Game Beaten: Mass Effect 3

Sat 26 Jun 2021, 18:51

Hmm, I don't know how to start my thoughts on ME3. I like it, a lot, but I also hate a lot about it. A lot of it felt like a downgrade from ME2:

• Planet scanning was simplified and just felt like me going around spamming the scan, and if reapers caught up to me I'd just reload the save and try again. Just felt really pointless.
• The hacking minigames are removed. They were annoying in ME2, but I kinda liked them between the action.
• No mission complete sound or end screen. You just grind mission after mission and don't even really notice it.
• Perhaps my biggest complaint: the Journal/Quest Log is a mess. ME2 actually told you what you had done and what you still needed to do for a mission. ME3 is like "idk just go around Citadel occasionally and see if anyone will talk to you".

Apart from that there's a bunch of other things I didn't like:

• Depressing mood. There's a war going on and there's really no time to chill.
• Priority quests are actually not Priority. Well, they are if you just want to get to the end of the game, but if you rush it you will be severely fxxxed. I naturally assumed "oh, it's top priority, gotta do that before someone dies" -- when in actuality, it's the exact opposite.
• They changed your equipment and weapon screens, again! They could never make up their mind.
• A quest bugged for me and was unable to complete
• Some quests don't get removed from your Journal, even if you cannot complete them anymore.

I also have a bit of a sour taste from it because I got really fxxxed by rushing a bunch of the Priority quests in the beginning. But I blame the game! How the hell was I supposed to know some of my favorites would be killed from that?

So what did I like? Well...

• Pretty much everything about the Citadel DLC. It was very fun and I loved the outside shooting among the neon. That could be like my favorite mission of any of the games.
• Combat and controls just generally felt better.
• EDI as a "person". My favorite squadmate.

Having said all that. ME3 is far from a bad game. It would probably make it in my top 100 of all time. But ME2 could be top 10. Between ME1 and ME3 it's a bit of a wash for me at this point. ME1 is pretty rough due to its age, but everyone is happy. ME3 is much nicer to play because its newer, but its sad.

We'll see what I think about it on future playthroughs. Knowing now how to avoid getting fxxxed by it, I would maybe enjoy it more.