Mass Effect 3

[Humanoid]

I wouldn't say "most games" personally - cutscene incompetence is pretty pervasive in the genre. I'm not silly or cruel enough to go find a link to TV tropes of course.

 

But at any rate, as much as I hear bad things about the plot in ME3, I, having recently attempted and failed miserably to get back into ME2, can't help but wonder how much of it is due to the rose tinted glasses viewing the previous instalment. ME2 had mostly ludicrous storytelling and I'm finding the gameplay nowhere as good as I remember it. Hopefully my cynicism after that dismal experience will make the final instalment a relatively pleasant surprise.

[Gorgon]

You make it sound like a chore. There is a choice you know.

[Amentep]

I had that handgun that had the explosive adhesive rounds modded up to have a largish capacity and had Kai Ling strung up like a christmas tree with exploding adhesive proximity mines as ornaments.

 

So suddenly finding that the end result of me facing an opponent who has half-a-dozen proximity mines exploding on their body was me losing a fight was a bit disappointing.

 

I also gave up on my second play through of ME3 this weekend.

[Orogun01]

You make it sound like a chore. There is a choice you know.

You mean not playing the game?

 

Edit: The sad part its that I actually like this game better than the rest of the series.

Edited April 9, 2012 by Orogun01

[Janmanden]

It is a chore, especially if you intend to get it all. You have to moon walk around the whole goddamned ship after each mission to catch all the chit-chat and comments about this and that and you have to visit the Citadel all the time. It's crazy. In my first game I felt a sense of urgency where I hardly ever visited the Citadel and missed out on a lot of missions that were on a clock too.. I think I actually failed to do most of the missions that Traynor added before time was up. Once I realized that Priority means 'do last' it got a lot easier.

 

Apart from the frustration of wonky defective controls playing as Vanguard was pretty fun.. I especially liked the Biotic Charge.. Zoinking from one end of the battlefield to the other followed by a nova.. Nice work. Nice to be rid of the slowness of pointless running and the equally frustrating use of the sticky storm 'suicide' button, but equally frustrating when the interface fails to show why Biotic charge isn't working.. I think it should have been grayed out on targets on a lot of occassions. Infiltrator was, apart from the times that tactical cloak clearly didn't work, quite enjoyable and much more like the way the game likes to be played.. I wish Bioware had done some stress testing, because the regular pain in the arse-meter scales exponentially to the level of stress and even though it was nice to cloak I still had to run like hell on several occassions. I tried my hand shortly with Adept and Sentinel, but there is a hurdle of some kind, boredom or style of play, dunno, that I am not quite ready for yet. Engineer has been a bit fun so far, but it's too much of a key hell. On Mars it was actually a bit fun to see the combat drone kill all the cerberus.. There is a spot at a specific window in the turret room that lets you create the drone on the other side of the glass and Cerberus apparently only knows how to open doors when they intend to shut them behind to block my progress. Stupid game.

 

I wish Bioware had added a scene index to this game, movie, line of entertainment, because replaying the whole mess just to see how this or that choice from ME2 affects the game is a bit too much since there isn't room enough to make each game different and I wish I hadn't noticed all the little details, because the closer you look the more shallow some parts become. Nice to see that Bioware spend some time to get the little things working, but they must have been in quite a hurry. Looking at pictures on the memorial walls and people on the lower levels of the Purgatory; Pooh! I would like to skip all the content and move straight to the first encounter with Miranda, Jack and Tali. Done four of five romances.. Tali compensates nicely for the lack of nudity, but the hardest one was doing Ashley, because you have to endure all of her nagging.. I wish there was friendly fire in this game not just to kill Ashley, but anyone else too that blocks my path and progress. Stress testing, Bioware; Try it. Just can't get myself to do the male gay one because the dialogue choice makes me cringe, I think it's even worse than listening to the BS of that jerk in BG2, whatshisname.. Erm.. Imo.. Anomen. Currently trying to do a game with Miranda as the love interest, but my patience is getting really thin and her appearances are just spread out too much across the game.. Ugh.

 

It was a bit of bad timing of Bioware to offer the From Ashes DLC the same day as the main game, but it's okay in my book not to include it, because it's not integral to the story in any way, it actually feels a bit ackward and embarrassing.. probably why it wasn't included, but $10 for that is a really high price.. At least my total so far is still less than the original price of the cut-down retail version on Origin.

[GhostofAnakin]

I liked a few of the main story missions, and I thought some of the side missions where you meet up with old squadmates were cool. My main issues were with those ridiculous "eavesdropping" fetch quests. I'd much rather have had them spend the time making maybe one or two more N7 missions and getting rid of every single eavesdrop mission.

 

I didn't like the London mission though. But it was your typical "throw waves and waves of enemies at the player to make it clear this is nearly the end of the game" thing that a lot of RPGs seem to employ. So while I didn't like it, I pretty much expected something like it.

 

I just wish there was a bit more freedom in when certain missions could be done. I don't think anything from the Tuchunka mission had to be done before the Quarian/Geth mission, so it would have been nice to be able to choose which one of them to do first.

[mr insomniac]

I just wish there was a bit more freedom in when certain missions could be done. I don't think anything from the Tuchunka mission had to be done before the Quarian/Geth mission, so it would have been nice to be able to choose which one of them to do first.

IIRC, very early in the game you get an ominous sounding report about the Quarians from either the Shadow Broker terminal or the Spectre terminal. Made me think I'd be heading there first. But However, Bioware tried to instill a sense of urgency in bringing the krogan onboard, in the sense that soon there wouldn't be anything left of the Turians or Palaven. You do take the Normandy to the citadel first, and it is the turian councilor who first asks for your help.

[Calax]

I just wish there was a bit more freedom in when certain missions could be done. I don't think anything from the Tuchunka mission had to be done before the Quarian/Geth mission, so it would have been nice to be able to choose which one of them to do first.

IIRC, very early in the game you get an ominous sounding report about the Quarians from either the Shadow Broker terminal or the Spectre terminal. Made me think I'd be heading there first. But However, Bioware tried to instill a sense of urgency in bringing the krogan onboard, in the sense that soon there wouldn't be anything left of the Turians or Palaven. You do take the Normandy to the citadel first, and it is the turian councilor who first asks for your help.

 

That is sort of one odd thing about the universe. The Krogan and Turians are "OMG HALP US!" and that's of world shattering importance, but once that's done, there's no real, visual effect of their having been rescued. You don't get the Turian Boss or Wrex parked in your strategic quite, instead you're just left with nothing and it feels like you're starting from square one again.

[Orogun01]

 

That is sort of one odd thing about the universe. The Krogan and Turians are "OMG HALP US!" and that's of world shattering importance, but once that's done, there's no real, visual effect of their having been rescued. You don't get the Turian Boss or Wrex parked in your strategic quite, instead you're just left with nothing and it feels like you're starting from square one again.

I'm sorry but i'm going to have to strongly disagree with you because your statement aside from erroneous, its irrational.

Firstly; you do get something out of it, the troops that are the main purpose of you being there. Plus having the generals from different species running their battle theater from one single location its kind of ridiculous. They came, added their bit to the story and moved on to make way for the new guys. It seems to me that you are simply upset that you didn't get to see more of those guys.

 

I would understand if your complaint was that the Quarians was basically a repeat of the Krogan situation and didn't do much in the way of advancing the plot. Or if you had said that Thessia was constrained,offered no choice whatsoever and was ridiculously short with no recurring characters or a semblance of an organized resistance. Apparently if the asari aren't fulfilling the green girl trope the writers don't have much use for them. But IMO you are nitpicking at one of the strongest parts of this story.

[Calax]

That is sort of one odd thing about the universe. The Krogan and Turians are "OMG HALP US!" and that's of world shattering importance, but once that's done, there's no real, visual effect of their having been rescued. You don't get the Turian Boss or Wrex parked in your strategic quite, instead you're just left with nothing and it feels like you're starting from square one again.

I'm sorry but i'm going to have to strongly disagree with you because your statement aside from erroneous, its irrational.

Firstly; you do get something out of it, the troops that are the main purpose of you being there. Plus having the generals from different species running their battle theater from one single location its kind of ridiculous. They came, added their bit to the story and moved on to make way for the new guys. It seems to me that you are simply upset that you didn't get to see more of those guys.

 

I would understand if your complaint was that the Quarians was basically a repeat of the Krogan situation and didn't do much in the way of advancing the plot. Or if you had said that Thessia was constrained,offered no choice whatsoever and was ridiculously short with no recurring characters or a semblance of an organized resistance. Apparently if the asari aren't fulfilling the green girl trope the writers don't have much use for them. But IMO you are nitpicking at one of the strongest parts of this story.

My point was that the Krogan and Turian militaries basically "checked out" of the story as soon as their segment was done. After that they were little more than a number in your "I win" meter. Sure they showed up still, but they didn't seem to be making a visible effort towards helping out your military etc.

 

It would have felt better for integration and consequence if, after you'd finished that segment, you had a small Turian and Krogan contingent put into your war-room to act as Liason between the forces. Show that they're actually a part of our united front against the reapers, don't just tell me "Oh hay, they're part of your armada now!" Hell, do what they did with the Quarian Geth segment and have Grunt pop up and say "I'm a squad member now!".

 

I don't see why i have to accept a number moving slightly to the right as an object of consequence. I mean I can understand that for the more bit players (Batarians, former party members, that sort of thing), but when a good 1/3rd of your story revolves around this particular conflict, you expect to see some adjustments to the universe when it's resolved if this is going to try to exist as "universe toppling epic".

 

Compare it to Fable, or Suikoden V or Dragon Age even. After you've completed a segment of the story, and the "status quo" has changed so that somebody is helping you, your throne room (or camp) has at least an NPC pop up to represent that allegiance. Fable having one of the worst implementations of this (basically you have only one guy changing, but you still have a graphic representation of your treasury), with Dragon age in the middle, and Suikoden V at the other extreme (you get generals arguing over strategy, with newer voices being heard, and newer units being put into your army for the strategic bits.

 

And before you go off saying that Suikoden V's having the new allies show up only as army bits is the same, realize, in Suikoden, one of the three main battle systems revolved around using that army to beat the tar out of enemies in actual army on army combat, while Mass Effect, dispite it's attempts to be on a grand scale and "EPIC", has most of it's large scale actions (fleet or army) taking place offscreen (probably because the Xbox couldn't handle processing the massive epic fleet battles or an actual ground fight that needed more than 10-12 enemies active).

[Gorth]

It could have been fun having a growing crowd of bickering military personnel in that unused meeting room next to the comm room, comparing military priorities and philosophies (and insults). A wasted opportunity?

[Aedelric]

If it was not Biowares intention to kill off their franchise they seemingly succeeded by accident.

 

I see a lot of talk about the players choices and consequences in this topic. Mass Effect was always about choice and actions determining what happens. A simple example of how Bioware ruined even that core mechanic of their own franchise is that in ME 3 they removed thee middle ground dialogue reply.

 

Basically we can be good or bad and in the end, what we choose often did not affect what happens later. Rachni queen and destroying the collector base are fine examples, if one wants to go into details we would be here all day.

 

Bioware shot themselves in the foot and no doubt the company is sweating a bit after the Dragon age fiasco last year. I am sure a lot of people will not be buying upon day of release next time.

 

 

Edit: - Anyone else get a whole Alien: Resurrection vibe off the whole fiasco?

Edited April 10, 2012 by Aedelric

[HoonDing]

I had that handgun that had the explosive adhesive rounds modded up to have a largish capacity and had Kai Ling strung up like a christmas tree with exploding adhesive proximity mines as ornaments.

 

So suddenly finding that the end result of me facing an opponent who has half-a-dozen proximity mines exploding on their body was me losing a fight was a bit disappointing.

 

I also gave up on my second play through of ME3 this weekend.

The best part was that smug e-mail afterwards. "lol i beat u" when he actually had to resort to a gunship blowing away the floor.

 

Worst BioWare villain ever, beating out even Melissan (the earliest example of BioWare cutscene retardedness).

Edited April 10, 2012 by virumor

[Nepenthe]

The poignancy somewhat disturbed by the authors' inability to spell "decision".

Edited April 10, 2012 by Nepenthe

[Gorth]

For all the negative stuff about the main story, it can be hard to remember some of the highlights in the surrounding detail. I still get a chuckle out of drunk Tali and her straw emergency induction port (went to youtube to rewatch a few favourite moments). Managed to walk in on her and Garrus too in the weapons battery room

[Raithe]

I have to admit, I did enjoy the part of the end sequence where Shep and Anderson are sat next to each other having that quiet talk with Earth in the background..

 

Also, the amount of in-jokes they threw in, the amount of "calibration" comments that came up, such as hearing Legion offer Garrus aid to calibrate the guns to .23 % and that was the most available.. Garrus doing a tweak and Legion being amazed that the guns improved by .47% and was all "how did you do that??"

 

And the conversations between Liara and her "father" were mostly amusing if you listened to them all.

 

I do kind of wonder how long before there's some form of "retake Omega" dlc.. that seemed something that had a few hooks hung up...

[Nepenthe]

For all the negative stuff about the main story, it can be hard to remember some of the highlights in the surrounding detail. I still get a chuckle out of drunk Tali and her straw emergency induction port (went to youtube to rewatch a few favourite moments). Managed to walk in on her and Garrus too in the weapons battery room

Mmh, I refer to what I posted in the other thread, there were obviously some very talented writers (and designers) working on this game, yet there are some macro level issues throughout the game that actually snake into the "micro" towards the end of the game (basically Thessia onwards). Not sure if they worked on the game chronologically and just ran out of time, or if their resources were directed in the wrong places or simply if their project direction bit off more than they could chew.

[Nepenthe]

I have to admit, I did enjoy the part of the end sequence where Shep and Anderson are sat next to each other having that quiet talk with Earth in the background..

 

Also, the amount of in-jokes they threw in, the amount of "calibration" comments that came up, such as hearing Legion offer Garrus aid to calibrate the guns to .23 % and that was the most available.. Garrus doing a tweak and Legion being amazed that the guns improved by .47% and was all "how did you do that??"

 

And the conversations between Liara and her "father" were mostly amusing if you listened to them all.

 

I do kind of wonder how long before there's some form of "retake Omega" dlc.. that seemed something that had a few hooks hung up...

I think the Omega DLC is almost a given; not just thematically, but simply due to the fact that Aria remains flagged as an important NPC until the end.

 

Of course, now that they are at least giving the impression of trying to unscrew the pooch (and well the Mythbusters did prove that you actually can polish poop), things might change.

 

(Also nearly shameless doublepost, tee hee)

 

p.s. Is it just me or is the readiness decay hella fast? It's like 2 % overnight. O_o

[Bos_hybrid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpeRk1YFn8s&feature=relmfu

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crgEIhI3y_o&feature=youtu.be

[213374U]

For all the negative stuff about the main story, it can be hard to remember some of the highlights in the surrounding detail. I still get a chuckle out of drunk Tali and her straw emergency induction port (went to youtube to rewatch a few favourite moments). Managed to walk in on her and Garrus too in the weapons battery room

Mmh, I refer to what I posted in the other thread, there were obviously some very talented writers (and designers) working on this game, yet there are some macro level issues throughout the game that actually snake into the "micro" towards the end of the game (basically Thessia onwards). Not sure if they worked on the game chronologically and just ran out of time, or if their resources were directed in the wrong places or simply if their project direction bit off more than they could chew.

Some of the "support X or Y" moments are, oddly enough, better presented and played out than main plot knots. Ration medical supplies or try and help everyone? Militarize C-Sec or emphasize its policing functions? Is existence dependant on life support really "life"?

 

Whoever said that this game feels as if it had been basically bolted together at the end of development hit the nail on the head. The difference in writing quality between different parts of the game is... gaping, to say the least. I wonder how much Karpyshyn's departure from Bioware has affected the quality of the end product, if at all.

 

Oh well. Since I'm having more and more trouble enduring the plot and it's mostly the action segments that keep me engaged, maybe I should give MP a shot after all.

Edited April 10, 2012 by 213374U

[Malcador]

Shame all your C-Sec work goes to waste. Then again what WAS C-Sec going to do against the Reapers, anyway.

[Amentep]

Edit: - Anyone else get a whole Alien: Resurrection vibe off the whole fiasco?

 

While I understand why it was hated, I liked Alien: Resurrection better than Alien3 (and better than ME3)

 

I had that handgun that had the explosive adhesive rounds modded up to have a largish capacity and had Kai Ling strung up like a christmas tree with exploding adhesive proximity mines as ornaments.

 

So suddenly finding that the end result of me facing an opponent who has half-a-dozen proximity mines exploding on their body was me losing a fight was a bit disappointing.

 

I also gave up on my second play through of ME3 this weekend.

The best part was that smug e-mail afterwards. "lol i beat u" when he actually had to resort to a gunship blowing away the floor.

 

Worst BioWare villain ever, beating out even Melissan (the earliest example of BioWare cutscene retardedness).

 

It was just...lame.

[greylord]

If it was not Biowares intention to kill off their franchise they seemingly succeeded by accident.

 

I see a lot of talk about the players choices and consequences in this topic. Mass Effect was always about choice and actions determining what happens. A simple example of how Bioware ruined even that core mechanic of their own franchise is that in ME 3 they removed thee middle ground dialogue reply.

 

Basically we can be good or bad and in the end, what we choose often did not affect what happens later. Rachni queen and destroying the collector base are fine examples, if one wants to go into details we would be here all day.

 

Bioware shot themselves in the foot and no doubt the company is sweating a bit after the Dragon age fiasco last year. I am sure a lot of people will not be buying upon day of release next time.

 

 

Edit: - Anyone else get a whole Alien: Resurrection vibe off the whole fiasco?

 

No.

 

Alien Ressurrection actually was decent. No Aliens, but LUCKILY no alien 3.

 

Alien 3 was the fiasco...not only did it have an ending no one liked, but it even one ups ME 3 in that it completely invalidated the actions of everything that happened in Alien and Aliens!

 

Luckily, even if you watch all 3 movies to Alien 3...it only takes 6 hours as opposed to dozens up dozens ME takes.

 

Ressurrection if anything...attempted to redeem the series from Alien 3's fubar. The biggest fiasco about Ressurrection was that in many people's eye's it failed at redeeming the series from Alien 3's fiasco...though it was a far better movie overall than Alien 3 even dreamed of being as far as Alien movies are concerned.

[Raithe]

Well, Alien Ressurrection was written by Joss Whedon if I recall correctly...

 

I think that's the thing about ME3, there were a lot of nice touches scattered around, bits and pieces that felt great or were perfectly suited to the background points... So it makes it feel even more bizarre when you have all those missing or skewed elements that just don't feel good.

[Tale]

I was a teenager when I watched Alien 3. So I liked it. I enjoyed the idea that everyone who got near the Aliens ended up dying. Even Alien was mostly consistent with that. Everyone but Ripley died. Aliens came along and it reveals that it screwed up her life pretty badly too.

 

Alien 3 had better precedent than Mass Effect 3 did. It's not like the entire Normandy crew died to take down Sovereign except Shepard. And then the SR2 crew dies except Shepard, Jacob, and Jack. I could buy the futility of that scenario much easier.