Does anyone else feel like this game really wants to be Gears of War 3, but doesn't even come close? You've got grenade throwing, more GOW3-like cover system, combat rolls, no holstering of weapons, instant-weapon swap, but everything just falls short on the console? I'm playing on insanity and I have to say every single little quirk, bug, and gameplay mechanic issue is really shining through. This game should've stayed like it was in Mass Effect 2, because the controls are really clunky and unresponsive, and on a difficulty setting like insanity every little milisecond counts- because otherwise, you're dead.

The grenade spam is what's got me really bummed out. You can't stay in a position for more than a few seconds before ten grenades get lobbed into the room and you've gotta do a Gears of War roll to the next bit of cover, but most of the time you try to do this you just end up rolling to the wrong bit of cover or your character rolls the wrong way. Sometimes you'll just stay put, or other time your character will start running in the opposite direction because you jerked the stick a little odd. I play all my video games on the hardest difficulty setting and I have to say Gears of War is the most challenging while not making you feel like you're a mentally challenged hamster trying to roll your ball around a room full of paraplegic bike riders.

In addition I've found that pressing to A to get into cover- while at the same time making this the revive button, read console button, rub your dick button, roll button, and everything else button just adds to the frustration. So many times will I try to revive my idiotic AI teammates only to find myself doing a super quadruple triple double front flip straight into an orgy of Cerberus Centurions and get my ass handed to me, or even sometimes I'll find myself getting into a bit of cover that only succeeds in putting a wall to my back to make it easier for the enemy to gun me down.

Anyone else getting increasingly frustrated by the chunkiness of controls in this game? It really, really wants to be a shooter but it's just not. It doesn't even come close. I've also noticed enemies move at an alarming speed without even sprinting, whereas when you run it's like you're sliding around on pancake syrup backwards while dancing to Micheal Jackson tunes. I'm honestly very disappointed with this game and I wish it had tried to find it's own place in gaming, instead of desperately trying to fit in with the likes of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3. At this point in time, it plays worse than Alpha Protocol did, and that gameplay was a total disaster. Mass Effect 3 is a fat nerd in highschool trying to dress the dress, walk the walk, and talk the talk but it should've just came to terms with its differences and embraced them- not try to be something else it's not.

Thoughts?

The half-assed GoW style execution animation the enemies do when you're down in multiplayer gave me quite a chuckle.

i feel the game controls fine, great even. the combat was smooth, i was able to move from cover to cover effortlessly. doing dodge rolls away from missiles, grenades, giant lasers ect. hell if anything i think it controls BETTER than gears 3. in gears you move pretty slowly, marcus' default movement is pretty slow compared to shepards, and roadie run always makes steering tough.

i dont get how anyone could say the controls or combat was remotely bad. maybe because i was playing ont he PC with mouse and keyboard? i dunno, but i was able to move shepard through battlefields with ease.

the ONLY issue i have with the controls is that cover and revive are the same button, normally not an issue, in a way its smart to have spacebar attached to so many actions. keeps things smooth. but in multiplayer when a teammate goes down next to a wall sometimes i keep going into cover instead of reviving them. oh and i wish when you threw grenades it had some sort of line showing where it would land, i have a hard time judging how far ill throw it, ive been throwing them specifically into little walls and corners and stuff.

i seriously dont understand hwo anyone can have issues with the controls, seriously, i thought it controlled just as well as gears 3 (and ive played alot of gears 3). its MILES ahead of ME2 as well. having just gone through ME2 last week in preparation for ME3 i was blown away at how much they improved the controls and movement.

@Clonedzero said:

i feel the game controls fine, great even. the combat was smooth, i was able to move from cover to cover effortlessly. doing dodge rolls away from missiles, grenades, giant lasers ect. hell if anything i think it controls BETTER than gears 3. in gears you move pretty slowly, marcus' default movement is pretty slow compared to shepards, and roadie run always makes steering tough.

i dont get how anyone could say the controls or combat was remotely bad. maybe because i was playing ont he PC with mouse and keyboard? i dunno, but i was able to move shepard through battlefields with ease.

the ONLY issue i have with the controls is that cover and revive are the same button, normally not an issue, in a way its smart to have spacebar attached to so many actions. keeps things smooth. but in multiplayer when a teammate goes down next to a wall sometimes i keep going into cover instead of reviving them. oh and i wish when you threw grenades it had some sort of line showing where it would land, i have a hard time judging how far ill throw it, ive been throwing them specifically into little walls and corners and stuff.

i seriously dont understand hwo anyone can have issues with the controls, seriously, i thought it controlled just as well as gears 3 (and ive played alot of gears 3). its MILES ahead of ME2 as well. having just gone through ME2 last week in preparation for ME3 i was blown away at how much they improved the controls and movement.

My biggest issue besides the grenade spam is the A (spacebar) button being the everything button. I always find myself getting stuck on cover or combat rolling into a firefight before I can do anything about it, and then I'm dead since the controls are so sluggish and your character moves like a wrecking ball you're completely unable to react to save yourself. I take it slow almost all of the time- hanging back in cover and getting the high ground when I need to, but it doesn't matter. Because if the grenade spam doesn't flush me out, the idiotic AI running around the map and getting themselves killed will, and even if I ignore it, I still run out of ammo completely and have to move into melee. I'm only 3 hours into the game, mind you, still fighting on Eden Prime for the DLC. It's when these souped up enemies come in that all of the game's faults begin to show. I don't know, maybe playing on Insanity is making everything stand out for me.

It's nice to know people are having different experiences, though. What difficulty are you playing on?

Maybe I'm just misremembering ME2, but the combat and movement in general in ME3 feels like a step back to me. Works ok at range; pain in the ass up close.

Maybe try a different class than Soldier? (assuming you're playing one, which it sort of sounds like) The shooting isn't really fantastic, but the powers the other classes get can be a LOT of fun. I played as an Engineer, and drones and turrets can murder enemies for me, or I can cryoblast enemies and then make them explode with Incinerate.

@Rohok yeah, sounds like we had completely different experiences. i played on normal for alot of the game, then bumped it up to the next level about halfway through since it was a bit too easy. what class are you playing? i played through as a sentinel and i had none of the issues you were talking about, hell i even did my fair share of meleeing, enough to devote some upgrades to melee.

or maybe the PC version just controls better since it sounds like you were playing the 360 version?

@WilltheMagicAsian said:

The half-assed GoW style execution animation the enemies do when you're down in multiplayer gave me quite a chuckle.

God, it is the worst. I know it is a weird thing to be up in arms about, but fuck me they are bad. I was hoping it was a place holder for the demo or something, hah.

I didn't need to read past the first few sentences to figure out that Cerberus has been curb-stomping you into frustration.

Yeah they're frustrating mostly due to the grenade spam. The game plays pretty good though. The movement is what it is. I think the combat scenarios are more difficult than GoW3 and it's not really a good comparison. The combat has more depth with more abilities and barriers-armor-health to think about.

My only complaint is that I still see friendly AI standing up on top of ledges and railings getting shot up. Just bad AI and bad pathing that's been reliably carried on from ME1 and ME2.

Pretty happy overall though. With the gear and upgrade changes they made I can Vanguard-charge and melee spam my way thru most encounters. Even Cerberus. I just have to make sure I get the engineers first.

@Rohok: Yes, I completely agree that by trying to improve the combat and make it more 'VISCERAL AND BETTAR THEN EVAR' they have made it so playing on harder difficulties shows the clunkyness and piss poor design for what it really is. They REALLY should have taken advantage of their relations within EA to get some talent that has a fucking clue how to make a shooter, the herp derp grenade spam and invunerablilities during certain animations, piss poor physics, getting stuck in the geometry due to the cover system (come on this issue was fucking solved YEARS AGO in other games) and overall stiffness of the animations makes me wonder how they can justify spending MILLIONS in develpment and still have worse comabt than even the most generic shooters that get made on a shoestring budget.

Yes, we get it, you're great at music, atmos, writing and everything that made me love mass effect 1/2. But when you say you're really impoving the combat system YOU BETTER FUCKING DO IT!

Especially when the things you're good at (aformentioned story etc) is worse than your previous game.

@PrivateIronTFU: Fucking chief commander of humor up in this house. His similes might be a little lame but at least he's discussing a topic that is worth talking about. Going on a rant about how "He's not funny" is just as fucking worthless an addition to the conversation as his crappy jokes you are getting so butthurt about. In essence, send him a PM or shut up, nobody cares about your unrelated opinion on humor.

To clarify, incase im upsetting any devout fanboys, i'm not hating on the game just the combat; If you're going to play this game, play it on easy.

The combat is average at best and the scaling and balancing for higher difficulties is terrible (running out of ammo on one enemy when you hit every shot and the next ammo stash is behind 8 enemies)

Dont come in expecting Gears of war quality gameplay as it just isnt there.

It is however a fantastic game because of every other aspect that you know and love. To anyone who says the combat is better than gears or any other established producer of quality combat focused games i'm afraid to say you're either

1. Crazy

2. Misremembering those games

3. A biodrone

@Jimbo said:

Maybe I'm just misremembering ME2, but the combat and movement in general in ME3 feels like a step back to me. Works ok at range; pain in the ass up close.

Nah all the Mass Effect games are super annoying when you get up close.

I found the actual shooting better than any of the Gears of War games. Also, curving your powers around cover is still very satisfying. The movement and cover controls could use some work, but they're still much better than ME2.

I've completed the game on the PC with a Solider, using incendiary almost the whole time. I don't think I ran out of ammo for any of my weapons, ever. Bumped the difficulty up to hard half way through because I was finding it a little too easy.

Yes, the controls aren't up to Gears of War par, but almost no games are. In fact, I'd probably say that Gears of War is pretty much the best controlling game I've played this generation. I don't expect anything on that level.

That said, ME3 definitely feels better than 2 but it still isn't always fluid.