I love reading user reviews on Metacritic when a new game comes out. While I haven’t yet purchased the latest entry in the Mass Effect series and even though the reviews will most likely not sway me from getting the game (mostly because nothing new has come out recently that I’m interested in), I still enjoy reading what others have to say.
Now, not that I doubt for a second that the sequel is dumbed down and devoid of as many RPG elements as humanly possible to appeal to a broader audience; not that I don’t believe that the critic’s reviews are probably a little (or a lot) more positive than they should be (for me, Dragon Age 2 is a great example of the rift that exists between review scores and reality)…
…But really, can Mass Effect 3 be that bad? Supposing it is, is venting on Metacritic going to do anything? I’d be willing to bet that this game makes the most money out of the bunch, so EA certainly isn’t going to give a shit about a bunch of people whining that the heart and soul of one of the greatest original series created this generation has been ripped to shreds.
Whatever, the user reviews are funny. I like not being able to tell if this is the typical over exaggerated hate bestowed on the latest big release or it really is a disappointment.
“Seriously, were biowear even trying this time? The game in no way resembles the first 2 Mass Effect games and I am very disappointed and have buyers remorse.”
– MoeLester
“I just finished the game and there are no straight heterosexual routes. Every female in the game is a tranny. I don’t want to be gay, and yet the fine writers of bioware, specifically that fat lard “hamburger helper” keep trying to force their yaoi fangirlism on me. I JUST WANT STRAIGHT HETEROSEXUAL SEX IN THE MISSIONARY POSITION WHILE HOLDING HANDS. Is that really so much to ask?”
– truegamrgrl041
“-bluebad -redgood -greenbad This “game” is not made for gamers by any means. It is made for drooling trash with no standards, and bioware confirmed them as their target audience. If you are supporting this game, you are supporting the cancer that’s slowly degenerates and kills the industry.”
– shadycharacter
So, again I haven’t played it yet, but I really do hope previous choices make a serious impact on the game’s story line and play or I’m going to be disappointed. The series has been all about giving the player different, major, tough choices they have to make. Mass Effect 3 should be a culmination of all of those choices. If the finale ends up being largely the same no matter what decisions I made then…what was the point?
Up to this point (Mass Effect 2), I really think Bioware has done a great job of throwing interesting choices at the player; Choose Your Own Adventure, in video game form. Take saving or killing the Rachni queen, effectively choosing to save or destroy the Rachni species (also, this plot and choice seem to directly rip off the end of Ender’s Game, specifically the ending). I appreciate that they give the player such a heavy choice to make, it really gives one a sense of scope the Mass Effect series is going for.
If Mass Effect 3 comes along and that choice doesn’t have an equally epic consequence on the story line, I feel like it’s all for naught. I feel like I was committing to a serious choice, I don’t want to just see the Rachni helping me a little bit in one scene. I want to know that my choices matter. I also, personally, think it would be interesting if saving the Rachni (the “nice” thing to do) results in a bad thing happening (they really are an inherently evil race, for instance). And I mean like majorly bad (or good, I guess) things happening, I want to lose a party member for a bad choice I made, I want them to throw an nearly impossible situation at me, I want to really regret a bad choice. Of course they’d never do that because that would piss people off or be too hard or limit the audience or some such.
It’s like finding a bomb-able wall in a Zelda game and seeing a chest inside. Great! Then you open the chest and get one rupee. Being able to do something (break open a wall, save a whole race) is only half of what makes the experience great. The other half is the reward bestowed on the player, be it by going through a different story arc or giving the player a useful item or, the greatest gift of all, making new and different content available to the player.
