Mass Effect 3 - a flawed masterpiece

[Cernos]

I just finished Mass Effect 3. Thought I'd write a mini review for anyone interested. Overall it's a wonderful game, a masterpiece of game design and storytelling, but not without some glaring flaws that do tarnish it slightly.

Single Player
Gameplay 8/10: a wonderful refinement of the two previous games and smooth as silk. Perhaps the balance was slightly too much towards dialogue than fighting, but there were a lot of loose ends to tie up from previous games and so the extra dialogue was welcome. There is one glaring negative though, the linking of the single and multiplayer games (see below).

Graphics 8/10: stunning and at times breathtaking. Totally immersive. The camera / focus effects in some cut scenes were a little too stylised for my tastes, but that's nitpicking.

Sound 9/10: flawless. Sound effects are completely immersive and the musical score is pitched perfectly. The sound the reapers make still scares the shit out of me every time I hear it!

Voice acting 9/10: top notch, great performances from everyone involved. The dialogue is believable and genuinely emotional, some great humour here and there and the attention to detail is fabulous (eavesdropping was very rewarding).

Storytelling 7/10: for the vast majority of the game the storytelling was wonderful. That is until the last 15 minutes (see below).

Multiplayer
What a train wreck. The actual mini games (co-op for 4 players) are a lot of fun and have great potential. BUT, there's a major problem with connections to the EA servers. There seems to be a huge bug which often causes players to disconnect right near the end of each multiplayer game, causing them to get zero rewards and waste all the time put in. Multiplayer games last on average 20 minutes and I found I was getting discconected in the final stages of over half the games I played, losing all progress. Always at the same point, right near the end of the mission. Incredibly frustrating. Seems I'm not alone and lots have the same problem. EA Support's advice to me was to disable my antivirus, disable Windows Firewall and bypass my router's firewall. I kid you not. Great advice eh for a game which insists on an internet connection even for single player. Doh, muppets.

I could happily walk away from the multiplayer aspect if it weren't for one huge issue. They linked success in the single player game to progress in the multiplayer game. The outcome of the endings you get in the single player game is influenced by progress in the mutliplayer game. Yep, you read that right. Ludicrous and made doubly so by how broken the multiplayer game is. Total design FAIL.

The Ending
I'm not going to nerd rage about it like some have done, but the ending did leave me feeling unsatisfied, disappointed and hollow. All of the three possible endings feel contrived and lack proper closure. I wasn't satisfied with any of the outcomes offered. If this were a novel then fine, the storyteller has absolute right to end things how they wish. But the selling point of the ME series is that it is interactive storytelling and your choices matter. Except they don't really, and all those details you've agonised about over three epic games count for nothing in the end. It all comes down to a 'pick a door' style of choice with only a vague explanation of the consequences of each choice. I saw an interview with the lead designer where he revealed they didn't even know what the ending would be until very late in the whole process, not to prevent leaks but because they couldn't decide .... and it shows.

Ah well. It's only a game, but a game with a lot of time invested and you do feel some emotional attachment to the characters just like you would in a novel. But it feels like one of those novels you absolutely love until you reach the very last page and then you want to slap the author hard! And if it were a film, I'd advise walking out 10 minites from the end in order to preserve your sense of enjoyment.

Overall, a flawed diamond. A fitting end to a fantastic series even if the actual ending wasn't very, erm, fitting.

[eKo]

I agree, the game is really great, but the end is really disappointing. For a game in which choice and hope despite overwhelming odds are so important, the ending sucks as it doesn't offer any of it. Don't mind there not being a happy ending, but just taking in what the catalyst claims as gospel and picking a door is totally contrary to what (my) Shephard has been doing during the 3 games. Plus they've been really lazy as whatever choice you make the end movie is 95% the same anyway (except for a different colored explosion) and it doesn't even make much sense.

[Cernos]

I agree, the game is really great, but the end is really disappointing. For a game in which choice and hope despite overwhelming odds are so important, the ending sucks as it doesn't offer any of it. Don't mind there not being a happy ending, but just taking in what the catalyst claims as gospel and picking a door is totally contrary to what (my) Shephard has been doing during the 3 games. Plus they've been really lazy as whatever choice you make the end movie is 95% the same anyway (except for a different colored explosion) and it doesn't even make much sense.

Yep exactly, the final cutscenes are all the same with only minor differences, such as colour of explosions. For a game with so much hard work put into the development and so many fan hours invested in playing it, they should have done better. I can understand that Bioware wanted to create an ending which generated discussion, but I think it backfired because everything was handled in such a lazy way. There's just too many plot holes, too many vague and unexplained loose ends and far too little reference to all the player choices in the preceeding gameplay across three titles.

And above all else, yep it lacked any sense of hope or redemption. Hence the hollow feeling. Which is a shame, because 95% of the time spent playing the game was hugely enjoyable. The crap ending can't take away that fact. But just like a film or book with a crap ending, it is what you ultimately take away with you and what sticks in the mind. And no attempt to fix things via some future DLC (as just announced) can really help with that, the damage is done.

[Lasiien]

I've not finished yet, I guess I am a slowbie these days as when I have spare time I try to put it into music n stuff. About 20 hours in and enjoying it very much, feels allot like ME2 to me really - maybe slightly more polished and as you say Cern I have noticed more cut scenes and dialogue (which I also like, though i do find you can sometimes go about half an hour without shooting anything and start to get an itchy trigger finger!).

Haven't been able to avoid all the stuff about the ending so pretty much waiting to be disappointed. For me though Bioware have history here, I remember one of the KOTR's (was it 1 or 2?) where you had a choice at the end that could wipe out all your decisions and give you a light or dark ending. So you could go through the entire game being totally evul and then at the end suddenly decide the 'light' ending...thought it was kinda cheap. Sounds like they have done something similar here, but I'll have to wait and see. On the same note was anyone else disappointed with deus ex in a similar way ? (great game, but the ending was essentially 'pick a door' also).

[Cernos]

On the same note was anyone else disappointed with deus ex in a similar way ? (great game, but the ending was essentially 'pick a door' also).

Yeah Deus Ex:HR had a pretty lame pick a door ending with 3 choices that didn't really add up to much. For such a wonderful game it was a bit of a let down. But at least all the endings made sense and bore some relevance to the decisions you'd been making and the characters you'd met, killed and saved along the way. But the mild disappointment I felt at Deus Ex's ending is minor league stuff compared to the Premier League WTF'ery in ME3.

I was braced for it too. I didnt know the details but thought that with nerd rage being so in vogue these days how could it possibly be as bad as claimed. Well, nerd rage is always silly, but it's not without justification in this case. At first I just sat back and thought "WTF was that, surely not". It didn't make me angry. It still doesn't make me angry because for 99% of the time, the ME series is easily one of my favourite games ever. But perhaps that's why I now just feel deflated and hollow. Like a kid who just saw the ice cream they bought with the last of their pocket money plop onto the floor and while you're pondering if any of it can be salvaged a passing dog comes along and slurps it up

Anyway, don't let this knowledge of what awaits put you off, there's some incredible gameplay to be enjoyed before you get there. And once you've seen the crap ending you can get onto You Tube and enjoy some of the hilarious fan made piss takes

[eKo]

Think it was KOTOR1, I remember going light side and being able to use the dark side dialogue option at the end which seemed weird.

And pfft, you slowbie, I replayed ME1 & ME2 (as male Shep for once, wanted to romance Tali ) and now replaying ME3. Vermire in ME1 doesn't have the same emotional impact if you know what will happen though (but on my first playthrough ... wow, had to break there to think about it). Some events in ME3 still have the same impact though, especially Mordin.

Deus Ex had the same thing, but at least it made sense and didn't break lore unlike the ME3 endings. And since it was a prequel you kinda knew what the outcome would be anyway.

[Lasiien]

I agree about Mordin (as have done that part), also I think the choices where I am at the moment with the Quarians and Geth are kinda tough also. I really love when the choices are not black and white, sometimes this game has really made me sit back and think like you say about what is the 'better' option

My expectations are pretty low for the ending given all the fury, I've mostly managed to avoid spoilers but already prepared for a 'Game Over - Have a nice day' screen

p.s. yes I am a slowbie, I get through games pretty slowly these days though I do still love gaming and did actually buy a new pc this year (nothing special, but after flirting with my PS3 I still think you can't beat PC games and mouse/keyboard combo). You are brave for replaying ME1 eko ! (love the story but i think I could do without all the clunkiness)

[Lasiien]

Okay, finished it now. And agree with your comments about the ending, although I was expecting it ofc

Did you see this YouTube vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck&feature=player_embedded#! (and the post that video references - http://uninhibitedandunrepentant.tumblr.com/post/19344938387/mind-holy-fuck), quite a good theory put together by allot of the community. Makes some sense but I think mostly is just picking on inconsistencies, thought it was worth posting though if you hadn't seen it. Interesting though that Bioware have said they're doing DLC to 'clarify' (not change?) the ending ?

[Cernos]

Okay, finished it now. And agree with your comments about the ending, although I was expecting it ofc

Did you see this YouTube vid - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck&feature=player_embedded#! (and the post that video references - http://uninhibitedandunrepentant.tumblr.com/post/19344938387/mind-holy-fuck), quite a good theory put together by allot of the community. Makes some sense but I think mostly is just picking on inconsistencies, thought it was worth posting though if you hadn't seen it. Interesting though that Bioware have said they're doing DLC to 'clarify' (not change?) the ending ?

Yeah, saw that. It's an interesting theory and would seem to make more sense than the official ending. But I think it gives Bioware too much credit and is mostly geeks trying to fill in the gaps that Bioware couldnt be bothered to fill themselves. Also, the lead designer at Bioware has debunked it by saying that this theory isn't correct or valid. So I guess we'll have to wait for Bioware's DLC to see how they explain away all the enormous plot holes in the ending(s).

My predicition is they can't / won't because it is the result of lazy writing in the first place, rather than some deliberate attempt to have a clever hidden meaning ending. I think they couldn't manage to design a complex multi-facteted ending (due to time or technical constraints)  and so went for a simplified ending. In order to mask how it was a simplified ending they decided to make it a controversial talking point and introduced a contrived plot device (a deus ex machina) to achieve this. But this meant they had to play fast and loose with the lore and disregard the huge plot holes they were ripping in the storyline in order to manipulate the ending to how they wanted to tell it. And they hoped that fans wouldn't notice or care (a huge mistake obviously).

I think they'll have a very tough job fixing it via DLC unless there's some masterstroke they have up their sleeve (which I seriously doubt). I really really hope they don't go down the Dallas route (i.e. "it was all a dream") or else the resulting nerd rage meltdown will go supernova

Anyway, now you're done, what colour ending did you choose? And what happened in your cutscene? Note: this forum now has a spoiler tag you can use, just wrap any spoiler info in [ spoiler ] waffle goes here [ /spoiler ] (without the spaces).

[Lasiien]

Yeah I agree, I do think it's lazy writing ...or just perhaps a bit rushed ? I share though all the WTF! around lore and spirit of the games and do feel none of the endings really did any justice and as eko says they are 95% he same anyway.

Let me know what you picked first off and what you thought? Here is my choice and thoughts as best i can present them at the time, without outside influence and reading up all the fan stuff etc.

[spoiler] At first I picked control, but this was more just when faced with the immediate decision in the heat of the moment. I'd thought that by controling the reapers with someone 'good' i.e. Shepard rather than someone a bit more devious/arguably 'evil' such as the illusive man would lead to the reapers disengaging even though it meant Shepard's death (evidence for this is with EDI and Legion and how they react under Shepards 'good' influence). Also to retain the technology and previous civilizations that the reapers represented (but I'm kinda confused on that now especially after reading up a bit more, does it now mean Shepard has become the 'human reaper' and the old ones like harbinger are now gone?) Also I wasn't really sure why all the Mass Effect relays got destroyed (presumably this happens because of the citadel/crucible being used? and/or Shepards death yet the repears survive? Which was all a bit odd - the kid just says whatever you do they are going to get destroyed....but why, I want to keep them, stfu kid !)

I felt, at the time that Synergy was prolly the worst ending as it goes against everything I think either Paragon/Renegade Shepard fights against. You spend all the time trying to get different races to co-operate or maybe even forcing them to because the whole point is this cycle is more diverse and the Prothean's failed by trying to homogenise everything. Turns out this was the 'best' ending or at least the hardest to get ??

I felt destroying the repears was an option (as after all, this was constantly Shepard's stated goal) but when it came down to it it seemed a bit much like you were dooming synthetic life, albeit that that exisits at this time. Especially as I say above that EDI and Legion had shown synthetic life could actually be reasonable/'good' under Shepards influence.

So I got Joker, Tali (who was my love interest) and Javik (who was at the end with me ) coming out of the ship. Presumably tali is going to rejoice in our love by making space babies in a threesome ? I didn't get a final breath from Shepard - I had 100% ready and had collected all obvious war assets presented to me, but presumably there were some in other galaxies I hadn't explored and I didn't go out of my way to try and find them.

The more I read though the more questions that do come up and I think I got it all a bit wrong.They are in fact all rubbish endings - I won't go through all the stuff posted abouve and in various youtube rants by fans but the more you think about it the more you realise it's just total BS. Weird how we also chatted about dues ex as well cos the ending choices are viurtually the same as in the original game !! [/spoiler]

[Cernos]

My reactions to the endings on offer was much the same. Here's how it unfolded for me:

[spoiler]
My first reaction to the 'Star Child' was that none of the choices on offer was acceptable, not even close. I just wanted to refuse to co-operate and insist on finding another way. But when it became obvious I was being railroaded I reluctantly decided on the Destruction ending, because I felt this was what my Shepard had been fighting for all along. The other choices felt like I was being manipulated into keeping the Reapers alive in some way (which sort of ties in with the indoctrination theory but I was unaware of this at the time). But the loss of the Geth and EDI was impossible to bear because I'd fought so hard to bring peace between the Geth and Quarians, and had fully unshackled and supported EDI.

So, reluctantly I decided on Destruction. But I was in a bit of a daze and still holding out hope of finding another way, so I started staggering around the final area looking to see if there was anyone or anything else I could talk to ..... and while doing so I accidentally stumbled into the big beam of light and got the Synthesis ending! Doh! So I was doubly pissed off when I found out I had unintentionally altered all organic and synthetic life in the galaxy against their will. My final cutscene had Joker, EDI and Liara emerge from the spaceship ... all covered in circuitry. Gah!

Disgusted at Bioware and my own ineptness I reloaded the game and replayed the last section to get the Destruction ending as I originally intended. But it wasn't actually any more satisfying knowing I'd wiped out all synthetics. I only got Joker and Liara leaving the Normandy this time. But I did get the Shepard breathes again scene. But this was clearly in the original rubble back on earth not in the Citadel, which obviously raised all sorts of questions. Not least of which was why were Joker and Liara (my love interest) running away together on the Normandy rather than dragging Shep (dead or alive) out of the rubble? Traitors!

So there was my Shep lying in a broken heap, but apparently breathing. Deserted by friends and loved ones, responsible for genocide and the death of many billions in any system with a Mass Relay, the entire fleets of all the Galactic races now stranded in orbit around Earth (explain that one away Bioware!!) and generally in the middle of a huge feckup. This was apparently the 'best' ending because Shep lives? Hardly. Reapers gone for now, but at a cost that my Shep would have been ashamed of. So breathing again was not something my Shep would have wanted to do.

After this I did have a look at the Control ending too and knew I couldn't have lived with that result either because the Repaers were bound to find a way to break free and I didn't follow the logic of the control mechanism (if Shep was to die in the process, how did this control the Reapers?).

So all of the endings were horrible. All of them were downbeat and depressing, none made you feel good and that Shep's sacrifice was worth it. I fully expected Shep to die at the end, in a heroic sacrifice to save the galaxy sort of way. This would have been a fitting conclusion. Two of the three endings did of course have Shep dying, but the sacrifice was to achieve outcomes my Shep would never have accepted. And in the other ending Shep lives, which given the fecked up result I don't think would be something my Shep would have wanted anyway, preferring a heroic death to the shame of genocide. So lose lose all around.

What I don't understand is how Bioware felt that any of these endings would make anyone satisfied. Leaving aside the nerd rage (which is all a bit silly) it was inevitable that these endings would leave most players feeling let down, fed up, hollow and even a little bit depressed. None of the endings contains any hope. In all three endings the mass relays and citadel are destroyed (and the systems they explode in destroyed too), the galactic fleets stranded and the galaxy permanently changed for the worse.

I think it's safe to say few players wanted or expected a Hollywood happy ending, most players expected Shep would probably die. But I think pretty much everyone expected to save the Galaxy!

And then of course there's the enormous plot holes .... but enough for now.
[/spoiler]

[Lasiien]

Yer I agree, hard to think of such brilliant writers coming up with such junk. Guess we just have to wait for the DLC....

[eKo]

Here's my thoughts on the ending.

[spoiler]I went for the Synthesis ending as it meant an end to the 'Reaper cycle' and I didn't kill billions in process (just rewrote everyone's DNA ). Couldn't go for the Destruction ending after ending a 300 year war between the Geth & the Quarians (with Legion becoming a full individual, yet sacrificing himself) and bringing Joker & EDI together. And controlling the Reapers after I've tried to dissuade the Illusive Man from controlling the reaper during all of ME3 would be silly. I didn't feel bad about the synthesis ending in itself as it's basically Shephard sacrificing herself to save everyone else and end the Reaper threat once and for all.

But what was irritating was the end movie which didn't make much sense: Why are my last thoughts with Joker, Andersson & Liara and am I not thinking about my love interest? How did Garrus, who was with me on Earth, get onto the Normandy all of a sudden and why are they running away making a jump? So Joker, EDI, Samantha Traynor (my love interest) & Garrus leave me back on Earth and just try to run away? That makes no sense at all and goes against everything that's happened before.

Another irritating point is that you cannot discuss with the Catalyst at all, you don't mention the Geth & Quarians who finally get along, nor Joker and EDI, ... I wouldn't have minded not being able to convince him (he's millions of years old and thye Reaper you kill in Rannoch already tells you we can't comprehend their actions), but my Shephard wouldn't just accept his discussion and not even try to argue. I did try another way out, but couldn't kill the Catalyst, nor commit suicide. And all I wanted to know was where the off-switch for the Reapers was .[/spoiler]

The fact that people come up with stuff like the dream or indoctrination theories show how bad the ending is, they'd rather believe something far fetched than the actual ending.

[Lasiien]

[spoiler]Yer, I had a thought last night on how the indoctrination theory couldn't be true if the worst ending only gives you the one option. i.e. you play as badly as possible, minimise your war fleet etc then you only get the choice to destroy the repears (and apparently Earth gets blown up too). But if it were an indoctrination ending then how on earth does that fit??

I couldn't get the geth and quarians to make peace, I think it was impossible in my game as I'd been such a nasty man in my previous ME2 game I did try but I don't think it was ever on the cards as I didn't even have the proper Legion, just the poor copy (yeah, I gave Legion up to the Illusive man in that ME2 save....opps !!).

i agree with everything else you said and understand both yours and cerns reasons, perhaps they wanted something open ended that fans would make different choices and debate about etc. As you both say, none of the endings are what we expected (and yep Cern I certainly expected a heroic paragon end where Shepard lays his life down for the good of everyone else). I had thought for a while whilst playing that perhaps Shepard might also fail and the cycle would continue but that would have been a very downbeat ending also against the whole 'hope against overwhelming odds' thing, plus also would be leaving it way open for further sequels which would be a bit cynical !


Indoctrination would have been a fantastic ending though

Going to replay ME2 now and try a FemShep to see what all the fuzz is about !

[Cernos]

Going to replay ME2 now and try a FemShep to see what all the fuzz is about !

I've played both and FemShep is the definitive Shep for me. Mark Meer does a good job but Jennifer Hale brings something extra to the role that gives you the impression she was inhabiting the character rather than just acting it.