EVERYTHING except the ending was absolutely sublime. Fast paced gameplay, and a gripping narrative.

CrazyCapnMorgan:

Neonsilver:
I'll quote myself:

Imagine going to a restaurant. There are some pieces you might not like, but in general the food is good.

And as a dessert the cook comes out of the kitchen and shits on your plate.

This begs the question...

"What if I leave before dessert gets served?"

Well, many say that the ending is a lot better when you push alt+f4 after

SirBryghtside:
I loved almost all of it, and that includes the ending. Really don't get what the fuss is about.

I understand why people dislike it, but not why they hate it this much. You 'saved' the whole damn galaxy. I don't see how that isn't closure.

My personal opinion about this saving galaxy thing.

I loved ME3 except for all the cut corners, missing animations and items from cut scenes, see vanishing rock from Rannoch; and tali's invis-mask in every scene where it's removed. Also infiltrator tali who vanished in a couple cut scenes with Jacob entirely. And I share the pathetic ending opinion, rest of the game was very fun and emotional. Although, I still find myself missing the wide-open ME1 Mako missions when you could dismount at will.

edit: Neonsilver, I share you opinion on the "saving" galaxy thing. Not what I was fighting for.

When I replay it, I think I'll just play to where you have to make that massive choice, then turn it off and imagine the rest in my head. Everyone lives happily ever after and such. The rest of it was amazing, loved it. I was planning on starting again with the first one tonight but now I'm a bit put off.

Neonsilver:
My personal opinion about this saving galaxy thing.

Spoiler: Click to 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

Yeah, it's a very personal thing - that's the main thing I learned from this.

My Shepard was, no doubt, completely different to yours. In the end, she just wanted to destroy the Reapers, and the rest of the ending worked amazingly for me because of reasons I put here.

The endings aren't inherently bad - but the argument against that holds the most weight here is lack of choice. Your Shepard should've had a different ending to mine, and that's final. I think BioWare underestimated how different everyone's characters were when creating it, to the point where I don't think there was any way they could've satisfied everyone - not even half of us. I mean, how many times have you seen a YouTube video of Mass Effect and found it jarring, because the character looked different, acted different, or was entirely the wrong gender? I loved it because I was the person BioWare had in mind when creating it, purely by chance. That's all that can be said.

I enjoyed it a lot. I thought it was a very strong game.

Its a great game ....untill the last 10-5 min of course

Every bit of it. Even the ending to some point (though it does feel incomplete), especially since I can't shake the feeling that something was wrong with the "ending." Not that it was poorly written (it was in spots), but that it just felt off. Unreal. Imaginary. A dream?

I loved every minute of the game it's amazing and well made and I have great fun playing the multiplayer but then ending was terrible. I might be okay with it if it wasn't so vague. It was like reading a Dickens novel and someone had torn out the last few pages and wrote 'and then they went home and had tea'

Youma:
I bought ME3 based on the escapist's recommendation, and I'm disapointed to say the least. I used to rely on the escapist not to tell me a game is great when it isn't. But maybe it's just my opinion, and they haven't started whoring themselves after all, so if you agree with the reviewer that "holy crap, this game is outstanding", please let me know.

I agree with the reviewer that "holy crap, this game is outstanding"

If you're disappointed purely because of the ending, I'd encourage you to replay the game and try for the highest War Assets possible. If you're disappointed due to other parts of the game, I'm at a loss, because I genuinely enjoyed the game, even the ending. The ending, though, was at least something I could see why people were enraged over it.

I am honestly serious when I say that I consider Mass Effect 3 to be in my top 5 games of all time.

I loved everything, EXCEPT the last few minutes of the game

Aeonknight:

Beliyal:

SurfinTaxt:
great, what will be the second game youve played in your life?

Why the need for a mean comment like this? It's basically like saying "You are ridiculous for liking this game and your preferences, opinions and interests are shit".

Funny how the white knights come out to play when it's a western rpg.

Now let's see them come out of the woodworks when someone says they like Final Fantasy.

In the short time I've been on this site, SurfinTaxt's predisposition is what's dominant around these parts. So yea... the Escapist is just like every other forum out there.

Well, I don't know about others, but I find that taste-bashing trend to be really sad, regardless of the genre. Although I agree that this dominant around these parts. I just don't think I'll ever understand why do people have the need to do this.

My only problem with the game, other than the atrocious ending obviously, is the lack of squadmates. In ME2 you had what, 12 squadmates to pick from? I had 6 in ME3, and that number dropped to 5 by the end of the game (EDI, Garrus, Kaiden, Liara, James). It was VERY disappointing that I couldn't have my original Wrex/Liara team with me to finish the fight. I mean I get it, Wrex is Krogan royalty at this point in the series, but it still would have been nice.

Other than that, the game was easily the best in the series, and arguably one of the best games ever made overall. The ending did suck the life out of me though. So disappointing.

I hate many things. I hate day one DLC. I hate misleading comments from developers to cover their asses for making day one DLC. I hate poor endings to an epic trilogy. I hate the mentioned possibility that their may be yet more DLC to ''fix'' the ending but most of all, EA, who I hate so very very much. Did all these things stop me from buying the Mass Effect 3 CE and depriving myself of sleep to continue playing? No they did not, so I guess you could say I love Mass Effect 3 it just tries to hurt me but I love it anyway :)

Beliyal:

Aeonknight:

Beliyal:

Why the need for a mean comment like this? It's basically like saying "You are ridiculous for liking this game and your preferences, opinions and interests are shit".

Funny how the white knights come out to play when it's a western rpg.

Now let's see them come out of the woodworks when someone says they like Final Fantasy.

In the short time I've been on this site, SurfinTaxt's predisposition is what's dominant around these parts. So yea... the Escapist is just like every other forum out there.

Well, I don't know about others, but I find that taste-bashing trend to be really sad, regardless of the genre. Although I agree that this dominant around these parts. I just don't think I'll ever understand why do people have the need to do this.

I'm of the same sentiment actually. People should have a wide variety of tastes to experience the medium as a whole. Why can't someone like say... Portal 2 and Call of Duty?
Why can't someone like Skyrim and still enjoy a JRPG like Final Fantasy (or to really satisfy my need for sappy RPG's, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony.)

It's just silly and close minded to write off entire genre's of games. There are gems in every genre, the trick is finding them.

Personally I think Mass Effect as a series is a great example of interactive storytelling. Any game from any genre, I believe, can learn something from this game.
They ramped up the action and brought back a lot RPG elements from the first game. Bioware managed to blend those seamlessly.
The story is actually what I excepted from Bioware and Mass Effect by now. After ME1 and ME2 psyching up the Reaper attack like they did, I could see no other ending(s) that would suit Shepard's epic journey so far.

And I do believe what Bioware said about their ending.

I loved every minute of it excluding the last 10. Once Bioware realizes that their attempt at clever artistic ending has failed and does something about it I will start recommending it to everyone I care to make happy.

it is brilliant, and the MP is actually pretty awesome too. a shining example of a game, and one of the best purchases i have made in a while

Youma:
I bought ME3 based on the escapist's recommendation, and I'm disapointed to say the least. I used to rely on the escapist not to tell me a game is great when it isn't. But maybe it's just my opinion, and they haven't started whoring themselves after all, so if you agree with the reviewer that "holy crap, this game is outstanding", please let me know.

I loved ME3.

Hated the ending.

Everyone else has had the same opinion as me thus far, so i'll restate it differently.

The journey was magnificent, but the final destination left much to be desired....

Sean Hollyman:
Yeah, on my second run now, Insanity.

I hate however, the size of the available squadmates, and the ending..

Come on man, James isn't THAT fat.

99% is brilliant, game of the year,
I love:
The Story
Garrus
The Game play
Garrus
The Multi player
Garrus

and on my next playthrough, I will love it all again, I'll just quit before the end.

Absolutely amazing game and (mostly) everything I was hoping for until the last ten to twenty minutes, which negated almost every promise bioware had made about the game during development.

99% of the game I LOVED. the 1% which everyone can guess what part I hated!!!!!!

I love it, I haven't seen the endings yet myself, but I have watched them on Youtube to see why people were losing their minds over it. The endings don't bug me, especially because my Galactic Strength is over 5000, and the game caps out at 5000.

It is certainly a great game, but I personally couldn't imagine jumping into the series at ME3. I think pulling a Shepard through all three games is part of the experience. And it's also why the last 10 minutes are such a tremendous disappointment.

(And no, it's not because I want a ~perfect happy ending with space ponies and rainbows~, I want an ending that doesn't feel like it was written for a completely different story. Oh, and maybe more than essentially one ending colorswapped, since the core Mass Effect marketing strategy is basically a repetition of the words 'your choices matter' in three thousand variants.)

Until the last five to ten minutes, I'd call ME3 not just one of the best games I've ever played, but one of the best experiences I've ever had, in any medium. That's why the ending made me so upset--to think that they could do this well, for this long, and then totally blow it...

I love the game to bits and it's probaby the best damn thing I have ever played. One of the most important parts of a gaming experience for me is emotional investment, and ME3 made me laugh, cry, almost scream in pure and so on. With all of that in mind, I can't do anything but love it.

I loath the ending, sure, but when I compare that to the sheer amount of enjoyment I got out of the game, the positives easily dwarfs the negatives. So yes, I love it.

I absolutely loved nearly every second of the game. I really only disliked the ending and the battle with the Reaper on foot (so fucking frustrating) and actually after I heard about the indoctrination theory for the ending I actually like the ending alot more because it makes so much sense.