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[Anticitizen One]

Every time I watch an episode of Bonus Round and Mass Effect 3 comes up all I keep hearing is "of course there was a lot of backlash for this game about the ending" and then they talk about how fans overreacted but do any of these guys realize there was multiple issues with ME 3 that angered fans? Yes the ending was a big complaint but there were other problems with ME 3 like the fact that many of your decisions in the previous two games end up not mattering in this one (like the Rachni, who not only come back, but come back as enemies no matter what you did in ME1). Another big complaint was how linear the game was and how there was too much handholding and a lack of vehicle levels. There was also the fiasco with that prelude novel that bioware eventually backtracked on. I dunno It just bugs the hell out of me when these so called "journalists" and "gaming professionals" get on and start spouting opinions when they are so uninformed. Thoughts?

 

[UnluckyKate]

Because many people (me first) enjoyed the fuck out of the game, even if it was dumbed down, dudebro, or anything. The only really deception to me, is the ending. Yes the entire sage has flaws, but it's still awesome. The ending is nothing like that. It wasn't just bad, it ruined everything

 

[King of the Potato People]

Honestly my big problem with the game is only the original ending, I found the rest fantastic and don't find linear levels necessarily a bad thing. I can't think speak for everyone though.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Because many people (me first) enjoyed the fuck out of the game, even if it was dumbed down, dudebro, or anything. The only really deception to me, is the ending. Yes the entire sage has flaws, but it's still awesome. The ending is nothing like that. It wasn't just bad, it ruined everything

I enjoyed myself while playing and the ending sucked but that wasn't even the biggest issue. I just don't understand how they spent the first few years building this great lore and taking it really seriously and then just saying "fuck it" in the end and going full retard with it.

Like going back to my rachni example. Wouldn't it have made waayyy more sense for the Rachni only to appear in the game if you saved them in ME 1 considering that was supposedly the last queen and then showing up to aid you. Instead if you saved them they become slaves to the Reapers and if you didn't save them, oh well, you still fight rachni in the game and the explanation? Oh the reapers found another Rachni egg and cloned a queen out of it.

 

[Toki767]

The biggest backlash of the game came from the ending, not from whatever problems people may have had with things before that.

 

[rouken]

if not for the ending i think Mass Effect 3 will be the most favored GOTY.

so i think the ending really brought it down and nothing else.

 

[Persona7]

I haven't played the game but every single complaint I have ever heard about that game has to do with either the ending or technical issues.

 

[staticneuron]

Every time I watch an episode of Bonus Round and Mass Effect 3 comes up all I keep hearing is "of course there was a lot of backlash for this game about the ending" and then they talk about how fans overreacted but do any of these guys realize there was multiple issues with ME 3 that angered fans? Yes the ending was a big complaint but there were other problems with ME 3 like the fact that many of your decisions in the previous two games end up not mattering in this one (like the Rachni, who not only come back, but come back as enemies no matter what you did in ME1). Another big complaint was how linear the game was and how there was too much handholding and a lack of vehicle levels. There was also the fiasco with that prelude novel that bioware eventually backtracked on. I dunno It just bugs the hell out of me when these so called "journalists" and "gaming professionals" get on and start spouting opinions when they are so uninformed. Thoughts?

I enjoyed the game up until the last 5 mins. And I have no idea how "you" got that during the game but in my game.

Spoiler

The rachni help on the crucible project.

So I was satisfied because I say alot of things I did in the first and second game were addressed in the third.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I wasn't really enjoying myself up to the ending.

It just wasn't well designed. The quest stuff, the war points, the new characters, the multiplayer maps repurposed as bad sidequests, it was just not as good as Mass Effect 2. That's the point of a sequel, no? To do better than the last game?

 

[Deleted member 81567]

The game's only issue is the ending. Everything else is fantastic.

 

[Live Free or Die]

Because it is.

 

[TheSeks]

Because most people are willing to overlook the examples you provided, OP. But not I. I agree with you. I hate the fact

Spoiler

but knew they wouldn't from the get-go

that they didn't nail the "choices matter" more than the crap ending. What point is there to invest in the series if you aren't going to let my choices matter and have a huge bible for all the cause/effects before you start to make the game?

Really, at this point most people could just play ME1 ignore the "Reapers" bit and have a self-contained story, nearly and forget the other two exist and make your own fanficiton for the choices you made and what happens to them and still be better off than what Bioware did with them.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

The ending IS what the backlash was over for the most part. Every other complaint you just listed is valid, but wasn't even remotely as common.

 

[TheChaos]

The game's design choices overall are pretty much subjective depending on who you ask. The ending is they only aspect of the game which everyone agrees is bad (and rightfully so), so people focus on that

 

[chriskun]

I wasn't really enjoying myself up to the ending.

It just wasn't well designed. The quest stuff, the war points, the new characters, the multiplayer maps repurposed as bad sidequests, it was just not as good as Mass Effect 2. That's the point of a sequel, no? To do better than the last game?

Yes, this is my biggest problem with the game. The sidequest design was fucking horrible. I don't think the ending was that bad, in many ways I think ME2's ending was worse because of that retarded boss fight.

 

[kurahador]

Because it is.

Shows how bad the endings was.

 

[Rezbit]

The trouble is the ending took around 70 hours of story through the 3 games, and made it fucking worthless. That is a pretty big issue.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

And the pacing, my god, the pacing.

The game tried to have it both ways by trying to insist on a sense of urgency ("EARTH IS BEING DESTROYED RIGHT NOW RUN RUN RUN") while trying to play up its slow, agonizing destruction. Earth wasn't just being destroyed, it was being tortured. But then both points end up subverting each other until you have no idea how urgent your mission really is.

Do I have time to get this Rare Daffodil for this girl I overheard? Well, people are dying, but I need War Points. Can I really afford to do this rescue mission? Well, the mission looks cool, but Anderson keeps telling me that I need to hurry up.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Every time I watch an episode of Bonus Round and Mass Effect 3 comes up all I keep hearing is "of course there was a lot of backlash for this game about the ending" and then they talk about how fans overreacted but do any of these guys realize there was multiple issues with ME 3 that angered fans? Yes the ending was a big complaint but there were other problems with ME 3 like the fact that many of your decisions in the previous two games end up not mattering in this one (like the Rachni, who not only come back, but come back as enemies no matter what you did in ME1). Another big complaint was how linear the game was and how there was too much handholding and a lack of vehicle levels. There was also the fiasco with that prelude novel that bioware eventually backtracked on. I dunno It just bugs the hell out of me when these so called "journalists" and "gaming professionals" get on and start spouting opinions when they are so uninformed. Thoughts?

Why does Gametrailers think the only problem with ME3 is the ending?

Because they're idiots.

Any person that appreciates gaming can see a lazy, half-hearted, corner-cutting rush-job when presented with one.

ME3 is the epitome of such.

They're idiots.

 

[Foxix Von]

I honestly thought the ending was probably the least of that game's problems. ME3 is just a technical mess from a design point of view, at least in my eyes. I failed to really enjoy any of it. Side quests suck, exploration is terrible, player agency is finally boiled down to binary good/evil dialogue options only, most actions taking place within the world hold little consequence or player reward outside of plot, and the plot was just a mess.

I've literally never been so disappointed a game before, and I went into it expecting the worst and it surpassed my expectations heartily.

As for why game critics behave the way they do? They're critics, it's their jobs to pat themselves on the back over how great their shitty opinions are.

Also I thought the ending patch actually made the ending worse. It completely ruined the flow and pacing of the original ending in the process of cramming in a shit ton of poorly executed exposition. It goes down in my personal gaming history as the only gaming purchase I've ever regretted.

 

[matrix-cat]

And I have no idea how "you" got that during the game but in my game.

Spoiler

The rachni help on the crucible project.

You fight a lot of Rachni in that game, no matter what choice you make in ME1. When you go on the Rachni hive mission in ME3 you'll eventually find the Queen you saved in ME1, who you can convince to work on the Crucible with you, or if you killed her in ME1 you find another last-surviving-Rachni-Queen-in-the-galaxy. Same with the Reaper baby from ME2; if you choose to destroy it at the end of ME2 it'll still be there in ME3.

 

[MedHead]

The controversy surrounding Mass Effect 3 was a good indicator of the disconnect between the thought process of the gaming enthusiast press and gaming fans. While fans were rightfully crying out for a decent ending, the gaming press circled its wagons around BioWare.

Perhaps it wasn't yet another example of the gaming press being too close to developers and publishers, and instead this flippant response was because game reviewers have to play multiple games in a short period of time in order to write a review for each game. In that case, the terrible writing found in Mass Effect 3 was only a minor inconvenience in the process of writing a review. Does the game [x] work? [x] have an ending? [x] feature guns? Solid 80% just from that, then.

The writing in any game is only a problem if the person writing a review cares about good writing. If the reviewer considers a game just a process of completing shooting gallery segments to get to the credits, then Mass Effect 3 is a success. It's a great collection of multi-player levels interspersed with auto-dialog cutscenes that contain characters from previous games (although, not your version of those characters).

 

[Grisby]

Honestly my big problem with the game is only the original ending, I found the rest fantastic and don't find linear levels necessarily a bad thing. I can't think speak for everyone though.

Yep, I mostly agree with this. Some of the mission levels should have been a bit more open and I would have liked more hubs but I still thought it was a fantastic game. Went through it twice.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Yes, this is my biggest problem with the game. The sidequest design was fucking horrible. I don't think the ending was that bad, in many ways I think ME2's ending was worse because of that retarded boss fight.

That was supposed to be just a fun throwback to SNES/Sega Genesis games

 

[chriskun]

I honestly thought the ending was probably the least of that games' problems. ME3 is just a technical mess from a design point of view, at least in my eyes. I failed to really enjoy any of it. Side quests suck, exploration is terrible, player agency is finally boiled down to binary good/evil dialogue options only, most actions taking place within the world hold little consequence or player reward outside of plot, and the plot was just a mess.

I agree completely. The writing for the dialogue was completely throw away, I feel like I can't remember anything that happened in the game. Also, what was up with the weird shit like Jessica Chobot's horrible looking character model being thrown in the game? Also, James Vega was the most boring character created in the series, and Freddie Prince Jr. did a horrible job voice acting him.

 

[staticneuron]

You fight a lot of Rachni in that game, no matter what choice you make in ME1. When you go on the Rachni hive mission in ME3 you'll eventually find the Queen you saved in ME1, who you can convince to work on the Crucible with you, or if you killed her in ME1 you find another last-surviving-Rachni-Queen-in-the-galaxy. Same with the Reaper baby from ME2; if you choose to destroy it at the end of ME2 it'll still be there in ME3.

Wow, I didn't know that. And here I thought the choices actually did matter.lol.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

The game gives off this vibe like it was made because it had to be made.

 

[chriskun]

That was supposed to be just a fun throwback to SNES/Sega Genesis games

wait is this sarcasm?

 

[nhlducks35]

They, just like other gaming sites, need those EA checks to survive

 

[Moaradin]

Because the ending was only only major problem. All the other gripes are minor. Bigger ones can be found in any of the games. ME3 as a whole is still a great game.

 

[Lothars]

It's because the majority of complaints are exactly to do with the ending and the backlash about the ending was a complete overreaction.

It's still an amazing game that could have been better but the ending was never as bad as some had said.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Because the ending was only only major problem. All the other gripes are minor. Bigger ones can be found in any of the games. ME3 as a whole is still a great game.

It wasn't the "major" problem. It just happened to be a really obvious one.

It's still an amazing game that could have been better but the ending was never as bad as some had said.

No...it's not amazing and and the ending was a perfect example of "Fuck it. We'll ship it now and patch it if we have to later." They invested zero pride in their work.

 

[UrbanRats]

When on Game Trailers, avoid anything with Shane Satterfield, Marcus Beer or Michael Pachter on screen.

 

[chriskun]

...and instead this flippant response was because game reviewers have to play multiple games in a short period of time in order to write a review for each game. In that case, the terrible writing found in Mass Effect 3 was only a minor inconvenience in the process of writing a review. Does the game [x] work? [x] have an ending? [x] feature guns? Solid 80% just from that, then.

I think this is a really good point. I am increasingly losing interest in reading reviews of games just because I know that reviewers don't have the time to give an in-depth analysis of these 30hr games that have multiple modes/play through options.

 

[Heart of Black]

I watched the ending before I played the game to completion. I had no real issues with the endings, besides them being kinda stupid, but the game itself was bugging me. I still have yet to complete it.

 

[JDSN]

Im gonna have to (sadly) agree with GT on this, some weird choices here and there, like Kai Leng guy, Kaidan's general lack of direction, broshooting segments, repurposed mutiplayer maps as missions, weird dificulty spike in the last segment, etc. But overhall its still one of my favorite games of the year by the way they handled most character element in a decent way despite having the disability of being a piece of shit talentless studio.

It would have been a perfect evocative ending like The Walking Dead's if it werent for some obviously last minute choices that fucked the whole thing over.

 

[Dysun]

I had more fun with Mass Effect 3 than any other game this year until the last 20 minutes. Not to say it's without fault, but the ending tarnishes not just the game but the franchise itself

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

And the pacing, my god, the pacing.

The game tried to have it both ways by trying to insist on a sense of urgency ("EARTH IS BEING DESTROYED RIGHT NOW RUN RUN RUN") while trying to play up its slow, agonizing destruction. Earth wasn't just being destroyed, it was being tortured. But then both points end up subverting each other until you have no idea how urgent your mission really is.

Do I have time to get this Rare Daffodil for this girl I overheard? Well, people are dying, but I need War Points. Can I really afford to do this rescue mission? Well, the mission looks cool, but Anderson keeps telling me that I need to hurry up.

To be fair, directing giving off no sense of how tense the situation should be seems pretty par for the course of the series (though I only played through Mass Effect 1 and a third of ME2 before giving up on the series).

 

[ZealousD]

Also, James Vega was the most boring character created in the series

Dude, Jacob Taylor was worse.

 

[adamsapple]

Why does Gametrailers think that people's problem with ME 3 is only the ending??

Because that's true ?

From the time I've spent in the official topics on GAF the large majority of people have said as much that everything before the star child was great, and that ending the game at the Shepard/Anderson interaction would have been much better.

The rest of the game is incredibly competent (bad running animations aside).

 

[Vulcano's assistant]

The ending includes the last two hours of gameplay for most, not just the cutscenes.

 

[Black_Stride]

Unless im mistaken the biggest problem with the game was the ending.

Only problem? Obviously not
Stand out problem worth mentioning? Yeah.

Hell i really enjoyed the game through and through, i dont know many people personally who actually hated the game sans ending.
The people i know who do HATE everything about ME3 are mainly guys who sit on the internet too much and follow the group think, or people who never liked ME to start off with.

ME3 as a game wasnt bad, the ending was just not up to snuff i guess.

 

[chriskun]

Dude, Jacob Taylor was worse.

Jacob Taylor at least had his daddy and cerberus issues. Also James Vega's constant use of Spanish/Mexican slang did not fit well with his Freddie Prince Jr. white guy voice.

 

[MarauderShields]

Sure it has problems but it would have been my GOTY if the ending was decent.

 

[Hero]

Not even counting the ending, Mass Effect 3 winds up being completely worse than Mass Effect 2 in almost every single way.

ME3 was dumbed down in terms of story, content, character development, combat, etc.

 

[Tookay]

I'm not sure how ME2 can be considered much better than ME3 on any gameplay or narrative level. It was literally Episodic Corridor Shooter: The Game.

I enjoyed both for what they were, but they squandered the potential for the franchise. ME1 was a good start, filled with interesting world-building and a sense of immersion (due to its exploration mechanic) that was completely stripped from its sequels.

The goodwill for the first game carried the series, but only so far. I think it's mostly atrophied at this point.

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

Unless im mistaken the biggest problem with the game was the ending.

You're mistaken.

The people i know who do HATE everything about ME3 are mainly guys who sit on the internet too much and follow the group think, or people who never liked ME to start off with.

Another time where you're mistaken.

ME3 as a game wasnt bad, the ending was just not up to snuff i guess.

You're guessing wrong.

 

[chriskun]

You're mistaken.



Another time where you're mistaken.



You're guessing wrong.

lol!

 

[Valnen]

The game's only issue is the ending. Everything else is fantastic.

Meaning the game itself is fine, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Big-E]

I think what the issue is from the backlash was that things that occurred earlier in the game that were wonky were excused if the pay off was going to be worth it. No pay off happens so the stuff that was passed over before as minor become more annoying when the end is garbage.