Even with a few problems, BioWare delivers a great game to conclude one of the best series of this console generation.
Mass Effect 3 starts off with Shepard on Earth, stripped of his ship, and dealing with the aftermath of his fatal decision at the end of the Mass Effect 2 DLC, "Arrival". If you haven't played that DLC or either of the first two games in this series by this point.....stop reading this and go get that done. Playing Mass Effect 3 without playing the first two games and their DLC will make the storyline confusing and you won't get as much out of the game.
At any rate, it's not a spoiler to say that the Reapers come to Earth and lay the smack down, so to speak. For most of the game, your Shepard character spends his/her time trying to unite all of the other races in the galaxy to join together to fight the Reapers and build a potential weapon to win the war called, 'The Crucible'.
That is a very light summary of the story and it doesn't really do it justice. But in saying more, I may give away spoilers. I will say that I did like the story here, but it wasn't as good as the first two games. While it was cool to see several different previously unseen planets where some of your squad members & allies come from, there was just something missing that the other two games had.
In the other two games, you really got to know your crew through either conversation or through side-missions that helped flesh out their back story. It was a great system and really got you to care about your crew. In part 3, there just isn't that effort. Sure the overall story itself doesn't really allow time for you to do so, but some of the characterization has been lost.
Speaking of characters, the new crew members that you have don't hold a candle to the ones from the first two games. And one of the best ones is on a batch of DLC (more on that b.s. later!!!) that is optional. You do get a few returning ones, such as Garrus, Liara, Tali, etc. so that helps. And those characters are great once again, but the new ones aren't as fleshed out for obvious reasons. It's not a huge deal, but it does take a bit away from the game. I will say that the voice acting is, once again, top notch. Everyone does a great job here.
So while the story and characters are all great, but fail to live up to the lofty heights of the first two games, the gameplay here is a step up from the more action packed, Mass Effect 2. You see, the gameplay in the series took quite a shift from the first game into the second. Apparently, EA told BioWare to make the game more "accessible", so the game went more action. While it don't bother me too much, I did miss the more RPG feel of the first. Plus, I always felt the game just was too clunky to be a full out action game. Well BioWare did a pretty good job ironing out some things for this third game. Shepard can now move around the battlefield better and the game looks better than the 2nd.
BioWare also did a great job revamping the way you level up your characters. The first game was great, but it apparently wasn't "accessible" enough (god, I hate EA), so for part 2, BioWare dumbed it WAY down. Like to a point where I felt I had little to no customization options with my characters. In fact, it was my biggest gripe with the excellent second game. Thankfully, BioWare seemed to find a happy middle-ground here for part 3 and I was pleasantly surprised.
Make no mistake, though, Mass Effect 3 is much more part 2 than it is part 1. While that isn't necessarily a bad thing, I just missed some of the deeper aspects of the original. But at least BioWare finally stopped making us use HORRIBLE and P.O.S. vehicles for this game. Thank god!!! No more yelling at my TV screen in anger at how bad the lame vehicles handle of how easily they get shot down. It puts a smile on my face to say this.......there are no vehicle missions in Mass Effect 3!!!
So, in my opinion, Mass Effect 3 is a great game and a worthy game in a great series. So what keeps it from being as good as the original two (other than the minor things I mentioned earlier)? A few reasons:
1. Whomever designed the mission structure, namely the side-missions, should be thrown off a cliff. Very vague descriptions, very little fun, while not adding much to the game at all are the reasons. You actually pick up most of these missions just hearing random people on the Citadel talk to each other. Yes, seriously. And you get little to no direction on where to go or how to finish these lame side quests. Why did BioWare even bother?
2. Whomever decided how the DLC (downloadable content) should be handled, should be thrown off the same cliff as the person from reason #1. First off, we get 'From Ashes', which was CLEARLY a mission blatantly ripped from the main storyline and sold for $10 on DAY ONE of release. It even has a main character that you add to your crew. And for it to make sense in the storyline, you have to play it very early on. So if you are buying this game new, expect to add another $10 onto the price. Inexcusable.
Then we get great DLC with 'Leviathan'. I can't go into why it's great (spoilers), but trust me, it's worth the $10. After that we got, 'Omega'. This is the worst of the DLC, in my opinion, and at $15 is the worst deal. And while I really liked, 'The Citadel' DLC, it doesn't really have anything to do with the main game and is just a fun "fan service" type of thing. I would highly recommend it to any fan ot the whole series, though, and I was happy about my purchase.
My problem with the DLC, however, is that 2 of the DLC's actually play a major role in the overall story and should have been in the main game. It's ridiculous and is a clear cash-grab from EA. Not only that, if you purchased these after the main game, the story wouldn't make any sense while playing the DLC. So to get the most out of them, you have to finish them before finishing the main story. While that may not sound like a big deal, it may be to gamers with a limited cash flow, especially when this is stuff that should have been included on the disc.
3. The ending.......ahh yes, the ending. Well, while I will not go into why I wasn't blown away by the ending (obvious major spoilers), I will say that I was disappointed. I am not, "start my own website, raging pissed off" disappointed like some people, but it was a let down. I can't go into my reasons, obviously, but after playing these 3 epic games in a row, it was.....well, disappointing. I would advise downloading the free extended ending that is available on the PSN store. It adds quite a bit and keeps the ending from being a complete disaster.
Other than those gripes, I really did like ME3 a lot. I was even pleasantly shocked by the strangely addictive (at least for awhile) multi-player that BioWare was, once again, forced to add due to EA being involved. It's all a 'horde-mode' type, but it's quite fun even if it won't keep you from playing better online games for very long.
I would highly recommend ME3 to any fan of the first two games. If you haven't played those, then I really wouldn't bother with this, as you won't know what is going on in the story. In the end, BioWare did a good job sending Shepard off with a great, final game. Well, that depends on your take of the controversial ending, of course. But I wasn't disappointed with the overall package.