Mass Effect 3 . . . Yay or Nay Thread: No Spoilers

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Is Mass Effect 3 worth buying in its present state?

  • Yes

  • No

  • Boycott for Zero Day/On Disk DLC

  • Results


Results are only viewable after voting.

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
Short would be call of duty's 4 hours of shooting mindless enemies that funnel out. You're looking at 15 hours to 20 hours easily depending on how you play.

15 to 20 hours on an end of world title? Not worthy of my fifty. Can't wait to grab it, the game looks incredibly polished, I just don't consider 20 hours a top price single player item unless the value is clear in other areas like COD or BF3. 40 hours and I'll consider, 70 and you've got yourself a deal.
 

AznAnarchy99

Lifer
Dec 6, 2004
14,705
117
106
15 to 20 hours on an end of world title? Not worthy of my fifty. Can't wait to grab it, the game looks incredibly polished, I just don't consider 20 hours a top price single player item unless the value is clear in other areas like COD or BF3. 40 hours and I'll consider, 70 and you've got yourself a deal.

I dont play single player games much so 20 hours seems like a good amount of time for me but you're right I think its much longer. I played a good 7 hours today and I dont think Im even half way.
 

MrDuma

Member
Nov 23, 2011
109
0
0
sad to say don't have that much time these days to play this game at his full potential but from what I've seen so far...me gusta
 

BD231

Lifer
Feb 26, 2001
10,568
138
106
sad to say don't have that much time these days to play this game at his full potential but from what I've seen so far...me gusta

I suppose gang bangin in the third world is of no particular importance to you, kuddo's.
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,736
447
126
I went from a "wait for sale" to a buy yesterday. I had a Best Buy $20 coupon expiring and nothing really else I wanted, so I went with ME3.
 

alent1234

Diamond Member
Dec 15, 2002
3,915
0
0
best of the series, they got rid of all the annoyances of the first two like 150 items, mining for crap and searching for metals or whatever with your Mako and concentrated on what people wanted
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
I went ahead and bought it yesterday, though only the regular edition. Not the Deluxe.

Still early in the game though, not far enough to form an opinion. But thats not a discussion for this thread.
 

bigi

Platinum Member
Aug 8, 2001
2,482
153
106
Couldn't have said it better myself.

Might purchase at some point down the road -- at a heavy discount -- but, given the large number of games that I want to play but can't due to time limitations, I'm not even sure if I'd play ME3. Sure, I want to see how the story ends but, for me at least, gameplay is parramount; to be sure, a good, engaging narrative is an essential ingredient in any great game. In my mind, however, gameplay is more important and BW's decision to have the ME gameplay shift ever closer to Gears-lite to be unfortunate. Moreover, and maybe they've refined this aspect in ME3, but the 'rpg' element they're no pushing -- the moral decision model -- needs is simplistic and lacks any sort of nuance or sophistication.

Although my recollection is slightly hazy, I seem to recall a scene from KOTOR II with Kreia wherein she chided the PC for providing aid to an indigent on the ground that this would only mean he would get robbed later. Shame that BioWare, especially seeing how they've sought to strip or simplify almost every other role-playing convention from their games, haven't further developed that concept.

ME1 was just great.
ME2 meh.

ME3, I'll get when it is on sale for $4.99
 

Arg Clin

Senior member
Oct 24, 2010
416
0
76
+ on ending being extremely disappointing. I'm guessing we'll see a DLC at some point to try to meet the fans - but I doubt it will bring more closure than Witch Hunt did to DA:O :rolleyes:
 

Merad

Platinum Member
May 31, 2010
2,586
19
81
I haven't played ME3, probably won't for a long time... maybe never if it stays Origin exclusive. That said I'm not really sure why people are so upset. I could have told you ahead of time that this would be the case.

As far as importing decisions from ME1 & 2...
I don't think I've ever seen a game that used imported saves used for important decisions.
A. Some players either won't have a save to import. So either the devs have to make preset decisions for them, allow them to make those decisions at the start of the game (realizing that they probably don't know or remember the context of anything), or tell them they have to play the first game and import a save. If the decisions in question have a major impact on the plot, all of those option will piss off a large number of people.
B. Since Bioware didn't write the plot for all three ME games from the start, people don't really have a way to tell what effect their decisions in previous games should have in ME3. If you made a bad decision or one that you now don't like, you're stuck replaying ME1 and 2 to change it if it has a large impact. Again, risks having legions of po'd fans.

As far as having more significant decisions throughout ME3 itself affect the ending...
Previous Bioware games show that you shouldn't really expect this. Look at 2 other Bioware games that are generally loved: KOTOR and Dragon Age: Origins.

*spoilers*

KOTOR is 100% pick your ending. All that matters is your choice when you fight Bastila on Rakata Prime. IIRC there are some minor choices about which characters can survive, but they don't have any actual effect on the plot itself.

DAO is basically the same to my recollection. Your choices do have more impact, but they really only affect who is present in the final battle and the follow text at the end of the game. Your only way to have a major influence on the ending is deciding who dies to kill the archdemon.

Even ME1 IIRC is essentially pick your ending. Does the council survive or no? Anderson or the ambassador?

Now having said all that it's totally possible that the endings in ME3 still totally suck. But a lot of the discussion I've seen about it has had totally unrealistic expectations.
 
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
126
Amazing game. I liked the ending, too, despite everybody bitching about it.

I just finished the game, and the ending to me was not as terrible as some people are saying. I imported a save from ME2, and it seems like some of the decisions did make a difference, although maybe if I had made different decisions, some other gimmic would have made the ending the same, I dont know. Overall I would rate the game maybe seven out of 10. Not the masterpiece that the PC gamer et. al. reviews made it out to be, but not as terrible as a lot of people that were ripping it are saying.
 
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
126
I haven't played ME3, probably won't for a long time... maybe never if it stays Origin exclusive. That said I'm not really sure why people are so upset. I could have told you ahead of time that this would be the case.

As far as importing decisions from ME1 & 2...
I don't think I've ever seen a game that used imported saves used for important decisions.
A. Some players either won't have a save to import. So either the devs have to make preset decisions for them, allow them to make those decisions at the start of the game (realizing that they probably don't know or remember the context of anything), or tell them they have to play the first game and import a save. If the decisions in question have a major impact on the plot, all of those option will piss off a large number of people.
B. Since Bioware didn't write the plot for all three ME games from the start, people don't really have a way to tell what effect their decisions in previous games should have in ME3. If you made a bad decision or one that you now don't like, you're stuck replaying ME1 and 2 to change it if it has a large impact. Again, risks having legions of po'd fans.

As far as having more significant decisions throughout ME3 itself affect the ending...
Previous Bioware games show that you shouldn't really expect this. Look at 2 other Bioware games that are generally loved: KOTOR and Dragon Age: Origins.

*spoilers*

KOTOR is 100% pick your ending. All that matters is your choice when you fight Bastila on Rakata Prime. IIRC there are some minor choices about which characters can survive, but they don't have any actual effect on the plot itself.

DAO is basically the same to my recollection. Your choices do have more impact, but they really only affect who is present in the final battle and the follow text at the end of the game. Your only way to have a major influence on the ending is deciding who dies to kill the archdemon.

Even ME1 IIRC is essentially pick your ending. Does the council survive or no? Anderson or the ambassador?

Now having said all that it's totally possible that the endings in ME3 still totally suck. But a lot of the discussion I've seen about it has had totally unrealistic expectations.

I agree with you basically, but in KOTOR, your decisions thruout your game do have an influence on your powers and abilities. There were definite bonuses or penalties to your powers based on your alignment. I went basically paragon in ME3, but it doesnt affect gameplay at all. There might be some difference to the ending, but I dont know.
 

Merad

Platinum Member
May 31, 2010
2,586
19
81
I agree with you basically, but in KOTOR, your decisions thruout your game do have an influence on your powers and abilities. There were definite bonuses or penalties to your powers based on your alignment. I went basically paragon in ME3, but it doesnt affect gameplay at all. There might be some difference to the ending, but I dont know.

All alignment does in KOTOR is lower the cost to cast force powers that match your alignment. You can be pure light side and still use hardcore dark side powers (some of them like death field were hard to pass up).

In ME1 paragon/renegade does affect the tone of the dialog for the ending but that's about it.
 

heavyiron8

Senior member
Aug 26, 2011
347
0
71
The game play and overall story is a 10/10.. however, I am NOT digging the ending.. I feel like bioware trolled us all.
 

kazryv

Member
Jun 20, 2010
32
0
0
As far as I am concerned it is basically the perfect game, there is 20-30 hours of gameplay/story depending on your play style and it has a great story line. I hate modern games where there is 50+ hours of gameplay because I start hating the game after a little while. There is a small part of the ending that I disliked but otherwise I really enjoyed it. The whole story worked well.
 

Gunslinger08

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
13,234
2
81
I'm about 20 hours in and I've really enjoyed it so far. I bought the DLC and I'm glad that I did - really enjoying the benefits of it. The whole scanning mechanic, while better than ME2, is still pretty stupid to me. I'd rather they spent the development time on a few more side quests. I also think the galactic readiness meter being integrated with multiplayer and iOS games is dumb. I'm basically forced to do stuff that I don't want to do (ex. play a stupid iOS fleet management mini-game) because it doesn't seem like all of the side quests are going to add up enough for me.
 
Aug 11, 2008
10,451
642
126
As far as I am concerned it is basically the perfect game, there is 20-30 hours of gameplay/story depending on your play style and it has a great story line. I hate modern games where there is 50+ hours of gameplay because I start hating the game after a little while. There is a small part of the ending that I disliked but otherwise I really enjoyed it. The whole story worked well.

Even apart from the ending, I would say the game is good, but far from perfect. For one, the inability to pick a primary quest and have a mini-map was a major annoyance to me. The citadel quests were especially confusing, just wandering around basically. And I really resented being forced to play multi-player to increase my galactic readiness, although I am not sure it really made any difference. It also would have been nice to sell items (did I just miss how to do this?), since I kept picking up so many more items than I could ever use.

And would it really have killed them to make the endings different based on what decision you made at the very end? I made one decision and got the ending. I thought, OK, kind of a downer, but not that bad. Then I reloaded, made the other completely opposite decision, and got the same ending. Lame!!!
 

gorcorps

aka Brandon
Jul 18, 2004
30,736
447
126
As far as I am concerned it is basically the perfect game, there is 20-30 hours of gameplay/story depending on your play style and it has a great story line. I hate modern games where there is 50+ hours of gameplay because I start hating the game after a little while. There is a small part of the ending that I disliked but otherwise I really enjoyed it. The whole story worked well.

Huh? I feel most modern games are shorter than that, especially since so many are focused on MP. Skyrim is the only one I can think of that has a ton of hours behind it, and that's mostly optional.
 

JTsyo

Lifer
Nov 18, 2007
11,709
871
126
The ending is disappointing for one reason, none of your choices that you made throughout the games (1, 2 and 3) will affect the endings. Basically, all your choices are meaningless.

Well, that's my take on it anyway.

Might change. Seems they was enough of an outcry that they might patch the ending.
 

ramj70

Senior member
Aug 24, 2004
764
1
81
I haven't played ME3, probably won't for a long time... maybe never if it stays Origin exclusive. That said I'm not really sure why people are so upset. I could have told you ahead of time that this would be the case.

As far as importing decisions from ME1 & 2...
I don't think I've ever seen a game that used imported saves used for important decisions.
A. Some players either won't have a save to import. So either the devs have to make preset decisions for them, allow them to make those decisions at the start of the game (realizing that they probably don't know or remember the context of anything), or tell them they have to play the first game and import a save. If the decisions in question have a major impact on the plot, all of those option will piss off a large number of people.
B. Since Bioware didn't write the plot for all three ME games from the start, people don't really have a way to tell what effect their decisions in previous games should have in ME3. If you made a bad decision or one that you now don't like, you're stuck replaying ME1 and 2 to change it if it has a large impact. Again, risks having legions of po'd fans.

As far as having more significant decisions throughout ME3 itself affect the ending...
Previous Bioware games show that you shouldn't really expect this. Look at 2 other Bioware games that are generally loved: KOTOR and Dragon Age: Origins.

*spoilers*

KOTOR is 100% pick your ending. All that matters is your choice when you fight Bastila on Rakata Prime. IIRC there are some minor choices about which characters can survive, but they don't have any actual effect on the plot itself.

DAO is basically the same to my recollection. Your choices do have more impact, but they really only affect who is present in the final battle and the follow text at the end of the game. Your only way to have a major influence on the ending is deciding who dies to kill the archdemon.

Even ME1 IIRC is essentially pick your ending. Does the council survive or no? Anderson or the ambassador?

Now having said all that it's totally possible that the endings in ME3 still totally suck. But a lot of the discussion I've seen about it has had totally unrealistic expectations.

If there are unrealistic expectations that would be the fault of Bioware. They have been saying over and over how your decisions would have meaning and affect and your choices count, the game would wrap up all of yoru choices. However, that is not what happened. Yes you were able to wrap up many issues, geth/quarian, turian/krogan but in the end it did not matter.

They said there would be no A,B,C ending but that is what we got, except it was R,G,B.

The said it wouldn't end like Lost but it kind of did with all the plot holes and speculation.

The game was great up until the very end. It seemed lazy and rushed and not much thought was put into it.