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

[valera-wrx]

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.

Yes. But there were:
- Rachni which were growing up into something great in ME2
- Dark Matter, which was also hinted to be very impactful
- Geth, who were going to side with us instead of stupid war with Quarians

And I dont mind some superweapon from previous cycles, but it shouldnt be "one Ring to rule them all".

Maybe we could lure Reapers into big battle and then explode star in that system. I think with all the hints and lore created by ME1 and ME2 writers could do something more interesting and immersive then energy dispenser attached to Citadel. But instead we have three colors and all the story build up from previous game sacrificed. ME3 as standalone game is pretty good. But as final of ME1 and ME2 it was big disappointment.

[ProxyJames]

yeah you can bet your sweet buns that if I had the money I would buy 51% of EA and bio stock, walk into EA, fire a BUNCH of people, and have mass effect 1-3 remade into one big game and fix all the writing in 3 and give it a real ending....also bring back the multiplayer but more fun and less "BUY OUR LOOT BOXES"

[Vox_K]

Originally posted by ProxyJames:

woman in needlessly sexy outfit

That's basically Mass Effect tradition lol and not new to Andromeda, remember Miranda and how there's even a character in the game point out her overly sexy outfit in her loyalty mission ?

On to the main topic, the ending just left a sour taste in people's mouths, even though imo the endings aren't all that bad with EC, the original WAS extremely bad but EC fixes quite a lot of issues, not to say that EC was the perfect fix but it's massively better. Another issue I've noticed people having an issue with is reducing the dialogue choices from 3 (paragon, neutral, renegade) to just 2 (paragon and renegade). Also there are some criticisms in the handling of Cerberus and how they went from a Morally grey group that has humanity's best interest at heart in ME2 into just full-blown one dimensional bad guys in ME3.

There are some valid criticisms for ME3 but taken as a whole, it's quite a good game, it's emotional, it gives satisfying conclusions to conflicts that was set up way back in ME1 such as the Geth-Quarian conflict, The Genophage conflict (whether the reaper conflict was resolved satisfyingly or not is up for debate with the majority on the side that it did not satisfyingly resolve it)

[Vox_K]

Originally posted by Scuba Steve:

Does everybody remember the "I don't want to make choices" game option?

Given that the game was released in Cod's peak periods, I think that that option was clearly put in there to attract the Call of Duty/Gears of War/Action crowd. The more action heavy gameplay supports this.

Originally posted by Scuba Steve:

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.

With the exception of Kai Leng, I'd say that seeing that massive scale of the Reapers and omni-blades is actually cool

[Ceejay]

They dumbed down a lot, but most of the dumbed down came from 2 (ie no real armour customisation, gun mods, less dialogue, less freedom to explore certain areas, basically became an on the rails shooter, I mean it kind of always was, but you felt more freedom with the previous games).

i thought the Rachnni were totally mishandled, I was kind of hoping they would play a much bigger role on your side, instead you were back to fighting them again and re-release the queen....so just rehash the 2nd's storyline there then.

There were others, but they have been pointed out.

Though for me the biggest slap in the face, as everyone has pointed out was the endings unlike 1 and 2, the ending basically has nothing to do with how you played the previous 2, or your actions in the 3rd. No real consequences at all. Like maybe if you got the geth and the Quarians peaceful, you had an option to spare the geth when wiping out the reapers etc. nope nothing you did up till now was worth a damm.

[Gon]

The main problem was the ending. I mean even in ME3 you are proving that AI's and regular folk can co-exist, then it suddenly becomes an either/or situation. It's like they'd planned a Japanese RPG style 'true ending' for if you'd done everything close to perfect, then decided that people won't like that, so screw it.

Ultimately though, I'd say that Bioware painted themselves into a corner by the multitude of decisions from ME1 & 2. They simply didn't have the time or resources to account for everything decently, so decided 'ahhh, screw it', rather than go through the time and expense of giving each major choice time. This mainly shows given the ME2 companions. Other than Garrus and Tali, none of them were given major roles because 'x' amount of players would never see them. Thus they were mainly relegated to supporting roles with stand-ins available, albeit for less optimal results.

[Booba]

Originally posted by Vox_K:

Originally posted by Scuba Steve:

Does everybody remember the "I don't want to make choices" game option?

Given that the game was released in Cod's peak periods, I think that that option was clearly put in there to attract the Call of Duty/Gears of War/Action crowd. The more action heavy gameplay supports this.

Right. And a design philosophy of "How do we sell this thing to shooter players?" does not make for a great role playing game.

With the exception of Kai Leng, I'd say that seeing that massive scale of the Reapers and omni-blades is actually cool

A lot of people liked the Kai Leng character too. For them, it was just the mechanics of his boss fights they hate. And that's fine. It's not like I don't play these games and think "that's cool!" about this feature or that. The point being that it's not enough. If you're staying in a cockroach-infested Motel 6 are you going to gush excitedly about the awesome new pool and fresh paint lines in the parking lot?

[valera-wrx]

Originally posted by Gon:

The main problem was the ending. I mean even in ME3 you are proving that AI's and regular folk can co-exist, then it suddenly becomes an either/or situation. It's like they'd planned a Japanese RPG style 'true ending' for if you'd done everything close to perfect, then decided that people won't like that, so screw it.

Ultimately though, I'd say that Bioware painted themselves into a corner by the multitude of decisions from ME1 & 2. They simply didn't have the time or resources to account for everything decently, so decided 'ahhh, screw it', rather than go through the time and expense of giving each major choice time. This mainly shows given the ME2 companions. Other than Garrus and Tali, none of them were given major roles because 'x' amount of players would never see them. Thus they were mainly relegated to supporting roles with stand-ins available, albeit for less optimal results.

It has nothing to do with pre-2011 bioware. EA enforced certain rules which core of Bioware team didnt accept. After conflict founders left the company, and without them everything stopped to work properly. In ME3 it is very easy to see difference between missions made by "old" and "new" Bioware.

[Warlock]

Honestly, the lessons of not trusting the game based on brand recognition were there. If people paid attention more closely, what happens today might've never been tolerated.
I once heard similar argument towards the "new" Pixar and the recent movies. They are so different to what once made the Pixar before great. Old people leave and new folks that arrive just don't have same ideas as former team, what is awful that is often the creations made by former team always gets rebooted by newcomers and then it's surprise why it feels different. If ME3 still had some Mass Effect feel to it, Andromeda was unrecognizable. What the hell was even Anthem, a quick cash-grab or actual idea for good game that never got fulfilled? Similar events happen even today with the new movies, new games from the already existing franchises coming out as something different.

[Booba]

Originally posted by Knight of Revan:

Honestly, the lessons of not trusting the game based on brand recognition were there. If people paid attention more closely, what happens today might've never been tolerated.
I once heard similar argument towards the "new" Pixar and the recent movies. They are so different to what once made the Pixar before great. Old people leave and new folks that arrive just don't have same ideas as former team, what is awful that is often the creations made by former team always gets rebooted by newcomers and then it's surprise why it feels different. If ME3 still had some Mass Effect feel to it, Andromeda was unrecognizable. What the hell was even Anthem, a quick cash-grab or actual idea for good game that never got fulfilled? Similar events happen even today with the new movies, new games from the already existing franchises coming out as something different.

Andromeda doesn't really merit comparison. The problems with that game, both in terms of development and reception, are nothing at all like Mass Effect 3.

There's very little wrong with Mass Effect 3 on a technological level, because the development team was very familiar with the engine and their tools by the third installment. Its issues are almost exclusively on the creative side: plot-holey, nonsensical, and oblivious writing. The creative leads showed a marked preference for "oos and ahs" and boobs, without enough "does this even make sense?" and "should we even do this?" questions asked. In short, if Michael Bay ever made a Mass Effect game, it would look a lot like 3.

Andromeda on the other hand, was an utter, all around catastrophe, almost from day one. EA kept pulling critical team members to work on projects they deemed of higher priority, like FIFA and Anthem, so that by the end, almost nobody with prior experience working with Frostbyte was left in the studio. Combine that with the loss of key people in leadership roles and you end up with a major, fundamental redesign of the game when they should have been working on details and quality control, rewrites, more changes, and delays upon delays.

I'm not as familiar with Anthem, because I never gave two ♥♥♥♥♥ about it. I watched trailers, sneak peaks and what-have-yous from time-to-time, and each time, they really went out of their way to cement my preconceived notions about the game: that it had some really cool looking stuff and that EA really wanted to cash-in on the Destiny/Division model. I don't remember hearing one whit about the story. I had no idea who the enemies were, what they wanted, why they wanted it, or what my motivation was supposed to be as a player. To blow stuff up and buy make-believe armor cosmetics with real money? No. No thank you.

[Warlock]

Originally posted by Scuba Steve:

Originally posted by Knight of Revan:

Honestly, the lessons of not trusting the game based on brand recognition were there. If people paid attention more closely, what happens today might've never been tolerated.
I once heard similar argument towards the "new" Pixar and the recent movies. They are so different to what once made the Pixar before great. Old people leave and new folks that arrive just don't have same ideas as former team, what is awful that is often the creations made by former team always gets rebooted by newcomers and then it's surprise why it feels different. If ME3 still had some Mass Effect feel to it, Andromeda was unrecognizable. What the hell was even Anthem, a quick cash-grab or actual idea for good game that never got fulfilled? Similar events happen even today with the new movies, new games from the already existing franchises coming out as something different.

Andromeda doesn't really merit comparison. The problems with that game, both in terms of development and reception, are nothing at all like Mass Effect 3.

There's very little wrong with Mass Effect 3 on a technological level, because the development team was very familiar with the engine and their tools by the third installment. Its issues are almost exclusively on the creative side: plot-holey, nonsensical, and oblivious writing. The creative leads showed a marked preference for "oos and ahs" and boobs, without enough "does this even make sense?" and "should we even do this?" questions asked. In short, if Michael Bay ever made a Mass Effect game, it would look a lot like 3.

Andromeda on the other hand, was an utter, all around catastrophe, almost from day one. EA kept pulling critical team members to work on projects they deemed of higher priority, like FIFA and Anthem, so that by the end, almost nobody with prior experience working with Frostbyte was left in the studio. Combine that with the loss of key people in leadership roles and you end up with a major, fundamental redesign of the game when they should have been working on details and quality control, rewrites, more changes, and delays upon delays.

I'm not as familiar with Anthem, because I never gave two ♥♥♥♥♥ about it. I watched trailers, sneak peaks and what-have-yous from time-to-time, and each time, they really went out of their way to cement my preconceived notions about the game: that it had some really cool looking stuff and that EA really wanted to cash-in on the Destiny/Division model. I don't remember hearing one whit about the story. I had no idea who the enemies were, what they wanted, why they wanted it, or what my motivation was supposed to be as a player. To blow stuff up and buy make-believe armor cosmetics with real money? No. No thank you.

Yeah, well my point is exactly the same that the writing in ME3 was beginning to get bad. Certain characters became center of attention and many of ME2 characters were sidelined in favor of fan favorite characters instead. Technologically, of course the game is very good, but writing is meh. Ending is only one of the major problems within ME3, it's also making locations smaller like the Citadel which used to be way larger in ME1, the Reapers no longer were a boogeymen to be afraid of. But we all knew that, so I'm just beating a dead horse at this point.

Yeah, when watching videos explaining what was happening during making of Andromeda few words come to mind, one of them is "mess" because of how incompetent the production over the game it was. Some characters were ugly, Asari were unrecognizable from the original looks in the trilogy, the antagonists underwhelming and it's just me only touching the surface of problems with Andromeda.

Neither am I, this game literally existed and then stopped existing because of how unpopular it was, empty and filled with lootboxes meant to strip gamers off their cash when they already paid for the game. I hate it how normalised this idea had become, be it ESO or SWTOR or even non-EA MMO it will have lootboxes to but for with real money.

[Syad]

The biggest problem with Mass Effect 3 was, to no surprise, closure. The ending was basically a giant middle finger to the player and the common sense.

Additionally it had the following problems:
-Paywalled content(including ending lore ironically)
-Required multiplayer
-Ran like crap on consoles ( 20fps)

First was fixed by making some content free, 2 and 3 were fixed by ppl generally getting better hardware and internet.

[Ceejay]

Originally posted by Syad:

The biggest problem with Mass Effect 3 was, to no surprise, closure. The ending was basically a giant middle finger to the player and the common sense.

Additionally it had the following problems:
-Paywalled content(including ending lore ironically)
-Required multiplayer
-Ran like crap on consoles ( 20fps)

First was fixed by making some content free, 2 and 3 were fixed by ppl generally getting better hardware and internet.

Possibly on launch, however pretty sure it was patched out quick as I got it about a month after, Did not need to do any multiplayer, Did not need to buy anything.

[Dork_Stalker_310]

Originally posted by Scuba Steve:

A lot of people liked the Kai Leng character too.

I kid you not, I can't remember a single instance of anyone saying anything positive about Kai Leng. Not once. I sometimes feel like this character was purposefully designed to be one of the most obnoxious mfs in fiction.

And yeah, Andromeda was a fustercluck of galactic proportions.

[Syad]

Originally posted by Ceejay:

Possibly on launch, however pretty sure it was patched out quick as I got it about a month after, Did not need to do any multiplayer, Did not need to buy anything.

Multiplayer was required for a long time. It was not required for completing the story but for the best was score outcome. They reduced it later, ye. Considering some people either didn't have internet, or some consoles internet access was also paywalled( Xbox), some people were justifiably butthurt.