Many critics and reviewers have stated that the community overall ratings are too low and unfair to a game such as Mass Effect 3. I heartily wish it was true, but it is not. The low ratings are the most accurate you will find about this game, and though some fans (or fanboyz as I would call them) will flame and troll those of us how did not enjoy our experience in the game; I will dare any of them to dismiss my arguments. Please be careful. THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD!
1 - First and foremost is the day 1 DLC. I understand that as a business their main focus is to profit; I also understand that CE should get extra content and items (and whatever else they give them); and I understand that extra content added to the game should/could be charged for. However, I do not understand how a DLC that brings important content, which by the way was done before launch, can be charged apart as a DLC. By removing the From Ashes from the game core and adding aside you lose a part of the game (I won't go as far as most and that it's 1/4). You just loose important feedback on a major race that has been hinted upon since the first game (first mission actually). Imagine if you go to the movies and when you are buying your ticket they ask you "Do you want the romance add-on or just the vanilla movie?". Next, when you buy a car you will have to pay for the wheels and tires aside. If the DLC had not been so blatantly important to the game story, I wouldn't mind having it, even as a day 1 DLC, but that is not the case.
2 - Mass Effect 1 great success was due to the RPG/Shooter blend. The dialogues were rich and captivating, the discovery of new planets, areas, or even people you could talk to was brilliant. Even the elevator talks were amusing. In that game I didn't just play a character, I played MY character, and I developed him as I wanted him to be. Also we were given choices in every aspect of the game; how we would react to a certain situation, or who would we chose to kill/save. The moral implications were there, and though it was not a game as dark as the Witcher (which I love too), it had some hard choices as well.
Then came ME2, which changed the combat system to a more action paced one. I liked the old system better, it was fine the way it was. Yet, they kept the RPG elements such as the ability to make relevant choices, choices that would affect the game somehow. The story was poorer too than the first, but the side quests and companion’s quests made up for it a bit. The companions were richer than in the first game, with more dialogue options and ways to gain their loyalty. I would not have rated it a 10 nor even a 9, but a solid 8, for after all was said and done, the game was a good one, and it kept alive some parts that made ME1 the great game it was.
I cannot say the same about ME3. I have long waited for it to come. I played the moment it was officially released, and I can't say how heartbroken I am. My choices from the previous games didn't matter, unless you count adding points to your EMS. My old romances were forgotten or cast aside. In the Lair of the Shadow Broker I got back together with Liara, and in ME3 it was as if nothing had happened. On my other save, one I had remained faithful to Ashley at all costs, I had both Liara and Tali making a pass on me. But that was still acceptable, maybe they just never had the courage before to try it. But I chose Anderson as Council member, I played ME2 with Anderson as Council member. How did Udina end up as the human council member in ME3?
3 - All though Mass Effect 3 we are given the illusion of choices, but if you pay close attention all of our choices are for drama only. Mordin died (or you killed him), Legion sacrificed himself for the geth, many asari died trying to take the temple under your orders. Those are indeed touching moments but in the great picture they are meaningless. All the choices you make during the game are meant only to add to your EMS, or readiness to fight the reapers, but you don't actually see anything changing around you due to your choices. No dialogues exist based on how you choose "door number 1 or door number 2". It just doesn't matter. Even the Paragon/Renegade choices have no impact, for the outcome is nearly always the same. In the first game of this franchise we were given the Paragon/Normal choice, 2 neutral ones, and a Renegade/Normal choice. If you had your points high enough for Paragon or Renegade, you would get the Paragon/Renegade choices as well, with a greater chance to get what you wanted. Now we were only give 2 options, plus the Paragon/Renegade one. The Role play elements of the game were dumbed down beyond recognition. Had this been the first game of the franchise I would have refused to play any other.
4 - But even with all the above, the game still granted me a sense of accomplishment. The warzone scenario is good, and though the graphics are poor (I won't bother with the technical faults of the game) and the gameplay annoying (spacebar for everything??????) I had some fun running around, doing quests and killing mobs. I actually enjoyed the discussions team members would have which each other (the old elevator talks). And until the last 10 minutes of the game I was having a nice and overall enjoyable experience. That's when the galaxy came crashing down on me.
I´d noticed some Deus Ex Machina elements during the play (most of them regarding my lack of choices, or how previous choices were irrelevant). I've had experience with Deus Ex Machina in games before (i.e. Deus Ex). And yet I didn't see it coming. In the last 10 minutes of the game (15 for some) the Deus Ex Machina takes over the game. You are no longer a player, but simply a spectator of your "own" life (your Sheppard’s life at least). Up to this point there have been many plot holes (such as Udina as council member, lack of input on Cerberus and on the Reapers, etc.), but to see Anderson walking in front of me when he was behind me was just too much to understand. As if that had not been enough, the illusive man comes out of nowhere (really he just pops up) and starts ranting about his will to save humanity (giving it to the reapers btw). This was a flawed attempt to recreate the Saren/Sheppard discussion back in ME1. The failed miserably. I might add that until this exchange all the dialogues are predefined. You just don't have a choice on what to say. In hindsight even this chat is chained forcing you to follow what the game (writers/whoever it was) want you to do. In the end you have 2 choices, shoot him or talk him into shooting himself. No matter what you do, it changes nothing.
And here comes the big ending everyone was expecting (me included), but not as we hoped for. Out of the blue (really, the little kid is blue) a kid/reaper/god appears and starts talking to Sheppard about how important the cycles are and how they keep the races in check allowing for the younger races to flourish. Long story short, he tells you that to prevent synthetic races from destroying organic races, the reapers destroy all organic life. Perhaps if I had had a few drinks I could have made sense of it, but I just didn't. Honestly, it's the same as saying "I will kill you now so you won't die eventually!" That was the best Bioware could come up with for a game as massive and expected as Mass Effect 3. No need to say that I was shocked and speechless. It seems my Sheppard was too since I had no choice whatsoever on what he would say. Then, this little Kid aka Reaper God rants about how the cycle was broken just because I was there (I didn't get that either, he could just have killed me and allowed the reapers to go on with their mission), and that I was given 3 choices on how to make things right. (Right, right?)
The choices are simple. First you destroy all synthetic life (technology as a matter of act). That would have been a nice choice if it didn't include the Geth, EDI, etc. I mean, why did I bother getting the Geth and Quarians together if I am just going to kill them both? (Quarians need tech to survive).
Second, you become the little kid aka Reaper God, and send the reapers back to wherever they came from. Basically you just delay the cycle, or skip to the next. This would not be my choice, but I can at least accept its presence.
Third, you merge synthetic and organic life together. Despite the already present Deus Ex Machina in the choices, here it is the most present. Everything we knew about the Reapers is wrong. It was clearly said in ME2 that reapers are both organic and synthetic, but now in ME3 they are just synthetic again. Also the little kid/Reaper/God says that my Sheppard is part synthetic due to his rebuild. Didn't ME2 spent the whole time saying they rebuilt Sheppard as he was (only some implants to make up for the extensive damage)? I wonder if a man that has a wooden leg is part vegetable because of the wooden leg, or someone with a pacemaker is part synthetic. It just makes NO SENSE. The entire ending of the series makes no sense.
Bioware repeated over and over how our choices from the previous game would play an important part on the last one, and how we would still make choices that affected the game and its content, thus giving us replay value. (Just Google if you want to see for yourselves) Yet, despite all their claims, everything you did in all the games prior to your talk with the little god is irrelevant. Even your little chat is irrelevant since you have no choices on the dialogue. I had to refrain myself from screaming "LOOK OUT AND SEE GETH AND QUARIANS WORKING TOGETHER?? ISN'T THAT WHAT YOU WANT?" (Really screaming at 2 am and waking up all my neighbors in the process)
Also, why did I have to do any of those things? Wasn't the little kid/God there? Why couldn't he just do it and let me go home? And why the hell did the Mass Relays have to be destroyed no matter what my choice was?
On the up side, no matter what choice you make the following cut scene is the same, only with different colors. So you get to see the same thing 3 times, one for each ending. (Yes, that was sarcasm). Just as a footnote regarding how well design the game was, the companions that were with me charging the beam, magically appears in the Normandy after it crashed. The Normandy itself magically appear traveling thru the relays, when a moment before it was fighting the reapers along with the fleets. As if that wasn't enough, we have no further input on the other races, regardless of the ending. All you get is an old man talking to a child as if everything you did was just a fairy tale.
And speaking of fairy tales, once upon a time there was a game developed by a company. The game was called Baldur's Gate and it impacted an entire generation of players and RPGs. The game was rich and immersive, it would captivate you and keep you playing for hours. Years later came the second Baldur's Gate and it was as amazing as the first if not more so. The company grew up, but remained faithful to its player base, delivering what we knew only they could deliver. Year after year, game after game they impressed us and gained our trust and devotion. And finally in 2007 they release what I consider the best RPG game ever made. The world created was beautiful and new, the races, characters, everything had a depth I'd never seen before in another game, and it was all new. But this is where real life differs from fairy tales. There is no lived happily ever after. The company took the fans trust for granted, and decided to move to other shores, looking for more, and as it looked for more, it offered us less. There is no happy ending here.
I understand how a company may want to increase their player base, or how they might try to earn more from a game release. After all it's only business (so they say). Yet I cannot help but to feel betrayed. For many years I have been a fan of Bioware, and played most of its releases. Even with the critics about Dragon Age 2 I bought the game and played it, and although it was not as enjoyable as the first one (which was great btw), I still had my money's worth.
Also, I waited patiently for the Bioware MMORPG to come to life. Along with many others I hoped it would be a KOTOR based MMO, and ours dreams came true. We knew that no matter how bad the game was, the story telling would be great. How wrong I was?! Starting with Dragon Age 2, Bioware began to go downhill. They stopped being creative and innovative, and just decided to follow with whatever makes success. DA2 was the first attempt, and it failed badly. However, despite this failure, Bioware insisted on the same path in SW:TOR. I will not go as far as saying the game is terrible, because it would be a lie. I played and had some fun in it, but it's nowhere near what I expected from Bioware. The story line is boring and repetitive, and no matter what your choices (race, class, etc.) it pretty much adds to the same thing. Instead of using their own titles (successful ones at least) as a base to the new games, they only used their names, and went on with gameplay and system from other games there were a success as well. But the total is not simply the sum of both parts. Those who were fans and followers of Bioware, such as myself, were cheated off a system we enjoyed, and got something we did not want. Those who were fans of the other games, already play them and have no reason whatsoever to play a Bioware game that is exactly the same to the one they already play.
The same happened to Mass Effect 2 to an extent, and totally now in Mass Effect 3. Bioware has always been famous for great storylines and RPG elements, but unlike many believe, RPG elements is not the same as dialogue. In a RPG your choices affects the environment and the game as whole, in an action game, they just don't matter beyond the scope of the conversation itself. And that's what Mass Effect 3 has become, a simple action game as many that are already on the market.
Due to this betrayal on Bioware part I must say that I will not buy another game from them ever again. I once said the same thing about SOE, for destroying a game I really loved (aka Star Wars Galaxies) and I have been true to my word. It's not simply the fact that the game didn't deliver what I wanted; it's the fact that Bioware lied to us all about what the game would deliver. They got us believing into something we liked and took advantage of our trust. I have lost count on how many times I've played ME1 and ME2; how many hundreds if not thousands of hours I had enjoying myself on those 2 games. Now, I can't even think of playing them ever again. This last installment of the franchise didn't destroy just the game itself, but the entire franchise along, for I just can't find any enjoyment on playing them again.
For those of you who took the time to read what I´ve written, I thank you. Some may disagree, but to those, I beg you to do so based on facts, and only if you have played the game to the end. To those who were not Mass Effect fans from the very beginning, you will enjoy yourselves, for after all, it's a good game. It just isn't the game it was supposed to be. Bioware didn't betray only the fans, it betrayed what they used to stand for. And that is the saddest part of it all..
Arrakesh.
