Ohai.
If you guys haven't been paying attention, you might have noticed some details after Harbinger hit you that seemed quite off. (shrubs that weren't there, unlimited ammo, invincible keepers, and quite some other details
I won't say what it is, I'll leave it to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBckAlso there are plenty of threads adding to this, but I'm just too fucking lazy to find it.
Now, my review of Mass Effect 3:
As expected, it was meant to tidy things up and end the story for how you played things out as Shepard, and I will admit that it did not disappoint for the most part. The storyline was pretty straightforward, as I couldn't chose which location I wanted to go to first but that doesn't really matter. What did piss me off, however, was how frustrating those damn side quests were, I had to go onto IGN to figure them out cause they gave no direction what so ever.
Gameplay: I like how they made Shepard a lot more athletic, it gives you the feeling that you can pretty much outrun and fight the enemy as well. The weight system was pretty sweet too, as since I always play as a soldier I never got to try out SMGs before this, which I felt that they had some things superior to standard ARs. Oh, I almost forgot: THEY ADDED MORE THAN 3 GUNS PER TYPE. Wish they could have done that for ME2, but you can't have everything perfect. The system they had for guns was not perfect, but it still didn't lack for impressing. I think that this is better than an inventory system cause in ME1 I'd eventually hit the max amount of credits from all the shit I picked up, which was pretty early for it to happen. The upgrades also were quite fun, I found myself putting scopes on every damn weapon and then it switched to an FPS, which can fuck up your view from switching. Other factors was the environment, I actually felt threatened by the reaper on Tuchanka cause it could crush me, and plus the fact that action was never in the lacking.
One of the few things that bugged me was the damn combat rolls, while I like the idea it really could fuck you over if you did it wrong, say you wanted to go to cover at the left yet instead you end up rolling to your right, letting the enemies beat the shit out of you. It took a while for me to get over that and figure out how to avoid it, but still it shouldn't have even been a problem in the first place. Another issue was the side-quests, which had basically no direction whatsoever. I found myself almost always going on IGN to find the answer, because not only did it give you no direction, but the log wouldn't update when you do something that affects that quest, which makes you have to actually use your memory. For lazies like me, it's a pain in the ass. Other than these two pet peeves, I can't think of anything that disappointed me about the combat system. I really did like going on those turrets, nice change of gameplay.
Multiplayer: Just recently tried it, and I'll admit that it's addicting. The maps are the same as the side-quest ones, and there are few of them to fight on, but ah well. I love playing as a Vanguard, just rushing up and charging the enemy, gets me shitloads of experience. Though, the game-mode is meant to be for personal preference, I've seen people kick ass as a Soldier on there.
Graphics/Sound: The sound in the game was spectacular, like the first two the voice acting was brilliantly done. Martin Sheen once again was my favorite of all the actors, too bad that they couldn't get Beattie back for Mordin. I almost shitted my pants when I heard the Banshee for the first time, reminded me of playing perhaps the scariest game of my life. While the sound was great, the graphics were different story. It may set standards for the console, but come on. Don't leave us PC gamers suffering for that, FFS. It wasn't unbearable, but it certainly took away from the experience. Another annoying issue was the damn lip synching, which was off more often than it was in its predecessors. Certainly not the most advanced game, but hey. Hopefully Bioware will release an HD pack for us PC players to give us the experience that we want.
Storyline: 99% good, all the way to perhaps when Anderson dies, that was perhaps the most emotional scene in the series. The rest was just utter-mind fuck, it felt like Matrix 3 all over again, with that force child kid and his lies. Even as a Paragon i still chose destroy, I knew he was lying. However, let's focus on the good. The game really played to the emotional side of Shepard, right upon seeing that "kid" die, to seeing some of his friends sacrifice themselves for the greater good ( I have to say, Legion's sacrifice was the saddest of all, I felt that he was perhaps the most interesting character of the series and he's a fucking robot. That's more than most developers can say. Alas, I got a badass geth army out of it). Even though the side-quests were a bit of a disaster, they did end up help push my EMS up enough to get the "perfect" endings, if you could call them that. I felt Bioware playing to every emotion that should be displayed, and I actually wanted to go renegade on that crazy Quarian admiral on my paragon character, but I held back. On Earth, it felt like how a final battle should be: a sense of hope and you see yourself motivating others.
Too tired to continue, I'll give more later. Overall, awesome game right until the very end, where Bioware takes a dump on gamers. Hopefully common sense will take you again to fix this tragedy, for what could have been one of the best games I have ever played
