I finally managed to finish
Mass Effect 3 last night after a -sort of- back-to-back playthrough of the trilogy. Well, I played ME1 and ME2 in rapid succession back in May and
finished ME2 on May 26th, but looking at today's date, part 3 took me a while I guess...
It was partially my own fault as I always get lazier in gaming during the summer and like to spend a lot more time outside doing sports but it was also partially the game's fault as it did by far not grab me as much as part 2.
I played the digital deluxe version of ME3 with the Citadel and Leviathan DLC installed and of course with the free DLC like the improved ending. I chose to not get Omega since the location and characters didn't really do much for me in the previous game.
According to Origin it took me 58 hours until the credits rolled by for my level 59 Infiltrator class male Shepard.
It was a non-completionist playthrough (39/50 achievements main game and 50/68 total).
While I did most of the side missions that you can obtain either directly from NPCs at the Citadel or from listening in on their conversations, I only did a very half-assed job of scanning the systems for loot and assets because the scanning was just as boring as in the previous games but with the added annoyance of Reapers coming after you. Thanks but no thanks.
I thought that the game actually started out pretty good but deteriorated quickly. They somehow managed to botch the pacing. It was strange how you could not access all systems from the start but only after certain main story mission events. It was even stranger that you could pick up side missions for those "invisible" locations so at times I was wondering WTF I was missing.
I also wasn't a big fan of the "ping-pong" setup of the story. What I mean by that is that the game always had you return to the Citadel after (almost) every single mission.
That got real repetitive real fast, especially because it usually made sense to scour the whole Citadel for new quests or dialogues so there was a lot of "downtime" between missions just running around the Citadel and checking whether someone has new dialogue or if the shops have new inventory and so on and so on... yawn.
As for the main story it was definitely way too melodramatic with lots of cheesy and cringeworthy moments like a very poor B movie. Ouch.
Especially the ending with the 1000x "OMG THIS IS
IT". No it really is
IT. This time, for REALS!!!
Sheesh. Maybe next time hire someone to supervise the interns, BioWare? kthx.
It is also getting waaaaaay too weird towards the end. Without spoiling anything but that really did not make any freaking sense anymore. The whole motivation behind the Reaper harvest cycles is simply completely retarded and dumb. Everything completely falls apart at that point.
I played the ending twice to see the different outcomes of the green and the blue choice (not very nice that there isn't a save closer to the ending and that there are no skippable cutscenes after finishing for the first time is very lame, too, BioWare!).
Oh well... so that was really
it then eh? At least some of the side missions were genuinely fun including the Citadel and Leviathan DLCs. The shooter gameplay was mostly decent and the AI did a relatively good job, too (damn those Banshees to hell!).
I really liked many of the locations. Contrary to the writers, the world builders did a great job. They captured the sometimes desperate atmosphere pretty well (e.g. at the Citadel).
The game was mostly bug-free for me. As with ME1 and ME2 I had to spend quite some time "curing" (most of) the consolitis like e.g. FoV adjustments and many other settings that required a separate tool to edit the game files. I also encountered
one side quest bug that could only be fixed via save game editing.
All in all it's really too bad... this could have been a great conclusion of the trilogy with (much) better writing, better pacing and a better overall structure.
As it stands it's still a decent game and anyone who has played through part 1 and 2 should definitely have played and finished no. 3 to see it to the end but it could have been so much more...
Regarding my personal ranking of the series, I would have to go with the
PC Gamer majority opinion. ME2 >>> ME3 > ME1. Part 2 was by far the best entry in the series (IMHO).
As for the future of Mass Effect, I can't say that I'm really looking forward to ME Andromeda. I have also had the opportunity to play the Dragon Age Inquisition trial in the meantime and BioWare really seem to have serious issues with their storytelling department. The intro to DAI was one of the worst I have seen in a AAA game in a long time and their "digital acting" is simply very poor and -at best- B movie worthy in ME3 and what I've seen of DAI.
CD Projekt (and I'm referring to The Witcher 2 since I have not played 3 yet) and some of Ubi's studios (the one who did Black Flag) are leaving BioWare choking on dust in that regard with much more lifelike and refined characters.
EA/BioWare also need to change their business practices. I originally bought Mass Effect 1 and 2 on Steam and only made an exception when I bought DLC for part 3 from Origin. I will not do that again. EA/BioWare can either join every single other publisher in the business who does bundles, GOTY editions etc. including the DLC at discounts or they can go and f.... yeah, that
.
Seriously, I won't even consider ME Andromeda if they keep up their strategy of keeping the base game and the DLCs separate and never discount the DLCs (in fact if you buy a game on Origin you can only see the DLC after the purchase and won't even know beforehand how much you will have to spend for the "complete" experience).