this might be a long text now, and I wish BioWare would read it, because it is not some ranting, but honest and sincere feedback on Mass Effect 3 – negative as well as positive aspects. Please note while some of what I write are facts, but some parts express my opinion only. Also keep in mind that I am not entirely through with the game yet, so I don’t know about the ending etc. (many have complained about that)
Let’s start with the positive things, shall we?
The story. I don’t know what people where expecting, but the story is actually nice. It might be a bit shallow at times, yes (e.g. plans for super-device-to-kill-reapers-are-suddenly-here), but the game has a nice flow, it doesn’t feel that stiff as ME2 did, where you always knew „Oh, I finish this mission and then people will need my help again to make them loyal“. ME3 feels different to me. Better.
And the atmosphere of the story is great as always – leaving earth, anyone? Talking about leaving earth, the second positive aspect I’d like to mention ist he great soundtrack. I expected nothing less and wasn’t diappointed, great work over there.
Since I mentioned atmosphere earlier… not only the story itself creates atmosphere, but also the gameplay. In fact, the gameplay is amazing. Some people don’t like this because they claim that ME has to play like a RPG. The truth is though, ME is not an RPG, but an Action RPG – always was. In ME3 the battles are so much fun and with more atmosphere (Bomb-Mission on Tuchanka comes to my mind.) And overall the level-layout is more appealing (at least to me) than ME and ME2.
This plays a big role fort he multiplayer – for what I thought was redundant in a game like ME and that I wouldn’t play it a lot is actually a pretty nice thing. It’s great fun and I would never have expected that. I like it.
The weapon system is great too – this is my opinion though. I’m so happy that we can carry more weapons again than in ME2, that they actually weigh you down and that we can customize the guns again! Yay. Great job.
And the game still has the typical Mass Effect-Humour, no doubt about that. Return of memes (punching reporter)? You bet. And the little chats and banter are still in there, a lot of things to explore. Example? The mission where you are releasing the female krogan – a yahg breaks out of his cell and kills some Cerberus troops and runs off.
Shep’s comment? „There goes the next shadow broker!“ „- Not funny.
“ (Liara).Those are the little things that make you smile while playing.
So…. where did it go wrong then? Unfortunately there are a LOT of bad things about the game, and those are not just because the game didn’t live up to people’s expectations.
It already started before the release – forcing Origin for PC players made a lot of people angry, since Origin doesn’t really have the best reputation.
Also, we have already seen this in other games, but Mass Effect 3 definitely takes the cake here: The „preoder from here and get ITEM A, preorder from here to get ITEM B, enter this contest to get ITEM C, play the demo of Game D to get ITEM E etc.“-nonsense has reached a ridiculous peak here. Nothing wrong with 1 or 2 preoder-bonuses, but what was going on here is just ridiculous and I lost the overall picture weeks ago.
Let’s talk about the story – this may seem like a contradiction now after I wrote how atmospheric the story is, but this is not what I mean: What I am referring to ist he beginning. It’s like you missed a game between 2 and 3.
In ME2, the beginning made perfect sense, but in ME3? Shepard’s on Earth. We don’t know why. The normandy is grounded. We don’t know why. Where are all the crewmembers? We don’t know. How does Shepard know Vega? We don’t know. What happened tot he Normandy? We don’t know. Why the hell is Anderson not councilor anymore (if you chose him)? We don’t know. Etc. etc.
SOME parts of this are explained in the game later, some aren’t. After reading the forums I found out – for example – that in one of the books Anderson stepped down as councilor, thus setting a fixed plot for ME3. Things like these are bad for various reasons:
1) The games have to stand on each own – it shouldn’t be my job to google my ass off to find out what the hell happened.
2) BioWare often confirmed (Casey Hudson even tweeted this 1 week before release), that there are no canon-choices, YOU (and YOU only) decide Shepard’s fate. But they practically force you into a plotline here, thus making it canon.
3) Even though you can’t control other people (not even in video games), BioWare actually nullified some of the key features oft he previous games: That YOU decide the fate of the galaxy and that a lot of things will be different if you choose them to be. Like someone here on the forum said: „What do we find out next? The destiny ascension crashed and the council died in some comic?“
Tied to that is also the lack of dialogue options: Mostly you have only 2 choices, while in Mass Effect 1 and 2 there were mostly (if not always) 3 or more.
Even in situations that seriously cry for a 3rd choice, you often just have two. That’s really a shame, this is/was another key feature of mass effect and seeing it thinned out like that makes me feel sad.
Another thing I don’t like are how some important characters from the previous games hardly appear anymore; I had hoped that at least all previous possible love interests would be able to join your squad again :/
And oh god, the textures. Seriously BioWare? Most are worse than in ME2. Doesn’t go well with Shepard’s awesome, shiny armour when you stand next to a big wall which seems so consist of 10 pixels... where’s the HD texture pack and why isn’t it included in the game?
That seems like the game is very „consolized“. Don’t get me wrong, I know ME was originally developed for the console, but come on, you don’t have to make it THAT obvious. The layout of the MP-Lobbies etc. just back this assumption.
And talking about MP – as much as I like it, there would have been a lot more possible.
Last but not least – bugs. A lot of them. Getting stuck, floating, flying, the whole package. Never saw that many bugs in a Mass Effect game and all of these things make me think that the game was released to early. Another 6 months would have been appropriate to make the game what it deserved to be.
Now what can you do, BioWare?
We have put our faith in you by buying the game, now it’s time to do something for us.
Fix the game. Some of those bugs are annoying as hell.
Stay in touch with the community.
Release HD-Texture pack, for god’s sake.
Release new content – and at least SOME o fit should be free. Or fairly priced.
Take this as sincere feedback. I think the customer’s goodwill and patience with some of BioWare’s lately actions is wearing out.
Modifié par 9erzo9, 07 mars 2012 - 10:48 .
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