Mass Effect 3 PC
User Score
4.7 out of 10

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 4368 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,813 out of 4368
  2. Mixed: 368 out of 4368
  3. Negative: 2,187 out of 4368

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  1. Windswept7
    Mar 28, 2012
    10
    Amazing game. Voice acting superb. Fairly realistic depiction of what the future may hold. The game play is heaps of fun. Choice between different game modes offers a tailored experience for every taste and the diversity of character customization offered by Bioware is commendable. You will want to replay this game after completion.
  2. lliam
    May 6, 2012
    1
    If you have Mass Effect 1 or 2 you have better games than this one. Average game not worth the money. Since Origin took over DRM spyware all over your P.C so it is up to you if you want this. No customer support at all. The multiplayer has massive issues with people not getting the stuff they paid for and no means of getting any resolution from customer service you just get your account banned saves them needing a customer service department and with a banned account you have no access to the game you paid for. IMO very similar game to 1+2 and not worth more than $5. Hyped beyond belief in Expert reviews. A very linear game save your cash I wish I did.… Expand
  3. Ardara
    Jul 7, 2012
    5
    This game feels completely different to his predecessors. Bad writing, plotholes and inconsistencies, a forced storyline, "stagnant" characters and autodialogue really prevented me from enjoying this chapter. It just felt.. wrong. Even without addressing the endings issue. Since ME1 (which I loved) it's been a way down.
  4. chronoT
    Oct 18, 2012
    8
    HUGE fan of Mass Effect 1 and 2, the original gets a 9 while the second gets a 10 from me. This game was on its way to a 10 until it abruptly and terribly ended. What exactly happened Bioware, did the creators walk off the stage half way through the show? Its just a bit disappointing that the game looks and plays amazing just as Mass Effect 2 does but they made it shorter and ****ed the ending story of the series. Since release they have fixed the ending, released more content, and the biggest DLC to date, Omega, is to be released soon so my score for this game is certainly improving. Overall, this game DOES NOT warrant a 4.4 user rating and this goes to show too many people are careless and trollfull with their reviews.… Expand
  5. kache
    Mar 22, 2012
    6
    Very nice game overall, but, as others have said, the ending is incomplete, and there are too many missing pieces that have been thought for DLC (see Javik). Enjoyable, from the beginning to the transport laser, but not even close to what it could have been, and what it should have been.
    So sad that EA ruins everything they put their hands on...
  6. benjaminavatar
    Mar 13, 2012
    10
    Awesome game, awseome graphics awesome ending! Everyone who says otherwise are not gamers they are **** Bioware made an exelent ending to the trilogy!
  7. Dean_Demon
    Mar 9, 2012
    10
    Have to say this is a nice and dark sequel to me2,lower system specs than before a big plus,superbly updated character graphics and all round graphics updates,new sfx as well as existing sfx from me2,wonderful voice acting as before,gaming area has been expanded somewhat so feels much larger and it shows,those complaining of not being able to import your old saves well i can tell you that they do work but it's your portrait that doesn't import so you have to re do that ingame but the other info from your me 1 and 2 remains intact. A lot of detail has been put into the design of the characters and put in some very strong emotional content for the story and makes for a very good story by doing this,can't believe the scores of 0 and 1 here and should be removed or even banned,this is a perfect ending to the series and what we all knew would happen as the reapers arrived,top class.… Expand
  8. Niroo
    Mar 15, 2012
    4
    Mass Effect 3 features a decent single player storyline that, despite the early introduction of a fanciful 'Secret Weapon of Awesomeness', is quite entertaining for about 20-25 hours. The gameplay works, even if it's rather repetitive and doesn't really expand on what ME2 had to offer. The much discossed ending of the trilogy is indeed a storytelling disaster, the only part of which that speaks in BioWare's favour being the fact that they had the audacity to make their deus ex machina an actual "god out of the machine". I wasn't too impressed by the multiplayer, which, with it's 11 waves of whack-a-mole, is only mildly more interesting than the bot-servers of earlier FPS games.… Expand
  9. HarveyD
    Mar 19, 2012
    10
    Game was quite good actually. I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay, they story and the ending. Everyone is just sad that a great series is finally over, so they are giving bad reviews. It's a grief cycle, and they'll eventually get through it. If anyone can tell me an ending they thought was super great and better than the rest of the movie/story/game, I'll give 'em a medal. The journey there, not the destination, was what was important, and it was a journey for the ages.… Expand
  10. makemenuconfig
    Mar 22, 2012
    0
    OK, I really loved ME1 and 2. I anxiously waited for the 3rd game and see how is it going to end, what is going to happen to the characters and the galaxy. Up until the last 5 minutes of the game, it was completely blown!

    But, suddenly, the game took a U turn and started going downhill fast.It betrayed not only me for insulting my intelligence, but it insulted the game itself. It ended wi    thout explaining anything or giving any kind of closure. And on top of it, it doesn't make any sense, not even for fiction standards.

    The reason I am giving a score of 0 is the ending. If I were to score the game prior to seeing the ending I would have given it a 8 or 9.    … Expand
  11. stealthops77
    Mar 15, 2012
    2
    Originally while I was playing through the game, I thought, "this is so epic!" And that thought remained true until the last 15 minutes of the game... Those last 15 minutes pretty much just took a **** on your face and made you feel extremely dissatisfied. It takes away replay value for the entire series because you know that the outcome will be exactly the same, and that you will hate it just as much as you did the first time you played through it.

    The multiplayer on the other hand is not that bad. But it does get boring after awhile since your pretty much going through the same enemies over and over again on five different maps. I know some people absolutely love it and some don't like it at all. So its all about your tastes.    … Expand
  12. DizzyKa
    Mar 12, 2012
    10
    Mass Effect 3 puts the cap ( or does it ) on one of my favorite series. Its been a long time since a game entered my favorites list, a long long time. Its also been a long time since I've been so emotionally invested in the characters and cared for their well being and futures. I credit this fact, at least in Shepard's case to Bioware's attention to the female Shepard option in 3. As a female gamer I felt very included, and to top it off I finally have a protagonist in a major gaming franchise that I can relate to. I can look at the box ( provided I've flipped the reverseable cover art ) and see something of myself in the hero on that cover staring back at me. I've seen the galaxy through Shepards eyes. I saw it as a young commander taking a ship for a test run picking up other rag tag young people along the way. I saw it as an emerging hero, responsibility beginning to weigh on my friends and my decisions. Finally, I saw it all burn. I saw the desperation in my friends eyes as we fought for what we all knew was impossible. It was an amazing journey. A lot of people are angry over the DLC. I for one was also irked by it, but its worth looking past. A lot of people are irked by the ending. I urge you, look deeper, its a lot better than you probably though. Its not as it seems.… Expand
  13. Tryphikik
    Mar 8, 2012
    10
    I love it, gotten goosebumps playing this game more than I can ever recall from a video game. Seeing how so many characters that I care about have grown, is fantastic. I love the job the writers did with many of the characters. Certain ones that I felt lacked emotion early on in the series and didn't like as much as others, really seem to have evolved. Very pleased with Mass Effect 3.
  14. HL2EPThree
    Mar 9, 2012
    10
    Incredible game. Filled with excitement. Great graphics, incredible story. People shouldn't play Mass Effect 3. They should live it. It's incredible, more than we could have hoped for.
  15. Alex_Whatever
    Mar 19, 2012
    2
    There is some merit to what Mass Effect 3 tries to do, but it ultimately fails at the hands of some over-zealous writer who ignores everything that happened during the previous 100 hrs. and shoehorns a new character into the ending that brings in a lot more questions and answers none. There is no pay off to this story, no culmination to your personal decisions, no outcome that make sense, and you ultimately wonder if everything you did actually mattered then. The answer is that in the end, no, it doesn't matter.… Expand
  16. Tweed
    Mar 12, 2012
    1
    I've really enjoyed the Mass Effect series, but this last one, the one that was suppose to be the big climax is one of the biggest letdowns of the year so far. It really seems like Bioware cut every corner that could be cut while trying to maximize the amount of revenue they could generate from their community, there's a heavy emphasis on the multiplayer aspect of the game which actually does greatly hinder your effort to try and get a good ending out of this game. It really doesn't help that the entire multiplayer part is designed to be a complete grind short of spending actual money to buy packs to enhance their characters. Disregarding MP the single player is rife with issues, mostly related to the terrible attention to detail, characters are poorly animated and "pop" and "spring" about unrealistically during dialog so often it becomes impossible to ignore, on the central hub of the game npcs in the background run back and forth to nowhere if they're animated at all, actors in the distance are nothing more than distorted 2 dimensional sprites or unskinned models that look more like cardboard cutouts or paper mache figurines than people. Cutscenes and dialog cannot be skipped making replay a major task for anyone who wants to see the hidden ending that requires finishing the game at least once. Attempts at continuity on Bioware's part are admirable and one of the highlights of the game, but it becomes lost in the mess of a plot, the impossibility of Earth holding out while Shepard gathers the forces of the galaxy is handwaved away and one of the main antagonists of the game winds up being a carbon copy of Mass Effect 1's villain. It also really doesn't help that Bioware decided to shift the focus of the plot right at the very last moment of the game to steal Deus Ex: Human Revolution's plot line and ending style, then expect the player to merely accept this without question. The endings are vague and unsatisfying, leaving any fan who has followed this series right from the very beginning to be extremely disappointed.… Expand
  17. Radzap
    Mar 17, 2012
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Good:
    1. Weapons upgrade system. 2. Getting squadmate's abilities.
    3. Umm, reaching here, but the war effort meter gave me some motivation to visit all the systems.

    Bad.
    1. Your choices in the previous games get retconned.
    2. The cover system is totally stupid and can get you killed if you just want to leap over an object.
    3, The space bar is the default interact button for everything (Blizzard is dumbing down their button schemes too to pander to casuals)
    4. The game will try and force you to go homosexual, freaking Garrus made a pass at me and wouldn't leave me alone! Cortez gets all emo on you and wants to hold hands with you every time you see him.
    5. More retcons: Ashley was a man? So where does that come out in the game? Oh it doesn't, it's just something a writer said in an interview later. 6. Stupid boss fights: Fight a giant Reaper dreadnought and blow it up solo when it takes a whole damn army and loads of missiles to blow one up in the final chapter. WTFPWN Leng in both both boss fight against him using shield drain and maxxed out inferno rounds.
    7. Stupid Ripped Off Ending: Instead of a stupid boss fight (which would have been preferable at this point) they give you a half an hour of UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENES and then give you a choice of three endings which have no bearing on your progress in the game. Yeah, that was satisfying.
    8. DAY ONE DLC! Yeah, the greedy A-holes want to touch you up for another $10 after you already kickd them the $60. Good job EA.
    9. Stupid missions are all the same. Go in a base, kill a bunch of dudes that rush you. Collect data, mats, or some dude and get back to the ship. Timed missions have no timer. It doesn't matter, all of the missions are stupid easy.
    10. The exploration system got even more simplified so that 100% exploration can be achieved in about an hour.
    11. The War Resources Meter has no effect on the game. I freaking rescued the Volus Dreadnought, and I wanted to see it deployed in the final battle. It was no where to be seen. You liberate a bunch of viscous gangs for T'Lara for the war effort and it has absolutely no consequences. You also free T'Lara's murderous associate from jail and nothing negative happens after she swears to go on a killing spree. You don't even get in to any trouble with Bailey the head of C-Sec about it. Basically, nothing that isn't directly linked to the main story affects the game.
    12. I have a top of the line PC and the game graphics are crap. Artifacting and noise everywhere.
    13. The final encounter with the elusive man is a JOKE. Choose the renegade option or die and restart. LOL!!

    I played this game in order to complete the trilogy and make use of my game saves. The whole thing was a serious let down from the minute I saw the message about the day one DLC. All three endings that I had involved Shepard dying in some way and even though they attempted to give you some closure by talking to the characters on a vid screen before embarking on the last mission, it just felt empty and that the sacrifice was for nothing. If you are just learning about this series, just pass on it. It's not worth the investment as the experience degrades seriously as the game progresses from box to box.    … Expand
  18. krkbomb
    Jul 14, 2012
    3
    I'm not really sure what happened here but this is not a Mass Effect game...

    Mass Effect games had smartly written stories and let you make decisions.

    This game is not that AT ALL.

    It does have some nice music, though not as good as ME2. I will give 3 points for that.
  19. Trebek
    Mar 11, 2012
    0
    While I loved the first two ME games, I just can't get behind the third.

    It seems like for every positive change that has been made, 3 or 4 bad ones have been added as well. For example, while there is finally a good reason to play a soldier rather than an adept which in my opinion was by far the best class in the first two, there are now a few 'features' that I despise. Forced multipla    yer is a massive disappointment to me. I know it can be argued that it's not actually forced since the game can be played from start to finish is true, but multiplayer having *any* effect on gameplay or story is a big disappointment. This game had absolutely no need to shoehorn in multiplayer, but it's now being billed as a 'feature'.

    This leads nicely into my second complaint which is that this so called bonus in the form of multiplayer makes EA feel justified in charging for day one DLC in 'from ashes'. This makes me feel mugged that even after a preorder you can't get the whole darn game on launch day. I like how these days a preorder edition means you'll still need to buy an expansion pack on day one to have the whole game. My third gripe is this business with Origin being a requirement to play the game. The corporate shills at EA are setting up a competing service to steam, all right, fair enough but sleazy statements such as "We believe in absolute freedom of choice to allow customers to buy through whatever retail outlet... as long as they're buying an EA game, we're delighted," show they don't respect their customers when they turn around and pull their games from the most popular digital download services. EA claims they did this same thing with Crysis 2 because the DLC was not available for purchase on steam.... This ticks me off a lot since the DLC for ME2 was so well hidden I spent 45 minutes trying to buy 'the arrival' on their awful maze of websites that I *was glad* valve will now be forcing publishers to make DLC available through steam. I've had quite enough of EA's awful DLC distribution methods in the past and am not looking forward to finding out if this time will be any better.

    So in summary - an allright game, seriously marred by both technical own goals (forcing extra software to be installed), sleazy marketing, greedy day one DLC, and a general aura of disrespect to the community.

    I loved ME1 and ME2, but ME3 leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.    … Expand
  20. VergilAF
    Mar 15, 2012
    1
    Five years! For five years we have been waiting this game. All this time everyone has spent dozens of hours of play to build a character in detail, to get to the final battle and discover that everything we had is not worth anything. The game over all is full of bugs charts, something that his predecessors had not. Pultroppo, we are faced with a great truth: "A wonderful saga begins for passion and ends for the money." When a title is a highly successful publishing house will always tend to derive much money as possible and this leads us to make a game designed with speed and distraction. For me, Mass Effect is the saga of the most beautiful ever created in gaming history, but with this latest chapter in an era ruined. The ending, which I will not tell, it was so absurd as to anger the world for the first time in history.
    The dream is gone, the waiting futile, what remains is the DISAPPOINTMENT    … Expand
  21. FormerHuman
    Mar 15, 2012
    10
    There is a strange, unseemly trend developing on the Metacritic site when it comes to games reviews, and it's extremely conspicuous. It seems any title that develops something of a following (namely, franchises such as this one) will result in such extremely polarised reviews and ratings (typically with extraordinarily vague or unfounded assertions) with one half asserting that the game is quite simply something heavenly, whilst the other half express that the game has basically ruined their lives. Maybe this sentiment is closer to truth - the lives of those who express such outrageous venom for games that don't meet their (usually pretty unreasonable) expectations must be pretty much over from the start. Regardless, ignoring the idiocy of nerd-rage and coming back to the case at hand: Mass Effect 3. I completed my first play through today and so now I feel reasonably qualified to comment. I've been a fan of the series since Mass Effect originally appeared on Xbox, and have since played both the first two games on 360 and subsequently on PC, and now the final installment on PC from the get-go. I've played these games extensively, and have taken great enjoyment in exploring their finer details. None of the games are perfect, but then none of them are identical - each has it's own identity and that is something I am very grateful for. The first in the series had more in common with Biowares classic Knights of the Old Republic, with a rather rubbery combat system that was borrowing heavily if vaguely from Gears of War (reasonably new at the time), to great effect. The RPG elements were effective if occasionally too sprawling for their own good, issues largely addressed in Mass Effect 2, and then also replaced with all new (again, relatively minor) complaints. The issues that came with Mass Effect 2 are again largely well addressed in Mass Effect 3, but at a compromise. The narrative is arguably more streamlined in the third game, but this suits the story exactly - as Mass Effect was a game of exploration, Mass Effect 2 a game of intrigue and darkness, Mass Effect 3 is a game of the horrors of war, the realities of post traumatic stress disorder, the despair of losing friends and the uncertainty of success. At no point during the game was I ever convinced that things were going to go well - an ending I wouldn't be disappointed with so much as perhaps saddened by, in the tradition of games more like Silent Hill 2 rather than your average gung-ho shooter. I was anxious about failing. Success wasn't an eventuality, a guarantee, as it wasn't in ME2 either - you could lose your colleagues all too easily, and they would never come back once they were gone. There is a brutal absolutism in this universe that mirrors our own, and it's uncomfortable and refreshing all at once, because rarely is such a concept really approached so clearly and executed so well in a game. Sure enough, other games may casually kill off central characters, but rarely do you have much emotional investment in them. With this cast, they've been with you for a long time by this point, you've shared a lot of experiences, a lot of character development, a lot of choices. At one point in the game, I had to make a choice, the consequences of which were both tactically sound but also morally reprehensible. Did I make the right choice? Yes, because so much is at stake. Everything is at stake. And this translates from the moment the game starts until it's extraordinary ending sequences. I've seen a number of negative responses to the "ending" (note, there are at least three distinct endings available, though I have only seen one so far) - certainly, the one I chose (and that is a slight disappointment, in as much as it was the case in Deus Ex: Human Revolution - pick your button) was unusual, but in fact quite extraordinary and fascinating and entirely in line with the truly epic scale of the Mass Effect universe, but also reflective of the more cerebral literary and cinematic roots in science fiction that the developers have drawn from (there is more than bit of Arthur C. Clarke in the games' DNA, and that is no bad thing).

    There is little else I wish to talk about. The functional elements, the combat, navigation, are all excellent. The cover system is occasionally problematic, but not in a way that ruins the game in any way. The co-operative multiplayer is very enjoyable and although I have low opinion of EA for using 'Day One DLC' in any title, the quality of the content is such that whilst it's not so much 'forgiven', it is largely irrelevant. It should have been included for everyone, because it's too important to miss. Most elements are improved upon, some are more consistent with the previous game - likely more down to the continuous nature of the games - so there are fewer massive leaps in terms of visuals than some people may expect. Not to say anything is lacking, however, because frankly, there isn't.    … Expand
  22. JohnMaynardK
    Mar 9, 2012
    2
    Well basically, I play Mass Effect games for the exceptionally deep dating and relationship mechanics. Well, OK, they're not perhaps as deep as in some other games, but there are few other mainstream games that give me quite such a wide choice of subsurfaced polygonal ass to seduce, and do so within the context of a 60 hour campaign. Some people call me a "neckbeard" or even more insultingly and prejudicially, a "faggot" (verbatim quote), but I don't care. I have a perfectly healthy sex life, I just find games that can deal with seduction and relationships so much more mature than other games. Anyway, this is basically where ME3 falls down so hard. In the first installment of this franchise, there were only two female companions to choose from: Liara and Ashley. Now, two might be a small number for a romantic partner selection, but don't mistake ME1 for being a dumbed-down game: the two women were completely different. Ashley was a sexy space-marine (beautifully subverting genre stereotypes), and Liara was a sensitive and kind Asari. Both girls were kick-ass, and the decisions one made about about who to sleep with could be really difficult. This was further complicated by the choice of having to sacrifice either Ashley (potential waifu) or Kaidan (absolute bro). This is why I love this series: deep choices. Now, Mass Effect 2 actually extended this further: there were now not only a vastly greater selection of team-members to romance, but they now also had their own loyalty missions, conflicting with the other members of the cast in a beautiful panoply of enmeshed storylines. Want to romance character A? Well, get ready to piss off B and C in the process! In seducing Miranda, I found the game to be incredibly immersive (I felt just like I was seducing a real girl!), and I was truly brought into the game. This, kids, is good game design. Sadly, ME3 has none of this. It portrays its female, romanceable characters in a frankly sexist and stereotyped way. The whole game blatantly views these females as nothing more than sex objects, and it really shows. Just look at the Ashley redesign! Frankly, I no longer find her attractive, with her Barbie hair and boobtastic outfit. Disgusting. Worse, when I tried to bring this up on the Bioware forums, I was told to stop criticising Bioware and given a cautionary infraction. If you value the depth of romantic interaction usually found in Bioware games, steer well clear of this stinker. I give it a 2/10. Wouldn't bang.… Expand
  23. Biokiipper
    Mar 24, 2012
    10
    One of the best games I have ever played. There is nothing wrong with the ending of this game... Unless you like cliche happy or dark endings. They managed to make a great game. Its end is more like those we find in books, instead those from comercial movies.
  24. andvaree
    Mar 11, 2012
    10
    ME3 took 36 hours of my life to complete, but it was well worth it. One of the best, most heart wrenching, sci-fi storytelling experiences of my life - video game, movie, book or otherwise. ...and - for me - the best video game ever!
  25. lyt2210
    Mar 8, 2012
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Beautiful scenery, wonderful music, and bad endings this pretty much sums up my ME3 experience. No matter what you do, no matter the choices you have made along this road EA has you dying, there is no ending where you see your lover ever again(unless you play mp get +5k EMS then you will get a 1 second clip of someone taking a breath). At the end of the game post credits they a have a grandpa and grandson on what looks like the moon with trees staring at earth. The ending has the mass relays being destroyed so why bother helping the quarians retake the home world they'll never see it. Basically everyone is pretty much stuck in the sol system until somebody figures out FTL without mass effect. To put it simply I emotionally invested myself in this game, in my character, in this mission only to be letdown. I remember when I first made my character Emily, an infiltrator I spent literally an hour just turning her head side to front just so I would have the perfect face. I would redo entire missions in ME2 if I failed the first time to get a crew member's loyalty, I played tedious mining mini-games so I could outfit my ship, I stayed true to my lover from ME1 in hopes of finally having a good ending in ME3 after the disaster called, Horizon. All these choices are moot now thanks to the really rushed ending. The ending was pick the ending you hate the least, not a reward for doing all you could to get a high enough EMS score. No the "3" choices (if you can call them that) are a letdown, just a punishment, no reward. I suggest to those who have not bought it yet wait for it to go down in price, because the bulk of the story is good and some of the scenes will make you a little teary eyed. It is an amazing game right up to the last 30 minutes. Remember peoples the saying goes the only thing that people will remember is what you did...well Bioware what do you have to say for yourself about this atrocious end to a otherwise magical series.… Expand
  26. Snowsve
    Mar 8, 2012
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game built up so much epicness and I said multiple times before the last mission that this was the best SP-game I've EVER played. And it got destroyed under 10 minutes, by creating paradoxes (synthetic life who kills organic life so they don't get killed by synthetics LOOOL), Joker's getting some pstd and decides to run to a mass relay, and shepard is gone forever, putting the galaxy into a dark age and even if he survives he will NEVER see his LI, his friends or another nebula again. They tried to make a Deus Ex 1-ending, but they failed miserable and decided that a deus ex machina-ending would do the trick. I'm honestly depressed, it was my favourite game series of all time and Bioware gave me the finger.… Expand
  27. Nakano37
    Mar 9, 2012
    10
    The best parts of the gameplay from the 1st and 2nd combined with a gripping story. The galaxy at war stuff is awesome and Jennifer Hale's voice acting is top notch. Even the multiplayer is far better than I expected.
  28. shnelle
    Mar 9, 2012
    3
    I very much enjoyed playing Mass Effect 3. The story was was well fleshed out. I had a good amount of time spent with my teammates and mostly everyone I knew from the last two games. The gameplay was stellar. I have loved the Multiplayer and I'm one of the ones who thought "Bioware is on Crack" when I first heard about it. My LI (who was Garrus) had a great story. I'm very happy with the romance, it was so much more then I was expecting. The Narrative gave you a great feeling of "OMG can I do this" which is what I think they were going for. I did feel closer to my Shepard then in the first two games. I loved the updated character models compared to the last two games. I loved the new Default Femshep. Not including the ending I cried when my old teammates died. But they died in a way that their death was worth it, they had closure and I was proud of them. I thought the game was made so much more Epic this time around. I really did enjoy every facet of the game, until the end of course.

    No matter how much I enjoyed it and how good it was the endings completely ruined my Mass Effecet 3 experience. The rest of the game was awesome. If the endings had made me feel just a little like a hero/savior, something to make me smile at the end then this would probably have been one of the best games I've ever played. If you ignore the endings ME3 really is a great accomplishment. When I finish a game I should have a great feeling of acomplishment. I should feel on top of the world. Even if there is a tragic ending with sacrifice I should feel that everything is going to be better. When I was finished with Mass Effect 3 I was hit with such a huge whammy of depression and unhappy that I still haven't recovered from it hours later. A game should never make you feel this way. I don't mind crying because something is sad. But if I cry it should be with the feeling of hope or "they did good". There was none of that when I finished Mass Effect 3.

    1) I would have exposition explaining what happens with the citadel, relays, crew galaxy, races, etc. If Shep lives I would show he gets reunited with his/her LI. If he doesn't I would show Shep getting mourned. I would show the Normandy getting repaired and being picked up by the Alliance and Shep reuniting with his/her crew and LI.

    2) I would have the Blue Ending be destorying the reapers ONLY along with the Citadel and the relays because a main paragon theme of Mass Effect series has been not using the reaper tech as a short cut. The galaxy has to develop on its own.

    3) I would have the Red ending being controlling the reapers. Because one of the main renegade themes of the Mass Effect series has been about gaining power you cannot control. I would show that Shep becomes either the catalist, or some kind of Reaper AI. The Citadel and relays are damaged but they are still around. Maybe he uses the reapers to help the galaxy or mankind only

    4) I like the idea of the green ending, its imaginative. I would like to keep it. I would still blow up the citadel and the relays with the green ending

    5) I would give Shep a chance to live on each ending depending on your assets and reputation.

    I think the endings are imaginative. I also think they go against the main themes of Mass Effect (controlling Reapers gaining unlimited power with the Reaper tech is a Renegade theme) (Destroying Reapers only and all their Tech to allow the galaxy to live on its own and develop on its own is a Paragon theme) and suddenly its switched at the end. I like the synthesis theme.

    I can't stand the feeling that my crew, all the people I was fighting for that are still alive are doomed. Thats what I don't like. Yes the galaxy will recover in thousands of years, thats a given. But I want to know that the people, my crew, people I fought for that survived have hope of making a better life. The lack of exposition and the way things were presented leaves you with a sour feeling of despair. It is the lack of exposition for me. Also the stand off against TIM is so Saren 2.0. Please give us something different.

    I would rather have the choice (since choice has always been a serious theme of Bioware) that if I work hard enough to make a perfect perfect ending then my Shepard gets a happy ending with their LI. Cause they have put some awesome work into making us fall in love with these characters. It gives me a reason to play a new game+.    … Expand
  29. Mdhneo007
    Mar 9, 2012
    4
    SPOILERS!

    As an avid Mass Effect fan, I was really looking forward to this game. I even did the Origin predownload so I could start playing at midnight exactly. I loaded it up and at 12:03am started playing. 14.5hrs and like 20 rockstars later I sat facing my computer with tears running down my face. Hey maybe I am emotional, but when 71hrs of my life (ME1 +2 +3) goes down the drain, I     have a right to cry.

    Honestly, I didn't mind the ending I got, in as much as it was an "epic conclusion to an epic MOVIE". Yep, Bioware took a great video game series and converted it into a movie blockbuster where the hero sacrifices all to save the galaxy. Well guess what, a video game isn't supposed to play like a movie! The ending should work in accordance with the actions the players have taken to ensure the final outcome while providing an emotionally (for an RPG like this) enthralling story. Not move inescapably to an inevitably gut wrenching conclusion. Additionally, the game has reduced the replay value of the entire trilogy to virtually nill. Why should I replay ME1-ME3 when I know that regardless of my "numerous and poignant choices" the end is depressingly the same? Moreover, the addition of "gameplay types" (or whatever its called) is nothing but an excuse to cover an irritating reduction of player control over dialogue, another irritating movie-like feature of the game. Furthermore, Bioware's attempt to give players more 'sexual freedom of choice' is just downright disgusting! Introducing male homosexuality this late in the series as a casual (and awkward) fling is demeaning to the community, especially when lesbian romance has been a choice since ME1! If Bioware wished to make a statement about gender homosexual equality, put it in a news release or do it with some respect at least. Finally, when the face importing issues are included in the tally, I can only give this game a 4/10. If it had been a $9 movie ticket and not an $80 game, I would have given it a 12/10.

    Oh well, maybe I should have realized the tone that was set in the opening minutes when the child Bioware didn't allow me to rescue was killed by a machine Bioware made nearly invincible while I stood upon a retreating ship listening to an irritatinally opressive score would have been carried through to the end of the game. So its my own fault for playing the game hoping that what I KNEW was going to happen wouldn't. (As a side note, didn't a thresher maw take down one of them and I took down a thresher maw on Tuchanka, right? So if A beats B and I beat A, shouldn't I beat B?) P.S. The multiplayer aspect of the game is quite enjoyable has been the redeeming aspect of the game in my opinion.    … Expand
  30. gvision
    Mar 9, 2012
    0
    Until now, I really wouldn't have thought any game would ever deserve a 0. Bioware spent a series built on personal decisions endearing us to our characters as the Mass Effect universe only to destroy it with a Deus Ex ending and the destruction of everything we cared about. I can't go into specifics because of spoilers, but there is absolutely NO CLOSURE of anything in the game. The entire series lost it's replayability because the ending will always be the same 3 choices (none of which have much variation) that do not take into account anything you've done in the series up to that point. It was all a waste of time, you may as well have let everyone die, been a total prick the whole time and not given a damn about anyone but yourself and you would still have the exact same outcome as someone who did the exact opposite.

    Couple that with the increasingly simplified gameplay, the jittery animations, the complete removal of exploration and dimming RPG features, the tacked on Multiplayer, etc., etc., etc...I will never play another Bioware game again. I'm even going a step further, and will be warning any gamer I meet that playing Bioware's games are not worth the price of admission.

    I have no doubt the obviously rushed ending is due to EA pushing Bioware to release ME3 long before it was ready, in effort to recoup losses over the tragedy that was Dragon Age 2 and the ridiculous amount of money spent on that Wow-clone SWTOR. Someone PLEASE save Bioware, buy them out, hire them away from EA, SOMETHING. I fear my once favorite game developer will never be even a fraction of what it used to be until they're pulled away from the EA turds.    … Expand
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
89 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 23
  3. Negative: 0 out of 23
  1. CPUGamer
    Apr 11, 2012
    90
    BioWare captures the scale of the conflict well, but always focuses on the people involved in it. It's pretty amazing just how badly EA disregarded the heart of the game – the characters and the world – when they began their marking blitzkrieg, but don't worry, it's oh so definitely there – Day 1 DLC, controversial endings, and questionable use of resources be damned. This is a fine, lovingly crafted game with a clear vision despite the realities of corporations and damning business practices.
    Read full review
  2. PC PowerPlay
    Apr 5, 2012
    80
    A game that's more shooter than role-playing, and a conclusion that's more spectacular than dramatic. [Apr 2012, p.47]
    Read full review
  3. Absolute Games
    Mar 31, 2012
    85
    Finishing a trilogy is always difficult. Tying off dozens of story threads which had been woven by players into many different tapestries is a daunting task. Mass Effect 3 is the first game that succeeded at this colossal undertaking.
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