1967 réponses à ce sujet

[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 .

[Flubberlub]

Mass Effect 3 was like the neverending story, the best thing you've ever seen and then BAM! The last few pages are gone... Leaving us all wanting more, especially an ending.
The rest of the game was near perfect -other than the graphics, a little shoddy - and deserves all the praise it receives.

[happy_diplomat]

I loved the gameplay on the first playthrough, felt completely engaged in the mass effect experience. Going through a 100% high, then I got to the ending.

Considering that I had played the first 2 games, bought almost all dlc, except for the costume changes, and even bought an EA game, Deus Ex, which I regret ever doing, as a sidenote. Then I got to the end of the game, and a huge disconnect was created, that effected my whole view of the ending, and it began with the starchild, and ended with a message to buy DLC (I can see why you all put it there).

The story makes up 99% of the reason why you have die hard fans, so when destroying the core of the story as well as Shepard with it, you all literally took us out of the equation, and it no longer mattered how awesome the game was up to that point. I literally tried to get over it, but the ending was so bad, I couldn't play any Bioware games after that.

This process will have spawned a new kind of depression that will be called the "Mass Effect". Just like all of those cheesy movies that were big mistakes and full of hype, this ending called into question the value of games, and the emotional involvement people should have with them. It also guarantees lower sales and even less SWTOR subscribers.

I have talked to some friends about how that felt after a week of beating the game, and they all try to be really cool about it, but after you talk to them, you know they want nothing more to do with games that make you emotionally care about story, characters, or endings.

That empirically proves that the ending also invalidated the amazing cutscenes, I mean literally, the space battles, the combat, the MP, the previous games and all future games will forever be scarred with this ending. so the final cumulative score is 1% for the gameplay (which really is still not on par or original compared with games like Gears of War). Just being consistent, I mean 3 years down the road games are going to blow this out of the water, but the only reason us fans would have continued playing was the story. It was cumulatively hundreds of hours, 5 years, and like 6 seasons of TV and 3 movies and a parody (the ending) all wrapped into 1 package. Just a note, I will not be going to see the movie.

[happy_diplomat]

I mean really Syndicate, Deus Ex, and Mass Effect 3, had different versions of the same plot and philosophy.........Really, really

[happy_diplomat]

I remember back when the author for Harry Potter thought of killing off her main character, and all the big novelists at the time stated how bad an idea that was, this will go down as another example of why you do not kill off your main protagonist, especially after you created so much caring for the end user....Horrible that it goes on par with life lessons learned.

[Jononarf]

95% of the single player portion was one of the best game expereinces I've had in awhile where I still remember cutscenes that made me laugh, get teary eyed, and ...most importantly, have fun. The first time I did the destroy ending, even though I knew what happens thanks to youtube.com and the haters on here, I still liked what I watched. Do I think it needs more work? Of course yes. I have two main plot hole questions that if they were answered, I be happy really. Other than that, I could not put the game down till the finish.

The multiplayer surprised me. I was against the notion when annouced, but as you can probably see on my Galaxy at War score, I'm still playing it. I hate the random item unlock system and I strongly think you need to revamp it, but I still have fun playing a Mass Effect multiplayer game.  More factions, maps, and game modes need to be added.
The sad part for me is after playing the ME3 single player campaign and multiplayer, it's kinda hard to go back to ME1 and 2 because I'm already used to the added features.

I don't care if game critics are paid to review games so you will buy it, but I have to agree with thier goods and bads list for Mass Effect 3. And I strongly agree that the Good parts of Mass Effect 3 outweigh the bad.

My amazon.com review is here: http://www.amazon.co...=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Modifié par Jononarf, 23 avril 2012 - 03:21 .

[Siha89]

I would give the game 95% out of 100 or 8 out of 10. The intro, the game play, the missions, the writing, the graphics were amazing, I have never been so emotional during a game. I felt sadness, awe, happiness and apprehension. It is also due to these reasons that I hate the ending so much it loses points for it. The last 20 minutes of the game left me confused and extremely upset. Firstly seeing my Shepard in a ball of flames and then having the citadel explode was just heartbreaking to see someone I put so much thought and planning into in all 3 games just die without me being able to prevent it was horrifying, secondly to have the citadel and mass relays blown up I was just speechless both are such a key aspect to the ME trilogy I mean fine if you want to end shepards story do but don't destroy the entire universe to do it. Shepard basically helped the reapers out and destroyed the galaxy for them after playing Arrival I know destroying a relay doesn't have a good effect on a system so everyone is screwed. I adore my shepards and I've put alot of thought into each of them, their scars, their decisions all have reasons behind them and I don't want their life to end that way. If u want to end her/his story that's ok but make the ending better their leg is so damaged they can never fight again people can say the Lazarus project could save Shepard say the resources were destroyed in the war and have Shepard go off with their LI and have their blue babies knowing that they have made the galaxy better, that they saved it rather than dying and knowing that they've destroyed the reapers but not knowing they have also doomed each species in the galaxy in doing so. With the first 2 I immediately went back to do another playthrough but with ME3 it took over a month I kept replaying the ending. Too much was lost and so much of what made ME what it is was destroyed. I adore the series and ME is the most emotionally engaging and equally epic game that I will ever play. Have your artistic ending but don't sacrifice the life of a legend like Shepard to do it. I don't want to sound over the top but if my Shepards can't live I see no point in playing the game again. She/he have had so much to put up with so much pressure in their lives too many slaps in the faces and then they get the biggest kick in the stomach at the end of it all and they simply don't deserve it. I love you Bioware Mass Effect was the reason I bought an xbox but please don't make it the reason why I never use it again.

*Let Shep live*
*Blue Babies!!!!*
Thanks

[Keisari76]

  Mass effect trilogy is like going to date with a beatiful girl.

ME1 : You go out to dinner, spend a wonderful evening and end it with a good night kiss.
ME2: This time you go out for a movie, and you dont even remember what movie was after that evening.
ME3: After an evening spent dancing and cuddling you and her enter your apartment and slowly move towards the bedroom where you'll discover that she was actually he. 

 Last 10min of ME3 was horrible, it was the worst ending I've ever read/seen/played and it makes the entire trilogy look worse than it is.

[malhar34]

Siha89 wrote...

I would give the game 95% out of 100 or 8 out of 10. The intro, the game play, the missions, the writing, the graphics were amazing, I have never been so emotional during a game. I felt sadness, awe, happiness and apprehension. It is also due to these reasons that I hate the ending so much it loses points for it. The last 20 minutes of the game left me confused and extremely upset. Firstly seeing my Shepard in a ball of flames and then having the citadel explode was just heartbreaking to see someone I put so much thought and planning into in all 3 games just die without me being able to prevent it was horrifying, secondly to have the citadel and mass relays blown up I was just speechless both are such a key aspect to the ME trilogy I mean fine if you want to end shepards story do but don't destroy the entire universe to do it. Shepard basically helped the reapers out and destroyed the galaxy for them after playing Arrival I know destroying a relay doesn't have a good effect on a system so everyone is screwed. I adore my shepards and I've put alot of thought into each of them, their scars, their decisions all have reasons behind them and I don't want their life to end that way. If u want to end her/his story that's ok but make the ending better their leg is so damaged they can never fight again people can say the Lazarus project could save Shepard say the resources were destroyed in the war and have Shepard go off with their LI and have their blue babies knowing that they have made the galaxy better, that they saved it rather than dying and knowing that they've destroyed the reapers but not knowing they have also doomed each species in the galaxy in doing so. With the first 2 I immediately went back to do another playthrough but with ME3 it took over a month I kept replaying the ending. Too much was lost and so much of what made ME what it is was destroyed. I adore the series and ME is the most emotionally engaging and equally epic game that I will ever play. Have your artistic ending but don't sacrifice the life of a legend like Shepard to do it. I don't want to sound over the top but if my Shepards can't live I see no point in playing the game again. She/he have had so much to put up with so much pressure in their lives too many slaps in the faces and then they get the biggest kick in the stomach at the end of it all and they simply don't deserve it. I love you Bioware Mass Effect was the reason I bought an xbox but please don't make it the reason why I never use it again.

*Let Shep live*
*Blue Babies!!!!*
Thanks

I think your math is off. You either give it a 9.5/10 (95%) or an 8/10 (80%)

[Chesluk]

The ending ruined it for me, too sharp drop as they say in mathematics...

[seek37]

posted here a while back, played through the main story a few more times after that and got my n7 rank to 777. revisiting the review thing i have to say - fail. whole time I was playing I was thinking about ME1-2 and was pretty much playing in memory of those 2 games. Multiplayer isn't fun past n7 rank 300 imo, since by then you have leveled each class at least 2x and should have established all your character builds if you have been paying attention. past this point you will probably not do much after.

The expansion didn't do much to recreate some interest since the except for the geth engineer and batarian soldier (again imo) are the only real classes that don't have blatant weaknesses and/or are fun to play.

Asari "Justicar": can't set up their own combo's on bosses without sacrificing team work viability. even the drell can set off their biotics 2 times with their grenades on bosses, the justicars have to spec their bubbles with warp to be able to set theirs off on bosses. Even if they do they then have to either predict boss movement to place their bubbles or run into fire to put it up which isn't hard but the bosses aren't stationry. any gold team will have someone who can deal with shields, so any other class that can use biotics and detonate them by themselves would be more beneficial to the team in dealing with armored targets than her.
-if they go for the 40% reduction and 25% shield regeneration they still aren't as useful as a geth engineer at that point who can move their turrets (shield generators essetially) to places away from themselves for more vital mobile support for the team.

Krogan vanguard: uh... ya, suicide machines, even decent vanguard players don't like this class since once you commit there is little you can do except melee and hope your shields don't give out before your BC is up especially if you decide to get barrier even with its 30% increase in charge time, why not just play a human and spread the damage you could do in 1 melee over a 6 or 6.6 meter radius and refresh your charge, even besides that you can't even see half of your screen.

Batarian sentinel: everything he can do original asari adept can do better, except melee but on gold melee = just asking to not get revived. stasis bubble > net, and throw offers better crowd control than the nets area damage evolution. Even if you don't want to use the asari and are set on sentinel the area of effect damage provided by the net doesn't even do enough to be bothered with, you are better off using a turian sentinel and just overload for crowd control, or warp for biotic setups for team mates.

Geth infiltrator: offers no variety in gameplay.

I bought this game about the same time as I bought Gotham City Imposters and tbh even with the horrible match making system that GCI has, i rather sit in a lobby for 30 min between games than play another 30 min ME3 single or multi-player.

ya thanks a lot for promising me a $60-$80 game and giving me less than a $15 one. you guys can keep your free expansion dlc and shove it, not worth the hard drive space.

Modifié par seek37, 24 avril 2012 - 12:01 .

[Voodoo-j]

I love all the high reviews I see everywhere, that say the ending was wrong, Its like they review the game play, put in the high marks, and then complain about the ending.

Don't they get it? When they put in the high marks, that it should include the whole game, ending included?

[Sayantsi]

It doesn't matter how good the meal is if the last taste is bitter.

The professional game reviews should be much lower - many reviewers had not completed the game and would have lowered their scores if they had.  Look at Metacritic for the wide difference between professional and user reviews - that never happens, and that should tell you something.

Today, Witcher 2 has a 90 professional, 8.8 user rating - its a good game.  ME3 is 93/5.0 lol.  Thats the difference between the first 95% of the game and the last 5%.

Modifié par Sayantsi, 24 avril 2012 - 02:28 .

[vv238email]

 My final score for this game is 7/10.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.

I took some time to make my score because I knew that the merits of this game should be judged by the way the decisions affect the outcome of the game, so I played it twice. I have divided my review into two categories, the long-winded, Clint Eastwood approved summary and my overall summary, if you just want to read my overall summary you can find it at the bottom of the post. If you wish to read the my entire summary it will be divided into 3 categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly.  The Good and the Bad are pretty obvious as to what they mean, but the Ugly works in two ways: one is something that looks good but ultimately fails or something that is seemingly bad but does have some good parts to them.

The Good
First I would like to start off by saying that the improved combat is a large improvement over the first two entries of the series. This aspect of the game is often critisized for trying to appeal to the CoD/Halo crowd, and maybe it is, but the result is more dynamic combat that makes the game more enjoyable to play.

The RPG features of ME3 were far and away the best of the series with almost everything pertaining to Shepard being customizable from weapons and armor to the more diverse leveling system that resembles a watered-down version of a Diabalo skill tree. The only thing that I can say against this is the lack of customization for squadmates armor. (Really, Liara, 320 health?!?)

The reputation system that replaced pure paragon/renegade scores was a welcome improvement to Shepard. Too often in the first two games I found myself simply picking conversation and options and situational outcomes based on my paragon/renegade score rather than what I actually felt because I knew that I couldn't split my score without losing dialogue options in the long run.  The new system allowed me to choose which options I felt were appropriote without losing charm/intimidate options in the long run.

I can't say that the story was all that great for ME3, but the mood was excellent. When I cured the genophage I honestly felt a sense of accomplishment and when I got the Geth and the Quarians to set aside their differences while at the same time killing a reaper I felt uplifted and I felt like Shepard could win the war. When Kai Leng beat Shepard on Thessia I felt the disappointment of losing.  The writing may not be great, but the mood was excellent.

The Bad
The ending.  I won't get too much into why the endings were bad, but to put it simply your choices didn't matter, there are 3 endings and don't try to tell me otherwise, it goes against previously established canon, it destroys major themes in the trilogy, and gives no closure to the players.

I also felt like the watering down of dialogue was slightly disjointing.  The first two games had a healthy balance of options and talking which made it feel like I was controlling the conversation. ME3 had far less dialogue options written in so it felt like I was less in control of Shepard than ever before and as an unintended side-effect I found myself caring less about conversations than ever before because I couldn't get the responses or information that I was trying to get.

Along the same lines as the lack of dialogue, there was a serious decline in quality of the side missions presented in ME3. Most of the side quests boil down to fetch quests where you get the quest by simply eavesdropping on someone talking in the Citadel. This often left me confused as to why I should find this random artifact without a good reason and made the non-main questline boring, long, and confusing.

The quest log is useless. Not much more to say about that.

There are times when the writing fails miserably. The Priority: Earth mission is a prime example of where good writing can go bad with the snap of a finger.  The part where you have to run around killing Banshees and avoiding the Reaper beam is poorly done (why didn't the Reaper just try to hit the large, non-moving target that actually held the missilles?)  Some other examples include the Crucible (why don't the reapers just blow it up?), the ending, the citadel moving, Reapers not attacking everywhere, and Cerberus in general.

The Ugly
While the lack of squad dialogue options is severely limiting, I realized that there was nothing really new that Shepard could learn from the characters, that was ME2's job.  I actually learned to enjoy the squad banter, that is, when you walk in on a squadmate talking to another squadmate through the Normandy's intercom system. These moments make up the best writing in ME3 and by far the most memorable dialogue of the game.  This is an instance where an unwelcome replacement becomes one of the game's strong suits.

I had a tough time judging the multiplayer, so I decided to put it in The Ugly. The multiplayer isn't great, but it is good.  I found myself enjoying it in small intervals because while it resembles Gear's Horde Mode, it just isn't as good. The reason it isn't in The Good is because it is extremely difficult to get the "best" endings and EMS without it. If you don't like it or don't have access to the Xbox Live/PSN/Origin than you are pretty much screwed because of how difficult it is to get the "best" ending.

One of the most important things in judging this game is how your descisions affect the story in ME3. Unfortunately, this fails pretty horribly. After my first playthrough, it felt like my descisions actually mattered, but after my second playthrough I realized how little they actually did. What the game does do a great job is aesthetically making your choices look like they are important, but unforntunately that's about it. Once you look under the hood and find out your descisions are nothing but numbers, the impact of them is simply lost. Some of the most important descisions makes so little impact it's sickening. The most important descision in ME2, to save or destroy the collector base becomes a difference of 100 EMS.  In the larger game this difference is microscopic.

I could write a whole paper on what I thought about the Tuchanka mission, but I'll try to keep it simple and short.  I LOVED the Tuchanka storyline. This was the only mission where I felt like my descisions in the previous games mattered, and on top of this I am given another option that can and will affect the outcome of the universe at large depending on what I do or don't do. The reason this is on the Ugly is because mission represents everything that the game could have been but wasn't. This mission effectively makes the rest of the game fail because nothing else can live up to it, and none can even come close to the success of this single storyline.

IN CONCLUSION
If you are a fan of Mass Effect there is a lot to love but just as much to hate.  The improved combat and dialogue options are a welcome addition to the game.  The Multiplayer doesn't suck and that in itself is a victory. Where this game fails is that your descisions matter very little to practically not at all. Couple this with a lack of dialogue options and what you are left with is a half-RPG action-shooter with a confusing story and unsatisfying conclusion. If this is your first game in the trilogy, don't even bother. That being said, this game is still worth playing, just not twice.

[tmG2882]

My Review of Mass Effect 3 (PC)

Gameplay

This is quite possibly the best part of ME3: the gameplay. Bioware found a rather excellent control scheme for the series that makes the game play fast and loose. While there are still issues with having so many aspects of the game controlled with one button (the “Run/Cover/Use” button), Shepard’s movement and overall control is the best in the series, taking the paradigm from the previous entry and tweaking it in an exceedingly positive manner. Everything just feels clean, in my honest opinion. Shepard (particularly Femshep) does have a few awkward animations, especially when running while aboard the Normandy, however. 

One thing noticeably absent from the series are the “hacking mini-games” scattered throughout the previous 2 entries (and perfected in ME2, I feel). These mini-games added a bit of “brainteaser” fun to the previous games, and in some cases even gave the PC a breath between action beats. I must admit, I was a bit sad to see them go.

One other area taken from ME2 and improved was the “scan and probe” system.   ME2 had an interesting idea regarding scanning a planet’s surface for minerals and using those to manufacture upgrades… but it did have a tendency to feel overly “grindy.” While the woeful loss of ME1’s planet exploration still has me saddened, I’m ecstatic that I no longer have to spend hours scanning and probing. The approach is far more targeted, you’re there to grab a War Asset and move on. Another addition to the Galaxy Map is the Reapers themselves, which appear if you get too twitchy with the scanning. The fact that you can now die on the map screen adds a bit of urgency, at least for someone new to ME3, but once you figure out how to dodge the Reapers, they stop being anything close to a threat.

Narrative

The story and setting of Mass Effect 3 is, overall, hampered by its (understandable) reliance on maintaining the continuing narrative from ME1 and ME2. The entire game’s story, while filled with many excellent moments, plays more like an extended ending to its predecessors than its own, contained narrative. ME3 is so concerned with wrapping up events from the other two stories that it forgets to have one of its own.

The characters also lack the same "memorable aura" as the previous games in the series (which isn’t to say they were bad, just not as good as they could have been). Bioware, however, has maintained a constant characterization with the returning characters from previous games (Garrus, Liara, Tali, and Kaiden/Ashley). This makes me happy as a fan and invested as a player, I must say. The new characters (EDI, James, Javik) definitely have their moments (Javik being my personal favorite), but the (comparatively speaking) plot-reliant narrative, pared dialogue, and lack of “loyalty missions” make characterization of the “new guys” difficult. 

The voice acting, however, remains top notch. Martin Sheen remains a draw for this series (hiring him as the Illusive Man was, quite possibly, one of the best decisions Bioware has ever made), and I personally enjoy Freddie Prinze Jr.’s work. The dialogue between the mainstays of the series (basically anyone active in more than one ME game) is absolutely golden. When I state that there needs to be far more dialogue, it isn’t because what was there is lacking… it’s because I just want MOAR. So to speak.

Finally, I must mention how absolutely sublime the score is. The ME3 OST is currently spending yet another week in my car’s CD player as I enjoy feeling like a space Viking every time I pull in to work. The money spent on Clint Mansell, Christopher Lennertz, Cris Velasco, Sam Hulick and Sasha Dikicyan was definitely not wasted.

Multiplayer

I’m not a multiplayer person. I just, generally speaking, do not get into it. I also don’t see much point in spending real money on digital items (I also don’t really get DLC weapons and items for SP, either). But I enjoy ME3’s multiplayer immensely, whereas I normally would not have touched it with a 10-foot pole. I think that there is much more that can be done with it and would like to see what Bioware does with it in the future.

*****

My Criticism of Mass Effect 3 (PC)

Gameplay

Mass Effect 3’s Cover-Based Shooting (CBS) elements are the best in the series, bar none. If I could purchase an update for the other two games that gave them ME3’s controls and movement (and headsplosions from sniping, natch), I would. ME3 suffers, however, because that’s all it is. The parts of the game that isn’t a CBS are clumsily animated (i.e. Femshep’s Monkey Arm run), when they are animated at all. With the exception of a few models, the Citadel is, essentially, populated by mannequins. And those models that do walk around are also, apparently, the most powerful force in the universe as they cannot be stopped or diverted from their circuit. It almost seems that the hub areas (Normandy and Citadel) were an afterthought, or added by the Developers “if there was enough time.” While this may have been acceptable for ME1, with 2007’s technical limitations, it is unfortunate that a game made in 2012 with EA’s financial backing still does this. 

Suggestion: The hub areas (The Citadel especially) need to feel crowded and full of life. There needs to be larger amounts of character models walking throughout the non-Combat areas with “excuse me” and “get out of the way” animations. Also, have different jogging models for male/female Shepard. 

There has also been much criticism levied toward the “eavesdropping method” of fetch quest activation. My opinion, however, is that it’s fine, for the most part, assuming this method is used just for fetch quests. There does not need to be eight pages of dialogue just so Shepard can go fetch a Kakliosaur skull without setting food planetside. Activation of actual CBS portions of the game, however, should never arise from this method (I don’t remember if there are any, though). 

Next up is the incessant references to ME3 as an “Action RPG.” It isn’t. It’s a Cover-Based Shooter with a vague leveling mechanic attached. You can completely detach the leveling mechanic from ME3’s gameplay and still have a functional game. There is a level of depth and complexity required before a game becomes an RPG in truth and taking ME2’s system and adding two more levels to it doesn’t quite reach that plateau. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing, not as far as Gameplay is concerned, but ME3 does not need to dilute the concept of the “RPG” when it obviously wants to be something else.

Suggestion: Gameplay Overhaul DLC adding a “True RPG” and “True Shooter” mode. True RPG would add all sorts of items and statistics Players can upgrade as they level up, with ME1 levels of Weapon/Armor Effect Customization. True Shooter mode would remove any pretense of Leveling Up, allowing Shepard to customize abilities by getting items (example: Warp lvl 4 Biotic Amp).

The lack of alternate gameplay modes and the extremely focused plot make this entry into the Mass Effect Series seem so… short and small. The “planet searching,” while much better than the sleep inducing grind of ME2, feels tacked on and the procurement of War Assets, particularly Crucible enhancements, feels somewhat pointless (as opposed to those gained during story interaction). It now feels like all I’m doing is point and clicking for points, which is something one typically does not expect from a Bioware game. 

Suggestion: I don’t have anything I could reasonably suggest here without going back to the game’s development cycle and tacking on another year or so of content making. In an ideal world, every War Asset would be derived from the Conversation >> Level >> Reward pattern, but with how many War Assets there are, there is no way Bioware can be expected to generate that much post-release content. My only suggestion would be to release some sort of “ME3 Mission Maker” that allows for the generation of missions similar to the ones in ME2 with mostly no dialogue (or the ability to utilize your own sound clips). Also, I have two words for you: space combat.

Narrative

While the setting remains as fantastic as ever, the story of ME3 is inferior to the previous entries due to one fact: it has no inherent story. The narrative follows this pattern: Reapers Attack Earth >> Discover Crucible on Mars>> Random Stuff >> Priority: Earth. ME3 is simply a really, really long, protracted climax. The way the narrative was handled was inherently flawed as it had absolutely no cohesion, as it was simply a series of random events held together by the loose thread of “building an epic navy to combat the Reaper threat.” You aren’t playing an epic story, you’re finishing epic stories from a game or two ago. 

Suggestion: Aside from extensive DLC additions, the only other fix in my mind for this situation is a time machine. The Main Story does very well up until Shepard regains his/her Spectre status, at which point it plods along rather aimlessly until Priority: Earth. If it were me, I would have focused the game’s narrative on building and investigating the Crucible and the Reapers and unraveling their mysteries in a race against time as Cerberus throws all of its resources into finding and controlling the galaxy’s most potent super- weapon, with all of the other missions that make up the real game as an extensive collection of side-missions. The Crucible would have been a Hub World as well, which would grow and change as it became more complete (and Shepard added new War Assets to it). New areas would unlock as the game progressed, giving Shepard access to new weapons and armor pieces, money, or enlightening conversations. As you built up War Assets, the number of ships floating outside the window would increase dramatically, with the occasional flyby from taurian fighters or rachni ships (or whatever). 

The Narrative also suffers from a severe lack of dialogue choices and “watershed” conversations capable of actually affecting the forward narrative of the game. With the exception of the “big decisions” (Genophage, Geth, etc.), there are very few options that allow you to really steer the Alliance response to the Reaper Threat. Treat the taurians like crap, and you’ll still have their support in the end (although it’s worth fewer points). Betray the krogan and they’ll still help out (although for less points). If anything, actually posting the total and effective military strength scores (or having scores in the first place) is in itself a criticism. The sheer fact that Shepard can’t totally alienate Earth by being a dick (especially if you were a dick over the course of 3 games) is one of my more serious narrative complaints.

Suggestion: Like above, make either a ton of DLC or slip backward in time. I realize that this game has “twice the recorded dialogue of ME1 and nearly twice that of ME2,” but a significant proportion of that dialogue is auto-dialogue. While I actually respect the creation of “Gameplay modes” like “RPG Mode” (see above) and “Action Mode,” the RPG mode, narratively speaking, is really weak. 

My most serious narrative complaint is also ME3’s greatest sin: the game’s reliance on text. Did you read the books? No? Then you’re going to be really confused as to why Anderson is no longer Councilor. Who’s Kai Leng and why is he so suddenly important? Didn’t read the books? Then screw you. Oh, but you can go fishing through the Codex to answer all those questions! This violates one of the most sacred rules in the craft of storytelling: show, don’t tell. This sin is also committed when various emails trickle in regarding characters you’ve interacted with in the previous games (Rana, Aresh, the Colonists of Zhu’s Hope, Kal’Reegar, etc.) who have met their respective fates. It is ridiculous to do this in any medium, even writing (it’s like killing off a named character in a side bar or footnote). This is especially true in a visual medium as interactive as Video Games, which allows the consumer to become even more ensconced into the work’s setting and narrative. 

Suggestion: Either adding the above mentioned individuals to preexisting levels or by adding them to future DLC showing their fates. These characters above are actually more meaningful and connected to the story than Conrad Verner, but even he was allowed to have just a moment to shine in ME3. 

I’m still waiting to see what the ending has in store before I critique it.

Love, Peace, and Chicken Grease,
tmG2882

Modifié par tmG2882, 25 avril 2012 - 04:23 .

[Fearloc]

The last moments of Mass Effect were horrible! Why would Bioware do this? The key for Mass Effect was player choice and how that affected the outcome, but then you introduce a God like child in the last moments you had a chance to wrap up the story! The God child then gives you the choice of red, blue or green explosions. The God child is a monkey wrench in the mechanics of Mass Effect. But it all doesn't matter since the Mass Relays set off a chain reaction of destruction, killing all life and extinguishing any glimmer of hope.

Why couldn't I just have have told the god child to ****** off, and I refuse to take part in your solution. I'm going to sit right here and hope that all my efforts to raise a massive galactic army was enough to destroy the reapers.

Mass Effect was great, then the last 10 minutes happened.

[CaolIla]

I was a huge fan of the ME series and after playing the demo I decided not to buy the game.
Because of the controls, the boy and the feeling that this game would just disappoint as DA2 did.
Well more than a month later I decided to give it a try and bought the game, just to find out, that I should have trusted my initial impression.

The good stuff:
- the banter is still funny as ever
- several nice stories and quests
- nearly everyone from the first two games gets a cameo
- more melee options
- some good new powers

The bad stuff:
- controls: too many functions on space, in some situations the controls can be called broken in my eyes. Constantly fighting against the controls is something I don't want to do in a game. It was bad enough in ME2 and got WAY worse in this game.

- the intro: no trial, the boy and the manipulative way he is used, shepard's reaction and emotions and the whole dialogue.

- the crucible: wow... that's just lazy writing.

- the sequences with the boy: boring as hell and if you think that the whole scene with the boy in the intro was pointless and you're pissed because of the scene, these "dream" sequences just get on your nerves and annoy you.

- no Mordin: There was no Mordin in this game, there was someone with the same name who looked like him, but I know Mordin's voice and that wasn't his. 

- Kai Leng: I thought in the books he was an interesting and threatening character, but in the game he looked stupid (especially his hair), he had a sword as his main weapon (stupid) and wasn't used effectively.

- Smug self-awareness: while I liked the several references in parts, sometimes it was really annoying to hear the fifth reference to calibrating and Garrus, sometimes even delivered with smug self-awareness in the voice of the VAs.

- Cerberus: With a large army of supersoldiers that couldn't get anything done. The feeling that Cerberus just is too stupid to get anything done prevails. 

- Vanguard Charge still has the same problems: animation but no charge, no charge possible even though you have a clear line of sight and charge hitting but no effect on the enemy.

- just the citadel and no other cities to visit.

- all those mini missions on the citadel

- Jack's hair

- that one hairstyle for women: it looks like she has a bomb under her wig...

-too much stuff lying around: I always missed so much stuff because of the small area where stuff is highlighted and the sheer mass of stuff lying around.

-the ending: just bad. It feels disconnected, taken from something else, out of place, stupid, like someone just couldn't come up with something good, phoned in and most of the choices make every decision you made before pointless.
Oh and the fact that Shep sees it as the boy doesn't make the ending one bit better...

So that's what I thought, the conclusion of Mass Effect disappoints too much to be called a good game.
If I had to rate it, I would give it 6 out of 10, but it's still the weakenst entry in the series (by far) and the ending is so bad that if I replay the game, I will shut it off before the ending. Even no ending would be better than this.

Modifié par CaolIla, 27 avril 2012 - 12:26 .

[zarnk567]

Modifié par zarnk567, 25 avril 2012 - 02:01 .

[BhallSpawn1011]

ending was so bad i cancelled my SWTOR account in response.

[Bad King]

6.5/10

What I liked

1). Improved gameplay- more fluid combat, more combat equipment (guns, armour, and customisation options), rpg elements have been improved somewhat since ME2. Some more powers and power variations were added too which I liked (e.g grenade powers and stasis bubbles for example).

2). Some of our past choices did have satisfying outcomes. This was clear in the Priority: Tuchanka and Priority: The
Citadel missions where outcomes were dependent on whether characters from past games had lived or died.

3). Cinematics. ME3 has hands down the most epic space battles of the series.

4). The manner in which our ME2 squadmates were integrated into the game was satisfying in my opinion, especially in Mordin and Legion's cases.

5. Good voice acting talent. I expected no less from the ME series.


What I disliked

1). Many of the most important choices from the previous game only marginally changed the narrative. The human councillor decision, the rachni decision, and the collector base decisions from ME1 and 2 had little effect for example.

2). Lack of exploration. While we had ~20 N7 missions in ME2, ones which we could discover in our travels across the galaxy, ME3 has only 6 small N7 missions which are assigned to you without you having to explore. Seemingly to make up for this, probing missions were added which aren't remotely as interesting as actually landing on a world and playing through a small mission on it. Shame as I was really looking forward to seeing Kahje and Kar'shan...

3). Cerberus. When I heard they were being made an enemy, I was hoping for a bit of moral greyness with them to contrast with the reapers. But BioWare threw them into the 'complete monster' category which made them boring, predictable, often humorous (obviously not in an intentional way). TIM pulled a well trained and well armed army out of his rectum in just a few months which was highly implausible, and then randomly attacked Sur'kesh and the Citadel for no given reason. We also fought them way too much to the point that they eclipsed the reapers as the main antagonist.

4). Lack of hub worlds. In ME1 we had only the Citadel (and Noveria as a small second hub). In ME2 we had smaller hubs but there were more of them: Omega, Illium, Citadel, Tuchanka. In ME3 we only get the Citadel, and a smaller one than in ME1. Disappointing.

5). Ending. While I enjoyed the final mission, it would have been nice to have seen our choices throughout the game having a bigger impact. This is especially true when it comes to the final conclusion. Things weren't explained or clarified enough either, but I'm hoping that this will be fixed with the EC.

Modifié par Bad King, 25 avril 2012 - 07:57 .

[DaoFerret]

Before the ending: 10/10 (or 9/10 if you include the odd freezes that still plague the game on PS3)
After the ending: 4/10. I can't drop it to 0 because of some of the "good" moments, but I can't bring it up much higher because of the bad taste in my mouth.

The Good:
Multiplay was a surprisingly fun addition (when I can find a random group that works).

Singleplayer, gameplay was fun. Wouldn't have minded a few more waypoints sometimes, but it wasn't a major issue.

I *loved* how they incorporated previous characters into the story, and gave THEIR stories conclusions (good, bad, or ugly). To a certain degree, I think that this is part of what has fans so frustrated. Lots of the characters we've met over the course of the series got PROPER RESOLUTION to their stories (and the possibility of a "Good" or "Bad" ending).

Mordin on Tuchanka and Legion got those proper bitter-sweet hero moments.
Grunt got covered in blood.
Miranda got revenge.
Jacob got lines that didn't suck.

Also loved the way you got to interact with each of them on the way to the final confrontation. It let you achieve some semblance of closure with them (and you LI I suppose ...).

Which of course leads to the elephant in the room.

The Bad:
After playing it through three times (and seeing each ending), I think I can sort of see what the designers might have had in mind. There certainly are minor differences between all the different endings which point toward lots of underlying changes (wether the citadel itself gets destroyed, wether Shepard lives, wether EDI walks out of the Normandy w/Joker) ... but it still feels incredibly lacking and empty.

Bluntly, the main character, the one we the players have been using as our Avatar for the past X hours, had a choice of three endings with not one of them having the resolution that all the minor supporting characters got.

The best description I can think of is like watching one of the recent M. Night Shyamalan movie where at the end you go "... huh? That was it? What was he thinking? I'm not seeing the next one. I'll wait for it to come out on TV."

Which is sad, because BioWare has made some amazing games over the years.

Modifié par DaoFerret, 26 avril 2012 - 03:18 .

[Pookieroo]

Well, I just completed my second run through of ME 3.  A great game, well done.  Don't know what kind of ending others expected but with such an overwhelming opponent the solution had to be drastic.  I don't really understand why everyone is so unhappy - in a way the ending does not spell everything out - we go forward into the distant future - who knows what actually happened to our team and Shepherd - history never recalls the finer details.  My Shepherd did not act out of character when he made his decision so I guess others must have played the game very differently.    

A problem for me was that not having been able to load my ME1 game to ME2 I had to take the predetermined decisions for ME2 and these penalised me in the final game.  In ME1 I saved the Council and the Rachni but ME 2 started with them both dead.  I do not have unlimited internet access so could not download Genesis. (as it is the download of the other DLC's cost me a small fortune)  Although I collected everything available (100% utilization in all galacies) and completed all the side quests, recruited everyone, saved the Salarian Councillor,  my effective MS at the end was only 3397 and I assume my Shepherd bit the dust.  It seems that the little cut scene of him moving in the rubble is not there no matter how well one has played the game.  If that cut scene indeed exists then it should have been achievable for those who don't play on line. 

Apart from the above my criticism of the game is more on the grounds that there are prolonged periods of action when we are not allowed to save or pause.  This would be fine if one never needed to eat, or interact with the world but one does.  Sometimes one just needs to go to the bathroom and that darned action sequence takes forever or someone calls and the action sequence cannot be paused.  Amaleur the Reckoning is great in that one can pause anywhere or save anywhere - this makes the game so much more user friendly.  Please bear this in mind for your next game. 

[Jills Toy]

I found the game to be totally fantastic and your best effort yet. I would give it a 10/10, except for the conclusion which drops it to a 6 or maybe 6.5/10. Only because the ending left too much unanswered. The writing, the humor, the way each quest was interrelated to the progession of the whole story was well done as the majority of each mission had an impact to others that followed. the LI interaction and the interaction with NPCs and game play IMO were totally the best development efforts in a game I've played so far. The ME series has been my absolute favorite. Bringing in all past characters from ME's 1 and 2 and having some with closure was great although in some cases very bittersweet, sad and could bring some to tears.

However, the ending left too many things unanswered or in my opinion unexplainable (destroying the relays should have wiped out just about everybody in the Sol System and all the other systems if we're to believe what happened to the Balarians in Arrival). No closure with your team mates except a few get off somewhere on a planet (depending on what choice of endings you made) and then thats it!! At the end of the credits we're to believe there's more stories about Sheppard, I really don't see how but I've been surprised before.

All-in-all I thought the game was really, really good and an improvement on previous MEs 1 and 2 gameplay. The ending, however, left me somewhat empty and scatching my head with nothing but a ton of questions!

[dr888]

Hi, welcome to my biased review of ME3. To start-I played ME1 4 times and ME2 8 times (all quests, full Paragon and Renegade paths), ME1 on Normal/Hard , ME2 on Insanity, now I am finishing ME3 for 3rd time. Let us begin with the good stuff:
+++ guns, guns, guns – good variety for every class/gamestyle
+++ armors ,yey !
+++ mods, mods, mods
+++movement: jumping, banking, rolling-finally ! – bad idea : all actions done with “A”- terrible in multiplayer, sticking to covers iso rolling/running cost me a lot of deaths
+++ improved squadmates' usefulness : better AI (almost no need for medkits), power cooldowns brought to reasonable time-they are once again not a target practice but a help (Garrus with Javelin-wow!)
+++ graphics and sound /music (except tracks in captains cabin-8bit nostalgia obviously-terrible)
+++amazing main story , especially ending of Krogan-Turian/Salarian conflict (all outcomes amazingly done), same goes for Quarian-Geth plot-wow !!!
+ mostly good level design (except Tuchanka and Earth), but we still fight in rather tight "corridor" even on Tuchanka and Earth when You could expect some open arreas ; , however I admit it is a trade common to all shooters; In next game maybe ?
+++ amazing dialogs ; much more human, life-like and engaging than ever; I loved EDI as a character, her bad Jokes, Joker comments, Garrus /Javik-James banter, characters walking around Normandy, getting drunk, Garrus hitting on Liara/Tali
+ + quest and exploration - much less mundane , makes going through multiple walkthroughs less o a chore
+length- acceptable, especially if You consider that doing small sidequets/exploration takes thankfully less time that before. Can’t wait for Omega/Illium missions!.
+++character design and voiceover-as always brilliant, loved EDI , I hoped to see more of Joker pesonality though
+++powers evolution /combos ; except few useless powers (Defense matrix ?) all powers feel right, especially playing as Engineer and Adept gives player a feeling that he is actually a powerhouse- as it should be. My grief is with general difficulty/AI though. I love spamming powers without using guns. I even enjoyed Soldier and Vanguard (with Energy Drain), not as useless and boring as in ME2.
+++ some new interesting enemies : centurions, engineers, ravages
+++ mostly great comebacks of ME2 teammates, especially Jack (but not as a LI) , Kasumi, Samara and Thane. I hoped to fight Cerberus goons together with Thane, but still good work.
The bad :
- - - game is too easy . I played imported lvl 30 Soldier on Hardcore not using Liara at all as she was making it just too easy; I understand that it is different for player not importing ME2 character - but game should have difficulty levels tailored to this too, . Enemies mostly do not have shields or armor which makes them too vulnerable , especially to biotics ( I noticed that Warp goes through shields too -a bug or intended way for adept for dealing with shielded enemies?). Imported lvl 30 adept tears through enemies like tissue paper even on Insanity, occasionally Statis or Overload is needed to speed things up. Except for few firefights (end of Turian Platoon, Grissom Academy amphitheater, battery defense on Earth) player is not challenged vey much.I feel like campaign was intended for training for multiplayer.
Why Cerberus grunts do not have shields? Barrier engines and shield generators are just terrible ideas, without sense whatsoever for such mobile troops. I understand Cannibals do not have them, but with armorless husks-they are just cannonfodder. All mercs in ME1,ME2 had shields, engineers /mini bosses also armor. It made for a challenging fights, even if enemy AI was not stellar.
Expecially Geth troopers are butchered in ME3-where are the shields on which they rely so much ? (even loading screens show this info). Add Sabotage working through shields and even not playing as Engineer /Inflitrator is a breeze-Tali is more that enough. I think sabotage working through armor only would have more sense.
Instanity was obviously intended for playing with imported character yet actual difficulty is much lower than in ME2-enemies are just not challenging as in ME2; except ravages and engineers which very well designed.
--- enemy AI: a letdown, as usual very little remained from developer’s promises. Enemies do not cooperate very well (they do flank however), many times I found Cerberus goons facing away from me , just waiting to be cut down ( I was not using drone). Turrets/smoke are very nice additions but Atlas is just a joke, especially compared to Banshee or Prime , who are faster and can put some pressure on player.
-- - - ammo as power - terrible idea, You showed that You can create interesting powers/abilities, why limit characters with such crude ones?
-- my beef is lack of power specialization -i.e.Overload/distruptor ammo effectiveness on barriers means that planning a right squad it not as crucial anymore ; I loved ME2 rock-paper-scissors fights: againts organics/reapers biotic squadmates were the best, against synthethic -tech capable ones, and mix of them against mercs. It does not apply now. It gives player more squadmates to choose from of course, but combat is not as tactical as before. You can even use only brute force (guns/grenades) on Insanity. I tried that too.
- - - CoD-like Earth level, obviously no idea (or budget ) for something creative. I hoped it would be greatest battle in all games, including allies (Krogans, STG/Kirrahe/Rachni, Geth Primes), very dissapointing
- -- downgrading most crucial choices from ME1 and 2 ,i.e Rachni arc to readiness points and few lines of dialog is insulting. Calculus of war, I know, but really, nothing even in final battle ? And why Udina as councilllor again?
- - - Jack and Miranda love arcs really lack the effort :I hoped for more than a quickie with Miranda
- - - Tali-what can I say that was not said before about her face- WORST SOLUTION EVER, , I wonder if Tali's creator was even consulted, almost any fan creation I've seen was better, at least it would show some work, thought investment, really epic fail. Terrible fate for such a character. It had such a potential. I had her as LI for 2 of my Shepards, and finishing this love story with such a big let down... Why not use her voice actor as template (Mrs Sroka?) --it would be fitting and would honor her amazing work. Please do not tell me she does not fit to Tali's character. Anything creative would be better
--- multiplayer necessary for good EMS. No player choosing full paragon/Renegade path would be able to reach 4000 EMS in my opinion.
---Inconsistent Renegade/Paragon/reputation system through all3 games. For me the one in ME3 is the best but lets face it –Player was really rewarded choosing full paths, not skipping between red/blue choices within 1 character, even if we agree that they were subjective (from Shepard’s view). Point tied directly to one before
--- DLC- 1 day DLC, I am sorry but I expect to buy a full product. I accept that buying Collectors edition would grant none-essential bonuses (guns, armors but only , IF there are plenty of them in core game) and on this assumption I bought CE, but Javik is not a 2nd rate character, and I fully understand and support players who bought core version on not including Javik/Eden Prime; again –more development time would be fully acceptable to me.
--- console crashing in midplay I am not sure what combination of patch/DLC causes this, but crashing console was not an issue till ME3
Multiplayer :
++ great maps (even if so few so far)
++ great gameplay, for me no problems with matchmaking , good difficulty settings
++ no versus play (would make no sense), I really like cooperation
--- Only predefined character abilities ; why not allow player too choose his powers ;some characters are completely useless (Quarian infiltrator)
--No armor choice possible, why I cannot buy parts and customize them it ? It is well done in campaign;
--- random reward system instead of buying stuff You want - I hoped to not see such a reward system ever !!!
--many bugs (flying through map etc.)
The ugly:
----- 2nd patch deleted my current campaign (I mean a save file from HDD); I have never seen anything like it, 15 hrs of game just disappeared,, thankfully it was a not a completed campaign; there is separate topic for it as well
Would I recommend this game? Yes but I would wait till ending DLC.
Did it meet my expectations:
gameplay-wise: mostly yes, even exceeded in many respects (rewritten, more customizable powers), guns,mods, mobility, level design (even if limited fughting space), characters -You have to appreciate all the work that has been done, ,You just can feel that some guys working on it love this game. It makes other parts (Earth, some story arcs) look very poor though. I will repeat :6 months or even a year of additional development time would be fully acceptable –if I would receive complete , bugfree product;
story wise-mostly yes . If DLC ending clarifies all plotholes-it could mean greatest story in history of games.