Mass Effect 3 Review

[Meatstorm]

I was massively disappointed by the ending as were many others

Spoiler

I don't have a quarrel about Shepard dying. Mostly i have issues with how the game was promised to offer closure and how everything you did before would affect the outcome.

What outcome? I was expecting some kind of epilogue so i could see what i had accomplished and how the choices affected the galaxy and it's races.

Instead of that we get 3 endings (Arguably 4 when taking into consideration the one in which Shepard maybe survives, Even though it is otherwise identical to the "destroy synthetics" ending.

+The amount of things that were there that didn't add up.

I just can't believe they ended this great series with a Deus ex machina with three buttons that cause different color explosions

 

[AngryPuppy]

SNIP

No matter how hard I try I couldn't possibly agree with you any harder.

 

[Frankster]

And finally finished the game. Improved version of me2 is what I'd call this game, between having way more weapon and gear selection with mods and skill trees being a bit more robust, me3 is definitly more rpgish then me2 for those who still worry about that.

Game has same strengths as me2 I feel, combat is fun and multi based on that combat has kept me playing more then I expected (also the first character I unlocked was a krogan... I love playing a krogan in multi and rampaging around in melee), presentation and visuals are slick and gorgeous and is really like playing through a space opera or an interactive film.

I loved the element of needing to gather war ressources and help for the final confrontation with the reaper, felt there was definitly a strong element of star control series in you running around and collecting the help of other races. It's a mechanic I wish to see used again in future rpgs and could have potentially made the ending cinematics even better if it took account of what your fleet composition actually was (they show the geth/quarians, but if you recruited the terminus fleet and batarians, you ain't gonna be seeing those which I thought was a missed opportunity)

Now for the ending... There's a lot to dislike starting with the whole setup for the ending which is just stupid imo

Spoiler

You participate in an infantry charge against a reaper....I thought shepard was seriously stupid when he 1v1s a reaper with the help of the quarians, but actually charging one on foot firing its death laser? It's even more stupid that both Shepard and Anderson make it, you can make it look like they are wounded all you want but they survived a direct hit with a reaper laser, that seriously killed my suspension of disbelief

.
Now when it comes to mass effect series you need to turn off your brain whilst playing to not question the plotholes but I felt I really couldnt when that happened.

Then it gets better, the actual visual setup for the final confrontation is just wonderous

Spoiler

Talking to the AI godchild with a badly wounded shepard with that melancholic music playing as the battle of earth wages around you.... That was just beautiful

but the end choices I feel suffer greatly from a lack of feedback. It's not the bitter sweet aspect that disturbs me, but the endings could have been so much better if they elaborated on them more then with just 3 short cutscenes.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I was massively disappointed by the ending as were many others

Spoiler

I don't have a quarrel about Shepard dying. Mostly i have issues with how the game was promised to offer closure and how everything you did before would affect the outcome.

What outcome? I was expecting some kind of epilogue so i could see what i had accomplished and how the choices affected the galaxy and it's races.

Instead of that we get 3 endings (Arguably 4 when taking into consideration the one in which Shepard maybe survives, Even though it is otherwise identical to the "destroy synthetics" ending.

+The amount of things that were there that didn't add up.

I just can't believe they ended this great series with a Deus ex machina with three buttons that cause different color explosions

Fair complaint, I feel. The lack of closure is definitely problematic if you believe they really meant to keep it a trilogy (which they should have).

Susan, I'm really hoping you and the rest of the staff do a podcast on the ending controversy. Personally, I agree with your review that this is a great game and I didn't like the ending either. I can't say I have read all of the previous 440 posts, so I apologize if you have already addressed my question.

You've said the ending didn't invalidate the 35+ hours of previous game play. But, I wonder if you think that the ending affects the replay value of series. Do you have any other characters besides Joanna? (Awesome name btw. I happen to share it.) If so, will you replay ME3 with them knowing the ending? If not, why not?

We're doing bonus podcasts about just Mass Effect, and one of them will be devoted entirely to the endings. We just need Paul to finish playing the game first.

As to the replayability...I don't think it hurts that overly much, at least not for me. I didn't get the ending or closure I was hoping for, but it doesn't impact my overall enjoyment of the game. I'd still find it interesting and fun to pursue other choices, like destroying the Collector Base or not getting back together with Liara in favor of shagging James.

I think that once the initial shock of the endings has worn off, people will calm down a lot. I believe a lot of this anger comes from people actually loving Mass Effect 3 - you can't get that fired up about something you don't care about a great deal. I'm not saying that I think people won't still be disappointed with the endings, I just think a lot of the rage is fueled by the trilogy coming to an end. It's like a breakup, and players got dumped.

 

[Daniel Laeben-Rosen]

I haven't gotten this game yet... I will though, just gotta finish ME2 on the 360 first. I had them on pc but, that laptop kinda got fried... Motherboard just choked due to faulty construction so all those saves are gone.

But this whole ending-thing... I'm reminded of other games, like Bioshock, which is awesome if you just consider the last hour non-canon. Much in the same way that Assassin's Creed 2, for me, ended at the start of the Carnivale because just... Too much stupid.
Or infact.. Mass Effect 2. I love that game but the very last stretch... not so much. It's something I always feel more as something to just "get through".
It kind of feels like something alot of games have done the past few years, not just the ones setting up a sequel. Awesome build-ups, disappointing endings.
But it takes alot for me to hate a game just because it ends badly. If it's "just" 80-90% awesome-fun-superfantastic... I'm ok with that.

 

[Hawgh]

While the ending was a bit of a letdown, and I'm really hoping for some sort of "Get all your closure here, folks!" update somewhere down the line, I gotta say Mass Effect 3 is one helluva game.

Journey being more important than the destination, and all that.

It just seems like they decided to concentrate all the poor design decisions in the last five minutes of the game. Was there a bet on somewhere?

 

[Buizel91]

I haven't gotten this game yet... I will though, just gotta finish ME2 on the 360 first. I had them on pc but, that laptop kinda got fried... Motherboard just choked due to faulty construction so all those saves are gone.

But this whole ending-thing... I'm reminded of other games, like Bioshock, which is awesome if you just consider the last hour non-canon. Much in the same way that Assassin's Creed 2, for me, ended at the start of the Carnivale because just... Too much stupid.
Or infact.. Mass Effect 2. I love that game but the very last stretch... not so much. It's something I always feel more as something to just "get through".
It kind of feels like something alot of games have done the past few years, not just the ones setting up a sequel. Awesome build-ups, disappointing endings.
But it takes alot for me to hate a game just because it ends badly. If it's "just" 80-90% awesome-fun-superfantastic... I'm ok with that.

I really enjoyed AC2's ending, hell i loved all of them...Revalations i liked but it could of been better.

However i admit, the Carnivale section of the game was...urgh...

 

[Daniel Laeben-Rosen]

I really enjoyed AC2's ending, hell i loved all of them...Revalations i liked but it could of been better.

However i admit, the Carnivale section of the game was...urgh...

For me.. the game just *ended* there. I trudged through the last few bits and the carnivale itself but... Not with much the same enthusiasm I had leading up to it. And I thought the ending itself was just so very stupid... apart from a certain "Shut up Ezio, I'm not talking to *you*!"-moment... that cracked me up. Almost redeemed the entire ending.

 

[satsugaikaze]

I'm getting more and more curious about the endings in Mass Effect 3, even though I've probably spoiled half of it already. Looking forward to maybe having a different opinion, since I'm one of the wierdos that kinda actually liked the ending to Fallout 3 as well.

But then again, the ending for the very first Assassin's Creed game turned me off playing the second on my Steam account.

I'm full of contradictions, =P But the endings to Mass Effect 3 do sound very streamlined. I don't think the writers at Bioware would leave the plot hanging like this, unless they already had determined something in the future to release. It sounds very deliberate and calculated. Just as Desmond stood in his bedroom and went "HURR WOT DO DIS WRITING MEAN end credits", I think Bioware have a lot planned past all this Reaper business.

Then again, I'm just speculating as usual. I don't think they'll go as far as to cave into the idea of an 'alternate DLC ending'. But if the last ten minutes or so of a 99% generally smashingly good game lacks closure, it might be possible that Bioware has deliberately planned to continue within that Mass Effect universe, except in a drastically different tangent.

/end speculation

Color me interested, either way. 20-ish hours in, this game is super tight. Undeniably good, although there does seem to be slightly less polish here and there than the demo was letting on. (Also, if I didn't feel sorry for the batarians after Arrival, I certainly do now. They have to put up with being ugly, characteristically confrontational, and now being the first people to be massacred by the Reapers.)

 

[TaL0s]

The saddest part about the end of Mass Effect 3 was the fact that the rest of the game up until the last few minutes was amazing.

 

[Reion 13]

Sooooooooooooooo...yeah. great game. Now if they could only do something about the ending.

 

[Shavon513]

"Yes, it's the ending the series deserves."

I'm guessing the reviewer either didn't play the ending, or was paid by EA to keep silent. They effectively ruined the franchise in five minutes with that atrocious ending.

 

[Mannhammer]

He said everything that i felt at the end of game, only better. Dont watch it, if you havent complete the game yet. Spoiler alert. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b33tJx8iy0A

 

[Yeager942]

The ending is terrible.

Just terrible

And not a single review has mentioned this...

 

[Susan Arendt]

"Yes, it's the ending the series deserves."

I'm guessing the reviewer either didn't play the ending, or was paid by EA to keep silent. They effectively ruined the franchise in five minutes with that atrocious ending.

As I've said several times, I finished the game before I reviewed it. That line is referring to the game as a whole, not the literal ending of the game.

Your comment about being paid by EA is laughable.

 

[Jamz]

Game industry journalists. :/ Your review went a little "easy" on the whole ending segment of ME3. Rest of it was good, but jesus.

 

[blue spartan 11]

I hoped that trend hadn't reached this place yet. Every major gaming news outlet out there is currently saying Mass Effect 3 was a perfect game, completely ignoring the ending to stay in the good graces of EA.

Instead, I come here and find a review that completely skipped over the ending as if it didn't exists.Nothing about how it ignores all your choices. Nothing about important characters (Shepard, Joker) acting completely out of character, the lack of closure, the lack of multiple endings ('cause their really is just one of them).

 

[satsugaikaze]

Just finished the game proper.

Near-perfect game in my eyes. Not 5 stars, not 10/10, not 100 Metacritic score because there are things here and there that stop it from being the best game evar. Most the positives I absolutely love about it, people have mentioned before: things carrying on from ME1 and 2, super tight combat system (besides the newfangled dodge-roll and the terrible one-button-does-everything for PC), more customisation and choice that reflects RPG values.

Now the endings: I understand the rage, but I don't align myself with it. Sure, the execution could have been handled far better, a lot of ideas being suddenly thrown around that were barely hinted at before (ie. ending seems like part tonal shift, part shoehorning a tangent), but at the same time: the fundamental concepts behind it are... actually not a bad idea.
It just seems that people aren't willing to take the time to open their minds to the possibilities, and think about the potential ramifications without the game dictating it to them (although iirc the game actually does dictate the ramifications before the choices are made).

I don't think the ending ruins the Mass Effect franchise forever, nor does it invalidate everything that Shepard's worked up to at that point. Because if Shepard didn't do all that stuff, how could they have worked up to those different solutions? At the end of the game, players have to ask themselves: what are the significant things that have changed in the galaxy, and what good could come of this? I think so many people are angry to the point where they oversimplify things into hyperbole out of rage. Sure, there were "three different-colored explosions". But then again, at the end of Mass Effect 2, Anadius was colored either blue or red.

It does certainly make emotionally identifying with the ending difficult when it all tends to be "greater-good" stuff that doesn't tell you a lot about the implications. As for the clamour for a different ending - part of me wants them to continue with what they have. I don't have the creativity to think of how they'd continue with that, because the endings certainly do have a finality to them, but I would think there are ways of giving answers that don't involve Shepard, or completely changing the plot of the ending.

So yeah - love the game. Wouldn't have missed the experience for the world. There are things that could have been much better, of course, but imo this is a finely crafted game. Very strong contender for my personal GOTY, although considering the line-up we know about so far, there's not a lot to contend with. =P

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

"Bottom Line: Mass Effect 3 is the ending the series and its fans deserve."

You guys did actually play the game to the end before writing this review, right?

Right?

 

[Daniel Laeben-Rosen]

I assume you can read, right? Right?
Because there's an answer to that just 4 posts above you.