ME3 - let's discuss stuff OTHER than the ending (probably spoilers)

[AD-Stu]

I hated Kai Lang, seemed out of place.

Kai Leng (and to a lesser extent Kahlee Sanders) were an interesting inclusion.

They're both prominent characters in the Mass Effect novels, so for a nerd like me that's read them, seeing those characters in the game was an awesome thing. In fact if you've read the novels, it'd be stupid for Kai Leng not to be in the game. He's established as an ultimate, ultimate badass - hell, Anderson crippled both Kai Leng's legs in their final encounter, and the guy still managed to make a getaway by monkey-swinging his way across an entire space station to the shuttle bay. He's a prominent character within Cerberus, portrayed as being very close to the Illusive Man, so given the role Cerberus plays in ME3 it's natural for him to be there. Assassinating the Council is exactly the kind of mission the Illusive Man would use him for.

That said, I'm certain I'm in a significant minority as someone who's read the books. For people that are meeting the character for the first time, I don't think Bioware did a particularly good job of explaining who the hell this random space-ninja was.

 

[Shock and Awe]

In positive news, who here gave the finger to the quarians and let the Geth blow them up?

 

[mattttherman3]

I'll tell you what I love about this game and have about all 3, the epicness that is the soundtrack, every single song is great, I'd be happy if the collecters edition only came with the soundtrack. SO EPIC AHHH, the fleet scenes were great too, combat was great, story was very well written. I love what they did with Jack, best improvment to a character.

What I didn't like about the game:
Sheperd only survives by essentially killing EDI(that's how I looked at it)

The Normandy is lost on a far planet with no way of getting out

Epilogue sucks, no closure about your squad

I also don't like Ashley williams anymore, I think I just hate the voice actress for her character

You would think that at least one of the characters from ME2 would join your squad.

They somehow made Jacob worse

I loved what they did with the Jacob Romance. Biggest bioware troll ever.. next to the ending.

I think he was the least romanced character from ME2, he was so boring

 

[gee666]

Spoiler

I think the "tell me more of the Shepard"

"Ok ONE MORE story" tells more about what might be comming from bioware

just a thought. They said that this would be the end of shepards story, but they also said shepard would die in 2 which was sort of correct

This could be the end of shepards story concerning the Reapers, 4 could be about him leading the races beoynd the loss of the relays adn trying to reunite a new galactic civilisation

Well a guy can hope

Try not to spoil now

I've never played a more heart renching game some of the choices left me stoped going back and forth for at least 30 mins, the Ranoch part longer, i had to walk away make a cup of tea , go back , walk away again before i made the hardest choice I have ever made, the tactical option , what followed was gutting.

I seem to have missed alot owing to the loss of all my old saves due to a nasty virus

Am currently playing through 1 again and loving every min even though I know the story like the back of my hand (Space Opera at its best)

The blue grid pissed me off no end as even if I was at the map cutscenes would put me back in the war room and I'd have to go back through it, guess they realy want people to play MP as its the only reason I can think of to keep making you look at it.

Chobot never knew how she was so meh, voice acting was crap, my friend did bang her (in game) then kick her off the ship, which prob says more about my friend than the game but it made ne laugh when he told me.

Wanting to know more about a characters back story seems to mean you want to romance the which was a bit annoying but that was in ME 1 and 2, just wish they changed the way that happend a bit.

Other than these minor irks the game and the series has brought me nothing but joy a solid 10 bar a few plot points at the end.

Spoiler

WTF was the normandy doing in hyperspace while we were fighting the reapers? and how the hell did all the crew get on it? I could get it if there had been some cut scene after the laser
"OMG hes dead we need to get out of here and regroup" somthing like that anyway

Sry for length
WTF

 

[Uszi]

Thought it might be interesting to take a step back from discussion of the ending and take a look at the other 99% of the game that, if I'm reading between the lines correctly, most people liked quite a lot.

Thank you, Jesus.

What do people think about all of the issues that were raised pre-release now that they've had a chance to actually see them in-game, for example? I can think of a few:

- The whole Jessica Chobot/Diana Allers controversy
- The "it's a freaking prothean, of course it's important" controversy
- The introducing multiplayer controversy
- The action/story/RPG mode controversy

-Chobot was really uninteresting, but I'm glad she propagandized for my character. As far as the conflict of interest stuff, I didn't care.

-Javik is a boss. I really loved the bait and switch Bioware did where the Protheans, who we've always thought of as a race of benevolent scientists, turn out to be a blood thirsty imperial race of African warlords. He adds so much to the game that I really feel like he should have been a part of the game proper and not DLC.

That said, you don't actually miss anything completely crucial to the story if you don't download him.

-I disagree with you that an EMS of 5,000 is "easy" without multiplayer. I did my damnedest and my EMS was like 3900 without touching multiplayer. I'm not saying 5,000 is impossible doing pure single player, but I would not call it easy.

Otherwise, the multiplayer was a hoot. I really fucking hate the EA servers, they're constantly dropping me (on XBL). But when I get a good connection, I've always enjoyed the multiplayer. Even when my team gets their butts kicked.

-As far as the balance of Action/Story/RPG I think ME3 strikes it perfectly. There was enough sifting through stores and picking up loot to keep me happy, the addition of rolling and ducking between cover was fantastic, and the rebalancing of powers was excellent.

There is more auto-dialogue in ME3 than in the previous two games. Compare the number of dialogue choices during your escape from earth in ME3 with the number on Eden Prime in ME1 and the number on the Normandy/Project Lazarous in ME2.

In ME1 and ME2, every time Shep opens his/her mouth, you're generally asked what he/she should say.

This is not the case with ME3, and it's noticeable.

I think the argument is that most of the dialogue in ME1 and ME2 didn't have an "impact," in the sense that it didn't change the conversation or provide renegade or paragon bonuses. But I still didn't appreciate having less choice in what Shep says.

In positive news, who here gave the finger to the quarians and let the Geth blow them up?

I didn't, but they deserved it. The Quarians are zealots who initiated two failed wars of genocide against the Geth. Tali does not make up for how crappy the rest of her species is.

I really did think that it was going to happen, and was quite disappointed that it didn't. It actually sort of felt like Aria had LESS lines than in ME2, which is wierd.

I agree. My favorite exchange in ME3 was:

[Shep asks Aria how she plans to get Omega back].
Aria: [paaaause] I think... I'm going to employ violence.

Most perfectly delivered line in the game.

 

[Uszi]

My questions:

1.

Spoiler: SPOILER

When you meet Grunt, if you choose to save the Rachni Queen (You obviously need to spare the Queen in ME1 and Keep Grunt alive in ME2), it looks like Grunt is going to die to get you out alive. This made me so sad, I honestly was contemplating reloading to keep him alive. But in another way I was happy that he went out exactly the way Grunt should, fighting tooth and claw. But then, Bioware does a bait and switch and he comes out OK anyway and all the emotional tension is popped like a balloon.

Did anyone else think that? Should Grunt have died fighting reaper-Rachni?

2. Were you satisfied with crew cameos? I was. I was usually surprised by them too. Bioware did a good job of throwing them at you when you weren't exactly expecting them:

Spoiler

IE:
Grunt helps you with the Krogan Scouts quest.
Kasumi helps you with the Spectre investigation sidequest.
Zaeed helps you with the Volus spying for Cerberus quest.
Jacob helps you with the Cerberus scientists quests.
Jack helps you with the biotic students.
Thane helps you protect the Salarian Counciler.
Miranda helps you confront her father.
Mordin sacrifices himself to cure the genophage.
Legion sacrifices himself to impart greater autonomy and sentience to the Geth, helps you broker the peace.
Samara helps you with the Monastary sidequest.

I also thought I was given a pretty good opportunity to reconnect or potentially say good bye to the Characters.

Spoiler

Especially Thane. I wasn't someone who romanced Thane, so maybe I can't speak for that crowd, but I thought he went out exactly the right way. I helped him save his son in ME2, and his death with his son present and everything was touching, I thought.

Anyway, this was something people were raising a HUGE stink about on the BSN prior to the game being released. People guessed (correctly) that there's no way you'd have a squad of like 20 characters, so a lot of people would not return as permanent squad members, and they were pissed.

 

[Xathos]

My questions:

1.

Spoiler: SPOILER

When you meet Grunt, if you choose to save the Rachni Queen (You obviously need to spare the Queen in ME1 and Keep Grunt alive in ME2), it looks like Grunt is going to die to get you out alive. This made me so sad, I honestly was contemplating reloading to keep him alive. But in another way I was happy that he went out exactly the way Grunt should, fighting tooth and claw. But then, Bioware does a bait and switch and he comes out OK anyway and all the emotional tension is popped like a balloon.

Did anyone else think that? Should Grunt have died fighting reaper-Rachni?

2. Were you satisfied with crew cameos? I was. I was usually surprised by them too. Bioware did a good job of throwing them at you when you weren't exactly expecting them:

Spoiler

IE:
Grunt helps you with the Krogan Scouts quest.
Kasumi helps you with the Spectre investigation sidequest.
Zaeed helps you with the Volus spying for Cerberus quest.
Jacob helps you with the Cerberus scientists quests.
Jack helps you with the biotic students.
Thane helps you protect the Salarian Counciler.
Miranda helps you confront her father.
Mordin sacrifices himself to cure the genophage.
Legion sacrifices himself to impart greater autonomy and sentience to the Geth, helps you broker the peace.
Samara helps you with the Monastary sidequest.

I also thought I was given a pretty good opportunity to reconnect or potentially say good bye to the Characters.

Spoiler

Especially Thane. I wasn't someone who romanced Thane, so maybe I can't speak for that crowd, but I thought he went out exactly the right way. I helped him save his son in ME2, and his death with his son present and everything was touching, I thought.

Anyway, this was something people were raising a HUGE stink about on the BSN prior to the game being released. People guessed (correctly) that there's no way you'd have a squad of like 20 characters, so a lot of people would not return as permanent squad members, and they were pissed.

Regarding point 1:

Spoiler

Yeah, in a VERY small way, I wished he died. I mean, the music was just PERFECT during the scene. However, I would have been SUPER torn up that he died because of me. I mean, granted, that would have fit in with the game's themes and whatnot, but I'm glad he lived. In a way, it makes his arrival at the end even more badass. Hell, I was almost on the verge of tears, and Grunt wasn't even my favorite character! From what I understand though, he will only die if you didn't do his loyalty (and why wouldn't you? It's impossible to fail!)

Point 2 and 3:

Spoiler

I was very happy with everyone. I do think that some characters probably deserved a bit more in terms of dialogue though. Samara and Zaeed for example, don't exactly have to much too say. I guess you can also argue the same for people like Jacob and Grunt. However, none of them felt like they were in the wrong place, and I felt those that died, got proper resolution. Like my Grunt example above, I didn't particularly like Thane too much (found it hard to connect with him because he joins so late), but dammit I almost cried when his son was all "That passage in the book wasn't for him, it was for you Shepard".

Literally my only gripe? Not one of them was a Temporary member. I mean, I sort of understand because they are all doing something at the same time as you, but its just...Legion joins so late in ME2 I never really got to use him. =(

Really hoping for some Aria DLC though. Character has awesome potential to do something besides sitting in a bar with more of an attitude than usual. Lol.

My BIG question though...in regards to the Citadel at the end...

Spoiler

So like...are all the people on the Citadel dead? Like, did the Reapers just move the Citadel or did they send some of their minions inside it as/before they moved it? There was a Citadel Defense Force as a War Asset dammit, I have to know if at least SOME people got out of it OK...

 

[Uszi]

My BIG question though...in regards to the Citadel at the end...

Spoiler

So like...are all the people on the Citadel dead? Like, did the Reapers just move the Citadel or did they send some of their minions inside it as/before they moved it? There was a Citadel Defense Force as a War Asset dammit, I have to know if at least SOME people got out of it OK...

Yeah! That was something that people haven't been discussing, but really, really bothered me when I first played.

Spoiler

My guess is... they died. It seems like the Citadel was captured and moved pretty quickly---literally in the span it takes you to attack the illusive man's base. Seeing as how the Reapers took the most fortified space station in the galaxy in the time it took you to attack the cerberus base, it seems to me that implies the reapers squashed resistance.

Then there's all the stuff that would kill the residents that isn't even related to filling the Citadel with husks or blasting it with lasers: They closed the arms and stopped the rotation of the station, which means that it became 0 gravity. And for all we know, they vented the thing as well. That would make for the fastest holocaust in the galaxy.

My guess is some people managed to escape before they closed the arms, but most people died. I'd imagine Aria made it. I doubt Bailey did.

 

[Rylian]

I really had no gripes at all about anything up until the last 10 minutes.

AS for Dianna Allers... She had ugly cheeks.

 

[wintercoat]

In positive news, who here gave the finger to the quarians and let the Geth blow them up?

I didn't, but they deserved it. The Quarians are zealots who initiated two failed wars of genocide against the Geth. Tali does not make up for how crappy the rest of her species is.

And Koris, don't forget Admiral Zaal-Koris vas Qwib Qwib. He fought hard trying to prevent the war, and when the other admirals went ahead with it anyways he did his damnedest to protect his civilian fleet. Though crashing into the cannon on Rannoch was a bit reckless and seemed out of character.

OT: Chobot's voice was annoying, but since I didn't talk to Allers all that often, it was a non-issue.

$10 USD for one mission, a squadmate and a gun is just ridiculously overpriced.

I did my damnedest to get my rating without multiplayer up to the 4k(5k if Anderson dies) needed to have Shep be alive at the end, but the closest I got was a bit above 3.5k. This pisses me off to no end. The multiplayer alone is alright. I'm not a big multiplayer fan to begin with, but it was at least well done and enjoyable if you like that sort of thing. I don't. Add on the fact that the multiplayer lagged heavily for me, and you end up with me not playing multiplayer at all. And I'm not going to go back through all three games and build the Perfect Playthrough just so I can get the ending I want.

And as for the last one, I don't really care either way.

 

[tzimize]

Lets start with the things I didn't like (not including the ending):

- Jessica Chobots and Freddie Prinz Jr.'s horrible voice acting. I mean, my god.
-I really wish James Vega was completely optional. I don't like his character at all and I feel he adds nothing to the game. Besides my seething dislike for him, that is.
-That kid! Not because its a kid but because that kid means nothing to me. If they had simply switched that kid with say Ashley or Kaiden it would've been 1,000 times more impactful than some kid.
-no showdown with Harbinger =( =( =(

What I liked:

-Pretty much everything else
-the combat is much better, I think it's fun and it's easy to use
-weapons and weapon upgrades, armor and armor upgrades
-many of the side-character's story arcs (Thane, Mordin, Miranda, Liara, etc)
-the goal of the game: rallying resources to your cause
-I really, really like the Illusive Man. I dislike how there is no way to possibly join him (even if you gave up the Collector Base) but I like how he operates and his voice acting is down so well. ++to Martin Sheen
-the multiplayer is pretty fun. I like how you need to work together to survive.
-love the backdrops, especially the ones with moving Reapers in them
-the maps are all fairly elaborate too. I was afraid after DA2 that they might reuse a lot of the maps, this was not the case
-the geth/quarian story
-the turian/krogan/sort-of Salarian story

...Yeah. Final synapsis: the good outweighs the bad, even the ending.

More or less agree with everything in this post.

The only two things I'd like to add is that I would have loved to have a much bigger say in the tactics of the final battle. Like in the Suicide mission you got to choose which teammates to bring where.

Why couldnt I decide where to deploy the krogans, or the turians or any of them? It would have been brilliant. Being the one to decide where these people fight, and maybe die.

Also...more epilogue please. Thats not a real ending by any account. While the game itself was just fantastic, the I have a sour taste in my mouth after finishing it. And that sticks. No matter how good the rest of the game is.

 

[guitarsniper]

The only really big non-ending-related problem I had is (on PC) that spacebar does everything. If I could have spacebar be interact, shift be sprint, and control be take cover, i'd be far less likely to take cover when i'm trying to roll or vice versa.

 

[putowtin]

One thing that irks me is the Normandy's ship design never went into full production. The start of Mass Effect 1 was the shake down run of the Normandy to test for bugs and etc, and there is plenty of time between 1 and 2 to make a least a few of the SR1. I can understand the alliance building no new SR1s once they got a hold of the SR2 and gearing up to put it into production when the Reapers show up but we didn't see even a single other SR1 any where. Granted it is a stealth ship but even a nod towards them would of been nice.

It isn't a real big deal just kinda irks me.

It would cost too much, when you dock in ME1 and meet that Admiral he explains that they could have had a dreadnought for the same price it cost to build the Normandy. As the alliance lost nearly half of the fifth fleet during Sovereigns attack on the Citadel, any money would have been used to rebuild the fleet.

OP, my likes:
The soundtrack, I love it! (currently listening to it) the music sets the tone perfectly.
Garrus and Shep's romance, I'm sure it's similar for the other romantic interest, Garrus' date and goodbye with my femshep were beautiful.
The pacing, the game keeps you on your toes (as it should with a war going on) there's always something to do, and no "go here and pick this up" mission is safe with the Reapers just around the corner!

my dislikes:
Diane and James, I spoke to her only when she requested an interview, and never took him on a mission (ok there's Mars but you dump him as quickly as possible)
Couple of little glitches (looking the wrong way in conversations, having to exit and re-enter and area to find someone)
And the ending.... but that's it!

 

[Alandoril]

I agree with the bit about Diana. At first it seemed like a strange inclusion but then in game it's not so big a deal to be honest, and it actually kinda makes sense. But would have been nice to see a team of embedded journalists (like the ones who go on tour with forces in the field today) as it could have raised all sorts of interesting points about what is real and what is propaganda in war reporting.

The inclusion of a Prothean is a very big deal and he should have been available in the core game.

Multiplayer didn't really need to be there at all and is more than likely going to be used as an attempt to force further overpriced dlc on us.

The action/story/rpg mode does kinda make sense as it gives you a variety of ways to play the game (remember not everyone is a hardcore TPS or RPG fan so the ability to mix it up makes sure the game is viable for the broadest audience possible. And getting as broad an audience for a game like this is always going to be a good thing.

As for the ending, I of course will not discuss details but yeah it does feel like Bioware dropped the ball on that one. Far too rushed, nowhere near enough resolution of plot threads or character arcs. Frankly that has a the smell of EA breathing down the devs' necks all over it.

 

[pearcinator]

I thought the scanner between the war room and the rest of the ship was for security reasons (no guns in the war room for example)...it was definitely used to cover load times but doesn't bother me much.

DLC didn't concern me cos I got the collectors edition and it was included with it.

 

[AD-Stu]

My questions:

1.

Spoiler: SPOILER

When you meet Grunt, if you choose to save the Rachni Queen (You obviously need to spare the Queen in ME1 and Keep Grunt alive in ME2), it looks like Grunt is going to die to get you out alive. This made me so sad, I honestly was contemplating reloading to keep him alive. But in another way I was happy that he went out exactly the way Grunt should, fighting tooth and claw. But then, Bioware does a bait and switch and he comes out OK anyway and all the emotional tension is popped like a balloon.

Did anyone else think that? Should Grunt have died fighting reaper-Rachni?

I had mixed feelings on that one - on the one hand, it would have been an awesome way for Grunt to go out. On the other hand, I'd already seen two former squadmates die by that point and I was starting to think it was getting a little predictable.

There's a rachni queen there regardless of whether you saved her in ME1, by the way - it's just a cloned one or something rather than the actual queen if you killed the original. The difference is in what happens afterwards if you choose to save the queen.

On that point, I thought the use of the rachni was pretty lame - I saved them with the intention of using them as a horde of disposable killing machines in ME3, not as scientists on a space station...

2. Were you satisfied with crew cameos? I was. I was usually surprised by them too. Bioware did a good job of throwing them at you when you weren't exactly expecting them:

In general, yes. Some were better than others, some I could see coming a million miles off (Samara's, for example), some probably should have been obvious but weren't (Jacob's) and some were almost completely insubstantial (Zaeed's). But it's obviously the ones central to the plot that are the most satisfying (Mordin, Thane, Miranda, Wrex).

I liked Jack's a hell of a lot too, but that's mostly because I'm a huge nerd and Grissom Academy plays such a big role in the books It was nice to see how they evolved her character as well.

 

[hazabaza1]

forgot one point

Kai Lengs design looked like they took an unused character from Deus Ex Human Revolution and his plot armor was annoying.

On the plus side, we got this!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Pinnacle of the game for me. I was completely swelled with emotion.

 

[synobal]

So I was looking for a Garrus Wallpaper on google, a word of warning people! Do not do not turn off safe search when searching Garrus, what has been seen cannot be unseen.

*pours brain bleach on his head*