Mass Effect 3 Is a Good Game.

[bullet_sandw1ch]

I want you to imagine you are at a banquet.

However, this is not just any banquet. It is the banquet to end all banquets. It is the culmination of many banquets that have gone before. Laid out before you is a sumptuous feast, every dish and delicacy you can imagine, a vast, mouth-watering selection of old favourites and new flavours.

You eat.

It is good. It is fantastic. It is hard to imagine how it could be any better.

Then, as you sit back with a contented sigh and a full stomach, a small plate is placed before you. On that plate is a single small dollop of dog shit and a spoon.

That's the Mass Effect 3 experience.

Sure, the feast was fantastic, but guess which flavour will linger in your mouth when you think back on it. That's what people mean when they say that the whole thing was ruined.

that is the best metaphor i have ever heard.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I had promised myself not to do any more discussions of Mass Effect 3, but there is a disturbing trend out there that I have noticed, which made me want to write this thread. Before any flames or pitchforks or anything else are thrown my way, I want to say that I have played Mass Effect 3 through the end, and that I did not like the ending. With that out the way, the ending of the game has been discussed enough, and in so much detail that I'm pretty sure I could find a numbered list of every single argument that has been presented to date on either side. What I'm here to protest, however, is the somewhat disturbing number of people who say that the ending has completely ruined not only Mass Effect 3, but the entire series for them. There are some people out there who claim to be forever boycotting Bioware due to their 'hatred' of the ending. While I realize that some of these people are what the internet refers to as 'flamers' or 'trolls', I think that there are some out there who are actually serious about this point. Because I feel that I'm going to ramble on and on about this subject, I've decided to break it up into different subjects, and you can decide to click on any one you desire, or simply read them all, if you wish.

Maybe this will help you understand where this so called "disturbing trend" comes from.
Maybe it wont. Who knows, you can't stop me from writing it.
Needless to say, I'm in the group you're talking about. Down to the part about forever boycotting Bioware for lack of quality and general stupidity.

Spoiler: 1. The Story

Now, I can understand that the ending was disliked because it didn't provide closure, and barely anything that could be considered a conclusion to the story. That being said, until those final minutes, I was utterly engrossed in Mass Effect 3, just as much so as I had been in both Mass Effect 1 and 2. Perhaps even more so. The series' developers and writers have obvious placed so much time and attention into making a science fictino world, while not entirely based off of new ideas, still stands as a world all it's own. If one were to sit and read every entry in the codex, as I imagine some have, it provides some hours of extra information about the world that Shepard and his/her crew inhabit.

Now, if the ending of a story is bad, does that necessarily negate the entire story? I don't think it does. The journey has always been the most important part of any story, not the conclusion. While a bad ending can certainly make us feel disappointed or let down, it does not change the fact that the story up until that point was one of the most enjoyable I have ever played. Mass Effect is one of the few series I've seen to marry shooter concepts and story concepts in a way that actually caters to both and makes each feel well used and comfortable, even if they took a little bit of trial and error to get it right (The first was a little heavy on story elements, and the combat admittedly suffered for it).

I have an automated response to this one. "Bioware has never been good at telling stories. They are good at writing scripts."
Trying to weave a narrative around player choice is a tall order, Bioware usually handles it by making the plot rather basic. "Ancient evil force threatens known universe, build up team, stop evil thing."

Now the thing that makes Mass Effect 3's story fail on 2 very important levels directly relates to your choices.
Councilor Anderson?
If you picked Udina at the end of Mass Effect 1, great! But there is a 50/50 chance you didn't. (Do not tell me they explained that in the codex, it's important and they didn't address it in dialog)
It may seem small to some but it means that the final choice in Mass Effect 1 was just to pacify you into thinking you were making a difference.

Cerberus
There was this game called Mass Effect 2. and in that game there was a group called Cerberus who saved your life, gave you a crazy new ship, all sorts of resources and helped you save the galaxy while the Alliance sat around with their thumbs in their asses.
Now they were terrorists in the last game, but maybe you don't mind. In fact there is a 50/50 chance that you gave the Illusive Man all sorts of cool tech, and that he should be the president of the Shepard Fan Club.
Why would a Renegade Shepard even go back to Earth if Cerberus is on your side, and you know that the Alliance is just going to lock you up for consorting with them, EVEN THOUGH THEY SAVED THE GALAXY?
So that means that the final choice you make in Mass Effect 2 was just for show as well.

Mass Effect 3 should be a completely different game if you Picked Anderson, and sided with Cerberus.

To touch on the end negating the rest of the story for a second. If the end of a story leaves you as cold as ME3 did that does negate the entertainment value of the entire story.

If you take a long ride in a private limousine with caviar and champagne, then when you get to your destination, step out of the car and get kicked in the nuts with a steel toe boot, was that worth it? Unfortunately in the case of Mass Effect the first 2 games can't stand alone because they lack conclusions. They were riding on Mass Effect 3's conclusion and it failed to satisfy. That's why ME 3 ruined the whole series.

Spoiler: 2. The Gameplay

Mass Effect is a game, and one of the ways we judge games is how well it plays. Now, I am the first to admit that the first Mass Effect was a little clunky in the way it handled combat and exploration, and I do feel that the Mako could have been handled a little better, gameplay wise. That being said, I also missed the open feeling of exploration that the Mako brought to the gameplay in Mass Effect 2 and 3, but they did make up for it with a much larger variety of locations. The combat, however, was thoroughly enjoyable in both the second and third games. The changes to the combat system made it more responsive, and, in essence, more enjoyable. I also applauded the change in the inventory system, which was oversized and complicated in the first Mass Effect, a relic of the RPG systems still inherent within the game itself. By Mass Effect 2, however, I feel that Bioware had a much better system for the inventory, and a more realistic one, rather than carrying hundreds of tons worth of items in an inventory.

All of the changes made in Mass Effect 2 were arguably for the better, and most of them were carried on into Mass Effect 3, with some more smoothing and tweaks that made the playing of the game even more enjoyable. The further focus on the cover mechanics, an increased look at the weapon systems in the game, and more attention paid to the powers and abilities gained by leveling made it an extremely fun experience overall. The dialogue system, first introduced in Mass Effect, and made more interactive in Mass Effect 2 through the use of interrupts was, to my mind, just as integral to the game experience in the third game as it was in the first two (Note: Still not including the ending in this). I don't understand how any person could find fault with the gameplay of the third game.

We obviously did not play the same game on this point.

Shooting
Do you really think that ME3's controls are responsive? The "A" button is so cluttered with opposing commands that it's practically impossible to do anything in that game.
Do you want to take cover?
Do you want to sprint?
Do you want to cartwheel?
Do you want to leap over cover?
They're all on the "A" button. Mass Effect 3 has the worst controls I've ever experienced and yes I have played Amy. Every time I die it is a direct result of the A button not doing what is should have done.


The A.I.
Improved enemy A.I. is usually a good thing, but coupled with the shit controls and the even shit-er friendly A.I. it just makes the combat more frustrating.

The Inventory
Yes I don't miss lugging around a million pounds of crap with me, the inventory system peaked at ME 2. Pretty much because all the guns are open to all classes there's no reason not to use the 1 or 2 guns that work the best for you on all your playthroughs. I can tell you right now that I will never touch a pistol, shotgun, or SMG in ME 3. You might say that's a me problem and not a game problem but in ME 2 I had to use different guns depending on what class I picked and the variety worth having the crappy weapons. Now If I'm not using the Mattock and the Viper I'll feel like I'm only handicapping my self and might as well be playing drunk or blindfolded.

The Disturbing Lack of Verity
So what can we do in Mass Effect 3?
Shoot guys.
Use Powers on guys.
Talk to people.
Scan the galaxy map.
That's it.

Even in ME 2 there was:
The Hammerhead tank
Bypassing locks
Hacking security
The sucide mission had you managing your squad.
You could ook for Anomalies. You know I thought when they replaced planet exploration with planet scanning that was the worst thing they could have done. But now they find a way to make planet scanning suck even harder. You could at least get some entertainment value out of hitting a really big spike in resources, and they all had tangible effects because you needed to upgrade your gear. And finding Anomalies was like icing. Now you just scan around and there's only one thing on each planet. And the Reapers. What's with the Reapers? I thought the Normandy was supposed to be faster than Reapers. So if you don't find all the resources by the time the Reapers invade you just reload your last save until you find them and go strait to where the blips are. All they did was add loading screens and repetition to the scanning mechanic. Then everything you find gets added to that soulless EMS bar. [shudder]

Dialog system
Commander Shepard Doesn't exist any more. (This is not about the face importing bug. Although that is certainly part of it.) The dialog choices have been boiled down to irrelevance. All the choices were cut down to "Paragon" and "Renegade" no Neutral, no persuade, no intimidate, (Except in certain situations) there's not nearly as many chances to investigate as there were. and in most of the cases the Paragon and Renegade options are saying the same damn thing. When I play an RPG I expect to be able to RP, and in the case of Shepard who's personality has been growing over two games and a back story, being forced to break your personality down into either nice or ***** for the final installment is BULLSHIT!

More than half the time I was faced with the "But Commander Shepard wouldn't say either of those things." dilemma. And to make matters worse for me, I have 7 Shepards each with unique personalities that I've created over the course of ME 1 and 2. All of them are reduced to the same two people in the last game.

Spoiler: 3. The Characters and World

Now, I felt that this could be adequately explained by content that I've written before, so...

Mass Effect to me is special, because it not only provides a tight, clean, and utterly unique science fiction experience, but because it honestly makes you care about the individuals within that universe. Through your interactions with the people and races in the Milky Way galaxy, you and your Shepard become invested, in one way or another, in the world and the characters that inhabit it. I became so enamored of the shipmates and friends that Shepard met and gathered on his travels that many of the moments in the game still stay with me. I wonder how many of us can still remember the first time we met Wrex, or Garrus. Ashley, Kaiden, Liara, Tali'Zorah. These are names that still strike at me, because of the choices I made in their evolvement as characters in a story that spans hours upon hours of gameplay.

Mass Effect has been one of a very small number of games that truly encourages us to not always imagine the big picture, but to look back at the smaller details, the tiny stories within the vast epic that flush out the character of the world itself. The constant financial machinations of the Volus, The horrors that the Krogan suffered through the genophage, or the difficult decisions that Salarians had to make. Even events before the series found importance, the First Contact war between Turians and Humans leaving a lingering animosity between the two species, a cold civility.

In this view of retrospective, Mass Effect 2 drove gamers even deeper into the lore of the galaxy. We were introduced to the seedy, exciting underbelly of the stars, away from the bright lights and flowing water of the citadel, to the dangerous apartments and nightclubs on Omega. Afterlife is still (to my mind) one of the best clubs/bars ever found in a video game, and it also provided a new face, the dangerous Asari Aria T'loak. Although a vague and mysterious individual, the few small pieces of information that Shepard discovers about her past paint the portrait of a life lived on the edge, far removed from the bright, civilized image of Asari portrayed by the individuals in Mass Effect 1.

The Krogans were fleshed out as well, their barren, dusty world of Tuchanka brought to life with history and desperation, the krogans having destroyed their own world with nuclear war. There, if the proper decisions were made in the first Mass Effect, we were reunited with Wrex, who was actually one of my favorite characters from the first game.

As Mass Effect 2 brought us back to the old connections we had formed in the first game, it also brought forth new ones, and gave us the opportunity to invest as much, if not more, in them. The 'perfect' Miranda, focused on her work and her responsibilties in Cerberus. Jacob, whose doubts colored his relations with the organization he worked for. Mordin, the brilliant and loquacious Salarian, who had lived a complicated life before arriving on the Normandy, involved in a restructuring of the Genophage. Jack, the cold and dangerous biotic experiment, whose past hid more than she was willing to reveal to most people. The list goes on with Samara, Thane, Grunt and Legion, as well.

Throughout my playthrough of Mass Effect 3, I found myself easily slipping back into the world and characters of the game. (Effectively, massive Spoilers follow hereafter, but I'm not done yet, sorry)

The choices I had made in the past two games all came back to follow me through the climactic story of the third, characters that I had met, shipmates that had followed me, friends that I had made. They lived, they laughed, they drank, and some of them died (RIP Mordin Solus, hero of the krogan people, and Legion, the first Geth to truly develop individuality, Kal'Reegar, the Quarian who saved Turians by repairing their communications under fire, and many more), while Shepard raced through the universe, trying desperately to recruit further help for the war back home. I felt deeper connections to the characters than ever before, desparate because of their plight, and what little they could do about it as individuals. Garrus, pulled into Turian military matters, forced to make decisions that could save or doom his entire planet. Tali, placed in a position of power that practically gave her power over the Entire Migrant fleet, the decisions that she made echoing throughout Quarian history. Liara, watching the destruction of her homeworld, Thessia. At the same time, the player stopped and grabbed at what small victories they could find. The individuality of EDI, as she pursued deeper understandings of sentience, what romance actually meant. James Vega's new outlook on the series providing a viewpoint completely different from the other members of the crew. Even meeting old crewmembers like Grunt, Samara, Thane, and Jack were small victories in their own right, a reckoning back to decisions that had saved them.

All of the decisions made throughout the series felt important, like I had actually done something right, saving Maelon's data so that the genophage cure could be completed, Letting the Geth rewrite themselves and find their own individuality, working together with the Quarians for the first time since their creation. Turians and Krogan setting aside their old differences to join together against a much larger and more dangerous threat. I was proud that I had brought the full force of the galaxy to bear on the Reaper fleet, confident that I could stop them, with my full bar of War Assets, so painstakingly filled and padded with every detail I could find, even investing time in the multiplayer (which actually works quite well, despite my initial hesitations at first hearing about it.) so that I could boost my galactic readiness to full. Armed with the might of the galaxy, I set forth to prove once and for all that the organic beings of the galaxy would not be forced to relive the cycle of processing any more.

And then, as we all know, came the ending. But that, as mentioned, has already been discussed.

Yeah, can't argue there. Mostly.
I did think it was a shaft that we never actually got to see Kal'Reegar in a scene.
Gianna Parasini, or Emilie Wong never made an appearance. Which sucked.
Morinth's cameo was the highest degree of bullshit I could think Bioware was capable of pulling. Seriously, look it up.

And how about that new character. Diana Allers. Why is Jessica Chobot in this game? She sets a new low for voice acting in this series. And there's already a reporter character.
We never got to see a female Turrian.
and do I even have to mention Tali's face?

Is that nitpicking? maybe. I would be lying if I said it didn't bother me though.

Spoiler: My Conclusion/ Wrapping Up

I believe that Mass Effect 3 is still a great game, no matter what the ending might hold, because of the content that it holds within it. The characters, the world, the gameplay, everything that has been filtered through the first two games and continues to enrich and complete the experience that is, to me, definitively Mass Effect. I loved Mass Effect 1, I loved Mass Effect 2, and I love Mass Effect 3. I do not believe that this is the end of gaming as we know it, despite several journalists and forum posters claiming that to be so. I don't think that the ending of Mass Effect 3 is proof that Bioware is circling the game as a developer, in fact I find it quite ridiculous.

Now, I am by no means qualified to present any opinion at all, but this is simply my point of view on the matter. I'm not a journalist, I'm not majoring in any literary field. I'm a marine transportation major, really. I am, however, a gamer, and I feel that I had to present my point in the best way that I could, no matter how many/few people will actually read it.

Thank You
-Izzy

Did that help you understand all the people who disagree with you? Convert you? Or did I just waste your time?
Just to let you know I don't think you're wrong or anything like that, I just like typing my own opinion.

 

[Aprilgold]

I suppose my real question is... how? What exactly makes the games unplayable now? I've seen the ending, I hate it...but the first thing I did was go back to mass effect 1 and start a brand new playthrough... I guess I just don't understand the reasoning here...

Because theres no replay value. You gain nothing for doing something a different way, and the gunplay is so average and shepherd can use every gun so different classes don't matter either.

Point, I could have gone through the entire game and did the worst possible job at playing it I could manage and still get the same ending as someone who did everything. Isn't that a kick in the teeth?

Its the end of the series and that is the ending, period. Why re-read Harry Potter when you already know how it all ends. A narrative can only be read through once, and unless it has moments where your choice matters that changes the ending, there is no point to replay it.

Mass Effect 3 had a ton of flaws, mainly ones that were likely caused by the dev team being rushed. Broken quest system, broken imports, mundane combat and broken narrative choice. If your fans think that "It was all a dream" is a better ending then yours, you have fucked up.

 

[Balmong7]

I am involved in a lot of community theatre. one of the things the director always tells us that the audience will remember two things. The beginning, and the ending. So you had better work on those two segments the most.

After I beat Mass Effect 3 I couldn't even look back on the fun I had until a few day's later when I had cooled off and sat down to play multiplayer. All I could remember was the horrid ending that left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't remember the middle.

 

[Evan Lichty]

The choices you made up to this point are as important as ever because you as the player can use this moment (before selecting the endgame light colour) to reflect on those dozens of ours that brought you here. Feel me? The choice to break the cycle asks the player to do something rarely achieved in video games. One would have to look all the way back to Planescape Torment to find an ending with such profound implications (also, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream).

Comparing Bioware to Harlan Ellison?

That one's a tough sell, eh? Admittedly, I appreciate Ellison's work on a much deeper level. I'm just trying to tie down the point that the ending works for the series. We don't need to see every consequence play out because it's just not important; in fact, it would be patronizing. Mass Effect has nowhere near the depth of, say, the original Fallout where the 'aftermath brief' ending was worthwhile and generally expected. So in 3 we end the Reaper threat by reshuffling the whole damn system, erasing the very category of Reaper as well as everything else. The Crucible is a clear plot device offering a fairly predictable conclusion (well, in hindsight I suppose).

 

[VeryOddGamer]

Yes, ME3 is a great game. It's just that ending that destroyed almost all replay value for me.

 

[Warachia]

Snip

We were playing the same game regarding the controls right? Because whenever I used the A button (or any other for that matter) it did exactly what I wanted it to at that time, when I wanted to roll, I rolled, when I wanted to take cover, I took cover, and regarding story, how exactly is being good at writing scripts a bad thing? How exactly is it that much different than being good at storytelling? And if you do have a good story, for a game you'd need to adapt it to a script anyway, same with movies, plays, and even some excellent books I've seen, where they follow along with already done clichés, but do it in different ways to keep you interested, and besides that, a script IS a type of story, that's like saying what kind of tea somebody prefers instead of "they like tea" when I ask what drinks a person likes, it really makes no difference.

Although the main reason I'm replying to you is because you are one of the few people who didn't start talking about the ending, I love how a topic that says (in the first post) that the ending has been discussed to death so we don't need to do it here, gets people arguing about said ending anyway.

 

[The_Darkness]

I've seen a lot of people saying that nothing is gained by playing a second time because you'll end up in exactly the same place.

I'm sorry, but, no. Maybe this is a different worldview but... if I take a walk up a mountain, I'll eventually return home evening, same as if I take a walk along the beach. That's two different experiences, with the same endpoint. Enjoy the moments as they come, live in the present a bit more, focus on the journey, all of those cliches. Why? Because at the end of the day, (to journey into existentialism for a moment) we're all going to end up dead, decaying, and eventually turned into dust. Does that invalidate every moment of our lives? Does it make all those lives equivalent?

No.

Neither does a less-than-perfect ending to an otherwise awesome game undo the awesomeness of the game. Whether you rewrite the end of ME3 in your head, hold out for an ending DLC, or just switch off the game when...

Spoiler

Shepard gets flash-fried by Harbinger

Or maybe even just put up with the way it was written. Enjoy everything that came before. Ignore the ending if it's that bad.

 

[Appleshampoo]

The game itself is one of the best I've ever played. I enjoyed every minute of it, up until the ending. The game ended for me when Shepard got pwned by the lazer and the Earth died.

 

[MomoElektra]

I suppose my real question is... how? What exactly makes the games unplayable now? I've seen the ending, I hate it...but the first thing I did was go back to mass effect 1 and start a brand new playthrough... I guess I just don't understand the reasoning here...

I spent three games fighting the reapers, trying to stop them from a galactic wide holocaust.

The end forces circular logic built on a faulty premise on me, which itself is based on racist bullshit (i.e. organic/synthetic life is all the same and will all behave the same, unchangable way). I do not fight space nazis for three games only to have space hitler tell me in the end that the holocaust is actually a good thing.

Apart from everything else that is wrong with the ending, this makes the games unplayable for me.

 

[Andothul]

It's a good game, sure. The problem is, Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 are incredible games. ME3 is just good. It's a 7/10 at most no matter what idiotic reviews say. It wasn't just the ending that sucked. Everything was dumbed down. No exploration, less characters, dumber characters, less dialogue, worse visuals with amazingly dumbed down animations, narrow FOV, bad ending. Some "improvements" like new system for managing weapons is too shallow. All you had to do is have enough money to buy the upgraded version of your favorite gun. And how do you get money? You scan a system with one button to find an artifact that you overheard someone talk about on the Citadel. That's just laziness. And there aren't that many weapon mods to make the whole modification thing fun. If they had more time to make the game they could have made some planet exploration and use exploration as means to find upgrades and mods for weapons. More fun mods, not just shitty stat changing mods.
Then there's the new roll system that's mapped at the same button used for cover. Which makes things retarded especially on Insane where the tiniest mistake can cost you your life. And mistakes happen a lot with such a stupid control scheme. If you don't have enough buttons to do something then don't fuckin' do it. And of course, no holster function. Which kills the immersion completely for me. I'm running around a secure area pointing my gun at everything. It's kind of a big deal if both previous games allowed you to holster your weapon. Sounds like a minor thing, but it isn't. So don't pretend it is.

Although on the good side there's a shitload of very different guns this time around and the new weight system that lets you choose if you're going to play it more like a shooter or like a power/biotic user. That is a good system.

^This so hard.

I felt like the whole of Mass Effect 3 felt rushed and not as well done

 

[Mikeyfell]

Snip

We were playing the same game regarding the controls right? Because whenever I used the A button (or any other for that matter) it did exactly what I wanted it to at that time, when I wanted to roll, I rolled, when I wanted to take cover, I took cover,

Well, lucky you. Do you have a magic controller with 5 A buttons? I could never get the controls to cooperate with me. Maybe my Shep just loves doing cartwheels.

and regarding story, how exactly is being good at writing scripts a bad thing? How exactly is it that much different than being good at storytelling? And if you do have a good story, for a game you'd need to adapt it to a script anyway, same with movies, plays, and even some excellent books I've seen, where they follow along with already done clichés, but do it in different ways to keep you interested, and besides that, a script IS a type of story, that's like saying what kind of tea somebody prefers instead of "they like tea" when I ask what drinks a person likes, it really makes no difference.

Being good at writing scripts is a good thing. The writing in ME 3 is stellar. The characters are loveable, relatable, well rounded, flawed and all those other adjectives.
Bioware's Storytelling is bad by necessity because of the amount of player choice they want to incorporate in the narrative. So all of the sub plots have to be self contained, so decisions you make don't interfere with the main narrative thread.

So look at ME 1. The main plot is: Find Saren, stop Saren. You go to Noveria to find out where the Mu Relay was. everything else you did on Noveria was unrelated to the main plot.

Same with Ferros and Vermire. and almost everything that happened in ME 2.
It's a bunch of self contained mini-plots that are largely disconnected from the main story.

At the end of ME 2 you make big a decision that couldn't possibly be self contained, what to do with the collector base? But since it was Bioware's narrative intention to make Cerberus an enemy they had to make that decision irrelevant so that the story they wanted to tell wasn't compromised. Same thing with Udina being a councilor.
The Citadel wouldn't have been attacked so easily if Anderson was a councilor, and Earth would need a new resistance leader. The game should be vastly different if Bioware was better at weaving player choices into their stories.

And it works for Bioware, they tell excellently scripted bad stories. When they try to pile complexity on their stories it falls flat or just ends up ret-coning something and pissing half the people off.

Not really a ME 3 problem but a Bioware problem.

Spoiler

Also with player defined personality comes the "sketchy motivation conundrum" When the universe as we know it is at risk there's no question that "You" want to save it regardless of your philosophical out look (Mostly). Look at Dragon Age 2. No universe in peril, it's mostly about political standing and money making. But their in lies the problem.
(Hawke has 3 personalities. Good, Goofy, and jerk)
Good Hawke wouldn't care about the money because he'd be content to live with his family.
Goofy Hawke wouldn't care about who was in charge of Kirkwal.
And the party members in the "Universe in peril" story they'd swallow their pride and work with you for the sake of the universe. But in Dragon Age 2 They stick with you regardless of whether they agree with you or not. It doesn't make sense.
Why does Fenris stick around if you side with the Mages?
Why does Verric stick around if you don't have a sense of humor?

Although the main reason I'm replying to you is because you are one of the few people who didn't start talking about the ending, I love how a topic that says (in the first post) that the ending has been discussed to death so we don't need to do it here, gets people arguing about said ending anyway.

Yeah, I'm sick of thinking about the end too.
Mostly because I'm one of the few that don't even think the end is the worst part of the game.
I'm just glad I got to talk about all the other stuff that pisses me off about ME 3. Thanks that helped a lot.

 

[JasonKaotic]

I can't be bothered to read the whole thing, but disregarding the ending Mass Effect 3 is a great game. It's freakin' amazing. Until the end it was pretty much perfect. But then the ending came and ruined the entire franchise for me, so yeah, the ending alone pulls the game down and names it a god-awful game for me.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

Simply put, the Mass Effect series was the Star Wars of video games to me. I have been playing games for a LOOONG time, and this series was my absolute favorite, hands down. Awesome story, choices affecting outcomes, a true hero in Shepard, etc. etc. and then... comes the last 10 minutes or so of the game. Yeah, it hurt. Bad. The amount of plotholes is ridiculous, and thats just one of MANY issues I have with the end. Nothing short of Bioware giving me an ending that makes alot more sense than this is going to fix it, either. I started playing my insane difficulty playthrough after beating it, and just lost complete interest. I havent touched it since. That bothers me like nobodys business, but I intend to stick to my guns until Bioware gives the game the ending it deserves. There isnt a soul on this planet thats going to change my mind on this, either.

 

[DustyDrB]

A big part of the enjoyment of the ME series was knowing or at least feeling like your play through was unique to you. That all the choices were your choices. That's the issue many are having, that you simply do not understand. No shame on you, people enjoy different things for different reasons, but at least attempt to understand other people's viewpoints.

Even though you said no shame on me, that last statement sounds a bit like there should be shame on me. I get you though. I've been a huge fan of Mass Effect since the beginning, and the ending is the only real major blemish on the series for me. I even love the gameplay (of all of them...OK, except for the Mako).

I think what I forget that I'm weird when it comes to fictional stories. My brain can "overwrite" anything I don't like very easily (Midichlorians? What? Never heard of 'em). So in the case of Mass Effect 3, I just plan to quit right after (or right before) the big laser hits me. Then I'll just make up a better ending in my head, and it will feel more real to me than what actually happens at the end of the game.

I still do want a better ending for the series, though. It deserves better.

 

[RatRace123]

I too think it's a pretty good game, and in that respect I find it to be disappointing.

The first and second games were great, so having the third game be merely "pretty good" is a bit of a downer. It's still a very enjoyable game and more competent at being a game than a lot of other games, but I expected more from Mass Effect.

But yeah, apart from the terrible ending, the game is still pretty good.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I suppose my real question is... how? What exactly makes the games unplayable now? I've seen the ending, I hate it...but the first thing I did was go back to mass effect 1 and start a brand new playthrough... I guess I just don't understand the reasoning here...

It's kinda like sex, it can be great, but if the climax gets fucked up, it ruins the whole experiance...

I don't think that analogy works for stories. Really, I've seen/heard only a small group of people that actually think the end is the most important part(which is a really screwed up way of thinking).

The end isn't the most important part. Have you ever heard the phrase: It's not the destination that matters it is the journey getting there.

That phrase fits perfectly with stories. That is why there are movie critics that still recommend movies, even though they say in their reviews that the end of the movie is crap. They recommend movies with crappy endings in saying that the rest of the movie is worth it.

Isn't the all the rest of the Mass Effect series worth going through if it has a bad ending for the last part? Yes, yes it is totally worth it, because 5 minutes of around 150 hours is rather small and unimportant because it obviously can't carry enough weight to tip the scales.

Mass Effect adds up because it is a very long journey to the end of ME3. It really is ludicrous to invalidate or say that the whole rest of the story is ruined because of the last 5 minutes at the end.

Yeah, I consider the ending to be mediocre, but it can't take away the awesome time I had with the rest of the story from ME1 to the end of 98% of ME3.

ME3 is a good game, the ending really can't hurt it, it just makes me go "meh" at the end and say, well at least everything that came before it was awesome.

 

[Izzy1320]

Snip

For the gameplay, I've played every game in the series on the PC, not consoles. While I think that the 'A' button's uses are largely delegated to the spacebar in the PC version, perhaps there is some difference between them? I find all my context sensitive actions performing what I intend...

For the story, the councilor Udina/Anderson issue actually was first retconned in ME2, when you were given the option to change your choice about five minutes into the game. That being said, we still aren't given much reason for the change if Anderson was chosen.

As for Cerberus, I've always felt that Shepard only fought with them out of necessity, given the things they did in ME1. At the same time, I've never been much of a proponent of renegade shep, so perhaps this is where my bias stems from.

I've been a huge fan of Mass Effect since the beginning, and the ending is the only real major blemish on the series for me. I even love the gameplay (of all of them...OK, except for the Mako).

I think what I forget that I'm weird when it comes to fictional stories. My brain can "overwrite" anything I don't like very easily (Midichlorians? What? Never heard of 'em). So in the case of Mass Effect 3, I just plan to quit right after (or right before) the big laser hits me. Then I'll just make up a better ending in my head, and it will feel more real to me than what actually happens at the end of the game.

This is actually what I find myself doing in most games. Hell, I've practically written an entire scenario for Half Life 2: Episode 3 or Half Life 3 or whatever they decide to make it into, if they decide to make it. That being said, this is one of the few times I've actually felt that my personal ending makes more sense that the one I've been given, and I plan to stick with it for each of my shepards.

Uhhhhhhhggggg... massive wall of text explaining why mass effect is a good game. Yes it is... ending sucked though. Moving on.

Uhhhhhhhggggg... massive wall of text explaining why mass effect is a good game. Yes it is... ending sucked though. Moving on.

You know... if you didn't want to read the 'massive wall of text', the conclusion was supposed to be a summary, and therefore placed there for people who didn't want to read the rest of the post.

 

[Neonsilver]

The ending didn't show it, but you did cure the genophage. Or you didn't.
You did save both the Quarians and the Geth, or you didn't.
You did save all your crew member in ME2, or you didn't.

You don't need an ending to give you satisfaction for saving the Krogan. Did you even listen to the female Krogan? Did you hear Wrex saying that she's already pregnant? That was enough for me. I knew my choice did matter. I knew I saved a whole race from destruction.

If Wrex survives the final battle, he is still trapped in the Sol system. If Eve survives (in my playthrough she didn't) she might be able to change the Krogans, but I'm sure the Krogans would have a better chance to change with Wrex.
The whole point about curing the genophage was the question if the Krogans would become a new threat to the rest of the galaxy since many Krogans would like to have revenge on the Turians and Salarians for the genophage. Without the relays it doesn't really matter anymore.

When the Geth Prime came to me and offered their assistance to the Quarians, that feeling... I felt happy, no. Happy is to weak to describe it... I knew I did something good. I knew my choice was a good one. I almost cried because of happiness.

You do realize that a big part of the Quarian fleet was fighting around earth. That means they are again forced to live in their ships. Nothing has changed for them.

 

[spartandude]

Yes, it's a very good game. But the ending is so abysmal it ripples backwards through time and tarnishes all the many many hours of fun one has beforehand.

i like this guy