Mass Effect 3 Review

[mondo]

The Good:
Its a great looking, well scripted game and certainly gets everything out of the 360 which is showing its age.

Most of the missions are fun, the characters are interesting enough and the interaction in many ways is excellent.

As a cover shooter, it also works quite well.

The Bad:
Without giving any spoilers, it feels quite dumbed down in some respects and even a chore, especially the exploration. I really enjoyed how it was done in ME1, in ME2 it was ok but boring and on ME3 I have to ask what is the point? Its not even a decent distraction.

The mission system is also a bit crap, you get a load of tasks/minor side quests from people yet its less intuitive than before because it doesn't show you which systems you need to in on the star map.

The endings - you can read about this else where so I won't spoil it.

The scripted 'tear jerker' events and some of the dialogue - These are pure unadulterated cliche'd cheese. Its approaching frat boy gears or war territory. Almost like its made for emotional retards/gears of war/halo fan boys. Theres some subtle humour in it but its not the adult scifi experience of the previous games. They even dumbed down the Renegade options. Its very sanitised.

The co-op mode is fun to a point but its just the same old survive X number of waves stuff and on existing maps used in the main game so it feels like a cheap addon very quickly.

The disc swapping is daft! Its the only xbox game where you can install everything and it asks you to swap the discs over.

If it didn't have all the awesome cinematics, the well scripted events and all the other eye candy it would be a rather average RPG. Thats three games in a row from Bioware which haven't been that great. Working for EA hasn't done them any favours.

 

[Kenadian]

I'm playing the PC version of Mass Effect 3 and while I think it's a very good game and should be one that you at least try the demo, I'm not sure if it's for everyone?

The Good:

Mass Effect 3 is just one h3ll of a pretty game. Some of the landscapes, effects as well as character models are some of the best I've ever seen.

I was completely blown away by the Mars Mission in some of the outdoor areas just because there was a storm rolling in and all the textures were being affected by it. Even glass looks amazing in this game which is bizarre because it's in almost every game out there and while you know it's there, it ads nothing. In ME3, some glass is scratched or damaged in some way that really ads to the authenticity of the setting.

I also love the fact that the classes have narrowed down a bit and almost overlap in some areas. I play as a Soldier but must admit that I missed being able to use some of the biotic powers other classes had in ME2. In ME3, you can actually purchase these powers and level them up which changes your play style dramatically in some cases.

The action is fast paced and I believe that the AI tweaking has made the game more difficult than in ME2. Some missions are extremely difficult to get through because AI is coming at you from all directions and not just waves of the same AI, they mix it up a bit.

While not all of the new characters are enjoyable, there are a few in there that are absolutely awesome! I now think Edi is the sh1t and think the direction they took her in is astounding.

Music and sound are extremely well done which comes as no surprise.

Weapons are the best of any game I've played to date. There are huge gaps in benefits vs handicaps and it really makes you think about what the right weapon is for any particular situation. I've never done this much weapons switching in a game before; the only exception being Skyrim and even then it wasn't as frequent.

Now onto the bad stuff:

I got into Mass Effect 2 purely by chance. I happened across some trailers on Steam when it was on sale and thought it looked good enough to try out. The fact it was on sale did not hurt at all.

I am not a Space Game guy, in fact, I hate most every Sci Fi Game I've ever tried but Mass Effect 2 was different. It felt more human than Spacey and your decisions had true consequences and not all of them were positive.

I actually had to replay the ending of Mass Effect 2 three times just so I could finish the game with all the characters I wanted. I didn't care if I lost Jack but wanted to keep the rest of them, especially Legion.

To my surprise, few of the crew I had in Mass Effect 2 are actually with me in Mass Effect 3. Now this may change because I'm only a few hours in but I'm not holding my breath.

I also encountered either part or all of the face import bug in my first character because my haut Shepard (yes I play a chick) looked more like a bird than a hard @ss3d biatch than you can't help but want to boink anyway (you know the kind).

I've played her as a biatch from the get go and had equal amounts of Paragon/Renegade. In Mass Effect 3, getting Renegade isn't as easy as before and I'm wondering if it's that way for a reason. As mondo already alluded to, this game feels a bit more scripted and tunneled and much less free flowing and full of choice than Mass Effect 2. In fact, it doesn't feel as if anything I'm doing really has any true consequences at all.

I'm playing through in RPG and this is by far the least RPG RPG I've ever played. I control over dialog and upgrades and aside from that I don't feel like I have direct control over anything.

One thing I hated from the get go was Shepard saluting anyone. This feels completely ridiculous because while Shepard is capable of showing respect, the character has never shown any signs of conformity. IMHO, it turns Shepard into a puppet rather than an uncontrollable/unstoppable force who will stop at nothing to get the job done.

Also, the game in it's current state is buggier than hell. This really seems to be a trend with anything EA, get it out the door quick, make the money and maybe support some of it. The default field of view is absolute sh1t, it feels as if I'm playing on an old CRT rather than 1920x1080 on an HD Monitor.

Some serious bugs need to be addressed though such as:

• I've had cut scenes where you could hear the characters conversing but were looking straight at a wall.
• Field of view settings need to be addressed and either twieked or give us options.
• Enemy AI has gotten smarter but crew AI has gotten stupider.
• Crew AI not following along or getting lost in mid-mission.
• Broken uncompletable missions with random nonsensical deaths.
• More differentiation between the 3 game modes. Make RPG and actual RPG.

Conclusion:

I think Bioware did listen to the Community very much in making this game but in doing so, they dummied it down too much which I believe ruined the immersion factor at least where RPG is concerned.

I also think the game itself overall feels a bit too linear and am not a big fan of the conforming "good soldier" Shepard has become.

Overall I think the game is very good and should not be missed, especially by those who like story, choice and action. That being said, those who played Mass Effect 2 may find the last game in the series falling short from the lofty goals promised in ME2.

 

[Wotan]

Working for EA hasn't done them any favours.

And I fear it will be getting worse. In the case of ME3 I'll wait for the goty edition. Maybe they fix some of the annoyances till then.

 

[mondo]

The annoyances for me are just to core to the game.

I thought they might have learnt after screwing up Dragon Age 2 that you can't just put out a game based on a reputation and get away with it.

Sadly the metacritic reviews are all very high and it sold allot of copies so they probably think they did OK.

 

[Wotan]

You bet!