dyre said:
In terms of actual reviews, rather than anger at specifics like the Tali thing or the DLC thing, I've mostly heard that ME3 is quite excellent.
I'll say few things: 90-95% of the game is fucking awesome, and if I hadn't played the last 10-15 minutes of it, I would've called it the game of the year. Right now. Fuck Diablo 3, the game I've been waiting for 11 years. ME3 got me so interested in playing it, I didn't play D3 beta that I got into two days ago. But, few things during the last few moments made me think that... the series, unless there's a DLC or patch fixing shit, will be ruined. It'll be Matrix all over again, with awesome first game, completely groundbreaking experience, then second being good, but not AMAZING, and third ruining a lot of things and considered non-canon by many fans.
Things I love about ME3:
- Combat. I love it so much, I played a bit of ME2 after I finished ME3, and I kept trying to do rolls to cover and double-tapping keys. And finally they made a pretty balanced system in case you want to be a pure Adept/Engineer - get only a pistol/SMG with light-weight upgrade and enjoy 2 second cooldown on skills.
- Characters and their development. I absolutely loved returning characters, EDI and Joker being all lovey-dovey (at least Joker), Wrex and Grunt still being awesome, Garrus... do I even have to praise him more? Liara finally acting more mature, and Tali also awesome. I kind of missed Jack, forgot that on my save I hadn't met with Katsumi yet, and Thane was kick-ass for whatever short time he appeared on the screen.
- Dialog and writing. It's always been a strong point in Bioware games, but holy crap, ME3 has a LOT of great writing. Hard to pin-point one thing, it's more of a "general goodness".
- Humor. Garrus scene on the Citadel, Grunt (if you completed his loyalty mission in ME2) gets a Moment of Crowning Awesomeness. Many references to previous games, all humorous.
Things I dislike about ME3:
- Day one DLC... nobody likes those. Pay extra for something already on disc that isn't cosmetics is just downright stupid of Bioware.
- Multiplayer is required for the "average" player to get over 4k war assets, something Bioware told us wouldn't be necessary if you don't like MP. But since the game is kind of fun in multi, I'll just pass...
Things I hate about ME3:
- Oh boy. Okay with the weaker ones - From Ashes DLC, with the Prothean. People assumed that we'd meet him in-game, and the DLC will only give us a recruitment option. BULLSHIT. We never meet any protheans in the fucking game. Your only chance to meet the surviving member of the previous fucking life cycle costs $$$.
- If you romanced anyone besides Ashley/Kaidan, Garrus, Tali or Liara, you're fucked. You'll get few seconds of your love interest on screen, and that's it.
- If you romanced anyone but the trio from ME1, you're also fucked. When you make "the" decision at the end of game, you think about three people - Joker, Anderson and... Liara. WHY LIARA? I ROMANCED GARRUS FOR FUCKS SAKE, I DON'T EVEN LIKE LIARA.
- Choices don't matter, and that's because of endings, but: you killed Rachni queen? The Reapers found another one! You appointed Anderson as the Councilor? He quit! We were promised a story that we make our own, and only things like "Who you left on Virmire, did you kill Wrex or no, who survived the suicide mission" actually matter during the game. But nothing affects the endings, not even your Paragon/Renegade points.
- The endings, holy crap. I read the War of the Spider Queen and that was at least as sad as those endings, but it not only made sense, but was predictable when you know who the characters were dealing with.
This. This shit is the reason I hate the game now and not sure I will play it again. I don't regret pre-ordering it, but I do regret seeing the endings. They all can be explained with "MAGIC, DEAL WITH IT".