Mass Effect 3 reviews

I can see why people didn't like the ending. After all the decisions you have made, the ending seems to not exactly be the culmination of these experiences. But to those people I say: You are expecting too much! And what's more, you are expecting too little!

Mass Effect is renowned for making you not only make average decisions, but some really tough decisions. The ending of the game is not an insult to the series, in fact, it is the pinnacle of making hard decisions. I for one, thoroughly enjoyed making the decision.

So to everyone still wondering, and for some this review probably has come too late, this game is epic, well designed, cinematic, glorious, and to top it off, has an amazing story and an ever better ending. I am sad the journey is over, but at the same time I am happy it has ended. Onto bigger and better things! Dont be afraid of a series ending! It only opens the door to better things!

There are moments in Mass Effect 3 where everything else goes away and it is purely and completely good; Tuchanka, Rannoch, little moments with the characters you've come to know and love. These moments are made all the better for knowing that they are YOUR moments, the result of your choices and actions over the previous two games. When you achieve something momentous in this game you truly feel like you're earned it.

And then the ending comes along and everything is made pointless. I am not exaggerating in any way when I say that this is the worst ending of anything I have ever experienced. It is truly that terrible. It comes out of nowhere, it provides no kind of resolution at all, it's poorly written and not even thematically relevant–even the tone feels completely different to the rest of the game(s). Given everything that came before it feels like a punch to the gut, almost as if BioWare set out to deliberately hurt fans of the franchise, to say “Oh, you cared about these games- These characters- This story- Ahahahaha, what a silly person–WE don't care about it at all, and here's the proof; we have taken hundreds of hours of your life and it was all a bad joke”.

Yes, I'm reacting emotionally to this–dramatically, even. It's because I care about Tali and Garrus and Wrex and the fate of the Quarians and the Geth and the Mass Effect universe in general. It's been an intense journey, but for it to end in this way–in this way that renders everything pointless–is difficult, to say the least.

For everything before the last half hour or so, it's a solid 8/10. Not as good as ME2–especially in terms of writing and intensity–but otherwise very very good indeed. The gameplay is better than ever, streamlined nicely and made complex in good ways.

Including the ending, though, I can't even rate it. Terrible, graceless, insulting and utterly, utterly disappointing.

I loved ME3 but I have some serious issues with this game, all the choices made from previous games mean pretty much nothing.

Save or destroy the collectors base in ME2– dont worry it has zero impact on the thirrd game.

Kill samara and save monrith in ME2– samaras last words are “you'll regret this” but guess what, it means squat in the third game, its like they forgot all about that decision and at the last moment threw monrith in as a banshee, you think the asari would be mad I killed a justicar, but no, even my asari girlfriend had nothing to say about it.

And the ending killed the whole game, sure it was an awesome ride, but the end game screwed the fans over, no closure, and all the decisions we previously made had no effect, maybe the game should be called “no effect 3”

And the fans were promised fantastic endings that wouldn't be the typical A B C choices, well they failed and thats exactly what we got, its a shame A B and C were all the same.

The game itself is great, but it will leave you clueless at the end, so many plot holes, the final in a trilogy needs to give answers, it needs to give closure to ALL our favorite characters, and it needs to send the series off in a spectacular way, ME3 failed on all frounts.

After waiting months for this game to release, when it finally arrived I was over the moon I ripped open the packaging, quickly looked through all the extra's then slammed the disk into my PS3. As I waited for the day one patch to install I continued to look through the extra's and was delighted with them, with the day one patch all installed I started to play and was blown away by how much better the graphics to the game were. I played for hours and hours, intrigued and astounded by the story line, the characters development and as always the amazing voice acting. After 1 week I got to the end of the game and that's when things started going down hill, the ending (without giving spoilers) was absolutely terrible, I was upset, bewildered and down right angry. 98% of the game was amazing, just for that to be destroyed in the last 10 minutes.

The illogical and generally unliked ending has been much discussed so I don't intend to reiterate.

But that aside, the gameplay is as awesome as you'd expect from the Mass Effect series. The voice acting is superb and the atmosphere it creates actually makes you really feel you're under the threat of extinction, desperate and doomed. It is also great to see that decisions made in ME 1 and 2 can make a difference.

Overall, great game. One component I personally don't like is online multiplayer which is somewhat required to increase War Readiness. Never a big fan on online gaming but that's just me.

Ok before I start, as long as they fix the ending this is by far one of the best games I've ever played.

http://blog.bioware.com/…/03/21/4108/

The game is thought provoking, heart warming and sometimes heart breaking. ME3 is an emotional roller coaster (Especially if you have played the others) and plays like a story driven sci-fi movie.

Although shorter than its counterparts (28hrs for me) ME3 makes all the missions feel alot more in depth by adding familiar faces or having a clear reason for you being there.

A few technical and graphical glitches do little to dent the experience and side quests aren't set out as well as they could be in your log.

All in all, 9.5/10, 8/10 if you include the rushed ending that doesn't reflect your choices ingame.

Mass Effect 3 in general is the awesome finale of the trilogy, The game has great features like dive-rolling, and the omni- blade, which is good for melee attacks. Also weapon customization from Mass Effect 1 returns which is a nice feature. The planets and missions you go on are beautifully designed. All the decisions and choices you have made over the last 2 games has a major effect on Mass effect 3 and the storylines wrap up very well. This game is overall excellent, however the ending could have been better. I won't get into detail there. Online multiplayer is a new feature implemented into this game. In multiplayer you go on co-op missions with your friends over xbox live, this system works quite well.

Pros

• Awesome storyline
• Story wraps up quite well
• Combat is great
• Beautifully designed missions and planets
• Weapon customization

Cons

• Ending could of been better

Mass Effect 3 builds on many of the best qualities of the series so far to give some of the enjoyable game-play & epic role-playing experience we've come to expect from Bioware… except for the ending.. you'll be tearing you're hair out about the atrocity which is the ending

Great gameplay and RPG element, pity about the ending but overall one of the best games I've ever played. Definitely a game of the year candidate.

I think too much has been made of the ending. Think how epic the whole game is spoiler Mordin Solus's sacrifice, man some games end on less of a high point than that!

I think of Mass Effect like a series. It's going to have so many endings, and the story essentially goes on. The Reapers, while major, are just a part of the universe. Personally I see Mass Effect as one of the biggest sci fi stories of our generation. It is up there with the Star Wars universe in complexity- and sure it borrows a bit from that story line.

As far as THIS game goes. You have to play it if you've played the others. If not, play it anyway it's an awesome engrossing experience!

Its rare a series can sustain the interest of its early adopters while keeping up with advances in technology and gamers changing appetites. But Bioware has knocked it out of the park with each of the sequels to Mass Effect. Constantly evolving the gameplay without compromising the fundamental bones of the game. Its not often the kinks are ironed out without introducing new ones.

I've got to say, it's one of the few long form immersive games that hasn't made me want to throw my controller at the tv – even though loading screens can sometimes spin a little too long, it always satisfies with riveting cut-scenes and an epic story.

The action can get a little repetitive if you attempt all the side missions, but the way you deal with your opponents can vary if you use your team mates tactically.

All in all, a great close to one of my greatest gaming franchises. Sci-fi action was rarely this good.

I love the Mass Effect franchise but Bioware made some design decisions for this game that I simply don't agree with and feel let the game down. The story lives up to my expectations but some gameplay elements that have been changed from previous versions make me want to go back and play Mass Effect 2 again to actually enjoy the series combat. If you've played Mass Effect 1 and 2 and want to see the story conclude then this is for you but expect some chagrin with game mechanics. If you're thinking about picking up this game to see what all this Mass Effect fuss is about then this game won't give you the answer.

This has to the best game I have every played on the Xbox 360, great single player game and the multiplayer component is fantastic!! Mixed with the speedy delivery from Mighty Ape, this customer is very happy!!

Absolutely the best end to an amazing trilogy! The past two games have built up to what I think is the greatest story made for gaming. There has been controversy about the ending(s) of this game and petitions to have it changed. I feel sorry for those who don't see how brilliant the Mass Effect franchise really is and there is, in my opinion, not a single flaw in this game, from the stunning cinematics to the gripping story. There is nothing quite like this game.

Great game and fast delivery as always :)

Just started playing and its what I expected a great experience, good game play and storyline

Awesome game havent clocked it yet because i accidently knocked my Xbox over which resulted in an un-repairable scratch … Must play the two Mass effects 1 & 2 before playing this one to get the True MASS EFFECT effect …9.99/10.....

Until the usual late year influx of huge titles Mass Efffect 3 blitz's its competion by providing a thrilling narrative and presentation that truly shows off next gen graphics and gameplay.Highly reccommended.

Great game. Amazing finish to an amazing trilogy. If you havent played this yet.....DO IT

I just really love this game. An all time favorite.

Much of the same thing as the first two games really. I liked how it developed on choices made over the first two games, and personally I find the current ending pretty awesome. Would recommend it for any Bioware or Mass Effect fan.

Game arrived promptly and is very good value for money, the third person view is a bit of a let down for some.

Such an awesome game, love mightyape <3

whether this was great or terrible it is the last chapter of an incredible ride so it had to be purchased – a lot of people said it didn't live up to it's predecessors but then sequels rarely do, especially when their forbears are ground breaking. with sensible shopping one can now get the trilogy for around $60 and that's a galaxy of gaming for a very small outlay, to be fair you can not call yourself a gamer without Mass Effect in your collection as it truly is a must have in gaming history.

Mass effect three is a really good game so far with a good main story and lots of side ones to keep it interesting. The online play is also really good. This game has a lot of hours of game play.

Have played all of them so far. One of the must have games for any collection. :-)

a lot of people didn't like the ending of this game and yes it could of been better but overall I loved this game. gameplay and graphics are great, range of choices and conversations are awesome. there are so many choices that you can make in this game there are so many conversations and scenes that I have never gotten bored with this game. The only issue I have with this game is since I downloaded one of the dlc's (can remember which one as I have all of them) it loops on ‘downloading game content’ on start up, I have to disconnect from the internet to get the game started. So that is a pain and I can't seem to find a solution that actually works (apart from disconnecting from the internet until the game starts)

Keepin it short n sweet, I love this game multiplayer is great, storys great (and been improved with a dlc if im right and yea :D

It's Mass Effect for $25…what are you reading this for- Go buy it!

Greats hipping time nice and fast great game very very happy

AMAZING!! I hope they make a fourth

Loving every bit of it so far, =)

I won’t mention the ending, everyone else has covered that. I’ll just mention the gameplay and why I think it holds back what should have been a pretty awesome game.

It’s better than ME 2 in that eighty percent of the game is not taken up by you recruiting a team that is not carried over into the next game, thereby making the game more or less completely pointless. But the key gameplay flaws of ME 2 are still there; linear levels and repetitive combat. In ME 3 the missions are even less interesting, and the levels are smaller and even more linear. The combat is very repetitive in that all the enemies, be they Cerberus, Reaper troops or Geth all behave pretty much the same way.

I would have liked more missions, and if they were longer and more involved. Some of the missions are very small and short. There are other side quests but they are simply filler. They involve you overhearing a conversation on the Citadel, which starts a quest to travel to a planet, scan it and recover an item (not landing, just scanning a planet) and returning it to the person on the Citadel. There are TONS of such quests, and they are a complete waste of time.

The locations for the missions (the ones that have you actually landing somewhere) are varied, look great, and are beautifully detailed. But you don’t have much time to enjoy the eye candy because you’re usually being rushed through the level as fast as you can.

Another big problem with missions is the quest tracking system. The journal doesn’t update as you progress through the quest. So if you’re doing one of those scanning missions the quest won’t be updated when you actually find what it is you’re looking for. And since there’s no inventory where you can check you quest items you often forget that you’ve picked up an item you need. So unlesss you’ve got a very good memory or take careful notes of everything you pick up you’ll end up going back to the Citadel and just running around in the hopes one of the things you’ve picked up is actually a quest item. I’m all for less hand holding in quests, I think the quest pointer in such games as Skyrim is pathetic, but I get the feeling this is just sloppiness rather than a design decision.

A couple of things I do like about the game is you can now buy and mod many more weapons. Not as many as ME 1 (but that’s a good thing), but it’s far better than the ridiculously few weapons that are available in ME 2. Now there's actually something for you to spend all those credits on! You can also equip and mod weapons for your team which is cool, but annoying that you can only do it if you’re taking them on a mission. There are more armour upgrades for you to customise your look. Lots of visors and helmets, chest pieces and gauntlets ect that offer different effects. And you can colour it and add a cool cammo pattern. I like how you now use medigel to heal yourself when you get hurt, rather than a complete auto health regen system (which is one of my pet hates of games). There is still a bit of auto regen, but you only auto heal a small portion of the damage to your health, rather than all of it.

All in all, despite my love of Mass Effect and the Mass Effect universe, and the first rate production values, I didn’t actually find ME 3 much fun to play. My favorite parts of the game by far were the scenes of Shepard socialising with friends, and one or two undeniably awesome Reaper death scenes.

I’d highly recommend playing the previous two games and carrying your character over. If you start a new character for ME 3 the game makes some unsavory decisions for you, for instance letting the Counsel die and killing the Rachni queen in ME 1.

I just don't even. How the heck could Bioware fail so badly with ME3–

(Some spoilers, but no major ones)

And I'm not just talking about the end; even with the Extended Cut it makes no goddamn sense and seeing my Shepard turn into a meek moron during the whole thing made me want to throw my controller at the TV screen.

There is such a big list of what is bad; the autodialogue, most of the LI/Squaddies of ME2 getting shafted or shoved to the side, the moronic reoccuring dreams about one random boy who my Shepard only spoke to for less than a minute and spent the rest of the game grieving over, autodialogue, asspull that is the Crucible, the way Reapers were portrayed as idiots, the change from dialogue wheel to the dialogue fork, autodialogue, Cerberderp turning into the Fifth Empire and being more of an enemy than the Reapers, fetch quests EVERYWHERE, the Rachni Queen showing up no matter what you do, autodialogue, my Shepard being railroaded into doing certain things ie acting as if Earth was her home when she was a Colonist, being forced to be incredibly depressed over Thessia and whining over it, ME2 choices don't matter (Lol blow up Collector Base- Oh wait TIM still managed to nick some of the Reaper Baby!) autodialogue, Kai Lame being the worst ‘main antagonist’ Space Ninja ever, Femshep getting shafted in terms of hetro LI (One dies, another cheats and you only get ladies in ME3 if you killed off Kaidan, though Traynor was really welldone in LI) lack of a ME3 squad, War Assests not meaning anything, not being able to play fetch with my damn robotic dog, autodialogue…

Well, I could rant on and on but I think you get the point.

There are a few good points; combat mainly. Vanguard was incredibly fun, I really enjoyed it. The crew walking about and actually talking to each other was great, as it showed they actually moved from their rooms…um…what else…Garrus romance was wonderful. Final dialogue with him had me choked up, new Reapers troops fun to fight (FFFF DAMN BANSHEES)…and well…Tuchunka as well, lovely arc and so much angst and hope and friendship (Bro Wrex) and that's about it.

But on the whole I was really dissapointed with this game. It's terrible, badly written in but one place (Tuchunka, but even that has a few derp moments) and yanks control of Shepard away way too many times to count. I thought this was a RPG- But no, apparently Bioware wanted more shooty-shooty so go away player choice. She kept on saying the most stupidest things without my opinion (Notable the infamous “WE FIGHT OR WE DIE” crap from the intro; should have been a warning sign right there of what was to come) and I couldn't play as MY Shepard as I had been able to in ME 1 and 2.

While playing as Renegade my Shepard was forced to care over the death of one kid and despire over Thessia; hardly. She would have left that kid in a ditch and she hated the Asari for their smug, stuck up attitudes and thought they needed a good punch off their high horse. But no, she was forced to go ballistic at Joker when he cracked a joke over it. That is not RP Bioware. I shouldn't have to tell you that.

Just what happened Bioware- How could you go from ME1 to what is ME3– True, the combat is wonderful, but you seem to have forgotten what RPG stands for. The majority of fans loved ME for the ROLE PLAY factor, not the 'BANG BANG BLAM GUNZ" part. Just what happened- Hmm, well this did;

ME1– Drew lead writer. ME2– Drew and Mac as co-lead writers. ME3– Mac lead writer.

Draw your own conclusions, I've made up mine; dissapointed in ME3, especially after I forked out $150 for the Collectors Edition only to find it to be a pile of rubbish. Certainly not going to preorded anything from Bioware ever again after this and the Dragon Age 2 fiasco. That company won't have my trust for a long time if they ever dig themselves out of this pit they are making.

• Rant over-

Everyone's com­plaining about the end. Really it wasn't that bad. I've spent hours/days/weeks trying to get 100% throughout the trilogy so I understand people's frus­tration. Seriously though; get over it. The game is great. Cheers Mighty Ape. Loving the same day delivery :)

If you thought Mass Effect 2 was good, then you must buy this game! However I feel that Mass Effect 2 has better core mechanics but ME3 has superb cutscenes and thought-provoking cinematics. Very intense, very serious, no room for mistakes kind of deal.

Thennnnn you get to the very unsatisfying ending which provides little to no resolution at all. I have yet to download the Extended Cut so I'm probably going to roll another character.

Because of how effy the ending is I'll rate the game and its ending separately.

Game Itself: 9.5/10 Ending: 1/10

For those who haven't finished the game, think of the ending like this: At first you feel a bit empty but thats pretty much it. However the more you think about it the more disappointed and depressed you are even now as I am writing this review.

By the time I finished it I had about 18 hours on m total playing time. Is long and in depth

Everything has evolved to be better. I haven't completed the story yet but have no doubt it will meet my expectations.

A fitting end to an amazing trilogy. Ignore the nerd rage about the ending, it's not as bad as everyone claims.