[SPOILERS] Mass Effect 3 Single Player Impressions/Discussion

[Hirmetrium]

So, I started ME3 last night.

The following is spoilers within the first hour or two of the game.

omfg me3

Right, so the whole game opened up like the demo did. The earth trial didn't make much sense, but that's ok - I'll just do that bit I did in the demo anyway.

Got to mars, obvious plot device is obvious, Cerberus have a pretty interesting storyline is seems.

I did a side mission which I quite enjoyed (the combat system is pretty slick) then did the From Ashes DLC.

PSA: From ashes seems crap. Unless there is more to it than I can see, I'm genuinely a bit disappointed at the moment. £6.50 for a half hour mission is a bit steep. It does not improve the storyline whatsoever, although obviously meeting the character in it is cool for about 5 seconds before it starts to actively annoy you.

ME3 continued

So, onwards to save the Primarch, picked up Garrus (sqeeee ^_^) and fought for, what I suspected for a second, was god-damn Saren. It's nice to see such a cool throwback, and brutes are quite interesting enemies. I found them actively challenging me on normal.

Finally, saved the primarch. That's as far as I got. But... not before EDI screwed things up. I'll keep that bit a surprise for you folks

[Rincewind]

I just finished the introduction (the demo mission) before I had to head off to work. I was kinda worried about how there was almost no dialolgue in the demo, but this turns out to be because everyone talks about your past accomplishments - DemoShephard had no history so thus no conversation.

[Jonny]

What have they done to my beautiful ship?

Also, does anyone else feel like the start is missing something? It feels a bit like starting a book halfway through chapter one, with no explanation of what's going on, where he is or why he's chatting to that Vega guy like they're old mates.

[Mokino]

Not sure if the game will mention this so

Vega and Shep's history

Vega was the guy Anderson hired to watch Shepard while he/she awaited trial so they've only really known eachother a few months.

[Rincewind]

@Mokino: Ah, explains a bit. I don't read/watch/play the peripheral stuff.

@Jonny: They want you to follow/read the peripherals, books and games and twitter etc. I fucking hate it.

@Everyone: Please remember that having "spoilers" in the thread title doesn't mean you don't have to use spoiler tags in the thread.

[Hirmetrium]

Yeah, but it would be rude of me not to be careful in the very first post.

Really solid impressions so far. After a shakey start, the elements of ME1/2 have really been perfected. It's nice to almost be back on the old citadel, but not so overwhelmingly massive.

All my complaints from ME2 have gone as well - ammo not properly restocking, the galaxy map looking like crap, etc - but there is only one new complaint I have. Why the fuck do quests not tell me where I am going? I feel like a blind man stumbling about.

[Inquisitor Lok]

So im about has far as Hirm is (Minus the side mission, getting Garrus(?), From Ashes, which has refused to DL for me, telling me i need to log in with the same account that i bought it on.. WP origin WP.. >.<)

I must say the game is quite fun. Although I feel like the citadel is to small.. and there aren't enough shops, nor enough people you can actually talk to but i guess its possible for stuff to open up as the game goes on. Also Ashley is so annoying now (more so then the first game...i wish i had found a save i liked that had killed her off like i did xD) and its hilariously awkward to have her and Liara (my love interest from the first games) around together. But the combat has defiantly improved along with the customization.

As for the opening, they 'kind of' explained why you were there... you're on trial for letting the batarians die and for destroying the relay from the Arrival DLC. But that was only mentioned to my character from a quick line that i barely caught..

Regardless, I cant wait to get to keep playing tonight to get Garrus ( <3)

@Jonny, i agree, the new Normandy isnt as nice D: Its to.... submarine/ warship like... after having just completed ME2 last night, i already miss the cleanness/ not as metallic interior as the old Cerberus run one..

[Rincewind]

I meant everything in any way related to the plot needs to be in spoiler tags, regardless of any disclaimer in the title. :P

Edit: Goddamit use spoiler tags people. *glares at post above*

[Starblade]

I'm not Commander Shepard but you should use spoiler tags for important bits anyway.

[Hirmetrium]

Right now from where I'm standing, it looks like the Demo actively butched the Sur'Kesh part of the mission quite radically. I really enjoyed that mission mind. I feel a little bad for the Salarians, but those fuckers had it coming.

I'm about to get to Tuchanga, been running around fixing people's problems so far, and also handled a problem for Wrex, involving... well, lets put it this way - the game is now actively running into previous aquaintences, and all my decisions from ME1 and ME2 are having an impact.

Citadel quests are kicking my ass because I can't find what I'm supposed to do next. God damn eclipse mercs.

It's interesting comparing ME2 to ME3 - the enemies I'm facing so far are much more... unique, rather than the endlessly recycled collectors/mercenaries. It's rather enjoyable facing a new opponent every mission.

Also, engineer class is FUCKING AWESOME.

I'm hoping to get some more quests wrapped up tonight, and then I should be close to the minimum threshold for taking back earth. I still don't understand Galaxy at war/Galatic readiness, but I'm sure I'll get there.

Make sure you guys put up your origin names in the LFG thread and let me know your up for some in the MP thread. Would really like a squad to help me get some points

[Inquisitor Lok]

@Rince, what did i spoil??

[DoomKnights]

You guys are all so slow. *played an all nighter*

So far so good. Just bulldozing through the game it seems. Already got Wrex and Sarus look alike on board. Trying to do all the side quests now. Ash is being a dick and playing hard to get, get on my ship already! Bah. Oh well. This is my "Ash be good" run too heh.

[DoomKnights]

Oh and Spoiler here:

Damn has everyone but Miranda gotten an hot upgrade? Before Jack was Meh, her new look? Holy hell batman I will need to play through ME2 again with that chick. She's done a full 360 and I love the new look. Alas Miranda is the only one so far I have seen who looks litterally like ME2 no changes...=\

[Starblade]

Oh and Spoiler here

Quick go save the spoiler tag planet before the Reapers get it!

[Rincewind]

Too late apparently.

From Ashes

I like what they did with the Protheans, with all the Slave Empire stuff they had going on. Much better than simply making them some kind of idealistic Star Trek Federation-style thingie. The mission itself was kinda basic but I think the money was well spent just for having a third squad member right from the start so I don't have to use James Vega a single fucking time.

Edit: Nevermind, my joy was short-lived. Have to take Vega along at least on the first "main story mission" after Mars.

[DoomKnights]

Consider this topic has "Spoiler" in it. I expect some adult expectations, you go into here there are spoilers. Or was I thinking to ahead of evolution there? ^^

[Hirmetrium]

WARNING: Complete side missions as you go. If you don't, at the end of the first "Act" you'll get locked out and they will fail. It will cost you war assets, but it looks like there are plenty of those if you play multiplayer (might not be if you don't). The game didn't make this very clear, and I've got a bunch of missions now marked as inactive in my journal, which I know for certain I didn't finish. Also I let some academy burn. Die little children!

zomg game plot advances!

So I've just cleared out the citadel and faced off with Kai Leng. That bastard needs to die. I'm rather enjoying it still, and I picked up the paladin. Screw you carnifex, I've got what I wanted. Now, saving for the black widow

[Rincewind]

DoomKnights: Oh shush. It's just standard operating procedure here because we don't have enough to talk about to make three threads - MP, SP & "Spoiler Free". Making spoiler tags for your post and writing which part of the game they cover ("Show spoiler for endgame" "Show spoiler for Turian mission" etc) is something that will take you about 15 seconds and allow the thread to stay active. It's also polite.

[Inquisitor Lok]

A fun trailer.

[DoomKnights]

I'm just being cranky. Didn't sleep last night^^

Loving the game alot. Can't wait to play more when I get home. I might crash on the keyboard tho heh.

[WalkerK19]

I have a question. What happened if you start with a savegame from ME2 where everyone dies? (including Shepard).

[DoomKnights]

You can't its a end game as per bioware.

[Rivy]

Hahaha, I laughed my ass out when talking to the Turian primarch in the Normandy:
"Garrus said he needed to attend to the weapon systems. Something about calibrations".
"Yeah, sounds like Garrus".

Other impressions, they butchered Shockwave, I had to remove it in favor of singularity.
Why did they remove Stasis from my power list ? I bought it in Lair of the Shadow Broker D:
Exploding biotic-ed enemies with Warp feels way more powerful now.
I haven't tried the biotic cluster grenade yet.

Me likey the customization options for weapons, the weapon weight thing and the new hairstyles !

[Langy]

Try exploding biotic-ed enemies with throw. It's wicked awesome and overpowered, what with the whole 'super fast cooldown' (hovers around 1 second for my sentinel using both a sniper rifle and an assault rifle) and the 'can fire off two throws at once' deal. So made throw more powerful.

I'm really considering playing through the game as just an Adept instead of my Sentinel; the only bits that make the sentinel better are the higher weight limit and Overload. Tech armor seems absolutely useless now, unfortunately

[Misiok]

I see one giant idiot ball right at the start. When they know the Reapers are coming to Earth, they mobilized the fleet and knew Shepard was right and his past experiences with the Reapers have shown that they are no joke. But what do they do? Well, I'll tell you what they didn't - evacuate/relocate Earth's population to some shelters, and I'm pretty sure they have a few of those just in case of planetary bombardment. If someone bothered to click on that during their space phase (this is a SinS refference, btw).

Yeah, that way you wouldn't have millions died in the first few hours because they didn't know shit that some cosmic parasite machine race is coming to eat them and would actually bother to hide. So we wouldn't have to watch that annoying kid die.

[Fish Of Doom]

I WANT TALI ?_?

been playing non-stop for about 10 hours. FUCKING AWESOME!

this level of awesome: http://oglaf.com/bliss/ (slightly NSFW)

also, i instantly associated the krogan thing with a sociopolitical statement re: certain things going on in the states right now. well motherfucking played, bioware. well motherfucking played

ALSO, I WANT TALI ?_? (also legion)

ok, back to shooting stuff in tuchanka. see ya, guys!

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also, re: quests: check the map, it tells you where important people/items are in different sections of the place where you are (such as the citadel or the normandy). things that you need to go get somewhere you'll either find during certain missions, or will be pointed out in the galaxy map.

[Misiok]

Surprise, surprise

@Cerberus

They're huskyfied! And still somewhat sane/retain self-awareness.

To give them credit, the moment they recognized it's Shepard who's attacking them and not Alliance personnel, their 'Oh Crap' moment was glorious - 'Oh shit! It's Shepard!'.

Also, where's my 'slap that Ash bitch till her hair goes back to ME1 style'? Because she feels so ass-pulley. She's late by a game and it feels with her questions and the way they talk. We've been all over it already but you were too busy being a whiny emo bitch to notice (ME2 flashbaaAaAaAaAck -'Shepard, how dare you die, come back and toy with my feelings?! And now you're with Cerberus?! You bastard'. Because that's how I saw that cutscene). Mind you, these are no spoilers so don't worry, it's just the first half hour of the game and I can't stand her.

Also, hey Earth council, you should weep and 'how do we fight back?!?!?!?!' instead, of y'know, listening to the man that was telling you that there's going to be a giant invasion of the galaxy in the past 2 games? The man you arrested because he was 'crazy to kill a colony for whatever his looney mind told him to'? The man that was fucking killed and then somehow brought back from the dead? Yeah, lets ask his opinion 5 minutes before you die and all the Earth is invaded. Good plan. Good thing you die in the first 6 minutes.

God, I can't wait how the council will react. Also I'm surprised they don't blame Shepard for all of this. For all we know those idiots might think he's the cause of it because he killed one of the Reapers and it's payback.

[Rincewind]

Misiok

Ah yes, "Reapers".

[Misiok]

Please stop talking about theoretical threats taken up from some mythical beliefs that make no sense whatso-OH GOD HELP US SHEPARD HELP US THEY'RE HERE AND WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DOOOOOOO!

[TheWickedGerman]

Great game so far, just started the first side missions, after meeting the council on citadel. What annoys me a bit, is that im missing some (important?) story bits because I didn´t get the ME2 DLC´s (the shadowbroker thing im talking about).

Shouldn´t be there a option to insert spoliers when using the advanced reply interface?

[Rincewind]

TWG, the game assumes you played both Lair of the Shadow Broker and Arrival, even if you didn't. You can just watch a longplay on Youtube and skip the combat as both are extremely linear with not much choices given to the player.

For everyone - using spoilers is really simple. Remove the asterisks from the examples below.

[*spoiler]bla bla bla REAPERS [/*spoiler] willl look like this:

Spoiler

bla bla bla REAPERS

while [*spoiler=ZOMG REAPERS]bla bla bla REAPERS [/*spoiler] Will look like this:

ZOMG REAPERS

bla bla bla REAPERS

[Fish Of Doom]

Spoiler

"shepard... everybody knows you can't dance!"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

----------

OMG...

GET.

SHEPARD.

DRUNK.

tis your moral obligation!

[Hirmetrium]

CRAP.

Turns out grissom academy is where you meet up with Jack. Which, since I saved her, would of probably given me a shit load of war assets.

Apparently the missions are not just locked into acts - they are timed. That means do them ASAP. I'm really pissed off - this isn't explained at all at any point, and while I appreciate the design for adding a sense of urgency, having whoever gives me the mission say "OH MAN WE NEED TO DO THIS OR THEY ALL DIE" would be helpful.

I'm slowly beginning to hate the new journal system. It's very unclear and doesn't give you the priority of understanding necessary to ensure you don't fuck everything up.

At least I think I'll play through ME3 again when I get the time - but I really want to get back into multiplayer, and also advance the story a bit more.

It's quite overwhelming - there's a real sense of urgency in getting the game done (mainly because I am so busy I want it out of the way and unspoilt) but theres an urgency in the distress calls, missions, placement, etc.

In regards to the without the DLC outcomes:
-In Lair of the shadow broker, Liara takes it by force with mercenaries.
-Arrival, you sacrifice the batarians to buy everyone more time.

That's all I've worked out so far.

[Fish Of Doom]

I HAZ TAAAALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII


*froths at the mouth*

[Stingra]

Makes me lol that Tricia Helfer's career has pretty much come full circle with this game.

[Fish Of Doom]

also, as far as i know (but i could be wrong), there's no time limit, hirm, it's just that i think certain missions (the big, race specific ones) trigger certain plot points that then interfere with side missions that depend on people from the locations affected by the plot point. i've happily shuttled around with several "urgent" missions in a state of perpetual limbo while i scanned random systems, bought stuff and acquired more side-quests, to no ill effect.

[Misiok]

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Though the game does like to remind you time and time again that not everyone is going to survive this war and that there's going to be lots of casualties so then there's that.

[Fish Of Doom]

hey, as long as there are no water chip quests, s'all good to me.

----------

also,

Spoiler

tali and EDI

as squadmates = pretty damn cool banter

[Aesaar]

Krogan/Genophage questline

Goddamn genophage is still very morally grey, as usual. Decided not to cure them (taking the Dalatrass' option). Props to this game for making me feel like total shit about a decision despite the fact that I wouldn't change it (well, I haven't actually done it yet, having just left the vehicles while on the way to the Shroud, but I'm quite sure it's the right thing to do. Poor Wrex).

Also, EDI's robot body is one of the most idiotic things I've seen from this series.

[Inquisitor Lok]

So i like the new scanning system much more then finding minerals, although im not to sure how the scanning works as it seems to sometimes attract tons of reapers and other times the meter doesnt budge at all. As for times for side missions, there may be a timer of some sort for some of them,but im not sure as i just got the Grisson academy mission but i recall the new helms person (the British/ Australian(?) girl) telling me i had to hurry and not dilly dally around before getting to them.

Also im not sure if im the only one whos felt this, or if i accidentally chose an option that did this, but it really feels like there are so many less dialogue option choices. And to the point where its been feeling like there was suppose to be an option but it automatically chose one for me without showing me any.. the thing is, i dont recall ever seeing an option at the start of the game asking if i wanted to play with all dialogue choices being mine or have it be more cinematic like the demo had... has anyone else felt this?// did everyone else have an option at the start for amount of dialogue options?

[Rincewind]

@Inquisitor Lok: Under Options / Narrative.

[TheWickedGerman]

I just scanned 3 systems, hadn´t much time to play so I dont know if you can generalize it, but it seems that if you are in "war zone" the reapers get attracted quicker(would make sense, wouldn´t it?). Had one system where no locations could be found, the bar showing the awarness even didn´t pop up. I made about 20 scans to see if nothing happens.

[Inquisitor Lok]

@Rince, cool ill check that when i get home. I found out, if you import a character the narrative option doesnt seem to show up at the start, but if you start a brand new character your asked what kind of experience you want (action, story or Roleplaying)

@Wicked, yea i know they get attracted based upon if its a warzone or not, but ive had a few times where scanning in a warzone wont attract reapers and sometimes it attracts tons and sometimes only a few, thats what im more confused about.

[Misiok]

So, after playing this for some time, my thoughts on the 'crucial' decisions you make through ME1/2 and their reflections in ME3. Spoilers, obviously.

Spoiler

Well, remember how you saved the council in ME1? And the Rachni? And destroyed the Collectors base in ME2 to not let Reaper tech get into the wrong hands? Well, let me tell you, no matter what you'd do, the outcome would be the same. I'm 100% sure of that. The council or earth council would be as useful as it was always, "Ah yes, Reapers" useful. The rachni would be probably 'found out', despite being destroyed and Cerberus would still be your enemy in ME3, no matter if you'd be a willing pawn or not in ME2. Because as ME3 showed me, the council is useless, the rachni suddenly 'showed up' in one of Wrex's missions, so it's a 'generic' plot mission, not a 'recruit your ally one' so it's just a way to incorporate both decisions into the story without changing it much. And Cerberus would still be axe crazy no matter if you saved the base or not, because they got their own reaper tech anyways!
While this is incredibly lame, I do have to feel some respect for the writers giving so much ambiguity to the outcomes that no matter what you do, it can be used both ways satisfying the players on their first playthrough. Well, that's what I think.

[Ewokz]

REally loving the game so far, not posted much here because I've just been playing. thought I'd come on to point out that you guys might want to save regularly, I just had something happen to my character and I got reverted from level 49 to 1, my last save was 2 hours before, UGH. Damn bugs.

[Mokino]

Misiok

Rachni

the Rachni choice does have a fairly decent impact later on once you find out where these ones came from. They at least have a logical explanation for Rachni even if you killed the queen in ME1.

[Inquisitor Lok]

@Ewokz, do you have Auto save turned off? At least on Hardcore mode it seems to save rather frequently.

[DoomKnights]

I tried Multi last night. Holy fun hell batman! That was a blast. The game forces you to work as a team, if you fall someone will try as hard as they can to get you back up, as having someone down means one less gun shooting the enemy.

Enemy lines, Cerb easy, Geth Med, Reaper *you die horribly!* hard.
I have yet to unlock any new character after 10 basic boxes and one mid box openend. It reminded me of my trader card game past heh.

[Mokino]

Geth are actually a lot easier than Cerberus due to the lack of phantoms.

[Misiok]

In other news, what does a Turian do when he is out of ammo? He takes the stick out of his ass to beat the enemy with.

Why does the Alliance military hire pilots with brittle bone disease? So their military personel can have someone to beat in hand-to-hand combat.

Hah, I lol'd on one of those.