Yeah yeah yeah, Mass Effect 3, ending sux blah blah blah, get over it. I'm not talking about the ending, I'm talking about the lead up to the ending, the fight through London.
Since I don't own the game, I was watching a let's play. And when we arrived at Earth, I really found that Bioware had just run out of time with the game. Both in terms of atmosphere and in gameplay, the section really looked and sounded half baked, especially compared to the earlier portions of the game.
I'm left thinking: that was it? That was the climactic, battle for the fate of the world sequence?
Gameplay wise, the only thing it has going is challenge. Pacing is nonexistant, jumping between "HOLY SHIT KILL THOSE GUYS BEFORE THEY KILL US SHEPARD!" to you reading family datapads while you wander through a warzone. And what an empty warzone. It is really just you, two guys and a million husks. None of your other squadmates, two Makos that don't do anything, and that is it.
Presentation wise, it looks like a hackjob of sloppy editing and broken sound design. The two times you actually see your allies doing shit in cutscenes, half the audio is missing. You hear the impact of the gunshots as they slice the husks up, but the guns themselves never make a bang. Truck engines are humming louder than the cannons.
The environment I guess was supposed to demonstrate the utter devastation that the Earth has gone through. Everyone is talking about how horrible looking everything is. Except, we've seen similar levels of destruction throughout the whole game. Palevan, and Thessia are both the same gunmetal grey cityscapes wasted by the Reapers. I guess that Earth is supposed to be more personal, being home and all, but nothing about it stands out visually. London is just another bombed out city turned into a greyscale battlefield.
The whole sequence reeks of a rush job, which really disappointed me. The pacing was too fast or two slow, or sloppily split between those two extremes, the environment was boring, and the gameplay looked monotonous. The rest of the game had some hiccups, but for the most part, a lot of the sequences were well paced, visually dynamic and exciting. Only to end like that before diving into Star Child nonsense.
My last complaint is rather petty I'll freely admit, but the music in the scene didn't work for me. And that was when it was actually playing. Clint Mansell has this problem where if you hear his music for too long, you start to hate it (see Lux Eterna), and Mass Effect 3's London combat music is like that. Really grates on my ears. Compared to the Suicide Mission blasting in the background through the Collector Base, Clint Mansell's music just didn't compare.
So, to cap this rant off: did you enjoy the battle for earth section? Why or why not?
Since I don't own the game, I was watching a let's play. And when we arrived at Earth, I really found that Bioware had just run out of time with the game. Both in terms of atmosphere and in gameplay, the section really looked and sounded half baked, especially compared to the earlier portions of the game.
So, Cortez drops you and two buddies off to take out an Hades AA system. Bunch of husks and maybe Morinth show up, and then the sequence is over. Just you and two others pushing through a crowd of baddies until a thing blows up. Then you get transported to the F.O.B.
It was this part that I actually liked, since you got to say your final words with all your team members at the base on on the phone, and we finally meet Coats, the Big Ben sniper. I thought that was neat, sort of like how the Virmire mission in ME1 worked, where you blasted your way through the cordon to get to Kirrahe before catching your breath and planning the next attack. It was neat, and after watching that numbingly boring fight before, it was good to get back to the dialogue.
Unfortunately, it's also where a lot of the London sequence's problems started to show up. For one thing, it was way too quiet. Not audio being quiet, but a lack of ambient sound or distant gunfire. It was pretty much silent. Yet, at the same time, the game wants to make it feel like the base is under constant attack. How does it do this? By giving you a turret section that lasts thirty seconds, and with no repercussions if you miss any of the charging husks. It's a drive by turret sequence. You just cross a bridge, suddenly husks, and then you finish crossing a bridge.
Cheesy Bioware "we're gonna make it!" speech prerequisite has been checked off, time for the endgame.
So, if I go by the game, Hammer consists entirely of Shepard, two goons, a pair of Makos that disappear moments after they are featured, and a bunch of guys shouting on the radio. There's no big push or group effort combat, just a long funnel of enemies. You reach a rocket battery, and hear that Anderson is coming to back you up. Sweet, looks like a big fight. Anderson shows up after the fight finishes and never actually helps.
Big setpiece where you hold down the run button and get hit by a doom laser that changes your armor back to the default colors and giant beam of light.
It was this part that I actually liked, since you got to say your final words with all your team members at the base on on the phone, and we finally meet Coats, the Big Ben sniper. I thought that was neat, sort of like how the Virmire mission in ME1 worked, where you blasted your way through the cordon to get to Kirrahe before catching your breath and planning the next attack. It was neat, and after watching that numbingly boring fight before, it was good to get back to the dialogue.
Unfortunately, it's also where a lot of the London sequence's problems started to show up. For one thing, it was way too quiet. Not audio being quiet, but a lack of ambient sound or distant gunfire. It was pretty much silent. Yet, at the same time, the game wants to make it feel like the base is under constant attack. How does it do this? By giving you a turret section that lasts thirty seconds, and with no repercussions if you miss any of the charging husks. It's a drive by turret sequence. You just cross a bridge, suddenly husks, and then you finish crossing a bridge.
Cheesy Bioware "we're gonna make it!" speech prerequisite has been checked off, time for the endgame.
So, if I go by the game, Hammer consists entirely of Shepard, two goons, a pair of Makos that disappear moments after they are featured, and a bunch of guys shouting on the radio. There's no big push or group effort combat, just a long funnel of enemies. You reach a rocket battery, and hear that Anderson is coming to back you up. Sweet, looks like a big fight. Anderson shows up after the fight finishes and never actually helps.
Big setpiece where you hold down the run button and get hit by a doom laser that changes your armor back to the default colors and giant beam of light.
I'm left thinking: that was it? That was the climactic, battle for the fate of the world sequence?
Gameplay wise, the only thing it has going is challenge. Pacing is nonexistant, jumping between "HOLY SHIT KILL THOSE GUYS BEFORE THEY KILL US SHEPARD!" to you reading family datapads while you wander through a warzone. And what an empty warzone. It is really just you, two guys and a million husks. None of your other squadmates, two Makos that don't do anything, and that is it.
Presentation wise, it looks like a hackjob of sloppy editing and broken sound design. The two times you actually see your allies doing shit in cutscenes, half the audio is missing. You hear the impact of the gunshots as they slice the husks up, but the guns themselves never make a bang. Truck engines are humming louder than the cannons.
The environment I guess was supposed to demonstrate the utter devastation that the Earth has gone through. Everyone is talking about how horrible looking everything is. Except, we've seen similar levels of destruction throughout the whole game. Palevan, and Thessia are both the same gunmetal grey cityscapes wasted by the Reapers. I guess that Earth is supposed to be more personal, being home and all, but nothing about it stands out visually. London is just another bombed out city turned into a greyscale battlefield.
The whole sequence reeks of a rush job, which really disappointed me. The pacing was too fast or two slow, or sloppily split between those two extremes, the environment was boring, and the gameplay looked monotonous. The rest of the game had some hiccups, but for the most part, a lot of the sequences were well paced, visually dynamic and exciting. Only to end like that before diving into Star Child nonsense.
My last complaint is rather petty I'll freely admit, but the music in the scene didn't work for me. And that was when it was actually playing. Clint Mansell has this problem where if you hear his music for too long, you start to hate it (see Lux Eterna), and Mass Effect 3's London combat music is like that. Really grates on my ears. Compared to the Suicide Mission blasting in the background through the Collector Base, Clint Mansell's music just didn't compare.
So, to cap this rant off: did you enjoy the battle for earth section? Why or why not?
