Great as a stand alone game. but a terribile exprience for those who like to immerse themselves deep into the story.
in me 1 and 2 you could personalize your shepard and make him an extention of you. you had the feeling that your actions influenced the world around you., that you are doing something important in game. in mass effect 3 that feeling is taken away right at the very beginning when the story forces your character to be the greatest idiot in history and turn himself in, forcing the plot to skip forward in time for six monthes where your character instead of preparing to the biggest threat the galaxy has ever known simply decide to do nothing.
for me this was a story game-breaker. i could see no scenario where my character would fall to such stupidity. and it only take a few minutes in game time before you start paying for the writers character hjacking stupidity. its only your character which was forced to stupidity, everyone around you seem to turn stupid in the sake of drama.
in a game which relies heavily on story that just cannot happened, its a game breaker. the control of the character you have created for two games is taken away from you during large throughout the game aswell, everytime it happens you know something bad is going to happen and there is nothing you can do but feel helpless.
there are piles and piles of bad writing here. sure there are also bits of good writing. but the bad writing just outshine the good in most moments. and once you start looking you will find plot holes whereever you look. its just hard not to see it and call it for what it is. Its comfortable for me3 fans, bioware and payed reviewers to pretend the only problem lies with the ending. let me assure you that the endings are among the lesser problems in mass effect 3.
Its the story where everything falls apart.
If you are not invested in stories this can be a fun action game and multiplayer coop for you to play. but if you are like me and tend to be invested in stories. stay away from this game and imagine it never existed.