending (this should have at least been one of the options). An ending where the galactic community didn't break down.

I just edited because it was unfair of me to rate it a "20" even though the first 99% of it is GREAT.

Modifié par farhansdisplayname, 30 mars 2012 - 06:07 .

[gbemery]

Everything just felt rushed...and i don't mean just production and story quality i mean plots and everything. Like for instance your on the ship and BAM power goes out and EDI has taken it upon herself to try out a new body. Then there is the feeling that you can't really choose your adventure anymore and the game is just telling you where to go. You're on Earth and then Mars then the Citadel and then pretty much the priority missions.

[MagpieZ]

I'd give it a 60/100 score and here's why:

I've just finished a full playthrough with a completely new character, about 100 hrs. of gameplay all the way through ME1 to ME3 incl. DLCs.

While I applaud the effort taken throughout the game I feel now that I am still waiting for the end of the game called Mass Effect 3, the part after getting hit by a giant (usually fatal) Reaper laser blast felt completely detached from the main game and more like an intermezzo of what could have been *if*. Like those dream sequences I expected a return to cold reality with me eventually ending up in the Citadel and blowing Reaper force hordes to kingdom come but alas the disappointment which has slowly settled in is at least not leaving me as stunned anymore.

What I liked was the increased difficulty and more intelligent opponents. The overall pace and general improvement of combat compared to the last two games. I liked that most of it felt rather polished and during what I will refer now as main game I felt the content delivered.
Side missions could have been done with a little bit more variety, instead of scanning planets some landing would have been nice. 
It would have been nice to have an armory locker for crew members (unless I have overlooked that one) but in general I liked the speeding up of the formerly tedious part and this also means improved loading speeds were much appreciated.
In general I must say despite not offering the same depth - most likely due to lack of bigger sideplots and lacking side assignments requiring landing - as the previous two games did they did deliver content in a way to keep me entertained.
On the technical side I have to say: I'd have liked a film grain option and some respect for high end hardware, that includes high-res textures, more polygons, and some use of newer techs, DA2 did it but I felt ME1 and ME2 delivered in parts higher on graphical fidelity side.
Lastly I appreciate the audio side alot, there is definitely more going on now and things appear livelier, note: I am using a Xonar STX and DT 770 Pro as audio equipment so I felt the audio side truly delivered this time.

I haven't got much to add beside what I already said, it's sad that you felt that you must conclude the ME series like that, as developers it is your prerogative to do with the game you want but I felt all the fairly solid fundament you've been building up over the years, character backgrounds, the enrichment of an entire universe, the overall emphasis on consistency and solidifying background stories has been blown away like a planet under the effect of an exploding Mass Relay and replaced by something which completely antagonized your efforts to break away from stereotypical cliche elements over the years. So in short, a fine main game but an unfitting end for one of my favourite game series and exactly that ending lead to a flat 25 point score decrease. Sorry.

Modifié par MagpieZ, 29 mars 2012 - 07:33 .

[Versidious]

OK, so I will review two things: The Game, and the Endings.

THE GAME
Gameplay wise, it is the best of the three. Combat is fast and fluid, your character has agility, finally with the ability to climb some higher things, and jump short distances, which a Galactic Super-commando really ought to always have been able to do. :-P I was sceptical of multiplayer, initially, but it is genuinely brilliant. It's fast paced, the bronze level is quite forgiving, and getting to play as a non-human at last is pretty fabulous. Everyone who can play it, should play it at least once - my first time, I spent four hours playing during Operation Fortress, and only stopped when I realised it was two in the morning.
The graphics are fantastic - every level is beautiful, and in terms of sheer spectacle, it trumps both its predecessors comfortably. The Reapers and Cerberus both have an excellent, consistent style, which fits in well both with my expectations and ME's extended universe (Though I do wish that Harvesters had not been husk-like, and had instead been whirring, hovering machines).

The trouble is that a lot of the elements are only *almost* perfect, and a lot of these are elements that were perfect before. The levels' pacing is often too quick. N7 missions are expected to be straight into the action - you're making quick commando raids in support of the war effort, not advancing the plot, so it's fine here.
But the homeworld missions themselves were disapointingly linear, with no room for exploration or choices. Largely, they're just drawn out incidents in an overall, highly linear plot, which was largely advanced via cutscenes and chats with the Admirals on your ship, rather than by your actions in a mission. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two choices made in-mission that affect the outcome of the game, or even how the missions themselves end (On Tuchanka and Rannoch). And only one produces differences in the game outside of the Readiness level. Given how differently all the missions in ME1 and ME2 could go (Especially ME1, on Feros, or Ilos, or even Virmire, where there are different methods of defeating opponents), I was genuinely surprised that this wasn't so present here.
For a Bioware game, this came as a bit of a shock, as it is a feature of literally everything else Bioware's ever done, even the much maligned Dragon Age 2. It feels like they've tried to wring the RPG out of the game's fabric, to make it more a plot-driven action game, with some flirting tagged on. Many of the conversations are non-interactive, with you just poking an NPC and listening, instead of having an active dialogue with response wheel. Perhaps Bioware meant for this to make it more accessible to action game fans, and I can't comment on behalf of those, but it removes a fair amount of the illusion that Shepard is you, instead of some dude you're following around and telling where to shoot. Of course there are many instances of conversation in all Bioware games where your input really doesn't affect what the NPC says. But in all these other cases, you at least get control of what *your* character says, and that is fundamentally important, both as a facet of an RPG, and as an expectation fans have of what Bioware usually delivers for us. I understand that many things had to be resolved, and that there was always going to be a lot of decisions already made by previous games, but it does feel like they decided that VOs cost money, so why make conversations any more complex than they have to be, when you already know what you want the player to do? Particularly with LIs, another fan-favourite of Bioware's, the conversations do not vary very much, with your options largely the same. For a large section of the game, they virtually ignore you, whether Liara, Ash/Kaidan, Tali, or Garrus. It seems odd to write romantically involved people to be emotionally distant from each other most of the time, except for at key events. Liara, in particular, goes through a lot of trauma, and yet does not behave towards Shepard the way you would expect partners to lean on each other to cope with trauma, any more or less than she does if you're just friends. Compared with Cortez/Traynor, the existing romances are certainly lacking.
Again, if you are going to make a game quite linear, you should still be working on convincing the player that they are in control. It's one of the main aspects of gaming that attracts individuals to it - that it's your own skill and decisions that decide the progression of something. It's certainly why I play Bioware games, and I will say more on this in my review of the endings. It is particularly odd, given that they even set up low/no choice options for your conversations. I am, it must be said, very concerned for Bioware's future if this is the direction they intend on taking.

Now, all that being said, the missions were still very enjoyable - excellently directed, with the environments highly convincing. And, of course, the gameplay as I have said, was damned fun. It just, doesn't feel like what I go to Bioware for.

Bioware's sense of humour hasn't dimmed with their appetite for giving their users choices, fortunately, and banter, however linear, remains a strong presence, even stronger than before. Which brings me onto another great feature - the atmosphere.
It is potentially the case that the removal of a lot of the control of your destiny is deliberate, as you spend most of the game reacting to things anyway, desperately striving to find a way out of the impending doom for all civilisation in the galaxy. Everywhere you go, there's saddening conversations going on in the background, whether it's an old woman with dementia asking about her son (literally one of the saddest things I've ever heard, after I'd heard it through), to an orphan not yet aware of the fact, and a traumatised Asari soldier. The music is almost always perfect (save perhaps for one of the combat themes, which plays during your final actual fight, and I found a little underwhelming for such a difficult fight), the constant news reports, the increasing numbers of refugees... Everything conveys an elevating sense of unease and desperation to the player. In this, Bioware has truly triumphed, delivering an intense emotional ride, tugging your heart strings in all the right ways, every time. Every death feels right, every loss like a bittersweet sacrifice. And when Grunt survives his 'Last Stand', I bounced in my chair and clapped like a child, so unexpected and brilliant was it. In fact, up until the ending, I would say Bioware has masterfully elicited every emotion from its players that it wanted to.

Oh, and they do seem to have abandoned several intended storylines from the early games, such as the Dark Energy concerns, the 'Crypts of Beings of Light', etc, but perhaps those will be done in DLC, and I'm OK with that I suppose!

THE ENDING
Now, much has been said about the last bit of the game. some people are fine with everything right up until the very end Others have issues from the moment you get hit by Harbinger, or even from the moment you land on Earth. Let me just say, that the ending is very well done, for what it is. It is flawlessly executed, with the soundtrack, atmosphere, perfect. The notions and concepts themselves are brilliant and creative.

Until you think about it for more than a couple of minutes, that is.

A lot of people say the ending is great, and people are just upset that they didn't get a happy ending, and that therefore they are just being immature. To an extent, this is true. But only to an extent. In a minute, I will talk about the problems I have with the ending's details. But first, I will complain about the bleakness of the ending, and talk about why this IS a valid complaint from the fans.

Computer games are an artform, and have evolved into a great storytelling medium, it is true. But they are not books. They are not films, or TV series. The thing that makes games games and not books/films/shows is this: The player does something, and the game rewards the player for success, or punishes them for failure. It is a simple dynamic which has been at the heart of every game since chess, or tic-tac-toe. It has been in computer games since pong or asteroids, and has been present in every single Bioware game. Put in the completionist time for ME2, and you won't lose a single person on your suicide mission. Rush the game, playing only the vital missions and, well, you can still succeed, but you will lose a lot of people, maybe everyone, along the way. A game that doesn't reward success is not a game, it's torture. If you put in effort, and are punished, where is the motivation for that effort? If you put in a lot of effort, and not only fail, but find that success had always been impossible, you will regret your efforts. If you fall in loe, think you've won the girl/guy of choice, but then find out that they never loved you, and that they were gay/straight all along and incapable of loving you back, you will actually regret your time with them. So it is with this ending. To get the best ending, you need to play MP a fair bit. MP is, of course, brilliant, but this is not a perfect solution - I have a great internet connection right now. But there are people who may have unstable connections, and can log in to validate their game, but certainly cannot successfully play several hours of multiplayer. They cannot get the ten second clip that shows Shepard's alive.
Now, some fans are happy with a grim/bitter ending. But that is only one part of Bioware's fandom. There are literally hundreds of thousands of fans who play these games for escapism. These fans want a happy ending. Why should their desires be any less reasonable than fans who wanted a bleak ending? Both, quite frankly, would be in the spirit of the series (To counter the notion that this is a bleak, doom-laden game, I would say that it isn't. One of the game's consistent messages is that there is always a way, even in ME3. And yes, you could say that the writers have made the conscious decision to present you with a situation where that is no longer true, but that is an artistic decision, not an inevitability). I have seen suggested fan endings that could have supplied this without compromising the game's direction - hell this one meets it even better: http://arkis.deviant...ILERS-289902125 Why are fans who got the ending they wanted not outraged that fellow fans were unable to get the ending that *they* wanted? Every Bioware game has given you the option of what ending you get, right from Baldur's Gate 2 to Mass Effect/Dragon Age 2. It's something fans expect from Bioware, one of the reasons they consistently choose to spend their money on Bioware games. These games make them happy. Yes, I *am* one of those fans, and I am far from the only one.

That being said, it is more than just the *player's* likely death that bothers me. The consequences of the ending are far reaching, supposedly leaving millions stranded in places where they have no food to eat. And even humanity... Well, we all saw the state that Earth was in, and it won't be getting food from colonies any time soon. Many of the decisions you have made throughout the game now seem to be somewhat in vain, with the Quarians in general likely to be doomed (Unless they have sufficient hydroponics aboard whatever remains of their life ships, of course). Part of the problem is that a lot of these questions are not answered. Bioware expects us to figure it out for ourselves. But we can't. We can think of *possibilities*, but our musings are not canon. 'It's alright if x and y are true' is meaningless unless it is confirmed that x and y are indeed true.

All this might've been excusable if the ending sequence itself was in some way satisfying, and resolved things logically. But it wasn't. In addition to not lasting very long (and again, lacking control), it was full of logical flaws. Maybe this was deliberate. But maybe not. At the very least, the ending video was less epic, and considerably less entertaining, than the moment that the fleets arrive at Earth and engage the Reapers.

Incredibly, however, it is not this which is the worst problem. No, it is that the whole scene clashes with the rest of Mass Effect/contemporary logic. Firstly, it turns out that the head of the Reapers lives in/is the citadel. Now, before you go 'Cool, that's pretty cool, an interesting twist, well done Bioware, I was not expecting that!', ask yourself, is the reason why you weren't expecting that that the Citadel was supposed to beam all the Reapers in a few years back, and only didn't because the Keepers were supposed to be the ones doing it? Kind of sounds like there *wasn't* a big AI/Godchild in the Citadel, doesn't it? If jumping in right on top of the Citadel is key to their tactics, why use indoctrinated organic slaves to do it, when you could just get your AI boss to do it instead? And, if you're convinced that it's inevitable that AIs will go mad and kill their creators, WHY MAKE A LARGE GROUP OF SUPER-TOUGH SYNTHETIC LIFEFORMS TO DO YOUR JOB WHEN THEY MIGHT GO MAD AND KILL EVERYONE! And, if you can make them so that they definitely don't go mad, WHY NOT JUST TELL EVERY ORGANIC HOW TO MAKE NON-EVIL AI? Quite besides the fact that, in this cycle, you have demonstrated that organics and AIs CAN live in peace, the whole premise is illogical. And it's sad, because the scene is so magical, yet so ridiculous. Like David Blaine. Maybe this is why Shepard is not horrified, or outraged, but just asks politely if we can keep our bodies and not be wiped out, thank you very much - he's just enchanted by the lights.

There are other problems, of course - the rules of Indoctrination seem to have changed, with the Illusive Man apparently able to control your bodies, when Indoctrination is supposed to literally change your mind, even when applied forcefully and brutally. Why an area of the Citadel never before visited by humans has human lettering on its decidedly human-looking technology. How Anderson gets onto the Citadel and reaches the control panel before you... Honestly a lot of these things make me believe the Indoctrination Theories.

Regardless, unless the ending is fixed, it does feel like replayability is seriously harmed - combined with the lack of important decisions to make in ME3, the fact that I now know I'm working towards essentially the same, lacklustre and depressing ending, really makes me feel like I'd be wasting my time somewhat - this is the first time this has happened with a Bioware game.

My that was very long!

Mass Effect 3 without the endings: 8/10
Mass Effect 3 including the endings: 6/10 (ME3 Ending also drags down the other two by one or two points, which are still both higher than ME3)

Edit: corrected some errors, and changed the scores down a bit.

Modifié par Versidious, 29 mars 2012 - 08:42 .

[bearded prodigy]

MrHibachi wrote...

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.

+1
This is exactly how i felt about the game.

[daboy042188]

say what you will about the ending but the other 99.9% was everything i could have wanted and more. not often any piece of art makes me cry but i got a little teary eyed at various points (*cough*mordin,anderson,david archer*cough*)

also the music was "beat my dick off" good so kudos to clint mansell

[rizuno]

I can't even give it an accurate review
Some things were so wonderful and so amazing it was gaming nirvana. I thresher maw-ed a Reaper! (It was totally my idea!!! You just didn't let my Shepard come up with it lol)

But the bad things, be they huge like the ending or nitpicky like slashing of dialogue wheel and convo options just completely overshadow and ruin all the good for me. I haven't touched it in a week. I've gone back to playing Dragon Age and even more concerning, non-Bioware games.

[RedRacoon]

bearded prodigy wrote...

MrHibachi wrote...

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.

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.

+1
This is exactly how i felt about the game.

Shortening the gigantic quote, but still in complete agreement with everything. Exellent point regarding the plumment in the level of story emmersion.

[holyDEATHTRAP]

I'd give this game a 3.5-4 out of 5 and it should have been a five.Let me start off by saying that about 95% of this game was awesome unfortunatelly its that final 5 that ruins it. Emergency induction port, my mandible got caught on her faceplate, and the joke off on the bridge were some of my favorite parts. I felt the dialoge was cut back on too much I kept wandering with the lack of choices if I somehow got kicked into the wrong story telling experience I understand not wanting to constantly pause the dialogue for me to choose instead opting for a general direction and just letting it play to secure a more emotional bond, and the dialogue was very good it actually began to grow on me, but it is completely different from the mass effect experience thus far. I also would have liked to have been able to import my character look I still made a reasonable facsimile but it wasn't the same and the time needed to start from scratch was annoying there should be a way to have the system make the closest match to your previous model and then the ability to modify those changes so you at least have a starting point. ( Spoilers ahead) I felt completely cheated with the "multiple" endings that consisted of not much more than swap out lights and an ending that makes no sense to me. Someone please explain it to me. Why is Joker hauling butt out of there it seems to go against the character I can't see him running without being ordered to by Shepherd or without trying to rescue as much of the crew as possible, and why is it he and Liara always end up on an alien world with slight exception. If you romanced Liara throughout three games why is he running off with your woman. I just don't get it! How can you make a game this long with the building to multiple different endings so great and yet be happy with this run of the mill conclusion. Whats the payoff for breaking the cycle by negotiating peace between the Quarians and Geth, for curing the Genophage, for saving the Rachni,etc.etc.. I played through these games as five different characters(and loved every minute of parts 1 and 2) making different choices in each one whith plans to create more just to insure that when I got to the conclusion I could savor all the diversity. Now after beating it once I've had the DESIRE to play through again let alone four more times just sucked out of me (maybe the reapers did win). In reguards to the starchild in one breath he's creator of the reapers and in another refers to himself and them as we as if he's one of them, and correct me if I'm wrong maybe it's only if you have the Prothean squad member but isn't it revealed that the same pattern keeps emerging in each cycle and that it's influenced by an unknown outside source so the only reason synthetics and organics keep going to war is because of starchilds doing and doesn't creating peace between Geth/Quarian and personalizing EDI destroy all his hard work why not just let the universe have all out war between the two and whoever makes it takes over. Why not make starchild an ancient civilization that warred with organics to the brink of their cycles extinction and vowing to never allow it to happen again did this to find a cycle that could bring about peace thus proving they were worthy to continue and the reapers would end their own lives for their past sins having finally found some redemption. I kept waiting for the moment where you got to tell the starchild forget you and make your own solution not the ones he presented. Correct me if I'm wrong but if you destroy the mass relays all of the aliens are stuck on Earth unable to make their way back to their homeworlds, so retaking Rannoch and creating peace between the different races was a total waste of time, and I thought we found out in downloadable content that if you destroy a mass relay the resulting explosion destroys the system its in ( Goodbye cruel world). Also wouldn't the synthesis ( merging of organics with synthetics) be the equivalent of husks,collectors,marauders,banshees, and cannibles. I found dying next to Anderson watching the battle play out a better ending and probably would have been happier with it that way. ( On an Anderson side note I found the dismissal of Anderson serving on the Council , if that was your choice, as just lazy its an easy fix he leaves the citadel to tend to your trial and through his having to stay behind Udina gets promoted, or steps down ,not having enjoyed the job in part 2, and promotes Udina to the post.)
In the final charge instead of gunning down husks in slowmo you could have equally damaged squad members covering you yelling go just go finish this. 
Here are some endings I would have liked to have seen. If you chose to romance a character as a male Shepherd yould could cut a few years ahead and the words UNCLE GARRUS!! Will you tell me a story, ring through my head, which he then can reply "did I ever tell you about the time ......"you could have the entire surviving squad visiting to help raise his child.
You could build on the things leaned toward throughout the game. Retiring on a beach somewhere, running off to a distant planet, waiting at a bar in heaven. I personally like a combo. You can open your eyes to find yourself on a beautiful beach and have it have that too good to be true softened dream look. You look around and all your lost squad mates are ther scattered about. You could have Mordin collecting seashells(as referenced in game),Thane in a flowered Hawaiian shirt ,sunglasses, shorts, and sandles taking in a sunset with his wife(a good chance to show a female Drell), Wrex building a large sand castle\\sculpture only to pull out a shotgun and blow it away as target practice ( after all a Krogan without a gun could only mean he's in hell), etc.etc. and hear Anderson call out from a beach bar "Shepherd I saved a seat for you" with a few empty seats around him " kick back and relax a while you earned it the others will be hear soon."
A flash forward x number of years to the remaining squad meeting up on the anniversary of your last stand. You can have them swap updates on how the different recoveries are coming along, how their people choose to remember you through stories, parades, statues, or other and just having a good time ending with a toast "To Shepherd".
I'm ok with dying in the conclusion I mean how do you live a normal life after saving the galaxy you can't. So only two possibilities make sense to me there. You either, with the knowledge of only your crew, live out the rest of your life in seclusion with only your romanced other while the rest of the universe believes your dead. The other being that after the battle you rally the universe, primarily Earth, to rebuild, that the real work starts now and that the peace has to remain which results in him taking a larger role, for lack of a better term president. You cut ahead then a number of years to either his funeral or even later to a memorial built to him.
Lets not forget if you chose to go renegade you should have some meaner endings as well. Like bartering a deal with the reapers to spare humanity or a certain number of civilizations at the cost of everyone else. You could have him become a reaper and by doing so his thinking changes their programs from being harvesters of organics to preserving organics, taking on a watcher/guardian role. You could also take control of them turning them into a peacekeeping force that answers only to you to keep the rest of the universe in line and peaceful.

I was ok with Stargazer AFTER the credits but really wanted something more immediate. I wanted to know how my crew fared how the universe was going to move forward. I loved the Mordin,Thane, and Legion deaths they were heart wrenching and tear jerking I believe Shepherd's needs to be as well. I also would have loved to have seen cut scenes in the final battle(which was neat) centering on my squad members and other key members throughout the series holding their own or even being taken down. Forgive my spellings here but you should be able to make out who I mean. To hear Kirahi say one last time "HOLD THE LINE" a Krogan(maybe Wrex) reply "Salarians hold the line Krogans advance them". I would have also have loved to have seen some cutscenes centering around my different war assets earned. I wanted to see Elcor walking tanks, a Hanar fleet and how that works, the few remaining Batarians being wiped into extinction but not before avenging their people, Krogans riding into battle on Kakliosaurs, and where were my Rachni I saved that queen from extinction TWICE (I was expecting that to come more into play).
On a side note for future downloadable content I would love a mission where you get to fight alongside Kal Reiger. I know you get notified by email of his demise but he was one of my favorite characters of Mass Effect 2 and would have loved to have seen and heard (I loved his voice) one last time since seeing him on Earth for the final assault was taken away.

Modifié par holyDEATHTRAP, 01 avril 2012 - 09:30 .

[TheClonesLegacy]

• The good
• -Gameplay was fantastic and couldn't have been improved any more
• -the Story up until the last 5 or so minutes was edge of your seat exicting.
• - The Updated Customization made me a very happy person
• -The Return of the Blood Dragon Armor
• -The Send off for all the characters (Mordin, Thane,etc) were very well done
• Now the Bad
• -Alot of improvement showing the Desparity of the situation would've nice (Sorry but a kid we see for less than a minute dosent do it for me)
• -Answered alot more questions (Like if the Cain guns was so effective one wonders why the alliance didn't outfit EVERYTHING they could with Cains)
• -The Pathetic Rainbow flavored Space Magic Endings
• -Javik didn't feel important at all and was Rude with a bit of **** thrown in for good Measure.

Overall it's a decent enough game, did I like it? Yes I did. Did I feel a bit more Tweaks to the story should've been made? Yes However Mass Effect 3 is still a great game with fun and Challenging Combat Along with a decent story to boot (well except the last 5 minutes with the R-Tarded Ghost child)
Verdict: 4.4/5

Modifié par TheClonesLegacy, 30 mars 2012 - 03:22 .

[PaulMorningstar]

I've posted one short somewhere, but now I've blogged full review and wanted to share it (original version is here).

Review of Mass Effect 3 produced by BIOWARE.Okay, this is harder than I thought it will be.
I've started to write the review over week ago, and couldn't force myself to finish it properly. Still I'm fighting in my head, weighting a lot of arguments and thinking about this review. Mass Effect is one of my favorite games from the very beginning of the series and it is a large subject. You cannot review third part without some words about the first two. But on the other hand, the third part is the one really important one if I want to analyze the structure of a story.
But before I will venture forth let me warn you - I've hated it. It is the worst part, with a great moments, but ruined at the end. Yes, I'm one of the "haters" and this review will be about how this story is flawed
from the start. So don't read if you have a different opinion.
The second warning is this - for the most part, this review is for someone who played previous parts and knows what Mass Effect game is. I will still try to explain some parts of the universe, but hey - it's a review of a third part.

Mass Effect 3 begins on Earth,
about a year after the events of Mass Effect 2, and half a year after "The Arrival" DLC. We're grounded by Earth's military, once again no one believes that the Reapers are coming, but it is to late. Earth suddenly is attacked, and we have to escape to gather the forces of the Solar System to fight them. Throughout 30-40 hours of game we will do just that - gather all the capable species and fight the Reapers, omnipresent in the entire Milky Way galaxy.

It is still the same game as before - we have Normandy, our stealth starship, capable of hiding in the outer space. We have a crew, composed mostly form our old companions, with a few new additions. If you have "From the Ashes" DLC you will have Javik - ancient Prothean wanting only revenge, and everyone will have James Vega - veteran soldier. Liara, Asari scientist and Prothean expert; Ashley or Keidan, soldier or biotic serving military and one of our possible love interests; old Garrus again recruited - soldier and C-Sec officer who wants to save the galaxy as bad as we do; and a new cybernetic form of EDI. Those are our closest companions, and with them
we will go on every mission. Of course secondary cast is strong as always, with Joker, Anderson and many others. We go out on missions, shoot our way through and have to make a lot of different choices all along. Nothing new here. This is the same action oriented RPG - just like action movies. A lot of explosions, kicking ass and fighting big bad guys, to save the day in the last possible moment. If I would rate it without the ending, it still be worse part than previous ones. Somehow the missions are lacking some background and don't bear real weight for the character. Most of the choices are constructed in a way that you can feel that this is the last part. They don't bear the mark of consequence, when they should. But in overall it is a good game - fast, deadly, with great dialogs and some heartbreaking scenes. Depending on your choices some of the characters you loved from previous parts will sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Some will survive, but only after some serious heart-stopping moments. And those moments are really good, I really liked them all.Unfortunately, I cannot do that. This game have an ending, even more than one, and I've seen them all. But I will now explain all the faults of the story that I have noticed. And they are not only because of the ending.

The first problem of this game is a "promise". Every opening scene, opening act or chapter should provide information for an audience what is this piece of game (movie, book or anything) is about. So you don't start space science fiction novel with a massive description of a forest and a character that is riding a bike. After ten
pages of such idyll scenes, battlecruiser escaping other starship would be rather surprising. This first act, when you show what, where and when is called "promise". For this game the intro and then first mission and aftermath is the full "promise". It was in previous two parts and for most games it is truth.

In first Mass Effect we started the game walking through our starship, while two characters talked about our history and if we are worthy. Soon, we were directed for a starting mission, which took place on a remote planet where our colonist were attacked by some strange forces. We are supported by a Spectre, some kind of a special agent who wants to evaluate if we can become one of them. He is badass, at least he looks like it. We Are dropped into foreign planet with one soldier, and we learn that there are biotic powers and he will be our companion for the rest of the game - he's name is Kaidan. Soon we are joined by last of the surviving soldiers from the attacked planet, Ashley. And this is the second companion, who will affect a lot of things in our character
life. The action goes one, badass Spectre gets killed by some other cool looking villain, we witness takeoff of some strange and ominous looking starship and come in contact with strange Prothean artifact, that almost kills us, but one of the companions will save us. Oh, and we had a vision, granted by large strange obelisk-artifact. Something disturbing and of importance. So what is a promise here? I will use only words to underline the interesting things we will need to discover and experience: Spectre, companions, decisions, biotics, Prothen artifact, visions, bad-ass villain, strange starship. These are the themes that the first part will explore and will answer all of them.
Mass Effect 2 start with Normandy attacked by unknown enemy, and destroyed with our hero out in the outer space. Dying. Bu we are being resurrected by a strange Illusive Man, who's in charge of a Cerberus organization. Once again we are introduced to new companions, coming from different than military background and we are supposed to investigate the presence of Collectors and why they are kidnapping humans from different colonies. But we know we won't be able to do this alone, and our mysterious benefactor suggest that we find ourselves a
team. Of course we have themes from previous part: Reapers, companions, decisions as themes. New ones are: Illusive Man, Cerberus, Collectors, resurrection. Again, this is what we will unravel before the game ends.
How does the opening of the ME3 fares? Well, we are back on Earth, grounded by military forces and not fully
judged on the accusations of cooperating with Cerberus. We meet Ashley accusing us of some Cerberus connections and were accompanied for a while by James, some random muscular guy. But before we even start to discuss that, Reapers attack our home planet. We don't have companions, but we are running with our long time commander - Anderson. We shoot our way to the point, where Normandy can pick us up. During that time we
see how gigantic Reapers blast entire city into oblivion and meet alone kid, hiding in the ventilation. He refuses to go with us, but when we are being rescued, we see other ship evacuating civilians. Small boy is among them, but when they take off, Reaper blasts them, without remorse. Well...okay, but what are the promises? From previous parts: Reapers, Cerberus, companions and decisions. Something new? No, I don't see it. But companions are not present in this first mission, so there is something off (a bit more on the subject of companions later on). The
whole opening mission is empty - we don't see space, any fighters attacking the Reapers, companions along our side or nothing cool. It is like someone cut off random scene from some movie and now shows is. You
can download it from here and see for yourself (or see it on youtube). This is the opening mission of this game.

The "promise" of this game does not exist. But it is the final part and we probably played previous ones so we
know what to expect. Story is slowly expanding and out of the box pops out total weapon - mysterious Protean project called Crucible. We don't have any idea what it is, how it looks like, but hey, don't worry. It is not your concern (not now at least). This new idea should be presented in the "promise", but it is in the aftermath of the second mission. This adds to the themes that we need to solve, and as it turns out it's the
most important one.

We go into the middle of a story, that in matter of fact does not exists. We venture forth, gathering armies, and ending character stories from the Mass Effect 2. Yes - this is what really is going on. Crucible is build by the military, we don't know where or how does it look like. We get some reports about Earth, but we are not going there yet. We flying across the Milky Way, finding our teammates from the previous installment and finishing their story lines. Wrex, our heavy hitter and tank from the first Mass Effect, and Modrin (the best character for me
in the whole ME Trilogy), doctor and scientist with a lot of humor, have a good story and this is the best part of the game in my opinion. Genophage, which affected aggressive reptile race - Krogan, was very well thought out. It was a genetic mutation, that caused many stillborn, so that Krogan race don't spread. And Modrin, Salarian sceintist who is responsible for second variation of the Genophage trying to correct his mistake was awesome.

But after that you start to see the pattern - this game is an "outro" for ME2. All quest are related to one of the missing companions. And then it is clear. Your team from Mass Effect 2 is secondary cast. They will be
involved in our actions, but only partially, just to show what happens to them. They are only your war assets, not companions. The problem is that main cast is flat and boring. Liara, Javik, James, Tali, EDI, Garrus and Ashley or Keidan. EDI is quite okay, perhaps not the smartest choice, but it is a fine idea. Liara, Tali, Garrus and Ashley/Keidan are the main cast from the first part. They were written quite good, and Garrus role even got bigger that the rest thanks to ME2. But in here they are just flat and boring. You don't have time to expand your knowledge of those heroes, because there is no mission for them. They are bit outdated, and hell, the cast from the Mass Effect 2 was 100% cooler than this.

I want to stop for a while and take a look at James Vega, our new character. Now this is pure art. No one knows who is he. He has no mission, his dialogs are sparse and the whole history is just plainly boring. He is a soldier, and he loves Earth and...oohh...he plays poker. Why the hell is he one of the main characters? Bloody hell,
if I had the option not to take him I would. Last part of ME and some new character out of the blue is presented, and hey - it's fine, but give him a mission or what. Something to bond with, some background. Ohh...yes, I forgot. There will be animated movie about him, otherwise he will tell you part of his story. Oh joy. I have no idea why should I watch it, if I haven't had time to like him. And the most important question is - why the hell inventing him, instead oh using any of the characters from the ME2? To create a content for a game that finishes the story?(Javik is not much better, but at least we are allowed to see parts of his history and there is a DLC mission, so let's say he is a few notches better. And in some rare occasions he has important information so better idea than James.)

Then the main part of the story starts to flow a bit faster and there are some good missions. Quarian and Geth fleet is very good and Sanctuary idea was brilliant. Meanwhile we learn about the rest of the crew, and once again I will say that this is the strongest part of this game. The finishing stories of all the characters from Mass Effect 2. To me Modrin, Tali and Legion plot and Thrane were the best and most emotional, for you had to make some hard decisions and in those parts you could really see the fruits of things you've done in previous parts. Consequences are the thing that most of us (player's from previous parts) waited and an essence of Mass
Effect universe. But, again, they were not introduced in "promise" so  you have to wait a while before you will witness them.

New choices were bit unclear in more than few moments. The main rule in forcing decisions on a player is to make sure that they are clear enough for him to predict the outcome. This binds player to their character and strengthens belief in internal game logic. Not to mention that this is one of the most important rules in games. Yet in here few times I've watched and said "What the crap? Why? I've done the best I've could!". Because the choices were unclear, I've had to make some tough choices that I did not like and effects were really drastic.
I've heard example about recruiting Ashley, where there is Paragon blue response to proposition, which states "Sure, my god, I'm so happy you want to come with me" and second "Sure, if you want to, no problem"
representing Renegade red answer. Well, only one of them is correct yet the meaning is almost the same. This one of the examples, that doesn't spoil too much.

Up to the finishing missions on Earth, this is bit uneven story, with problems but with a great moments that for most part balance things out. Common opinion on the net is that till the last moments this game is "awesome". To me it is just good - awesomeness is inherited from the previous parts in players head. But still, it is all good. But  then we enter Earth's orbit and from now on we're sliding on a slope.

The mood is chaotic all the time. Heroic arrival of the gigantic fleet with a gloom and doom of the destroyed home planet. London in ruins, Reapers blasting everything to pieces and people dying. It is like someone could not make up his mind. But after we settle in this dark setting, it is all right. We are able to speak with all of our living teammates for one last time and we're off to the grand finale. Unfortunately the missions are boring as hell.
Weave after weave you shoot your ass off, to be transported to another location of even more mindless shooting. You can argue that I shouldn't expect anything else, right? This game is like that the whole time. Well, let's see at earlier parts. (I know, it is not the "story", but the idea is that fight scenes are the part of stories, so I decided to
point it out).

In ME and ME2 you're shooting through the waves of generic enemies until you head for the last fight with boss. Yet the trick is the way you do it, not the fact of doing it. In first ME you're doing your job and then suddenly the Citadel gets damaged and you need to go outside and fight in a Zero-G. It not much, but it changes the way you fight. Character is moving differently, enemies fly off in a funny way and every effect is much cooler and funnier. As a player you are thrown out of your comfort zone of predictable surroundings. In ME2 the last push is divided into segments. You need to do something on time, you are securing your teammate sneaking past the enemy barriers and then you need to fight in a force bauble created by one of your Biotics or the environment and little nasty bugs will kill you in a matter of seconds, while he is getting weaker. Once again, the situation changes, does not
repeat itself, and you don't know what to expect. In ME3 you just go, and shoot, and then shoot and then...shoot some more until you are at the very end.There is a lot to tell about the ending scenes. This cannot be done without major spoilers, so if you don't know how the story goes, skip this part and go right for the conclusion.

After hours of fighting we are heading for the tower, that will transport us to the Citadel. Beside us two of our faithful companions and we charge. This is how you will recognize that the worst part of the game has started. The creators have reach the point when they have to "fulfill the promise". That is what it is called - the story ends, our hero does what he was supposed and the world changes. The problem is that this game had no promise. There is nothing to fulfill so, still the same from the start of the Mass Effect 3, we are expecting that it will deal with the leftovers from the previous installments.

Let's recap what those leftovers are: Reapers (why do the Reapers attack us, can we stop them?), Cerberus
(what does Illusive Man wants, is he our ally or has he sided with Reapers), companions (will they sacrifice themselves for us, or we will have to do it? what will happen to the after this is finished) and decisions (have I made a mistake somewhere along the path, do I have enough army, should Geth be trusted or they will turn? And Krogan? What will happen with them after that?). There is one more, added after the second mission - Crucible (what is it, will it destroy the Reapers, will I be able to make it work in time?).

To fulfill the promise you must untie all the knots made at the very beginning of a story. Not only that, but you need to show what happens then to all major characters that reader invested in. Even if it is in few sentences, or just a brief image that he walks somewhere, or he lies dead among the ruins. If you close your eyes and
recall endings of favorite movie, you will find that to be true.

After a blast from a gigantic Reaper you are badly wounded, your armor and equipment magically blown away from your body, and you stumble to the transportation tower to the Citadel. Dozens of dead bodies lie around - no one know why, but here they are. Our companions are nowhere near us and voices in radio said that everybody who was with you is dead. But you go further on, to face Illusive Man. Just like in the beginning, Anderson is the only one with you. This does have something in common with opening scenes, maybe the promise will
be fulfilled. He explains what does he wants, we try to talk him to his senses, but he became something else. His role ends, we know that happens to Cerberus and what where the motivations of this group. One element finished, good. But Anderson and our brave Shepard are done. And suddenly we get information that nothing happens, Crucible is not shooting or doing anything and everybody is dying. We try to do something but we lose consciousness.

This is the beginning of the tragedy. Ending of Matrix Reloaded meets with ending of Battlestar Galactica. As
it turns out there is a small ghost boy, who created Reapers as a solution to the all time problem - that created things will revolt and try do destroy its makers. So the Reapers come every 50,000 years and harvest advanced civilizations to make them into new Reaper, so they won't make any synthetic life form. Why? Because it would destroy all living lifeforms.

I don't want to discuss how illogical it is and analyze it from my point of view. I want to take a look at it from the story point of view. First of all conflict between Artificial Intelligence and synthetic life vs. organic lifeforms is nowhere in the opening promise of this game, or any previous if it counts. Not only that, but few times in the game we learned that the ideas of Reapers were utterly different. The theme was presented strongly in this part in about two ways - after some time EDI was discussing it and Legion with Geth also was in the zone of this conflict. But as such, it was a marginal theme, something introduced additionally. This is called "devil in the box" -
you explain things that have no background as a resolution to the story.

Moral point is also very strong in that particular moment. The child/Crucible explains to us why his creation murders everyone and transforms it into synthetic life (no comment) and states, that this is okay according to him. Sure, we already knew that Reapers are psychotic machines. But our character for the first time does not argue with this boy-thing. Every time that Sovereign or Harbinger or any other Reaper talked to us, telling us how insignificant and small we were, and how our death is necessary - we always said - NO! This is the only time that
we don;t have such option. Or character accepts this explanation, as logical. Well, good job teaching people how to make moral decisions. After all World Wars taught us that we are only numbers in statistics.

NO! It is not over yet. Now we face our last challenge. Ghost boy presents us with choices three. We can destroy the Reapers, we can Control the Reapers or we can Synthesize our DNA and synthetic lifeforms. Mind that in every way, you die, Mass Relays are destroyed along a good part of technology, but the threat is gone. You have already installed the devices for that, so you don't have to go far to do this. The way it is explained is the first
great thing. Control Ending is represented by blue device. In a strange vision we see Ilussive Man holding some two handles, for his dream was to control the Reapers. I don't know, but through most of the game color
blue was reserved for Paragon choices. Why the hell is Illusive Man representing Paragon Ending? Was he a good guy all along? Well, brilliant, but once again it defiles information from the rest of the game. But lets move on - after all Anderson, our faithful friend, defender of the Earth is representing Red Destruction Ending - color of
Renegade choices. Am I missing something? Well, at least Green Synthesis Ending is not represented by anyone.

With a Blue path you are toasted and you can watch it happening. After all it is a tough sacrifice and choice to make. Green is somewhat more common, you just jump and then fall into the stream of energy - no suffering shown there. What is strange though is that in Red ending there is a possibility that you survive. Problem is that the Catalyst boy just told you that you will die too. Then we watch explosions, some Reapers escaping or dying (depending on your choice) and there are three different colors destroying the Mass Relays.

Final scenes show us a Normandy escaping through Mass Relay or blast weave from one - not sure exactly. Then it crushes on some wild planet, where you can see three characters. Joker is there for sure, the rest depends on your choices. But at least one of them is someone who run with you on this last mission. Again, no one knows why Normandy is somewhere out there and how your companion got on board of it (he was running beside you when the Reaper blasted you). Oh...and if you've chosen Green ending Joker has skin like a circuit board, so he was modified on the run.

Well, this sums up all the promises made. Companions are in most part a mystery. No one know if they too were on board of Normandy. what happens to the rest of the world is only a speculation, and in most parts it is a grim future with pretty much everyone dying or being cut off from the rest of the galaxy. Your decisions are not important because at the very end, you need to make a one last three-way choice that has nothing to do with the rest of the
game. And that one pretty much destroys everything you worked on so far. Again, you don't see anything to show what happens to the rest of the universe - and you cared and tried to save a lot of those worlds.Yep, that is the denouement of this story - no one know what happened.
I will quote Nancy Kress about that. I know that this is not a novel, only computer game, but the same rules apply:
"Unfortunately, the "let-readers-decide-for-themselves" stance is usually failed defense. Readers don't want to decide what happened to the characters. They want you to decide, on the dual ground that you're the writer and that they've just read four hundred pages of your prose anticipating this very information you're now withholding."

Climax of this game is tragic.
That is the example of "how-not-to-do-things". Terrible, unfinished or not prepared I don't know the reason, but this sum up over 100 hours of gameplay. Anyone who wrote that, should be ashamed of himself for releasing that to the world. With seven minutes of time he rips apart all reasons to play this game and the one before. Series that had a straight road to become cult classic and most awesome game of the first decade just shoot itself in the knee.

Mass Effect 3 is a game that has weak start, good middle and terrible, awful ending. So there are two ways I can grade this game. If you've never played any Mass Effect game, you can try. You haven't invested too much in this game and maybe you will like it. Then you will want to play two previous parts, and there is a lot of fun there, for they are really good. If you played previous games, leave Mass Effect 3 alone. Perhaps the fans (HOLD THE LINE!!!) will win and the new corrected ending will be made. Or if not you won't lose too much.

Modifié par PaulMorningstar, 30 mars 2012 - 12:34 .

[ed87]

 7/10


The Good:
+ Polished gameplay mechanics
+ Engaging story
+ Great soundtrack and sound effects
+ Enjoyable multiplayer

The Bad:
- Multiplayer not on par with popular multiplayer titles
- DLC essential to Mass Effect experience
- Many bugs and glitches on release

The Ugly:
- The Ending

[hwf]

Mass Effect 3 is an evolution of the second part of the trilogy.
Practically everything has improved over ME2; not as drastically as ME2 over ME1 but that's more due to ME1's quality.

Combat has indeed become more involved with enemies that have more diverse roles then before and will be a challenge to get to grips with when you first start playing.
There will be moments where you'll choke up, your eyes water over or even where your proverbial entrails will be ripped out and shown to you.

My detailed review as a BSN blog entry is meant as feedback to Bioware.
I find it odd that ME3 got a slightly lower metacritic rating then it's predecessor but I guess this is what you get when you try to slap a number on a subjective review.

A lot of folks are frothing at the mouth because of the ending that ME3 had at release - I too got an instant hangover when "it" happened and could only murmur the words "oh, so this is what folks were ranting about ever since the leak".
But after chewing it over and reading folks' thoughts on the forums - if Bioware's planning what I think they're planning then we're looking at Mass Effect 3 bumping itself up, in my humble opinion, to an experience that'll rub shoulders with Planescape: Torment.

Suffice it to say I felt the first 99.5% of the game is an absolutely terrific experience and I heartily recommend ME3 to anyone - don't let the negative rants about the ending get to you - it really is a great game.

[Last Shepherd]

If I don't do this in two parts it may never get done, starting with mp since I have less to say about that.

Love having intelligent squad mates, since we have 4 gamers in my household, makes me wonder about a possible squad based game in the me universe, maybe have the players be a merc group or stg or something. Conversations like in TOR would work well. Loved playing l4d, and it's story was barebones.
Weird glitches/lag lead to some downright bizarre visuals, calmly floating back into hands of the banshee you just rolled away from is extremely frustrating. Wasting valuable resources like missles that phase through an atlas or banshee also is irritating.
Would prefer if the booster packs got turned into actual stores, it'd be much nicer to be able to get the equipment that you need and get out rather than spend hours saving up for multiple spectre packs and getting nothing but character training for classes you've already maxed out customization on and never play and upgrades for weapons that you never use. I'd be willing to pay more for it ala shopping on the normandy.
Mechanics and actual play are solid, no real complaints there.
Would be more interesting if being in different systems only affected the section of the galaxy you are in, then it would actually seem like there was a point to the sections map and the sections having their own galactic readiness meters. Also be more interesting if being in certain sectors made you more likely to encounter a certain type of enemy if you are on random.
Making classes customized might be nice, not having pull on my human vanguard means guardians occasionally wreck me since they usually are as affected by my charges or novas as they are by a stiff breeze(those shields are cerberus's smartest investment since lazarus).
If I think of more I will post with my single-player.

[ofish]

I've edited my review and changed so much I figured I should repost it and delete this one.  That'll teach me to post it at 2 am!

Modifié par ofish, 31 mars 2012 - 06:08 .

[Weeshka]

Ok, here it goes

Overall score : 9/10

What i liked :

- great combat system
- more flexibility with weapons
- encoumberance is now important
- great story
- my choices from me1 and me2 do matter
- felt even more connected to my old companions than in me2
- multiplayer mode is really addictive

What i had issues with :

- too much stuff happens on the space bar, most of the times instead of running i just get into cover
- reaper threat in some systems is ridicilous, in most cases it gets to a point i can't get back to a system cos the reapers are already waiting there for me, don't know if it's a bug or was it intended
- sometimes it's hard to tell which quest is timed and which isn't
- having to get back to citadel a million times is getting annoying after a few times


Overall i'm really happy i got this game, it met my expectations, and in some aspects even exceeded them. As for the endings, i do understand some may have an issue with them but me, i don't mind them. The multiplayer was the biggest suprise for me. I didn't expect it to be so fun. And now every evening after work i log in and do osme matches, a great stress relief these are! I also liked how the old companions were incorporated into me3 story, when i watched moridin die, i though, **** now i have to finish me2 again and change my choices (cos in all my playthroughs of me2 i always destroyed the genophage data...). It was a nice move from Bioware hehe, didn't expect me to want to finish me2 all over again with me3 out.

And so now here i am. Splitting my gaming time between me2 and me3 multiplayer. Money well spent

[Antiochus V]

   I feel there are really two reviews to this game (I shall try to avoid spoilers)
 
   The first is for someone has never played a mass effect game and likes action games.  Solid game mechanics a passable story, with plot holes, but heck who needs a plot in an action game.  The multiplayer mode is fine, if rather limited, and the game is reasonably challenging and has interesting enemies.  The issue most people seem to have with the ending will be fairly minor as the ending is not that much sillier than that of medium-quality action games.

    If however you have played the previous games your experience may be rather different.

    The good news:

      Multiplayer is actually quite fun, although limited to a horde mode on six maps, the gameplay mechanics work and Bioware could easily release DLC that would expand this and broaden its appeal.  It is a pity more was done with this given that I heard it was outsourced I feel this was a wasted opportunity.

      The fighting is fairly solid, enemies are quite varied and I found the weapons a various powers to be fun to play with.  

      There are some good missions on varied settings and most of the game is fine with reasonably good links to the previous games in that characters re-appear and have some interesting cameos. 

      Squadmates have an improved AI it seems, and were vaguely useful in combat.

      There is a decent selection of guns and upgrades, which seems to suit varying playing styles.  I think they did listen to the complaints people had about ME2, and took appropriate action.


    The Bad News

       The ending is truly dire, others have covered it more eloguently that I can, but suffice to say it feels hastily put together and as though the writers were desperately short of ideas and had to cobble together a selection of previously unrelated scenes.  Indeed the ending is handled so poorly as to make replaying the game a dull prospect.  I personally felt a text box saying 'you are a winner and here is your score' would have been a better approach.

       Replayability is limited owing to the poor handing and lack of good links from how you handle the game decisions vs how it ends.  Ironically the decent multiplayer is also a factor, as if you feel like trying out a new character class all you have to do is test out in the multiplayer mode, no need to go through the main game.

      The plot is a bit weak, I felt the start of the game on earth looked dramatic but felt illogical, after two games should the galaxy really be caught by surprise by the reapers?  There were a number of times in which one felt that many of the plot decisions by the developers werre clearly focused on adding enemies rather than having a logical narrative.

        The game is very linear, perhaps understandable given it is a war, but still one never really feels the sense of exploration and curiousity present earlier in the series.  I felt more prothean sites should have been included and that the whole war assets thing should have led to some random side missions, rather than merely planet scanning. 

        The game tries to copy call of duty and halo, but always in a very half-hearted way.  The good side of this is the periodic presence of friendly NPCs on the battlefield, but rarely do they feel like they are there as more than a prop to be instantly killed.  I felt this was yet another opportunity they missed.

        The DLC fiasco was deeply unimpressive, the Prothean character is a welcome addition to the squad and feels quite core to the game, I find it unamusing that he was split from the game to be sold separately.  His side mission however is very unimpressive, it feels like a chunk of it got deleted as it was unfinished.  My personal feeling is that a $10 dlc should have an impressive mission with it, which it does not.

         The number of squadmates is greatly reduced, and inexplicably there is no krogan squadmate, I can only assume that there was a tight budget and or timeframe.  

         Whilst I enjoyed the multiplayer I felt it was poorly integrated with the main game, had the ending been actually linked to your war assets it would have been a source of frustration, as it is the ending is so stupid as to make the link meaningless.  The multiplayer was I felt good enough that players would have been drawn to it, by trying to force players into it they only create ill feeling.


         Overall

         It was a reasonable game, but badly let down by a daft ending and a sense that the game wasn't really finished when they published it.  There are regular moments when it feels corners have been cut, and content was not able to finished.  I would have a given the game 7.5/10, but the ending and dlc fiasco knock that down to 6/10. 

         I have had mixed feelings about Bioware games for a while, I like the Mass effect series, but found the Dragon Age games so dull that I had no interest in completing the first, let alone buying the second.  The disappointing end to the ME series leaves me in no rush to buy products from Bioware in the future.  
  

[Tuny]

8/10 - I really liked the game as whole, aside from few moments.

Liked:
Art-direction and sound - that's my favorite part, because ME3 much closer aesthetically to
ME1 than to ME2 - but superior to both of them in quality
Music - new tracks are beautiful and greatly enhance emotional effect in key moment
Combat is good(I was quite satisfied with combat in ME1, so, naturally, no complains here)
Narrative - I liked both story and most of dialogues, as well as diversity of sidequests.
Presenting player with options on distribution of combat and story is a nice
move as well.
Voice acting - the majority of characters are alive and absolutely believable - great
credit to the actors and director
Graphics is good
In general - it's a quality game with solid story in beloved setting.  It's not perfect, nor excellent, but it concludes
a landmark trilogy in magnificent way. And said trilogy was delivered in course
of 4 years(PC player) - no small feat.

Disliked:
Music - using some old tracks, IMO, was a mistake. Both old and new pieces are good,
but throwing them in succession  feels
wrong - they are just too different.
Multiplayer - it's definitely not bad, but it's not belong in this game
Narrative: beginning is somewhat weaker than a rest of the game(action begins too soon, concept of
the crucible is brought in without any prior indication), dream sequences
failed to impress me, romance with Ashley left me a little disappointed, ending
brought up some additional questions(Who/what a Catalyst is/are? What exactly  the Normandy was doing at FTL and why?). And dialog choices are too few - in most cases it comes down to two options - "good"
and "bad"(though by the second half of the game I got used to that).
Minor blunders - such as: no face import from the first game(no way didn't know about
that before release), almost none folding weapons animations, Tali's face
presented as Photoshopped stock photo, sometimes clumsy animation in cutscenes.
It may seem not a big deal, and probably is, but it shows that team delivered
not a piece of art, but a product on a tight schedule - and was forced to compromise
on some details.

After reading so much displeased comments about ending, I was afraid  it would be dull, or without connection to the story, or just unsatisfying after 100+ hours of gameplay - to my amazement it
actually was pretty good - emotionally powerful and thought-out. I can't call
it original, but it is unexpected in a pleasant way. Mass Effect series was
about a lot of things, but ultimately - about making choices and one's impact
on the surrounding world. This ending is in line with such philosophy and let
you make biggest decision ever, and make a biggest impact ever. I did like
options in the end and dilemma they present - but it would be really nice to
see more consequences of one's choice.
And finally, this kind of ending raises many thoughts. With mass relays destroyed -
what this setting will look like? Will it be the same galaxy of wonder that seized
my imagination 4 years ago? I'm asking this questions because I'm actually
worried - was this universe I grew to love and care about just got changed
beyond recognition, and if so, for what purpose? I hope you have answers.

Modifié par Tuny, 31 mars 2012 - 05:47 .

[ofish]

Note: This is a second revision of my review, so I've removed my previous post since I ended up adding so much more after looking it over a day after writing it originally.

                 I'm writing this two days after finishing ME3 for the first time.  Last night I played the Earth missions a second time to completion, and after spending much of the past few days thinking about it I figured I would take the opportunity to write things down while they are fresh.

-I purchased ME1 in April 2009 and I spent 70 hours on a very thorough single play through. 

-ME2 was purchased June 2010 and I've played it to completion twice along with all of the DLC, with a total playtime of 120 hours.

-With ME3 I've played the game completely thru once and replayed the last mission, with about 48 hours of playtime.

                I'm including this to try to give you an idea of how much I've enjoyed the games, and hopefully I will be able to give you a fair objective and nuanced view of things as I see them.

General Observations

1.            For me the point where I was most in awe and completely blown away was when Liara comes to your cabin and shows you that she's created beacons to try to save the species in the next cycle if you fail.  The music and art direction with the stars all around and let me emphasize the music again!  I'm not ashamed to say that scene made me cry.  It makes me tear up a little bit now just thinking about it.  In my opinion this is the most incredible moment so far I've ever experienced in a video game and it ranks right up there with the great movies I've seen or books I've read.  Kudos.

2.            The combat mechanics are much improved and refined in this game and are the best by far of the three games.  ME1 was basically circle strafing, ME2 usually degenerated into static situations and there usually wasn't many alternatives to how to approach a given group of enemies.  ME3 gives much broader combat areas, which allow for flanking, rewarding you when you do it, and punishing you when the computer does it to you.  I also like the grenades which force you to keep moving and always have at least one escape avenue in mind lest you get cornered and cut to pieces.

3.            I enjoyed the "support" mini dialogues that appeared throughout the game, and some of them left me staring at the screen agonizing over what I should do.  I really liked the one in the refugee camp on the Citadel where you have to choose whether to send people away since the station is at capacity.

4.            The conversations, both number of and options available during are yet again less than the previous game, which were less than the first game.  ME1 had them all over the place and made the world feel so much bigger and more interesting.  Don't get me wrong there is a limit to how many interactive conversations I want to have but at a certain point less is just less. 

5.            The eavesdropping on people in order to obtain a quest would have been fine if it then allowed you to initiate a conversation with them and then decide from there if it indeed was worth it or not.  Maybe even have had some of the quests as actually harmful to your war effort, with people possibly lying to you or trying to manipulate you.  Please don't think I want less optional quests, I just want them more fleshed out and nuanced.

6.            The Journal, particularly the Mission subsection was a mess this time around.  Every time I would open it, it would be half or three quarters of the way down the list of missions, always showing me ones that were already completed.

                The descriptions for each mission were also poorly thought out and implemented.  The descriptions of what you needed to do and where you needed to do it were in different formats in almost every description.  Some had the Cluster you needed to go to and the planet, some only listed the planet name even though if you know the planet name you surely must know what System or Cluster it's in.  For situations where the person giving the mission does not know where the item is, this is fine but please try to make the other ones consistent.  There was also confusion when for some of them the Cluster would only consist of a single System until you completed a certain Priority Mission, then without any way of knowing save repeatedly traveling to the same places over and over until all of a sudden a Cluster would have multiple new systems to visit.

                There should have been updates to your Mission page when you acquired an item for someone, there was no way to know if you had something or not other than running to where they were and seeing if there was a set of red brackets on them.

7.            One thing ME or any game for that matter can do without is scripted chase sequences where there's no way to succeed such as the pursuit of Dr. Eva on Mars, where no matter what you do it's just a boring jog to the next cut scene.  L.A. Noire did this in almost every case in the game and no matter how many times I chase someone or something that rubber bands ahead of me it's never fun.

8.            An ongoing problem ever since ME1 has been with trying to explore the area you're currently in before moving on, where just approaching the wrong part of a level triggers a cutscene or dialogue that you can't stop, and with some you can't even hit ESC and reload your last save as they are un-skippable.  The worst example I can recall at the moment is in Cerberus Headquarters where there's some audio/video logs and some other items past a narrow hallway and if you walk down the hallway on the left side you'll trigger a cutscene and be unable to go back.  I find I constantly used the "V" key to see where my next waypoint was then purposefully headed in the opposite direction.  Maybe some sort of symbol or icon or something could slowly start to appear in the corner of the screen and if you weren't ready to move on you could just move in the opposite direction.

9.            It seemed to me that ME3 was about 1/3 smaller than the previous two games.  If you look at the game as a three act play, I would guess the second act begins when you fend off the attack on the Citadel (either 6 or 7 Priority Missions depending on where you mark the second act as starting).  Then the second act would be the Geth/Quarian situation which is 3 Priority Missions, and it seems like there should have been a group of missions to get the Asari to trust you or to accomplish something for them before there was the whole, "Shepard btw we probably know what the catalyst is but we haven't bothered to check", thing happens.

                -The story seems like it would work better with the missions the same up until after the attack on the Citadel, then have the Horizon mission then the Cerberus Headquarters, then the Illusive man disappears and while we all had our eyes off the Reapers they mount an attack on the Asari.  Then you could have the missing Asari arc and succeed in recovery of the Prothean VI.  Then you could have the final Priority Earth missions.

Multiplayer 

1.            I haven't bothered to play it.  I'm sure its fun as the combat is fun but it's not what I'm interested in when I think about Mass Effect.  You could have included a holographic Angry Birds simulator at the citadel, and I wouldn't have played that either.
 

Mission Specific

1.            The Palaven mission was great fun, and I was particularly thrilled when I was told to man a turret to fend off Reaper forces.

2.            The Tuchanka missions were also great, with some wonderful moments, especially the trip underground and the approach to and ringing of the Maw Hammers to get the Thresher Maw to appear.  I loved the emotional and poignant moment with Mordin before he heads up the Shroud.  Another stand out was the character of Eve, she was great!  She seemed very wise and mysterious, and for whatever reason I felt like Shepard couldn't lie to her or she'd know!

3.            The entire Quarian/Geth mission arc was great with some nice moments.  Disabling the AA guns was fun, but for me the standout action sequence was the fight in the Geth Dreadnought Main Battery.  The energy waves provided a neat combat dynamic and the sound effects for it were great.  I personally liked moments like the Main Battery more than the one on one fight with the Reaper with the targeting laser.  Bigger isn't always better and making Shepard into Superman just diminishes the sense of danger by making it unbelievable.  I had more doubt as to whether I could make it to the end of the Main Battery than if I could solo that Reaper.  I mean why else would I be on foot standing in front of a 500 or 1000 foot high robot.

4.            Thessia as a whole didn't seem very believable.  There was no build up or foreshadowing to the Asari being attacked.  Imagine you keep asking your neighbour if you can borrow some eggs.  They know you really need some eggs but keep telling you they don't have any.  Now imagine they call you and tell you "Oh by the way I have some eggs you're welcome to them... but my house is on fire, and there's a bomb in it too."  No rush, I'll just get it later.

5.            Horizon was another great mission with some really disturbing moments.  It was almost like the discovery of the concentration camps as WW2 was winding down.  Very compelling and effective emotionally in making me hate Cerberus.

The Ending...

                I was completely on board with the story and how it was unfolding all the way until we were running down the hill in the middle of London...  Then at least for me the whole story started to fly off the rails.  Shepard got up, he was seriously hurt, and I was moving slower than I could move even in those earlier dream sequences.  All was still not lost, until, I beamed into the Citadel and Anderson decided he'd just go ahead without me and we'd just meet up later, kinda like you do at the food court in the mall.  "Hey Shepard, I'll be in front of Taco Bell in 10 minutes, see you there!"

                The conversation with the Illusive man was satisfying, and the ability to get him to commit suicide or shoot him works well.  The whole shooting of Anderson and then Shepard being wounded in the same place thing is mysterious and I won't get into the whole indoctrination thing its very well covered elsewhere.  After the Citadel is opened and the Catalyst docks, why oh why would you introduce something so out of left field as this little ghost child.  The whole time all I could think of is Star Wars the Phantom Menace and Jake Lloyd and imagine him playing in the movie.  From there it wasn't too long before I was thinking of what music should play for the credits and was surprised Blue Oyster Cult - (Don't Fear) The Reaper didn't play.

                For me, the ending of this game is a mess, doesn't make any sense and has characters teleporting onto the ship, appears to irreparably alter the entire Galaxy by destroying all of the Relays and leaving millions of people and the combined fleets of the Galaxy to starve.

                It seems to me that the man and boy at the end of the game are on the same planet that the Normandy crashed on, so are we to assume that there is nobody to rescue them, and they are unable to leave on their own.  This is the same no matter what you choose at the end or do throughout the game.  I would have been fine with Shepard dying, with various crew members dying, and before the game had come out I thought the ultimate choice would end up being that Shepard could either save Earth and lose the Citadel and Galaxy, or lose Earth and save the Galaxy and whatever remaining humans were scattered elsewhere.  That seemed to tie in nicely with the choice at the end of the first game where you can either screw over the Galaxy and help humanity rise to the Council or sacrifice to save them. 

 

Summary

                I've done some more thinking about the game and think I know where a lot of the frustration and anger are coming from.  I think a good way to get a reference of where the basic canon version of the universe is, i.e. what Bioware is considering happened as each game progresses is the version that you see if you do not import a save.  Like when you start ME3 without a save you cannot bring about a peaceful resolution to the Geth/Quarian war.  In situations like this where the default new game situation does not allow accomplishing a given objective or outcome, these paths, put simply do not matter as far as Bioware is concerned going forward.

                The end of ME3 is designed in exactly such a way.  By allowing people who have not even bothered to play the other two games and bring along their savegame, to get as good an ending as the people who have gone out of their way to basically save everybody and bring them together over a couple hundred hours of game time just makes everybody who did all of the above sick to their stomach.

                Deciding to wipe out the Geth or the Quarians, screw over the Krogan to placate the Salarians, or allow numerous companions to be killed, etc. etc. just doesn't matter at all.  You still end up in the same place, talking to a ghost child with the same three choices as someone who never played ME1 & 2, and only played ME3 for 25 hours then did some multiplayer.

                This is precisely why everybody who's put in a ton of time in this world is so upset over the ending.  Reading or listening to most of the game journalists who think its fine is enlightening.  When you hear them talk about their play
experiences for the most part they only did the main quest line and allowed people to die left and right haphazardly, and that's why for them it's not a big deal.

                Knowing what I know now Shepard should have just called in sick.

Modifié par ofish, 31 mars 2012 - 06:19 .