All things Mass Effect

[DomsBeard]

Yeah I'd go gay for Garrus

The Arkangel reveal in ME2 made me want to high 5 someone!

[Combine Hunter]

He's not really an interesting character until Mass Effect 2.

[Cass]

For all that I wasn't that impressed with the ending of ME3, that game has as many of my favourite moments as any of the other games in that series.

For example: The Legion/Tali arc is probably the most emotionally affecting experience I've ever had with a game. I did what I thought was best - I didn't do enough to broker a peace, so I sided with Legion. I was confident that this was the correct decision. So watching the Quarian fleet being annihilated and Tali shooting herself in the head - Tali, my favourite character, constant teammate, kept her with me through three games - was about the most distressing thing I've ever seen in a videogame. And it was my fault! I made the right call, I did the right thing, and it made me feel like absolute shit. I had to wrestle with my conscience as to whether or not to reload.

I need more games to do this to me!

[Combine Hunter]

We're recording the Mass Effect 3 podcast sooner than expected (Saturday 28th November), so please leave your comments. Comments that focus on more than just the ending will be looked upon favourably!

[Alex79]

Hoho I'm looking forward to this one - I loved the ending. Will post ASAP.

[gallo_pinto]

Hoho I'm looking forward to this one - I loved the ending. Will post ASAP.

That's not a sentence you hear everyday. Interested to hear your thoughts.

[aidopotato]

Having played the ME trilogy back to back to back, the contrasts between the third installment and its predecessors were very obvious to me. The last few graphical and systemic rough edges had been sanded away, elevating the experience from a rickety, niche concern, to a super-sleek Blockbuster tent pole; the combat has improved beyond all recognition from the first game, and now offers kinetic battles with real tactical flexibility; and with the world and story so well established, ME3 is free to drop us into a legitimately epic life-or-death struggle with pleasingly little preamble.
Many of its successes are the natural result of being the third and final game in the series. Better production; proven stories & characters; ready made fan-base… Not to mention what I assume was a bigger budget and more experienced dev team.
Unfortunately, the game’s few shortcomings might also be attributable to its position in the franchise. Crafting a satisfying end to a story is always much harder than a compelling opening or middle act; the subquest busywork on offer is even more jarring here given the stakes in play; some storylines and characters get given short shrift; the multiplayer, and ‘galactic readiness’ systems, while competent, felt surplus to requirements and smelled faintly of feature creep.
It’s a shame, then, that a game that so confidently builds on (and frequently outshines) its predecessors will forever be the ‘Jedi’ of the ME universe. But anyone who downplays its achievements or hates on it because of the ending is, in my considered opinion, a howling moron.

[gallo_pinto]

I didn't get to the Mass Effect series until 2014, when I picked up the trilogy for my PS3. I was blown away by the story telling and world building of Mass Effect 1 and I thought everything about Mass Effect 2 was just about perfect. As a result, it was with a bit of trepidation that I started Mass Effect 3, because for two years I had heard nothing but what a terrible conclusion to the series it was.

I was therefore surprised as I played through the game that it seemed like it was going to be my favorite Mass Effect! While I really enjoyed the caper-film aspects of Mass Effect 2, I actually preferred how Mass Effect 3 drew so much on World War II movies and the soundtrack was excellent. I thought the Reapers were less interesting than the Collectors, but the story beats that had to do with my squad-mates and the different species in the galaxy were phenomenal. At least in my playthrough, almost every storyline had a fantastically emotional and satisfying ending (especially how to solve the problem of the Krogan genophage and trying to help the Geth and Quarians make peace). Throughout the game, Bioware was expertly concluding all of the stories they'd been telling.

Which is why I still don't understand how the wheels came off so badly when they tried to wrap-up the overarching narrative. So much has been written about the Mass Effect 3 ending and I won't try to add to it. I only wanted to say that even though I was adoring this game as I played it and I had had my expectations for the ending set very low after years of hearing people trash it, I was STILL really disappointed by it.

The 45 hours I put into Mass Effect 3 was some of the most engaging and thrilling time I've spent with a video game and the ending doesn't change that. I'm also thankful to Bioware that the final piece of Mass Effect 3 content I played was the strange and utterly delightful Citadel DLC, where the focus was put back on their fantastic characters.

[Todinho]

3 word review-" Boycotted over Prothean"

[Buskalilly]

Mass Effect 3.

I played all three Mass Effects last year, within a matter of months of each other and after the endings had been extended. For me, this game absolutely completed the trilogy which joins Dark Souls and Mario Galaxy as some of my favourite games of all time.

After two games of build-up, the Reapers' arrival delivered. The overwhelming odds and biomechanical horror reminded me of War of the Worlds, my favourite book. The characters all showed up again, and seeing Shep and Liara's love one last time was more satisfying than all the Rom Coms on Netflix, and every box set of Lois and Clark or the X Files, combined.

I loved the sensation of being in that universe so much, I didn't want it to end. I explored every nook and cranny of the galaxy, completed all the DLC I could afford and lost countless nights to the highly enjoyable multiplayer. When I finally launched that final mission, staying up until the sun rose, I'm not ashamed to say there was a tear in my eye. The ending was the right one for the story I'd seen unfold, and I don't very much care beyond that. Who cares about the mechanics, or what everyone else saw? After I was done with this game, and therefore the trilogy, I felt perhaps the worst example of that painful emptiness that comes at the conclusion of a story. Like watching the final episode or reading the final page of a beloved series, I really didn't know what to do with myself. Going into work the next day with bags under my bloodshot eyes, I knew nobody would understand the emotional rollercoaster I'd been on.

A bloody good game I'll remember for the rest of my days.

[zen_anarchy]

3 Word review "progressively dumbed down"

I felt that all the while the mass effect series was gaining more praise from reviewers and more fans with every iteration the game itself was being streamlined to the point of being nothing like the original premise of the first game of being an action orientated kotor style space epic rpg.

What it became by the third game was pretty much a generic and not very good gears of war clone with binary choice options for interacting with npc's in between another bout of cover shooting.

It even included some horrible DLC and multiplayer elements.

Everything that made the first game seem like a grand adventure was limited or cut out completely to appease a more broad player base.

I liked the nuances and stats of the first game that made it feel more like a classic style bioware adventure by the third game most of the RPG elements where missing, I have only ever played a few hours of mass effect 3 even though I quite enjoyed mass effect 2 although not as much as the first.

To make my conclusion this was not the space rpg I was looking for.

[pii313]

As a big fan of the series I was most excited when this game came out.
I read the three books, played the two games and read the three comics in anticipation for the third game. I finished ME3 in the first five days and when I was done, I thought it was just ok. As a game, it was alright, but as the sequel to one of the best games ever made, it failed.

I have mixed feelings about it. Some of it was great: The sudden arrival of the reapers, the choice between tali and legion, shooting cans with garrus to name a few. But some of it was bad. If, for example, you lost Mordin in the suicide mission, he just gets replaced by another smart Salarian scientist who does the same thing. It felt like your choices didn't really matter. And with only three different endings, it just didn't feel as a great climax to the tens of hours of playtime. Blowing up the Mass Relays was also a dumb thing to do.

The marketing for the game also soured the taste. Having to pay for day1 dlc that contains a character that was vital to the universe was just an easy cashgrab from EA and a big middlefinger to the fans. When I reached the ending of the game, I didn't feel satistfied. But then came Citadel, one of the best DLC's bioware put out. It made the whole experience ten times better. Just hanging out with your crew, that's what I play Mass Effect for.

[Bakers_12]

My fave aspect of the Mass Effect games was the shaping and continuation of "your" story though out the games, sadly as Sheppard's story was coming to an end much of this was absent in 3. Regardless I found that parts of the story up there with the best Mass Effect has to offer like the Reppers attack of earth and for me Mordin's sacrifice. My main gripe with the story of 3 is where I felt that I was the catalyst for the events in past games and that my decisions held the fate of galaxy in the balance, in 3 It feels more liner and Sheppard is reacting to events rather than moulding them and reacting slowly at that there seamed to be a lot of "messing about" when the earth was being decimated!! The worst example is the conclusion the racni story thread that does not really change regardless of what actions were taken in the first game! Maybe if the story of ME3 was expanded and streched over to a ME4 then some of the short comings might not be so bad?

I know a lot of people where not happy with the ending, while its not the best ending the game could have had I was not up in arms like some people where. At least the decisions at the end where not clean cut binary choices, I took a long time to deliberate over which one to go for.

The game looks amazing , the most cinematic in the series and plays the best too. I also played a lot of the multiplayer witch I found surprisingly very enjoyable.

Mass Effect 3 was not Sheppard's last hurrah but a very down beat farewell to him/her. I think ME3 became a bit of a casualty of the series ambition as a whole to have a the events controlled by the player from game to game and the investment to the brilliant characters and of course to "your Sheppard" that any ending would not live up to expectations. The end might not have been all that but for me It was all about the Journey.

[Suits]

Having wiped the floor with every possible achievement on the first two games and having loved the series you can imagine my horror when my 360 refused to read my disc half way through this title for some crazy reason.

My only hope now is that it comes to BC and I can finish what was started.

[Alex79]

Hey guys when will this one be recording? Just a thought and I know it wouldn't always be possible, but on the occasions that it is, would it be OK to maybe edit the recording date in to the original post?

[ratsoalbion]

28.11.2015

[Alex79]

Cheers Although I feel a little stupid now I noticed it is actually in the original post, or was that just edited in?

[ratsoalbion]

I added it. You're not going mad.

[goatsnake]

I loved the first game, and Mass Effect 2 is probably my favourite of the last generation, so I could not wait to get my hands on Mass Effect 3. It somehow felt like both everything I wanted, and kind of a disappointment.

In many ways the game was exactly the big, emotional end to the series I wanted, whisking you from location to location as all of the series' various gigantic sub-plots came to a conclusion one after the other. It was the culmination of at least 150 hours play and several hundred years of pretend galactic history, and it had me hooked from beginning to end. I secured a future for the krogan, I stared at the screen for fifteen minutes, unable to decide between the quarians and the geth, and I watched in awe as the reapers destroyed everything in some amazing (if entirely non-interactive) backdrops. I loved it, and here were many great moments, but when all was said and done, I wasn't quite sure it was a great game.

It wasn't until my second playthrough that the problems started to feel really apparent. One problem was the course of the main story felt way more linear than previous games, with fewer choices of main story mission available at any one time. Perhaps the biggest letdown was the much diminished number of squadmates available. What was the core appeal of the second game - the Normandy's ragtag crew, their storylines and your relationship to them - felt like it had to take a back seat here to all of the big plot stuff happening everywhere. Sure they all made appearances, but having them all tied to specific points in the story felt very different to when they used to hang out on your spaceship, to be interacted with at your own pace. I think in the end Bioware were constricted by the scale of the events they'd been setting up for the past two games, with a smaller cast of characters and less freedom the price to pay for being able to tie up all of the loose ends - a lesson I hope is learned for ME: Andromeda.

There were other problems too; some things just felt half-baked, and hinted at too short a development time. The reporter, for instance, just seemed entirely pointless and was a poor substitute for a proper squadmate. Oh yeah and the ending. I didn't particularly have a problem with the choose-one-of-three-options approach (what else were they gonna do?), but the bizarre and confusing montage of imagery following whatever choice you made certainly wasn't quite the sendoff the series deserved, and the expanded ending didn't entirely make up for things.

And then Buzz Aldrin showed up. That was weird.

I can't even decide how I feel about the multiplayer. For starters, being forced to play the damn thing to keep the galactic readiness rating up in the single player really left a bad taste in my mouth. And the controls, which in the campaign felt perfectly adequate, suddenly felt anything but against the much more demanding enemies in the multiplayer - seriously, who thought mapping 'get in cover', 'dodge' and 'interact' to the same context sensitive button was a good idea? On top of that the whole thing was clearly just an exercise in levelling up, designed to keep you earning (or buying) randomised gadgets and loot. It should have been awful... and yet, it was kind of fun, and I kept playing for much longer than I thought I would.

[DomsBeard]

They'd managed to dampen my enthusiasm for this game massively by doing the following:

1. Javick Day One DLC
2. Chobot
3. Multiplayer

I enjoyed the game itself but it was poor in comparison to 2. I felt it had lost its focus thanks to external influences (The same would happen with another one of my favourite IPs Dead Space).

Highlights:

Javick, Krogan's future and of course Mordin.

Lowlights:

Cerberus as a antagonist, didn't believe it. Also Kai Lang. Crap character they should've made it Jacob and/or Miranda.

Romance. I romanced Liara all the way through and all of a sudden in 3 she was talking about being mates and very dismissive so I ended up with Ashley.

Rachni decision proving irrelevant.


My quote three years ago sums Mass Effect 3's endings up nicely (I was quite angry back then )

''I don't believe it's acceptable to have invested over 100 hours into a fantastic trilogy of games to has stuff left to my imagination. Too many unanswered questions, plus the one thing that got me was me, my wife and my brother in law all finished the game about the same time and we didn't talk about it until we'd all finished. It was brilliant when we discovered that we'd actually picked all 3 different endings. I'd picked destroy, my wife coexistence and my brother in law control. To then find out they were exactly the same apart from a colour is a joke!. The new ending did address some issues but I could tell the difference in quality between 1/2 & 3 and I think Bioware sold out when EA got involved but that's a different conversation.''