I don't understand why people are saying mass effect 3 is a bad game

[ProxyJames]

I played all 3 games when the first came out, I still have my hard copies from the 360 days and I don't know why people ♥♥♥♥ talk mass effect 3 so much. its a really fun game, huge gameplay improvements over 3, the multiplayer was alot of fun (even if the mricotransactions were a little scummy) and played really really well.
now before anyone says anything....the ending is hot garbage, I still don't really know why EA decided to fire the writer and slap in this really really bad ending and whatever group of EA suits decided this should be fired because if they gave us a real ending we would have maybe gotten a mass effect 4, or a cool mass effect MMO but it is what it is.
on the note of mass effect games andromeda is a pretty good game for what thats worth but it suffers from very bad story writing "oh no my childs helmet broke, should I use the magic space multi tool to seal it again because were like 5 steps away from getting away or give my child my helmet and die.....mmmm I think ill die!" also alot of the characters were unlikeable, like woman in needlessly sexy outfit who has white girl issues, guy that reminds me of annoying collage guy, ADHD the character and alien guy with huge neck. the only fun ones to hang out with is da big krogan boy and the turian warrior queen (as I seen her refereed to as many times) but otherwise the movement with the jetpack was fun and the guns were cool...a little unbalanced as I figured out just min maxing weapon damage and mag capacity and use the x5 ghost with the trubocharge thing you would melt everything in the next 5 rooms and is just one mag lol

[Dork_Stalker_310]

I really liked ME 3 and I think it's the second best in the series. However, while being an overall really good game, there are issues with ME 3 that go beyond endings.
The dialogue was cut siginificantly, being reduced to two options at best - and being played in an auto-mode without cutscenes at worst.
Significant number of important plot-points were cut out and sold as DLCs. James Vega is, for some reason, one of the major characters, while Javik, the last prothean, is a first-day DLC - let that sink in. That goes for Leviathans as well.
Cerberus, Illusive man, etc. - writers either had no time to properly implement them or no idea on how to make them work to begin with, so instead they've reduced the org to a cheap cannon fodder. And this character (organisation?) assasination would've been less painful, if they weren't taking almost as much screentime as Reapers themselves.
There also is a number of cases, where characters were acting like idiots for no apparent reason whatsoever, outside of creating deh Dramah, like Ashley/Kaidan stand-off against Shepard on Citadel or the whole Quarian/Geth war.
And the final installment in a series, mostly known for it's world building and character development, was somewhat reduced to an endless shooter, which didn't bother me presonaly that much, but some of the more hardcore players've found it distasteful.
Oh, and running animations are janky. Minor pet-peeve, but still.

[GAMING_Alligator]

why people are saying mass effect 3 is a bad game

Beyond all the legitimate reasons the above poster already mentioned, a lot of people just didn't like the ending and used that reason to not like the game in general.

[Booba]

My dislike for ME3 goes beyond the ending(s). I despise just about everything they wrote in that game. It simply wasn't up to the BioWare standard, in any shape, way, or form.
And the thing is: I don't even hold the BioWare standard to be all that high in the first place.

Does everybody remember the "I don't want to make choices" game option? That was their level of investment in making a role playing game. But hey, we got giant robots smashing cities like a Godzilla movie, omni-swords and Kai ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Leng and that's cool. That's... that's cool.

[savageone]

I enjoyed playing Mass Effect 2 and 3. Mass Effect 1 was just painful for me, a bit boring. I forced myself to finish it.
As for the ending of Mass Effect 3, I cried. It should have had better outcomes. That doesn't mean it was a bad game.

[ProxyJames]

well like I said, the ending and writing is bad, from what I know the writers were fired for some ass backwards reason but at the core its still alot of fun. honestly if I knew EA would go for it (but they won't because there sub human scum) I would love to do like a kickstarter to get mass effect 3 remade with the real endings with with writers who were fired

[valera-wrx]

I think it depends from which game you started playing.
Those who started from ME3 generally love it. But otherwise in terms of writing/acting ambigious ME3 story is such sharp contrast with almost perfect writing of all ME2 and main story of ME1, that you just start to hate it from the start. That feeling passes around Tuchanka, but then returns back closer to the end.
In terms of combat/RPG builds, sure ME3 is vastly superior, but ME is mostly played because of the story.

I mean just take ME3 start... talk with generals is pure facepalm.
Then Normandy takes you away right in front of the reaper..
then Catalyst.. like yeah, sure why write decent story if you can just take "mysterious" weapon out of your as* and save the world with it.
All the marine sh*t-talking... I personally dont give AF about marines or military slang, and while in ME1 it was made decently without going out-of-proportions, in ME3 all you listening is endless "aye-aye, sir" and about military endeavors of squadmates enforced on you instead of your ME2 Squad. Like why I cant have Grunt, Zaeed, Legion instead of James, Ashley, Esteban. Just give people an option.
Then you are getting Javik in mission quickly slapped from generic assets. This is f*cking prothean, why not allow us to get into unearthed prothean base, similar to Ilos. No. Here you are 20 colony buildings, cerberus and 3 cutscenes.
Palaven is another facepalm. Like wtf is that inheritance when random general becomes leader of whole planet.
CItadel (non-DLC) is mostly boring.. everybody is crying and whining, ton of unnecessary misc tasks, like find schematics...
Thankfully after that we are going away from all the "hopeless war" poorly written scene and go to Surkesh and Tuchanka.. that's where we are back to good old writing and character acting.
Cerberus coup.. another facepalm. Sure, bunch of stormtroopers can take on galaxy seat of power. Kai Leng acting like d*ck.
Rannoch is .. fine, ok. Not great but fine.
Thessia... ah, yes, if you werent p*ssed of enough about Kai Leng before, now you will be for certain. In ME2 we shot down dozen of those gunships. But here you can do nothing and prick solo takes on you like Shepard isnt best gunner in the galaxy or whatever.
Extended cut. Holy f*ck. Normandy AGAIN lands in front of the Reaper. Sure, reapers dont see it. Shepard becoming ultimate Mary Sue.

TL:DR BAD INCOHERENT WRITING in good half of the game. I just dont believe to what happens on the screen. That's why many people (me included) consider ME3 mediocre game and play it exclusively because of consequences and NPC from ME1 and ME2. And when you arrive from ME2 to ME3 it is just like... shock. How such nicely written game, actually one of the best written ever according to various sources turns into some senseless mess (aside from Tuchanka, Leviatian and DLC Citadel, and some secondary quests)

[JohnMars78]

Originally posted by valera-wrx:

All the marine sh*t-talking... I personally dont give AF about marines or military slang, and while in ME1 it was made decently without going out-of-proportions, in ME3 all you listening is endless "aye-aye, sir" and about military endeavors of squadmates enforced on you instead of your ME2 Squad.

That's...not military slang, it's how nerds think military personnel sound like.

[Warlock]

ME3 was my first game to try. I often make mistakes trying recent third installments instead of first entry games. I'm glad you enjoyed it, it might be a good game, just not a good Mass Effect game, in my personal view.

I think ME2 is not perfect despite overwhelming positive reaction towards it, but nonetheless it expands the lore, keeps secrecy about the Reapers only giving glimpses of what they are after in the ending, we get to explore Terminus Systems instead and there are high stakes. ME3 became something of a pot filled with fanservice, poor decisions, favoritism of certain characters. Chain of command, military jargon and rules are not applied, even renegade Shepard gets to be friendly with most of the companions and I've only started counting down problems with this game. Not only there is no longer rules that essentially applied in military, but Virmire survivor openly questions you in front of the others, openly points a gun at you in the Citadel even when you talked with them on the station all the time. A bit similar situation was in ME1 where Ashley would openly whine after Eden Prime before commander for being berated, you'd think she would get used to as blacklisted soldier, but unlike Kaidan who was more professional military Ashley may simply not had full experience. In ME3, it might've helped if Virmire survivor talked with Shepard in private over his doubts, expressed his conspiracies to high command, but nah because open drama is better especially in extreme moments like Citadel coup where decisions have to be made fast. I can remember one good bit, a renegade option where after Samara dies, Shepard can kill Ardat-Yakshi daughter and as she asks hasn't she suffered enough still pull the trigger. That was dark, it's in my view darker than shooting Mordin, even crew mentions how awful it was. There are good bits of renegade/paragon options within this game which are sadly buried underneath of... well everything I or any other person pointed out about flaws of ME3.

Secondly, Leviathan DLC was a big slap in a face, blatantly spilling out everything about Reapers with no secrets left to speculate over. It was also made essential to make an alliance with Leviathan than any other option likely so ME4 could happen. Citadel DLC isn't good, it may have good moments, but for me it was also filled with fan service, bad mission and unintimidating antagonists. I guess, worth mentioning details is how planets are no longer fully visitable like Noveria, some characters having very little interaction with while Liara is made a center of attention, often comforted. As some others might have pointed out above, in the final mission the Harbinger has a chance to shoot down Normandy, crush Shepard's spirit entirely by killing all of his friends and instead doesn't. He lets them get away, the wounded companions too, and ME2 companions are nowhere to be seen fighting. Finally, why did Harbinger have to wound Shepard brutally and have this moment on Citadel where player has to slowly walk and pick an ending, for worrying, to make it more urgent? Original idea had Shepard and Anderson enter through portal together, so why not use that? Both would be alive, in full health and be able to fight off enemies guarding passage to the Catalyst. Only good bits are Illusive Man's ending, it's does feel like the mission is at stakes as the crazy man is able to control both soldiers, turning them against each other for his amusement and believing he won. It pays off well when Shepard either persuades IM to shoot himself or gloats him into ranting about being savior of the world and then Shepard shoots him afterwards. A Good ending and Illusive Man is not entirely ruined, his identity dies with him and we will never know all of his secrets, never. He was anonymous man, special op agent with former life unknown...

[ElokoMs]

It's bad, because it's more cinematic than playable game and the levels are straight tubes without secrets.

[Warlock]

Originally posted by ElokoMs:

It's bad, because it's more cinematic than playable game and the levels are straight tubes without secrets.

I hated how it had two dialogue options.
In ME1-2 we had neutral, bad or good guy dialogues, and then ME3 cut it to ♥♥♥♥/nice guy/gal dialogue options.

[ProxyJames]

I am seeing alot of "ITS BAD BECAUSE BAD WRITING" and I have this to say: my dudes, I have stated the writers were fired several times, like what part of "the guys who wrote mass effect 1 or 2 got part way though writing 3 and then EA said NOPE LETS CHANGE THE ENDING TO SOMETHING MUCH WORSE AND FILL IN THE PARTS THEY DIDN'T WRITE OUTSELFS" the writing has nothing to do with the gameplay, witch is pretty good, and the game still does have many really great moments

[Booba]

Originally posted by ProxyJames:

the writing has nothing to do with the gameplay,

Then why bother writing anything in a video game, ever?

[Warlock]

Originally posted by ProxyJames:

I am seeing alot of "ITS BAD BECAUSE BAD WRITING" and I have this to say: my dudes, I have stated the writers were fired several times, like what part of "the guys who wrote mass effect 1 or 2 got part way though writing 3 and then EA said NOPE LETS CHANGE THE ENDING TO SOMETHING MUCH WORSE AND FILL IN THE PARTS THEY DIDN'T WRITE OUTSELFS" the writing has nothing to do with the gameplay, witch is pretty good, and the game still does have many really great moments

I don't think gameplay is that good beside editing grenades, sprinting without fatigue, in my view anyway. I prefer much more ME1 gameplay, modifying guns and getting modifications from enemies than having to buy them for crazy sums of credits.

Sorry that it was repeatedly that there was problem with writing. You're right, you stated it and as you understand that's why people think ME3's weaker than rest of the trilogy. Writing is the key point at selling the game, a good story not graphics or gameplay sells it. If the story is bad, game won't be that good even if the rest of factors are in great condition.

[Godkitty Jessie]

Originally posted by valera-wrx:

then Catalyst.. like yeah, sure why write decent story if you can just take "mysterious" weapon out of your as* and save the world with it.

To be fair, with the size of the reaper fleet that got teased at the end of ME2, Shepard finding some mysterious superweapon thingy was inevitable. Even with all the fleets in the galaxy behind his back, a single reaper can already destroy multiple ships before it even gets scratched.

[ProxyJames]

Originally posted by Töhö ᗜˬᗜ:

Originally posted by valera-wrx:

then Catalyst.. like yeah, sure why write decent story if you can just take "mysterious" weapon out of your as* and save the world with it.

To be fair, with the size of the reaper fleet that got teased at the end of ME2, Shepard finding some mysterious superweapon thingy was inevitable. Even with all the fleets in the galaxy behind his back, a single reaper can already destroy multiple ships before it even gets scratched.

but also in fairness, in ME2 the upgraded normandy main gun is a reversed engineered REAPER GUN, so one would think they would have been upgrading as many ships as they could to stand on par with the reapers....also its not a laser, its a stream of molten metal being projected by a mass effect field at extremely high speeds, its pretty much a super charged shaped charge witch uses a shaped explosion to melt a copper cone and project it to blast though pretty much anything