There is More Wrong with ME3 than the ending.

You know there is much more wrong with Mass Effect 3 than just then ending right? It's just that the ending was just that bad that it seems we forgot all the other things that were just so wrong.

BioWare failed to produce a quality product. Let's be honest, after playing ME1 and ME2, you can see a significant drop in quality.

ME2 by far was the best out of all three games. Mass Effect 2 is where they got it right. However I will say that ME2 didn't really have any relevance to ME1 or ME3. ME2 is really more of a stand alone game.

If you look at Dragon Age Origins you get more dialogue options, and more action/consequence than you even did in ME3.

In fact, if you go to Meta-critic there are a lot of good points being made.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/mass-effect-3/user-reviews

Here is one I rather agreed with:

This is the sort of thing I've been saying all along. And don't forget (yes, I'm a broken record) the way they retconned the rachni:

ME1, at 3:23. The Rachni Queen says she and her children will find a hidden place and "perhaps" they'll return.


ME2, in which the Rachni Queen says through an asari that the rachni are rebuilding and promises to join with Shepard against the Reapers.


And now ME3, where at 0:12 Garrus says they let the Queen live on the "promise that she'd disappear forever". And is reiterated by FemShep at 3:37, where she says the Queen "promised not to interfere anymore. The rachni were supposed to disappear".


No reason, no explanation. The whole story of the rachni throughout the trilogy was suddenly rewritten and reduced to an irrelevance.

Or you can kill off the Rachni in the ME and they SpaceMagically™ reappear in ME3...

I completely agree. Rather than spending the game giving races innovative ways to fight the reapers (big guns on Tuchanka, Turian bomb, etc) we just stagnated on husks while talking about the crucible. No final boss fight or even dialog with Harbinger, and Sheperd is almost guaranteed never to see his friends again.

To say nothing of how they had the nerve to play depressing songs during the heat of battle, totally not getting the player in the mood for combat, yeah, they fucked up everywhere with this one.

Because this is a deepdark war story donchaknow? A Saving Private Ryan mixed with Spawn! What...did you think you were playing a science fiction game?

/sarcasm off

I can't even stand that stupid, melodramatic ending song anymore, months after, reflecting back it doesn't fit the theme of Mass Effect at all, utterly juvenile Image comic-type decisions by some people in charge.

Hell, there's everything wrong with the game. The beginning is sketchy, serving to do NOTHING to introduce new players to the setting and old players to the things that happened in-between games. In order to get Shepard himself (and only HIMself) to talk about why he was in custody to begin with, you have to have romanced Jack in ME2 and rekindled that in ME3 - there is no other place where he (or she) says anything about giving themselves in to the Alliance due to Cerberus ties. It's implied, it's pointed at, but it's the ONLY time it's ever mentioned straight-up. Right.

As I've said numerous times, the beginning should've been a playable prologue a-la Candlekeep, where old players would catch up on the news in the world, meet Vega, establish a rapport or rivalry with the guy, maybe even (gasp) get invested in the vent boy to be able to want to say something other than
"You can't help me." - "Are you retarded or something? Don't you know who I am? I'M THE GODDAMN SHEPARD!"


You know? Get some sidequests done, and then watch Emily Wong's final moments on TV instead of suffering through them on Twitter long after you've completed the game. GET INVESTED IN URTH TO BEGIN WITH. Get the frakking tutorial done BEFORE the battles start, maybe as a bet with Vega on a firing range. That way the dash for survival would be that "are you sure you're keeping this difficulty?" section, complete with "LAST CHANCE TO CHANGE DIFFICULTY IF YOU WANT TO GET THAT DIFFICULTY ACHIEVEMENT, D00D" warning a-la TES that would've been helpful for the newcomers.

For the newcomer players, that would be exposure to the universe at large, questions asked and answered, a tutorial on the Codex (via Sheppy Shep getting a newer model Omni-Tool and being tutorialed through its use), PLUS, backstory settled on via THE FUCKING TRIAL WE WERE PROMISED FROM THE MOMENT ARRIVAL WAS RELEASED (for returning players it would've been a quick refresher on the decisions they've made, as well as extra bonuses on Para/Rene/Repu points for your attempts at self-defence).

Then there was the promise that we would be able to choose one of MANY ways to defeat the Reapers, some of which would turn out to be "red herrings" in the end. Well, guess what. The Crucible is a frelling red herring alright.

Then there was the thing that ME3 is even more linear than ME2 which was linear as shit compared to ME1. Seriously, do a Liara-less runthrough of ME1. Totally different game, VERY AWESOME. The plot doesn't change in ME2 depending on who you do or do not recruit. In ME3 it only concerns Javik and only if you actually bring him to missions - not like in ME1 where plot-important cutscenes would change.


All of this underscores my main issue with ME3. It was not a professionally made game. It was a fangame, kitbashed from whatever the creators could lay their hands on, and some pieces were brilliant, but it was still a fangame - devoid of work of a professional writer, a professional director, a professional producer and most importantly a professional continuity checker. About the only professionals in there were the VAs and the soundtrack composers, because the texture artists rehashed a lot of ME1 textures into higher resolutions and called it a day; same for the 3d modellers.

I humbly disagree with the op. This topic has been sadly talked to death, and to my disappointment contains nothing new.

But one can talk about some points.
The rachnai line was a dead end, but a good Grunt reunion mission.
But i willingly forget it, because of Rannoch and Tutchanka. Where my decisions are culminating so beautifully.
As far as i understand it, you can only broker peace between Geth and Quarians when you played ME2.
Also only then can you save EVE, as she dies by default.
This story archs are very well done, i havent seen other games deliver similar experience.
Also details like Conrad Verner story arc among others are pros you can not brush aside, because you wont find them anywhere.
There is much love for details in this game, and they take great care to tell a story by repescting as much of players decisions as possible. Technically its not possible to adress all.
You can make up your own mind why Jacob wasnt romancable anymore.

Every game has flaws. ME1 had a lot. ME2 too. Having flaws is not what makes a game bad. To me the only unforgivable failure was how they handled the ending. Other then that i remember having fun playing this game.

Before you answer or rate, wait a moment.

Not yet....

OK. Im prepared. Give me all you have!

/edit: I totaly disconnected the game from the PR because this failure has also been debated with no end.

I've replayed ME2 last week and it needed only the first few missions to show me how flawed most things in ME3 are. It has a real dialog wheel (and not the "dialog interrupt" which just checks if you'r playing paragon or renegade), side missions which have nothing to do with the main story but mini storylines of their own (yes, there are a few fetch quests too in ME2, but you can talk to the people after completing them), a good and diverse mixture of enemies to shoot at (mini-boss fights included), the most uninteresting character (Jacob IMO) is far better written than Kai Lame...oh boy, this list could go on forever.

Prior 8th March it was impossible for me that anyone could messed a Mass Effect game when you look at the first two ones...yesterday was the day when for the first time I uninstalled a BioWare game because I realized no amount of DLC could ever fix ME3 for me.

yea I noticed that. I tried playing ME3 without ME2 or ME1. Bad bad idea. Funny thing was I was actually going to fire up ME2 again yesterday. Instead I played skyrim instead.

A list of things wrong with ME3 other than the ending. Starting with:
1) The boring opening. Even with the Reapers landing on Earth I didn't care what was happening, I just wanted it to be over.
2) The systematic disconnect between Shepard and the player. Basically Mac Walters decided to grab us by the ear and said,"You're gonna have PTSD and like it."
3) The insulting large amount of auto-dialogue on Narrative and RPG mode. Auto-dialogue wouldn't have bothered me much if wasn't focused heavily on the Normandy. Either Bioware felt isn't wasn't necessary to have the player feel like they're Shepard having a one-on-one conversation with crew members, like they did in ME1&2, or Bioware wanted to cut cost and time by not having an actual dialogue sequence everytime you engage a crew member.
4) Underutilized ME2 characters. All reduced to cameos, including Harbinger who doesn't have a single line of dialogue(awesome). Thane, Legion and Mordin I can understand not being able to join, but why not the others?(not even Kasumi or Zaheed? Really?)Also, why was Jack the only ME2 character to be re-skinned? Morinth, 3 letters and a relabeled Banshee, no dialogue or plot involvement. Nice way to show letting her smash in Samara's head in ME2 was completely meaningless.
5) Broken journal system. Totally useless.
6) Overabundance of fetch quests to make the game seem longer.
7) Short Priority missions.Example:Thessia and Earth.
8) Geth and Quarian story arc aka Bioware's version of Pinocchio with genocide. Bioware did their best to make the Geth seem like they were right and the Quarians were wrong. Though until ME3 the narrative was going the direction of both groups were wrong. True the Quarians attempted genocide but the Geth carried it out.
9) Cerberus. In the six months between ME2&3 a rogue military black op became the Sith Empire. Wow, great funding.
10) The Reapers take a back seat to Cerberus until the end.
11) Tali's face reveal. I understand taking an existing picture and changing it to suit the artists needs is acceptable, but what Bioware did was simply lazy and insulting. If any dev says it took them more than 15min then they're either lying or really just that lazy.
12) No Rachni involvement if they're saved AGAIN, except 1 letter and 100 EMS points. "The Rachni will have huge consequences in Mass Effect 3. Even in the final battle with the Reapers." - Mac Walters
13) The Crucible....yeah not much else to say.
14) No importing of Shepard likeness from ME1 and the importing in ME2, if the likeness is remade, isn't much better, because BW removed most of the creation options(Remade my Shep in ME2 just to import and he looks like a fish faced mutant.) Way to ruin the immersion of ME by making players go through ME3 using a Shep that isn't theirs but, only looks like a close relative.

I hated that one too, but my least favorite by far is the one that plays on the Earth missions.

Oh I know there's more wrong with ME3 than just the endings! So much more, which is why I may never be able to sit through ME3 again. The only romance I truly enjoyed was Garrus. I felt like an idiot for remaining loyal to Kaidan, since Shep still has to start over with him.(not to mention the only dialogue changes between a previously romanced Kaidan and a newly romanced one is 'i love you'/'i care about you') Didn't they hint that cheating would lead to disastrous events? *spits at BW* How dare you deny me dramatics! Someday I will romance Kaidan, fuck Garrus in 2 and then let Garrus kill Kaidan in 3! NYAAAHH I make my own drama!
The only thing that hasnt been mentioned above are the fetch quests and truth be told, I think the fetch quests are a joke. If there were actual cutscenes maybe I would feel differently but the 'here I fetched this from this planet' - 'kthx i'll help you with the crucible' was utterly lame.

I had fun with some of it, but ME2 was a lot better. ME3...it's bad...it's all bad because they focused more on the MP portion of the game. Yeah, DA2 didn't have MP, but that was rushed out because EA thinks RPG games should be out quickly like their sports games. I Like DA2, by the way...it was fun, but the story wasn't as good as DA1, and the locations needed more work and...a lot more locations to go to. xD

Mass Effect 3 failed on a lot of fronts...
Disregard of Previously Established Lore
*Insert Favorite Colour of Space Magic*
Poor Character Writing *in some areas*
Forced Themes
Poor Character Usage
'Graphics' were not up to snuff for some people
MP was boring and repetitive
Gameplay got very stagnant very quickly (yeah, there are a few interesting enemies but...)
Gameplay generally lacked challenge
Weak Straight Female and Gay Male romance options...

These are just a few of the complaints I have seen, and while not all of them are as noticeable as others, they generally come together to point a finger stating that Mass Effect 3 is the weakest title of the trilogy. The issue here is that Mass Effect 3 corrected several features the previous games did wrong... but at the same time it lacked some of the major features which made its predecessors so popular.

IT'S A GOOD THING THE WEATHER DEVICE WHERE SOME BUTTON PRESSES WILL CURE AN AGE OLD TERRIBLE DISEASE THAT CAUSES DEATH AND UTERUS DYSFUNCTIONS IS RIGHT NEXT TWO ANCIENT AND HUGE SEISMIC HAMMERS, BECAUSE WE COULD REALLY REALLY USE THAT UNDERGROUND LANDKRAKEN THAT HAS ALWAYS LIVED DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW

...what

...what do you mean, WHY?

BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE THE ONLY REAPER WHO TOOK TUCHANKA LANDED

...yes.

...yes, he is guarding a rain generating sky needle.

...what do you mean, WHY?



...and so on and so forth. Seriously, at the time when I played this I chuckled and muttered "Well isn't this super duper comfortable. I REALLY hope they're not planning on pulling this with the Crucible, because it is probably the single most comfortable plot device ever so far."

Then I realized how horribly mistaken I was, and I chuckled again!



P.S. "chuckled" is code for "was filled with homicidal rage".

I chuckled a lot while playing through it...>_>

It's like...a horrible fan fiction...how the hell did Mac Walters even graduate from college, or school even? If I was his creative writing teacher, I would probably tell him to think more before he writes. <_< Or find another career. xD

Well, he and Casey do think that video games can be too video-gamey, it's not like you can expect a high degree of intelligence.

Yeah, I think every RPG is -required- to have a final boss fight. I mean, if you took Ganon from Legend of Zelda and replaced him with a fairy, it'd be sorta of a lame game. But yeah, Casey and Mac....don't write anything. Ever.

What doesn't make sense at all is that they were put there by Ray Muzyka. The guy is a medical doctor for crying out loud. How can he be so... so... I can't figure a word to describe Muzyka standing by those retards.

You got the only two points of credit in the game. Rannoch and Tuchanka actually feel detached from Mass Effect 3, because they have such solid consequences, smooth narrative line (or tree, since they have side quests), and attention to details.

It's not even fair to compare them with the rest of the game were the consequences have no causes, the details are all made up, and consequences are left "to the player's imagination".