Did anyone love ME3?

[Acton Hank]

This game...

This game was years in the making when i fell in love with 1.

It gave me a wide range of emotions I haven't really felt with any medium, be it a movie, book or game. It raises the best of questions, the philosophical and moral ones. It makes you laugh, cry, etc.

And even the ending...it's finalistic but open ended enough for me to keep wondering. Which is what I find many people forget when they talk about the ending: Let your god damn imagination fill in the rest. Like the Synthesis ending. It honestly took me a while to get to sleep last night because I was working out what it meant.

But Mass Effect 3? If you've played the first two games, it's probably the first game I've actually shed a tear playing. The worst part is with Bioware games is that you have to set them down for a while before you can go through it again.

The ending shouldn't leave things like everything you've fought for throughout 3 games up to the imagination, it should make things like that clear defined and final, that's why it's an ending. That's what we were promised, an amazing definitive ending. What we got was rushed confused excuse for an ending that's riddled with plot holes and continuity errors that blatantly rips off the original Deus Ex and doesn't even bother telling you what your decisions meant for the galaxy.

 

[TheBoulder]

I love the game, I think it's the best in the series. Except the end. I could do without the end.

 

[Navvan]

As someone who "hates" the ending I will tell you that the game overall is still worth it and a fantastic experience. I would buy and play it again shitty ending and all. I'll likely play through it again a few more times over the next year or two.

However that ending was about as fun as a brick to the face. I probably will just leave my games saved right before that ending unless its fixed. After all it doesn't matter how you play the game since you get all the options/endings so long as you have 5K+ war assets.

 

[Zen Toombs]

I bought ME3 based on the escapist's recommendation, and I'm disapointed to say the least. I used to rely on the escapist not to tell me a game is great when it isn't. But maybe it's just my opinion, and they haven't started whoring themselves after all, so if you agree with the reviewer that "holy crap, this game is outstanding", please let me know.

Building Consensus....

Consensus achieved. All but the last five minutes of the games was fantastic. However, if one has not played the previous two games, it will not be as interesting. The main appeal of the game comes from interaction with the characters and building relationships over the course of three games. If a character like dies when you just started the Mass Effect series, it means a lot less than if you've built a relationship with the character.

 

[Taldeer]

I loved it, I really did, but I'd have to say I agree with the people who said that it takes the first two to really appreciate. There are numerous scenes in ME3 which fall short in a fresh play-through, with a new character, because many of the old companions don't show up anymore. There's a wealth of emotion and lore and investment which only shows up if you're a long time player of the series, as far as I could see. Of course, there's a bias there, unavoidable. In any case, I don't know if the new player's experience can truly compare to an old player's, but on the other hand, I'm not sure how the writers could've done a better job of balancing out all the choices and events. It's as good as it can be, in my opinion. Including the endings. So there.

 

[Neonsilver]

I'll quote myself:

Imagine going to a restaurant. There are some pieces you might not like, but in general the food is good.

And as a dessert the cook comes out of the kitchen and shits on your plate.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Damn straight. Ambiguous endings are the best type of all. It ends how you want it to end.
Case in point, were there no Extended Universe, Star Wars ends with the 2nd Death Star blowing and Ewoks... Ur telling me ME3's ending was WORSE?

 

[SilverIntoSteel]

I'm going through it slowly, and i'm absolutely loving it. I was ready to pan it, but I just can't. Some of the dialogue is beyond awful, but kind of expected that. Really not looking forward to the end though.

 

[JohnGD117]

I liked it a lot. Well designed. Had a few crashing problems during load screens. Ending seemed kinda arbitrary and pigeon holed, but was the only way to be able to continue using the universe in followup titles. Too many variable were introduced to allow the universe to continue existing bearing the mark of shepards choices

 

[renegade7]

Ending was pathetic, but otherwise the game was stellar.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I personally thought that Liara's experience with Thessia and it's aftermath was one of the best examples of character development in the entire series, almost as good as, well, Lair of the Shadow Broker. Mind you, I've always liked Liara and I was romancing her at the time so maybe I'm just biased. Garrus is definitely my second favorite after her though.

Did you have Javik in your game, because I imagine without him Liara's arc probably has less impact?

Ok, I admit, the development on Liara after Thessia was well done. But who's Javik?

He's the character you get from the 'From Ashes' DLC. Do not read on if you don't want spoilers (although how you've managed to avoid them so far anyway is nothing short of a miracle...

Spoiler

He's the last living Prothean, frozen in a cryostasis pod on Eden Prime for 50,000 years.

 

[The_Waspman]

I have yet to complete Mass Effect 3, so I have no idea about what the ending is like, or why everyone is bitching about it (But I'll get there eventually). I have tried to avoid as much news about it as possible, and have only glanced at all the rage about the game. Day 1 DLC aside, I honestly do not know why so many people are raging against this game. Because it didn't live up to their impossible expectations? Because it wasn't just a massive stream of all these fanfic idea's everyone has had?

Don't get me wrong, I was converted into a Mass Effect Fanboy after playing the second one, and I think this game tops it in every way. It looks better, it plays better, I've had far greater fun with the combat (and I liked how ME2 played) and the story... I don't think there has been a single mission I've played so far (I'm about 25 hours in) that has felt like filler, or something else just crammed in for the hell of it. Some sections (I'm looking at YOU Tuchanka!) I felt were truely epic, and I have been genuinely moved at certain points.

In fact, I think the weakest parts of the game are the area's where Bioware have obviously been pandering to the fans, or throwing in little in-jokes here and there.

Personally, I don't give a shit whether or not they show Tali's face or not, or any of the other tiny pointless things people seem to ***** about. To those people I say... Get over it.

As for the ending, well, after everything that we've been through in the games, how is it possible for the ending to live up to that. Its not the destination, its the journey. Besides, there are games out there with far worse endings I'm sure (I'm looking at YOU Rage!), though I may change my tune once I complete it.

 

[Section Crow]

of course i loved it, the game was excellent the ending just kinda dropped the bar on us

but, i never really liked a good games ending, it was always the journey through the story that made up the game for me.

 

[skywolfblue]

Absolutely. I loved the whole game including the ending.

 

[bullet_sandw1ch]

I haven't played it yet, but I plan to pick it up when it's 20-30 bucks. I'm sure I'll like it though, I'm pretty easy to please when it comes to videogames.

you might be waiting a minimum of at least a year, a year and a half.maybe increase your limit to $45, or else you might not care by the time its that price.

 

[Emiscary]

I loved almost all of it, and that includes the ending. Really don't get what the fuss is about.

I understand why people dislike it, but not why they hate it this much. You 'saved' the whole damn galaxy. I don't see how that isn't closure.

I'm gonna go slowly here and spell it out since alot of you seem to be missing the point here. The ending is unsatisfying (for me anyway) because:

A) it's nonsensical and inconclusive. There's a term for that, when you fill in the blanks in fiction with something so vague and ridiculous the audience does a spit take: an http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AssPull

It's called that because as opposed to delivering on the promise the author made to the viewer (to deliver the answers to the various dramatic questions (s)he's been posing along the length of the narrative), they leave you with bullshit. And then when it goes wrong (as it so often does when you patently ignore the expectations of the demographic you're catering to) they're presented with a choice: admit they fucked up and that they owe their viewers- or pretend that their intention was to leave people frustrated and unhappy from the get go. Y'know, as an artistic statement or some shit.

And B) it claims to neatly encapsulate and do justice to not only my personal decisions, but to the themes and motifs of the games themselves up until this point. Which isn't true in either case. Doing justice to a game predicated on choices that have a real impact on the grand finale would mean delivering a grand finale that's ACTIVELY INFLUENCED BY THOSE CHOICES. Which they're not. All the endings are identical, just like any other shitty, non Bioware, non Mass Effect game that only promises to take you on a guided tour of some gray hallways and shoot some vaguely anti democratic bad guys. But this IS Mass Effect, and I DO expect a complex well thought out well written ending. And why? BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I WAS PROMISED.

Get it now? What makes me mad is not that, in the end all I got was a brightly colored flash and a credit sequence. What makes me mad is that in the end all I got was a blightly colored flash and a credit sequence, and what I was expecting was something I could conclusively use to prove that video games now actually *are* in fact the unique interactive form of art we've always hoped they could be. But instead we've been told (via silence) that: "too bad, you don't get to be satisfied, but we still get to keep your money and expect you to buy our shit. Also we think you're losers".

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

I'll quote myself:

Imagine going to a restaurant. There are some pieces you might not like, but in general the food is good.

And as a dessert the cook comes out of the kitchen and shits on your plate.

This begs the question...

"What if I leave before dessert gets served?"

 

[Da Orky Man]

It's bloody awesome. Sure, the ending wasn't what I hoped for, but for every moment up to that, I loved it. Standing on Rannoch, getting the turians and krogan to work together, having the Council 'finally' believe me about the Reapers, it was all brilliant. Despite the ending, it now ranks in my top 10 games of all time. Up there with Homeworld, Age of Empires 2, and Spybotics: The Nightfall Incident.

 

[Laser Priest]

The game is amazing.

The ending is terrible and provides the exact opposite of closure,

but everything else about the game (aside from a few minor bugs) was fantastic.

 

[Acton Hank]

This game...

This game was years in the making when i fell in love with 1.

It gave me a wide range of emotions I haven't really felt with any medium, be it a movie, book or game. It raises the best of questions, the philosophical and moral ones. It makes you laugh, cry, etc.

And even the ending...it's finalistic but open ended enough for me to keep wondering. Which is what I find many people forget when they talk about the ending: Let your god damn imagination fill in the rest. Like the Synthesis ending. It honestly took me a while to get to sleep last night because I was working out what it meant.

But Mass Effect 3? If you've played the first two games, it's probably the first game I've actually shed a tear playing. The worst part is with Bioware games is that you have to set them down for a while before you can go through it again.

The ending shouldn't leave things like everything you've fought for throughout 3 games up to the imagination, it should make things like that clear defined and final, that's why it's an ending. That's what we were promised, an amazing definitive ending. What we got was rushed confused excuse for an ending that's riddled with plot holes and continuity errors that blatantly rips off the original Deus Ex and doesn't even bother telling you what your decisions meant for the galaxy.

I'm really bloody sick of all these comparisons to Deus Ex. What, apart from the fact that you get a few choices at the end of the game, makes the decisions at all similar?!

What does blowing up every Reaper in the galaxy have to do with a communications blackout? What does fusing synthetics and organics have to do with becoming head of the Illuminati? What does becoming one with a benevolent dictator AI have to do with controlling a bunch of bots and telling them to get the hell of my planet?

Seriously, how do they compare? I'm really not getting this. I admit there were problems with the choices, in that they all lead to pretty much the same cutscene (but the implied differences being huge), but they are not Deus Ex ripoffs. Just... no.

you want to know why everyone calls the ending a Deus Ex ripoff? Because that's exactly what it is. Watch the endings from the original Deus Ex and if you don't see the blatant similarities then we have nothing more to say to each other.
And thank you for supporting my point by saying that the ending implies what happens rather than showing it, which as the end of trilogy is exactly what it should not have done.