It took me over a month to finally get around to beating Mass Effect 3 (ME3). I don't know if it was the extremely negative press surrounding the game's conclusion, or the unfathomable story that made choices from previous installments of the game somewhat moot. I was incredibly turned off at one point, and just played the multiplayer for awhile.
I can say that the Multiplayer, while redundant, is fun and at times challenging. It's a good way to kill an hour with friends. Varying the game type a bit would've gone along way, as firefight has been done to death in just about every multiplayer game released in the past five years. It's also worth noting that it's clear multiplayer was an afterthought, as the programming and execution of it stinks of poor programming and buggy interfaces (most of which have been fixed). It still confuses me why I need to go through four loading screens to get into a game, though.
In it's defense, Bioware was busy dumping money into the failboat that was SWTOR. Also in its defense, the game explores some very excellent story lines from previous characters, most notably Thane and Mordin. However the glimmers of hope that you occasionally catch a glimpse of are most often met by a punch in the throat as you stumble across another seemingly random piece of the story that makes little to no sense.
And then, there's the gameplay. They did good here with the customization and cooldown weapon choices, however it becomes obvious to anyone with a brain that certain combinations far over power others, and unless you like wasting time, you'll just stick with what works instead of what looks cool but ultimately makes you pull your hair out.
The (original) ending of the game is nothing short of a war crime upon humanity. I'm not sure how they were so far off the beaten path with it, or how they thought it'd be passable and make people not care. SWTOR is probably the answer, but I digress, again.
My friend, a fellow Mass Effect fan and junkie, was sitting in the room watching me go through the last few minutes of the game. Despite the fact that there really is no last boss, I died more times firing the last shots of the game then I did the entire time playing through it. I was playing on insanity, and the fact that you're forced to draw a pistol and slowly dispose of a handful of enemies in slow motion as the last battle of the series was nothing short of a joke. Not to mention nearly impossible, as if you miss one shot on the last enemy, you die. Over and over again. My main character never touched a pistol, not once. Especially not the worst pistol/weapon in the game.
So, in short, I was forced to play a character that wasn't mine in order to finish a game I had just invested 30 hours in. Unforgivable. After finally landing 25 shots in a row, I was greeted with a choice which made no sense, and a handful of cut-scenes which made even less sense.
My friend and I have probably 200 hours+ invested in the Mass Effect Series, we were unbelievably baffled at the 'ending' - what's worse is that apparently I got the best one! I wonder what the worst ending is. Perhaps the xbox just explodes.
To say that this was a slap in the face is an understatement. It was a kick to the groin, followed up by being doused in gasoline and set on fire. Then laughed at, and our ashes flushed down a ill-maintained toilet.
I heard they released some DLC to fix the horrible ending. I don't care too much about that. I will never buy a Bioware game again at release - I'll wait. Thanks but no thanks, Bioware.
Too little, and way too late.
