1966 réponses à ce sujet

[George Costanza]

I'm not going to go into too much detail.

9/10.

The game itself is well made and on par with what I've come to expect. The combat surpasses what has come before, the graphics are swell, the voice acting mostly delightful, and for the majority of the game the story is intense.

Obviously, there's the ending. The ending made it tough for me to score the game. I gave it a begrudging 9/10 even though the ending actually soured me so much that I don't want to play it or any other game in the series again. But technically, most of the game is very good. Giving it a 4/10 or whatever would be wrong to me as I loved 99% of it. So it's a 9/10 and it will collect dust on the my shelf for the rest of its days.

[Allstar27]

Terror_K wrote...

Going to repost something I wrote in another (now closed) topic since it covers a lot of my issues:-

The ending(s) aren't ME3's only flaws, they're just one of the biggest, most detracting and the ones everybody is going on about.

For one thing, there's the character face import, which has gone beyond a fiasco. Given the promises from BioWare and intent of the trilogy, the fact that it was broken at launch was unforgivable as it is, but to make matters worse we've since been given a patch that claims to fix the issue but just outright doesn't, and not only that, people have discovered that some Shepard faces are literally impossible to create or recreate in ME3 because the facial options are simply not there. That is beyond ludicrous and to state how mind-boggingly bad that is can't be put into words. You've got a series based entirely around carrying a completely customisable character through a trilogy, and not only do you guys not have this working at launch, but whoever designed the CC cut out options entirely? Seriously?! The term "WTF?!!" does not even come close to covering how poorly planned, programmed and designed this major fubar is. So right out of the box, before the player is even into the game, if they're importing in the manner the series was designed for, they're already screwed over. It's the equivalent of trying to build a world class soccer team to take on the best in the world, but not even picking a goalie and leaving it completely undefended for the entire game. That's how bad the planning was here and how outright stupid whoever was in charge of the CC design was. What's the point of wasting time making a brand new default Femshep and adding more hair options if a quarter of the options from the previous titles aren't even there.

And that's before we even get into the gameplay. ME3 nailed the shooter mechanics and combat, I'll give it that, but at the cost of pretty much everything that made the original games what they were. I'd even go so far to say it was the core gameplay that suffered and was greatly reduced in ME3, which is NOT the combat, but the roleplaying, dialogue and choices.

For starters, only two dialogue options 90% of the time, even with "Full Decisions" on. Why "Full decisions" is so damn simplified and watered down compared to just the default way things were in ME1 and ME2 that "Full Decisions" is supposed to represent is beyond me. The third neutral option barely makes a showing at all, not to mention that the amount of Charm/Indimidate options in the entire game equates to such a pitiful amount I could probably count them on both hands and not run out of finers. As I've said before, there were more Charm/Intimidate opportunities on Noveria in ME1 alone than in ALL of ME3.

Then there's the autodialogue, with Shepard running his/her mouth off without me, the player, doing a damn thing. This happens far too often, so much so I wonder why there's any dialogue choices at all. I'm never going to touch "Action Mode" but I get the strong feeling that given how much Shepard yammers on without me picking a damn thing and the amount of times I'm just given two options that are either not that different or simply "Jesus or Hitler" that I'd barely be missing out on anything. Why you guys wasted your time programming the different game styles (Narrative, RPG, Action, etc.) is beyond me given how little effort seemed to be put into the dialogue itself.

Then there's the fact that 80% of the time you talk with your crew, they're Zaeed and Kasumi all over again. Here's a test for you Stanley (or any other BioWare employee who may be reading) to see how much BioWare supposedly "listens" to its fans: while Zaeed and Kasumi were generally enjoyed by fans as DLC companions for ME2, what was the most commonly griped about aspect about them? Here's a clue... it's something you did to the entire Mass Effect 3 crew whenever you talk with them more often than not! I go to talk with my L.I. after a long absense for the first time, and do I get a proper cutscene with a dialogue wheel and choices? No... I just get her standing there saying something I have no control over as I click on her, pressing her like a button. I finally get Ashley back after her accident and onto the Normandy again, and does she have anything to say and do I get a dialogue wheel and a cinematic scene? No, I just get, "Hey, Shepard" and that's it. With the rare exceptions here and there, my crew have become less like squadmates, friends and companions and more like talking plush toys I can go around and squeeze or yank the pull string on every so often. I enjoyed that they moved around a little more, there was inter-party banter and we got the odd moment on The Citadel with them, but it wasn't worth it to get "Tickle Me Garrus" and "Speak and Say Liara."

On top of it all, the ship ended up becoming boring in the end, as you had to run all around it every visit from top to bottom and back again, just to make sure you'd found everything. The Citadel had the same issue. For example, if you speak to everybody else aboard the Normandy before coming across drunk Tali at the bar and you have to go back and revisit them all just to see if it unlocks some drunk Tali banter, because it won't happen if you don't see her first. And then you slog all the way back just to find that all that happens is James say, "hey" again. *sigh*

The Citadel and the Normandy were highlights in the other games, but the execution of them in ME3 made them into a chore I was sick of dealing with. Not to mention all the samey fetch-quests that took up 90% of the sidequests (with the rest pretty much just cheap rehashes of MP maps as you just kill guys). It was the most tedious and hamfisted, lazy-ass pieces of DA2 all over again, as you hunted down every race's lost artifacts from random scans and brought them back. What's this? An interesting quest to the elcor homeworld to rescue some elcor? Wow! That actually sounds like... oh wait, it's just another fetch-quest where you click on the planet and it's all done for you. Oh, and half of them are just found sitting in the Spectre terminal. All in all, ME3 sidequests were the worst of the trilogy.

Not that the main quests were much better. The writing was fairly solid, they had some great epic and emotional moments and the level-design was definitely better than ME2's. But damn... were they linear as all hell. Not only were there barely any choices during them so they ended up almost all playing out the same, but the entire structure was linear throughout the entire game. No freedom for the player to go where they want when they want... it has to be Mars, Palaven's Moon, Sur'Kesh, etc. in that order without fail in every playthrough. As much as some people may moan about the BioWare pattern of, "Tutorial Place, Forced Secondary Place and then 3 to 5 Locations You Can Do In Any Order" at least that pattern gave the player some freedom. That's non-existent in ME3. Yes... players said they wan't a more focused story than ME2's was, but that doesn't mean completely on the rails from A to B to C to D, etc. ME1, KotOR and DAO all proved you can have a focused story that unfolds without forcing the players where to go. BioWare said this was supposed to be the most diverse of the trilogy and give players the most freedom since it was the last part, but were' restricted far more than in ME1 or ME2 in ME3.

Which leads to another promise that was broken: our choices mattering. They just outright didn't. ME2 was already guilty of BioWare's lazy way of dealing with variations: either trivialise it, sweep it under the rug or offer a weak substitution. ME3 suffered this even worse, and it was, again, supposed to be the part where all our choices were shown to matter and had real diversity. Save the Rachni Queen or kill her? Doesn't matter, same result. How about those people who lived or died in ME1 and ME2? Doesn't matter, somebody will just step in and take their place and dialogue on the exact same mission. This goes for the likes of The Council, Wrex, Mordin, Grunt, etc. It doesn't matter what you did in ME1 or ME2, it's still exactly the same game with the same missions done in the same order and the same outcome and same ending. Even the Virmire Survivor was cut out of half the game so the devs didn't have to put any effort into their return it seems. No wonder the endings didn't reflect our choices, because they never matter in any of the rest of the game either, so why should they at the end. All they countered towards was a stupid, arbitrary number called "Galactic Readiness" that has no real bearing on anything and is just a counter to indicate whether once the end comes you're "Kind of Screwed," "Really Screwed" or "Totally Screwed." Again, this was the final part where BioWare said they could "go nuts" and that our choices would be really diverse. Another lie.

And then there's the endings. 'Nuff said there. It's all been covered more than enough times.

The point is, ME3 has major issues even without the endings, and it seems largely because the focus has shifted away from what really mattered and when to other things that were less important. Kinect Support, Multiplayer, Different Game modes, etc. and even the combat all seemed to be far more crucial than the factor that to me (and thus I'm sure many other Mass Effect fans) was supposed to be the most crucial, key and core of the series: the dialogue, the roleplaying, the choices and satisfying consequences that should come from those things.

And yes, I was calling for more statistical RPG elements, such as power evolutions and diversity, weapon modification and more customisation as a whole. But that was because despite my concerns about the direction ME3 was going, I didn't really think for one second that the dialogue, choices and other roleplaying elements were going to take as much of a hit and be watered down as much as they were. I suspected after ME2 that the choices and consequences weren't going to be as fulfulling as I'd hoped and we were promised, but I still expected a far better job than this. I didn't expect things like the Rachni Queen choice to be so utterly pointless as they turned out to be. But I certainly didn't expect as much autodialogue as we got, the ME2 DLC Squaddie treatment we got for the whole crew and the complete lack of dialogue choices, not to mention so few Charm/Intimidate opportunities.

ME3 took all the things I loved most about the other two games and watered them down, and as much as I complained about ME2's lack of hardcore, statistical RPG mechanics, it at least didn't skimp on the roleplaying and dialogue choices. ME3 just felt so half-assed and dumbed down in this regard. And that's why I think it's the worst of the trilogy, even if it did nail the combat, have better designed levels, bring back modding, diversify skills more, get rid of Mission Complete screens, arbitrary XP gains and other annoying aspects of ME2.

This basically sums up ME3 for me

[T-Raks]

I already posted a review earlier, but have come to grips what I missed most, so a few more points:
1) I expected choices I made in ME1 or ME2 to have major consequences like if I kill the Rachni queen and was right, I don't have to fight them in 3 and if I was wrong, they wouldn't join me in the fight. Same with the Geth: overwriting and being right - I don't have to fight them in 3 and they join me - being wrong meaning I should've destroyed them because now the quarians will never get their homeworld back. Siding with TIM in ME2 and I don't have to fight them the whole ME3..., saving the council meaning they finally believe me/help me at some point,...

You get where I'm coming from. I'm a bit disappointed that every mission was basically the same from a combat/allies standpoint for everyone regardless of the choices made.

2) My choices having an impact on having options in the end Shepard wanted never to have (control/synthesis) was underwhelming. I hoped that choices - being able to come up with allies or not - would have an impact on the basic question "can I stop/destroy the reapers" and "how do I get to that point". For example I would've hoped that the battle on earth changes (gets easier if you have more allies, harder if not) for everyone a bit depending on said choices in the game.

So to sum up: choices having an impact on whom to fight/how a mission develops is a missing part for me. Maybe some game in the future will come up with such a game plan.

[Godfather93a]

9.5 out of 10, it was an amazing game but the last hour of the game fell flat in a lot of ways.

Modifié par Godfather93a, 18 avril 2012 - 09:13 .

[Discarnate19]

My many thoughts and opinions can be summed up in the following statement:

I love this series but I don't even want to replay it anymore because I know everything I do doesn't matter in the end, and I'll never see the characters I care about again because they abandoned me or died/will die.

[AntonioA9011]

Ugh!

[Feanor_II]

This is a ranking of the 3 games in different areas:

Grahics:
ME3
ME2
ME1

Music:
M1
ME3
ME2

Voice Acting:
ME1, 2 & 3

Gameplay:
ME3
ME2
ME1

"RPG elements"
ME1
ME3
ME2

Exploration:
ME1
ME2
ME3

Level design:
ME3
ME2
ME1

Side quest design
ME2
ME1
ME3

Story (Concept)
ME1
ME3
ME2

Story (Implementation)
ME1
ME2
ME3

Characters
ME1
ME2
ME3

[BringBackTheDead]

Terror_K wrote...

Going to repost something I wrote in another (now closed) topic since it covers a lot of my issues:-

My thoughts exactly.

Individual mission from ME1 like Feros felt more involving and epic than the entire latter half of ME3 for me. The linearity was appalling. Since you summed things up so well (even down to the exact reaction I had with the elcor diplomat's "mission"), I'll just add a few more points:

-The expansive and "open" feel of the first game was sacrificed in the sequel, but at least ME2 made up for that with a diverse and detailed set of missions and hub worlds. The lack of different hub worlds, boring side missions (fight Cerberus, sabotage Cerberus, thwart Cerberus... okay, that's 'bout it...) and lack of exploration just crippled my attachment to the game. Now I realize with Earth being under siege, Shepard isn't going to be galavanting across some random planet in search of medals to pluck off some old turian's corpse. But even with the Collector attacks in ME2, you could still scan random planets and discover missions on your own. How about discovering a Cerberus supply depot on your own? Or, hey, maybe a side-quest NOT involving Cerberus? Maybe Shepard can discover one of the last remaining Collector ships? Or actually land on the elcor planet? Imagine that.

-The ending, such that it is, not only contains plot holes the size of the Sol System, but it also makes most of ME2 seem ridiculously trivial. Yes, I'm talking about Dark Energy and ignoring the whole thread concerning Tali's investigation of it. But not just that. Mordin's recruitment mission and bothering to mention humankind's genetic diversity? How about the entire reason for the Reaper's obsession with humanity and Shepard? The "Dark Energy ending" gives an explanation for this, and as much as I respect Karpyshyn as a writer, I don't for a moment buy his explanation that the "Dark Energy ending" wasn't necessarily the originally intended ending. Otherwise, there is no sensible explanation for the Reapers being obsessed with humanity and going through the effort of building a Human Proto-Reaper. Even in ME3, why have the Reapers focus primarily on Earth and move the Citadel there in the first place? The explanation of preventing a races of synthetics from rising up against their organic masters cannot account for this obsession with humanity.

-What happened to the "dire consequences" for cheating on your romantic interest from the first game? I recall numerous interviews that hinted at complex relationship dynamics unfolding across the series, but in the third game this basically amounts to:

LI: DID YOU CHEAT ON ME??
Shep: Yeah lol.
LI: OK. ....u sorry?
Shep: Yeah lol.
LI: Kay. LOL.

-I personally missed planet-side exploration, though I suppose many fans wanted it gone, hence the comments about the Mako and Hammerhead burning up in the first few minutes of the game. Still, I would have really enjoyed the Hammerhead's return, even if it could only be used in a few side missions. You'd think, given the game's obsession with Cerberus, that some Cerberus-related vehicular combat would be there...

Anyway, many of these are nitpicks, but they add up as a whole and are mostly synonymous with the same underlying issues: too linear, too streamlined, too un-involving, not enough "Mass Effect goodness."

Modifié par BringBackTheDead, 19 avril 2012 - 05:56 .

[Tiralna]

I would give ME3 8/10 for graphics and play. For story... depends on whether you consider the ending. If you do then 2/10, if you ignore the story after landing on earth 10/10.

I rarely post on forums, generally consider myself one of the silent majority but I was so incensed by the endings in ME3 I feel the need to say something.

Loved the whole series, the replayability of ME1 and ME2 with the different options and how you end the story making a storyline differences in the sequel was fantastic. I have to admit to some trepidation after the DA2 debacle, since I love DAO. So I refused to read the forums until I had completed the ME3, even banned my friends from mentioning any part of the ending if they finished before I did. Glad I did, because having completed the series I no longer want to play ANY of the ME games. What is the point. None of my choices make any difference, there is no variation in the ending and it just sucked the whole fun out of the game. When I finished ME1 and ME2 I immediately started a new character and made different choices. Don't feel there is any point now. Sorry BioWare.

If there are to be changes with new DLC great, but without different endings, and some logical reason for things like my shore party being back onboard or answers to the whole reaper origin, then I doubt I will even consider playing it.

As a long time fan of BioWare I have avidly awaited new games, sequels and generally played them with relish. Even DA2 whilst not in the same league as DAO was playable once through - little replayability. But with this ME3 ending being so....... words escape me. I am seriously giving thought to whether I want to lay out hard earned cash on another sequel which may end up being another let down.

[MRadway]

 I guess it’s only fair to post a SPOILER WARNING here, but if you are reading a forum, with a built in spoiler warning, of reviews of a game you have probably finished it anyway, still, can’t hurt.

Having played through Mass Effect 3 I feel thoroughly disappointed. Yes, the ending is
what ruins it. But more on that later.

Up until the ending I was crying when I had to say good bye to characters that I didn’t
know I loved so much (Thane, Mordin, Legion).

There were moments of me pumping my fists in the air because of the sheer awesomeness of
some moments in the game (Talis introduction).

Some conclusions to characters stories that I thought was sweet and fitting (Jack).

The story of Joker and EDI evolving from dislike to respect to love was great.

I chose to romance Liara and when she finally told Shepard “I love you” I had to put my
controller down because I literally couldn’t see my TV-screen through my tears
of joy. Liara and Shepard talking of children and a future together made me cry
even more.

Garrus just being awesome and talking about what to do when all is said and done made me
cheer and shout a heartfelt “Hell Yeah!”

Javik respecting Shepard enough to shake her hand, something he refused to do in our first encounter.

The sense that I (as Shepard) was bringing the galaxy together, conquering prejudice and
xenophobia to work for a greater good felt really fulfilling.

The bomb mission on Tuchanka where I found myself crying for a character I had only
known for a few minutes.

One thing that I discovered that irked me however was the lack of some of my choices actually having a
real effect, a few examples;

I chose to save the Rachni Queen and the Reapers take her over and I have to fight Rachni,
ok, fair enough. But if I choose to kill her, I still have to fight Rachni, wait, I thought she was the last of her species… apparently not.

I tried as hard as I could to persuade the Quarians not to attack the Geth. That doesn’t matter, they still fight.

I chose to rewrite the Heretics. That doesn’t matter, the still ally themselves with the reapers.

But OK, fair enough, the Quarian/Geth story came to such an awesome conclusion that I’m sort of willing to overlook it and the Rachni story was cool and Grunts scene at the end was another fist pump moment so I'm willing to overlook that too.

Some
characters from ME2 felt forced into the game. It was like “Oh, crap, Samara is alive, damn, find something for her to do. What about Jacob? OH crap, he’s alive too ok we’ll stick him in here:” But again, I enjoyed the game so much that it didn't really bother me.

Some, like I said felt really well thought out, Jack, Thane, Miranda for example, heck, even Bailey coming back and being integral to the story was really fulfilling.

But the elephant in the room, the ending… This turn of events was so disappointing that it soured not only Mass Effect 3, it completely ruined any incentive I had to play through the games again. I had two FemSheps (one full Paragon, one full Renegade) and a MaleShep (just so I could romance Jack who happens to be one of
my favorite characters). With the utterly depressing ending the entire game series feel invalidated. The ending will be the same no matter what. Would it really have been so horrible to have the option of a happy ending? Now I feel forced to choose from three equally depressing endings that make no sense what so ever. So, the Reapers are there to kill all advanced synthetics so that they don’t create advanced synthetics that destroy all life. But wait, the Quarians have already created the Geth, and they are ALLIED with the Reapers. If the Reapers wanted to keep organics from being destroyed by synthetics why don’t the Reapers come around every few years and kill all synthetics instead? It makes no sense… 

Furthermore how can Liara be on the Normandy when she was just beside me on Earth? And how can she be completely unharmed and not even dirty?

Are you seriously asking me to believe that Liara, who had finally reached the point where she could tell Shepard that she loved her, would leave her behind and run away?

And if the Normandy is scrambling to get away from an explosion that almost destroys it, then what happened to the fleet orbiting Earth, logically it would follow that if the Normandy barely got away then most of the fleet (if not all) is destroyed. Furthermore, if all the mass relays are destroyed then nothing I have done matter, everyone is stranded or dead.

Having reached that ending and the utter misery inflicted on the galaxy a better course of action for Shepard would have been to just sit down on a bomb on Eden Prime in the very first mission and let it go off. Just let the Reapers win and hope that the next cycle can defeat them, humanity and almost all sentient races are doomed anyway…

The ending completely takes away all replayability because no matter what I do, I am still presented with three choices, all equally depressing.

I feel cheated and lied to by the developers of the games. I invested literally hundreds of hours to shape a character whose choices are ultimately pointless.

To add insult to injury we are presented with a message that I should buy more DLC. Why? Just because you want more of my money?

It would have felt more honest if some Bioware or EA executive had just beat me up in the street and taken my money directly. At least it would have been over with quickly. I wouldn’t have had to invest hours of my time only to be left with a feeling of crushing defeat.

I absolutely respect that the creators of the game have to be true to themselves and their artistic integrity, again, I have no problem with that. I am not demanding that J.K. Rowling rewites the last Harry Potter book because I don’t like the ending, I have no say in the matter, it is her story, she tells it and it is up to me to accept it and move on. That is simply because I had no choice in the actions taken by Harry and the other characters. The Mass Effect series however is based in a large way on me having to make choices that shape the story, but the endings are the same no matter what choices I make.

To be fair however, I know there are a lot of people that argue that it is not the end that’s important, it’s the JOURNEY towards that end that matters. Ok, that has merit, I’m not denying that, the journey towards the end if I choose to go full Paragon is so vastly different from if I choose to go completely Renegade that it almost feels like two separate games and that is awesome.

However let me then ask you:
Let’s say that you are given four series of books, The Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire and Harry Potter. You can only read one at a time but you can go back when you are done with one and read another and your experience will be vastly different. But, when you reach the final chapter, when you are just about to see how it all ends you are forced to read the last chapter of Harry Potter no matter which book series you chose at the beginning. But to befair I’ll give you three possible outcomes.

1-    - Harry Potter choses to merge with
Voldemort, sacrificing all that is him in order to stop the evil. At the
memorial Ron is wearing a green shirt.

2-    - Harry Potter choses to control
Voldemort, sacrificing all that is him in order to stop the evil. At the
memorial Ron is wearing a blue shirt.

3-    - Harry Potter sacrifices himself in
order to kill Voldemort in order to stop the evil. At the memorial Ron is
wearing a red shirt.

In all three endings all magic is removed from the world, turning all wizards and witches into muggles.

Would you go back and read another series of books if you knew that that was the ending regardless of what series you picked?

It will be a long time before I ever buy any game that has a Bioware or EA logo again, notsure if I ever will. I will however NEVER recommend anyone who hasn’t played the Mass Effect series to do so, it is simply not worth it, the ending POISONS EVERYTHING.

Modifié par MRadway, 19 avril 2012 - 08:20 .

[3DandBeyond]

If it weren't for the ending, the game  in spite of its flaws might get a 10/10. I'd give it that even though I don't get to have most of my friends on my team. I do get a core group, but have some added to it that frankly I could care less about. In many areas there's a drop in continuity from ME2 to ME3. Some of my friends are in the game for about ten seconds and it dilutes a tiny bit of the relationship aspect of the games. But, again I could overlook this. Ok, we don't have to scan for minerals and that's great, but we have to scan for assets and that's not so great. And if you don't play MP you may not get too great an EMS-not so good. Again, I could overlook this.

What makes the game completely great is also what leads to its ultimate failure. It promises a lot. In the end it just does not deliver. All of my choices just mean war assets (which should matter, if the endings also mattered).

I can point to the ending making no sense (circular logic is no logic at all-the created will always rebel against the creator junk). I can point to the plot holes, the fact that all choices basically mean the same outcome with a slightly different spin and different colored explosion. I can point to the fact that the ending just drops me (the player) off in the middle of a deserted island with no way home. But, the biggest offenses that the endings commit is that they all seem like they are from some other story. They do not fit into the ME universe as I know it.

First off, Shepard ends up alone when the game has always heavily focused on the build up of relationships, loyalty, interactive character-building.
Second, the star kid becomes the focus at the end. These games always made Shepard and his/her decisions primary. It made the ultimate bad guys supposedly Harbinger and the reapers-the real reapers were freaking scary. I as Shepard have nightmares and in my nightmares I see how scary they are to me. In the end, I don't face off against that which scares me the most-that which threatens all that I know and love. Nuh-uh, I listen as some glowing starkid VI tells me what I will do. Alone. And, no matter the choice I make, I will totally decimate something I worked hard to build up. So, my "choices" are no choice really. Not any choice a sensible person would make without asking the logical questions or making the logical protests. Nope, I am dumped there with the amazingly magical pistol with unlimited ammo and without any protest I amble off to destroy cultures and friends and most likely myself. My enemy or the supposed catalyst (which should be helping me) is some stupid vision of a kid. This is the biggest mistake of the game and one that ends up ruining the rest of the game. The ending itself rips any good feelings out of the rest of the game, but it does far more. It makes me re-examine those things I didn't care so much for in the rest of the game-things that on the surface originally didn't bother me.

First off, is the kid himself. He is always oddly out of place. I, as Shepard spent hours cultivating friends and turning enemies into teammates. These are the people I care about or as Mordin really understands-these are the faces I give to the countless masses I am trying to rescue. Mordin sees his nephew-I see my LI and my teammates. I got EDI to love. I got Tali to care about the Geth and Legion, specifically. I brought Jack back from a dead place in her soul and helped her and Miranda make peace. I cared about them. But, from the beginning the game seems to want me to care about this kid. Ok, sorry he's not even cute (yes, I'm being shallow about it) and he's not particularly charismatic a character. I don't care about him-as Shepard I really can't have that luxury, anyway. I already care for too many people. I'm supposed to care about him, but I don't. And if I talk to him a certain way when he's in the vent, he says that I can't help him. Ok, he's a metaphor for something, but since I don't care about him and the game is apparently trying to be very esoteric, I don't get what he's a metaphor for. Maybe he's supposed to be my id or something, but if so, I have to stretch to see that. Anyway, his is not the face that I see when I worry about sacrifices.  And yet, I grimace more when I see his shuttle explode than when Mordin goes to his death.  Mordin, who taught me a lot about redemption and sacrifice-graceful, unselfish sacrifice.  I as a player cried when Mordin died.  I felt nothing when the kid did, but they kept shoving him in my face.

In the dream sequences, it would be far more powerful for me if you just lost the kid. Shepard running confused amid ghosts, all alone and in the last dream burning, is way more powerful to me. If as some say the whispers mean something and are directed at the kid, well maybe that's something, but again, the kid is just ugh.

The ending since it introduces us to Synergy and complete synthesis as apparently being a good solution according to the VI kid, really causes me to consider the pro-Cerberus position put forth in the rest of the game. No, I don't mean everybody is all for Cerberus, I just mean that the game has a certain "humans first" bent. All non-human species are being drafted and are required to leave their home worlds basically defenseless to come to the aid of Earth. And, we are supposed to believe that the human culture is designated as the most advanced one in this cycle, but all that is based upon human ideas and ideals as to what "advanced" means. Many would point out that inner spiritualism and being at peace with whatever forces there are in the cosmos and within your own home world might in fact indicate more of an "advanced" position. It's all based upon where you are sitting. That human looking reaper in ME2 in the collector's base could just as well have been an Asari, not yet complete.

But, the humans assume the focus of the reaper attacks and destruction this cycle is Earth (residents of Thessia and Palaven might disagree), so they want everyone at Earth. Of course, somehow they seem to know beforehand that this means the Citadel will end up at Earth as well so Shepard can conveniently ride the beam to get inside. Ok, now they've lost me.

In trying to figure out how the ending ties in with all that I did up to that point, the game itself just begins to fall apart. Other things I've done no longer make sense. Actions of those around me don't matter. I cared about Garrus and loved shooting bottles with him, but he's off somewhere else. I don't get to see Jack come into her own. Instead I get a narrative about how she's doing. I don't get to see how things are going on Rannoch, but why should it matter because there's a great possibility Rannoch will be destroyed or life on it will be. I don't get to see Krogan offspring (I'd care far more about them than about the human kid), but then well Tuchanka might have problems post mass relay destruction. And well, neither Grunt nor Wrex are with me at the end, anyway. Thanks, pals.

Most of my friends are reduced to lines of text at the end-or phone calls to say goodbye. This cheapens all I did and all they did to become better people.

The end brings out a bunch of things that are just wrong with the rest of ME3-things I would never have really focused on if the end had been great and satisfying. For these reasons, I give the game a 3 out of 10. The ending just ruined the whole story.

Modifié par 3DandBeyond, 19 avril 2012 - 01:41 .

[Drogonion]

Feanor_II wrote...

This is a ranking of the 3 games in different areas:

Grahics:
ME3
ME2
ME1

Music:
M1
ME3
ME2

Voice Acting:
ME1, 2 & 3

Gameplay:
ME3
ME2
ME1

"RPG elements"
ME1
ME3
ME2

Exploration:
ME1
ME2
ME3

Level design:
ME3
ME2
ME1

Side quest design
ME2
ME1
ME3

Story (Concept)
ME1
ME3
ME2

Story (Implementation)
ME1
ME2
ME3

Characters
ME1
ME2
ME3

Clever.  I like it. :happy:

Agree with all of it except music.  My order for music would be:

Music (for me):

ME1
ME2
ME3

Nothing in ME3 is memorable to me.  But some of the music from ME1 and ME2 still gives me goosebumps lol.

[Terror_K]

Drogonion wrote...

Feanor_II wrote...

This is a ranking of the 3 games in different areas:

Grahics:
ME3
ME2
ME1

Music:
M1
ME3
ME2

Voice Acting:
ME1, 2 & 3

Gameplay:
ME3
ME2
ME1

"RPG elements"
ME1
ME3
ME2

Exploration:
ME1
ME2
ME3

Level design:
ME3
ME2
ME1

Side quest design
ME2
ME1
ME3

Story (Concept)
ME1
ME3
ME2

Story (Implementation)
ME1
ME2
ME3

Characters
ME1
ME2
ME3

Clever.  I like it. :happy:

Agree with all of it except music.  My order for music would be:

Music (for me):

ME1
ME2
ME3

Nothing in ME3 is memorable to me.  But some of the music from ME1 and ME2 still gives me goosebumps lol.

Funnily enough I've been thinking of doing an analysis of the trilogy along these lines myself, once I've got some time to sit down and do so.

The music is an interesting one for me too, because I sort of agree. While I feel that ME3 was more consistent music-wise and it was good to have the synth back again after ME2 seemed to prefer orchestral, I too felt that ME3 had less stand-out tracks. At the moment I find it hard to choose ME2 or ME3 in that regard because to me ME3 was more "classic sci-fi" and consistent, but ME2 had some more memorable tracks. Suicide Mission, for one example, blows anything ME3 brought us out of the water, IMO. I suppose it's kind of like saying all of ME3's music was an 8/10 effort, but while ME2 averaged lower with some 6's and 7's, it did at least have some 9's and 10's.

[Bellerophron]

 As a stand alone game 9/10

The parts that were covered Genopahge Cure, Quarian/geth conflict were excellent. Combat, acting, graphics,levels all excellent.

As the finale of the series 6.5 to 7/10

Obvious issue with the end game and ending that pales in compariosion with Citadel Reaper sequence in ME1 and the Suicide Mission of ME2. ME3 ending feels small at the end. Disapointed with lack of a substantive Rachni plot, Collecter base, saving the council differences, side quests, no harbinger interaction. Small squad adds to the small feel.

Ranking the trilogy
ME2
ME1
ME3

[pf17456]

Mass Effect......... An exercise in futility, deception and frustration........ Follow the pointless adventures of Commander Shepard as he/she tries to save organic life from extinction and fails, giving up in the end prooving that all the efforts that came before were meaningless. Join in the illusion of believing you purchased a game where your choices matter and you direct the outcome only to find at the very end your game has been hijacked and all of your decisions meant nothing. Experience an ending so profound you'll never want to play it again.
The game left me with one burning question. Can integrity be built upon lies ?

[BilboBloodBath]

A great journey....until you hit the ending. I thought the game was great in almost every way. There was just two issues I found with game. 1. The Journal. Its a mess....it literally is just a big list that never updates itself so you can find yourself questioning where you got to on the side missions. 2. The major issue with the game was the ending. The story was well constructed and I was impressed with all the chapters up to but not including the ending. The space casper/deus ex mechanic was an odd choice and while it wasnt the 16 endings Bioware promised I would of accepted it had it not been for the gaping plot holes that riddled the ending, which in turn just made the ending look and feel sloppy. For someone who is really impressed with the universe/franchise they created it really killed my desire to play it again which is in stark contrast to the amount of times I replayed ME1 and ME 2. I wish Bioware all the best for the future but Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 has taught me to be more cautious about accepting what Bioware promises in the future.

Score 6/10

[L. Han]

The game overall wasn't very satisfying, too much action and less reasoning was troubling for me thru out the game.  Killing out it's replay values.

The new combat mechanics are a welcome addition but I found it was alittle too much. It didn't feel "Mass Effect".

The characters now feel disconnected to Shepard. They rarely look in the eyes and talk properly making the experience feeling alittle discomforting.

The game how ever has some powerful points like Tuchunka and Rannoch. Especially if your romanced with Tali there. It felt great to be able to save both races and cure the genophage and give hope to the krogan. But all of this accomplishments just felt dumped away during the final sequences.

Exploration was missing. This is vital to a Mass Effect game. I felt it could have used more scenery and vehicle gameplay.

I also felt lost on how so many questions filled up my head after the events of Mass Effect 3. Especially when there is so many plotholes, things that didn't make any sense and unanswered questions.



I would rate Mass Effect 3 an average. (6/10)

[element eater]

i cant bring myself to review this game in full as i only just finished it and im still feeling abit down over the whole situation, So ill keep it short

I liked the game generaly. But, i disliked the lack of dialgue and dialogue control, the lack of hubs the universe felt too small with there absence. I also disliked the endings imensly

ive never seen a story i cared so much about fall apart so quickly if i was being realy honest to how i feel now. it would have scored lower just based on the ending ive never been so dissapointed over something like this in my life

7/10

Modifié par element eater, 21 avril 2012 - 04:59 .

[SilverSabre]

All I need to say about ME3 has been said already: 

Cirreus wrote...

My Mass Effect 3 score:  0 out of 100




I really disliked ME3 and here is why.....

All the ending(s) are the STOLEN, grim, poorly written, vague, dystopian & most above all else ... completely devalued my experiences of the entire franchise. 5 years, $700+ in Xbox/PC copies, DLC purchases, Art book, Comic Books, replica Normandys, toys, hundreds of hours, my will to replay the games .... gone in 15 minutes.

There isn't a pay out in the end, EA/Bioware took a withdraw out of my adventure/fantasy bank.

EA/Bioware took a sh*t in my cereal.

I do not want to play Mass Effect anymore.

The media praise leaves a bad taste in my mouth (conflict of interest comes to mind)

IGN calling me an stupid doesn't help either

Did I miss something in the marketing of these games ? I saw frequent material saying "End of Sherpard's story". It appears I missed the memo that it really translated to "Dispair, Death & Destruction of the Mass Effect Universe".

I feel lied to. I feel JADED! I don't understand why EA/Bioware wanted to leave a paying customer with so little hope. That doesn't make sales, that makes an angry customer who let's other potential customers know about their grief. This feels like a hit & run cash grab. EA/Bioware broke into my house, smashed my copies of Mass Effect & left a note on the broken front door with intentions of robbing me next week with DLC.




Why would I want to buy anything more from a company that is going to remind me of how sh*tty I feel about my last experience. I have never had such disgust, felling of loss & angry toward this medium before. Did I play this game to close to the chest ? I never even felt this level of rage even when Blizzard tried to publish everyone's real name on there forums for World of Warcraft with RealID.

My entire experience comes down to this ?


This youtube video meme sums it up Hitler on Mass Effect 3


It's a complete failure on part of EA/Bioware when a Hilter meme is making more sense on the context of your game than the company that published it. I just don't know what's worse right now, playing this game or having to sit on the boardroom meetings at Bioware & EA Marketing ...

Forbes.com ... the site that focuses on money & investment ... you know important stuff
Well they are backing were the money comes from. And it isn't IGN with there 9.5 review.
www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/03/13/why-fan-service-is-good-business/



There is a few things I enjoyed (while under the delusion) playing ME3. It was more Mass Effect (while it lasted). I really enjoyed the idea of an Avatar of the ship, and EDI worked out (unless you picked red ... red is bad!). There was great pleasure in making the Geth & Quarians end there war with each other (if you didn't, Tali kills herself & you have the pleasure of the Bioware's art department finer skills in Google search & Photoshopping).

I really thought the idea of Galaxy at War, Effective Military Strength, Galactic Readiness was a great RPG element. Until I found out that mutliplayer is a virtual requirement to access all potential endings because my Galactic Readiness is capped at 50% sans multiplayer. For those not reading between the lines, this is another form of DRM. So you can't easily let someone else borrow the game for the single player experience and when the product is returned at Gamestop for resale.

The bugs are far worse. This game was rushed. Random side quests early that you can't complete till the end of the game, indicators not working, failing quests with unclear timers, the nondescript journal entries & horrible path finding, could it get worse ?

Required Reading ! Am I playing ME3 or ME4 !?  Because I seem to be missing a several trilogies worth of story between ME2 & this product under the guise of ME3. Thanks for trying to to tie in every book, novel, and comic into the game's story without any consideration that I the "gamer", who happens to plays on a "console" and maybe, just maybe only played Mass Effect 1 & 2, would know what the hell is going on.

One word: DLC ... So USD$870 ... that's not including everything either. There is the cost of ME , it's DLC , ME2, it's DLC , Collector's Editions of ME2, Promotional DLC, Pre-Order DLC, DLC from other games such as Dragon Age, Dead Space, Battlefield 3 .... that imports into ME3. Needless to say $870 is a low ball number for a "complete" Mass Effect investment.

My review of the this games boils down to this. If your a fan, do not buy this. If you are fan & bought this. Remind EA/Bioware that the customer's wallet determines the future of the company & continued employment.

[Tommy6860]

Terror_K wrote...

Funnily enough I've been thinking of doing an analysis of the trilogy along these lines myself, once I've got some time to sit down and do so.

The music is an interesting one for me too, because I sort of agree. While I feel that ME3 was more consistent music-wise and it was good to have the synth back again after ME2 seemed to prefer orchestral, I too felt that ME3 had less stand-out tracks. At the moment I find it hard to choose ME2 or ME3 in that regard because to me ME3 was more "classic sci-fi" and consistent, but ME2 had some more memorable tracks. Suicide Mission, for one example, blows anything ME3 brought us out of the water, IMO. I suppose it's kind of like saying all of ME3's music was an 8/10 effort, but while ME2 averaged lower with some 6's and 7's, it did at least have some 9's and 10's.

My problem with ME3's track, is that while there are some original tracks, mostly in combat scenes, too much was recycled and too few new tracks created for ME3. ME2, OTOH, had many new tracks. The SM track you mention  track is one of my favorites in all of the ME games. I have to admit though, that the start menu music in ME3, elicits a lot of emotion for me; it actually made my first start of ME3 feel like something was going to be incredible. Oh well, the music worked. Oddly enough, if you listen a few of the track hard enough in ME3, you can tell they are repurposed versions of previous tracks from ME1 and 2. Like hearing the "Vigil" theme (my favorite of all of them) being used, slowed down about 4 times as some convo music.

[guitarbard]

You guys are the reason I'm scared to post my review...

[ed87]

(double post)

Modifié par ed87, 22 avril 2012 - 02:35 .

[ed87]

I finally watched the new Star Trek movie that was highly acclaimed. It had a satisfying ending which was a relief. Reminded me of the glory days with ME1. The lesson here is that the movie was released when it met their standards, and not their deadlines. The sequel has already been post-poned for 11 months.

SilverSabre wrote...


All I need to say about ME3 has been said already: 

Cirreus wrote...

My Mass Effect 3 score:  0 out of 100

-snip-

Required Reading ! Am I playing ME3 or ME4 !?  Because I seem to be missing a several trilogies worth of story between ME2 & this product under the guise of ME3. Thanks for trying to to tie in every book, novel, and comic into the game's story without any consideration that I the "gamer", who happens to plays on a "console" and maybe, just maybe only played Mass Effect 1 & 2, would know what the hell is going on.

-snip-

ME3 is already confusing enough to those new to the franchise. Its such a shame it had to be confusing to those familiar to it as well. It seemed like you needed to play every game and read every comic to feel 'in the loop'.

When I watched the new Star Trek movie i had absolutely no prior experience with the franchise. I loved it and wasnt confused at all. My girlfriend felt the same. Its clear Bioware are still learning a lot of things and should not try to be hollywood film makers, as they are not on their level.

I prefer the old Shepard in ME1 and ME2 where there were lots of dialogue choices and conversation wasnt streamlined to be like a movie.

Modifié par ed87, 22 avril 2012 - 02:48 .

[Helmschmied]

A more or less detailed review I wrote on my blog

Contains strong language and minor spoilers.

Modifié par Helmschmied, 22 avril 2012 - 03:31 .

[Grammarye]

I'll bite. This is an edited (as I can spoil here and don't have to explain the game) repost of my Amazon review. 3/5 total, 4/5 for the journey & fun playing.

Reviewing ME3 is a challenge; hence this review is quite lengthy, and from the perspective of a player who started in Mass Effect 1. Looking back, it feels like perhaps 80% of the game had an incredible amount of love, passion, blood, sweat & tears poured into it, creating a truly wonderful game experience to round off the trilogy. The other 20% is lazy/buggy, badly designed, and just should never have seen the light of day. Hence the conundrum; the latter part really drags the rest of the game down no matter how you play it. Lets' get the multiplayer out of the way first.

MULTIPLAYER:
The bad:
Make no mistake. This is baby's first multiplayer. Bioware have never done it before, and it shows. The essence of the concept - stand your ground against wave after wave of enemies as a team - is an excellent one used by many developers over the years. It's just that the execution is so lacklustre.

Perhaps the greatest flaw in design is that without playing multiplayer, you cannot advance the readiness of your singleplayer environment, likely yielding poorer endings (not that it's noticeable, blue, red, green, pick one). Multiplayer characters can be promoted into the singleplayer environment as a small war asset gain (more on assets later). In short - if you want to experience the 'best' ME3 singleplayer, you have to play multiplayer. It smacks of desperation & self-promotion, rather than simply creating a great MP experience that people want to play anyway. Unfortunately, the experience isn't that great.

It begins with a UI that spends every second promoting competition in a cooperative game - it completely hides the true reward system, which is where xp & credits earned by all players are split *evenly* between players, in favour of leaderboards, individual bars, medals, etc; the result shows. Players typically don't work as a team at all, preferring to individually gain kills and rush ahead of others to get their hits in. It's a rare treat indeed when a team actually operates tactically, setting up sniper fields of fire and so on. This in turn contributes to large numbers of players never going beyond bronze challenges, so you end up with massively powerful players who aren't playing the more challenging content.

Getting into a team can take ages, and the matchmaking is terrible, usually dropping you into aforementioned teams that are so far ahead of you that by the time you've reloaded they've finished the wave - not very engaging gameplay. You are entirely at the mercy of the host's Internet as to whether you will get a low-lag game. Sniping in some cases simply is impossible as you rubber-band around the base, assuming the game doesn't glitch and have you fall through the floor.

Advancing your character is directly done via XP in the same way as singleplayer, and indirectly done through unlock packs to add weapons & characters. These can be bought either by credits (earned in-game) or Bioware points (purchased with real money) in a classic pay-to-win setup, with a twist. Unlock packs are entirely gambles, producing random items. Bioware have managed to create the worst of all worlds, where once you've observed powerful characters rampaging through the lag & suitably envied their progress, you have no path to follow to compete because what you unlock is entirely random.

Ignoring all the design flaws, which may not put off everyone, there's bugs & glitches just to make sure. Beyond falling through the floor, missing enemies due to invisible lag, or losing your entire (possibly paid for) progress due to a server glitch (theoretically now fixed though not refunded), there are things like skill reset bugs or partial purchasing of unlocks.

The good:
It's hard to be positive about ME3's multiplayer, but it does have potential. The map design for example is generally excellent. Personally, I would not have made the lazy cash grab, and instead released it as a full Mass Effect Survival game, with enough polish, back end server support, and better UI to make it a fun experience. The concept works. It can be a lot of fun. It's enjoyable enough that if it had all been done properly, I could have seen myself occasionally dropping Bioware points on it. As it is, it's hard not to cynically label it as something that took resources away from the rest of the game, which also clearly needed them.

SINGLEPLAYER:
The bad:
Perhaps the most frustrating issue with the game is that facial import from ME1 doesn't work at all, and import from ME2 yields quite different looking results. Having spent an entire playthrough being irritated by the altered nose of my Shepard, I'd label this the top reason to avoid the game until it's fixed. On that subject, a large number of NPCs have altered looks and often not for the better - the attractive Kelly Chambers for example changed to Generic Female NPC 2 from ME1. It's as though someone took the vast array of options in ME2 and filtered them down for ME3. Very disconcerting for any long-time player of the ME series. The animations are lower quality than ME2, and the lipsynching is dire at times. I've had numerous occasions where I mistook my Shepard for the Lawnmower Man, it's that bad. Almost all humans run or walk as though they are having some serious bowel problem. I simply don't understand why the game had to be reduced in quality compared to its predecessor.

The next painful issue is 'that button' & cover. Cover has been extended since ME2 to include rolling from the carefully placed boxes, ledges, and other obstructions that litter the landscape. Unfortunately, we still have just one button to sprint, take cover, roll from cover, leave cover, use objects, and talk to people! This makes for some awkward moments where trying to sprint for your life away from a giant melee enemy trying to one-shot kill you causes you to take cover two millimetres away instead. Perhaps most frustratingly, this was pointed out countless times during the pre-release demo, but nothing was changed.

A few things have vanished - more complex dialogue options and indeed sometimes options being present at all. There were numerous occasions I just wanted to yell 'but my Shepard isn't like that!' as the game dragged me through yet another unalterable cutscene. In most cases, you'll get two choices of things to say, and that's pretty much it. Bonus powers are no longer earned but unlocked through conversations with other characters - which means tough luck if said character is dead, and can be quite irritating if you've spent the preceding two games used to obtaining certain powers. Minigames for bypass & hacking are gone entirely - apparently today's gamer can't cope with the cerebral workout. Vehicular combat is entirely absent, and considering that ME1 had the Mako and ME2 had the Hammerhead, having nothing at all in ME3 is conspicuous. There was so much value in exploring planets in ME1, of looking up and seeing that you are on a new world, all lost in favour of streamlining.

One's choices from preceding games are often mere minutes of altered content, if anything at all. It was disappointing that some of the best outcomes to sidequests were only available if you'd obtained & played through the paid DLC for the preceding games (I do, but I'd deliberately left one playthrough with no DLC completed to see what happened). A real sense of futility is generated as each minor happenstance in ME1 or ME2 comes up and is resolved in practically the same way regardless of what you did, or even if you turned up. Samara indicates she'd likely kill my Renegade Shepard when we next met, but just says hi in ME3. Jacob & Thane are both romance potentials from ME2, and yet neither get anything meaningful. It's only been six months since they last spoke with Shepard! The wondefully effervescent Kelly Chambers is reduced to a few lines and then gets shot. The big decision from ME2, blowing up or saving the Collector Base, is reduced to a war asset value. My romance interest(s), the people I've spoken about having children with in preceding games, barely say three words the entire game. I really came away with a sense that ME2 hadn't actually happened. A lot needed broadening out; yes even in a game already so broad. I would rather have had a few more Bethesda-style side-mission bugs than a sense of futility.

I really wanted a button or option somewhere which I could tick and say 'I've played the earlier games thanks' (like my import should have mentioned) because almost every time I met someone, I got treated to a series of lines about 'hey do you remember that time we did... ' to which I wanted to reply 'it's been variously 3 years or 6 months, I can remember that far back you know!'. I understand the need to support new players, but it got aggravating. On the subject of exposition, I was disappointed that the intro & opening changed not at all from the demo feedback. I felt it actually did a poor job of explaining what had happened in the six months between ME2 & ME3, and what had directly affected Shepard (not everyone gets the comics you know). ME2 was a superb intro by comparison. A short montage of clips, key lines from the trial, that sort of thing, would have done. Anderson says 'the **** you've done' - to which my immediate response was 'I don't know! You haven't told me what I've been grounded for!' - bear in mind players need not have played Arrival at all...

The ending (and the strange bit where the Reapers took the Citadel, without so much as a by your leave). To me, the ending took a wonderful game trilogy and tossed it out the airlock. It felt about as consistent as the boss fights of Deus Ex HR, as though someone else entirely had designed it. Never give the player a sense of control and then take it away at a key emotional moment. You either tell a story and the player observes (e.g. Crysis) or you let the player tell the story, and don't railroad them, especially not at something as critical as the ending of a trilogy. The current ending combines the worst of 'Rocks fall, everybody dies' with complete inconsistencies, with no closure, no sense of accomplishment, and no sense that the player's choices made one iota of a difference. First ME where I felt 'well that was a gigantic waste of time' instead of 'ok, let's fire up the next character!'.
From the Illusive Man's sudden ability to control/inhibit movement (neither Saren nor Sovereign could pull that off), to the nonsensical contradictions of the Crucible's dialogue, to team members left in London mysteriously turning up on the Normandy (which is also inexplicably fleeing), to mass relays exploding and not killing everything in sight like last time, to zero useful exposition about how life went on; the ending gets just about everything wrong. Zero closure. Meaningful reflection of choices: none. Go play Fallout 1 or 2 and see how a proper deus-ex-machina ending is done. I was honestly astonished when I saw ME3's ending. Even the credits music was awfully depressing - ME1 & ME2 were upbeat in the face of overwhelming odds and revelling in one hell of a journey, ME3 just said 'yeah, you died, the end'. Oh and then there was that strange bit at the end like it had been a bedtime story, skirting pretty close to the 'and it was all a dream' cliche...

The good:
The environment of ME3 feels so much more alive, particularly your companions. From moving around for their own conversations, to having their own opinions of the last mission, to their own desires & projects, they round out what could otherwise be a sterile depressing environment of the wartorn galaxy. The game is filled with some lovely humour, in-jokes, and enough sidequests to keep you busy. Whilst your squad is primarily the cast of ME1, there will be lots of cameos from ME2; no key NPC is left out, although I would have preferred some take a larger role than they did. The Citadel felt much more like the ME1 Citadel this time around, vast & open, vs the tiny box it came across as in ME2.

Refreshingly, ME3 has undone some of the dumbing down in RPG-style weapons, bringing back mods for weapons and an increased range to choose from, so you get more opportunity to tailor your squad. It's a shame that other parts of the game were simplified further from ME2, but this feature at least found the right balance I feel. The levels you fight in are quite varied and pretty well laid out, and graphically speaking the game is lovely. Some neat innovation in missions finally featured, with something other than simply disembarking and shooting along a corridor turning up occasionally. I still miss the larger expanses with no cover that ME1 offered, where you genuinely could snipe long distances.

The voice acting is stellar, as we have come to expect from the ME games, though two characters stand out as being quite different compared to preceding voiceovers. The scoring is excellent, although I would have liked some more rousing themes to contrast the melancholy (Palaven's moon by Christopher Lennertz being a wonderful exception). Coupled with the plot, these all conspire to create a real sense of loss as you watch the galaxy burn and try to save it. The theme is grim and the game makes it feel that way. I found myself caught up in it, racing against time, wanting to save what cannot be saved, and the stark harsh decisions that must be made actually gave me pause. The game always keeps the pressure on; it's rare to drift into that old RPG style feeling of a mission being urgent yet knowing that in truth, the game will wait forever. This is aided by some missions not waiting, which is not done enough to cause true frustration, but enough to keep you on your toes and thinking 'if I delay, something worse is going to happen'.

Given the sheer scale of the plot & enemies, the Reapers and their purging of the galaxy are handled extremely well. They are presented as tough, relentless, ruthless, and killing just one feels like a huge victory. The organic impact (that would normally be human impact) is palpable. From screams and moans of the dying in the background, to touching psychological stories, to repeated news of the state of the galaxy, to the concerns of your companions, the game never lets you forget what you're up against. It's a thrilling ride. In that, ME3 rounds off the ME trilogy nicely.

Summary:
Had the ending made any sense, had some key horrible bugs never made it to release, had there been more of a sense that it was still your Shepard saving the galaxy your way, instead of the One True Bioware Choice, had the companion characters been allowed to shine, ME3 would have been a game worthy of marking in the calendar as closure of a true gaming space opera epic, taking the best of ME2 and resolving one heck of a challenging set of plotlines. As it is, the game is excellent in places, and severely let down in others, and to me, it marks the end of Bioware's great days. Either they bit off more than they could chew, or they were not given the time needed to create the game ME3 needed to be. More polish & more expansion/exposition was needed. I would rather that ME3 had taken another year and been done properly, than EA throw it out like Dragon Age 2 as a cheap cash grab off fan enthusiasm, because that's what it feels like - that someone took a 'full' ME3 as deserving of a place in history as Baldur's Gate 2, and chopped it down to fit within a short time & money budget.

Any emotional investment I had in the game is harder to rekindle, it's tougher to get another ME1 character going, and I simply find I don't care about more Mass Effect content in the way I would have done. I could spend hours reading codex entries or browsing the ME wiki for little tidbits of things I'd missed, that gave such wonderful depth to the game, and now it's hard not to say 'what's the point?'. I may yet replay some further characters, but it's more likely I'll just play ME1 some more (250 hours & counting).

Modifié par Grammarye, 22 avril 2012 - 05:45 .