Mass Effect 3 Review

I liked ME3 the 2nd best in the trilogy despite me just enjoying it as a decent third person shooter more so than the because of the narrative and story. All though honestly while playing ME3 is enjoyable in the moment, the game did start to wear thin due to the lack of a geniunely enjoyable story and that it's a shooter that lasts 20 hours with not much else besides talking inbetween. 

The story already doesn't really have much in the way of stakes examples being how reapers get taken out pretty easily like how one gets beaten by a thresher maw and it's never established that the reapers have a weakness, why Shepard and group never tried to weaponize thresher maws, how suddenly Shepard is no longer in contact with the Illusive Man, has been on watch by the Council during the time off screen between ME2 and 3, Captain Anderson becomes important again, Admiral Hackett is now having taking up screen time during main missions despite him being relegated to side missions. The Council is now important again of all a sudden, the Crucible is now a thing and the collector base and all your adventures ME2 turned out to lead to nothing beneficial. By the time the thresher maw killed the Reaper in a kaiju battle I stopped taking the story seriously since Mass Effect 2 already screwed it up beforehand, ambassador Udina being rewritten as a bad guy working for Cerberus and tried to kill the Council was the moment I viewed ME3's story as a dumb comfort food story where I don't ask too many questions, I gave up on the overarching Mass Effect story ever trying to be anything profound. All though at times it does push my suspension of disbelief  is being put to it's breaking point with the aforemention kaiju battle, ambassador Udina being a villain and the character of Kai Leng. It's a shame considering how solid the first game's story was. 

Speaking of Kai Leng, as hated as he is, he's more dull than he is a "terrible" character the guy is basically a cyborg ninja thug with not much else going on. He runs away a lot and even needs goons to back him during bosses. He is basically a ninja thug who is a complete coward and nothing more even though the Illusive Man poured money into him like Shepard did. He should've been established in ME2 more than anything so their "rivalry" in 3 could've been more fleshed out. 

-Speaking of the Illusive Man was he under the control of the reapers or was he fully in control? The star child said he was controlling him but did the Illusive Man know he was in control or acting on his free will? The story never makes that clear even though Cereberus as an oragnization came out of nowhere and almost everyone in the galaxy hates the Illusive Man despite him being "pro humanity" even Ashley hates them and she is human, the recordings of the Illusive Man on Horizon didn't even reveal anything new, everyone including Shepard at the start of ME2 knew they couldn't be trusted. 

Shepard's visions of the child makes no sense since the child is someone Shepard saw a vague glimpse of but never properly interacted with and he supposedly becomes a vision Shepard gets towards the end of the game? I am not sure. 

The Citadel is apparently needed to power the Crucible even though Sovereign in ME1 almost destroyed it but now apparently it's the key to destroying an army of reapers. 

At least with Mass Effect 3 there are some good moments like Mordin's scarifice and how Wrex and Shepard have been through so much that he is someone that he will tells his children about 

More party member chatter during gameplay which is good since Mass Effect is known for it's characters and I like that Bioware tries to give them personality during gameplay. 

There's at least lots of conflict and in fighting, and it's enough for me to engage with the story superfically. The story is at least well acted and the cutscenes are well directed enough for me to roll my eyes every 10 seconds and completely zone out during gameplay. It's a dumb action movie featuring intergalactic space politcs and lovecraft horror threat. 

Shepard at least feels like he is driving the story than getting bossed around by the Illusive Man like in ME2.  

While the part where a Reaper getting killed by orbital bombardment was dumb, the choice you have to make between the Quarians or the Geth getting wiped out was interesting and it did do a good job at adding some stakes to the story. The Reapers are so weak in ME3 that I am going to have to create story stakes myself where I pick choices that get important characters killed, it doesn't really matter most of the endings are similar but at the same time, the rest of the story is such a mess and ME2 ruined any chance for the series' story to be anything profound that the techno babble ending with the child felt like a punch that barely even phased me after getting hit so many times. 

The plot to ME3 is still a geniune mess overall, it was a mess when ME2 started and since the latter was mostly nothing plot wise, the former tries it's hardest and barely has any anything salvageable by the time I got to the end of ME3, I was so warned out by all the sub par writing beforehand that the dumb techno babble ending didn't even phase me. I started to zone out the moment Udina turned into fully blown villain mode out of nowhere. 

What saves ME3 however is that the gameplay is solid. 

-Level scenarios are different where one minute you are helping a female Krogan escape, disabling a bomb, going through old ruins, helping and stopping Cerberus on a Mars research base instead of ME2's recruitment missions, helping people with personal which are most likely family problems and then doing a Collector mission inbetween all ending with a boss fight of some kind especially the first two I mentioned. The Geth Dreadnaught level where you have to avoid a shockwave every minute while behind to cover to avoid damage is a good example of situational depth. 

Shooting is very satisfying and controls a lot better than ME2. Best shooting in the series thus far. The death animations are at their best here and head shots are very meaty and powerful. Weapons feel their best and the additions of a dodge roll and super melee attack gives you more in combat. Using allies' powers feel better here due to added enemy variety like bigger enemies that you have to actively dodge roll, harvesters, riot shield users, and enemies taking more damage compared to 2. Husks aren't as annoying since they seem to have a finite wave rather than endless swarms like in 2. You also fight weird cyborg ninjas who like to attack you upclose. The Geth do a good job at adding something new to combat encounters where they fire lots of rockets, can turn invisible and can ambush while behind cover, and a Geth Prime has both shields and armor to takedown. And unlock ME2, you aren't fighting those weak medical robots for the 20th time. The Banshee enemy kept on more toes more compared ME2's enemy roster. 

All though once you get to Thessia, the game stops throwing in new enemies and the monotony of the game being a 20 hour cover shooter starts to set in. 

Enemies in ME3 take more damage by comparison to 2 so weapon switching is more encouraged. I actually had to use fire and disruptor ammo this time around where in 2 I rarely if ever used it. ME3's normal felt like an okay and solid enough challenge for the story driven game that it is where ME2 was just way too easy. 

Removing heavy weapons makes the shootouts less one note since in ME2, you can use the basic assault rifle and the switch to heavy weapons during a boss. 

I dislike how ME3 has a weird save bug where you important the save it defaults to casual mode and I was annoyed by how weak you shield was on normal but on normal I did use party memebers' abilities more despite me being able to shoot out in the open, I wish your shield was stronger on normal since playing cover shooters with more health and not using cover at all feels like a cheat code. 

ME3 might be full on action shooter but it is more committed to it than 2 is where the latter felt like an awkward hybrid of shooter and RPG. There is no probing or resource gathering in a game that is purely a cover based shooter. ME3 still is cover based but it controls better and the expanded on enemies, them taking more damage, and Shepard's moveset like the dodge roll and Omni Tool stab gives him more options. 

Overall, ME3 lacks a geniunely engaging story and is almost 20 hours of cover based shooting, the game starts to wear thin after a point, there is no mako and it's still a cover based shooter with lots of dialogue, a better attempt at one compared to ME2 but at the same time, this makes playing ME3 in the moment a rather tiresome experience. I do prefer ME3 over 2 and I would like to say by a country mile but instead I just midly prefer the former over the latter. Mass Effect pretty much died as a geniunely thought provoking narrative after ME1 ended. If ME2 and 3 never came with the Legendary Edition, I am not sure if I would've saw this trilogy through to the end.