Well since everyone else is giving their impressions and reflections, I might as well give mine:
The Good
- Art direction has always been one of the highlights of the franchise for me and this game was not really an exception at all. Character designs like Javik continue to be refreshing while the environments themselves were quite beautiful. I have to applaud Bioware again for their reaper designs. While I miss the sleek and skintight armor that was representative of the less conventional aesthetic of the first game, it makes sense that now, things look more war-ready.
The Soverign class Reapers that feel threatening and the ground troops are a pretty good mix of horror expected from the twisted fusion of the races. Did anyone else notice that the right arms of the Cannibals was a whole human?
- The actual combat mechanics were quite good. I felt like the RPG and action elements between ME1 and 2 were mixed together fairly well. Weapon customization was a further plus and Im glad that the upgrades were cosmetic as well.
- I was pleasantly surprised by how engrossing and enjoyable the multiplayer was. I usually dont like online multiplayer all that much, but this was pretty engaging. I liked the multiple classes forcing teamwork and I even liked the carrot-on-a-stick unlocking system. I ended up not playing the campaign for a whole week just to play multiplayer.
- Most of the story elements before the end were really damn good. Mordins scene, Tali and Legions were quite exceptional. I didnt get a chance to import a ME2 save since I lost it when I got a new computer and failed to back that save up so Im going to replay it since I didnt even meet Thane, Jack, Brute etc... Im not sure how I feel about being able to save some of them in their missions because those feelings of loss where some of the strongest moments in the entire game. Sending Mordin up to his own death? Tali killing herself while watching her people die? The emotional impact of those scenes were unmatched by anything, especially not the ending to the bloody thing.
- Building up my war assets was pretty fun. While they really had no effect on the final battle, I did like being able to read all the details and updates on each asset as I acquired them.
- The ending section from the jump into the Sol sector to the elevator, was excellent. I really got the feelings of desperation and hope as I was pushing through the streets of London. There were some really great FUCK FUCK FUCK I AM SO FUCKED moments there.
The Eh
- Graphic fidelity was merely okay. Its 2012 and I expect my PC games to look better than this. Damn consoles holding it back. I also dont like the weird discrepancies between the texture work on some of the characters. Vegas texture work was really damn good, while Garrus was super blurry and even Shepard looked pretty janky.
- Somewhat disappointed that there were so few squadmates this time and that none of your ME2 buddies could be squadmates. Sort of weird that all the ME2 characters got shafted while we got Kaidan/Ashley, two really boring characters that dont hold a candle to Mordin or Thane.
- Enemy encounters still feel kind of off. They werent nearly as bad as in ME2 when you could walk into a room and see a bunch of waist high objects and instantly know there was a fight coming, but they still feel somewhat contrived. I cant really explain why that is.
- While I really like the weapon customization options in this game, I ended up getting pretty obsessive with scouring each battle ground for upgrades I didnt want to miss. That wasnt so much fun but at least I wasnt scouring for thermal clips like in ME2.
- I didn't mind the Reaper galaxy map benny hill chasings that much, even if it was so exploitable. Though I would really would have liked the Mako back, or The Hammerhead.
- I feel that there is this disparity between the competence of Shepard and her crew versus everyone else in the entire galaxy. Everyone else just sucks so much. I think it would have been really great to see some characters do some amazing achievements without your help. Otherwise you get these war assets saying how great they are when you know they probably just suck as much as everyone else.
- Doing the Citadel fetch quests was pretty mediocre, though I did like that you could find the item you needed before actually talking to the person.
- I pretty much ignored Vega for the whole game. He was a pretty boring character and not really strong addition to the game. Then again, neither were Kaiden or Jacob.
- I think its pretty funny that they tried to make Ashley sexy, but she really just ended up looking like a space prostitute
The Why did they do this?
- The ending. Not much to say that hasn't already been said. I'll just say that when I finished the game, my feelings were not of happiness or accomplishment. All I got from that was disappointment. I don't care what Bioware's artistic vision was supposed to be, but when it results in your audience feeling dejected, that's not good one way or another.
- Why does Shepard still run so slowly out of battle? Is it too much trouble to have her run like a normal person does so I can navigate the Citadel faster?
- Planet scanning. I appreciate that they were trying to streamline the planet scanning mini-game, but why, WHY make the planets turn SO SLOWLY. I had to sweep my mouse across my desk to get it to turn a few degrees. I don't understand why they would do this except to intentionally annoy the player. In addition, I dont get why some star systems didnt display completion percentages so I couldnt tell if I had scanned everything there already.
- Like I said, I don't play many third person shooters, but is it common for that sticky effect to happen so easily? When I'm trying to run away from things I inevitably get stuck to a corner that I'm trying to run past. This tends to get me shot at quite often and is most disastrous in multiplayer.
- Why did they even make all those assets in that ME2 DLC for the hammerhead if they weren't going to ever use them again?
- Maybe it was because I played the lazy ass PC port, but man this game was really buggy. I can't count how many times I've gotten stuck on ladders. Quests would open up after I engaged in conversations on the Citadel, but the NPCs wouldn't let me talk to them until I exited the area and came back even while being shown on the map as interactive. Towards the end of the game, Shepard kept flickering whenever she was in a cutscene.
- Speaking of the lazy ass PC port. Virtually having no options to tweak the graphics was an utter failure.
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Despite my negative comments, overall, I still feel that this game was fantastic except for some really kick in the balls shit. Unfortunately that kick in the balls comes at the very end and you forget about all the good stuff. All of the adventures Ive had, are moot in light of that ending. At this point, I would pay good money for DLC that retcons that ending. Thats right, I would give more money to Bioware to get some closure on the series. So congrats Bioware 7/10
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