So, I've played through ME3 now. It's roughly the same size as ME2 (30-40 hours). For people who only want to know whether or not they should buy it, it boils down to this: If you enjoyed ME2, you'll probably enjoy ME3. If you didn't, don't bother.
Anyway, let's get on with it. I played through the whole series with a Vanguard (Paragon), and I'll be doing a Soldier (Renegade) next, followed by a Sentinel (Paragon). I'll use ME2 as a reference since they're so similar.
Update: None of my characters import 100% correctly. Decisions and so on are all present, but I always have to remake their looks. It's actually somewhat annoying because the ME3 char generator seems unable to make the characters I want. It's as if certain customization choices are missing.
Graphics
On the highest settings, it looks pretty decent. I'm not overly impressed though - it didn't have the "wow!" effect that the previous games had. Especially the talking animations during various scenes look a bit odd. There are some spectacular scenes though, usually involving the Reapers. Sprinting looks a bit weird without armor, but it improves once you get full armor (the sprint animation fits the bulky look more than the skinny look). All in all, the graphics are still more than good enough in my opinion.
Sound
Top notch as always. Good music, overall decent voice actors. Nothing out of place really.
Gameplay
It's basically a beefed up version of ME2. It feels very similar, but the enemies and overall battles are a bit more varied, which is certainly a change for the better. Also, various skills are slightly more varied now with more significant choices as you level up.
Other than that, I feel they streamlined the gameplay between combat sequences a bit too much. The Citadel is far more interesting than it used to be, but there are so few people that you can actually interact with. Almost all side quests are simple fetch quests where the fetching is done either by using a scanner on a planet or by picking up an item in a location that's part of the main quest. It gets very repetitive after a while.
Economy, items and inventory management
Items and inventory management got yet another overhaul in ME3. Weapons can now be both modded and upgraded, and there is a wider selection of weapons than in ME2. Armor upgrades are still somewhat limited, but at least it's somewhat better than ME2.
The biggest change is related to item weight, however. Item weight is now a very important factor when deciding what weapons to pick. Basically it boils down to this: The less you carry, the faster you can use your abilities. With a very light load, cooldowns are almost instant, which makes a very big difference. It's also worth noting that different classes have different weight limits: Soldier can carry the most, followed by Vanguard, Sentinel and Infiltrator. Adept and Engineer have the lowest weight limit.
Economy is a not an issue to be honest. I ended the game with over 650.000 credits, which means I probably should have bought a lot more than I did. The only way to ever run out of credits is to buy the Spectre weapons.
Characters
Hmm, where to start and how to avoid spoilers? I have mixed feelings when it comes to characters in ME3. I felt far more attached to my team in ME2 than in ME3, but ME3 gets far more emotional than ME2 ever did. Beyond the team, the other characters you bump into are roughly on par with the ones in ME2. I'll have to explain more in a spoiler tag.
Anyway, I'd say ME3 scores below ME2 in terms of characters - there's not enough "meat" compared to the crew of ME2. Most dialogues aren't actual conversations where you can ask questions and what not, but merely a "click on the person to get a response" kind of thing, similar to how Kasumi and Zaeed were handled in ME2.
Romances are back, but only some of them can be re-ignited it seems. I don't know exactly which ones are viable, but I believe it depends on who is available as a squad member. Which means is boils down to:
Story
It's a step up from ME2, which had a rubbish story beyond side quests and character missions. However, it's still behind ME1, as the whole thing feels a bit too intense and overly dramatic. They're playing the emotion card too often in my opinion, leading to an experience that sometimes feels like a chore and not fun. There's a reason I don't watch movies like Titanic too often - I just don't find them fun or entertaining.
I suspect some people might enjoy the story a lot more than I do, as I'm a huge fan of ending trilogies in a similar way to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. ME3 is not the Mass Effect equivalent of RotJ.
Choices and consequences
Importing save games and noticing the consequences that span over three whole games has always been an important selling point of Mass Effect. As I've only played through ME3 once, it's hard for me to know just how big of a deal importing a save game is. I'll know more about this once I play through it again with my Soldier who is a Renegade character.
For now, I'm left with a "Dragon Age 2 feeling". The choices are there, but I can't shake the feeling that the outcome is the same no matter what. For example, I really don't think the ending can be changed. I've heard a lot of people whine about how they can't achieve an optimal ending without playing multiplayer, due to the readiness rating staying at 50%. I honestly don't think it matters. Filling the green bar before the ending mission seems to be the only thing that matters, as I simply have no idea what else is supposed to be affected. The choice at the end seems to be set in stone.
There is one thing I found very odd though, something I have been unable to figure out why happened. Near the end of the game, I ended up in a conversation where I had both Renegade and Paragon options available several times despite being 100% Paragon. However, in the third and final conversation, I went from having both Renegade and Paragon available to none of them. They were both grayed out. It looked like a bug to me, but I don't know. Like I said, I had 100% Paragon, so you'd think every Paragon option would be available to me.
Update: It might actually have to do with readiness rating, which is affected by coop mode. If that's the case, it's ridiculous.
I'll know more about C&C once I've replayed the game, so I'll update this thread then.
Final verdict
I'd normally give this an 8/10 or so, maybe even borderline 9, but the emotional aspect really got on my nerves after a while. The thing is: It works reasonably well for a single playthrough, as it's easy to get attached to the story. However, it reduces replay value quite a lot, as I simply don't feel like going through it again. There are too many *unskippable* scenes that are overly emotional. Why on earth did they make certain scenes and conversations impossible to skip? It makes no sense, especially for people who replay games a lot.
Bottom line: I'd probably give it a 7. I might adjust that after I've played through it a second time if I discover that C&C actually matters more than I think it does.
As always, I'll update this thread if I think of something else or if someone wants me to add something specific. Feel free to ask questions and what not.
Anyway, let's get on with it. I played through the whole series with a Vanguard (Paragon), and I'll be doing a Soldier (Renegade) next, followed by a Sentinel (Paragon). I'll use ME2 as a reference since they're so similar.
Update: None of my characters import 100% correctly. Decisions and so on are all present, but I always have to remake their looks. It's actually somewhat annoying because the ME3 char generator seems unable to make the characters I want. It's as if certain customization choices are missing.
Graphics
On the highest settings, it looks pretty decent. I'm not overly impressed though - it didn't have the "wow!" effect that the previous games had. Especially the talking animations during various scenes look a bit odd. There are some spectacular scenes though, usually involving the Reapers. Sprinting looks a bit weird without armor, but it improves once you get full armor (the sprint animation fits the bulky look more than the skinny look). All in all, the graphics are still more than good enough in my opinion.
Sound
Top notch as always. Good music, overall decent voice actors. Nothing out of place really.
Gameplay
It's basically a beefed up version of ME2. It feels very similar, but the enemies and overall battles are a bit more varied, which is certainly a change for the better. Also, various skills are slightly more varied now with more significant choices as you level up.
Other than that, I feel they streamlined the gameplay between combat sequences a bit too much. The Citadel is far more interesting than it used to be, but there are so few people that you can actually interact with. Almost all side quests are simple fetch quests where the fetching is done either by using a scanner on a planet or by picking up an item in a location that's part of the main quest. It gets very repetitive after a while.
Economy, items and inventory management
Items and inventory management got yet another overhaul in ME3. Weapons can now be both modded and upgraded, and there is a wider selection of weapons than in ME2. Armor upgrades are still somewhat limited, but at least it's somewhat better than ME2.
The biggest change is related to item weight, however. Item weight is now a very important factor when deciding what weapons to pick. Basically it boils down to this: The less you carry, the faster you can use your abilities. With a very light load, cooldowns are almost instant, which makes a very big difference. It's also worth noting that different classes have different weight limits: Soldier can carry the most, followed by Vanguard, Sentinel and Infiltrator. Adept and Engineer have the lowest weight limit.
Economy is a not an issue to be honest. I ended the game with over 650.000 credits, which means I probably should have bought a lot more than I did. The only way to ever run out of credits is to buy the Spectre weapons.
Characters
Hmm, where to start and how to avoid spoilers? I have mixed feelings when it comes to characters in ME3. I felt far more attached to my team in ME2 than in ME3, but ME3 gets far more emotional than ME2 ever did. Beyond the team, the other characters you bump into are roughly on par with the ones in ME2. I'll have to explain more in a spoiler tag.
Here's the thing: The ME2 team appears in ME3, but beyond Garrus and Tali they're not part of the crew. They are, however, part of various missions where several of them end up dead. The fact that I got a bit attached to some of them in ME2 means this can actually get a bit emotional. ME3 is a very emotional game, but I'll be writing more about that later.
Anyway, I'd say ME3 scores below ME2 in terms of characters - there's not enough "meat" compared to the crew of ME2. Most dialogues aren't actual conversations where you can ask questions and what not, but merely a "click on the person to get a response" kind of thing, similar to how Kasumi and Zaeed were handled in ME2.
Romances are back, but only some of them can be re-ignited it seems. I don't know exactly which ones are viable, but I believe it depends on who is available as a squad member. Which means is boils down to:
Kaiden, Garrus and Liara for women, and Ashley, Tali and Liara for men.
Update: It seems there are some "semi romances", similar to Kelly Chambers in ME2 - Traynor is available to women, and that mech guy for men (I think, not entirely certain about that one).
Update: It seems there are some "semi romances", similar to Kelly Chambers in ME2 - Traynor is available to women, and that mech guy for men (I think, not entirely certain about that one).
Story
It's a step up from ME2, which had a rubbish story beyond side quests and character missions. However, it's still behind ME1, as the whole thing feels a bit too intense and overly dramatic. They're playing the emotion card too often in my opinion, leading to an experience that sometimes feels like a chore and not fun. There's a reason I don't watch movies like Titanic too often - I just don't find them fun or entertaining.
I suspect some people might enjoy the story a lot more than I do, as I'm a huge fan of ending trilogies in a similar way to Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. ME3 is not the Mass Effect equivalent of RotJ.
Choices and consequences
Importing save games and noticing the consequences that span over three whole games has always been an important selling point of Mass Effect. As I've only played through ME3 once, it's hard for me to know just how big of a deal importing a save game is. I'll know more about this once I play through it again with my Soldier who is a Renegade character.
For now, I'm left with a "Dragon Age 2 feeling". The choices are there, but I can't shake the feeling that the outcome is the same no matter what. For example, I really don't think the ending can be changed. I've heard a lot of people whine about how they can't achieve an optimal ending without playing multiplayer, due to the readiness rating staying at 50%. I honestly don't think it matters. Filling the green bar before the ending mission seems to be the only thing that matters, as I simply have no idea what else is supposed to be affected. The choice at the end seems to be set in stone.
There is one thing I found very odd though, something I have been unable to figure out why happened. Near the end of the game, I ended up in a conversation where I had both Renegade and Paragon options available several times despite being 100% Paragon. However, in the third and final conversation, I went from having both Renegade and Paragon available to none of them. They were both grayed out. It looked like a bug to me, but I don't know. Like I said, I had 100% Paragon, so you'd think every Paragon option would be available to me.
Update: It might actually have to do with readiness rating, which is affected by coop mode. If that's the case, it's ridiculous.
I'll know more about C&C once I've replayed the game, so I'll update this thread then.
Final verdict
I'd normally give this an 8/10 or so, maybe even borderline 9, but the emotional aspect really got on my nerves after a while. The thing is: It works reasonably well for a single playthrough, as it's easy to get attached to the story. However, it reduces replay value quite a lot, as I simply don't feel like going through it again. There are too many *unskippable* scenes that are overly emotional. Why on earth did they make certain scenes and conversations impossible to skip? It makes no sense, especially for people who replay games a lot.
Bottom line: I'd probably give it a 7. I might adjust that after I've played through it a second time if I discover that C&C actually matters more than I think it does.
As always, I'll update this thread if I think of something else or if someone wants me to add something specific. Feel free to ask questions and what not.
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