I’m going to go straight ahead and dig into this one but I want you to pay attention because there is no fluff and filler here. This is the honest opinion from someone who believes that ME was the greatest series of all time…was.
Graphics: The visuals in this game are a step above ME2 and light years beyond the original ME. Some of the assets in the game still look sterile or too clean, lacking in any sort of texture or depth. The locations in the game look diverse, the character models look a bit better than before so the company stepped up.
Bioware wanted to make the game more “dark”, not just in story but also in the way the game looks, but I don’t think that was the route to go. Sure, you want to show crumbled buildings and other destroyed environments, but they didn’t need to apply this art style to the entire game. For those of you who are looking for the Film Grain filter, it is no longer present, so keep this in mind when you boot up. Also, it must be noted that there is a blue glare throughout the game. It happens when you’re looking out of the Citadel or when blue lights are present (like on the elevator in the Citadel) and this had me thinking my 360 was about to die again (knock on wood.)
Explosions look good and your HUD doesn’t fade like it used to, but it isn’t as intrusive as some of the HUD’s in other games. Still, Bioware should have taken a page from Visceral, the creators of Dead Space and integrated the HUD with the character. This could EASILY have done by using the lights on the back of Shepard’s suit.
For people looking to import their Shepard from previous games, keep in mind that you will have to redesign his/her face, but I got mine to look very close to how he used to look, so while it will take time, and shouldn’t have to be done in the first place, you can get good results.
Sound: When I play shooters (and IMHO ME is a shooter), I usually turn the BGM off. I don’t want to hear diminished notes, triplets, chord progressions and swells because I want to be immersed in the game and not use music as an auditory cue to let me know when the level is complete. So I can’t comment on the games score. However, what I can comment on is the voice acting, the way sound is used and other things sound related.
The voice acting is good. Characters are believable and at times you can hear the stress in some of the characters voices. So when you’re listening, you do get the sense that the people are desperate, their backs are against the wall and that they need help. However, some of the dialog is way lower than it should be and you have to turn it up really loud to hear it (or use the subtitles.) In addition to this, there are times where people will talk and then their words will simply stop even though their lips are still moving. There are also times when their lips are no longer moving and the audio is still being heard, so the lip synching is off in several areas.
The weapons sound distinct as do enemies and locales. You’ll know a Banshee is somewhere around because you’ll hear her scream, big rooms have a bit of reverb to them and the intercoms sound like intercoms, so again, they did a good job with the sound fx and foley.
Gameplay: This is where we start to get into the two biggest areas relating to ME3 which are the gameplay and story. I’m going to say this, ME3 is a shooter with RPG elements. You may think that the shooting elements are subpar, but I actually prefer the action in this game over Gears. I say this because you can upgrade your weapons, use different types of ammo and have more variety. With Gears, the shooting was good because you had an iconic weapon like the Lance, but there is so much more depth in ME3.
For example, your character can carry a number of weapons. I played as the soldier class so I was allowed five, but if I’m not mistaking the other classes have access to all five as well. However, you have to watch your carrying weight so the more weapons you have, the more weight, the more it takes for your powers to recharge, so you need to think about each battle, what you want to do, who you’ll be fighting and base your loadout on that. Also, you can upgrade your weapons in a number of ways. You can buy attachments that can help reduce weight, increase damage, bullet capacity and other things, or you can buy the upgrades that effect the weapons overall performance like rate of fire and weight. Tjere are a variety of different weapons in the game, but once I found a couple of weapons I felt comfortable with, I stuck with those. No two weapons are the same but, depending on the situation and your style of playing, some are better. Heavy weapons are also present in this game, but they are very limited in use and are more like set pieces. Speaking of set pieces, there are a couple of spots where you have to get on a chain gun/turret, but the driving and piloting vehicles from previous games are no longer present. I don’t know how I feel about this because the Mako was horrible in ME but the Hammerhead was ok in ME2,
Your partners use two weapons only, but this time around the ally AI is useful. There were one or two spots where they didn’t follow orders but for the most part the allies are very helpful and, if you’re playing on insanity like I did, you MUST use them. Again, like weapons, certain allies are useful when fighting certain enemies because they have their own powers, so make sure you’re familiar with your allies, the weapons they work best with and the enemies they are strong and weak against.
There is Armor in the game for Shepard, but aside from the pieces that increased ammo, I didn't see any noticable changes in performance. Also, you can change your squads look, and changing their look provides 25% damage, restore speed, shields and I think like one more thing. However, just like the main characters armor, I noticed no difference in performance.
Concerning your foes, you fight Geth (for a limited time) but the majority of battles are against Cerberus and Reaper turned species. The enemies aren’t bullet sponges, but they do put up a fight and certain enemies need to be taken out in certain ways. If you’re having trouble with certain enemies, it’s because you aren’t using the right weapon, ammo type or powers so blame yourself if you suck. Another thing about the enemies is the AI is a bit more improved. The enemy will take cover quickly, dodge and roll, throw grenades (which will fuck you up), heal each other, lay down turrets (which will fuck you and your mother up) and flank you. So even though I was able to beat the game on the hardest difficulty, there were some moments where I was in deep shit and barely made it out alive.
There aren’t many bosses in this game. In fact, IMHO, there is only ONE boss in the game. I don’t consider the Banshees, Brutes, Atlas’ and a couple of the other enemies with layers of protection to be bosses. Like I said, one boss, and you fight him twice, but the battles will keep you on your toes.
In regards to the rpg elements, this is an ME game and this series has always been about choice. What you do and how you do it will effect what you see or don’t see in this game. The previous planet scanning minigame has been refined and now you scan for war assets but you don’t do it as much as before. These war assets will determine what type of ending you’re in for when you beat the game. It should be noted that Bioware stated that you can get the “optimal” ending without playing MP, but this is not true. In order to see “that” ending, you must play MP because there is no way you can get your war assets and EMS (effective military strength) high enough. You also earn war assets by completing side quests (which are done by listening to someone’s convo or actually speaking with someone), authorizing certain things when you’re a Spectre and by who you recruit during the main storyline.
When it comes to missions, no two are the same and I enjoyed playing the side quests, which are better than the ones in ME and ME2 as they offer more depth, but you’re pretty much just fighting Cerberus in these, but why you’re fighting them in the side quests is explained.
Multiplayer? Fuck Multiplayer. This is ME and instead of catering to Halo and COD fanatics, and trying to get in the MP game, they should have stuck to the core gameplay and kept the audience who demanded a single player game in mind.
One thing I don’t like about this game is the homosexual shit. I don’t have anything against homosexuals but it’s hard for me to make certain choices because I feel at any minute my character is going to turn gay. I never had these issues with ME and ME2 and would have preferred to be given a sexual orientation choice at the character creation screen. Still, I had a player Shepard and tried to romance every chick I could, but I rekindled something I had with Jack so it’s all good.
The story: This is the hardest part for me. The story was hit and miss. There were a couple of moments that I didn’t see coming, and the Thane incident (in the hospital) was something that stuck with me, but some of the other story elements appear as if they were just slapped together. Think about this, for those of you who played ME2, you know that you were on a suicide mission. You spent your time travelling the galaxy finding recruits to help you pull it all off and you built a rapport with them if they were loyal. This time around, the majority of the previous casts make small cameos but some of them offer missions. If you do them and succeed you’ll be awarded war assets, but I honestly believe more depth should have been added here.
The game offers two new squad mates (not including the DLC squad mate), and for the most part they are all useful. One I didn’t see coming at all, and I won’t mention what happens to another if you DON’T play your cards right.
In ME3 you’re fighting the Reapers, only this time it’s ALL on the line. The problem with this is some of the choices you made in the previous games have little to no bearing in ME3. To be perfectly honest, it feels as if you never had a choice to begin with and this all boils down to the writing/script and the ending which brings me to my next point—the ending.
I wasn’t too impressed with the ending. I won’t say it was the worst ending in gaming history but it is bad. However, the ending is “good” because it got people to talk about it and made mainstream headlines.
I can understand changing the ending if the team slacked off and said “fuck it”, which I think they did, but if this were not the case, they should stand on artistic integrity, values and stand by their completed product. Aagain, it’s not that the script is bad, it’s that so many questions are left unanswered and you have to wonder why this was done. Was it done to introduce new DLC? Was it done because the writers said fuck it? Done because of the leaked script? Seriously, it’s as if Bioware said “FUCK THE LAST 7 YEARS AND FUCK YOU!!!” and just slapped the shit together and put it out. As previously stated, this is my opinion of what happened and with Bioware partnering with EA, and focusing so much on MP, it enforces this belief/opinion even more.
Bugs: New to the HERESY REVIEW series is bugs. There are glitches galore in this game and I encountered one that caused me to reboot the 360 and reload a different file. The glitch I’m referring to happens at the end of the game when you are entering the Citadel (I’m trying to remain spoiler free), but there is this big star/crystal like thing that should NOT be in the game and it prohibits me from seeing certain things that I need to see in order to advance. Once I did get passed this, I was stuck at a loading screen, so make sure you back up. Also, the cover system is shotty. Gears 2 and 3 had good cover and so did ME2 (lol@ME), but the cover here is atrocious. You’re character can be in cover, you can use a power, and he’ll go back in cover and pop right up again just standing there. Also, you can go in cover, use a power, and then the game will move your character to the left. This is very shoddy programming and needs to be addressed. There are also times where your charcter will roll when you're trying to run or get in cover, so it makes you wonder if this fool is possessed or on that shit (red dust is the drug of choice in ME so he wouldn't be on yola.)
However, the two biggest bugs are the inability to import your previous character and the war assets not being enough to see “that” ending. The latter is forgivable but the former is blasphemy. When I play ME, I am playing with MY Shepard. I made those choices, I want to see MY character. I’ve grown attached to the guy and sunk HUNDREDS of hours into MY characters story. To drop the ball this way and STILL, as of today, provide NO PATCH is W-R-O-N-G. I can see if they didn’t know, but IMHO they pulled a Bethesda (fuck you Bethesda) and knew about the problem beforehand. How could they not have known?
VERDICT: You know the rules here. It’s play or pass with me. I said ME3 would be the LAST game that I purchased day one, and I said that because I thought it would close with a bang and no other game would be worthy of a day one purchase. Sadly, that didn’t happen. I’m still not going to purchase games day one but now the reason has changed. The reason now is that I’m no longer satisfied and companies will have to do more to earn my money. If not, I’ll just wait a couple of months until the games go on sale at Gamefly or I’ll hit Craigslist and purchased used. But back to ME3.
PASS if you’re NEW to the series. If however you’re going to start with ME you should PLAY.
PLAY if you’re NOT NEW to the series, want to complete the series and form your own opinion of the story, your quest, etc.