This completed the dudebro-ification of the Mass Effect trilogy and to this day, 10 whole years since I completed it, I still don't know who I should be mad at. Is at EA for converting this to a generic third person military shooter with RPG elements? Is it at the Monster-chugging dudebros who ignore the "Customize Shepard" on their screens and act like Commander Shepard is a defined character with Mark Vanderloo's face as opposed to a character defined by the players?

Or was this the intended point of Mass Effect all along? In before someone yells at me that Drew Karpyshyn had a different ending in mind, the endings do not explain why Joker is a sleezy bro all of a sudden, Ashley's makeover, everything about EDI or inserting an Asian caricature man who is NOT a character to me. Frankly, I don't know if anything would've changed about the other 90% of the game if Karpyshyn never left Mass Effect.

In fact, despite only liking the red ending, the endings of this game are one of the few times this game pulled its head out of its generic third person shooter ass to remember that it could have some meaning. Control and my beloathed, Synthesis had good concepts indeed. Too bad they were so poorly executed.

Hot on the trails of Mass Effect 2's bombastic ending, Mass Effect 3 drops you straight into the war between all life in the Galaxy and the existential threat, THE REAPERS. Forced to abandon the efforts to save Earth, Command Shepard is once again tasked with preparing the galaxy to strike back and retake what's theirs.

Mass Effect 3 is a departure from previous games in that your main task is filling up a huge green bar on the Normandy that tells you whether Shepard has shmoozed with enough folks across the playable galaxy in order to guarantee their support in an all out assault to retake Earth - of the three Mass Effect titles it is the only one that constantly hammers you with the idea that you are in fact not just a superhuman soldier capable of changing the sway of galactic events, but also a lowly Commander in the Earth Alliance Military.

Gee. Thanks. We needed that.

The structure of the game beyond the inclusion of said bar isn't much different from previous titles, except they shift away from grandiose missions that ensure the loyalty of your crew members to large scale war operations that assure the loyalty of the various military factions towards your goal of saving Earth. These missions are wonderful capstones for each of the major races and locales that have lingered throughout the Mass Effect trilogy. It feels swan-song like; getting the band back together for one more ride, except the band is a huge military fleet.

You also uncover plans to build some super importantly bizarre weapon called, "The Crucible," and like....they do build it....but its bizarrely entirely in the background. It's hilarious.

At each step of the process of building your big heckin fleet, your old buddies from Mass Effect 2, the human nationalists at Cerberus, return and try to stop your efforts in favor of exploiting the riches of the galaxy for their own benefits. This means that Mass Effect 3 has two distinct sets of antagonists and - uh oh - one ends up feeling a LOT more authentic and interesting than the other! I won't say which, but one is literally landing Death Star lasers on planets! And the other has...a ninja????

Mass Effect 3, structure and story wise, falls into the same trap that every big action movie trilogy does; it goes way too big, and spends way too much time trying to tie up every single loose end from the previous two games that it just ends up feeling a bit bloated - this feels way worse due to the DLC being baked into the game as part of the Legendary Edition re-release. It just starts to feel ridiculous that Cerberus is so aggressive in foiling Shepard's efforts, and even more ridiculous that only one man can unite the factions of the galaxy in such a manner. It stretches the limits of both patience and believability as this epic store lurches towards its contentious conclusion (I got the synthesis ending. It was NEAT!)

It feels like the most 3rd entry in a trilogy of any game trilogy I've ever completed: too big, too loud, and unable to hit every mark perfectly - some missed so dramatically that 3's ending continues to inspire vitriol to this day (again, I think its neat that its a little weird!)

All of this is filtered through the absolute best combat of all three main Mass Effect titles; its relishes in the best characteristics of both its predecessors; the full range of weapons returns to Shepard's arsenal from the remnants of Mass Effect 1, and the smooth, responsive cover movement mechanics of 2 become further refined. The guns and overall game feel are remarkably fine tuned and feel so much better. The way the game slows down and the gives you a second to focus after your shield breaks is just beautiful. Powers are more responsive and interesting than in previous games as well. Its like someone sat down and declared that finally there should be a Mass Effect should feel good to play. And it is glorious - unless you play in on Insanity. Then its just absolutely miserable - the encounter design in Mass Effect 3 is excellent on normal difficulties. It is abhorrent and mind numbing on Insanity mode.

I greatly respect Mass Effect 3 - it swings big, and it swings heavy. Its as finely tuned as it is stuffed to the brim with perhaps too much to deal with for one game. Its ending fails to meet the promise of an action RPG that takes every decision you've ever made into consideration all the time, but I know that people make games, not players. And for what its worth, I felt my choices were well represented through the span of Mass Effect 3's experience; they just didn't shift the ending. I felt like my Cheddar Shepard's efforts WERE reflected in the game world he sifted through as he tried to save Earth. And for me, that is enough.

Also. Insanity mode. Christ.

If 1 was an old TV serial and 2 is prestige TV, 3 is a Hollywood blockbuster. Not a bad one, mind you; it builds on top of solid foundation, so the action and drama feel equally earned and meaningful, if less overtly charismatic.

The biggest loss is that of process. There's no time for walking around and chatting about unimportant stuff, this is War™. Guns just fire, diplomacy just happens, and levity is reduced to a silver lining for most of the game's duration, short interactions tucked away in the ship's (and the story's) crevices. That 7th gen seriousness is a little off-putting once you've played through the trilogy already (the Citadel DLC's several-hour-long slice of life segment is a godsend in this regard) but it works very well, dramatically, as the end of a sci-fi action epic and the conclusion's to the crew members' individual arcs.

Much like in 2, aesthetic and mechanical changes accompany the new tone. Shooting isn't just fun now: it's fantastic. The balance, the rhythm of combat and the visual spectacle make a the action enough of a joy to give most encounters a tension previously reserved for specific setpieces and justify the new (and surprisingly strong) multiplayer mode's existence. That said, Gears of War is not that good an influence for role-playing, and ME3 tips the scale a little too far into Bro territory. Choices are, ironically enough, too involving and significant to feel real. "Do you want a genocide? Y/N" doesn't really hit that hard when its really about this playthrough being your first or a later, more unserious one. And then there's the child in the introduction.

The ending is the pinnacle of this specific issue, but it's also not as bad as the community outrage would suggest. It's as in-keeping with the game's priorities as the Suicide Mission is with 2's, meaning it's sudden and a little disappointing, but with high emotional peaks and some iconic imagery. As far as I'm concerned, it's not nearly enough to ruin a game--and less so a trilogy--with so many strengths.

The end of a series, or so they say.
The endgame is here and the game is living up to it's title once again for one last time.

I forgot to mention that the game still carries your decisions and the outcomes that happened in the first two games.
The effort and details behind all these are very appreciated and nothing makes me even more happy.

The mechanics were even improved and it has made it more satisfying, the characters that you have spent time with had developed and it makes me shed a tear every time I encounter with them.

The only problem I had was the ending scenario and the amount of fan service the game offered, But it is still tolerable.

Overall I have love the experience with this franchise.

I played the original 2 back to back so I took some time between 2 and 3 because I knew it was the last one clears throat but it puts me in a unique situation because I can view it fresh rather than trying to compare it oh so much.

So in terms of aging, it starts out very linear. There were a lot of things added with the Legendary Edition to the other games but this one, being the more recent one, didn't seem to get all the glow ups I think it should have. Controls can seem janky like trying to target what you're trying to select/interact/melee with. Running forces your perspective to whatever direction it requires. It carries over some of that darkness from before where I can barely see where I'm going at times, I've explained it before. I had a few bugs and glitches where something gets in the way or Shep will start floating, audio like a broken record, prompts that don't do what they say. PC might not have those same problems though.

I've heard it criticized as either the best or worst in the trilogy and now I see why. It focuses more on "action over RPG" as they describe it but there's a lot of welcome additions like the pummel. It just seems like it's trying to show you this spectacle yet it's PS3 Era explosions and kind of lame ones at that. The sky boxes can be gorgeous as well as busy though, so I guess it evens out a little bit.

I got to where I hit the Citadel DLC and decided that was a good time to break. I came back and my opinion of this game was changed. The writing was great, the action was tight, the moments were cool, it really brought it back for halftime.

In terms of story, a lot happened off screen but it's not too much of a hamper because you get the gist that it's just trying to get the band back together (again). The characters are a bit even, we don't seem to have as many new characters but most of the old ones return, some get good treatment, some don't, it's a toss up. Even the villains I feel could've got a bit more with Kai Leng being introduced kind of late.

With the impending doom of everywhere, there comes some interesting choices you can make just off hand with random strangers to try to make them make peace rather than wasting what precious moments they have left, so you'll hear a lot of arguments that you can take a side on. Interesting dialogue too, someone asking for a refund and the clerk refusing, an immigration refusal, a wife leaving.

The Mako...I miss it. I get that it was complained about but now we have no vehicles, its a shame. That was some of the the best fun I've had with the games and is most of why I hold ME1 higher than the rest, it just seemed like something you'd do in space. The world setup is different too, in 2 you could go around and inspect systems and planets and find weird side missions by doing so and complete the index. Some had materials worth using for the ship. And you can look at these worlds but they might as well be ornaments. Outside of already set up side mission waypoints, the remaining ones serve no purpose. It's almost like they planned to include that system from 2 but ran out of time. Instead the reapers chase you if you scan an area, which is cool and makes sense in context but that's it. They catch you and you just start over, no battle, no cutscene, nothing.
As far as the DLC, it's not really DLC anymore because it's just part of the game with the remastered edition but if you were curious...

From Ashes just adds Javik and guns, stuff that was originally cut so worth it. Leviathan was kind of annoying but gives you more insight and explanation as to the Reapers and their origin rather than just shoving it all at the end, still some cool moments though. Omega was disappointing because it dragged on and on and was dark in little corridors, the story was weaker than it could've been but at least we had Aria...As I mentioned Citadel kind of became essential for me and the most worthy out of this list, really cool stuff that added naturally to the game. Even with these though, I spent about the same amount of time with it as the second one, but where I felt a lot of tedious stuff with ME2, I felt more mainline (aside from Omega) with this one. So same score but better than 2, lesser than 1. 3.5/5

Oh...that ending thing...so a lot of people don't like the ending and I can kind of see why but it's not really the worst ending or anything. As I mentioned, some inclusion of the DLC made the ending worthwhile so vanilla might seem salty. By this point, I was already satisfied with the game and really the ending is kind of bittersweet no matter which route you go. They all have similar cutscenes (or rather, paintings) just with different colors and meanings and stuff. I suppose Green is probably the happiest, Red probably being something you'd expect, Blue being a somewhat middle ground and Empty being more bittersweet than any of them. It's really only questionable because it tries to redefine the game for you at the very end. What do you fight for?

(Notice: I completed this before Senua's Sacrifice in case of any journal and review timeline confusion)

Although I had some problems with the changes from Mass Effect 2 to Mass Effect 3, I really enjoyed the ending to the trilogy. I didn't like how they kept changing the layout of the Normandy, especially considering I played all 3 games in under 2 weeks. This made it particularly annoying as I wasn't able to accustom myself to a singular interior layout design.

In terms of the game's ending, my personal take is it makes it easier for Bioware to start a new game or future trilogy with a new main character and companions. The plot twists in this game were amazing and the characters were as good as always.

Eventually, I want to purchase and play through the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, so I can experience the additional DLCs and play in a different style to get a new and alternative perspective to the main storyline.

much like 2, this game changes a lot of things and for me its not the furthest from what i fell in love with the first game, now this is just a third person shooter with rpg elements where the first game was an rpg with shooter elements, i feel ME2 had the perfect balance. also just the way the game feels in terms of moving around or doing side quests in the places you visit is something that is just very off compared to the first 2, but that doesn't mean to say i wont return to try this game again its just atm its not what i was hoping for