This review contains spoilers
Okay, so, let me explain the 2.5...
This trilogy is a 5/5 action game with a story that's pretty good.
This trilogy is a 0/5 RPG, because none of your choices ultimately matter. That caused me to quit ME3 halfway through and only pick it up 6 months later so that I could say that I had finished it.
That doesn't take away from the quality of the games, but I wouldn't consider them to be "RPGs". You make some decisions that have good story beats, but since there isn't anything important that actually changes (i.e. Geth vs. Quarian just changes half a second of cutscene in the final battle of ME3), it doesn't ultimately matter. You can choose people to live or die, and ultimately it doesn't matter: if they die, they get replaced with identical (but generic) versions of themselves (i.e. the council in ME1 & 2, or Wrex vs. Wreav).
Good games, good stories, but I don't think they're what is advertised. I wish that they'd sold these as what they are: an epic space opera in an incredible original universe that is very enjoyable to experience.
This trilogy is a 5/5 action game with a story that's pretty good.
This trilogy is a 0/5 RPG, because none of your choices ultimately matter. That caused me to quit ME3 halfway through and only pick it up 6 months later so that I could say that I had finished it.
That doesn't take away from the quality of the games, but I wouldn't consider them to be "RPGs". You make some decisions that have good story beats, but since there isn't anything important that actually changes (i.e. Geth vs. Quarian just changes half a second of cutscene in the final battle of ME3), it doesn't ultimately matter. You can choose people to live or die, and ultimately it doesn't matter: if they die, they get replaced with identical (but generic) versions of themselves (i.e. the council in ME1 & 2, or Wrex vs. Wreav).
Good games, good stories, but I don't think they're what is advertised. I wish that they'd sold these as what they are: an epic space opera in an incredible original universe that is very enjoyable to experience.