I was late to the Mass Effect franchise, I didn't play ME1 until ME2 was out, and then I played through both back-to-back, and was seriously jonesing for more Mass Effect after that. Fast forward to Tuesday of this week, against my own better judgement, I plunked down money for a copy of Mass Effect 3 on Amazon, plugged my key into Origin, downloaded it, imported my ME2 character (without problems I will say, which seems to not be a given), and was off to the races.

Like most others, I was pretty blown away by the first part of the demo, it was very emotional, and by the time it ended and they dropped you into "random generic story mission", I was feeling super pumped to storm the galaxy, kill some Reapers, save the Earth. It was awesome.

Fast forward 6-7 hours into the full game. I've already become acutely aware of just how much this game is essentially Mass Effect 2, except without any real thought or imagination put into it. There's no design behind bringing together surviving crew members from Mass Effect 2, it's just a lot of random chance encounters that end up with them taking up residence on the Normandy at the end of a mission. The Citadel seems even more confined to me now than it did in the previous game, every location you need to visit is an elevator ride, a hallway, and a room with a desk to talk to someone. There's rarely a direct conversation with anyone in a location other than the exact person you're there to see. You don't even talk to people to pick up side missions, you just randomly hear looped conversations that are added as tasks to do.

Dialogue in the game seems flat and uninspired as well, bordering often on just silly and overly long. It's nice to see and hear characters from previous games converse, but when it's just constant drivel that revolves around "This probably won't work, but hopefully this will work, but there's a good chance this won't work," it gets tiresome.

Admittedly, at only 6-7 hours in, I have no idea how it's going to end at this point, and I do want to know. But if this weird "deus ex machina" weapon option they've found is the saving grace, it'll just solidify my belief that Bioware is now just another game developer, churning our tired, uninspired iterations of originally brilliant concepts. That makes me really sad, but everything they've made in the past 3-4 years just points in that direction.

Everything you wrote sounds like you copy/pasted every troll statement and organized it into paragraphs. There's way too many to address right now since I'm leaving work but I will take the time to laugh at your crazy sentence about the Citadel feeling more confined than it did in Mass Effect 2, that couldn't be further from the truth.

I think it has been streamlined, in most cases it is smart and has helped the game

@jmood88 said:

Everything you wrote sounds like you copy/pasted every troll statement and organized it into paragraphs. There's way too many to address right now since I'm leaving work but I will take the time to laugh at your crazy sentence about the Citadel feeling more confined than it did in Mass Effect 2, that couldn't be further from the truth.

So if some of the "trolls" have legitimate criticisms of the game, they're still invalid? Krakn3Dfx has bought the game, played a good third of it, and plans to continue playing it. These sound like legitimate criticisms to me, even if it wasn't your experience with the game. Threads like this are important to someone like me who loved Mass Effect 2, but is still cautious about dropping $60 down on this one.

You're entirely right imo ... been playing all day thinking 'you know, if anyone doesn't like this I could totally understand why.' But I still like it. It is totally playing off my fond feelings for the series in general, a feeling of familiarity ... a short-term kind of nostalgia, I felt right at home sitting down and starting it up. Having only played through ME2 once it never outstayed its welcome there so maybe that's something.

If I had to rate the game entirely on its own merits - instead of the warm emotions it stirs up just playing as Shepard again and meeting dudes and being awesome with everyone and telling assholes to fuck off - I would have no idea where to start really.

Are you sure you played ME2? All the criticisms you mention apply to it too. I think people overrate ME2...

So if someone has reasonable criticism he is considered a troll nowadays? Wtf game community.

@ragnarok7038 said:

@jmood88 said:

Everything you wrote sounds like you copy/pasted every troll statement and organized it into paragraphs. There's way too many to address right now since I'm leaving work but I will take the time to laugh at your crazy sentence about the Citadel feeling more confined than it did in Mass Effect 2, that couldn't be further from the truth.

So if some of the "trolls" have legitimate criticisms of the game, they're still invalid? Krakn3Dfx has bought the game, played a good third of it, and plans to continue playing it. These sound like legitimate criticisms to me, even if it wasn't your experience with the game. Threads like this are important to someone like me who loved Mass Effect 2, but is still cautious about dropping $60 down on this one.

Thanks, I definitely wasn't trying to troll, just stating my opinions. A lot of these and others have been brought up in different places, I have seen some I disagree with, and some that are completely true.

I am definitely fan of the franchise, and while I liked Mass Effect 1 more than 2, I still enjoyed 2 a lot. I feel like if this had come out a year later, I would have been more okay with the mechanics of the game, although I would still be disappointed by the presentation. Coming out 2 years later, I honestly expected a lot more. Again, I haven't finished the game, and at some point my opinion may swing in the other direction, but based on general observations from others who have played through the entire game, I don't think that'll be the case.

I think it's weird that when it comes to a big title like Mass Effect 3, we classify people as trolls or apologists. Everybody has an opinion, if you can take the time to state it without offending or insulting, I don't the problem.

Are you sure you played ME2? All the criticisms you mention apply to it too. I think people overrate ME2...

"There's no design"? If you're entirely unfamiliar with the context/characters, OR expect character motivations/circumstances to have absolutely nothing to do with the prior games, then sure, there's no design.

The Crucible is a pretty cheap story device, but using that to bleat about how BioWare is churning out garbage for the last 3-4 years can only be done by someone who has only been playing BioWare games for 3-4 years. Did you play KOTOR? BioWare's been lauded for years for a game that does the exact same thing ME3 has done. That's not BioWare for the last 3-4 years, that's BioWareas it always has been. The Star Forge was exactly as stupid and lazy. Did you play Jade Empire? Do you remember when they shat out a crap action game on the KOTOR engine with light bloom slathered all over it that was half as long, had shitty characters, and had a plot that was 50% KOTOR 50% Chinese culture and 0% original thought? Last I checked, that game didn't come out 3-4 years ago.

"That makes me really sad, how BioWare has gone from making games with rambling, frequently silly dialog and convenient and lazy plot devices to making games with rambling, frequently silly dialog and convenient and lazy plot devices." I love BioWare, and have clearly played more of their games than the OP, but this idea that is being disseminated that current BioWare is a husk of the masterful writers and designers of old BioWare is utter bullshit. They've had bad writing in all of their games for at least a decade. There have always been patches of it.

And I'm really blown away by how the first hour got you pumped up and didn't alert you to any problems. That first hour has some of the worst dialog in the entire game.

I've played 9 hrs of the sp, and about 4 of the mp, and I love them both so far. The game feels like an appropriate progression from ME2, only with a stronger sense of urgency about the story obviously. There are some new characters that are awesomely done imo, so it's certainly not all members from ME2. And the way the game confronts you so boldly on your choices in ME1 and 2, is just amazing, and really stands out from other franchises. Liara just straight up confronting me about Jack, for instance, and asking about our status(she was my girl in ME1)just blew me away for some reason, lol. Wrex calling me out about my choice to destroy the genophage cure in ME2 caught me off guard too.

Also, this game has some deeper rpg layers for gear, weapons, and abilities than ME2 had and it only adds to the fun. The writing is corny at times admitted, at others it's very good though and sometimes legitimately funny....., but it all gets your attention and pushes your buttons because of your investment in the story, characters, and events from the previous two games.

I have some small niggles, mostly technical about the game, but not worth mentioning because the overall experience at least so far, has been fantastic. Kinda feel sorry for people who have gotten so jaded by all the bitching and paranoia about Bioware in general, that they cannot enjoy nor be objective at all about this game. Even Jeff was bringing up some pretty silly complaints during that quicklook I thought. I guess complaining relentlessly about everything, and painting everything with the same stroke came into fashion lately.

And oh, the mp is extremely fun with a group of four friends. That mode alone should add many hrs to a good value already.

Once you get about 12 hours-ish into the SP, it gets A LOT better. Don't worry, there is hope. If you cannot enjoy what happens then, there might not be hope for ya.

The writing in this game is weirdly inconsistent to me. I have to delve into spoilers to explain though.

Spoilers ahead:

In so many conversations, it is structured to explain to the player who these aliens are, their relationship with Shepard and the rest of the universe. It is pretty ridiculous to have someone explaining these things to my 3rd game Shepard. I understand the need to draw in new players but it really hindered the storytelling to reference one specific thing then have to go into generics in the same conversation.

Another example I noticed is my Shepard forgetting lots of details:

As far as the citadel, they've really "simplified" it I suppose. Realistically, you just pull up a map and it shows you the 0-3 things you can interact with in the area. Sure you can wander around and still get some sidequests, but largely the important things will be marked. It got to a point that after a mission if I went to the citadel, I would load up each area, pull up the map and see if there was something I could interact with. If not, I would just move on to the next level. I really dislike that so many of the sidequests are just "overheard" fetch quests.

On the whole though, I really enjoyed Mass Effect 3 (well, other than the ending) and honestly, some missions are so just amazingly well done and completely fit in the fiction. On the other hand, the game has a decent amount of issues which Jeff completely nails on the podcast.

I apologize in advance for my long rambling mini-review. None of my friends powered through the game like I did so I can only post on the internet forums my thoughts. I already want to do another playthrough but I have to grind that multiplayer galactic readiness first.

@GeneralZod37 said:

Once you get about 12 hours-ish into the SP, it gets A LOT better. Don't worry, there is hope. If you cannot enjoy what happens then, there might not be hope for ya.

Good to hear. I am 100% in to play it through to the end, it's still better than the last seasons of the X-Files and Babylon 5 combined, and I suffered through those.

Some of the dialogue does feel weird. I wonder if they lost some of their writing staff between games. A few lines really stood out to me as sounding as if they were written by people who don't speak English as a first language. (I don't think Bioware is based in French Canada. Or am I crazy?)

@Dtat said:

Some of the dialogue does feel weird. I wonder if they lost some of their writing staff between games. A few lines really stood out to me as sounding as if they were written by people who don't speak English as a first language. (I don't think Bioware is based in French Canada. Or am I crazy?)

nah nah they're in alberta; I think they do have a montreal studio now though.

Am I the only person that loves this game so far? The combat is damn good.

@jmood88 said:

Everyone who points out problems with something I am a rabid fanboy for is a troll.

Good logic.

The criticisms of ME3 exist simply because ME2 exists. Reverse the games and you would have the same effect.....this happened with Uncharted 2 and Batman Arkham City.

@jmood88: OMG!!! Offering opinions founded on solid evidence, TROLL!!!!!!!!!

I thought that Giantbomb was above this calling people trolls for offering opinions bull shit, I guess this douche didn't get the memo.

@Animasta said:

@Dtat said:

Some of the dialogue does feel weird. I wonder if they lost some of their writing staff between games. A few lines really stood out to me as sounding as if they were written by people who don't speak English as a first language. (I don't think Bioware is based in French Canada. Or am I crazy?)

nah nah they're in alberta; I think they do have a montreal studio now though.

Yep, in Edmonton, AB. That's where most of the writers are for ME3, though there's a couple in the Montreal studio as well.

From what I understand of how the writing process works at Bioware, they usually assign characters to specific writers so that they are responsible for the tone of the characters, then it is a collaborative effort to put scenes together. Something to that effect, anyway. I do wonder if the task of keeping everything in the universe intact while keeping player agency in mind is simply impossible at this point, hence the myriad inconsistencies. It's an ambitious project to keep that kind of thing intact over a trilogy, and I don't think calling them out on it is something for die hard fans to rail against. Hopefully player feedback on issues like that will let the team know that putting more effort in on ambitious notions like this is worth it, and it's what's expected by the fanbase. If we shrug it off, we might see less overarching plots from future Bioware projects.

@ragnarok7038 said:

From what I understand of how the writing process works at Bioware, they usually assign characters to specific writers so that they are responsible for the tone of the characters, then it is a collaborative effort to put scenes together.

So the person responsible for Ashley in Mass Effect 1 was probably that one writer at BioWare who keeps getting called down to the HR department for telling incredibly racist jokes in the break room?

I like the game so far. It feels like it's bringing everything together in a smart way, while still advancing the mechanical being of the Mass Effect franchise. I really enjoy how you get to see the brunt of this attack first-hand. Grissom Academy was an absolutely fantastic mission. It's my favorite, by far, and I'm about eleven hours in. (Not all main missions. Have done a little bit of exploring and walking around.)

To give you an idea of where I am, (spoilers, obviously):

@jmood88 said:

Everything you wrote sounds like you copy/pasted every troll statement and organized it into paragraphs. There's way too many to address right now since I'm leaving work but I will take the time to laugh at your crazy sentence about the Citadel feeling more confined than it did in Mass Effect 2, that couldn't be further from the truth.

The Citadel feels too confined in both of them. As for the rest of his arguments? Well, I'm grateful to see that someone has come up with legitimate reasons why this game isn't as good as it should have been and has put those reasons into well-written sentences.

Do I enjoy the game? Yes. Is it the weakest in the series as far as story and writing goes? By far, yes.

Ok, I don't understand the Citadel criticism. If anything, it's easier to get around. No, there aren't as many to places to see on the Citadel, and they're tiny areas. Of course, this was the case with the first two games. Additionally, the other games also had tons of looped conversations with NPCs. I don't really see how it is a problem. At least their conversations can be interesting. I'm guessing that this is because they added on to the Normandy. You whine about transport through the Citadel via elevator, but it's much easier than the stupid cars from ME2. If anything, they've made the most of what the Citadel has been throughout the entire series.

I can understand your criticism of the conversations, but it hasn't really worn on me. I'm more disappointed that I have yet to see a single neutral option in a dialogue tree.

I too am disappointed in the lame roles some characters from ME2 have played. I don't think you can blame that on ME3, though; ME2's suicide mission is the culprit. They did their best to write in characters like Mordin and Wrex, who play fairly large roles. Of course, I'm stuck thinking about what could have been.

I also disagree with you about the opening mission. It wasn't emotional for me at all. It felt like a cheesy action movie. So far, the intro has been the low point of the game.

I want to add that, so far, every mission has had a fresh environment. Not only that, but many have been breathtaking. I did a side mission on some human planet, and it was this really compact urban environment. Tuchanka was absolutely amazing. One of my major complaints about the first two games was how boring some environments were. Mass Effect 1 had absolutely terrible side quests, though the primary missions were fantastic. Mass Effect 2 improved the side missions, though I felt the main stuff suffered at times. I haven enjoyed every mission in ME3. They all feel fresh, be it because of the environment or the tactics required to succeed.

@AlwaysBeClothing: I avoided the spoilersin your post, but I agree with you, for the most part. The writing is super inconsistent. There are some missions where it is great, but others that are quite weak.

Why aren't people allowed to dislike ME3? It's quite weird how heavy of a defence force that game has.

@Canteu: They're allowed to dislike it. From my playing experience, however, most all complaints have either been wrong, or applicable to the first two games (which many detractors claim to have enjoyed).

I think it's awesome. There's been endless moments in my playthrough that flat out wouldn't exist without importing the previous 2 games. Now I'll be pretty annoyed if when I get to my "everybody's dead" playthrough and all the dead people are just replaced by new characters performing the same tasks for me, but that's 2 ME3 playthoughs and an Insanity run of ME1 and 2 away.

EDIT: Yes, it was too late before I realized the folly of making my everybody's dead playthrough my insanity run haha

@BoG: Right, but just because their reasons aren't "correct" people keep telling them they're wrong, when liking or disliking something is pure opinion, regardless of the reasons. It's just weird to me how offended people are getting when people say they don't like it. I loved ME1+2 and think this game looks like utter shit.

Now I'll be pretty annoyed if when I get to my "everybody's dead" playthrough and all the dead people are just replaced by new characters performing the same tasks for me,

@Canteu said:

@BoG: Right, but just because their reasons aren't "correct" people keep telling them they're wrong, when liking or disliking something is pure opinion, regardless of the reasons. It's just weird to me how offended people are getting when people say they don't like it. I loved ME1+2 and think this game looks like utter shit.

Liking something is a matter of opinion, but as he said, most of people's complaints (and a ton of complaints are clearly from people who have not played ME3 at all) are genuinely wrong.

@LordXavierBritish said:

@MideonNViscera said:

Now I'll be pretty annoyed if when I get to my "everybody's dead" playthrough and all the dead people are just replaced by new characters performing the same tasks for me,

I've got some bad news.

Bad news sure. Not internet "worst game ever" rage inducing news though. The story does need to play out somehow. I just hoped those missions would become more difficult, or they wouldn't even show up instead. Especially with the ability to make up lost resources with the multiplayer. Or so I hear. Haven't tried it myself.

@Canteu: I'm not offended by anyone who dislikes the game for a good reason, only when their complaints are invalid. As @Rolyatkcinmai said, many of the people who bash it haven't played it (like you, Canetu). Our OP in this topic is an example. He singles out the Citadel as being a problem in ME3. Of course, the Citadel has always been pretty small, and its sections mere hallways. In the previous two games, navigating it was a headache, but ME3's simple elevator system makes it more easily navigable. If the person had an issue with the tininess of the Citadle in the first two games, then they can continue to complain. My major gripe was how frustrating it was to get around, and they've fixed this. Another example are the many people complaining about how every mission environment is the same. This is simply not true. So far, I've been in two very distinct looking space stations, a human city, a Turian moon, a cave, Krogan ruins, Salarian laboratories, and other places, and all have been quite unique. I'm sure there will be recycling later on in the game, but I think my little list there is bigger than the list of unique environments in the first two games.

Now, I can't really comment on the story too much at this point, because I've spent a lot of time doing side quests. Of what I have seen, and I acknowledged this earlier, the writing is pretty inconsistent. It's strong in one scenario, and terrible in another. Some major parts of the story, like dream sequences, feel really awkward. It's strange that a game whose primary draw was a strong story has become so shaky in its final installment. I'm also disappointed in dialogues, which rarely ever have more than two options. I've also noticed that renegade options seem silly.

At this point, I really like ME3 in spite of its flaws. I'm not going to be offended if someone presents legitimate reasons that they dislike the game, but you can bet your booty that I'll correct them if their wrong about objective details.

@Krakn3Dfx said:

Fast forward 6-7 hours into the full game. I've already become acutely aware of just how much this game is essentially Mass Effect 2, except without any real thought or imagination put into it. There's no design behind bringing together surviving crew members from Mass Effect 2, it's just a lot of random chance encounters that end up with them taking up residence on the Normandy at the end of a mission.

It makes complete sense why some of the characters from 2 don't show up in 3, you may not like that they aren't there full-time but the reasons that are given are consistent with how those characters were established. I'm not really sure where this "random chance encounters that end up with them taking residence on the Normandy" part came from, the only characters who come on your ship are from the first game or are completely new.

The Citadel seems even more confined to me now than it did in the previous game, every location you need to visit is an elevator ride, a hallway, and a room with a desk to talk to someone. There's rarely a direct conversation with anyone in a location other than the exact person you're there to see. You don't even talk to people to pick up side missions, you just randomly hear looped conversations that are added as tasks to do.

As I said earlier, this isn't true at all. I'll give you a little benefit of the doubt and guess that you just haven't gotten far enough in but the Presidium alone is bigger than what you could explore in 2 and all the areas combined are bigger than in the first Mass Effect. There are also plenty of conversations you can have with both npc's and squadmates. There are the fetch quests that you pick up from overhearing people but there are also quests where you have to talk to people, along with the small npc conversations where you pick a side to argue for.

It's nice to see and hear characters from previous games converse, but when it's just constant drivel that revolves around "This probably won't work, but hopefully this will work, but there's a good chance this won't work," it gets tiresome.

Is there a specific example for this? I have no idea what conversations you've heard but I've seen Garrus and Liara in a part of the Normandy discussing what he had done as Archangel and what she had done as the Shadow Broker, Engineer Adams and Dr. Chakwas getting very emotional while talking about what is happening with Earth, Garrus and Joker telling jokes about humans and Turians etc. What you've said is the complete opposite of what I've seen while playing the game.

Admittedly, at only 6-7 hours in, I have no idea how it's going to end at this point, and I do want to know. But if this weird "deus ex machina" weapon option they've found is the saving grace, it'll just solidify my belief that Bioware is now just another game developer, churning our tired, uninspired iterations of originally brilliant concepts. That makes me really sad, but everything they've made in the past 3-4 years just points in that direction.

The weapon is not a deus ex machina at all, it is something that you work on throughout the game leading to the end. Your criticisms seem to boil down to you simply not exploring enough or making things up. Aside from the writing complaint, which is subjective, nothing that you've said is true.

@BoG: I never bashed it, I just said I have no desire to play it because it looks like a bad game. I presented no baseless reasons as to why i dislike it. It's nothing more than it looks bad.

@bybeach: Yeah, like I said, I will play it to the end, I'm not actively hating on it, even tho I guess it may seem that way (?). It just feels really inconsistent and fragmented in a lot of ways quality wise, whether you're talking about voice acting, dialogue in general, exploration, or just how they got from the end of Mass Effect 2 to the beginning of ME3.

For me, it feels less than a Bioware product, kind of like Bioshock 2 felt to Bioshock, still a good, playable game that feels like it could have been so much better than it ended up being.

I feel like I should get rid of the Bioshock to Bioshock 2 comparison, because someone will no doubt take it the wrong way and rip me apart for it. Ah, fuck it. I was going to use Dragon Age: Origins and DA2 as an example, because I felt a lot of same in that situation as well. Well, anyway.

Indications from posts in this thread are that the Citadel eventually opens up more than it is now. If that's the case, I look forward to seeing more of it. I do remember the Citadel areas in the first Mass Effect being pretty huge, to the point where I would occasionally get lost and have to resort to looking at signs and maps to find my way (not like Kotor size tho, which makes everything in any Mass Effect game look small). When I played ME2 directly after it, it was a bit jarring to realize that there was so much less of it. We could have a whole other discussion about why I dislike in general how much they scaled back everything size wise from ME1 to 2, but that was a talk for 2 years ago, not today.

@Krakn3Dfx said:

Fast forward 6-7 hours into the full game. I've already become acutely aware of just how much this game is essentially Mass Effect 2, except without any real thought or imagination put into it. There's no design behind bringing together surviving crew members from Mass Effect 2, it's just a lot of random chance encounters that end up with them taking up residence on the Normandy at the end of a mission. The Citadel seems even more confined to me now than it did in the previous game, every location you need to visit is an elevator ride, a hallway, and a room with a desk to talk to someone. There's rarely a direct conversation with anyone in a location other than the exact person you're there to see. You don't even talk to people to pick up side missions, you just randomly hear looped conversations that are added as tasks to do.

This is the one criticism I don't understand. The ME2 citadel was essentially a poorly laid-out shopping mall. It had 3 floors, only two of which were useful, and they were not next to each other. The ME 3 citadel has 5 floors, one of which is the loading dock and another of the hospital, which are, put together, about the size of one of an ME2 floor. Purgatory is way bigger and better than old Purgatory. The presidium is really big, and the refugee quarters are pretty sizable, too. As far as conversations go, there aren't many random, "Oh hey, what's going on here?" conversations. You can talk to your crew members (good conversations) when you find them, and occasionally those side quests you pick up lead you to conversations. I don't think there are any fewer than ME2. I only recall a couple conversation points there.. you could talk to the shop keepers to ask them for a discount, you could talk to the Krogan about fish, talk to the Quarian about discrimination, talk to Bailey and... that's about it, except for the story missions that led you there.

Forgive me for rambling, but...

I have a strange tradition of sorts. Each Thanksgiving, while I'm cooking food and hanging out with friends and family, I play Mass Effect. The first few years it was, obviously, the orginal ME. Then it switched over to ME2. I turned the game into a strategy game of sorts. Turn the difficulty up to insanity, try to play through the whole thing, then eat some turkey with loved ones. Sounds about perfect to me. So, I think it goes without saying that ME3 was going to be my highlight of the year.

To put it bluntly, I'll be playing ME2 this year, not ME3.

It would seem that a lot of people have not found the same quality in the story that they once did with the series, and while that is certainly an opinion I can agree with, I am most bothered by the actual gameplay in ME3. It no longer feels like I can use dynamic strategies to overcome overwhelming odds. So many of the missions now feel like I'm a hammer and my enemy is the nail. My only job is to hit it as hard and mindlessly as I can. I also did not think I would be so incredibly bothered by the turret sequences, but each time Shepard climbs on one I had this immediate appliance of apathy. Overall though, the way the enemies spawn, especially some specific enemies, made this game most tiresome - to be kind.

I don't want to spoil anything for anybody (which is why I'm leaving a lot of the things I like and dislike out), but I will say that the ending has ruined the entire story for me. No thanks, BioWare...

If you, whoever you are, enjoys this game then don't take any offense with what I said. These are my experiences and I haven't any doubt they are individual.

@Krakn3Dfx said:

@bybeach: Yeah, like I said, I will play it to the end, I'm not actively hating on it, even tho I guess it may seem that way (?). It just feels really inconsistent and fragmented in a lot of ways quality wise, whether you're talking about voice acting, dialogue in general, exploration, or just how they got from the end of Mass Effect 2 to the beginning of ME3.

The way they get from the end of Mass Effect 2 to 3 isn't fragmented. It happened in Arrival. You blow up the Mass Effect relay to delay the reaper invasion and it takes out a Batarian planet. Obviously that's not cool, so when Shepard returns to the Alliance he's put under house arrest. Then Mass Effect 3 happens.

@jmood88 said:

Everything you wrote sounds like you copy/pasted every troll statement and organized it into paragraphs. There's way too many to address right now since I'm leaving work but I will take the time to laugh at your crazy sentence about the Citadel feeling more confined than it did in Mass Effect 2, that couldn't be further from the truth.

Wow. This came off as slightly defensive.

@drac96 said:

@Krakn3Dfx said:

@bybeach: Yeah, like I said, I will play it to the end, I'm not actively hating on it, even tho I guess it may seem that way (?). It just feels really inconsistent and fragmented in a lot of ways quality wise, whether you're talking about voice acting, dialogue in general, exploration, or just how they got from the end of Mass Effect 2 to the beginning of ME3.

The way they get from the end of Mass Effect 2 to 3 isn't fragmented. It happened in Arrival. You blow up the Mass Effect relay to delay the reaper invasion and it takes out a Batarian planet. Obviously that's not cool, so when Shepard returns to the Alliance he's put under house arrest. Then Mass Effect 3 happens.

Ahh, I never played any of the ME1 or 2 DLC, so I wouldn't have known.

It's kind of a bummer that, if there is DLC that has a real impact on the story going between 2 games, that they don't at least offer some sort of "previously on" situation in the latter game to fill in that information. I could go find it online on a wiki somewhere, but then I risk spoiling myself on other things.

@BoG: I really thought some of the missions were incredible and the some of the back story they work in form the previous games is genius. Jeff painted it accurately though, I'd prob give it 3 or 4 stars. I really enjoyed my time with it in spite of all the impotent internet raging.

My major complaint with the citadel in ME3 is that I have to go back to to elevator to load a new area. I wish I could pull up fast travel from any location, but that's how it was in the prior MEs as well. (Though ME2 had more fast travel points I believe)