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Mass Effect 3 was Released Seven Years Ago Today
- Thread starter Fiery Phoenix
- Start date
It still hurts. Don't get me wrong it is their game and they can finish it however they want to finish it but it still kills me that I will never get closure for my Shep / Kaidan romance. Shep puts him on the Normandy at the final assault on the Citadel and the sad look between them really killed me.
Series died that day.....
Buy dlc day 1 for this important prothean character
Bugged import meant had to redo my shepard
Journal bugged
1 hub
Action mode LUL
Kei leng
Delivery guy fetching artifacts for Random's on citadel
True ending locked too MP
No end boss
Cameo roles for ME1/2 when they easily could have joined
Harbinger just flys away
Ending the trilogy telling us to buy more dlc
All that crap way before the ending masked what was a truly mediocre game.
Casey Hudson" ME3 is a perfect entry for newcomers too the series "
Buy dlc day 1 for this important prothean character
Bugged import meant had to redo my shepard
Journal bugged
1 hub
Action mode LUL
Kei leng
Delivery guy fetching artifacts for Random's on citadel
True ending locked too MP
No end boss
Cameo roles for ME1/2 when they easily could have joined
Harbinger just flys away
Ending the trilogy telling us to buy more dlc
All that crap way before the ending masked what was a truly mediocre game.
Casey Hudson" ME3 is a perfect entry for newcomers too the series "
The Mass Effect trilogy i still a remarkable achievement. Before the end when you talk to everyone on your crew is one of my favourite moments in any medium. It was a real journey with real characters that you developed relationships with.
After the end I was truly sad that my Shepard didn't get a happy ending with Tali.
After the end I was truly sad that my Shepard didn't get a happy ending with Tali.
Yup, good times.
That was when I first got an account at the other place just to have somewhere to complain about the ending.
I don't care how much this game gets the hate. I simply can't remember this game without fond memories.
The games is true embodiment of journey bring more important than the destination.
The games is true embodiment of journey bring more important than the destination.
I was extremely disappointed with how limited your crew choices were, especially compared to ME2. I really really really loathed everything to do with Kai Leng. Also, there's this:
Honestly, this is where the game completely stumbled for me. The reapers were hyped up as world eaters, super mysterious creatures, yet in ME3 you face one on foot and make it out alive. Even ignoring that, what an utterly awful boss fight this was. You had a tiny rectangle area to move left and right, and that's it. I get that its a videogame and all, but this has truly ruined the reapers in my eyes. What's funny is that despite fighting a reaper midgame, you never actually fight one at the end.... talk about anticlimax.
And yeah, the ending... lmao. I guess I don't need to say much about that. Having played this before the extended endings patch, it was even worse. Like really really bad.
On top of that, a few annoyances I recall:
- Awful DLC practices, locking one of the very few cool squadmates behind DLC
- I remember my "power level" (galaxy readines?) being a pain because it was heavily implied that in order to maximize it you need to play MP which I didn't want to
- Laughable running animation. OK, you might think this isn't a big deal(and even at the time bioware wasn't known for great animations) but it was so bad it actually kept distracting me..::
ME3 was bad enough to sour me on both ME1 and ME2, despite loving the shit out of those games. But going back to them now, it just disappoints me knowing what they lead to.
Honestly, this is where the game completely stumbled for me. The reapers were hyped up as world eaters, super mysterious creatures, yet in ME3 you face one on foot and make it out alive. Even ignoring that, what an utterly awful boss fight this was. You had a tiny rectangle area to move left and right, and that's it. I get that its a videogame and all, but this has truly ruined the reapers in my eyes. What's funny is that despite fighting a reaper midgame, you never actually fight one at the end.... talk about anticlimax.
And yeah, the ending... lmao. I guess I don't need to say much about that. Having played this before the extended endings patch, it was even worse. Like really really bad.
On top of that, a few annoyances I recall:
- Awful DLC practices, locking one of the very few cool squadmates behind DLC
- I remember my "power level" (galaxy readines?) being a pain because it was heavily implied that in order to maximize it you need to play MP which I didn't want to
- Laughable running animation. OK, you might think this isn't a big deal(and even at the time bioware wasn't known for great animations) but it was so bad it actually kept distracting me..::
ME3 was bad enough to sour me on both ME1 and ME2, despite loving the shit out of those games. But going back to them now, it just disappoints me knowing what they lead to.
Yep, it genuinely salvages some of the most atrocious writing in gaming history into something with three games worth of depth. And honestly, there are so many subtle hints to indoctrination in that ending that make absolutely no sense if the theory isn't true (eg: oily black tendrils clouding the screen during dialogue choices - artists at Bioware specifically put that effect there for some reason) that I genuinely think indoctrination was the plan all along, and they hoped for an endless debate on it. Still doesn't excuse that the ending at face-value doesn't make sense though, so it's still not great writing, and means if Bioware want to salvage this series they really do need to embrace indoctrination as canon moving forwards.
Other than the ending, I did mostly enjoy the game, but it really reflected a concern I'd started to have with Bioware for a while so pretty much just confirmed it to me. Bioware (during this period) are great at writing characters, and great at writing side plots especially if they relate to those characters. But they are terrible at core overarching plots. They have never written a main story that evolves and develops over time with plot twists, with the exceptions of Mass 1, and that one plot twist in KOTOR. Mass 2 was entirely about distracting you from the Reaper plot with Collectors and playing agony aunt to companions. Mass 3 talked up a war on Earth then had you do everything but take part in it, instead engaging in self contained side plots for 30 hours before getting back to the main plot. Even Dragon Age Origins can literally be renamed "collection of unrelated short stories in Ferelden", because while the main plot is about a blight and arch demon, you only spend the finale of the game actually dealing with that, and when you do it's one-and-done, good job, you win the battle. Have a head pat.
I think it's little wonder Bioware have fallen from this pedestal of being great writers because... other than with companions, their writing quality has almost always been dire. It's just taken a while for people to notice.
Liara: "We've been through a lot haven't we, but it's been a good ride"
Sheppard (in a timid voice): "The best"
Me: T_T
The feels I had with this trilogy are something no other videogames has matched, at least for me. It's amazing that EA stuck to their guns and haven't remastered the trilogy, I was 100% positive that they would do it after Burnout Paradise gor announced
Edit: Raise your hand if you too saved both the Geth and the Quarians in your first playthrough
Sheppard (in a timid voice): "The best"
Me: T_T
The feels I had with this trilogy are something no other videogames has matched, at least for me. It's amazing that EA stuck to their guns and haven't remastered the trilogy, I was 100% positive that they would do it after Burnout Paradise gor announced
Edit: Raise your hand if you too saved both the Geth and the Quarians in your first playthrough
Why is everyone talking about ghost kids and Marauder Shields? The Citadel party was a perfectly good ending to ME3, I don't remember anything else.
Also, 550 hours in multiplayer. Asari Valkyrie spawn-nuking FTW. Andromeda's version wasn't bad, but ME3 was still better even with its occasional jankiness.
Also, 550 hours in multiplayer. Asari Valkyrie spawn-nuking FTW. Andromeda's version wasn't bad, but ME3 was still better even with its occasional jankiness.
I have to respectfully disagree. Like many, I played ME3's multiplayer more than all the campaigns put together, ten times over, and the DLC for that was free.
Amazing game. Loved it all, including the (patched) ending. Unforgettable space adventure.
I hope we get something like this in the future again.
I hope we get something like this in the future again.
can someone explain in specific detail why the ME3 ending is horrible? at this point I'm not going to play it because it's too long ago
I liked ME1 and absolutely loved ME2, but I ended up skipping ME3 and never trying it. Solely because all the negative poster comments I saw on GAF.
But now over the years, I'm starting to think it was mostly the typical gamer exaggeration. I'm sure it's not as bad as the complainers on a hardcore forum say
I liked ME1 and absolutely loved ME2, but I ended up skipping ME3 and never trying it. Solely because all the negative poster comments I saw on GAF.
But now over the years, I'm starting to think it was mostly the typical gamer exaggeration. I'm sure it's not as bad as the complainers on a hardcore forum say
Didn't play the game at day one but a few years after that.
I played the full 3 games in like, 3 weeks in a row and the whole trilogy is one of my favourite fiction of all time and ME3 takes an active part in that.
It was full of emotions, amazing scenes and even if the ending is a bit dumb, the whole journey -including ME3- is something to remember...
Also those launch trailers are still hype af
I played the full 3 games in like, 3 weeks in a row and the whole trilogy is one of my favourite fiction of all time and ME3 takes an active part in that.
It was full of emotions, amazing scenes and even if the ending is a bit dumb, the whole journey -including ME3- is something to remember...
Also those launch trailers are still hype af
I'm still not over it. I consumed everything Mass Effect: it was my favorite franchise ever. I read all the books, I even wore those stupid hoodies with the red stripe over one arm, bought stuff from Etsy because there wasn't enough official merchandise. I was so, so, so hyped for ME3 and when it came out... I couldn't be more disappointed.
Not just about the ending either. The opening act was atrocious. It started with the stupid running animation, how weird and glitchy Anderson moved, and that stupid ghost kid. Then the nightmare scenarios. My Shep lost so many crewmates, had made the most difficult choices you can imagine, lost her lover, but one kid dies (ok I admit, it was the only child in the entire Mass Effect universe so maybe a big deal) and suddenly Shep has PTSD.
Then Kai Leng... Or how my choice about the Rachni ended up not mattering and had the Rachni become just a number to add to my "Galaxy War Effort". The disappointing Citadel and the "sidequests" that literally just had you dump a probe on a planet. Oh, the planet probing... yeah that was dumb as well. The pilot's weird sex robot (Edi? I can't remember). Sidequest tracking not being a thing in a RPG (?!).
And of course, the fucking ending...
Yeah the game had good parts too, but they're overshadowed by the bad ones for me. I played the game twice, then shelved it forever. I sold my Mass Effect merchandise. Mass Effect was now dead to me :(. I didn't even play the DLC, though I still intent to because that Citadel DLC sounds like it might help me get over my disappointment and give the game a proper send-off.
I'm playing Anthem now though, with N7 armor and all, because despite my bitterness over ME3, I still really hold my memories of ME1 and ME2 and ok, the good parts of ME3 dear. (I never played Andromeda...)
Not just about the ending either. The opening act was atrocious. It started with the stupid running animation, how weird and glitchy Anderson moved, and that stupid ghost kid. Then the nightmare scenarios. My Shep lost so many crewmates, had made the most difficult choices you can imagine, lost her lover, but one kid dies (ok I admit, it was the only child in the entire Mass Effect universe so maybe a big deal) and suddenly Shep has PTSD.
Then Kai Leng... Or how my choice about the Rachni ended up not mattering and had the Rachni become just a number to add to my "Galaxy War Effort". The disappointing Citadel and the "sidequests" that literally just had you dump a probe on a planet. Oh, the planet probing... yeah that was dumb as well. The pilot's weird sex robot (Edi? I can't remember). Sidequest tracking not being a thing in a RPG (?!).
And of course, the fucking ending...
Yeah the game had good parts too, but they're overshadowed by the bad ones for me. I played the game twice, then shelved it forever. I sold my Mass Effect merchandise. Mass Effect was now dead to me :(. I didn't even play the DLC, though I still intent to because that Citadel DLC sounds like it might help me get over my disappointment and give the game a proper send-off.
I'm playing Anthem now though, with N7 armor and all, because despite my bitterness over ME3, I still really hold my memories of ME1 and ME2 and ok, the good parts of ME3 dear. (I never played Andromeda...)
I know people dislike it but I adored it. Mordon's fate alone was worth the price of admission. Rare occasion that I actually felt something during a video game, " Had to be me, someone else might have gotten it wrong..." Broke my heart.
I'll admit some of the highest highs in the franchise are in this game (Tuchanka's story arc for example, or the interparty dynamics both in quantity and quality) but this game is such a mess, way, way before the ending. Excusing shody plotting and writing because characters were good, or the worldbuilding had us engaged, wasn't new for fans of the franchise (ME2 is riddled with issues like these, and it's my favorite of the bunch regardless), but ME3 lowered the bar to a place were I just couldn't shove it asside. The moment Liara revealed that the plot would revolve into assemling a superweapon never spoken before, with unknown results, that's where I abandoned any hope for the narrative. The ending was just a sad but logical conclusion to a script that very clearly struggled at every step. Bioware had no idea how to conclude the trilogy, and the lack of development time hurt the script the most.
But still, the game had severe problems besides the script. Fetch quests galore, reusing barely masked multiplayer maps as sidequests, relentless pacing that lacked downtime, and overall lack of polish and presentation quality.
For me, no amount of improvements on the combat system and character progression could make up for its failings.
But still, the game had severe problems besides the script. Fetch quests galore, reusing barely masked multiplayer maps as sidequests, relentless pacing that lacked downtime, and overall lack of polish and presentation quality.
For me, no amount of improvements on the combat system and character progression could make up for its failings.
It's the only one in the series (lets not count Andromega) I never bothered to give a chance and I love ME1 & 2. I guess I could give it a chance at some point but really from what I heard from a friend it's kind of a letdown. I absolutely loved ME2 so I should have been hyped for the third but I wasn't.
Here you go.
The scene was already good on its own, despite being part of a shitty ending. The only redeeming part for me.
I also put Male Shep in there because I absolutely loathe Jennifer Hale's acting in the ME franchise.
MaleShep all the way !
This game (and saga) is so special to me.
I spent more than 500 hours into ME3 alone with a good 200h in the MP(PvE) unlocking every characters and weapons with friends. It was really super fun.
+ the characters and story were absolutely amazing. Mordin's fate, The Geth, Tali, Thane, Legion, Cerberus, Earth...
No other video game touched me as the Mass Effect trilogy did back in the day. It was really something.
If you never played Mass Effect you are passing some of the best video games and charcters/stories of ALL Time!!!
I still want see Mass Effect 4 around 100 years later.
Kinda of a "The Next Generation" for the universe.
On these good words: "Keelah se'lai"
BioWare #MassEffect #N7
"An End, Once and for All:"
https://youtu.be/TLxv_g_zQkY
I spent more than 500 hours into ME3 alone with a good 200h in the MP(PvE) unlocking every characters and weapons with friends. It was really super fun.
+ the characters and story were absolutely amazing. Mordin's fate, The Geth, Tali, Thane, Legion, Cerberus, Earth...
No other video game touched me as the Mass Effect trilogy did back in the day. It was really something.
If you never played Mass Effect you are passing some of the best video games and charcters/stories of ALL Time!!!
I still want see Mass Effect 4 around 100 years later.
Kinda of a "The Next Generation" for the universe.
On these good words: "Keelah se'lai"
BioWare #MassEffect #N7
"An End, Once and for All:"
https://youtu.be/TLxv_g_zQkY
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They did this with Mass Effect 2 as well. I specifically chose not redeem the DLC code that was included in the box and apparently missed out on one of the better characters.
I couldn't even make it past the intro because of this. It's a shame how FemShep seemed to be an afterthought for them. Even in the first game, you get a body-scan of a male model for the default male Shephard, and bad looking generated characters (with terrible hair) as your female options.
The original Mass Effect is an amazing game, and I really disliked what they did with turning Mass Effect 2 into an action game - seeing Giant Bomb play through it again recently has only reaffirmed my feelings on its awful and excessive combat sequences.
Every time I have tried to play Mass Effect 3, I can't even bring myself to push on past its awful intro sequence.
What a great summary! Sums up my feelings well :)The ending is still a trainwreck of writing, and the narrative squanders much of its own potential. It's also unapologetically pandering to hardcore trilogy fans who just want to tie up literally every single quest and character loose end, even if it means contrived cameos and convenient encounters.\
But I'll be damned if it isn't wonderfully fun to play and adventure from start to finish. Hammy it may be, but seeing so many plot threads come to fruition, and character arcs completed, really closed off the trilogy in a way few series based games have. Keeping a central protagonist and ensemble cast is an achievement in of itself. Even with the lower narrative beats, the cast is still a lot of fun, and the scenarios take you to a ton of interesting and anticipated locations. The soundtrack is dope, the sense of progression rewarding and satisfying, and the game never loses its momentum driven fast pacing as you skip between battles and encounters.
The combat is the standout. Best combat in the series. Extremely satisfying, almost surgical mastery of weapons and powers. Delicious hit and combo feedback from everything. It's a game where understanding of game systems and application of skill is immediately evident in performance. Huge assortment of enemies keep things interesting and even the encounter zones themselves are simple but generally a lot of fun to fight in. It's rarely if ever not tremendously exciting, loud and explosive, and thrilling to be on the fringe of defeat. Weapon, biotic, and tech variety is also really strong, particularly in how they can be chained together with combos.
And man, that fucking multiplayer. I think I had something like 200+ hours by the end? Easily some of EA's best output in terms of surprising quality and quantity of post-launch content. We talk shit about games-as-a-service but Mass Effect 3's multiplayer did it better than most do even today. TONS of new races and classes that had extremely distinct and original play styles. Entirely new types of weapons, tech, biotics, and more functions added that changed the class play metagame. Amazing new maps that provided more galactic location hopping than the main game. Sensible spread of difficulty types and challenges. An entire new enemy faction added (Collectors, from ME2) that further diversified the encounters.
ME3 had some fucking sour spots (*cough* ending *cough*) but I'll be damned if I didn't love the shit out of playing it. And that multiplayer is honestly some of the best gaming I have EVER had. EVER. I fucking adored it so much more than I could have possibly imagined.
The main game single player DLC is really good too. BioWare ensured each one was meaty in content and production length. Citadel is a cheesy-as-fuck addition but a fun send-off to the cast and crew, and was blatantly written as much without disrupting the canon (I mean, you literally fight yourself at the end, with your gear and upgrades and everything). And Omega, while a bit squandered, has some of the best encounters in the game and actually had me very hopeful for Andromeda.
So yeah. I dunno. Easy to reflect on the negative aspects (I'll never forget how they fucked up the ending, honestly). Easy to reflect on its weaknesses as a series whole, namely squandered opportunities and narrative beats. Easy to reflect on how convenient and cheesy it can be. But it's a really great, fun, well produced game loaded with content and a lot of love put into making it, at bare minimum, feel really good to play across a large variety of memorable scenarios. And I do think, warts and all, BioWare accomplished something with the trilogy and save-game importing that warrants praise and admiration for at least ambition that few if any other games have attempted.
Here's hoping we get a Mass Effect 4 one day, that plays to the strengths BioWare leveraged in the trilogy over their weaknesses in Andromeda.
Really can't wait to bust out my 360 as these games will be the first things I replay. Overall a great trilogy which collapsed, somewhat inevitably, under its own weight but man what a fucking ride!
Yeah, but I found the cast of ME3 to be seriously lacking. ME2, even without DLC, has an insanely good cast of characters. It's bad either way but it annoyed me way more in ME3.
With the Extended Cut, the ending was fine. This Trilogy is magical, something no game company has been able to replicate, especially not BioWare itself.
I need to do a replay soon. I hope they get X enhanced before I start.
I need to do a replay soon. I hope they get X enhanced before I start.
I was going to type a long rant about the ways this game disappointed me and the funk I was in after it, but like EatChildren says its easy to the reflect on the negatives, and I did enough of that in the year or two after playing ME3.
Heres hoping the series makes a comeback in some form at some point, in spite of its fumbles It is a great universe and it would be a shame to see it relegated to the dustbin of dead sci-fi series.
Heres hoping the series makes a comeback in some form at some point, in spite of its fumbles It is a great universe and it would be a shame to see it relegated to the dustbin of dead sci-fi series.
Mass Effect 3 is a really weird game because there's so much that I like about it, but there are also so many areas that left me scratching my head at the decisions made.
The game's development was definitely rushed. EA originally wanted it out in Fall 2011... When ME2 had released in January 2010. I can't imagine what the game would have looked like had they released in that time frame. Apparently the PS3 version also held back the game quite a bit - as mentioned by a BioWare Developer during Edmonton Expo 2012, "pretty much every cut" they had to make was to make it work on that console. While I'm sure "every cut" is a slight exaggeration, it has been mentioned that the reason holstering your weapon was cut was because of console memory limitations, and the PS3's memory setup is well known for being a pain for developers. The game does play very well on PC and 360 (and XB1 BC), so it is clear BioWare became very well accustomed with Unreal Engine, especially when you look back at ME1's release on 360. Shame they're stuck on Frostbite now.
Outside of the technical aspects, both the introduction and end of the story are pretty poorly done. Enough has been said on the end already, but I really must highlight how strange the opening to this game felt to me.
I remember reading about BioWare having grander plans for the introduction. Something about a trial being held for Shepard, which would not only do a better job at explaining why he/she was in custody but also allow you to organically select key decisions from the previous games if you were using a fresh save. What we got instead was a rushed introduction that has one throw-away line explaining why Shepard was detained if you imported a character that completed Arrival in ME2. I'm also not a fan of the way Vega was introduced. I don't have a problem with narratives introducing us as the player/viewer to characters our protagonist already has a history with - in fact I think it can be a great way to flesh out a character - but I don't think it was the right way to introduce Vega. If I'm remembering correctly, Vega was designed to have the perspective of a player new to the Mass Effect series (side note: The game's marketing really pushed this as "the best place to start"), and I feel him being shown to already have a relationship with Shepard is not only detrimental to this goal but also incredibly jarring for returning players. People who have spent hours across multiple games building their version of Shepard are now given a new relationship they didn't form. It's a minor point in the grand scheme of things, but it stuck out to me. I would have preferred Ashley/Kaiden being the one to escort Shepard to the meeting.
Anderson stepping down from being the councillor also always bothered me because, honestly, who the hell picked Udina to be the human councillor? I've never played ME2 with a non-imported save, but was Udina the default for that? It's just so bizarre to me that they would seemingly go out of their way in the first game to make the player want to choose Anderson as the councillor only to backtrack on that in such a big way.
I think more than most parts of the game, the intro is a victim of rushed development. As someone from the area, I did love seeing the ME version of Vancouver though.
It's easy to criticize ME3, but there are a lot of great things in it. The combat felt phenomenal. The weight system was a really smart way to tackle the weapons selection. The multiplayer had me hooked and was surprisingly forward-thinking in its content delivery. The Genophage quest arc is incredibly well designed, pulling in your choices from the previous games in meaningful ways. I've never had this happen in my playthroughs, but I think it's awesome that
Finally, I will say ME3 has without a doubt the best DLC of the series.
Edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention the kid in the intro and everything that stemmed from that. Let's just say the less said about that the better...
The game's development was definitely rushed. EA originally wanted it out in Fall 2011... When ME2 had released in January 2010. I can't imagine what the game would have looked like had they released in that time frame. Apparently the PS3 version also held back the game quite a bit - as mentioned by a BioWare Developer during Edmonton Expo 2012, "pretty much every cut" they had to make was to make it work on that console. While I'm sure "every cut" is a slight exaggeration, it has been mentioned that the reason holstering your weapon was cut was because of console memory limitations, and the PS3's memory setup is well known for being a pain for developers. The game does play very well on PC and 360 (and XB1 BC), so it is clear BioWare became very well accustomed with Unreal Engine, especially when you look back at ME1's release on 360. Shame they're stuck on Frostbite now.
Outside of the technical aspects, both the introduction and end of the story are pretty poorly done. Enough has been said on the end already, but I really must highlight how strange the opening to this game felt to me.
I remember reading about BioWare having grander plans for the introduction. Something about a trial being held for Shepard, which would not only do a better job at explaining why he/she was in custody but also allow you to organically select key decisions from the previous games if you were using a fresh save. What we got instead was a rushed introduction that has one throw-away line explaining why Shepard was detained if you imported a character that completed Arrival in ME2. I'm also not a fan of the way Vega was introduced. I don't have a problem with narratives introducing us as the player/viewer to characters our protagonist already has a history with - in fact I think it can be a great way to flesh out a character - but I don't think it was the right way to introduce Vega. If I'm remembering correctly, Vega was designed to have the perspective of a player new to the Mass Effect series (side note: The game's marketing really pushed this as "the best place to start"), and I feel him being shown to already have a relationship with Shepard is not only detrimental to this goal but also incredibly jarring for returning players. People who have spent hours across multiple games building their version of Shepard are now given a new relationship they didn't form. It's a minor point in the grand scheme of things, but it stuck out to me. I would have preferred Ashley/Kaiden being the one to escort Shepard to the meeting.
Anderson stepping down from being the councillor also always bothered me because, honestly, who the hell picked Udina to be the human councillor? I've never played ME2 with a non-imported save, but was Udina the default for that? It's just so bizarre to me that they would seemingly go out of their way in the first game to make the player want to choose Anderson as the councillor only to backtrack on that in such a big way.
I think more than most parts of the game, the intro is a victim of rushed development. As someone from the area, I did love seeing the ME version of Vancouver though.
It's easy to criticize ME3, but there are a lot of great things in it. The combat felt phenomenal. The weight system was a really smart way to tackle the weapons selection. The multiplayer had me hooked and was surprisingly forward-thinking in its content delivery. The Genophage quest arc is incredibly well designed, pulling in your choices from the previous games in meaningful ways. I've never had this happen in my playthroughs, but I think it's awesome that
Mordin can survive if certain criteria are met. Unfortunantely one of that criterium is having Wrex dead in ME1, so you have to choose which of the series' best characters you want alive when its all said and done.
Finally, I will say ME3 has without a doubt the best DLC of the series.
Edit: I can't believe I forgot to mention the kid in the intro and everything that stemmed from that. Let's just say the less said about that the better...
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I played it after all the dlc's had released and it was great,missed the side quests though.I think it would have been a much poorer game in it's vanilla form.
I love how the ending was literally pick blue/green/red to save the galaxy,lol.
That must have been some kind of insider developer joke.....surely?
I love how the ending was literally pick blue/green/red to save the galaxy,lol.
That must have been some kind of insider developer joke.....surely?
The ending is still a trainwreck of writing, and the narrative squanders much of its own potential. It's also unapologetically pandering to hardcore trilogy fans who just want to tie up literally every single quest and character loose end, even if it means contrived cameos and convenient encounters.\
But I'll be damned if it isn't wonderfully fun to play and adventure from start to finish. Hammy it may be, but seeing so many plot threads come to fruition, and character arcs completed, really closed off the trilogy in a way few series based games have. Keeping a central protagonist and ensemble cast is an achievement in of itself. Even with the lower narrative beats, the cast is still a lot of fun, and the scenarios take you to a ton of interesting and anticipated locations. The soundtrack is dope, the sense of progression rewarding and satisfying, and the game never loses its momentum driven fast pacing as you skip between battles and encounters.
The combat is the standout. Best combat in the series. Extremely satisfying, almost surgical mastery of weapons and powers. Delicious hit and combo feedback from everything. It's a game where understanding of game systems and application of skill is immediately evident in performance. Huge assortment of enemies keep things interesting and even the encounter zones themselves are simple but generally a lot of fun to fight in. It's rarely if ever not tremendously exciting, loud and explosive, and thrilling to be on the fringe of defeat. Weapon, biotic, and tech variety is also really strong, particularly in how they can be chained together with combos.
And man, that fucking multiplayer. I think I had something like 200+ hours by the end? Easily some of EA's best output in terms of surprising quality and quantity of post-launch content. We talk shit about games-as-a-service but Mass Effect 3's multiplayer did it better than most do even today. TONS of new races and classes that had extremely distinct and original play styles. Entirely new types of weapons, tech, biotics, and more functions added that changed the class play metagame. Amazing new maps that provided more galactic location hopping than the main game. Sensible spread of difficulty types and challenges. An entire new enemy faction added (Collectors, from ME2) that further diversified the encounters.
ME3 had some fucking sour spots (*cough* ending *cough*) but I'll be damned if I didn't love the shit out of playing it. And that multiplayer is honestly some of the best gaming I have EVER had. EVER. I fucking adored it so much more than I could have possibly imagined.
The main game single player DLC is really good too. BioWare ensured each one was meaty in content and production length. Citadel is a cheesy-as-fuck addition but a fun send-off to the cast and crew, and was blatantly written as much without disrupting the canon (I mean, you literally fight yourself at the end, with your gear and upgrades and everything). And Omega, while a bit squandered, has some of the best encounters in the game and actually had me very hopeful for Andromeda.
So yeah. I dunno. Easy to reflect on the negative aspects (I'll never forget how they fucked up the ending, honestly). Easy to reflect on its weaknesses as a series whole, namely squandered opportunities and narrative beats. Easy to reflect on how convenient and cheesy it can be. But it's a really great, fun, well produced game loaded with content and a lot of love put into making it, at bare minimum, feel really good to play across a large variety of memorable scenarios. And I do think, warts and all, BioWare accomplished something with the trilogy and save-game importing that warrants praise and admiration for at least ambition that few if any other games have attempted.
Here's hoping we get a Mass Effect 4 one day, that plays to the strengths BioWare leveraged in the trilogy over their weaknesses in Andromeda.
Thank you for putting into words how I feel (and always will feel) about ME3.
This deserves to be printed out and framed, Space Jesus included.
Terrible game withstanding.
ME3 fucked up. It wasn't the direction the story should have went. Shepard is Mary Sue Space Jesus who closes the book on galactic history's biggest age-old disputes and wars, are you kidding me? Who wrote this crap, when 1 and 2 had so much more nuance?
Multiplayer was the GOAT. I played it so much.
The story was rubbish. Gotta be one of the biggest letdowns ever. They should have stuck with the dark energy plotline instead of the starchild bollocks.
I wish the game had been delayed to be a cross-gen title, it needed the time. Inquistion could have then been next gen only and actually played like its PAX demo instead of the MMO-lite we got, and maybe they could have sorted out Andromeda with the added time. Anthem would have probably still been rubbish though.
The story was rubbish. Gotta be one of the biggest letdowns ever. They should have stuck with the dark energy plotline instead of the starchild bollocks.
I wish the game had been delayed to be a cross-gen title, it needed the time. Inquistion could have then been next gen only and actually played like its PAX demo instead of the MMO-lite we got, and maybe they could have sorted out Andromeda with the added time. Anthem would have probably still been rubbish though.