1966 réponses à ce sujet

[b2smooth]

http://www.gamesthir...s-casey-hudson/

[Sir Fluffykins]

GOOD


A lot, plus countless guns, certain heavy weapons were wasted in the game, like the Blackstar. 

I could harp on level design with it's waist high walls, the lack of enemy variety, the shorter feeling of the game, or the "autochat" but none of that bugged me at all. The galaxy is under assault and time, though not feeling pressed is running out. Everything had it's place, the Citadel parts felt fine and the fighting parts felt just right. Main missions felt as if they took previous games into account, with Genophage mission with Mordin, Eve and Wrex feeling brilliant and rewarding whatever happened (As I understand, got Mordins sacrifice myself) and Quarian/Geth being a close second (I patched up the conflict). Tali and me chatting about building a house there was sweet. Garrus on the Citadel was another great moment, so were the in-house jokes about Shepards dancing, the Mako vs Firewalker, etc. Seeing ME2 characters and some having an effect on side quests was okay, but I would have prefer to be able to talk some more.

Earth did feel weak, if this game was meant to be harder than insanity ME2 it got no where close to that hard, I say that because near the end Brutes and Banshees are thrown at you, which wasn't that hard, yet I remember getting swarmed by Husks in ME2 and thought that would make more sense. If Earth was wall to wall Husks I'd approve!

TIM and Anderson were great, but after that scene...(see bad)

ANNOYING

Where are the secondary characters that were going to help, or promised to help? I thought if Shepard died in 2, Conrad would take his place, with his wife for support (MAKE THIS DLC AFTER FIXING THE ENDING, I'LL BUY IT!).

My Mechdog Companion wasn't a Companion = me  going ()

Headshot Death. I don't mind dying from being shot in the Head, but I don't think I once saw who shot me. It could be me and one Cerbarus grunt and his pistol seem to be pointing at the floor -BAM HEAD SHOT deah scene.

Sprites. I understand for Earth, with all that movement/action it saves resources by at least make the sprites look better, it kinda breaks the illusion if you see 2D people running side ways in the car park -or worse, if you stop running near end and look around and see the terrible sprite people everywhere!

Overhearing, because I didn't know if what people was saying would be important I ended up standing around until their audio looped, I got a quest, or Spectre computer updated.

Harbinger: Though not BAD, after his constant pressence in ME2 I assumed he'd be the final enemy, either in some crazy direct battle or like Soveriegn where Shepards allows the fleet and Normandy to take him down. Yet...besides a condex entry and a Destroyer saying "Harbinger spoke of you" he doesn't feature. Though everyone agrees Harbinger blasted you near the end, there isn't really anything to say it's Harbinger or why he flew away. Doesn't he even get an evil one-liner?

My N7 collecter weapons and the Spectre weapons are...weak, why must I pay so much for the weaker guns I'm never use?

Scan was okay, but it was too easy to get away and too easy to trigger Reapers making the whole thing a yawn. Also, though understandable in context, not being able to find missions and land on planets, even for side-quests ruins much of the space exploration I loved in ME1 and much less in ME2.

BAD

Before the ending rant, my beef is not auto-chat, but lack of "chat". Howcome I can't ask about organisations, or press people for more info of what they're talking about.

The Ending. I went in without any outside information, I didn't know anything about the promises of 16 endings and was expecting whatever happened the relays would blow up -due to ME1 plot point of Relays being a trap -controlling organic lifes growth. With that in mind I wa completely dumbfounded when I chose Synthesis and random stuff happened where I wasn't sure if what was happening was good or bad, then Joker and EDI get out the Normandy and hug and I assume they'll be making techno babies in some Adam & Eve, End of Evangelion type ending. Then credits and I'm going..."I haven't seen the Rachni queen...or anything...is that it".

Then Granpa appears on Windows Wallpaper "cheap" and talks to kid and I'm listening to every word figuring this is the epilogue and it WASN'T. Then...the worst thing doen was that text block -I literally felt insulted and just sat there staring at it. Here I'm waiting for...something, the cinematic, the text block epilogue telling me what my choices did for the universe.

Went to bed, next day I reloaded and chose Destroy wanting to see what the difference was and nearly threw my keyboard when I saw it was exactly the same, even EDI came out the Normandy after being told all Synthetics, including myself, would die. 
Where's the War Assets I spent the game collecting now? The whole of ME2 resulted in the Collector base choice and THAT HAD NO BARING ON ANYTHING!? Did it do anything? Where's the epilogue with text saying "The Rachni Queen settled on Ilos. Soon the hive included multiple queens and broods and the old Queen died singing of the Shepard who saved their race not once, but twice -knowing the Rachni would live on". IS MY CREW ALRIGHT? IS THE FLEET ALRIGHT? DID CITADEL DEFENCE DO ANYTHING AT ALL!?

If you wanted to have a "single" ending all choices and War -Assets needed to have played out BEFORE the end, as I, as the player, was left waiting for the big pay-off that never came. 

Modifié par Sir Fluffykins, 28 avril 2012 - 09:46 .

[Lincoln MuaDib]

Score?

9/10.

ME1 and ME2 were 11/10.

Points lost for The Ridiculous Ending?

Of course.

Chance of buying another BioWare product in first week?

0%.

Chance of buying another BioWare product without first getting feedback from other players as to whether had satisfying ending?

0%.

Chance of trusting BioWare's word?

0%. When they can't even admit they lied, their word becomes meaningless.

Harsh, but that's just how it is.

[skuid]

If I wouldn't play ME1 (95/100) and ME2 (100/100) I would give it a 90/100 but this is not my case so I just give it a 80/100 without the ending and 60/100 with the ending for the following reasons:

Likes:

• Story:

-Deep and rich story with lot of action moments but also with sad and funny moments that make you cry or laugh in multiple occasions. Except for the ending that make me sick:sick:
-Relations with characters are more dynamic and feel more real. Moving around the ship or in the citadel. But all this improved is overshadowed by the lack of proper cutscened dialogues
-If Indoctrination Theory turn to be true and the extended cut will extend from there or fixed the end somehow, the ending will be good. Otherwise is a nonsense and for me ME3 ends with shepard killed by harbringer beam and the galaxy harvested (still a better ending than we got)

• Gameplay:

-More dynamic combat

• Graphics:

-The hair looks more real
-Improved illumination effects, although skin looks too flat
-Larger maps

Dislikes:

• Gameplay:

-Very few dialogue options with barely 2 choices available in most of them
    -Most of the time, both choices are a diferent way of saying the same thing with no repercusions. There is even some cases with the dialogue is exactly the same with both options.
-Lots of autodialogues. This is the worst thing in mass effect 3, it make you feel that you aren't controlling shepard (Which make sense if the indoctrination theory is true, but it's not good for the gameplay)
    -The most annoying case is when James Vega visits you in your cabin and the last dialogue is something like:
        -James: This is getting too soft, I better go
        -Shepard autodialogue: The bed is hard than it looks
        -Me: WTF??? why did he say that?
-Cover system sucks most of the time (same key for so many actions didn't work) Examples:
    - Trying to escape running -> shepard get stuck into cover
    - Trying to revive a squadmate -> shepard get stuck into cover
    - Trying to get out of cover -> move to another cover
    - And so on
-Enemy grenades overpowered and are easier to see behind you than in front of you
-The slow motion camera when you loose your shields is annoying, it looks like the fps just dropped down
-Lack of minigames
    -The exploration with the reapers is worse than the planet scanning in ME2. Reapers chases you after two scans and it's very annoying
-No vehicle exploration
-The dialogues in the ending cutscenes cannot be skipped. SPOILERS: when the illusive man speaks to you at the end of the game I didn't hit the renegade interrupt so the illusive man kill me and I had to hear the entire sequence again because I couldn't skip any dialogue. The solution is simple: when you reach the conduit beam alt+f4 on PC or shutdown on console.
-The galactic readiness increased to 100% it's like cheating. The characters promoted from the multiplayer make the single player war assets even more useless
-Reputation system is pointless
    -Imagine a Shepard with 100% paragon reputation, if he/she try to intimidate someone with a renegade dialogue option, would anyone take serious a threat from someone who has a paragon reputation?
    -The same with a full renegade Shepard.
-Too much fetch quests without proper interaction with npcs or the world, without even a mission to retrieve the object

• Story:

-Too linear. We should be able to help turians/krogans/salarians, geths/quarians and asaris in the order we want instead of always in the same order
-Shepard always made a reference to VS when speaking of dead companions instead of others from ME2. It would be better if you could choose which one you want to reference
-Flashbacks of Anderson, Joker, Liara/VS... at the end but not of your LI if he/she is one from ME2 (that's annoying)
-Poor ME2 romances. Also there is no reason for Miranda not joining you during the first part of the game and/or after sanctuary. I was expecting that she will join me in the assault of the Illusive Man base because she was there in ME2, or at least giving you support during the assault
-Most of the ME2 squadmates should be temporary squadmates, at least in their respective mission
-All ME2 squadmates received a poor treatment
    -All of the survivors should join you in the final battle on Earth not just the stupid holo communication
-Lack of important decisions in the end battle. I missed choices where people can die if you made a bad call like in the suicide mission. For example:
    -A space battle where you have to choose a certain fleet to attack a target
    -Choosing a certain squadmate to do a certain task like in the suicide mission
    -More things like that
-The end and the intro look too rushed and the game is incompleted (I was expecting to help aria retake Omega but it seems like it will be a pay DLC)
-The amount of forces you gather only give you some extra seconds of cutscenes (or at least thats what it looks like)
    -The crucible end the war instantly, that made the fleets feel useless
    -Also the reapers look stupid letting the humans to activate the crucible, thing that should be impossible if the reapers were protecting the citadel
-Dissapointing end if that's the real end and we will not get the real one as a dlc. There are 3 endings all the same with different color and a slight differences
-So many kasumi/zaeed dialogue style
-Too few reapers killed
-Only the Citadel as a hub world in the whole game where you can walk around and explore
-All the decision in the previous 2 games has little repercusion in 3
    -According to the text in the loading screen in ME2: some of your choices in ME2 would have a terrible consecuences in ME3 (or something like this)
    -Save or let the council die in ME1 -> nearly the same result in ME3, only different council members
    -Save or destroy the cure of Maelon in ME2 -> Bakara die or live
    -Choosing Anderson or Udina as human councilor -> Udina always become councilor in 3
    -Reactivating or given Legion to Cerberus -> The reapers use Legion to amplify the signal or use a VI of him (stupid and nonsense solution to legion death) but the same result. Also if you give legion to cerberus, he attacks you in the assault of the illusive man base.
    -The rachni queen appears even if you kill her in ME1 WTF???
    -Killing Samara to recruit Morinth: same result as Samara dead in suicide mission or never recruited. Apparently Morinth appears as a Banshee during the Hammer strike.
    -Characters from ME2 die or live -> a different character replace them in ME3. The only difference is a small war asset in some cases
        -Nearly the same result of importing a save game from ME2 where only 2 survives than importing one where everyone survive -> I managed to achived 5000+ EMS in a playthrough were only Miranda and Garrus survive the suicide mission, the same with a playthrough in which everyone survive.

• Graphics:

-Low quality of textures. Please release a High res texture pack
-Shadows flicker some times
-Running animations for squadmates are just walk animations speeded up (which is pretty hilarious but annoying at the same time)
-The atlas cabin always looks broken even if you drive a new atlas
-Lipsync, eye contact and head movement fail sometimes
-Bad face import even with the 1.02 patch that supposedly fixed the issue


In conclusion, Mass Effect 3 is a good game overshadowed by Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. I had high expectations in this game, but sadly didn't fulfill most of them. The most important feature of the Mass Effect series, which is the control over what happend in the game and choices, is almost stripped off from this game.
I was expecting a game full of choices that could change the fate of the galaxy dooming or saving it and a lot of very different endings where not just a choice you made at the ending will change it but also all the choices made in the previous games. Instead of it we get a game with a few choices and based in collecting war assets that feel useless in the end.
It looks like this game was made for newcomers instead of for fans of the series so the devs quote: "Mass effect 3 is the best starting point for the series" is completely right, if you didn't play ME1 and ME2 this game is brilliant, but if you played the 3 games, this game doesn't make justice to the series.
And I said this game was made for newcomers for the following reasons:
-Important choices from previous games doesn't matter at all.
-Most of the previous games characters had only a cameo (a very bad cameo in most cases)
-Small rewards for playing all 3 games
-Continuity between 2 and 3 broken. The start of me3 is very rushed and you didn't really realize what happened between 2 and 3 beyond that commander shepard has been taking into custody by the Alliance.
    -This makes sense only if you destroy the relay in the Arrival DLC
    -There is no reason to keep Shepard into custody only for helping all the human colonies in the Terminus Systems, even if he/she worked with Cerberus. Also Chakwas and Joker did the same and they didn't be taken into custody
        -Jack became a teacher in Grissom Academy for doing the same thing Shepard did. Well, maybe not the same, she is also an ex convict

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this game regardless all this issues, but I was expecting something much better according to the Pre Release quotes from the devs.
So I understand the anger of most of the fanbase that, like me, were expecting the greatest game in history but instead receive just a good game with a terrible ending.

Oh and I forget to mention the infamous final message where it said something like: "hey if you want to play the full game you'll have to pay more in the future". This kind of thing doesn't help, I have no problem with pay DLC but only if the game worth it like ME or ME2. For now I don't have any intention in buying any pay DLC for ME3 but, if the Extended Cut is good enough, I'll consider buy some DLC (only for single player).

Modifié par skuid, 28 avril 2012 - 06:36 .

[wright1978]

Score. Any score that i give that takes account of the ending would be ridicolously low. So i'll give a score excluding the ending which would be a 7/10.

What was good

- Combat was good
- Tuchanka arc was good. Wrex and Mordin's roles were well done
- Rannoch arc was good. Legion role was well done.

What was bad

Intro was poor. Full of auto dailogue and desperate to rush into action without pausing to set the scene. After going back to ME2 i can't believe the same people who made the wonderful ME2 intro could have made this one.

Miranda and many other ME2 characters. Miranda is for some reason sidelined and show horned into a Oriana ME2 story rehash. Personally i feel her exclusion from Cebrerus arc is a terrible decision which is the equivalent of exclusing Tali/legion from rannoach arc or mordin/wrex from tuchanka. Many of the other ME2 characters cameos were rather cheap too.

Romances. Not much effort was put into this part of the game and it shows. Romancing Miranda i experienced a cut to black love scene, liara implanted above her in the end flashback scene and really a paucity in romance specific dialogue.

From sanctuary onwards the game feels rushed.

Kid. A awful attempt to ram emotion down shep and players throat. Some idiot kid dies in the intro which for some insane reason affects shep despite fact he/shre may have lost many other people. It is an awful example of railroading.

Journal is very poor.


What was terrible

- Auto dialogue, auto dialogue, auto dialogue. I thought i'dwrite it three times because there was so much of it. It crossed far beyond an cutscene enabling device to a character destroying. Or perhaps i should say default shep forming which is pretty much the same thing. After being given 2 games to hone my own version of who shep is ME3 spending huge amounts of time telling me who it thinks he is. Bioware are famous for RPG's and for giving player freedom to shape their character. Please say this is an aberation and that dialogue control will return in future games.

- Coupled with this fact is that when the move like cutscenes do in fact pause in what is jokingly called rpg mode the dialogue wheel is horrendously stripped back.

- finally. As everyone is already aware the endings are utterlyterrible and awfullyexecuted. Whoever thought introducing a godchild as a deux exmachina at the end who robs sheps agency and forces him/her to be its lapdog was obviously crazy. Basically ending lacks any closure, doesn't reflect player choice and the stabrat is a cancerous plot device. We'll see if Ec does anything.

[AveryChim]

****** Gameplay 8/10
It's the best it's ever been in the series. Combat is fluid and visceral, with each of the 6 classes feeling distinctly different from one another. There are a good variety of weapons and powers making combat very satisfying when you discover your preferred way of taking out enemies.

Unfortunately it's not perfect. The use, vault, take cover, revive, open door and sprint key is all mapped to the same button, which is extremely unintuitive to say the least. Your squad's AI isn't the best and more often then not, can't take care of themselves.

****** Interface 6/10
Clearly made for consoles, so sucks if you have it on PC. Quest log is terrible as it doesn't track your progress, making fetch quests a chore.

****** Sound 8/10
Sound design is good overall, reapers sound big and menacing, and guns sound as they should. Voice work is mostly excellent, although there are some bad moments (specifically Jessica Chobot).

Soundtrack is... well... serves it's purpose. I'm not such a big fan of the new soundtrack as I found the songs to be, while effective, kinda bland and uninteresting. Not a mark down though, just personal taste.

****** Story 9/10
Ranges from extremely good to pretty bad. Most of the main story missions are excellent while most side quests are bland and uninteresting. New characters pale in comparison to the old ones, whom which the player has spent countless more hours with. ME3 has some of the best moments in the series though, extremely touching/heart-breaking scenes with incredible dialog.

The ending is just complete garbage though. Nothing else to say about it that hasn't been said.

****** Graphics 8/10
Better then ME2, but nothing amazing.

****** Multiplayer 7/10
Surprisingly fun. Can be a good distraction if you have nothing better to do. Provides a decent challenge and focuses on teamwork, which is nice. Lots of characters and classes to unlock, providing something for everyone regardless of play-style. Has weekly patches to balance the game and has events almost every weekend.

However, it overall doesn't feel very polished and kinda tacked on. Only 1 game mode. Extremely easy to hack. No dedicated servers and poor net code results in lag and disconnections. Loot unlocked via random "card packs", which can be frustrating. No text chat for PC, which in a team based game is inexcusable.

******** Overall 8/10 ********
Good game. Not great, not what many hoped it would be, but overall still a solid title. Even without considering the ending, the game is far from a masterpiece and at times, feels like a step back from it's predecessors. A cautious recommendation.

[groaaaa]

For the fact i played this series alot 4/10
If i had not done so and not cared about the characters i already knew from experiences from the past two games. 0/10.
 
This game is the reason I will no longer be buying anything else that comes from the mass effect franchise, I have been playing them since mass effect 1 was first relesed constantly replaying them to create the best possible story to carry on in to the continuing game. I honestly could not care what happend in mass effect after the last speech by Shepard before the Hammer assault in London, so many things hamper this game even before this but i looked past them in anticipation of the ending all this time has been invested for. 

REDEEMABLE
Wrex, Mordin, and Garrus are just bluntly great characters.

The voice acting for many characters were just superb, as was the case for the previous games. With Wrex, IM, Mordin being constantly strong examples.

The ability to move around the citidal like in the original was a nice bit of nostaliga.

Mordin and Thane's deaths while I wish were avoidable were so well done and you did not have to be a big fan of the series to have been a little upset by the cutscenes.
 
There were some characters who were not featured in mass effect 2 from the original and to appear again were good to see, however I will comment on this in the NEGATIVE SECTION as well.


BAD...Just Bad
The day one dlc that has proven to be from the original disc content, hmm.

Now while i admit the use of unused characters was a good it just seemed so pointlessly short, Kirrahe while it was great to see him was for was done in such a sideshow way when someone like James who i could not give a damn is written a barged place on my crew.

THE ENDING - why i will not play buy a mass effect game again if the dlc ending suprisingly does not deliever something impressive to make up for such a lousy whimper of a conclusion.

The solution to organics creating AI is the reason for the main issue of the reapers in the game? 
Then why were the geth an example of how compromise could be achieved, they fought the quarians but can with the paragon conversations be led to compromise with them. This issue that warrented a galaxy wide extinction was resolved in the process of fighting the reapers?

Worse yet the voice acting for the crucible child, i could just feel the dissapointment coming already.

Where is my crew?

Where are my squadmates who were with me during the last assault, are they dead like the deleted content would suggest?

Why was Joker pegging off when the relay exploded? etc etc. examples of stupidly unexplained stuff.

Basically your game has been successful off the back of two previously great games
 A previously rich established story that is barely expanded upon, with the execpition of a dug up prothean and sudden appearance of the all saving device.

An excellant set of characters, with my personal execption of Miranda and Jacob but they grew on me after a while but not as much as the rest. The introduction of an annoying reporter voiced by an IGN worker, which why they thought noone would consider perhaps unethical with review writing i dont know combined with the guy who was shaggy only drags this possible positive section down. 

Most major game reviews focus on gameplay, very few have played it all the way through when the first reviews were done. Your massively positive ratings are before the ending, and also i believe many positive ratings are from people who have not played mass effect from 1-3. 

Work hard on the ending DLC, I actually beg you to go along with the indoctronation theory for the sake of redeeming what would have been at least an okay ending. 

And of course if the series does somehow continue i will voice simple points i have not mentioned
DO NOT GIVE US CHOICES IF YOU DONT INTEND FOR THEM TO HAVE ANY EFFECT
DO NOT MAKE US ENDURE AUTO CONS
NO STARCHILD
IF YOU ARE BEING MADE TO RUSH A GAME BY YOUR COMPANY AND ARE FORCED BY UNPREDICTED CIRCUMSTANCE TO CHANGE YOUR ENDING DO NOT ALLOW CASEY HUDSON AND JUST A FEW OF YOUR TEAM TO WRITE THE ENDING, CLEARLY THE RESULTS WERE EVIDENT ENOUGH.

4 for the fact this was set in a wonderfully created story, set in the previous games and i was happy to go back to them. If this was the first time i had played a mass effect game I would have returned it and given it a 0.


Cheers for reading if you did.

Modifié par groaaaa, 30 avril 2012 - 01:29 .

[Karlojey]

So I'm one of the guys that just finished Mass Effect 3 last night after creating a Sheperd from ME1 and 2. Below is a brief review of my playing experience:

Like:
> Player banter is back.
> Lotsa guns to choose from.
> Lotsa armor to choose from.
> Lotsa weapon mods to choose from.
> Romances from ME1 characters were written nicely.
> Agileness of Sheperd is a welcome addition.
> The companion AIs are a lot more improved compared to the previous 2 games.
> Weapon loadout vs Power recharge added some strategy to planning out your build.
> The story creates urgency as some quests are time bound (which I learned the hard way).
> Lots more dialogue between characters.

Dislike:
> I finally found out what the others did not like about the ending. I have to agree, it does not give a sense of accomplishment to the player. It should've been like Dragon Age: Origins - you have to option to sacrifice yourself or live on to face some unknown consequence.
> Some sidequests just lets you scan a planet and not actually land on it.

These are just few. I might add more if I can remember them. Over-all, the game was great because my actions on the previous games had an effect on this installment (but something similar to Alpha Protocol handled it) and the plot was very engaging. It's just the ending that's annoying.

[Jerieth]

I would rank the game a 5/10. When I first was playing the game it was a strong 7 / 10, but the ending completly destroyed the rank. I was expecting the actions I was taking to mean something, that the EMS I was gathering would essentially mean something more than 3 generic endings that all suck and I can't change. If I had known this, I would probably not have worked so hard on the EMS...actually if I had known this I probably would have never played the game to begin with. Didn't think the ending would be one of the strangest non-sensical endings in video game history. Didn't think the Shepard character would change so much in the last 10 minutes of the game, and just give in to some little hologram who told him "the truth". In my opinion it appeared that the whole game was "rushed". What makes Mass Effect 3 different from other games? The player has the ability to choose. Yeah combat...great graphics...side quests...all good, but EVERY game has those things. Mass Effect had intriguing characters and the ability to change the game the way you saw it. This is what made it stand out...

With that said...I can write the review with some degree on non-bias now...

Good:
- Cut Scenes where well done (Except for the ending of course).
- Graphics were nice.
- Combat was well done.
- Good character personality development. 

So-So

1. Weapon customaziation was essentially the same...I guess if it works don't break it right? Would have liked to see some kind of expansion though. 
2. Side missions were a bit boring, did not have much too them. 
3. Citadel was kind of bland, lame quests. 
4. Find and return missions where rediclious...why would I find random Cerebus cypher codes on a planet..Kinda wanted the mining and other side missions back. Seemed like they rushed it. 
5. Multiplayer was rather boring after awhile. Basically played it just for the EMS to go up. 

Bad
Dialogue Options - Felt there was considerably less choice in this game. Some of the dialogue options did not make complete sense or were not what I wanted to say. Also, sometimes one response appeared to say one thing, but the way shepard said it was not the way it portrayed. Just a little off, would of liked more options in this arena. Not horibally bad, just a little less variation then Mass Effect 1 and 2. 

The Ending - The ending made no sense and introduced a bunch of non-sensical crap. All three endings don't make sense, especially if you choose combine your DNA one...why would this strand your crew on a deserted planet? It wasn't destroying the ship....? Why were your teamates on the ship...they were just with me in the battle, did they run away? Why would joker leave Shepard? I chose the destroy ending, glad I did, made the most sense to me. Not sure why they would portray the illusive man's choice as the paragon ending, and anderson's as the renegade ending. My only hope is that is a very elaborate social media experiement...and soon they will announce that the indoctrination theory is true...

Just watch this:
 

It sums up all the points I am trying to say. 

[vieri262626]

skuid wrote...


In conclusion, Mass Effect 3 is a good game overshadowed by Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2. I had high expectations in this game, but sadly didn't fulfill most of them. The most important feature of the Mass Effect series, which is the control over what happend in the game and choices, is almost stripped off from this game.
I was expecting a game full of choices that could change the fate of the galaxy dooming or saving it and a lot of very different endings where not just a choice you made at the ending will change it but also all the choices made in the previous games. Instead of it we get a game with a few choices and based in collecting war assets that feel useless in the end.
It looks like this game was made for newcomers instead of for fans of the series so the devs quote: "Mass effect 3 is the best starting point for the series" is completely right, if you didn't play ME1 and ME2 this game is brilliant, but if you played the 3 games, this game doesn't make justice to the series.
And I said this game was made for newcomers for the following reasons:
-Important choices from previous games doesn't matter at all.
-Most of the previous games characters had only a cameo (a very bad cameo in most cases)
-Small rewards for playing all 3 games
-Continuity between 2 and 3 broken. The start of me3 is very rushed and you didn't really realize what happened between 2 and 3 beyond that commander shepard has been taking into custody by the Alliance.
    -This makes sense only if you destroy the relay in the Arrival DLC
    -There is no reason to keep Shepard into custody only for helping all the human colonies in the Terminus Systems, even if he/she worked with Cerberus. Also Chakwas and Joker did the same and they didn't be taken into custody
        -Jack became a teacher in Grissom Academy for doing the same thing Shepard did. Well, maybe not the same, she is also an ex convict

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy this game regardless all this issues, but I was expecting something much better according to the Pre Release quotes from the devs.
So I understand the anger of most of the fanbase that, like me, were expecting the greatest game in history but instead receive just a good game with a terrible ending.

Oh and I forget to mention the infamous final message where it said something like: "hey if you want to play the full game you'll have to pay more in the future". This kind of thing doesn't help, I have no problem with pay DLC but only if the game worth it like ME or ME2. For now I don't have any intention in buying any pay DLC for ME3 but, if the Extended Cut is good enough, I'll consider buy some DLC (only for single player).

I've already given my review here, but thought this entire review was excellent and covered a lot of points I missed. I agree 100% with the conclusion and could not have said it better myself. 

Let me build off that - I didn't get into ME for an online multiplayer shooter.  I'm a little peeved now that every time I come to the website all the DLC and talk is multiplayer stuff.  I miss the golden days of ME2 post release with the in-game daily news and the multiple single player missions, most of which were free as a way of thanks for buying the game.  The cost of the pay DLC was easily overlooked because the game was so replayable and felt complete - they felt like extra chapters added onto a finished product.  Any DLC that comes out for ME3 will feel like stuff that should have been there in the first place.  This game has almost no replay value, this coming from a guy who played ME1 and 2 5 times each, read all the books and comics, and loves the series.

[megabug7]

So having finished 5 playthroughs of Mass Effect 3, I am now ready to post my review.

First off -- due to various glitches and crashes and a subsequent profile corruption/reset. I abandoned my second playthrough as counters no longer worked and I was initially not going to play Mass Effect 3 again.
Few days later after my anger died down I logged into my second PSN account and started again and have successfuly completed 3 more playthroughs (with the odd glitch).

This review is based on all 5 playthroughs, so lets get started.

Played as FemShep
Platform: (PS3)
Benchmark: Mass Effect 2

Graphics
- Too many skips, framerate drops and load jerks - Citadel: Presidium Commons is a nightmare.
- Casual running animation is horrendous - totally unrealistic and inconsistant with prior games (Should have left it as it was - unnecessary change).
- Cutscene: Citadel Under Attack (Joker trying to get through to the Citadel) is totally out of sync.
- Over-exaggerative facial expressions (Sur'Kesh 'handshake')
- Ashley in the Elevator cutscene (Ashley pops into the scene).
- I believe this also the case in Mass Effect 1 and 2 but there were not enough motion-capture actors (FemShep/MaleShep - same actor - could have benefitted from a female actor for FemShep) Squadmembers all walk the same too (assuming all done by same actor)
- Immature and unnecessary fixation with Miranda's bum
- Lack of nudity when it counts
- Blowing off heads with a headshot is OK.

Conclusion:
Lack of polish. Lack of care and attention. Performance could have benefitted from more testing.
7/10

Sound/Music:
- Over use of the Reaper 'horn'
- Outstanding music as with the prior games and fitting with each scene (some especially pulled my heart-strings)
- In contrast the Cabin music is awful.
- Excellent sound effects for the epic space battles
- Dolby DTS is wonderful and brings everything to life

Conclusion:
I love the Mass Effect music and came to appreciate them more with each game.
9/10

Gameplay:
- Lazy journal (which is also bugged)
- Lazy Sidequests - would have preferred more planet based missions (Land on planet type)
- Only 6 N7 Missions and no where near the variety of those in Mass Effect 2
- Lazy planet interaction (over-simplified and monotonous scanning for little to no reward)
- Combat is much more fast paced but inbalanced in some spots.
- Not enough variety of enemies - It could have done with some more Reaper variants and other enemies of the Mass Effect series (varren, scion, geth sappers/snipers/ghosts etc).
- Game is too easy even on Insanity.
- Priority Earth is boring and drags on for too long.
- Game is short and in some places quite repetitive.
- Multiplayer is not for me
- Single players get the shaft because of the multiplayer component
- Some areas feel rushed.

Conclusion:
Overall gameplay could have benefitted from more development time, polishing and more variety.
Mass Effect 3's gameplay as a whole lacked the grandeur and epicness of it's predecessors. For me personally the inclusion of multiplayer dented the longevity of the single player campaign.
It could have been so much better.
8/10

Story:
- Very lazy to have removed the Tribunal
- From the start there were plotholes (like how did Shepard know James)
- Vital information should have been included in the game and not hear it second-hand or via other media (comics, novels etc).
- Lack of choice and decisions when I really wanted to have a say.
- Lack of a neutral option
- Earth too central to main plot and made for an anti-climactic conclusion.
- Would have preferred the focal point to be the Asari homeworld (Thessia) as they were the first to discover the Citadel.
- Main themes were epic in proportion. Curing the Genophage, Geth/Quarian resolve etc.
- Mass Effect 2 character continuations were a mixed bag (would have liked to have Miranda as temporary squad member in Sanctuary)
- Lack of Harbinger
- Lack of resolution/closure
- 100's of hours invested over the trilogy amounted to a poor ending and a waste of my time.

Conclusion:
While a lot of the story was good there were certain moments when it really mattered that it felt flat. I expected a decent end to Shepard's story and to my favorite series, but instead I was left with an unrewarding cop out. An ending which left me deflated. unhappy, and wanting more.
8/10

Final Summary.
I had hoped Mass Effect 3 would bring a satisfying end to a game trilogy I've held close to my heart since I discovered Mass Effect 2 mid 2010.
The story, the setting, the characters -- so rich and complete -- has kept me entertained for hours on end.
I've played all three games multiple times, ensuring each playthrough is markedly different in how it unfolds.
The same is true for Mass Effect 3 - each of my playthroughs have been markedly different.

But what saddens me the most is that Mass Effect 3 could have superseded Mass Effect 2 in terms of quality, scope, lastability and polish, but unfortunately it didn't live up to my expectations (my fault for getting too hyped).
It was underdeveloped, rushed, repetitive in parts, and hampered by an overly dragged-out last mission which resulted in the most underwhelming, unrewarding, unfinished and unsatisfying endings I have ever witnessed in a videogame.

Overall Score:
8/10

I failed to mention that the appearences of Kelly Chambers, Donnel Udina and Commander Bailey were drastically altered from previous games. 

Kelly Chambers:


I can understand Kelly Chambers being affected by the Collector Ship ordeal.
But she didn't even sound like Kelly eventhough Cara Pifko did the voice (she also sounded very tired).

Donnel Udina:

I know people dye their hair but this....? He looks younger

Commander Bailey:

He too looks younger.

 I dread to think if you were given more time - what the other main characters would have looked like had you 'tweaked' them.

Modifié par megabug7, 04 mai 2012 - 02:51 .

[Peruian]

 I really enjoyed the evolving storyline from the first time my Shepard stepped onto the bridge at the beginning of game one.
Having Played all three parts it really felt like seeing a close friend grow to a true Paragon Hero or Inglorious Renegade.
Even more by seeing the past decisions influencing the storyline; me bonding even more with the character after the despair over the mission on the asari home world.



And then the end. After the first out cry about why things had to end this way I spent about a week thinking about the different paths. Despite the raising criticism about the endings I really enjoyed the basic ideas behind them and found my own reflection and differentiations on them.


Unfortunately the game didn't do that for me. The choices were poorly executed and the short ending cut scenes
lacked considerably in depth. No reflection from shepard, no depth on the consequences.


When I remember how often my Shepard told his relationship he/she is the reason for going on it would have been better if there would have been some "good memory" or "wish I could see he/her a last time" cut scenes before the final choice. Or "sorry, guess the little blue children will be mad at me," as an inside joke.


Along some very convincing cut scenes showing Shepards facial expressions. Like the very well balanced cut scene after the mission on the asari home world.
Dunno, feels like the script writer had to finish writing the final fight on Earth ten minutes prior deadline.


Then the Normandy, why did she even ended up en route in hyperspace? I would have understand if the surviving group members would board the normandy and went for the citadel to support Shepard in a nice cutscene and then crash-land on the last unoccupied Caribbean island. But more likely on earth.
Or Shephard sees the normandy fly by battling reaper ships before making the final decission.


And what was the whole gathering the fleet effectiveness points for? I would have appreciated a broader impact on the survival chances. Like in the previous games: weak fleet many casualties, strong fleet: normandy with entire crew survives. Crashlands but throw their base caps in the air when the reapers explode, retreat or change.

I really would like to see the ending getting extended / fixed.

So while "liking" the ending idea I didn't like Shepard standing in front of the galaxy map like nothing has happened afterwards. This individual game is closed for me, the hero took his exit; almost startling.


I like DLCs, but I think it would have been more appropriate to play new DLCs by having to start a new game importing the old character.


The same goes for the multiplayer bonus for combat readiness. A complete co-op playable storyline would have been better; along the traditional approach of  a separated multiplayer scenario for online matches.


And what I would like best is that the combat readiness bonus would be stored as a fixed value in the save games after Shepard would depart for Earth.
Since I grew so fond of my individual character I saved the game at important parts of the story line so I would hate to have to regain the bonus when I "replay" the game in distant future when there would be no one around for multiplayer anymore. 


I really would like to see a continuation of this series but it would have to be in a way where the original bonding still would have some meaning.
Oh well, I guess having taken the relationship arc with a female character and having chosen the synthesis ending there is still the chance of little blue children following the footsteps of their parents or Shepard remanifesting as biosynthetic lifeform.




My overall rating for the game is 80 / 100. It has officially become my most favorite game and the apparel wear is already ordered




20 points were deducted for things I really don't like about the game:


1. The Journal and finding side quests. Sorry for the explicit expression, but it is a piece of crap and has continuously deteriorated from game to game in the series. Wandering around Citadel countless hours to find out if the required piece of artifact has already been retrieved from the planets or checking every NPC in between missions for new quest triggering conversations is definitely one of the games low points.


2. The face of my imported character. I had to create around 20 careers before I shook the feeling: that's not my Shepard. Nothing against the improved graphical details of the facial expressions and complexions, but still annoying.


3. Ammo - nothing against ammo limits but seeing it laying around in geth and collector levels which don't use this kind of ammo didn't help the storyline. Reloading ammo by transforming omni gel would seem much more realistic as strange as it sounds.


4. Explicity usage of ammo types since ME1. One aspect of the ammunition that bothered me since ME1 is the usage of ammo types against persons, namely: 
Anti personal rounds, incinerating rounds, hearing the NPCs screaming; especially playing paragon.


Might have to do with the fact that as a former soldier and WIA I had my share of extracting wounded soldiers hit by cross-cuts or suffering from severe burns.


Having to listen to my 16 year old cousin and his friends telling me we should have used this kind of incinerating ammo in the field while they were playing ME 3 definitely confirms my worries. Even worse  them not taking me seriously when I explained why NATO bans anti personnel rounds like hollow points and certainly would ban this kind of ammo against people until I dug out pictures from my stay in military hospital.
 I definitely think it's not the right way of displaying this kind of ammo especially in the hands of a role model soldier.

Modifié par Peruian, 04 mai 2012 - 01:30 .

[brettc893]

Beat it last night, I'll be quick.

Good:

Lots of Guns

Enhanced RPG Elements

Set Pieces

BAD:

Journal

A lot of Choices didn't matter at all (Not just at the end)

The Ending (I believe the IT is true 100%, but that's still a lazy cop-out.)

Some characters seemed to change personalities completely.

Intrusive MP


End Score: 7/10

I'm not preordering anything from Bioware ever again. Fool me once(DA2), shame on you, Fool me twice, shame on you. I believed in you guys and was let down.

[johnj1979]

Where do I begin with just how bad this game is in the Mass Effect series

- No carrying on of the previous story
- Limited dialog options
- Story makes no sense
- The characters from Mass Effect 2 are a waste of time being in Mass Effect with the exception of Mordin and Legion
- Very limited amount of side missions
- Characters talk without looking at each other
- Characters talk when not there
- Multiplayer once character reaches level 20 nothing more to do
- Cerberus and The Illusive Man are just a bad copy and paste of Saren and the Geth
- Very limited character interaction
- The ending make no sense because of the previous games and DLC

[groaaaa]

Some feedback from bioware that they are actually reading these would be appreciated.

Modifié par groaaaa, 04 mai 2012 - 08:51 .

[vieri262626]

Ok, put some more thought into this, and here's some things I missed:

- I play on PC. After replaying ME1 and 2 in the last few days, I realized how short the load times are in ME3. Not sure if this is the same for console users because I saw an Angry Joe vid where he was talking about all the load screens required to do side quests, but for me they were usually a split second blip, I hardly ever had time to read the tips.

- I've read a lot of complaints about textures, animations, etc. I don't play a ton of games so maybe I'm easy to impress, but I thought the graphics were great, never noticed anything off with the animations. My only complaint would be the odd time when shephard doesn't look at the person he's talking to. I thought ME3 took a lot from ME2 and made subtle improvements - definately noticed a lot of stuff brought over from ME2 DLC. That's not a complaint though, it's expected in a trilogy that the third game would have a lot of content for the simple fact that a lot of stuff could be recycled.

- I haven't commented on the music yet because it's not usually a big deal for me, but come to think of it, I never cared much for it in ME1. ME2 was an improvement, especially in the DLC, and ME3 was great for music. Epic even. I especially like the track that plays as Shepherd is leaving earth and watches the kid get blown up (even though I hate the inclusion of the kid in ME3). Like the fight music that was reused from LotSB and Project Overlord.

- Voice acting was great, as usual. Easy to forget how much better it is than other games - I picked up Skyrim and the voice acting drove me nuts after playing ME1 and 2. They also used the same actors for multiple characters (which is understandable given the size of the game). Anyways, I rolled my eyes when I saw Freddie Prince Jr. in the cast, but I actually thought he did great as Vega. Just too bad we never got to know Vega like the other characters. I've complained about Chabot already - but was thinking, wouldn't it have made waaaay more sense to have Emily Wong on the Normandy? Shepherd already trusts her, knows her... Diana Allers was just kind of weird.

- A few things regarding the story:

> Kasumi's data - for all that hype, it deserved a lot more. And she doesn't join your crew because "last time you got me into a suicide mission." Really?! After seeing the collector base for herself she's such a coward?
> Killing Vito - did that make a scrap of difference in anything? If it did, I didn't notice it.
> Morinth - I'm really surprised that she just appeared as a banshee labeled "Morinth."
> The whole rachni plot was really disappointing - I noticed someone dug up a quote saying that it would make a huge difference whether you saved them or not in ME3. It didn't.
> I understand that it would have been difficult to produce a game that would have been completely different given decisions made in the first two - but to be fair, that's what you've been selling. I don't think anyone would have held it against you if the game was short because there were many missions not playable based on decisions you made in ME1 and 2. That would have actually been genious because the game would have tons of replay value, and many would go back to ME1 and 2 to make different decisions, just to see the different outcomes. It would have been unprecedented, you would have gone down in history. The fact that there was no way to make these choices for newcomers to the series (like the Genesis comic for PS3 players of ME2) really proves the fact that you had abandoned your original intentions to make ME1 and 2 matter.

- Characters: I really liked the changes you made to characters like Ashley, Kaiden, Bailey, Anderson, Udina and especially Jack. Which is why it's really a bummer that many of the other important characters got the shaft. That brief moment with Jack in Purgatory was great. I really feel like the old characters deserved WAY more in this game.

- War assets affected by Multiplayer - I could understand a bonus of maybe 500 points added by multiplayer to the war assets. But that's about it. To know that I've done every single side mission from the beginning of ME1, downloaded every DLC, unified all the races and made all the right decisions - to have all that cut in half because I didn't player multiplayer, really sucks. The fact that multiplayer is in the game sucks already, but the fact that it affects the single player is even worse.

- I think timed missions were a great idea. It never seemed right to me in ME1 and 2 that you could leave all the sidequests until just before the end battle and then do them all and they'd still be waiting around for you. HOWEVER. There should have been some way of tracking this - whether in the journal, or some hint given in the dialogue that you could write down on a piece of paper. I eventually figured out to do every sidequest before going on a priority mission, but thought I'd mention that.

- Indoctrination theory - I sincerely hope it's true because it would at least somewhat redeem the ending. "Somewhat" because it's just a lousy end mission - all the characters should have been there and done stuff like the ending of ME2. A reunion with other characters would have been even better. What's to stop Miranda from joining you after the thing with Oriana? It's just bloody depressing to play over. But anyway, Indoctrination Theory still, for me, will not redeem the game as a whole. My biggest problem with the game is the lack of story. Though the genophage and rannoch quests were great, they were the bare minimum of what we would have expected from this game. I liked the quarian in-fighting and the Salarian opposition.

- Whole cerberus thing: made the game feel way too 1 dimensional for me. Compare with ME1 - multiple factions and corrupt corporations like Exogeni and the corruption on Noveria. In ME2 - Blood Pack, Blue Suns, Eclipse, Aria's forces... weird that the series went from more complex to more simplified. Couldn't believe that all the mercenaries of the Terminus Systems were dealt with in a couple conversations on the Citadel.

- Now after a couple playthroughs and going back to ME1 and 2 I've noticed a big difference: Enemies. If you go to http://masseffect.wi...iki/Husk_(enemy) and scroll down to the bottom and expand the lists of enemies from ME1 2 and 3, you'll see that ME1 has 90 different enemies, ME2 has 99 and ME3 has 26. It gets a little repetative fighting the same 3 factions over and over with no named enemies, no bosses, little variation in class, abilities, species, etc. Almost felt like the enemies were delegated to the crew who designed the multiplayer and when they were finished, the single player got to stick them in where they felt appropriate.

[BoomDynamite]

To get my review, just read the Gameinformer one. Except that I liked it more than them. 11/10. Oh, and I support this.
Do not read that if you don't want spoilers.

[TheMachdude]

The Mass Effect trilogy has been the best experience I've ever had in electronic entertainment. I give the entire series a 10/10. 

However... The final installment left something to be desired. Many people who romanced ME2 characters (myself included) feel left out. I  REALLY want to see more of the ME2 LIs in future DLC. (especially Jack. Actually, just jack. She's the only LI I reeeeeaaaaallllly want to see more of. She's such a deep character, please give her some more time to shine

Now the part you've been dreading: The Ending. I give it a 2/10. I felt alienated, I really wanted my decisions to have an impact on the finale... It's like it is counter to all of the themes estabilished throughout the series... just giving in to some prepubescant hologram and making a coloured explosion... Not well done at all. (((I did some research recently, the "dark energy" idea was really good! It fits.)))

Overall, the ME trilogy was a 10, hands down. Even though I didn't get to see Jack as much as I wanted (You're gonna fix that, right? , and the ending was bad (which you're also gonna fix, right? , I love it more than any other story I've heard. It is simply brilliant. I hope you fix the ending into something that can tug on our heartstrings (like Legion, or Mordin). Just don't corral us into three nonsensical coloured explosions again... that sucked. 


Also, other people have opinions too. They have an in depth survey out on the ME Universe website, Please take the time to fill it out, your voices can be heard in more than one way

Kee'lah Selai!

[Dont Kaidan Me]

I am reposting here just in case my other one gets lost in the sea of threads. And I would really really really appreciate my thoughts to be considered by the almighty powers. It would soothe my fragile condition.

AAAaaaaaAAAAAHHhhhh! I MAKE GAME! YOU LIKE OR YOU DIE! AHhhhhhh!


HEY! MY STORY IS ALL GANGLY AND ASYMMETRICAL! WHAT GIVES?!
I'm arriving here, fresh off the heels of 2 1/2 playthroughs of ME3. Why the 1/2? I couldn't bring myself to complete the third, because it was glaringly apparent that none of my choices mattered and no, I wasn't missing anything by playing my Shepard a particular way. If Bioware at least acknowledges my complaints (and EA pulls a paragon move by responding with a little honesty), slight redemption may become available so I can upgrade my attitude.

THE END IS NOT THE PROBLEM!!! THE END IS NOT THE PROBLEM!!! THE END IS NOT THE PROBLEM!!!
It's just a culmination of a hollow game that used to be an RPG… And all that press pointing at the end as it's only failure, is just sidelining the real inherent problems. An altered DLC ending for "clarification" will do nothing to heal the gaping wound, and may, in fact, make it worse. The damage is already done and my virgin experience has been spoiled for eternity. No amount of backpedalling will make it better.

"THIS STORY'S NOT FOR YOU, SILLY MINION-ER- FAITHFUL FAN. IT'S FOR…. THE MASSES! Ah ha ha ha ha…AHHHH ha ha ha ha! AHHHH HA HA HA HA!!"
-EA executive
It's not Bioware's fault. The producers do not deserve our venom and I'm sure they are as pained as we are. I empathize with the level of emotional betrayal many have felt. I too, wanted to go all Krogan. But, honestly, the failures of ME lie squarely in the laps of EA executives.

"Riccitiello explained that Mass Effect 3 will boast greater mass appeal than its two predecessors."One of the things that Ray Muzyuka and the team up in Edmonton have done is essentially step-by-step adjust the gameplay mechanics and some of the features that you'll see at E3 to put this in a genre equivalent to shooter-meets-RPG," he said, "and essentially address a much larger market opportunity than Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 began to approach. "We're huge believers in the IP and are purposefully shifting it to address a larger market opportunity."
source

I understand any game franchise must attempt to pull in a larger market to stay afloat. I accept that. But when the third installment of a TRILOGY focuses entirely on a previously untapped market (read: Call of Duty/Shooter fans) and completely, brazenly ignores the existing market, it's more than unacceptable-it's a travesty. I will RUN, not walk, away from this and future EA endeavors. EA is subverted Illusive Man times ten.

WHERE'S MY FREAKIN' CONSEQUENCES, YO?
Not only do the major choices made throughout 1 and 2 not matter, mini-choices within dialog in 3 don't matter either. Additionally, you are pushed and sometimes forced into a particular storyline and the consequence is an incredibly linear, one dimensional game experience that completely goes against the entire concept of an RPG. You are a fortunate one if you chose to be a male Shepard and Liara is your love interest. If you didn't choose this path, there are a variety of instances within the game that then make absolutely NO sense.

"All the different things that you do, if you do a little side quest, or you go off and do a major plot, these things contribute to the war effort," Hudson explained. "If you just rip straight down the critical path and try to finish the game as soon as you can, and do very little optional or side stuff, then you can finish the game. You can have some kind of ending and victory, but it'll be a lot more brutal and minimal relative to if you do a lot of stuff."-Casey Hudson
source

Look what happens when you take a formerly rich, immersive, choice-led, varied storyline and pigeonhole it into one narrative. Many players get royally shafted. Things don't make sense. Holes develop. Inconsistencies are not addressed. There are no consequences.

BIOWARE, YOU TURNED MY SHEPARD INTO A PSYCHOPATH!
Your Shepard reacts in such a detached, non-empathetic way to all relationships regardless of choice (these squadmates who have fought by your side through thick and thin) that the only way to explain this is that your Shepard is now a psychopath. And it doesn't matter if you are paragon or renegade. Psychopath Shepard is the only Shepard you get. Period. Um. Bioware. Deeper relationships you say?

"Mass Effect 3 will focus 'on a smaller squad with deeper relationships and more interesting interplay' (Casey Hudson)"
source

"Mass Effect 3 will do away with role-playing elements that don't 'have a real impact in the battle', senior designer Christina Norman told Official Xbox Magazine today."
source

Hilarity. Oh. So you mean, take the RPG out of the RPG. I even read forum posts dating a year or two prior to release discussing this and concluding that it will result in a dumbed down ME3 or warning if past decisions aren't made to feel important, anger will ensue. If I truly understood the ramifications of this prior to purchasing my fresh expensive copy of ME3, I would have kept my money, my Mass Effect experience would remain unsoiled, and I wouldn't feel so violated. That's MY alternate ending.

I was one of the subset of players who was doubly shafted; Female Shepard romancing Kaidan/Thane. At the end of 2, Thane is all emo, spilling his innermost feelings, expressing his newfound desire to live. Yet in 3, my first encounter (and all samey consecutive 3-dialog encounters), Shepard experiences this: "Shepard! I'm cool with dying. Seeya." One of my closest characters? And I can't even have any real dialog? And my Shepard doesn't seem to give a crap? Then Thane's on his deathbed (in full badass assassin getup, I might add), and my Shepard doesn't give a crap? None of my squadmates who fought along side him don't even mention him? Bailey, who had direct contact with him and even a vested interest in Thane and his son acts as if he doesn't even know "the drell"? WTF? Inexcusable disconnect!

Here's another example of my story falling apart because I wasn't Auto Shepard: In the end, three faces appear before me as I am falling into the void: Anderson, Joker, and Liara. Uh. Hmm? Why not Thane? Why not Kaidan even though I would've enjoyed the option to punch him in the forehead? Why not Mordin? Why not my entire squad?

It's patently obvious that the only way the storyline makes sense is IF you are new to the ME series and decided to begin with 3.

FROM DEERHUNTER TO BLASTO 6 IN 40 HOURS. YOU WANT DARK? I"LL GIVE YOU DARK!!!
Happy or sad endings are irrelevant if the storyline is inconsistent and hollow. When the shadowy legs appear behind the Illusive Man in 3, I got chills. I was CONVINCED that TIM had found a cure for Kepral's and Thane was cornered into going to the dark side. Then it would have to play out, depending on your Shepard's story arc. If you wanna go dark, go dark! Granted, Thane had a badass moment trying to smackdown Leng, but the inconsistencies and holes and lack of relationship connect took away from my enjoyment. There are so many examples of killer storylines that could have been included with even less or the same amount of work. A squadmate betrayal being one of the obvious.

I also discovered, post-game, that the male Shepards had more and further developed romance options. THEN I discovered that the same exact scene, where I'm talking to Kaidan in the hospital and he asks me about cheating (which is laughably stupid in the first place, i.e. two years and a diss prior), and all three options result in female Shepard basically apologizing. However, if you are male Shepard talking to Ashley, you get to call her out. That's when I went from disappointed to irreparably pi**ed off at the franchise. Way to completely alienate all female gamers, EA. Well played. I guess we are only valuable enough to be included if we are an IGN employee with a major conflict of interest.

TALI THE GETTY STOCK PHOTO MODEL
Now THAT is a plot twist. I didn't experience this first hand and I'm surprised that there isn't more of an outcry, considering her face reveal has been discussed since ME1. Not to mention Bioware asked fans how they felt about seeing Tali's face in a Twitter post source. There is no way, no how, Bioware can defend their decision to make Tali's face an exact copy of a googleable stock photo. A high school level unpaid intern with 1 minute of time could have at least cropped the freakin photo so at least it wasn't EXACTLY THE SAME. Oh. Except for the two human fingers that were airbrushed out. Also, considering that I found multiple examples of outstanding fan art that overwhelmingly supercedes their badly photoshopped insertion, I know there were more… polished options.

YOU BETTER LIKE TWITTER IF YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON
This is a new revelation too, since I personally detest Twitter and refuse to be party to short attention span, shallow monoculture society. I'm sure it's yet another bright idea by the execs to incorporate "social networking" into the framework of the game itself. All it did was make me annoyed and then outraged when I discovered how it was used: Emily Wong, the only media character Shepard had ties with in Mass Effect, reports through the @AllianceNewsNetwork - broadcasting from Los Angeles as a Reaper invasion occurs. She ends up getting smoked. Yet another hideous example of crappy decision making.

If you don't follow Twitter, you completely miss out on a storyline that includes a character that has a solid history in the ME franchise. I disagree with forcing social networking into a futuristic game in the first place. But if it has to be done... wouldn't it have made more sense to use the Twitter feed, for say, an inconsequential character like Diana Allers and place Emily Wong on the ship?

YOU BETTER LIKE MULTIPLAYER IF YOU WANT THE MOST COMPLETE ENDING
I never got into Mass Effect for the multiplayer. Why? BECAUSE THERE NEVER WAS ONE. I fully support creating this as an add-on. But I paid for something I didn't want, and further, if you do not play multiplayer, you miss out on portions of the ending (still unspectacular). That does not jive with the assertion that "Our priority and focus with Mass Effect 3 has and always will be to deliver a complete and satisfying single player experience," source

What I have gathered through my reading, is if you want to have the single player experience you expect from Mass Effect, you must:
A. Follow Twitter B. Read all optional books C. Play Multiplayer D. Play all optional DLC
Wellll, doesn't that suck for someone who expects the game to be in the game.

FAN DEVELOPMENT ADVICE IS A BOO BOO!!!
As Captain Bailey states, the "squeaky wheel gets the oil" and when applying this to how Bioware might have catered to fans with the addition of mp among other things, explicitly shows how this is not always a good move. Those who are all loud about their suggestions aren't always the ones with the best decisions. And anyway, too many compromises result in a steaming pile o' poo.

MASS EFFECT 2, YOU ARE MY THERAPY
I actually returned to ME2 and played through again, just to regain some sort of satisfaction and "wow factor" that was so sadly ignored in 3. In the end, I felt slightly better, but it also just enhanced the de-evolution of ME3. It's a tragic, tragic end to a trilogy, but certainly not in the way Bioware intended it to be. The suicide mission in 2 was flawlessly executed and the perfect culmination of the game. It actually choked me up.

I will admit that 3 is emotional, but not for it's content. Mordin's death scene was executed beautifully, only to be negated by Psychopath Shepard's ambivalence, and concurrent attitude of the crew. Emotional points were emotional for their ideas and not for the execution… which is a shameful conclusion to the relationships Shepard built throughout the trilogy.

THE FANS ARE PEOPLE TOO
It's understandable for fans of the franchise to arrive here, postgame, unleashing their stories of woe. People have justifiable reasons to feel insulted (intelligently or generally or both). These are not fans disenchanted because the story didn't end the way they wanted it to. These are people who have valid, logical reasons as to why ME3 is such a massive disappointment. Expressing discontent is, sadly, the only form of resolution we have. Although it will never excuse the decisions of EA/Bioware, it certainly does make me feel a little better, to confer with other hapless fans. May you someday rediscover your biotic wind.

Modifié par Dont Kaidan Me, 18 mai 2012 - 08:21 .

[Biokiipper]

Listening "An end once and for all" track, thinking about the game and the playthroughs, I realized the end was not as bad as people say. We didnt get closure enough, but its ok... What makes me a little sad or nostalgic is the fact that the day I finished the game I couldnt play anymore... I was planning to start a female sheppard and finish my 3 others... I played around 250 hours ME 1 and 200 hours ME2 and one time ME3. I really enjoyed the game, and the feeling that I was near the end gave some kind of heart ache... I finished the game almost 2 monthes ago and I still feel a heart ache, a "missing feeling"... I dont know yet if I will play any ME again, but I couldnt uninstall them too, the games are ready to go... they are great, I feel the endings that we were presented dont allow lots of playthroughs...because we already know whats coming... this heart pain...not all bad...the whole was awesome and the end, in its way was good too. I guess the developers didnt know how attached we were to the game. Its hard to say goodbye this way... we were cut... we got a void feeling... We that love games AND their stories, emotions, characters cant say goodbye this way... Its was not only action for me, I liked the ME universe... and it was destroyed the way we knew during the gameplay... and theres nothing we can do inside game to change that... it was the last one of the series... We have only our complaints here outside... I think thats the big issue, well, at least for me...

[Katzen]

 Whoever did the romance for Garrus... I think I speak for all the adoring fan girls out there when I say THANK YOU SO MUCH. 

I had a goofy grin for a week after the citadel date scene. 

and

[Alpha-Centuri]

A small addendum, I am only grading the game. If I were to rate Bioware's marketing drive and its consumer relations at this point, it would be quite low. I digress.

A quick review that highlights a few likes and dislikes:

Mass Effect 3:

7.5 Graphics - Animations are still off, uncanny valley, etc. Low res textures in some places and 2d sprites (lol!)

9 Gameplay - Greatly improved from Mass Effect 2, which was a huge improvement on ME1

8.5 Music - Clint Mansell did a great job. However it was too obvious when we were supposed to care about something. Kid comes on screen, cue main sad theme

8.5 Presentation - Bioware is still great at cinematics. Not Uncharted, but definitely elite level in gaming industry. The atmosphere of war was great. The world isn't quite alive though, so I can't rate it higher. I don't expect personal schedules for EVERY npc like The Witcher 2 and Skyrim have, but the random turian on the Citadel and that one private were a poor attempt to immerse you.

7.5 Technical - (Lots o Lots of bugs, but it isn't gamebreaking. Journal took a HUGE step back too.)

9.5 Storyline (sans ending) - This is me taking an objective look at the storyline. Tuchanka storyline was great. Rannoch was emotional and engaging. Character arcs were done well for the most part (besides Jacob... like always. fail bioware... fail. Mandatory dream sequences drop it down from a perfect


Total: 8.41 out of 10 (Using IGN, Gamespot, etc. an 8.5 out of 10)

Including the ending

0 Tilt - The Mass Effect series had always been greater than the sum of its parts in my opinion. The gameplay was never the best, the characters were never quite fully fleshed out, etc. But the entire world mixed with a great cinematic narrative made it rival the likes of Star Wars. If I had to grade them

Mass Effect 9.0
Mass Effect 2 9.0 (What it loses in exploration, it makes up in gameplay)
ME3 - ending 8.5

Mass Effect Trilogy - 9.5

The ending was so off-putting, that the series itself is no longer the sum of its parts. Without the ending, the trilogy as a whole would rate about a 9.5. It now rates at about a 1.0, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone because everything you do is nullified by such a shoddy ending.

Total: 7.14 out of 10 -- (Using IGN, Gamespot, etc. a 7.0 out of 10.

When I see the "Over 75 perfect reviews" line touted by Bioware/EA, credability for the gaming journalism industry is inevitably diminished.

My gut gives the game a 0 out of 10, but the game itself when using my mind rather than gut I give it a 7.

[Feanor_II]

Today I started a new game, this time with a Femshep.... and I wanted to express how I dislike the new walking animation....... Hell why should people had to complain about Femshep walking wasn't "Femenine enough"? She is a soldier, on a critical mission, not a top-model..... Now she looks like Little Red Ridding Hood walking down the forest.

Finally I would like to insist on how the conversations on this game where a huge step backwards, now my Shepard's personality is quite fixed and I don't have much margin to elaborate his/her personality, and while it fits quite well on my good-boy John (my canon Shepard), that vulneravility and concern he/she show through the game doesn't fit other Shepards I have, for example a ruthless bastard or an Iron Soldier.

[locsphere]

I keep trying to play my xbox, but have literally lost all interest after ME3. I just feel if video games are going to make me feel crappy at the end after all my efforts I don't want to play them. I can do a lot of other more fruitful things. I won't have to deal with some stupid PR rep and company that hides behind game reveiwers instead of the consumer.

I remeber nintendo. PLaystation and wing commander ... I have been a gamer since I can remember. I remember spending 175 dollars for a voodoo 3 video card so I could play Haf Life on my 333 AMD. I remember buying my first xbox and playstation. My first midnight launch of so many games.

For the first time ever I can't play thanks to BW and EA. I have never been so angry about something. I have cancelled my SWTOR account. The ending of ME3 is the worst I have ever experienced.

I wish BioWare would fix the ending, to deliver what they promised. That is what all this has really been about is a bunch of false promises and claims. Having such high hopes and a major let down.

To hear excuse after excuse... Tali's face being a picture bcause of a certain ammount of Mystery. YOU DON"T DO THAT ON A CONCLUSION, A Boss Fight being too Video gamey... Im Playing an RPG Video Game. The Endings being memorable... They would be, if you gave us 16 endings as promised. Even 8 endings would be fine. Consequences... Saving or killing the counsel. Saving the Rachni Queen, The collector base. What were advantages and disadvatages. Especially uniting the quarians and Geth thats a major fleet boost.

All of it was for nothing.

Oh and Multiplayer? On a single player game? Maybe for the second game it would have been fine. But third?

Im not wasting another penny on anymore games until I see that they arn't going to KILL ME off. Especially when the whole hype up and game theme seemed to be about surviving overwelming odds.

Dump EA BioWare, Like Ubisoft did and go back to making great games. (KOTOR 2 had a bad ending because there was none. Would have been better than what we got. )smilie and at least I didn't die!

[Sugarjaye]

I've decided I'm going to keep playing but only right up to Earth before the final ending stuff up, and i'm just going to imagine the ending better for now, while i hope for an ending that that doesn't leave me shouting WTF. Also, The other thing i would change are the sub par me-2 romances, the lack of conversion option choice - WAY TOO MUCH AUTO DIALOGUE, and please please for the love of everything, pease let James be romanceable it was just so frustrating for it to just fizzle out to nothing after all that glorious flirting.