This game gets a bad wrap. Yes, at launch it was a bit of a disaster, with the rushed development cycle of 18 months churning out a game that in a lot of ways was inferior to it's predecessor. Since then however, the addition of the Extended Cut has at least made the ending palatable for most, and the excellent DLC drops have elevated the game into being a proper capstone for the trilogy, with some of the best moments in the entire franchise.
I would not recommend playing this game without playing 1 and 2 first, ideally carrying your character between those games; there's nothing quite like building a character over 3 games and seeing events shape around your decisions. While ME3 falls short of that promise in many ways, the payoffs are still worth it. If anything, this game is lambasted mostly for failing to meet the astronomic expectations placed on it, and when viewed in the context of what we got in the end, it's hardly the worst thing ever made. Again, considering the absolutely awful corporate decisions that pushed the game out so soon, it's a miracle it's as good as it is, and that fact should not be forgotten. The devs at Bioware should be proud of what they delivered under the circumstances.
One aspect of this game that is often forgotten is the absolutely fantastic co-op multiplayer mode, a mode which by all accounts is a tacked-on, lootbox-driven skinner box machine made to drive up revenue through micro-transactions. And yet, despite that fact, the mode still slap over 10 years later, and the reason for that is that ME3 sports one of the absolute best enemy rosters of any third-person shooter ever, with a fun and engaging power system to boot, and the frankly absurdly generous post-launch additions that made the mode so incredibly content rich. New guns, new classes, new powers, and entirely new enemy faction, the things added to this mode, for FREE mind you, are just absurd. I still play this mode to this day, and while the RNG based progression is very anti-consumer, there's a weird thrill in unlocking guns and classes entirely through in-game means, however slowly.
It took me a while to realize how much I love this game. From the multiplayer that remains engaging all these years later, to some of the most impactful, emotional, and heartbreaking moments I have ever experienced in gaming, Mass Effect 3 does justice to the Mass Effect franchise. It may have taken a while to get there, and the road wasn't without hardship, but as it stands, Mass Effect 3 is an absolute gem of a game.
I would not recommend playing this game without playing 1 and 2 first, ideally carrying your character between those games; there's nothing quite like building a character over 3 games and seeing events shape around your decisions. While ME3 falls short of that promise in many ways, the payoffs are still worth it. If anything, this game is lambasted mostly for failing to meet the astronomic expectations placed on it, and when viewed in the context of what we got in the end, it's hardly the worst thing ever made. Again, considering the absolutely awful corporate decisions that pushed the game out so soon, it's a miracle it's as good as it is, and that fact should not be forgotten. The devs at Bioware should be proud of what they delivered under the circumstances.
One aspect of this game that is often forgotten is the absolutely fantastic co-op multiplayer mode, a mode which by all accounts is a tacked-on, lootbox-driven skinner box machine made to drive up revenue through micro-transactions. And yet, despite that fact, the mode still slap over 10 years later, and the reason for that is that ME3 sports one of the absolute best enemy rosters of any third-person shooter ever, with a fun and engaging power system to boot, and the frankly absurdly generous post-launch additions that made the mode so incredibly content rich. New guns, new classes, new powers, and entirely new enemy faction, the things added to this mode, for FREE mind you, are just absurd. I still play this mode to this day, and while the RNG based progression is very anti-consumer, there's a weird thrill in unlocking guns and classes entirely through in-game means, however slowly.
It took me a while to realize how much I love this game. From the multiplayer that remains engaging all these years later, to some of the most impactful, emotional, and heartbreaking moments I have ever experienced in gaming, Mass Effect 3 does justice to the Mass Effect franchise. It may have taken a while to get there, and the road wasn't without hardship, but as it stands, Mass Effect 3 is an absolute gem of a game.