Mass Effect 3

There are moments in Mass Effect 3 where everything else goes away and it is purely and completely good; Tuchanka, Rannoch, little moments with the characters you've come to know and love. These moments are made all the better for knowing that they are YOUR moments, the result of your choices and actions over the previous two games. When you achieve something momentous in this game you truly feel like you're earned it.

And then the ending comes along and everything is made pointless. I am not exaggerating in any way when I say that this is the worst ending of anything I have ever experienced. It is truly that terrible. It comes out of nowhere, it provides no kind of resolution at all, it's poorly written and not even thematically relevant–even the tone feels completely different to the rest of the game(s). Given everything that came before it feels like a punch to the gut, almost as if BioWare set out to deliberately hurt fans of the franchise, to say “Oh, you cared about these games- These characters- This story- Ahahahaha, what a silly person–WE don't care about it at all, and here's the proof; we have taken hundreds of hours of your life and it was all a bad joke”.

Yes, I'm reacting emotionally to this–dramatically, even. It's because I care about Tali and Garrus and Wrex and the fate of the Quarians and the Geth and the Mass Effect universe in general. It's been an intense journey, but for it to end in this way–in this way that renders everything pointless–is difficult, to say the least.

For everything before the last half hour or so, it's a solid 8/10. Not as good as ME2–especially in terms of writing and intensity–but otherwise very very good indeed. The gameplay is better than ever, streamlined nicely and made complex in good ways.

Including the ending, though, I can't even rate it. Terrible, graceless, insulting and utterly, utterly disappointing.

I loved ME3 but I have some serious issues with this game, all the choices made from previous games mean pretty much nothing.

Save or destroy the collectors base in ME2– dont worry it has zero impact on the thirrd game.

Kill samara and save monrith in ME2– samaras last words are “you'll regret this” but guess what, it means squat in the third game, its like they forgot all about that decision and at the last moment threw monrith in as a banshee, you think the asari would be mad I killed a justicar, but no, even my asari girlfriend had nothing to say about it.

And the ending killed the whole game, sure it was an awesome ride, but the end game screwed the fans over, no closure, and all the decisions we previously made had no effect, maybe the game should be called “no effect 3”

And the fans were promised fantastic endings that wouldn't be the typical A B C choices, well they failed and thats exactly what we got, its a shame A B and C were all the same.

The game itself is great, but it will leave you clueless at the end, so many plot holes, the final in a trilogy needs to give answers, it needs to give closure to ALL our favorite characters, and it needs to send the series off in a spectacular way, ME3 failed on all frounts.

I can see why people didn't like the ending. After all the decisions you have made, the ending seems to not exactly be the culmination of these experiences. But to those people I say: You are expecting too much! And what's more, you are expecting too little!

Mass Effect is renowned for making you not only make average decisions, but some really tough decisions. The ending of the game is not an insult to the series, in fact, it is the pinnacle of making hard decisions. I for one, thoroughly enjoyed making the decision.

So to everyone still wondering, and for some this review probably has come too late, this game is epic, well designed, cinematic, glorious, and to top it off, has an amazing story and an ever better ending. I am sad the journey is over, but at the same time I am happy it has ended. Onto bigger and better things! Dont be afraid of a series ending! It only opens the door to better things!

Ok before I start, as long as they fix the ending this is by far one of the best games I've ever played.

http://blog.bioware.com/…/03/21/4108/

The game is thought provoking, heart warming and sometimes heart breaking. ME3 is an emotional roller coaster (Especially if you have played the others) and plays like a story driven sci-fi movie.

Although shorter than its counterparts (28hrs for me) ME3 makes all the missions feel alot more in depth by adding familiar faces or having a clear reason for you being there.

A few technical and graphical glitches do little to dent the experience and side quests aren't set out as well as they could be in your log.

All in all, 9.5/10, 8/10 if you include the rushed ending that doesn't reflect your choices ingame.

Great gameplay and RPG element, pity about the ending but overall one of the best games I've ever played. Definitely a game of the year candidate.