Graphics - A - Very good graphics.
Story and atmosphere - B+ - Through most of the game, it was good and some decisions made from ME1 and ME2 come back for the game plots. It's carried well, until the ending. Decisions you made past and present have consequences.
Voice Acting - A. I'm a tough grader on voice acting. They actually got it right.
Combat and Play Control - B-. Similar to ME2. There are a couple of freezing points at times. Make sure you save your game often in different places. At least one sidequest had significant bug issues as well. As each sidequest can significantly affect the ending if you don't play multiplayer, that's a big deal.
Difficulty - A/D - Adjustable. It can be easy or very hard. I played it on normal and while I died a few times, only the brutes, phantoms, banshees, and a lot of geth rocket troops gave me a ton of problems. I preferred sniper rifle, so those were bad matchups for me. The D however refers to multiplayer requirements. If you do not play multiplayer, you get docked 50% of your war assets effectiveness, making it twice as hard to get a good ending. It's incredibly stupid and artifically increases difficulty. I don't mind it being tough to get the top ending, but games should be single player or multiplayer and they should be seperate.
Length - A- - It's a long game, and most of it was good. A little drag at some spots, but it held my attention well.
Endings - F - It's the lite beer version of Deus Ex Human Revolution. A bad copy. What works there does not work here. I don't have the attachments to those characters that I did to Shepard, Garrus, Tali, and Liara over three games. The whole trilogy is about decisions throughout the course of the game or three games. That's what makes this ending so bad, besids the fact that it is woefully incomplete. I was prepared for the Disney hero ending, prepared for losing Shepard, losing crew, or losing Earth. Not this. Compared to the A+ good ending of ME2 (Graded the bad ending a B+), this gets a solid F for failure or FUBAR - take your pick.
Specific problems (Spoilers):
Spoiler
Overall - B- - Good but flawed. Two major flaws. Multiplayer and single player should be separate. I shouldn't be jacked 50% in rediness because I don't care for multiplayer. That stopped me from the "best" ending, which really isn't all that great either. The last showdown wasn't all that good either compard to ME1 or 2. This reminds me of what EA does with rushjobs. As good as Ultima 7 pt 2 was (Serpent Isle), it could have better with the last part of the game. EA does it again.
If you liked the first two games, you'll be disapointed with this. I always say that FFVII is a good half of a game before and after 'that' scene. This is a good 90% of the game. That 10% though is a big deal and was a letdown. To be fair my expectations were very high, but ME2 exceeded them.
What could have been.
Edited by Red Dragon, 09 March 2012 - 08:46 PM.
;
