| DarthVolod said:
Post became kind of long, but bear with me ... You are all fixating way too much on the terrible ending which is blinding everyone to the fact that the entirety of Mass Effect 3 was awful (at least when compared to the second and especially to the first game). The way I see it is that Mass Effect 1 was a near masterpiece that had a game-play style divided into 2/3 RPG and 1/ 3 shooter. This worked quite well, and nearly all the elements of the game worked perfectly to make a spectacular experience. At some point (after Bioware was scooped up by EA), the series was pushed into a totally new direction, and the previous 2/3 rpg and 1/3 shooter ratio was flipped on its head, and cover based shooting became the new focus of the franchise as was seen with the arrival of Mass Effect 2. In fairness, Mass Effect 2 did have some compelling characters and story elements, but it remains a vastly inferior effort to Mass Effect 1 precisely because it moved away from what made the first game so special, a great sci-fi adventure story mixed with a fun RPG shooter hybrid gameplay style. No longer were players hunting down rogue specters, learning about the history of the Mass Effect Universe, and experiencing revelations about other great threats to galactic peace, but instead Mass Effect 2 foced Shephard into the role of recruiting and doing favors and errands for his rogue’s gallery of supporting characters in order to go on a suicide mission which, in hindsight, was ultimately pointless when one considers the ending of Mass Effect 3. We went from a fun and rich universe in Mass Effect 1 that players wanted to explore to errand boy duty in Mass Effect 2, and, lastly, errand boy duty 2.0 in Mass Effect 3 where Shephard has to prostrate him/herself in order to please a bunch of random aliens to fight against the formerly mysterious, and now totally generic Reaper threat. Even more dramatic than the dumbing down of the plot was the transformation of the series from RPG/shooter hybrid to a Gears of War knock-off. While Mass Effect 2 effectively lobotomized the game play of one by removing armor customization, weapon customization, and 90% of the abilities and talents, Mass Effect 3 finished what Mass Effect 2 started by including a boring multiplayer mode that plays like Gears of War horde mode minus the fun, and further stripping the series of its RPG roots by adding in new game mode that let you entirely skip dialogue choices (not that the choices effect much anymore) while also removing player choice from virtually every aspect of the game. The player no longer plays a "role" as they would in an RPG, as Commander Shephard has effectively become the silent protagonist from every Call of Duty game that can simply watch while having no impact on the story taking place around them. RPGs were always about player choice, and Mass Effect has pretty much done away with that. It wasn't just the ending of that nullified the events of the previous games as pretty much every choice made in the previous Mass Effect games had no impact on any part of Mass Effect 3. At this point, I really don’t see any reason left to play Mass Effect anymore. The series had an identity crisis, and it was decided by the powers that be at EA that the series was going to become an ultra-casual third person shooter. The sad part is that the guys in charge of this franchise never seemed to realize that it was the story and RPG portion that made Mass Effect 1 so memorable, and since that is now gone we are just left with a boring and lifeless third person shooter. As much as I hate Gears of War and Uncharted, I would much rather play either one of those games over Mass Effect at this point. Neither Gears nor Uncharted are all that fun, but at least they are not in denial about being mindless third person shooters, and they do what they do better than Mass Effect does. In closing, don’t trust reviewers that gave this game its undeserved 93/100 metacritic score since they are all actually less qualified than me and you when it comes to writing reviews of videogames. We don’t get gift baskets, add revenue, and free copies of games from video game publishers so at the very least we are going to be far more impartial than the reviews of videogame “journalists.” Trust your own opinion, and the opinions of reputable people who don’t have relationships with video game publishers that would lead them to bias. I would put more faith in the user reviews on metacritic than I ever would in the so called professional reviews. Don't trust the professional reviewers in regards to this (and really any other game), and don't put so much emphasis on the crap ending as nothing in Mass Effect 3 deserves your admiration. |
very good post
OT: the ending was pretty "lack-luster" I thought it was an "okay" way to end the series :p
I really don't see why the game should be de-ducted points just because of they ending... I mean you enjoyed ME 1-3(or 2&3 for PS3 owners) and then didn't enjoy the last 10-15 minutes means the games is garbage? i seriously don't know what people were expecting to happen in the last I'd say 1 hour of gameplay...all the decisions you made between 1&2 played their course during the the events of mass efffect 3 like such as killing/saving wrex, saved the council, and who survived the "suicide mission" in ME2. Granted the decisions you made didn't have a huge effect other than depending on your war assets and the deliverance of how the mission played out. but I was pleased to see how what became of the characters of ME2(specailly Jacob)
my complaints to ME3 are
#1 like the person I quoted, the RPG elements didn't weren't there, though boiware tried, at the end of the day, you'd still be doing the shoot from cover/ dash and melle someone in the face.(maybe because I played soldier so much that it carried over when playing other carrers)
#2 the character roster took a DEEP hit, ME2 had a great cast a of characters all with different backrounds/stories which you could have deep conversations with, it broke my heart that NO ONE from ME2 joins you(I don't consider Garrus and Tali ME2 characters since they were there from the beginning) and most of the conversations between you crew was just one text line chatter.
#3 THERE WAS NO EXPLORATION!!! in ME1 & ME 2 you could search for days scanning planets(ME2) and doing non-story line missions and had several different planets to visit. In ME3 the only place you visit is the Citadel!!! which was scalled down from what it was in ME2(imo) and the rest of your exploration was scanning planets for war assests and money....
at the end of the day I'd give ME3 and 8.5(I though ME2 did a better job)
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