I though it'd be a good idea to do it now, seeing as my memory is still fresh and I'm bored.
WARNING! THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!
I'm not gonna do anything too long, just basically go through the pros, cons and my personal opinions on the game.
First off, the pros. Wow... Uhm, there are a lot of them. The Mass Effect series always struck me as very "open", so to speak. You were free to do whatever you wanted and depending on what you did, it would affect the game later on or maybe even the next one entirely, this is one of the things that the game hasn't lost.
There are still a nice amount of moral choices that will at some stages leave you thinking; "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck... What the hell do I do?" and yes, that is a good thing. Some of the things you have to do will leave you with a heavy sense of guilt and some with a sense of accomplishment. Either way, you will in some way be affected by the choices if you, like me, are either a loving fan of the Mass Effect series or just a hardcore gamer that plays for the experience and not just to be able to say "Hey d000dz I haz a qwadrillion 85 deathknighz"...
And let's face it. That last one makes you look like a retard.
If you're into the actionpacked parts of the game, that is here too. Mass Effect has a hefty arsenal where you are free to upgrade and switch to your hearts delight. There's also a nice selection of armor, although the disappointing part here is that no matter how hard you try to put a good set together, the premade sets that are available for purchase always seems to top them off, at least that's how it seemed to me considering I played as a biotic.
And of course, a Mass Effect game wouldn't be complete without a handful of warm reunions and there is plenty of that.
Now... Onto the bitter part of this review, and oh boy.. This game has quite a few "flaws".
As much as Mass Effect has always been a game based on the choices you as the player makes, I find it sad that so little of what you do here actually matters, it doesn't matted if you play along the lines of a paragon or a renegade, in the end you'll just end up with a couple of choices that doesn't in any way reflect upon your preferred playing style, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Second up, the more "major" flaws that even a person who just started out with Mass Effect would notice.
The animation has taken a severe step down from ME and ME2, the lipsynch is off, there are so many graphic bugs I can't even count them and it basically looks like every character is secretly thinking "Meh, the reapers are here.. I've got better things to do" at all times, there are however a few exceptions, such as Liara (fuck you, I like (
It's not like the facial expressions of Shepard or, well, anybody for that matter, were actually top notch from the start, but you'd think that they would've at least tried to keep the creepy- "I will kill your family in front of your eyes" -stares that you get from the commander at times, to a minimum.
Can you guess what the last part is going to be about..? Absolutely correct, the ending!
Now, at first glance, I was way too caught up in the moment trying to keep myself from crying to actually be able to criticize the ending directly. However, I looked around at some of the other endings, seeing how I am in fact one lazy bastard, and found that they all basically were the same. Except for some minor (and yes I mean very fucking minor) changes, the endings are identical.
Some people insist on saying that there are 16 different endings, but I say bullshit. 16 different endings doesn't mean the same one with slightly different colors, it means 16 unique and extremely different endings, which we didn't get. BioWare, FIX THIS SHIT!
Now as I said before, ME is a series highly dedicated to the players choices as he goes through the galaxy trying to save stuff, but to my surprise, the choices you did ended up meaning nothing. Absolutely nothing.
You are faced with three different paths and that's it. Shepard dies. The world is saved. Whoopdiedoo...
There are just so many blanks! Firstly, the mass relays are destroyed, so how the hell would the fleets and armies get back to their homeworlds?! They would seriously just be stuck on earth killing each other and then all die.
Secondly, you see Joker flying away from a mass relay beam that is chasing him. WHY?! Why would one of the main characters best friends just run away like that and leave him for dead?!
I suppose it's about time I summed this up now.
All in all, there's much room for improvement and BioWare just can't seem to decide whether Shepard is supposed to stay dead or not. But I did enjoy the game a whole lot as well so I can't go all out bad either.
I suppose if the ending, which was the biggest killer for this storyline, would have been different this would have been a 10/10 game, no doubt.
Graphics: 7/10 - Fix the bugs!
Sound: 10/10 - Excellent voice acting and music
Story 7/10 - Way too many gaps for a Mass Effect game, not cool.
Combat 7/10 - It literally changes from "lollipopland" to "complete and utter shitstorm" during the course of 30 seconds.
Summary: 7.5/10 - Well worth the money, but the DLC's better be free or heads will roll...
