Things I Like About Mass Effect 3

[Winter]

As I've started replaying the Mass Effect Trilogy and have arrived at ME3 I've quickly learned why it was my least favorite entry in the Trilogy. The over use of Auto-Dialogue, forcing players on the rails whether you like it or not, the middle finger the game often gives you in regards to your choices being tossed out the window so BioWare could tell the story THEY wanted to tell (I forgot how much I HATED seeing Anderson at the start of the game rendering your choice of making him a member of the council completely pointless), the stupid kid that Shepard becomes obsessed with despite all the other loses of characters you A) actually get to know. B) Can actually act and C) ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT!!!

HOWEVER! There are things about this game that I do enjoy despite it's flaws and let's be honest as flawed as ME3 is Mass Effect: Andromeda reminds us how good we actually have it and as its' the Holiday Season and 2020 is FINALLY coming to an end I wanted to talk about what I LIKE about ME3 and not dwell on the things I HATE about this game.

First up, Weapon Select Set Up.

I was never a big fan of how ME1 and ME2 had you restricted to certain weapons depending on your class. Take for example ME2, if you play the game as a Biotic, as I do, you're pretty much only allowed to use the Pistol, the Submachine Guns and Heavy Weapons. You can wield an Assault Rifle, a Shot Gun and a Sniper Rifle but ONLY after you head to the Collector Base and you can only use ONE of these weapons.

ME3, however, let's you use any weapon you want and ignore the rest. As soon as the option is made available for me in the game (which is pretty much as soon as you land on Mars) I immediately select the Assault Rifle and Sniper Rifle and discard the rest. So, no matter what class you play as you can use any gun you want basically right out the starting gate.

Omega, Leviathan, Rannoch, Tuchanka and The Citadel DLC.

These are, without a doubt, some of the series best levels and DLC's ever. They're so good that when I did my Mass Effect 3 Rewrite idea I basically left these levels largely unchanged with only minor alterations to them (I wrote it so Nyreen could survive and join your squad instead of dying no matter how you play the level, the start of the Tuchanka Campaign will change depending on another part of the game. Leviathan is now the main focus of the game instead of the Crucible and is therefore spread throughout the game like how we dealt with the Collectors in ME2 and Rannoch is given a visual upgrade instead of being given Generic Dessert Planet Design #4. No Changes to the Citadel DLC as it's perfect as is).

More Interaction Between Squad and Crew Mates.

I REALLY loved how in ME3 we get to see the Squad hanging out with each other instead of ONLY interacting with Shepard and see them just hanging out on the Normandy and the Citadel. I love hearing Joker pester Liara about her Hair Tentacles, or seeing Garrus and Vega comparing kills and missions or just seeing Garrus just talking to a regular crew mate as he goes over his missions with Shepard.

This is something that Dragon Age: Inquisition would later continue as we get to see our comparisons and advisors interact at Skyhold and while Dragon Age Origins kinda did this it was only every so and most of the interactions were brief or restricted to dialogue on the field. So, thank you ME3 for giving my squad more interactions with one another that didn't require me dragging them all over the Galaxy.

Cortez and Traynor.

Oh By The Goddess, Cortez and Traynor. ME3 honestly doesn't get enough credit for the utter game changers that are Cortez and Traynor as not only are they among the first LGBT characters in gaming that are fully fleshed out characters but they also introduced something in BioWare that has changed the series and, IMO, for the better.

See Cortez and Traynor both fit the bill of a Squad Mate/Companion in a normal BioWare game. You get a lot of time to interact with them, they both have either personal quests or character arcs that are directly involved either a major part of the story or will impact whether they live or die AND their both romantic options for Shepard.

But neither of them ARE Squad Mates. You can't upgrade them, you can't take them with on missions (yes Cortez is the shuttle pilot but he doesn't really do anything besides drive you around) and yet they still feel like Squad Mates and it helps to flesh out the cast by giving you two extra characters who do more then just shot things with you.

DAI would follow up on this with your Advisors (Cullen, Josephine and Leliana) and their are rumors that the same will being done in DA4 and the next Mass Effect game. Sure Joker predates these two but he was mostly just a glorified Extra in ME1 and he wasn't given much to do in ME2 besides comment on Squad Mates you would recruit. He was again given more of an arc in ME3 but it was still mostly just to comment on whatever was happening and he honestly felt more like part of EDI's arc then anything. Cortez and Traynor felt like they had more going on and as such I give them both a lot of love just because of how fleshed out they both felt.

And that's pretty much it. Not as much as I would like but still these elements are why I held onto the game even though I still have my issues with it. What about you, what do you like about ME3?

[Beelzquill]

I loved the Tuchanka missions. As someone who always spares Wrex the emotional arc of seeing him be this leader of the Krogan people and you helped him get there always gets me. The bro-shake you do with him where he says Krogan will call Shepard "HERO!" is probably one of the most satisfying things to play and replay ( I've replayed ME3 three times, though I've only played the ending once).
Grunt's (almost) death scene actually made me scream at the screen "GRUUUUNT!" because I thought he was actually going to die and I always saw him as my Shepard's adopted son. I even love the Tuchanka bomb subplot because I really get the motivations of all the characters involved and I felt like the game gave you the room to form your own opinion on it.

Edit: Funny story when I screamed Grunt my roomate at the time thought his dog shat on my bed again and came rushing to my room apologizing to see me going "oh thank god he's ok!" when Grunt survived and we just stared at each other awkwardly for ten seconds before he left my room.

[Winter]

Grunt's (almost) death scene actually made me scream at the screen "GRUUUUNT!" because I thought he was actually going to die and I always saw him as my Shepard's adopted son.

True story, one time I was playing the game I hadn't done a number of smaller side quests and character interactions so when I got to Rannoch I didn't have enough Paragon and Renegade Points to get that Campaigns Golden Ending. However, as this is a game I knew all I had to do to get said ending was just stop the game and replay it while doing the few things I hadn't done.

However, before just restarting the game I realized something and that was I would give up making peace with the Geth if it meant saving Tali. Again I ultimately didn't go through with that as I had the power to just do it all over again to save both sides but if I had to I would have saved the Quarians over the Geth because I couldn't continue this game without Tali in it.

After that I basically broke up with Liara and REALLY wish BioWare would have gone through with the option of letting you romance Tali as FemShep. Yes, this is a game, yes I still HATE the ending but ME3 made me realize how much I came to love this series and one character in it's cast that I would A) Let a whole Race die and B) Would willingly go through a number of levels I didn't enjoy along with ones I did enjoy just to save both Tali and the Geth.

This is something that can only happen in a game. As good as novels, comics, TV Shows and Films are at getting you invested in their stories in the end the fate of those characters and worlds aren't dependent on you while Games put the fate of characters you can come to love in your hands.

For me, that moment on Rannoch is THE defining moment of the Entire Trilogy as there is no other moment that truly changed how I see myself and what I could be capable of doing and what I was willing to go through to insure that everyone came out on the other side of the conflict alive and making peace between two races that were at war with one another.

As much as I hate the ending of ME3 the game DID give me something that is truly special. And for that I will always love it, despite it's faults.

[Independent George]

Citadel was absolutely brilliant. It hit all the emotional notes I wanted from the finale while standing on its own as a fun game. It weirdly made me even more irritated with the Devs for the 'Red-Green-Blue' ending.

ME3 also had by far the best gameplay of the entire series. I loved how well-balanced all six classes were while still requiring a completely different playstyle. I'm one of those weirdos who preferred ME1's gameplay over ME2, but ME3 managed to capture the best of both games. Also, we finally got an assault rifle which used the original game's heat system - I remember chuckling at the 4th wall break from an NPC commenting on how stupid it was to carry heatsinks instead of the effectively infinite ammo of the older tech.

[Riedquat]

ME3 definitely has the best gameplay, no question there.

Multiplayer was the one thing I didn't want in ME3 and the one thing I got the most out of, to the point of playing far too much of it (2650 hours, 35 Platinum solos, and at one point 8th in the UK challenge points scoreboard - hmm, stil 249th world-wide and 10th in the country despite hardly playing for a couple of years). Love that quarian infiltrator with the Javelin, nothing more satisfying than headshotting a Phantom.

Despite the complete and utter cockups of the game - yes, I'm one of those who utterly loathe where it ended, it had the usual good character stuff and some of the best moments. Actions from all three games influenced how some of the story arcs turned out, well, Rannoch and Tuchanka, and both where (mostly) very well done, and I agree that the DLC was too (I've not played Omega though, expensive and I never liked Aria anyway).

[Winter]

ME3 definitely has the best gameplay, no question there.

Multiplayer was the one thing I didn't want in ME3 and the one thing I got the most out of, to the point of playing far too much of it (2650 hours, 35 Platinum solos, and at one point 8th in the UK challenge points scoreboard - hmm, stil 249th world-wide and 10th in the country despite hardly playing for a couple of years). Love that quarian infiltrator with the Javelin, nothing more satisfying than headshotting a Phantom.

Despite the complete and utter cockups of the game - yes, I'm one of those who utterly loathe where it ended, it had the usual good character stuff and some of the best moments. Actions from all three games influenced how some of the story arcs turned out, well, Rannoch and Tuchanka, and both where (mostly) very well done, and I agree that the DLC was too (I've not played Omega though, expensive and I never liked Aria anyway).

Well, for the original Trilogy sure but I would argue that MEA has the overall best gameplay. Sure the cover system was crap and the the missions are WAAAY to repetitive but overall I felt the combat flowed a lot more smoothly then it did any any of the other games. Story is bad and the graphics are a joke even after all these years but gameplay was a lot more fun for me.

[Riedquat]

Well, for the original Trilogy sure but I would argue that MEA has the overall best gameplay. Sure the cover system was crap and the the missions are WAAAY to repetitive but overall I felt the combat flowed a lot more smoothly then it did any any of the other games. Story is bad and the graphics are a joke even after all these years but gameplay was a lot more fun for me.

I did like going back to more open space for MEA although I don't think it made the best of use of it gameplay-wise (and I preferred ME3's multiplayer, although that might've just been connection-related - couldn't get sniper rifle headshots to work most of the time in MEA unless I was hosting, which made it unplayable for everyone else).