ME3 First Impressions *Spoiler Free*

[Fappy]

Impression of playing only about four hours: Chobot is awful, awful, awful. Glad she wasn't in the first two games.

I told her to fuck off. Dealing with her is not worth 5 measly asset points.

 

[Xangba]

Man this thread is making me feel soooooo much better about pre-ordering this game, cheers for making it Fappy Anyway so far based on what you have seen where would you rate it compared to the other Mass Effect games? Also how do the Biotic abilities control? I had a lot of trouble bending them around cover in the Demo.

Biotics are smoother than two, but still not our favorite insta-use-go-through-shields abilities from one, but then again that was just a wishful dream I once had. You can cause more combos than in two, for example pull+throw will actually detonate on the affected enemy. Hitting around corners is actually easier now, because in two you had to completely arc the shot and some, like singularity, were very slow moving, causing trouble. Now the abilities fly like a bullet, and tend to do a sharp twist at the last second, making it easy to get around cover and it avoids the problem two had with accidentally arcing it into the environment, ruining your ability. Basically for an easy breakdown:
ME1: Overpowered mess that made Shepard laugh at those in front of him/her
ME2: Most enemies have defenses negating majority of effects + slow moving through the air forced you to play more carefully
ME3: Fewer enemies with defenses + fast-moving and sharp-turning through the air + most abilities make a combo allows for a much more fast-paced biotic, truly making it live up to the description of fighting without firing a single bullet.

For a biotic in ME3 you really only need to pack an SMG to take out shields, then wreck them with your biotics at +200% regen rate. By increasing weight capacity taking a heavy pistol along for added wrecking is always encouraged

P.S. Biotics need no fear of big enemies like Atlas or Brutes, as once you are down to their armor using warp+shockwave destroys them. Especially if upgrading warp to cause increased damage to target.

 

[Talvrae]

- Character models/animations/etc: I don't know what happened between games, but some characters look completely different now. Whether they are prettier now or uglier I think Admiral Hackett is the only human character that doesn't look different from ME1 and 2. Liara looks weird and it bothers me. Some of the animations, as I am sure you guys have heard or seen in the demo, are just straight up goofy.

Hackett was only in the arrival DLC, otherwise it was only his voice... part of it is to show the passage of time

 

[Amax29]

Impression of playing only about four hours: Chobot is awful, awful, awful. Glad she wasn't in the first two games.

I told her to fuck off. Dealing with her is not worth 5 measly asset points.

Wow wow wow bring it back a sec, you can just cut her out the game completely? With no real affect on the game? [Please say yes]

 

[Fappy]

Impression of playing only about four hours: Chobot is awful, awful, awful. Glad she wasn't in the first two games.

I told her to fuck off. Dealing with her is not worth 5 measly asset points.

Wow wow wow bring it back a sec, you can just cut her out the game completely? With no real affect on the game? [Please say yes]

You can tots tell her you don't want her ugly ass around

 

[PinochetIsMyBro]

Is it just me, or does a lot of the dialogue between Shep and Co. seem crappy and forced compared to the previous two games. Example:

X: Lt. Commander Y seems to have really developed as a person.
Shep: Yeah.

That's it. That's all there was to that conversation. I've had something like that happen several times and I just left the Citadel. It's depressing.

Also Chobot's voice acting is TERRIBLE, but still nowhere near as bad as her character model. What the heck Bioware? She looks like she has downs. I let her on my ship for the asset points but I have no intention of ever speaking with her again.

 

[Abbo]

I don't have the game but my brother picked it up. From what he has told me (spolier free of course) my fears seem to be coming true about this game. He's about a day in and there still is no explianation as to why your suddenly on earth, why or even how your stripped of command and why you have a new normanday, and what the heck even happened to your crew from the second game. These are huge things that should have been thought of before the game came out. Yet they seem to be more focused on just trying to get more sales from non mass effect fans.

He'll tell me later if these questions get answered but right now I'm not liking any of the single player stuff I'm hearing so far and I'm pretty pissed about it.

Well Shepard sacrificed an entire solar system, a mass relay and 300.000 Batarians to delay an imminent reaper invasion in the ME2 Arival dlc story. \ which was supposed to happen just before ME3 events.

 

[AlternatePFG]

2 hours in, only played a bit before I left the house this morning. Story (Especially how you abruptly start on Earth) seems pretty weak, but the gameplay is extremely improved and actually really fun to play now.

Lack of dialogue choices is pretty lame, but I'm really fine with it. I always played the ME series as more of a shooter anyways.

Multiplayer I haven't tried yet, but from the demo it was actually surprisingly fun.

 

[Schreck157]

The auto-save feature on the console version is now my most favorite addition. It saves (lol literally) so much time by not having to pause and go to the main menu to save.

 

[Fappy]

By the way I have put another 2 hours in and the dialogue options open up a lot more and things start to get a lot more interesting. In retrospect the opening is pretty weak. Once you get to spend a good bit of time on the Citadel be prepared to get bombarded by awesome references to the last two games. Some really funny shit!

Also for whoever was asking: Yes, you can make squadmates carry one weapon if you want them to.

 

[boag]

By the way I have put another 2 hours in and the dialogue options open up a lot more and things start to get a lot more interesting. In retrospect the opening is pretty weak. Once you get to spend a good bit of time on the Citadel be prepared to get bombarded by awesome references to the last two games. Some really funny shit!

Also for whoever was asking: Yes, you can make squadmates carry one weapon if you want them to.

Awesome, thanks for the heads up, will be picking up my copy late tonite.

 

[MetallicaRulez0]

Anyway so far based on what you have seen where would you rate it compared to the other Mass Effect games? Also how do the Biotic abilities control? I had a lot of trouble bending them around cover in the Demo.

I'm about 11 hours into the single player, and have played a ton of the MP demo. I'd rate ME3 as the best in the series, by a pretty decent margin. I LOVE Mass Effect 1, and I liked ME2 a lot, so it should say a lot that I'm enjoying ME3 this much. The gameplay is staggeringly improved over the past 2 games.

Biotic abilities control just as well or maybe slightly better than in ME2. They seem to curve more so it's easier to hit enemies around corners and behind cover than it was in ME2.

 

[Waaghpowa]

-

Just about everything you listed I agree with. Though personally, I feel a tad disappointed in the game. It could be due to the hype around the game, or it could be that I'm not feeling it this time around.

Also textures are ugly, but I'm playing on PC and I tend to notice these things.

 

[Dr. Paine]

Enjoying it so far, but I just realized I have to re-start due to starting on the wrong save file xD

Oh well, only about... what, six hours lost? I've enjoyed the story and *most* characters so far- the only one I honestly don't like is James. The references to the previous games is fun, and

Spoiler: Spoiled for some minor things

I honestly got a bit teary when going through the Normandy for the first time. All those empty spots...

I also love the fact that, for all intents and purposes, my Shepard and the new turian Primarch share the same first name xD ... then it got sad when I went to see Thane in the Citadel. I've heard rumors that you might be able to save him if he was Shepard's LI in the previous game, but... with the other rumors I've seen, I'm already preparing for his death and Shepard's. Oh well... it'll be a fun ride while it lasts, no?

Also, Biotic Charge + Nova is the most fun thing ever.

 

[Phlakes]

I've enjoyed the story and *most* characters so far- the only one I honestly don't like is James.

What he did at the end of the Mars mission redeemed him for me. He may still be Toadface McJerseyShore, but he gets results.

Anyway, keeping it spoiler free, manly tears have already been shed at the mission involving the Shroud. I can't wait to see what I'm like when the game's over. Actually, no, I can definitely wait.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

By the way I have put another 2 hours in and the dialogue options open up a lot more and things start to get a lot more interesting. In retrospect the opening is pretty weak. Once you get to spend a good bit of time on the Citadel be prepared to get bombarded by awesome references to the last two games. Some really funny shit!

Also for whoever was asking: Yes, you can make squadmates carry one weapon if you want them to.

Hey remember that time when I said it's a bad game? It was such a long time ago.

4 hours! It took this game 4 hours to become Mass Effect! 4 hours of useless gameplay, and they expect people to pay $10 for their DLC? Whoever bought that damn DLC got robbed IMO. Until I recruited Garrus this game was such a pile of crap I wanted to become a Reaper and collapse on EA headquarters. But after I completed Garrus mission the game started of, and it's actually a lot more similar to ME1 in atmosphere, and of course ME2 in gameplay. Overall it's a good game. Slow start, but it's OK now. It would be a nightmare if this game turned out to be crap. I'm glad my initial impression was wrong. It's a good game. Not perfect, but that's fixable.

Controls are still pissing me off. I'll never be able to beat this game on insanity because of the damn 'space' button doing everything and basically throwing me in front of bullets instead of into cover. There should be a different key for sprinting, cover and using things. It's really frustrating. And teammate AI is retarded. They don't follow orders, they blindly charge enemies and sometimes they just stay behind and shoot through entire buildings if there's an enemy behind. And there are some weird cutscene glitches, like invisible characters, awkward head movements and lazy eyes. This could all be fixed with a patch of course.

 

[Erttheking]

I've dumped in 8 hours and I'm loving it so far.

 

[Fappy]

I've enjoyed the story and *most* characters so far- the only one I honestly don't like is James.

What he did at the end of the Mars mission redeemed him for me. He may still be Toadface McJerseyShore, but he gets results.

Anyway, keeping it spoiler free, manly tears have already been shed at the mission involving the Shroud. I can't wait to see what I'm like when the game's over. Actually, no, I can definitely wait.

I just did this part last night myself and all I can say is...

I kind of saw it coming but it was still sad.

Also, an earlier quest involving a certain alien strike team fighting an underground cave of other old alien buddies... they pull a "Shepard runs out of the rubble" on you for a certain ME2 character and I was all like, "FUCK YEAH! I knew that wouldn't kill him!"

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Only a couple of hours in so far. Only the most minor of spoilers.

PROS

- Music is very well done. Lots of love for Clint Mansell. Also love the terrifying/bassy electronic "BWAAAAAAAAA" that comes out of the Reapers. Reminds me of the infamous bass note from Inception, and/or the sound the walkers made in the remake of WotW.
- Some of the "Reaper Destruction" tableaus are breathtaking, and very imposing looking.
- Decent atmosphere of panic/war.
- Nice to see old faces back/have more Mass Effect.
- Like some of the new enemy types, particularly the guys with the shields.
- James Vega is less annoying than I anticipated, I may actually romance him with my Femshep. Couldn't be worse than Jacob.
- I love the retrofitted Normandy. Small changes help make an old space feel new.

CONS

- No face import from characters created in ME1? Holy shit, Bioware, oversight much? Jesus.
- Some really, really questionable animations, particularly Shepard.
- Shepard's loping/slumberous gait feels agonizingly slow after playing TOR and Portal 2.
- Some of the dialogue feels a little flat. Pacing is erratic as well.
- The EXTREME urgency of the situation is completely at odds with the "fuss about the universe" RPG body of the game. This is even worse than the Darkspawn invasion in DA:O. Every time I stop to have a conversation I'm like "really?". I feel like I should be sprinting everywhere.
- Chobot is fucking atrocious. ATROCIOUS. Voice acting, terrible. Model, super terrible. I'm speechless.
- My robot dog doesn't do much. It walked in circles, then fell over. Not sure if sleeping or dead.
- Some of the lip syncing feels...not very synced. It comes and goes, but is particularly bad during the opening scenes, of all places. I half expected Godzilla to attack.
- Enemies seem higher hit point, and thus combat feels less "punchy".

 

[Fappy]

- Chobot is fucking atrocious. ATROCIOUS. Voice acting, terrible. Model, super terrible. I'm speechless.

I have no sympathy for all you saps who were like, "Oh, you're ugly and annoying? Come on my ship!" I bet every subsequent playthrough you will tell her to go to hell. Amiright?