Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Surprisingly good"

I'm very well aware of the uproar ME3 generated. However, I'm oblivious to why. As soon as I heard the commotion and the reasons behind it, I tuned this game out completely. I know the gist was a shallow ending and pernicious DLC, and it was the former which repelled me.

So I don't know exactly why the endings were bad other than lacking for substance. I didn't play this game until September 2012, long enough after the release for EA to issue the free Extended Cut which added more substance to the endings. What I do know is, in it's current form, all of it is very, very good. Yes Virginia, that includes the endings, all of which I found to be fitting with the story to that point.

So on to the game itself. There's much of what you expect from this franchise, like superb voice-acting, graphics that are good in every way except low-res clothing, numerous decisions to make which have real impact, deep character interactions, and a apocalyptic story that pulls the player forward. Leveling is similar to ME2, combat is more intense, and weapons can be upgraded and modded. One negative is the small roster. Without DLC, you never have more than 6 teammates, which seems small after ME2. Also, they took out the majority of the tiresome planet-scanning. Good riddance.

Multiplayer is basically hoard management (think Mann vs. Machine in TF2). You and a small team get swarmed with baddies, and you have to kill them. Even when there's an objective, like escorting a drone or downloading something, you still basically just have to kill every enemy. It's simple, but fun. You can upgrade your character, earn credits towards better gear, complete challenges, etc. It helps your main 1P game by boosting Galactic Readiness (and thereby boosting Effective Military Strength). It is also pretty tough, so it makes the combat in 1P mode too easy unless you play the harder difficulties.

So overall ME3 is now a very good game, one which shouldn't leave a bitter taste in your mouth upon completion. Hopefully EA learned the right lesson from this as they develop Dragon Age 3. However, the cynic in me sees them learning the wrong lesson, which is that gamers are passionate about satisfying endings and EA will now charge us for them (like Asura's wrath, curse you Capcom).