Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 contains some of the best written storytelling in videogame history. Unfortunately, the final moments of the game also contain some of the laziest and worst moments I can remember.

Up until the last half hour or so, the game is a breathtaking rollercoaster ride where the majority of the plot points from the previous two games are tied up skilfully in a satisfying way that connects well with whatever decisions you'd made in the previous games. If you'd saved this alien race, or that scientist's data, or sided with this faction over that faction, it was all remembered, recorded, reacted to, and made the universe seem unique to your own experiences.

The ending though makes little sense, features a badly written Deus Ex Machina ass-pull, and has events with repercussions that seem to render most of what you've achieved in this and previous games pointless. It left me feeling confused, annoyed, and gave me no sense of closure. The much trumpeted "TAKE BACK EARTH" slogan on all the advertising ultimately felt ignored, and the final message players are left with is to "Buy DLC" to continue the commander's adventures.

At that point I realised that though it was a rollercoaster ride, a lot of the previous games intricacies had been stripped away, railroading the player through what boiled down to be a big bunch of fetch quests. (31 quests (out of a total of 68) were fetch quests. Mass Effect 1 had more quests 73, and only 5 of them were fetch quests.)

A good story (until the end) but it doesn't really do justice to the series as a whole, and the all pervading sense of railroading only highlights what's been stripped out of this game.

For:
Fun Combat.
Giant Setpieces.
Great and funny voice acting.
Brilliantly written endings to Geth / Quarian / Krogan storylines.

Against:
No Ship Upgrades
No Mako / Hammerhead Planet exploration.
An important squadmate is held to ransom as Day One DLC.
Terrible ending to the overarching Reaper / Humanity storyline.
Less quests than previous games, and nearly half the quests are fetch quests.
Previous Journalist characters are removed in favour of a Tie-In with IGN.com
No Planet Scanning / Resource Gathering / Hacking minigames. Feels like the game is *only* combat.
Very small number of squadmates (Only 2 if you didn't save everyone in previous games and you don't buy the DLC character)

Mass Effect 3 is very difficult to review because it hits boths glorious highs and abyssal lows.

The highs:

1. Gameplay is an extremely polished version of ME2s and is extremely fun with a wider variety of enemies and far more tactical scenarios available.
2. RPG elements are back with a far wider ability to customise armour and weapons and the options to trade power cooldowns for more or better guns.
3. Some of the mission sequences are truely awesome (and utterly heartbreaking)
4. Your squads intereacts with each other are funny/touching/heartbreaking and you always want more.

The niggles:

1. Origin is not the world's best system so be prepared to have to various sessions of restarting Origin and/or the machine in order to force the installation to complete. Once in the game I had no problems though so it is irritating rather than critical.
2. There is a bug with importing character faces so if you really attached to your character's face caution is advised.
3. The cutscenes are long, unpausable and unskippable so if (like me) your character's face glitches half way through it can wreck the whole scene.

The lows:

1. The endings are every single bit as bad as everyone says being not just bleak but also illogical and frankly incomprensible. Any attempt to explain them ends up with a wizard did it.
2. I hope you like fighting Cerberus because you will spend most of the game fighting them rather than the Reapers.
3. The 'best' ending is not acheivable in single player so you would either need to play MP or do the iOS app - alternatively just look it up on youtube.
4. The squad is very small so if you don't like a character or like Liara they have very little to say don't expect much interaction with your crew.
5. The autodialogue - choices on conversations is severely reduced in this game which can produce extremely odd effects like my Shepard flirting with one of the new squad despite being the next thing to married.

Conclusion:

As the game currently stands play it, enjoy and switch it off and the end of the final mission because what follows is a series of semi interactive cutscenes that destroy anything you ever cared about in the game franchise.

Alternatively wait for the extended cut DLC coming sometime this summer and see if that solves the problems.

This game is marketed as the epic finale of a trilogy. As having wildly different endings. If you are expecting an end along the lines of ME2 or DA:O, you will be bitterly dissapointed. If you are expecting to be able to choose the fate of your hero and shape his/her story to the end, you will be bitterly dissapointed.If you are expecting an ending similar to other Bioware games, with enough divergence to warrant replayability and the creation of various stories with various Shepards, you will be dissapointed.
For a trilogy finale, it offers little closure, catharsis, or even sense.

To be fair, apart from that, the game is excellent and emotionaly engaging, apart some issues with the questlog.That only serves to make the jarring,disconected end much worse though.

If the ending,yes ending,singular, was more on par with ME2 or DA:O, I would definitely give this game a 5 star. As is, it leaves such a bitter taste in my mouth, it feels like such a slap on the face, that it sours the whole expirience.