Well it wasn't meant as a compliment. I also stand by the combat being slightly improved. Inclusion of grenades to get the player to move from cover are good idea, but on insanity they just end up getting spammed. More of the powers are meaningful but since any class can carry any weapon now I can't understand playing as anything but a sentinal. You can carry the best guns, and have warp, overload (which also works as a good stun now) and throw. Using Liara who has singularity you dont even need a third squad member and carrying only a good rifle you can just spam the crap out of your powers because your weight limit is so low. Cerberus soldiers deploying smoke grenades to obscure power locks and visability is also a good idea but to my knowledge there is no way of dispersing it. Also a good way to get the player moving, but also more annoying than fun. The roll input also seems very touchy, half the time when I try to sprint I end up rolling off to the side or locking to cover. All the touted verticality is also not put to very good use and as for the level design being a "revelation" thats your opinion. I have also heard "fishbowl" used to describe them and I think that is more accurate. But that is in terms of encounter design not art direction (which is good if not excellent which has always been the case in mass effect). The angled design of cover in the geth architecture was also hair tearing. Some people found the encounter design in ME2 was very limited, you just stick to the furthest piece of cover and stay there. I have to think that part of that was the designers understanding the limits of their mechanics. In ME3 it seems like they think their game controls as well as Gears of War, when in fact it's not even on the same level as Binary domain. I mean snapping back to cover and then back out when you zoom in from "blindfiring"(for lack of a better term) seems like the definition of rushed or unfinished to me.
The cerberus N7, Cerburus defector, and ardat yakshi missions all had similiar snow covered mountain exterior which leads me to a feeling of being rushed because other areas of the design sure don't lack for imagination. Maybe after thinking about it I am jumping on a bandwagoon. Maybe there is a good reason for that.
I'm not really sure what you mean in your last sentence of the first paragraph. If you are talking about how there really
isn't a blind fire option, then yeah I guess that's annoying but isn't so much a flaw as a choice.
In regards to the Sentinel class being unbalanced, I can't really argue with you because I have yet to play the Sentinel class. Personally, I've played each game as a Vanguard, and really enjoyed the combat improvements with that class in ME3 vs. ME2. I can't even remember what playing ME1 was like as a Vanguard because Biotic Rush has come to define the Vanguard I feel. Anyway, I'm not one of those people who searches for an exploit as soon as I can find it in a game and then abuses it. If I was I don't think I'd find video games very fun.
I'm not sure if you're complaining about the smoke grenades or acknowledging them as a good tool to get the player to move from his/her cover. If you're complaining about the lack of a way to disperse them, then I think you're missing the point.
I will certainly agree that the input needs some revision, especially on PC (I think it was PC Gamer that said something like, "we have 128 keys and one button does everything"). However, I've adapted to it and rarely does it get me killed anymore. I'm not sure how poor the cover mechanics are aside from the input issues, as they are very hard to separate. I do wish Bioware had found a better "sweet spot" between rolling and taking cover. I seriously doubt that it was an issue of being rushed, however. I think someone at Bioware thought it actually played well like that. Maybe they didn't play enough Gears.
I don't know what you mean by the designers understanding the limitations of their mechanics in ME2. The problem with the system was that the enemy AI never flanked you or tried to get you out from cover. I don't see how that's an inherent limitation of the mechanic. Cover is cover, and if the enemy can get in a position to hit you in said cover, you'll need to move. Simple as that.
Sorry that you played those three missions in a row like that. In hindsight Bioware could have done something more deliberate to space those out I guess. I certainly don't remember playing them in that order, so it seems like that's something only a fraction of people would encounter.
ME3 is by no means a perfect third person shooter. It certainly doesn't stand up to Gears of War or Vanquish in terms of tightness of controls. What Bioware did do however is bridge a pretty far gap between shooters and RPGs, and if there are a few rough patches on that bridge I'm willing to overlook them in return for the branching story, party customization, and exploration that I get in return.
