Community Review: Mass Effect 3

12 years ago

March 12, 2012 at 11:00 am

I know this is probably going to be ridiculously hard, but I would love if people could do their level best to keep this spoiler free. With that said, how are you guys finding Mass Effect 3 so far?

Bizarrely, after seven hours with the game, I don’t know if I’m ready to have a proper opinion of the game yet. All Mass Effect games seem to have this really interesting pacing, where the beginning feels very unrushed, maybe even a bit flat and then, before you’re barely aware of it, you’re hurtling towards the endgame at this furious pace.

At the moment it feels as though I’m in that relaxed, beginning section — the section that’s just ‘talky part’/’shooty part’ rinse/repeat. I’m enjoying it, because the combat feels really slick, but at one point I genuinely pushed the right bumper button by mistake to ‘active reload’. Yep — for a split second I actually thought I was playing Gears of War!

Still, the Mass Effect universe is such a great place to return to. It’s such a believable world, and one I’m properly invested it, and I like the idea that the stakes have been fully ramped up in the third iteration. I’m enjoying the whole political manoeuvring aspect of the game — it feels very grounded and real. The conversations I’m having, even in the beginning, feel like they have real consequence, and that tension of making the right decision in stressful situations is what makes Mass Effect so compelling.

Looking forward to the rest of it.

How are you guys finding it?

Comments

82 responses to “Community Review: Mass Effect 3”

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f4ction

March 12, 2012 at 11:11 am

Dat ending. Also, I must congratulate the writers of the series. I’ve never had such a strong personal interest in the safety and development of my team-mates. Making choices such as who to leave behind for various objectives actually had me consider them for some time (as with all the Mass Effect games).

All in all, best sci-fi trilogy I’ve seen/played (sorry, Star Wars and Alien movies!). I hope they keep the Mass Effect universe going, though I doubt they’d just cease such an amazingly rich galaxy at three games.

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akasheppy

March 12, 2012 at 11:14 am

I generally enjoyed the game. It wrapped up a lot of relationships and secondary plots. The cover system was frustrating at times, I often rolled put of cover or jumped it at inopportune times, but I managed. The enemy AI was much better, the battles more challenging. My fault was with the ending, as it was with most people. I wish they’d change them.

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z

March 12, 2012 at 11:15 am

Some of the elements from ME2 seem to have been refined and improved in ME3 (exploration, scanning, combat tweaks), which is good.

The cover system is a bit of an abomination to get right, though, even though you can do fancy things like roll to different cover points…having to have the thumbsticks precisely aligned to get the right cover motion as well as getting camera control for selection on consoles is really finicky, which is irritating, though.

Story elements sound OK so far, I hear people bitching a lot about the endings though.

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Tristan Damen

March 12, 2012 at 11:15 am

Good – Dat casual jacket

Bad – Dat KoA Reckoning armour

Ugly – Dat planet scanning

Verdict – So far, I’m liking it more than either of the other instalments

Reply
1. James Mac
  
  March 12, 2012 at 2:39 pm
  
  I want to buy that casual jacket.
  
  Reply
mereshell

March 12, 2012 at 11:16 am

i have never in my life, not even for a final fantasy game, seen so much anger toward an ending. they really messed it up. i was going to give the trilogy a chance, but i am so disinterested after seeing what they did to their fans three games in.

from what i read, it was beyond a joke. they messed up. and they still want their faithful fans to pay through the nose in DLC…

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1. James M
  
  March 12, 2012 at 12:01 pm
  
  “They really messed it up” followed by “From what I read” reveals your lack of credibility.
  
  Reply
  1. mereshell
    
    March 12, 2012 at 12:04 pm
    
    credibility? haven’t you seen the petition or any comments under any mass effect 3 related post? everyone was disappointed. they messed up. i’ve never played the games, i wanted to, now i don’t intend to unless they do something for their fans.
    
    Reply
    1. James M
      
      March 12, 2012 at 12:15 pm
      
      20,000 people have signed the petition. Put that number up against the number of people who have bought the game. I’m fairly confident the latter number will be significantly higher.
      
      And that’s not the point. I’m sure the ending is not the best either, but you have no opinion because you haven’t played any of the games. This topic is called “Community Review”, and a requirement of a review is having read more than someone else’s opinion and then attempting to parrot it as if it was your own.
      
      Reply
      1. James Mac
        
        March 12, 2012 at 2:04 pm
        
        Well, I have played it… and the end is pretty lax.
      2. Jake M.
        
        March 12, 2012 at 3:28 pm
        
        I actually just beat the game around 30 mins ago and i gotta agree, the ending is just depressing. All the build up of relationships and missions and squad mates to just die in the end… I wanna try again and make a better army, just at the moment it seems like they could have made it a happier ending like successfully beating Mass Effect 2
  2. Jarin
    
    March 12, 2012 at 3:22 pm
    
    The lack of credibility in current reviews seems to fall on the side of “thinks it was an awesome game, but hasn’t finished it yet.” I’ve yet to see one person actually stand up and defend the actual content of the ending. Yes, singular. The variance in the endingS is minuscule, and completely ignores five years of choices leading up to it.
    
    Yes, I’ve beaten it. Have you?
    
    Reply
    1. James
      
      March 12, 2012 at 6:40 pm
      
      Sorry, you’re talking to me? I’ve finished it once. Best possible ending (I think). Playing it again as a renegade douche to screw the galaxy over.
      
      Actually there are a bunch of reviews out there that take no issue with the ending. Try a google search. As for me, I admit that the ending isn’t the best ending that could have happened, but it:
      
      A) didn’t detract from the saga for me:
      B) doesn’t necessarily preclude post-ending DLC: and
      C) isn’t half as bad as some make it out to be. Look on the Bioware forums. Some people are literally saying they felt like vomiting, crying, can’t play games anymore etc. It’s ridiculous.
      
      Reply
Lone Wolf

March 12, 2012 at 11:20 am

I only got onto this last night and I chose to finish “the arrival” on ME2 first so that delayed me a little.
Only just got onto the citadel, so it’s ony just opening up, from my perspective, after the initial liniarity.
Enjoying the combat so far.

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DG

March 12, 2012 at 11:25 am

I’m a bit confused about my “Galactic Readiness”
It always says 50%, do i have to play multiplayer to make that change?

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1. z
  
  March 12, 2012 at 11:26 am
  
  Yes. You don’t need to change the GR to get a full military strength bar, or so I’ve read.
  
  Reply
  1. Matthew K
    
    March 12, 2012 at 11:36 am
    
    Not quite!
    
    Your galactic readiness will stay at 50% – your possible strength is marked by a greyed out bar, your actual current strength is the green. Ideally you want your green bar to be maxed out – and you can do this by playing the single player campaign to completion.
    
    However, if you also play multiplayer (and I think there’s an iOS game for iPhone/iPad called Infiltrator) you can increase your readiness rating about 50%, which means your single player assets are worth a larger amount.
    
    Say you have an asset score of 5,000, but a 50% readiness rating. Your strength is only 2,500. Increase your readiness rating to 75% via multiplayer or whatever, your strength goes up to 3,750.
    
    Multiplayer makes it easier to max out your readiness in case you hate sidequests, but it’s not necessary – you’ll jsut have to play the single player for longer/more diligently.
    
    Reply
    1. James Mac
      
      March 12, 2012 at 2:07 pm
      
      It should be pointed out that if you max out your green bar… you’re still only going to carry half of that into the final mission… and you cannot increase the percentage without multiplayer, or the trans-media games.
      
      Reply
      1. Matthew K
        
        March 12, 2012 at 4:21 pm
        
        No, that doesn’t seem right.
        
        Let’s say you have this bar:
        
        [-][-][-][-][-][-]|[-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
        
        the Line marks where the games says the “minimum” is.
        
        Now let’s say [X] means grey and [O] means green and [-] is blank.
        
        You get a few assets and your bar looks like this:
        
        [O][O][O][X][X][X]|[-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
        
        Because you have 50% readiness. If you have 100% readiness you’d look like this:
        
        [O][O][O][O][O][O]|[-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-][-]
        
        If you do 50% of all ingame content in single player and have 50% readiness, your bar will look like this:
        
        [O][O][O][O][O][O]|[O][O][O][O][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X][X]
        
        At this point you have 2 options:
        
        Do 100% of all ingame content, or get your readiness to 100%, to make your bar look like this:
        
        [O][O][O][O][O][O]|[O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O]
        
        Because remember, Bioware said it would be possible to get the best possible outcome doing singlep layer content only – multiplayer/infiltrator only speed it up. Maybe you don’t want to do every piece of single player content, or you missed some things, so your bar looks like:
        
        [O][O][O][O][O][O]|[O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][O][X][X][X]
        
        Bam, just go into multiplayer, get your readiness up to 60% and your assets suddenly count for more so your green bar is maxed out. There’s still a theoretical 40% of your bar you can’t see that’s still all greyed out, but you’ve hit the visible maximum. Once your green bar goes all the way to the right, you should have the ‘best possible’ ending available.
      2. James Mac
        
        March 12, 2012 at 7:27 pm
        
        I fear we are confusing readiness and ‘Galaxy at War’.
        Readiness accounts for the green metre… GaW is responsible for the percentage you’ll see in the galaxy map when you start the game.
        
        It acts as a multiplyer (or more accuratly a divider) to your readiness rating.
2. DG
  
  March 12, 2012 at 11:27 am
  
  Also two main problems with the game
  1- Playing on insanity the cover system can be quite annoying at times, making you do stupid things which gets you killed
  2- The baddies only focus on you – you might of sent your squad to kill a bunch of dudes and u run away into an obscure corner and you’ll still be shot =/
  
  Reply
Charles

March 12, 2012 at 11:26 am

If it wasn’t for the engaging universe and conversation system BioWare have created, it’d just be another Gears of War with RPG elements. Seems like they refined the third game to appeal more than ever to FPS fans, maybe that was always the plan? Either that or it was done to appeal to a wider audience during the development of ME2, for the $$$… EA were frothing at the mouth no doubt.

Not really a criticism just an observation, it’s interesting how much the game has changed over the trilogy, I’m enjoying the third game. It sucks you in pretty quickly =)

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1. xscottr
  
  March 13, 2012 at 4:14 am
  
  I agree, they cut ME3 down to size and gave it a crappy ending. What they gave us was good but really watered down. EA makes enough money they need to get off the corporate BS and focus on making really good content.
  
  Reply
Matthew K

March 12, 2012 at 11:27 am

The universe in Mass Effect 3 is just as engaging in ever, with plenty of different people to talk to and places to go. I really love how you’re responsible for pulling together forces for a galactic war against an impossible enemy, but you and your people aren’t forgetting the little things either. Although it’s not quite the same as the presidium from ME1, you can walk around a variety of places on the Citadel and find people to talk to and assist – one of the new things being if you come across an argument you can pick a side, dropping your two cents into the conversation to help resolve the dispute. Sometimes this just helps settle things down, sometimes it gains you valuable war assets.

We’re rejoined by our key crew from ME1 and there’s cameos from our surviving friends friends from ME2 as well. I’d be interested to see how these bits are handled if our friends died in ME2 but I hear Bioware just gives you a palette swap with a different name, so I guess it’s not really worth dwelling on – having everyone alive going into ME3 is obviously the canonical route.

Combat feels more satisfying than the slightly tedious pew-pew of ME2, biotics in particular feel like there’s a lot of grunt. Enemy AI seems to have been tweaked which notches up the difficulty slightly. I’m finding myself actually having to use strategy and the full range of abilities available across myself and squadmates instead of just picking my favourites and rolling over everything – granted, I never tried to play ME2 above Normal so maybe what I’m describing isn’t that unfamiliar if you’ve done ME2 on Veteran/Hardcore/Insanity. ME3 on normal feels about right – you won’t just stomp everything but you would reload too may checkpoints either.

Although I’m sure it’s all fairly tightly scripted, I appreciate how sometimes a seemingly random encounter can really pay off in terms of mini-quests or war assets. Maybe it’s just that I’m carefully combing every inch of this game which by the way, looks really good. The visual style is largely unchanged from ME2 and everything has caught a mild dose of darker-grittier, but is a bit sharper and cleaner at the same time, which may sound contradictory but that’s just how I interpret what I’m seeing.

If there’s one thing I don’t like it’s the new look Normandy. I don’t mind it flying the Alliance colours, but the interior is… eh… a bit ugly. Parts of the ship we used to be able to visit are blocked off in favour of a slightly revamped layout, and the contstruction is incomplete – I understand that the refit of the Normandy was interrupted a little bit by Reapers, but surely someone could’ve found five minutes to tidy up the cables lying all over the floor. But that’s my only quibble.

I’m loving having a new Mass Effect game to spend time on, take my time with as I learn it’s tricks and secrets, and fumble my way through the story, probably making a bunch of mistakes along the way. I’m sure by now someone has broken down the numbers and figured out every x vs y variable for best possible outcome, but I’m not interested in that.

While a lot of people have been complaining how ME3 and it’s endings (which I’m mostly non-spoilered on – I haven’t gotten there yet) I feel likem y choices in ME1 and 2 have really brought this game to life. What I’ve done in created a universe and now the reapers are tearing it down – it’s up to me to put a stop to it. Whether all my choices help save the day or ultimately amount to nothing, ME3 is the culmination of nearly five years of anticipation, and so far I feel it’s a worthy successor to an excelletn franchise.

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1. James Mac
  
  March 12, 2012 at 2:25 pm
  
  I’ve got some beefs about the Citadel and the way the side quests are handled…
  
  Side quests are picked by overhearing conversations… and they’re on a timeline.
  When you consult the journal for more information it doesn’t tell you anything about the relay you need to jump to, just a notation that you need to retrieve X from planet Y. If you don’t know your planets and systems you’ll either be checking a guide or jumping around.
  
  I agree about the Normandy, all the time I’m docked at the Citadel couldn’t they find a few moments to clean up… especially if we’re going to have dignitaries on board.
  
  Banshees and brutes are just evil… evil bastards.
  
  Diana Alders has an awful character model. It just doesn’t look right.
  
  Reply
  1. Matthew K
    
    March 12, 2012 at 4:24 pm
    
    Yeah, Diana Allers looks weird and Jessica did an awful job of voicing her. On the upside, she’s completely irrelevant, adds a piddling 5 points to your war asset score, and you can throw her off your ship at any time or even choose to not take her with you. For maximum badass, take her with you, censor her broadcasts, take her to bed, then throw her out. She doesn’t even count as a relationship, so you can still pursue your main romance with no ill effects.
    
    Reply
js

March 12, 2012 at 11:28 am

Day one DLC, cancer writers, Bioware ain’t what they used to be and I want personal reparations, DA2 ruined my life, etc.

Do I win the Internet?

The game is good.

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1. James M
  
  March 12, 2012 at 12:03 pm
  
  Well played, sir.
  
  Reply
2. James M
  
  March 12, 2012 at 12:09 pm
  
  There were some really great atmospheric moments in this edition as well. Have to keep this as generic and non-spoilerish as possible, but an early mission sees Shepard fighting on an alien moon while the actual planet is literally on fire in the background. The race in question is fighting the Reapers valiantly, but they’re obviously losing very badly and the combination of the set piece, the score and the dialogue gave me a really visceral emotional response. I legitimately felt sorry for an imaginary race of aliens, and for that, Bioware gets a golden star.
  
  Reply
majorpain

March 12, 2012 at 11:30 am

the part i dont like is the cutscenes just because the weapons are different for example my shepard carries the mattock rifle so y in the cutscenes is he suddenly carrying an M8 avenger? Hell i even saw one of my squad members using an avenger in the cutscene and she cant even carry one of those during gameplay just seems a bit inconsistant to me but otherwise a great game

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Azza

March 12, 2012 at 11:31 am

I just spent 5 minutes trying to think of describing what mission I’m up to, but in the end decided I couldn’t do it without someone complaining of spoilers…

Anyway, I’m probably about a third of the way in.

Like: script, customising weapons, levelling system, multiplayer (I’m really enjoying it, despite myself. And it fits into the SP game really well).

Dislike: Cover system (could be my fault, but I keep trying to run but end up grabbing cover instead), Lack of mini-games (let me know if I’m wrong, but there isn’t anything as far as I can tell. The planet scanning thing in ME2 barely counted, I realise they gave this a couple shots but surely they could have come up with something fun, as a distraction?), buggy cinematics.

So far really enjoying this game. The story and script feel stronger, but in some ways I liked ME2 a bit more.

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Matt Dive

March 12, 2012 at 11:34 am

Well, it’s better than Dragon Age 2.

Ok that was a cheap shot, but it does illustrate that for the most part Bioware have delivered a very decent game this time around (for the record I wasn’t fond of The Old Republic either). Sure, I’ve got some gripes: The shooting/role playing slider is too far to the shooter side, squadmate AI can be incredabliy dumb sometimes, and overall things have been, for the lack of a better term, dumbed down. Overall however, this is still a good game, although if the ending is as bad as rumored (avoiding specific spoilers till I get there), that verdict may change.

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Reign

March 12, 2012 at 11:37 am

I’ve made my thoughts clear in other threads about the storyline and the illusion of choice, but aside from that, it’s fairly solid.

The multiplayer’s addictive (not sure if I like the unlocking method), but I’m not sure if I like the A button in single or multi. It’s used for too many things- some times I’ll try to get into cover and I’ll roll (or vice verse), and I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve failed to revive a team mate in multi because I keep going into cover instead of reviving them.

The combat’s the best in the series, but the story is the worst of the three.

Reply
1. Azza
  
  March 12, 2012 at 12:05 pm
  
  Surely they could have used B or X for revive/interact. How often do you need to change ammo/gun compared to taking cover?
  
  Reply
Matt Sydney

March 12, 2012 at 11:37 am

After finishing ME3 on sunday arvo, also going through each of the 3 endings wih disapointment that they have only MINOR variances.

i found the game moderately enjoyable i think this is the worst game in the Mass Effect trilogy.

Why i say this is because i felt like the choices i made in this game had the least effect of the 3. The character interactions in this game felt pointless , after each mission i would go to see on my team where as in ME1 and ME2 they would have great conversations , this time around they didnt bother to say anything meaningfull.

But i loved the weapon customisation! that was great

To sum it up – minimal planet exloration, character decisions having little effect on your world / team mates ,no interactive asari dancers, poor effort on romances,. and who could forget shocking endings.

Very unspectactular for the trilogy to end!

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who am iiiiii

March 12, 2012 at 11:43 am

so how does 3 begin if you dont do the arrival dlc for 2???

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Milbo

March 12, 2012 at 11:52 am

One minor complaint I’d like to ad: the mission tracking in the journal is appallingly unhelpful. A standard side quest structure – find item, give item to relevant person – is made difficult because you have no way of knowing wether you’ve already found the item or not. I spent ages trying to find something I apparently already picked up during an earlier probing.

Also slightly miffed that these quests become locked out after certain story points without warning. I think its a good idea but some warning would be nice.

be nice.

Reply
1. Milbo
  
  March 12, 2012 at 11:58 am
  
  *Stupid phone. Wasn’t done.
  
  Overall though, I’m loving it. The universe has sunk its claws back into me. Can’t wait to play more and hopefully I can avoid spoilers till I’m done.
  
  Reply
2. Aidan
  
  March 12, 2012 at 12:06 pm
  
  Oh yeah, this – the journal was abysmal compared to the previous games.
  
  It offered no helpful updates on what to do next and the lack of distinction between main and sidequests just made everything cluttered and confusing.
  
  It’s a real step backwards.
  
  Reply
  1. scarab
    
    March 13, 2012 at 5:57 am
    
    The journal was poor. You covered that it didn’t track that you had picked up the item; its easy to forget this in a multi-hour gaming session with dozens of side quests.
    
    Given the nature of this fictional universe: Shepard should start with or be able to buy a PA VI to keep track of these. In a sense that is what the journal is, its just a very poor implementation. An iPhone would have a better app for that 🙂
    
    It was also very annoying that the journal still opens with an old item selected; its about a third of the way down the list. You need to scroll up for ages to find any active tasks. That is just poor UI design. It should have opened at the top or with as many active tasks as would fit in a page with the selection on the item at a page boundary. That would reduce the amount of scrolling needed to see content.
    
    The journal could have been improved further but this would probably impact on gameplay. Some tasks have all three bits of information that you need to complete them.
    
    1) Where to find (planet)
    2) What to find
    3) Where to deliver (to who and where)
    
    Since the location of most planets were known to the ship’s computers (even if not known by the player), it would be possible to use the task itself to jump directly to 1), then you search manually for 2) then use the journal to jump back to the citadel and order a taxi/elevator ride to 3)
    
    Some tasks were information based, there was no physical object to deliver. Your VI could send a text/email/voicemail to the recipient.
    
    That is less engaging than speaking to a person which is bad.
    
    It cuts down on busy work which is good. But fetch quests are busy work by design. You become invested in a character by the sheer amount of effort that you have put into that character’s life. Even the busy work creates a connection.
    
    Imagine how much shorter the mass effect games would be with an efficient journal. 😉 How much content would Bioware have to add to the game to get back up to 30+ hours of gameplay?
    
    But you are right, they should, at least, have displayed a flag that shows that you have the item. There are 3 states:
    
    1) looking for
    2) found
    3) delivered
    
    Reply
Neo-Kaiser

March 12, 2012 at 11:53 am

Considering I like to take my time with my games, people complaining about the ending is pissing me off.

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Aidan

March 12, 2012 at 12:03 pm

I’m really loving it.

The universe is brilliantly fleshed out, the characters from previous games get generally appropriate (and very dramatic) endings to their arcs, and the attention paid to little details like ambient dialogue is outstanding.

The endings aside, this has some of the best writing I’ve ever seen in a videogame. The character relationships are just so well done. There may have been tears.

I’m also a fan of the combat, it feels solid and responsive. The customisation of weapons and armour is improved from both previous games, and the enemies are different enough to make using different strategies worthwhile.

Seeing little things like a character reference something you did two games ago, even if it has a tiny impact on the world of Mass Effect 3, is stunning. Especially when they’re often as funny and poignant as what happens in ME3. The care the writers took means meeting dozens of people you know around the galaxy never feels contrived, they all have a good reason for being there.

There were times when seeing a character from the first two games, or running into an old squadmate, was enormously satisfying and often really emotional – especially when they end up in some of the situations they end up in.

Overall it’s an outstanding end to the series, marred by an unfathomably confusing and frustrating final ten minutes. I don’t think ‘demanding’ a change to someone else’s creative product is ever a wise thing, but I can’t for the life of me work out why Bioware decided to do the things they did. I certainly wouldn’t mind if it were changed.

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Reece

March 12, 2012 at 12:10 pm

it was a great journey from mass effect 1-3 but a crappy ending.

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Mutare

March 12, 2012 at 12:14 pm

Good – customization of weapons was properly done, unlike the clutter that was mass effect 1, story was fine with some moments I had to tear up at due to my emotional investment in most of the characters, closure on a lot of stuff which come from me1 and 2, like the fact that a lot of old faces pop up from me1 and 2.

Bad – Less meat on the side quests considering this is such a beautiful universe, journal was a bit derpy, i remember trying to find an artifact in a galaxy where 100% of assets were discovered >>. Like many people, I felt the ending was a bit off and there were a few holes with it.

Verdict – Enjoyed it a lot more than me1 and me2 combined BUT i have to say, “That ending…” >=(

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Glib

March 12, 2012 at 12:31 pm

I was thinking that all this hating might be due to hearthurt at the ending.. but then I read this: http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/1/topic/355/index/9727423/1
And, of course, spoilers will be aplenty in that thread.

Reply
1. Phantom
  
  March 13, 2012 at 3:39 am
  
  THank you for linking this, this link has been very enlightening, i hope what they say in here is what it is, because it would be the single best thing i have experienced in a game. EVERYONE Read this article.
  
  http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/1/topic/355/index/9727423/1
  
  Reply
Murph

March 12, 2012 at 12:35 pm

I’ll throw my name into the big ‘the ending sucked’ hat. For me it wasn’t that from a story point of view they were disappointing – it was that they boiled down to three choices and three choices only. No matter how different your game might have turned out from MY game, we still get those same three choices.

Given that one of the biggest drawcards for the series was the amazingly detailed plot and the huge number of ways you can change what happens, this was a kick in the teeth.

I will say I loved the game up until this point. The gameplay was fantastic.

One thing though – even though I had Ashley with me on the final mission, she magically teleported up to the Normandy in the final cutscene!

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Hesh

March 12, 2012 at 12:35 pm

apart from the stupid cover system i loved it.

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Matt M

March 12, 2012 at 12:40 pm

I finished it yesterday and i can tell you….. it actually mad me sad, i preffered Me1 and 2 because it i knew there was going to be more of my Shepard, but know? i dunno but other then that i loved it it was epic and a must buy for pretty much everyone.
Good job Bioware, making a game that sucks emotion out of you like a sponge in water.

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Chris Mac

March 12, 2012 at 12:41 pm

Its great. I’m loving 3.
But does anyone find that stupid airlock security device on the ship between the War room and the main galaxy map room gets annoying.
I think 2 was a bit of a checklist heres your squad members now go get them and go to Omega. 3 seems to intergrate the collection of squad members into the story alot better.

Reply
1. Brad B
  
  March 12, 2012 at 4:14 pm
  
  yes the field was definately annoying. understandable that they want a defense for a situation like in ME2 with the collectors assaulting the ship but still there was no need for that big of an inconvenience
  
  Reply
Sam

March 12, 2012 at 12:48 pm

First hour and a half: Horrible, bad taste of deus ex.

Rest of game up to last hour: Really good, above average, which I was happy with since I was expecting the whole thing to be abysmal.

Last hour: Oh dear god in heaven what happened, I changed it from Hardcore to narrative because I found walking down a grey corridor in what should have been the epic last battle of taking back earth so immensely boring.

Last ten minutes: They’ve clearly hired drunk chipmunks as writers, I hold and am debating putting in to essay format that this is the worst ending of any narrative on any medium I’ve ever witnessed. “It was all dream’ might be as much of a cop out, but at least it WORKS. I literally can’t get everything wrong with this ending into less than a solid 1000 words.

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1. Zwa
  
  March 12, 2012 at 1:15 pm
  
  Evangelion still holds number one spot on my list of worst endings ever, both the series & the movie are tied for first spot. I don’t care if you *can* somehow explain everyone turning to goo, it still sucks.
  
  ME3 has however taken second place knocking Romeo and Juliet from its long held position. (R&Js ending wasn’t tragedy, it was a contender for a darwin award)
  
  I’m really hoping we get an explanation as to what went wrong with ME3s ending. I can’t believe anyone at Bioware thought this was good when they shipped it.
  
  Reply
Slyph

March 12, 2012 at 12:51 pm

It’s a very good game. Very slick. Entertaining. Good shooting. Coversations are enlightening and amusing. Everything’s very shiny and pretty.

I’m loving it, I always have. Can’t wait to start my speed run through all three games. It’ll be an awesome mega-play through a trilogy I love, with decisions carrying across the entire series. It’s never been done before. It’s pretty AMAZING, TBH.

I fucking hate how arrogant consumers have become. It’s a good game, great series, nothing’s perfect and let’s all get along. And the ending? I’m sure it’s not, like, second coming of Christ good, but I’ll forgive ANYTHING considering the preceding 120 hrs were so damn good.

So suck it fanboys. You’re all pissing me off, too.

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rpbird

March 12, 2012 at 1:22 pm

Extremely dissatisfied, especially at the non-ending ending.
Go here to see just how dissatisfied the fan base is:
http://www.facebook.com/DemandABetterEndingToMassEffect3

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akasheppy

March 12, 2012 at 1:22 pm

Hey, pissed off fangirl here~ I wouldn’t have minded the ending if they’d fleshed it out more, helped it make sense in the grand scheme of things. As it is, all my choices were for naught. 5 years culminated into ten minutes and the same awful choices.

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jace

March 12, 2012 at 1:26 pm

I think that Mass Effect 3 was a fitting ending to the trilogy, it was a vast improvement from mass effect 2 but still i find that mass effect 1 is still my favourite game. I think EA Games has ruined the potential this series had by trying to make it more accessible to the COD and other casual gamers. It had a great ending and closure which is good to see. Combat is still meh, and the thermal clips are stupid, the overheat method the first game had was the best. Plus i enjoyed watching the shitty characters from the second game die.

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1. El Kapitan
  
  March 12, 2012 at 2:14 pm
  
  I’m calling Shenanigans on this post. It’s like the exact opposite to everything everyone else is saying… lol.
  
  Reply
Genetechi

March 12, 2012 at 1:37 pm

Great game for me up until the ending. I had 4 saves ready for this game, all with different choices so I could see how my different choices would affect the final battle. But after getting to the ending and learning that there isn’t really much difference in the ending other than the color of lights, I couldn’t bring myself to play out my other saves.

I truly loved this game, but the ending just sucked out all enjoyment I had from the series because it really doesn’t matter in the end.

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jakeshredz

March 12, 2012 at 1:41 pm

Not quite at the heights of the first, and on par with the second.

The ending was god awful. Terrible. I don’t know if I could play a fourth.

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Richard

March 12, 2012 at 1:50 pm

The combat in ME3 is a big step up from ME2. Where ME2 pitted you against many different enemies who really only varied slightly, ME3 makes every enemy distinct and dangerous in their own unique way.

The story is also a big step up, the scale is grand, and as Serrels noted still feels very grounded and real. Some of the decisions you’re forced to make are truly hard, and your successes or failures in earlier Mass Effect games can count for a lot. I also found it quite interesting how well integrated the ME2 DLC was with this game, your choices in each don’t make a huge difference, but they’re not forgotten either.

The ending I’m still conflicted about. I certainly don’t agree with all that has been said about the ending, but I do agree with some of it. Above all I wonder what it means for the Mass Effect universe going forward.

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Korwin

March 12, 2012 at 1:58 pm

Was great up until the last 10 minutes, which left me super bummed and semi mad (not exactly the way I want a series I’ve spent 7 years following and 5 years playing to go out).

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N7 jpicard

March 12, 2012 at 2:21 pm

The endings arnt that bad, just sucks how its just a concrete ending in the fact you dont have very choice in shaping the endings.

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PseudoEdge

March 12, 2012 at 2:24 pm

The endings. I think if this was the first of a trilogy or a standalone game it would be acceptable. It isn’t however and after all the build up over the years it was a huge letdown. I did love the rest of the game though.

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RS

March 12, 2012 at 2:25 pm

For those who have finished the game.. I urge you to go here:

http://www.reddit.com/r/masseffect/comments/qrnul/dont_despair_the_ending_is_not_what_it_seems/

Needless to say.. major spoilers don’t go if you haven’t finished.
I am a firm believer of this and it makes a lot of sense. So don’t be disheartened my fellow ME fans.

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James Mac

March 12, 2012 at 2:35 pm

Conrad Verner.

What a guy.

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1. Aidan
  
  March 12, 2012 at 2:57 pm
  
  That conversation with him is absolutely amazing. I couldn’t stop laughing!
  
  (It’s even better if you did certain sidequests in the first game)
  
  Reply
ShiggyNinty

March 12, 2012 at 2:43 pm

I HAVE NO STRONG FEELINGS ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.

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os42

March 12, 2012 at 2:53 pm

Brilliant game, right up until the last ten minutes. That ending… ugh. Going to go back through the first games to see if it gets any better (used a random save with half my crew dead on Virmire this time), but from what I’m hearing, it doesn’t get much better. Although, seeing Tali drunk pretty much makes up for the ending!
Ie. The “Emergency induction straw”.

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Win

March 12, 2012 at 3:19 pm

Yeah, ending fights was ridiculously boring, the fact that I got up to around 6000+ army(forgot what it was called) and 100% readiness, none of those troops showed up during fights, it was me, 2 allies and a bunch of annoying reapers, banshees especially, they’re tanky(insanity difficulty). I hope Bioware explains what happened to everyone, by everyone i mean EVERYONE!
-Aria + Mercs during/after battle
-Squad: Tali, Garrus, Samara etc
-Hackett
-Asari
You get the list…EVERYONE! (Incoming: “omg you’re asking for alot, go do it yourself”, or…other similar things.)

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David D

March 12, 2012 at 3:52 pm

The Game is AMAZING ..

Combat – Perfect , playing my Vanguard I felt like a Truck consistently ramming into Enemies and blowing them Apart with my Biotic Punches and if that was innefective a Shotgun to the Face did the Job. Abilities went off Smoothly, Weapon Upgrades were a nice Touch to have back from ME1 whilst not being to complicated and everything was just so refined.

Story – Holy God was the story incredible. Without any spoilers I’ll say this .. I laughed, I Cried – MANY MANY times – Tears of JOY and Sadness, Writing was spectacular. I enjoyed the Idea of walking past people in Conversation to get the Side Quests, Supporting people to give Paragon/Renegade boosts and trying to figure out which would give which.
I was engaged beyond belief, No game Or even a movie for that matter has moved me in a such a way that this Finale did.

Of course that was until the Ending… It’s SHOCKING that the same Writers that wrote every other Engaging and Emotional Moment in this story wrote the Ending. 2-3 days now after completing the Game I still feel Depressed and Frustrated that No one at Bioware, be it Writers or Otherwise, Contested that Ending and thought it was Epic To Ship with.

Misc: Running from Reapers whilst exploring was Fun, added some intensity to Scanning .. Scanning felt like it had purpose because you were finding more War Assets to Assist in the Ending (However that is till you see the ending) … Side Missions Generally had the standard cool repercussions like in ME2 – A Follow up Email where the person gives their thanks or fills you in on what happened after. And Locations in the game were excellent – Purgatory was awesome, Citadel was extremely well done (Better then 1 and 2) and most of the other Missions Locations had great Environments and Helped draw you into their Story.

10/10 Minus the Ending

9/10 With the Ending
(Not going to be a twit and say like 3/10 just because of the Ending, it was Frustrating to say the least but there’s still so many great aspects to the game that you can’t rate it as “Dead” just because of the Ending).

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Matt

March 12, 2012 at 4:03 pm

It is a solid game, but there a few problems with it:

1) Your choices in previous ME games have very little impact on the game — most are resolved by a new character having undone your choice.

2) The ending are terrible. For instance the final 10minutes of the game feels like a completely different game.

3) Your choices in ME3 are reflected through numbers.

4) There are some major plot holes in the ending.

As such while the game is worth playing, its the journey not the destination that you’ll enjoy. (in fact the destination will make you wish you were headed elsewhere)

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Brad B

March 12, 2012 at 4:09 pm

I thought the game was excellent having played both ME1 and ME2 i think they just continued improving. As to everyone throwing a fit about the terrible endings. if you think shepard dies no matter what play more into the multiplayer than retry you have to build the galactic readiness untill your actual assets are at least 4000 for shepard to survive. ive seen alot of people complain because all the endings were terrible i think they did good leaving it open for at least one more sequel excited to see what the enemy is in the next game.

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Patrick Lum

March 12, 2012 at 4:45 pm

Amazing journey. Terrible, terrible set of endings.

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Bec

March 12, 2012 at 5:21 pm

[SPOILERS] [SPOILERS] [SPOILERS]

I loved it up until the last 10minutes. Like many other people, the ending really ruined it for me… I am a HUGE mass effect fan. I own a N7 hoodie, have femshep as my iPhone wallpaper and bought the collectors edition of ME3, but I found the ending to one of my all time favourite franchises a incredible let down…

All 3 endings were pretty much exactly the same except a different colour explosion based on choice. I wasn’t given any real option at all. Commander Shepard is almost always known for “finding another way” – but at the very end, the whole reason we had been fighting this whole time, we were only given 2-3 options – all of them resulting in unpleasant circumstances and the death of our hero. Of course, I am not completely opposed to she idea of shepards death to end the series, but in this case, it could have been better. I was fine with the death of the kid on earth, thane, mordin, anderson etc… it’s a huge war, people are going to die, it’s going to be sad – we get it. I couldn’t handled even more close squad members dying, but shepards death just wasn’t done… right.

I also felt that the ending raised more questions than it answered. I would have really loved to see more of an epic battle in space. Huamn, Asari and Turian ships, flying around and shooting at the Reapers. Krogan, Rachni and Geth, down on earth, kicking ass.

I really wanted to see more female krogan, as well as babies. I would have liked to see the Asari home world being rebuilt. More insight into the Prothean/early Asari history. The aftermath of the citadel. Quarians living without masks and possibly suits, even though Tali says they might keep them. I felt like all the decisions we made would be shown right until the very end but they just ended up being thrown out the window and we got 3 horrible ending choices given to us instead. None of the choices we made over the series impacted them what so ever, unless you count getting access to the 3rd option due to war assets, which I don’t.

Mass Effect will still always be one of my favourite series, but the ending left me feeling let down and just… sad. 🙁

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TheLastQuestion

March 12, 2012 at 7:39 pm

A bit late, but here’s my review I uploaded over on my blog last night.

http://tlqgaming.wordpress.com/2012/03/11/mass-effect-3-the-review/

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russell

March 12, 2012 at 7:52 pm

it made me cry, laugh, rage (at cerberus), and say “you’re sh**ing me” at every revelation. I made my Shepard a mix of paragon and renegade, and took great joy whenever I snapped a reporter or did that right thing.
I made an emotional connection to my crew, the innocents wiped out, and even my worst enemy (the smackdowns gave me a sadistic chill down my back). No more flirting with anything that moves and having my way with them all-my Shepard committed early and developed a bond, and so did I.
the Co-op multiplayer is engaging and thrilling. I meet people from around the world for the sole purpose of defeating reapers, geth and cerberus troops. and really, isn’t that the whole point of commander Shepard’s whole story?

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Cap’n Crunch

March 13, 2012 at 12:27 am

I feel heartbroken, in the end my vast amount of time and dedication, all my choices, doing everything right, crafting the story the way I wanted it to end, only to be handed with 3 very depressing choices, trying my best not to spoil, but I’m sure a lot of you out there like myself just sat there going “Really…… this is how its going to end….. these are the decisions I have to chose from…?none of these choices are what I expected or represent how I wanted my story in ME3 to end.”

Bioware the game was amazing, probably my favorite of the series,right up until the end, after that everything just amounted to nothing but sadness for thousands of players, make it right, somehow </3."

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Silver_Samurai

March 13, 2012 at 2:14 am

Note: Have not tested the multiplayer and I have no desire to take part in it. So this review is for the single player campaign only

Liked

-Smaller team meant I didnt feel like I was just ticking off boxes getting everyone’s loyalty in ME2. The focus on a smaller number of characters made the flow of the story more natural than in ME2. Good to see all ME2 characters (if they survived) appear in some form or another and that (most) romances can be carried out from ME1 to the end.

-Ending is no longer just dependent on “who dies in the end” but what alliances are formed and sometimes you just cant have everyone. Its great to see this in some hard decisions that need to be made. Its nice to also see continuity with decisions you made in ME1 and 2.

-The First Person shooter elements feel a lot tighter and love the weapon variety and customisability. Was great that each class was free to use all the weapons but with a penalty: The more weapons you carry, the greater the power recharge penalty.

-Better enemy AI. They actually roll and dodge your powers and attempt to flank you. Not perfect but a noticeable enough improvement over ME2. Difficulty is also finely tuned with some areas being noticeably hard but doesnt get to the point of frustrating, nor does it get insultingly easy.

-Much improved melee. Melee was completely useless in ME2…good thing its beefed up now so that Vanguards can actually smash stuff. Personalised charge melee attack for each class was a nice touch.

Hated

-That cover system has been made worse. It was twitchy in ME2 but its just almost unusable sometimes in ME3. When I want to get cover I vault over it, or if I want to vault i just get cover. Needs a lot more fine tuning to get the sensitivity right.

-Missions variety is very poor. Some are timed, most are not and it really just boils down to attrition. Survive and destroy each wave of enemies to defend something/get to the next location. Gets rather repetitive and tiresome at times.

-RPG elements dont make a huge difference. They are improved somewhat from ME2 but its clear that you could just blindly choose all your powers and you’ll still pull through. The romancing system takes virtually little effort. The choices to romance each member is rather obvious (just be nice?) and there is little thinking involved.

-Sidequest system is largely made up on uninspiring fetch quests

OVERALL:

Bioware certainly achieved the grandiose nature of the game that does make it mesmerising to behold and it was a joy to play. It was ambitious to make decisions from previous games carry over but this was done with relatively little complication (that i could see anyway). The gameplay was enjoyable and went along at a nice clip and the plot twisted in just the right areas. But if you want to create a hybrid RPG/Shooter its important to get the balance right between the two genres and the feel of ME3 is definitely way more shooter than RPG. This is not necessarily a terrible thing but the RPG elements feel tacked on and secondary to the weaponry.

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Will J

March 13, 2012 at 3:21 am

The game was fucking phenomenal, combat mechanics, storytelling, plot. The works.

Until the last 15 minutes ruined 5 years of Mass Effect gaming.

All of the backstory, lore, tension, mystique and wonder unravelled in 15 minutes of lazy Dues Ex story telling, with more holes in the plot then a sieve. Seriously:

Why was Normandy in a Mass-Relay transmission?

If the AI that controlled the Reapers was located where it was located (no spoiler, see?) then why was this cycle late. Surely he could have just activated it. Thus what is the nature of this AI, and consequently the apparaent individuality of the Soverign and Harbinger reapers, etc.

Seriously the Relay network in the end? Same thing, just Blue, Red or…. Green? What the fuck.

Very lazy storytelling.

Reply
1. RobbyM
  
  March 13, 2012 at 9:47 am
  
  Why was Normandy in a Mass-Relay transmission? I had the exact same question.. The battle against the reapers is still happening, Joker wouldn’t have fled the fight as he was staying close in case he got a call to rescue Shep.
  
  Another question on the ending – Spoiler ahead
  If you choose to join organic and machines together, why does the old man tell the young child that the true story of the legend of The Sheppard has been lost in time.. If people are now part machine, you’d think they’d have better memories
  
  Reply
Abe

March 13, 2012 at 5:49 am

They not only screwed up the ending but they removed so much out of the game. Planet scanning, side missions I mean come on the citadel? The relationship system was non existent and it just felt like you had no choice over a lot of things.

I was hoping for a whole lot more. I mean I beat the game in 25 hours and I did all of those stupid side quests. Find an object and deliver it. The replay value for this game isn’t there and it’s the last one, the finale and this is how they close the series?

Simply horrible.

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Community Review: Mass Effect 3

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