I very recently played ME 3 for the first time (just a few months ago). By the end of my time with it, it actually became my favorite in the trilogy. I've thought a whole bunch about it, but haven't really had anywhere to put those thoughts, so here goes:
This game is without question the roughest of the series, but there are some things about it that are done far better than the previous two entries. The combat is better, for sure, but the biggest thing for me was the way in which the characters interact with each other. Coming across Garrus and James bullshitting each other, hearing Liara and Wrex catch up briefly, or hearing Tali drunkdial Javik made me realize how poorly just about every other game has handled companion characters (including Bioware). They provide us with a spectacular cast of characters, but we rarely see them interact with each other. It's as if they stop being a person the moment the player character steps out of the room. Don't get me wrong; there's room for improvement. ME 3's base game could and should have done much more in this regard, but it's a dramatic step forward compared to any other game of it's ilk, and there's no better example of these improvements than the final DLC package, Citadel.
Citadel is without question, the best DLC in the trilogy (one of the best parts of the trilogy, period). Speaking as someone who very recently replayed the entire trilogy just a few months ago, I can attest to that. 2 had a couple of decent expansions, but 3 blows them out of the water. Leviathan is good and Omega is great, but if Citadel was in the base game I don't think the backlash over the games ending would have been a tenth of what it was. It raises the bar in a way that has left me somewhat frustrated, as I'm not sure I can go back. I was looking forward to playing some other games with a similar companion character system (Pillars of Eternity, Shadowrun Hong Kong, a few others), but now I have the distinct impression I'm going to find them wanting.
I've thought about it a bit, and while I think that most spoilers for this DLC would actually be the sort of thing that would make you want to play it more, I'm going to try and avoid them anyway. The sheer amount of dialogue, and the variety of that dialogue based on who you take with you on each part of the mission is impressive. I found myself looking up videos for well over an hour after I had finished just to see some of the events over again if I had decided to bring let's say Kaiden, or Javik with me to help distract guards. What the party at the end would have been like under different circumstances, with different guests and a different vibe. There's a moment where your whole team is preparing to go on an assault and someone asks something along the lines of, "Who are you taking with you, Commander?" to which you respond, "Oh, I think everyone is coming on this one.", and you embark on a mission with your entire cast of characters, with them all split into different teams, with different dialogue based on who they're with, etc. It makes you look back at literally every other mission in the trilogy and think, "What could have been?". And the party? The party is what gave me closure with what had become my favorite cast of characters in all of the medium. I'd like to list a bunch of interactions I had during it, but I said I'd try to avoid spoilers, as I'm not sure what you're tolerance for them is. Everything I've listed so far was more or less in marketing material, I think, so that's fair game.
I know I've focused a lot on Citadel, but it's because it exemplifies ME 3's greatest strengths, and if you're doing it right you'll save it until the very end, so it's one of your final moments with the story. This game has some problems; it does. Honestly, some of it's narrative is running on the fumes from the second game. It clearly needed substantially more time for..."polish", and everything that nebulous term entails. That all being said, it's not a bad game. I'd even call it a good game. It's much better than it has any right to be, that's for sure. Get all the DLC. From Ashes, Omega, Leviathan, Citadel. Look up online and spoil yourself so you know when in the course of the story you should play all of those; that's what I did and it didn't affect my enjoyment. As for the ending? I could see why someone might get upset, but I liked it. There is one specific thing I don't like about it which I'll leave behind a spoiler blocker below, in case you're interested, but when I saw the credits roll I was happy to close the book on Mass Effect. I hope you enjoy the game, because I certainly did.
The ending more or less prevents anything else from happening in the Milky Way Galaxy after the events of ME 3, because of how different the various endings of the games are. I think it definitely kneecaps Mass Effect as a franchise, but as far as the trilogy is concerned, I liked my ending.
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