MovieChat Forums > Mass Effect 3 (2012) Discussion > Things that bugged me most. (Not the en...

Things that bugged me most. (Not the ending)

posted 7 years ago by dobraye_utra
25 replies | jump to latest

There's quite a divide about whether or not this game is that good in spite of the ending. And though I do enjoy a lot of things about ME3, there are a great many aspects in playing through it that can really annoy me at times.

I'll try to list them, though I'm sure I will have forgotten a few...

Let's start with weapons: There are just way too freakin' many, for one thing. Sure, variety is cool and all that, but considering you only get a handful of team mates and there're only a few standard variations of Shepard that you can play; why do we need to have over a dozen variations of the same guns? In ME1 I understood the immense inventory of guns because they were all basically the same, just some had better stats than others. ME2 streamlined this by making each gun unique, so fans would pick favourites. But since the third game only gives you a team of a half dozen, how many flippin' different guns does the Normandy crew need? Particularly since none of your team can use more than two specific types anyhow. I mean, if you don't have Ash or Garrus, why have seventeen sniper rifles? Also on the gun front; how come everyone gets a Predator in the cutscenes? At least in M2; your teammates would actually draw the weapon they were carrying; unless it was outside their class; like whenever people drew rifles, they'd default to Avengers, or Garrus got a Predator pistol to shoot Harkin. So far, the only exceptions I've noticed are on Mars with Liara & your alliance buddy, and Thane, during his grande finale.

On the subject of team mates; I think ME2 may have spoiled me, because after over a dozen to choose from, I have big issues with the third team; which is at maximum, only one more than the original gang. And unlike either of the previous games; they don't represent diversity at all. I mean, with Kaidan or Ashley; one's a biotic and the other's a rifle-expert. Outside of them, there's only Garrus who's similarly skilled to Ash. So like I mentioned earlier; if you have a game without either, you don't have a sniper on your team. And then there's that scene where you're given the option to kill your Virmire survivor: the thing is, if you do kill them, you're just reducing an already small team. At least in M1, when you killed off your team mate (or two) there was only one, or maybe two big levels left to complete. And in M2, aside from killing Zaeed; you only got to kill your team mates for the grand finale anyhow. But here it's pretty much the half way point, so you need as many companions as possible, if only to change up the crew you're stuck with. Heck, I've got a game set up where both Garrus and Tali are dead; so if I don't pick up Javik and I kill the other SpecTRe, I'm left with James, Liara and EDI.
And on mentioning Tali; how come she's only brought into the game, once you've done so much of the story? Couldn't she have dropped a line early on or something; particularly if she's a romance partner?

And on the romance angle; ME2 shippers kinda got ditched there too didn't they? I mean OK, FemSheps still get Garrus, but other than him, Thane barely appears, other than to die in heroic fashion, and Jacob? Yikes! From his story it looks like either he was cheating on Shep with that Doc, or vice versa! Makes me feel better that he's the one character I tend to intentionally splat in the collector base. And BroShep fares even worse doesn't he? Since it wasn't until the DLC happened that Jack actually got any action at all. Miranda only pops up here and there, and Tali -the only one who actually joins your crew this time- turns up major late to the party!

Okay, I'll cut myself short there, before this turns into a Tolstoi novel; but those are my thoughts.

Anyone agree? Disagree? Have any workarounds??? (You never know)

"Do not pity the dead, pity the living. And, above all, those who live without love." Dumbledore

[–] Winter_King 7 years ago

I disagree with the weapons part. The reason there are so many weapons is more a feature directed at the multiplaying aspect of the game. You don't have acesso to many weapons in the beginning so you will gradually unlock different weapons. It's more of a gameplay feature than anything else.

Another aspect I enjoy the weapons is that it allows more player choice on how you want to play the game. I can say that made playthroughs of ME3 with at least four different assault rifles while on ME1 I'll stick with the one with better stats by default or in ME2 I'm going with the Vindicator or the Mattock after I bought the DLC.

Maybe you want to play Infiltrator with the big powered sniper rifle like the Black Widow or maybe you prefer the lighter Viper.

So I'm a big fan of the weapons choice in ME3.

The cutscene weapon swap is annoying as hell though.

Regarding the companion choice they made their bed with the Suicide Mission and that made the choices of having several companions from ME2 as squadmembers in ME3. I would've love to have more but it doesn't bother me much because I get their reasoning.

One thing I don't understand is that Miranda's exclusion of the rooster. Miranda is hard to kill in ME2. Even when not loyal, she needs to go with you to the boss fight in order for her to die. She survives as the fire team leader, she can't die during the long walk, she can't die if you haven't upgraded the ship and it's impossible to kill if you have a romance with her. You almost need to deliberately go out of your way to kill her. Given the amount of time we are fighting Cerberus in ME3, it would make sense for her to be a squadmate.

I'm left with James, Liara and EDI.

Which is made to cover every combat role: soldier, biotic and tech. Again for gameplay purposes.

And on mentioning Tali; how come she's only brought into the game, once you've done so much of the story? Couldn't she have dropped a line early on or something; particularly if she's a romance partner?

I assume this happened because Tali was to be excluded from the game entirely. They were able to convince the producers to bring her back.

That or it's for the same reason you can't recruit her and the others until you completed Horizon in ME2.

I agree with you that ME2 romances were ditched particulary for Femshep. I mean male Shep still gets to continue his romances with Jack and Miranda in some form. Femshep gets cheated on by Jacob and watchs Thane die.

The thing that bugged me the most besides the ending is actually the final mission Priority: Earth.

In both previous games, the final missions (Ilos and the Collector Base) were memorable and are somewhat the peak of the game. But in ME3, the game peaks with Tuchanka and Rannoch. So much that after Rannoch I'm not as excited to replay the rest of the game. (Thank God for the Citadel and Leviathan)

Another issue is that expected that Priority: Earth took what was great about the Suicide Mission (multiple roles to assign to your crew) and expanded to include your war assets but it was just another standard mission.

Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? A pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

[–] dobraye_utra 7 years ago

I get the multi player thing with the weapons, that makes sense I suppose, but then, I don't bother with that; I tried it a while back and was terrible at it, so I gave it up.

Side note issue here; but with what you said about not having many weapons at the start reminds me of a program glitch inME2 on the PS3 that has never been fixed: when replaying a game, the system resets all your weapons, so any that you picked up the first time through are lost. (Except for Dlc ones of course.)

Good point about Miranda; she's actually one of my favourite characters (regardless of the fact that every cutscene conversation with her has to include several gratuitous shots of her shapely posterior.). And on that point, I just wish they'd given us the option to ask the people you meet up with if they'd be willing to join up. I mean Kaidan/Ash have the option to join Admiral Hackett if you really don't want them, and even Jacob, Kasumi and Samara actively refuse to come back, so why not have a few to rejoin team Shep?

I understand having three for gameplay, but since half your game is spent wandering the ship, it'd be nice to have more people to talk to, who didn't just respond with "hey", or "not right now".

An yes, getting back to Earth was pretty lame (did you also notice that the red phone boxes in the streets make the people seem Hobbit sized! They just aren't to scale at all!). It took me a few playthroughs to realise that the final big fight of the game is that mission where you fire rockets at the reaper, and everything after that is just pointless filler. And yeah, having just your companions go with you while the rest just go hang out on the Normandy? Narratively that makes no sense to me. I mean would someone like Javk just give up his entire purpose to go be a spectator and watch the events with a bucket of popcorn or something?

"I can't read peoples' minds, I'm not a Jedi!" Lucifer Morningstar

[–] Glaramara 7 years ago

Sorry to hear that you didn't get on with the multiplayer. It was one thing that I really didn't want in ME3 and one thing that I ended up loving, I've racked up a scary amount of time on it and got my money's worth several times over (and ended up with a decent group of people).

Agree Miranda should've had a bigger role, but incorporating much of any character that could be killed beforehand was always going to be tricky (but hey, I pay my money for them to make a good job of difficult things, if it was simple it wouldn't be worth the cash). But with Miranda I never got past the face palm I gave when I first saw her over the top appearance. Still bitter about Tali missing for most of ME3 though, but probably best that that unhealthy obsession didn't get fed even further :)

[–] dobraye_utra 7 years ago

I may give the multi player thing another go, if only to get that stupid achievement, since EA have disabled the Infiltrator mini game.

I always liked Miranda, but then I was watching Chuck before I started on ME2, so having Yvonne Strahovski as a team mate was a big plus. In fact, given how hard it actually is to kill her off in part 2, I was more surprised that she didn't have a bigger contribution in 3, considering all the effort the writers had gone through to make her almost unkillable. (Believe me, I've tried killing her -along with everyone else- a few times). Flipping that around, I don't think it was a coincidence that Jacob, the fans' least favourite character turns out to be a two-timer in part 3...

And as for Tali; they seriously messed that one up in so many ways. I mean that photo of her (which you could barely look at properly anyhow) had so much wrong with it. Aside from looking just like a human -side note here; how would they cut their hair inside those suits? Hair clogging up your airways would be a serious issue I'd imagine.- she's not wearing her suit, so when and how did she take that off?

"I can't read peoples' minds, I'm not a Jedi!" Lucifer Morningstar

[–] RightBackAtYa 7 years ago

I may give the multi player thing another go, if only to get that stupid achievement, since EA have disabled the Infiltrator mini game.

You really should give it another try, or just wait for Andromeda to drop. If you can hook up with a good team, multiplayer can be a blast. I had never played multiplayer before ME 3 and I was hooked. It does all depend on what kind of teammates you hook up with. I was lucky and played with some excellent players.

As for Tali, I get why they did what they did. So many people had so many different expectations of what she would look like that they copped out of committing Tali to look a certain way and produced that ridiculous photo. And take it from me, someone with waist length hair, no Quarian would suffer with having all that hair crammed into a helmet to get all knotted and sweaty. Not to mention all the other problems that the photo brings up.

I'm with you about the guns. I never found a need to carry all 5 guns with me. I loved being a sniper so a sniper rifle was my main gun of choice. Sniper rifles and assault rifles were my guns of choice in-game. The only time I used any other weapons was with multiplayer. Is it really necessary to have 10 different guns of the same type? I think not.

I am really looking forward to the release of Andromeda. I'm hoping it doesn't go the way that DA: Inquisition did. You can play over 100 hours of DA: Inquisition but a lot of it is wasted time with no meaningful impact on the overall game mission. I hope they trim the fat in Andromeda and give us a good story for hopefully another trilogy.

What is the Infiltrator mini-game? It's been so long since I've played that I can't remember.

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] dobraye_utra 7 years ago

I may be on the multi-thing fairly soon, as I'm currently redoing my games from scratch. Y'know when you start a new game in ME3 by picking a previous Shepard, which then lists all the stats of each character? Well it turns out I have not got one single Shepard with 'every stat' just the way I want it. (And I've got a lot of Sheps, going back to 2010!) So by the time I get to ME3, I could add some multi-time on, coz I really want that dumb trophy!

I just don't get why Tali had to look so freakishly human-like. I mean it was just such a random and obviously, last minute thing; otherwise you can bet there'd have been Asari Matriarchs going: "Hey, did you humans know you look just like Quarians? But with more fingers?"

Agreeing with you over the guns thing there too. The one thing I thought ME3 did really well was allowing you to ditch guns you don't use. For instance, I've rarely used any of the shotguns after ME1. In 2, I tended not to pick Vanguard that often, since your main weapon is the shotgun; which I'd only tend to switch to if I'd run out of ammo-thingies. I was fairly diverse in 3 with the weapons; mainly switching between rifles, occasionally carrying a pistol and I'd usually carry an SMG as a back up, after slapping the lightweight stuff on it, so it weighed practically nothing. (When I'd gotten the Indra: full auto-sniper rifle! Woohoo!)

Hopefully Andromeda will be a result of the writers paying attention to the crazy-reaction to ME3. I know what you mean about Inquisition... I can replay the first two DAs and have lots of fun doing it, but I just can't get into DA3 at all. I do keep trying, but mostly I find myself not being bothered enough.

Mass Effect Infiltrator was a game that got released on the Ipad (and probably Iphone too). You basically played a Cerberus officer, who... goes around and does stuff??? It was advertised as being able to tie into your ME3 game-score, so you could use the points earned in the game to increase your war assets for ME3 (and get that stoopid achievement.). Unfortunately, after I bought it, it got a bit glitchy and I didn't play again for a while. When I finally decided to give it another go, all I could do was start the game and watch the intro cutscene; after which, it became unresponsive. A quick Google search told me that the game had needed to be updated, but that would no longer be possible because the App/game had been cancelled.

I have to tag this on here, since I forgot it in the original post, but isn't it a little weird in ME3 that Ashley has more change-of-clothes options than Kaidan? I mean in the character selection screen; he gets several different sets of armour, depending on if you got the special edition version. But Ashley also gets the option of going out in her uniform; kinda like Liara does, with 2/3 different versions of her Shadow-Broker suit. With the Special edition; Ash even gets the choice of blue, or white uniform to wear. I don't mean to sound sexist here, but are the writers making a comment on women changing outfits more often than guys or something?

"I can't read peoples' minds, I'm not a Jedi!" Lucifer Morningstar

[–] Glaramara 7 years ago

What platform are you playing on? I don't have much trouble getting in to multiplayer games on the PC but since the game's been out for quite a while now I don't know how much luck you'll have on console (is everyone playing on the next generation consoles now anyway?) Make sure you've got the (free) multiplayer DLC, you'll never find anyone to play with if you don't.

[–] dobraye_utra 7 years ago

Good point there; I'm on the consoles, so who knows, I might be out of luck...

I've had a few games with multi-player options, which dropped out before I even started playing them.

"I can't read peoples' minds, I'm not a Jedi!" Lucifer Morningstar

[–] RightBackAtYa 7 years ago

ME 1, 2, and 3 are all backwards compatible on the XBox One so there should be players for you to play with. People on the One can certainly play with the 360 people. I believe One's can also play with computer people...or is that Playstation 4?  I can't remember.

I'm all revved up for ME 4, let me tell you. Will you be playing 4 on a console or the computer? I wish I could get into computer play but I just like not having to sit at a computer to play a game. I sat behind Jesus in the 2nd grade so it's much easier on these old bones to sack out on my couch or even my bed and play endless hours of a game.

I just discovered a couple of days ago that Dragon Age: Origins is now backwards compatible on XBox One. Things are looking up!

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] dobraye_utra 7 years ago

I'll definitely be playing 4 on a console. PC gaming just isn't my thing; if I'm on a computer I just like regular pic stuff, like surfing or shopping or whatever. (I mean isn't that why Microsoft invented the x box in the first place? So they could get the people not using their merchandise to buy their stuff?)

"I can't read peoples' minds, I'm not a Jedi!" Lucifer Morningstar

[–] RightBackAtYa 7 years ago

PC gaming just isn't my thing; if I'm on a computer I just like regular pic stuff, like surfing or shopping or whatever.

I'm with you. I've tried to play games on the computer but I just can't get into it. I have a much better time playing games on a console. I don't have to think about which key I need to press for which action. Put a game controller in my rickety hands and I revert to a 22 year old again. 

Will you be playing ME 4 on the XBox One or the Playstation 4? My daughter will be playing on the PS4 and I'll be on the XBox One. It bites I can't play multiplayer with her but I just don't like the Playstation. I've always felt XBox had the better games so when it came to me deciding on which console to buy, it was a no brainer to get the XBox One.

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] dobraye_utra 7 years ago

Oh, I'm x box all the way! I bought a PS4 on impulse a while back, just because it was reconditioned, or whatever they call it (i.e., a returned unopened & therefore cheap.) but aside from the blue ray player, i don't use it much & I've no plans for gaming on it. (Honestly, I've got too many game machines to start building up on another one.). My biggest draw was the backwards compatibility, since the x box is, but the 4 isn't?! I mean, heck my old PS3 can still play the original Tomb Raider!

"I can't read peoples' minds, I'm not a Jedi!" Lucifer Morningstar

[–] RightBackAtYa 7 years ago

Good man! I've had Playstation 1, 2, 3, XBox, XBox Slim, and now the XBox One. Once I latched onto the XBox, it was the only console for me. My daughter prefers the PS4 but admits she's jealous I have the One. The One is the cat's meow to me and the Playstation 4 is just ... meh, to me.

Backwards compatibility seems to be against Sony's religion. Meanwhile, XBox One is making all the good games, ME series and Dragon Age series, backwards compatible. Not to mention the tons of other games they've made compatible.

We'll have to do multiplayer together when the time comes, dobraye!

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] RightBackAtYa 7 years ago

I have to tag this on here, since I forgot it in the original post, but isn't it a little weird in ME3 that Ashley has more change-of-clothes options than Kaidan? I mean in the character selection screen; he gets several different sets of armour, depending on if you got the special edition version. But Ashley also gets the option of going out in her uniform; kinda like Liara does, with 2/3 different versions of her Shadow-Broker suit. With the Special edition; Ash even gets the choice of blue, or white uniform to wear. I don't mean to sound sexist here, but are the writers making a comment on women changing outfits more often than guys or something?

My main problem with Ashley was in the way they sexed her up in 3. I was very, very disappointed they did that to her because it goes against who Ashley was in 1 and 2. She's a soldier, not a sexpot. I really don't know why they felt they had to do that but it was a poor decision, IMHO.

The only problem I had with Kaidan was that he could only use a pistol. That pretty much makes him an unplayable squadmate. If I'm playing on Nightmare/Insanity, I can't use a squadmate who can only use a pistol. I thought all the pistols were crappy until we got the pistol in the Citadel dlc. That pistol was good but there wasn't enough ammo to help much.

This reminds me...do we know if Andromeda is going to be a stand-alone game or (hopefully) the beginning of another trilogy? Has anything been said by anyone?

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] dobraye_utra 7 years ago

Sexing up Ashley seems to have also been another thing which was exclusive to her. (if you don't count Kaidan suddenly being bisexual). I remember after my first plays of ME 3, I went back to 2, to revamp some profile stats, and when I got to the Horizon level it hit me that along with changing her hair, Ash suddenly got armour with a much larger cup size. It's kind funny that the one game in the series where Femshep gets her own trailer and game cover, is also the one making the ladies more... um... curvy?

I expect Andromeda will be an ongoing game; though whether or not we'll get the same character all the way through... well, we didn't in the DA trilogy, but then those games weren't so literally connected as Mass Effect. I'm just wondering how people's playthroughs will be accessed in Andromeda, unless they do something like what was done for Inquizition, with all the major decisions laid out in sequence to pick and choose.

"I can't read peoples' minds, I'm not a Jedi!" Lucifer Morningstar

[–] RightBackAtYa 7 years ago

Sexing up Ashley seems to have also been another thing which was exclusive to her. (if you don't count Kaidan suddenly being bisexual).

It was exclusive to her and I can't figure out why they felt the need to do it. She was a soldier in ME1 and 2, someone I could respect. Someone who didn't focus on her looks but on the mission at hand. Sexing her up in 3 was completely uncalled for. It's not like they had to sex her up for the bed scene in 3. There was a bed scene in 1 with her and they didn't feel the need to turn her into sexpot Ashley.

As for Kaidan being suddenly bisexual, I'm not sure why they felt the need to do that, either. It felt like they turned Kaidan into their "token" gay. Liara swings both ways and I would have understood Kaidan being suddenly bi if there had been any indication in the previous 2 games that he walked that walk. I was happy for my gay friends who could romance him, because they had wanted to since ME 1, but it felt very....disingenuous to me.

I expect Andromeda will be an ongoing game; though whether or not we'll get the same character all the way through... well, we didn't in the DA trilogy, but then those games weren't so literally connected as Mass Effect.

Not having the same character in the DA trilogy actually worked out well. I thought I would miss not being the Hero of Ferelden but I didn't. I wasn't all that attached to the Champion so when it comes time to sacrifice in the 3rd game, the Champion is my go-to gal or guy. No way I can ever kill Alistair, he's my honey. 

I'll be interested to see which path Andromeda takes when it comes to saving games. I'd rather have an import tool like ME had. I wasn't all that thrilled with The Keep for Inquisition but I guess it makes more sense to have The Keep for the DA games because we know another one is coming. As you said, when you don't have the same character throughout the games, that makes sense.

I actually hadn't thought about not having the same character if Andromeda is going to be a series. Since we're playing twins, I don't think it would make much sense to carry on as twins in future games. I mean, who wants to live with your twin for months/years with no end in sight? Since you've now put that thought in my head, I'm thinking we'll get another "The Keep" type saving situation. Well, we'll know in 2 more months!

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] Winter_King 7 years ago

The only problem I had with Kaidan was that he could only use a pistol. That pretty much makes him an unplayable squadmate. If I'm playing on Nightmare/Insanity, I can't use a squadmate who can only use a pistol. I thought all the pistols were crappy until we got the pistol in the Citadel dlc. That pistol was good but there wasn't enough ammo to help much.

You mean in ME3 or ME1? I'm pretty sure that Kaidan can use an assault rifle in ME3.

Wouldst thou like the taste of butter? A pretty dress? Wouldst thou like to live deliciously?

[–] RightBackAtYa 7 years ago

I'm pretty sure that Kaidan can use an assault rifle in ME3.

My gosh, you're right! I had forgotten he could use an assault rifle. The problem with that is, if I'm not using a sniper rifle, I'm using an assault rifle so Kaidan isn't really needed.

I also have a problem with Kaidan being a Spectre. He has no business being a Spectre because the man can't make decisions on his own. He's also too wishy-washy when it comes to making a firm decision. "I believe in you", "I don't believe in you", "I'll never doubt you again", etc and so on. I loved Kaidan in 1 but man did they do a sloppy job on him in 3. 

In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice.

[–] Towelie_Towel (1699) 3 years ago

That's my biggest problem. Miranda was so important in ME2, in ME3 she was totally ignored.

[–] howgamer (3643) 3 years ago

I am fine with the fixed ending.

The biggest problem I had was no final boss. We get lots of build up of Harbinger in ME2 only to never really face off against him because the producers felt a final boss was cliche. Was a huge missed opportunity imo.

[–] Rorikon (16361) 3 years ago

Problem with fixed endings is you were given all these choices to mold your cast and the world around to have no significant impact on the outcome from said choices. Making every choice with the best paragon outcomes to saving all your teammates and helping ever possible NPC amounted to nothing.

[–] ILJtheFirst (1925) 3 years ago

Harbinger and the other reapers were impossible to fight against using the most advanced ships and weapons. Shepherd narrowly dodged a direct hit from a beam weapon and got utterly f-ed up. How could Shepherd fight it on foot?

[–] howgamer (3643) 3 years ago

It doesn't have to be all on foot, but you do fight a reaper on foot earlier in the game and also at the end of ME2. They could have came up with another creative way to fight one. It also doesn't necessarily have to be a reaper, although I think there at least should have been some interaction between Sheppard and Harbinger considering what happens in ME2. Fending off waves of enemies at the end, which you had been doing all game long, felt generic and was a let down imo. A unique final boss fight is cliche, but it sure is fun.

[–] ILJtheFirst (1925) 3 years ago

Yeah maybe they could've done something, but I was happy with the game as is. Harbinger was massive compared to the mini reaper Shepherd fought. It's been a while, but I think that's why Harbinger blasted them, because Shepherd was in the group. So you could say it was a personal interaction of sorts.

[–] howgamer (3643) 3 years ago

Maybe it's not even the lack of a final boss that bothers me the most, but more that Harbinger was pretty much absent the entire game. He is setup as a primary antagonist as much as the Illusive Man by the end of ME2 and he is maybe mentioned twice in ME3? The entire game I thought for sure there would be some confrontation or at least dialogue with him at the end, but the whole games seems to want to ignore him. I guess I wanted more on that storyline and that's pretty much the only complaint that I have with the game and a minor one that Miranda wasn't a playable character if she survived ME2.