The final chapter in Shepard's story ends with a BANG!!! Literally. A must buy for fans.
The final chapter in the series has promised to end with a BANG, and it actually does. The Reapers have arrived and have started to tear through The most vital planets in the galaxy, including Earth. For a long time, Bioware promised to give this game the best elements of both its predecessors, and to a large amount it has done just that.
The combat has been updated even further in hopes of rivaling other 3rd person shooters, and it actually does a good job at this, though many would argue that games like Gears of War clearly has the better combat system, but then again, this is an RPG. Shepard can now run for a long time without stopping up for air and breathing heavy, a feature we missed in ME: 2. Now we also have the ability to do a "rolling fall," stab enemies with an Omni-Blade and do a stealth kill on foes who get to close to your cover position. The problem with the "rolling fall" feature is that you will often activate it by mistake when running and trying to duck for cover. You will often get hurt by this, and now you will no longer heal all of the damage you have taken, there by making you dependent upon medi-gel the same way as in the original Mass Effect. The combat has become more difficult, now your enemies can sometimes hurt you even if you are ducking behind small objects, so watch out.
Beyond the combat, the most interesting element of the Mass Effect series, is the story. When playing ME: 2 we often saw and/or heard from people we had had met in the previous game, no matter how insignificant they might seem, and this is actually a very good thing, like Skyrim is composed of mostly small and almost insignificant elements, but when there is enough of these elements, they start to form a whole scenario that is very compelling. ME: 3 does all it can to give us the final consequence for all major and minor choices made in the previous games, and this is a sentiment that states, that the producers really love the story and they want us to love it just as much.
However, and here come the most important part of the story, the romances(hubba-hubba.)
There have been many different romances with different people, species and genders. But what has always been the "creme del รก creme" is Shepard's relationship with Liara. Many were disappointed with the lack of a continued romance for this character in ME: 2, but then Bioware gave us Lair of The Shadow Broker, that finally would let us pick up where we left off(for all of those importing a ME: 2 save.) But in ME: 3 it seems almost as if Liara has forgotten all about it, constantly throughout the game asking if you "have forgotten her" of if you "are still interested" as if we had not already cover this in LoTSB. And she just keeps talking to Shepard like their relationship is a completely new thing, and not something that has been brewing for years. This makes the whole relationship with our favorite blue alien girl seem unrewarding and unsatisfying. The end romance scene is good, but that does not make up for all the content that feels missing throughout this relationship. This does not mean that all romances in the game are without substance, mostely Tali and Garrus will be the most rewarding.
Also 2 new romanceable' characters have been added, both as homosexual options, something that Bioware has been asked to do by certain gamers. The problem is that NONE of these characters have any interesting background story or substance what-so-ever. The female of these 2 characters has taken Yeoman "Kelly" Chambers place, and forgive me for being direct, but F*************k that man, if there is anyone you don't replace, it is Kelly Chambers, the hottest woman in the ME series EVER. It feels, and i'm pretty sure about this, like these 2 characters have been added to the game right in the last moment, just to please as many as possible, and this is not a good way to treat the loyal fans. If they had to do same-gender relationships, couldn't they have used some of the great characters that we already know and love, this is diminishing to the entire story.
When making a single game, you can enter almost any kind of content you would like, but when making an entire series that people have invested years in, then you have to be mindful of the content of these games, and it seems a bit like Bioware did certain things to please newcomers that may have put off Hardcore fans of the series, and that is not okey, the fans will always come first.
The final chapter int this saga is about to take place, and it will take some getting used to, but ones you have, it will be hard to get away from. It has more content than the previous games, even without any DLC, so it is worth the money. But several elements in the game will feel disappointing to long term fans of the series.