Mass Effect 3 "exclusives" are starting to pop up.

  • Two Factor Authentication is now available on BeyondUnreal Forums. To configure it, visit your Profile and look for the "Two Step Verification" option on the left side. We can send codes via email (may be slower) or you can set up any TOTP Authenticator app on your phone (Authy, Google Authenticator, etc) to deliver codes. It is highly recommended that you configure this to keep your account safe.

JohnDoe641

Killer Fools Pro
Staff member
Nov 8, 2000
5,330
51
48
41
N.J.
www.zombo.com
I haven't beat the game. I just destroyed the ardat-yakshi base.
I haven't beaten the game yet either, I'm currently up to the mission where you
are about to storm TIM's stronghold.
I think that's very close to the ending so I stopped playing SP for a bit and I'm going to just focus on MP and getting my GR to 100%.
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
I just beat the game last night and it pretty much is as horrible as most people are claiming. It's just completely unintelligible, worthless writing that was probably always intended to make people want some DLC to provide closure on the matter.

I won't say the game was a waste of time because I really enjoyed almost everything up to that point. I was quite surprised by how many bugs and flaws the game has, though. It was not uncommon for squadmates and things people were holding to disappear randomly, most particularly during cutscenes. There was one where the camera was supposed to focus on Liara and it focused on a wall with her voice.

I do have to say that, after this game, it's quite obvious that the character with the most depth in this entire series is Liara. It's unbelievable how two dimensional almost everyone else is.
 
Having beaten the game I can certainly understand why so many people are dissatisfied with the ending. That said, I enjoyed the game up until I completed it. It's gonna come down to the ending for most everyone who plays it and I doubt anyone that has stuck around since ME1 is gonna put the controller down after the credits and feel fulfilled. There's no way to dance around the fact that the ending is a copout, designed to be balanced for everyone and being vanilla as a result. The whole game felt as if the people at Bioware had gone through a Battlestar Galactica binge prior to or during the making of the game, and if you watched that show you won't be fracking surprised where it ends up when buzz words like "breaking the cycle" pop up between missions and the whole synthetic vs organics takes more dramatic turn.

I didn't hate the ending, but it was clear the storytelling was in trouble from the moment Caprica 6 joined the squad. In a trilogy forged in this idea of moral choices and the weight of long term decisions, it's kind of disappointing to tell the player that none of it mattered anyway, but if you want to experience more Shepherd adventures than be sure to visit the download screen! Stay classy Bioware.

Having said all that, my only real gripes with the game besides the ending are minor things like the introduction of a random new antagonist (Kai who? is this some reject from Deus Ex or what?) and that I didnt care about the new characters. Unlike ME2 I didn't feel like Shepherd was everyone's group therapist, but having decided to stick to my love interest from 2 (Jack) I felt kind of left out in ME3 since you only see her in two instances while all the other love option characters from the previous two games stick around for a while, even if they aren't part of your squad. The gunplay is better than in the first two but still not as intuitive as games that do the cover-action thing for a living. As a vanguard I only stuck with two weapons the whole game and kicked a fair deal of ass with little difficulties. The hardest guy in the game for me was, as I call him, "the last Marauder" and if you beat the game you know who I'm talking about. After starting with the mako in ME1 and then experimenting with the planet scanning in ME2 the devs arrived at a weird kind of minigame that somehow involved me less in exploring the universe, which was what I loved most about ME1...but okay. What matters is that I had fun i guess.

If you liked this post then please visit Bioware's store and download additional commentary on Mister_Prophet's experience with Mass Effect!
 

NRG

Master Console Hater
Dec 31, 2005
1,727
0
36
34
I honestly don't understand the immense hate for the ending. There was only two things that bothered me:
1. You don't really know what happens to everyone, particularly your crew, besides seeing just a few of them land on a planet and earth are supposedly okay. Yeah that sucks, yeah I can resonate with people on this. So what if the endings are all incredibly similar? Each would dramatically change humanity so if you really need them to fill in the blanks for you then you need some imagination. Why do you think some stories like to end with more questions than answers?
2. I wish they would have explained more about the origins of the reapers and such. I still don't know anything more about them than I did at the end of ME2.
What really bothers me is the fact that people complain about
there is no boss fight. Seriously? Have you been playing so much Halo and watched so many Michael Bay films that all you care about is about getting your action on? Forget characters, story telling and the fact this is (or used to be) an RPG game, I JUST WANNA SHOOT AT STUFF DURRR THAT'S THE ONLY WAY FOR ANYTHING TO BE EPIC. It's the same I understand why they put the "narrative" option into the game but it's kind of pathetic they even felt the need to have it.
 
Last edited:

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
1. You don't really know what happens to everyone, particularly your crew, besides seeing just a few of them land on a planet and earth are supposedly okay. Yeah that sucks, yeah I can resonate with people on this. So what if the endings are all incredibly similar? Each would dramatically change humanity so if you really need them to fill in the blanks for you then you need some imagination. Why do you think some stories like to end with more questions than answers?
The problem is that nothing else you did across the previous three games makes any difference to the end. You could be the biggest jerk to everyone, gotten practically everyone killed that you could in every previous instance and end out in the same place. For a series that has prided itself on personal choice all throughout the series, the end feels like a massive cop-out. Like, we couldn't think of how this could end incorporating some choice, so we just did this. It's similar to the end of DX:HR in that way, you find out you never really had any choice at all and that nothing you did previously mattered.

I don't understand any complaints about boss fights or whatever in this game. Those banshee things, though, drove me insane.

For the sake of the story, I REALLY hope this video is accurate. WARNING THIS VIDEO CONTAINS A CRAPLOAD OF SPOILERS, DO NOT WATCH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM

http://youtu.be/ythY_GkEBck

The evidence presented is very convincing and I hope that it is not giving the story writers at Bioware too much credit to think they did that.

Unfortunately, if that is true, it means that Bioware intentionally left the real end of the game out of the game. That, along with the lack of the Prothean character in regular versions of the game, is so ultimately disappointing that I cannot stand it. I know people say they don't feel like they are missing anything with the Prothean not there, but all I can say is "You don't know what you are missing". He adds an exceptional amount of depth to the Prothean backstory, and his perspective on almost every major event in the game is nothing less than interesting.

edit: Is it possible to get 100% galactic readiness? I did most of the side missions and only got to 50%.
 

NRG

Master Console Hater
Dec 31, 2005
1,727
0
36
34
The problem is that nothing else you did across the previous three games makes any difference to the end. You could be the biggest jerk to everyone, gotten practically everyone killed that you could in every previous instance and end out in the same place.
This is true but I guess I never had expectations for this in the first place. Your actions didn't mean much in ME1 (just enough to warrant actually caring), they meant even less in ME2 and now in ME3 your choices in literally does nothing but change what Shepard says. There's only a few exceptions in ME3 (such as the Quarian and Geth conflict) where any choice alters the outcome :lol: Hell, the only thing you REALLY get to choose is who to romance and which color ending you want.
 

SlayerDragon

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLADIES
Feb 3, 2003
7,666
0
36
40
edit: Is it possible to get 100% galactic readiness? I did most of the side missions and only got to 50%.

I think I read elsewhere that you have to do the online co-op multiplayer shit in order to boost some multiplier to allow this to happen.
 

dragonfliet

I write stuffs
Apr 24, 2006
3,754
31
48
41
Oh, btw, my entire post is spoilery, if not specific, so beware, ya'll.

The problem is that nothing else you did across the previous three games makes any difference to the end. You could be the biggest jerk to everyone, gotten practically everyone killed that you could in every previous instance and end out in the same place. For a series that has prided itself on personal choice all throughout the series, the end feels like a massive cop-out. Like, we couldn't think of how this could end incorporating some choice, so we just did this. It's similar to the end of DX:HR in that way, you find out you never really had any choice at all and that nothing you did previously mattered.

The problem is that they wanted all of your decisions to matter, so they plugged them all into the calculations for war assets. This makes sense. The problem is, since every choice is merely + 50 or whatever, they are essentially worthless and stripped of all narrative impact (especially since the assets have no effect unless you have so few that earth is destroyed or enough that
Shep gets to take a breath (which, btw, makes no sense--why only breath if you have enough assets? BLARGH).

It makes perfect sense from a design standpoint that they did things this way, but it makes literally no sense from a story perspective. If Bioware had learned a lesson from games like The Witcher series, this game would have been much more awesome, but they didn't. Hell, how awesome/horrible would it have been that if you chose to kill the Rachni in ME1 you didn't have to fight them in ME3? Yeah, Bioware would have "lost" content in not having that enemy (and the player couldn't get those war assets after re-saving the queen), but it would have been great. Unfortunately, they refuse to let any work go unnoticed.

For the sake of the story, I REALLY hope this video is accurate. WARNING THIS VIDEO CONTAINS A CRAPLOAD OF SPOILERS, DO NOT WATCH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM

http://youtu.be/ythY_GkEBck

It's a cute theory, but even if true it's poorly executed. It only works if you drastically stretch the imagination, fill in a number of plot holes, etc. It is also so obtuse that is hurts. Also: okay, so you have avoided indoctrination: so what? There is still a giant effing reaper invasion going on, and if it's all a dream, you haven't actually, you know, done anything. Either way, Bioware has dropped the ball

edit: Is it possible to get 100% galactic readiness? I did most of the side missions and only got to 50%.

The only way to up readiness is Multiplayer (which is surprisingly awesome) or the other things like the ipad game. You only get War Assets through side-quests, but you don't get the full multiplier without multi. I'm fine with that (it's a neat, cool concept that makes sense in the world, that you have to be successful in the broader fight for everything to matter more), even though it pisses people off. But then again, I'm also fine with Monopoly requiring more than 1 person to play. Mostly, though, the multi is surprisingly fun (I actually like it better than, say, GoW horde mode).
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
SPOILER ALERT
The problem is that they wanted all of your decisions to matter, so they plugged them all into the calculations for war assets. This makes sense.
I guess it kind of makes sense. My problem is that it has no effect on the end battle at all. Like you said, there is only the option of not having enough assets and having enough assets. You can get enough assets to get the breath ending without doing many of the side missions at all.
Shep gets to take a breath (which, btw, makes no sense--why only breath if you have enough assets? BLARGH).
Because the game obviously hasn't ended.
It makes perfect sense from a design standpoint that they did things this way, but it makes literally no sense from a story perspective. If Bioware had learned a lesson from games like The Witcher series, this game would have been much more awesome, but they didn't. Hell, how awesome/horrible would it have been that if you chose to kill the Rachni in ME1 you didn't have to fight them in ME3? Yeah, Bioware would have "lost" content in not having that enemy (and the player couldn't get those war assets after re-saving the queen), but it would have been great. Unfortunately, they refuse to let any work go unnoticed.
This is true. There were lots of key areas where the story was held up by the fact that content exists. I still think it would have been highly appropriate for them to allow you to import ME2 saves where Shepard dies and basically show a cutscene where Joker tries to warn people about the Reapers and the Reapers come and wipe out the galaxy. You know, a real ending. Bioware keeps acting like this is the story of Commander Shepard, but it's not. It's the story of a sentient machine race trying to wipe out the galaxy, which they have apparently done many times before. Shepard is the key figure, but that doesn't make the meta story any less interesting or important. WHY is this cycle different? That is the fundamental question that is, as yet, unresolved.
It's a cute theory, but even if true it's poorly executed. It only works if you drastically stretch the imagination, fill in a number of plot holes, etc. It is also so obtuse that is hurts.
I dunno. I think it's fitting. It would actually make my opinion of the writers at Bioware a little higher than it is currently because it would have had to be doctored and intentional from the very beginning of the game. It brings up many really interesting points, all supported by actions/sounds/whatever in the game. For example, the "dream like" trance after you supposedly get hit by Harbinger's beam, with the bushes and trees from your dream. The meaning of the dreams is never explained or alluded to, I hope that it comes from a place much deeper than "this one kid died".
Also: okay, so you have avoided indoctrination: so what? There is still a giant effing reaper invasion going on, and if it's all a dream, you haven't actually, you know, done anything. Either way, Bioware has dropped the ball
I can't disagree with this, because, in my opinion, Bioware DID drop the ball either way. If we accept that the ending is cut and dried, no further explanation is really necessary because the entire plot has gone to waste. If we assume that the indoctrination theory is correct, then Bioware left the end of the game out to sell it later as DLC. Both scenarios are equally disconcerting and just plain frustrating and annoying.

However, for the sake of the plot, I hope they have done the latter. The way it stands right now, ME3 has the worst ending of all three games by a long shot. I wasn't expecting something amazing, I wasn't even really expecting answers. A bog standard "yay, we beat the reapers" kind of ending would have been just fine for my expectations.
Mostly, though, the multi is surprisingly fun (I actually like it better than, say, GoW horde mode).
Meh. I still haven't activated my copy on Origin as of yet. The MP is fun and fine, but I prefer GoW Horde (which is essentially the same concept) as well as WH40k: Space Marine to it. GoW has the advantage of a much more advanced combat system. The battle in London right before you destroy the Reaper and head to the beam proved that ME combat is still a little too clunky to work for that kind of battle.
 

dragonfliet

I write stuffs
Apr 24, 2006
3,754
31
48
41
I agree.

To me, the problem is that while I think ME3 is a really good game, Bioware has a tendency to simply blow it. It is always for understandable reasons, but it is painful to behold. You will find no better example of attempting to please everyone and pleasing no one. Rather than have people not see their new enemies, they invalidate the choice the player had made (okay, sure, they come up with a terrible, ridiculous justification, but come on), instead of acknowledging that some of the choices don't actually have any importance in the larger galactic scale (even while they would have importance on the smaller level, in how the player has experienced the game), they make ALL of the choices simple numerical values, and therefore irrelevant. Rather than have players feel "stuck with" the endings they have earned throughout the course of three games (and some people would feel spited if a choice that they made in ME1 that they didn't really think about somehow damned them in ME3), they made none of them matter in the end.

This is something that people will blame on EA, but Bioware has been doing it the entire time they have been making games. They refuse to go for hard choices, they refuse to make things actually matter so that they don't offend someone. You can always reconcile both parties (hey, you know how you've been fighting this war for 3,000 years and you feel you're about to win? Could you be friends now? Please with blue icing on top?) provided you've looked at enough of their game, you can always choose between the endings at the last possible second, you can always have sex with every single possible character, no matter what you do that would piss them off (okay, in DA:O if you always do exactly the opposite of what a character likes, you DO have to spam them with gifts--you know, like a prostitute).

Bioware has always made great games and they have always wanted their games to have mature narratives that focused on character and the possibilities of choice, but they have always been completely neutered, shown a surprising lack of depth (or maturity) and avoided interesting risk in favor of bland, samey crowd pleasing. It turns out here that the not-good ending of this game has annoyed more people than the not-good endings of their other games, but they have all been pretty blah.
 
Last edited:

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
I wasn't very disappointed with the end of ME1. I thought the plot in ME2 was an utter abortion, I still feel like its only purpose was to set up some events in ME3. Overall, ME3 was a great game. The plot was fine and they were going in a good direction. It's unfortunate that the last hour of the game practically undid the other 90+ hours people have spent on the series. I'm honestly afraid that the real ending comes in pay DLC that was planned from the very beginning. This very literally might be the straw that breaks the camel's back in terms of Bioware's reputation, I think the anger and frustration about the end of ME3 has just been building from other recent Bioware games and it has finally reached a tipping point. It's just disappointing.
 

JohnDoe641

Killer Fools Pro
Staff member
Nov 8, 2000
5,330
51
48
41
N.J.
www.zombo.com
Unfortunately, if that is true, it means that Bioware intentionally left the real end of the game out of the game. That, along with the lack of the Prothean character in regular versions of the game, is so ultimately disappointing that I cannot stand it. I know people say they don't feel like they are missing anything with the Prothean not there, but all I can say is "You don't know what you are missing". He adds an exceptional amount of depth to the Prothean backstory, and his perspective on almost every major event in the game is nothing less than interesting.

edit: Is it possible to get 100% galactic readiness? I did most of the side missions and only got to 50%.
Yeah, Javik is probably the most interesting new character in the game, in fact I'd say he's probably my favorite ME character besides Garrus and Wrex. I take him along on almost every mission and some of the conversations are simply great.

And no, you need to play MP to have it higher than 50% and you need to play it constantly or it will keep dropping by 3 - 4 points each time you open the game. :/
 

dragonfliet

I write stuffs
Apr 24, 2006
3,754
31
48
41
I wasn't very disappointed with the end of ME1.
Fair enough, but that's only because they had still buried, at that point, how utterly worthless your decisions were. Kill the council? Eh, whatever. Save them? Fine, thanks I guess. Anderson as councilor? LOL, no, we replaced him with Udina, bitch, deal with it.

Edit: Screw you, JohnDoe, now I want to spend friggin' $10 on DLC that should have freaking been in the game in the first place. If everyone had just agreed with my hope that it was worthless, I could have saved money and not rewarded such practices.
 
Last edited:

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
Fair enough, but that's only because they had still buried, at that point, how utterly worthless your decisions were. Kill the council? Eh, whatever. Save them? Fine, thanks I guess. Anderson as councilor? LOL, no, we replaced him with Udina, bitch, deal with it.
I agree. The problem is that they left it there with such potential. It's really disappointing where they took it. Why the heck does Shepard die at the beginning of ME2? Dumb. Why does the council completely ignore your claims in ME2 to the extent that you aren't even really allowed in council space? Dumb. At least in ME3 they brought some cohesion to the problems and saving the council did end up having a sort of effect in that game. But still... such wasted potential.
Edit: Screw you, JohnDoe, now I want to spend friggin' $10 on DLC that should have freaking been in the game in the first place. If everyone had just agreed with my hope that it was worthless, I could have saved money and not rewarded such practices.
Unfortunately it is a key part of the plot, even if they like to pretend it isn't. They also said that the ending would be a real ending, that there would be multiple endings that were heavily influenced by your decisions throughout the series, and so forth. Either Bioware doesn't know their head from their brown eye or they just enjoy being misleading.

Apparently in one of Drew Karpyshyn's original scripts (he was one of the core writers on ME1 but was taken off ME3 to work on SWTOR [what a waste]), Javik was going to be the Catalyst. Seems like it would have been a better choice :p
 

Sjosz

(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Dec 31, 2003
3,048
0
36
Edmonton, AB
www.dregsld.com
Fantastic discussion, guys. It may not paint the team I'm part of in a pretty light, but I enjoy actually seeing some reasonable discussion. Thank you for that. :)

Apparently in one of Drew Karpyshyn's original scripts (he was one of the core writers on ME1 but was taken off ME3 to work on SWTOR [what a waste]), Javik was going to be the Catalyst. Seems like it would have been a better choice :p

Allow me to correct you on one point. Drew wasn't taken off ME3 to work on TOR, he went down to Austin during ME2's development to transition to TOR.
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
Allow me to correct you on one point. Drew wasn't taken off ME3 to work on TOR, he went down to Austin during ME2's development to transition to TOR.
Ah, thanks. From what I read it seems that those ideas were also drafted way early in the process and were never set in stone. Apparently also the big "enemy" was supposed to be Dark Energy.
 

SlayerDragon

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLADIES
Feb 3, 2003
7,666
0
36
40
And no, you need to play MP to have it higher than 50% and you need to play it constantly or it will keep dropping by 3 - 4 points each time you open the game. :/

That is some serious bullshit. You want to add multiplayer to your game? Ok, fine. I like multiplayer games. But this? This is complete horse shit and just makes me want to spend my money elsewhere.
 

Capt.Toilet

Good news everyone!
Feb 16, 2004
5,826
3
38
41
Ottawa, KS
That is some serious bullshit. You want to add multiplayer to your game? Ok, fine. I like multiplayer games. But this? This is complete horse shit and just makes me want to spend my money elsewhere.

My statement in IRC still holds true. A potentially great game that is ruined by stupid stupid decisions.