The problem in playing Mass Effect 3.

This one comes up a lot, its also one the one that is consistently rebuked by statements like "the fanbase thought ME2's gameplay was bad too, you're all just whining", despite the fact that i wasn't even there for that. But thats all for another time, but to give some perspective on this particular issue, here are my (for lack of a better term) credentials.

My first game was Quake II, yeah i'm young, what of it. And as a kid I had N64 like everyone else and spent my time constantly playing ALL the Star Wars titles, since thats all I really found fun. It wasn't until the arrival of my first Playstation 2 that a passing interest in gaming became an investment. I'd like to think I have a wide range of experience with any number of genres, and believe me I have indeed played them before settling on my favorites so to speak. To name a few, Need For Speed High Stakes, F/A-18 Korea, Grand Prix 3, Metal Gear Solid 3, Acecombat Distant Thunder, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (PC) and any number of classic Rainbow Six games.My first Call of Duty was CoD4 Modern Warfare (best of series as far as i'm concerned), and of course Arma 2. I'm not a sim guy or a casual guy, or a FPS guy or purely RPG. I play games, if I enjoy it, I keep buying it.

So what does this have to do with Mass Effect 3? Well, in a sentence, I didn't play Mass Effect to play Gears of War.

This is my biggest, absolute biggest problem with the gameplay of ME3. Its not that its inherently bad per se, except for the incredibly aggravating press A to do everything, its just that I had played this before in Gears of War 1, 2, 3, which also isn't inherently bad but is indicative of a cancer that seems to be spreading amongst AAA titles. Developers seem to think that if Game A does really really really well at something, then copying the way Game A, giving it a twist and then calling it "unique" is also going to rake in the millions. NEWSFLASH: It doesn't. Ever.

Anyone remember Ghost Recon Future Soldier? Exactly how many people are still playing it? Well how about Rainbow Six Vegas 2? Last I went online with that on the PC there were a grand total of 2 games going on at any single time. Americas Army 2.2.32.254.243.2.4.2.4.2.4.whatever has more people playing, hell even Americas Army 3 has more active servers. How about those new Splinter Cell games? Oh sure they're serviceable but you mention to any fan of those particular series and ask what they thought of GR2 or SC3: Chaos Theory and boy do those nostalgia glasses come on quicker than you can say Sam Fisher.

The thing is people don't play Ghost Recon to play Gears or Rainbow Six to play CoD, they play Gears for Gears and CoD for CoD, it is really pretty damned simple. Gamers know what they like, and if they like CoD they're going to keep going back to CoD because that franchise gives them what they want, every single time, reliably and without too much of a hassle. I'll be honest the phrase "hating on whats popular" is actually quite accurate, just not in the context you would assume. CoD is popular, so devs will see that as the benchmark when they should be focusing on what made the name of the series they're adding a new entry to. You compare Rainbow Six 3 to Rainbow Six: Patriots and you will see the influence of CoD everywhere. Its always high intensity, its always hectic, and it is oh so linear my brain would like to go to sleep mode, and come back when its required.

This is the problem I have with Mass Effect 3. Now for me, pretty much everything in Mass Effect 2 was perfect, aside from the occasional bug here and there. Now at this point you're probably accusing me of hypocrisy, "how can you criticize ME3 when ME2 was exactly the same?". The thing is, they're not. There are about three additions that thoroughly ruined the gameplay in my view;

• Access to all weaponry.
• Dodge/roll.
• Roadie run.

Ironically these three things are lauded as legendary improvements, when in fact they detract everything that gave Mass Effect its character. Having access to all the weapons available effectively stripped ME3 of the last elements of an RPG. The Soldier class was literally pointless, as its major strength in the previous games was the fact that you could carry all the weapons, thing was you were limited in what powers you could use. If you wanted Tech (Engineer), Biotics (Adept/Vanguard), a combination of the two (Sentinel) or a focus on weaponry and tech (Infiltrator, my personal favorite in SP), you could do that, but that was balanced out by being unable to use a specific set of weaponry unless you used your bonus power to do so in ME1, or picked up a different weapon in your ME2 collector ship choice. Each play through of the games was completely different due to the fact that playing as a different class opened up different options to dealing with the challenges the game presented. It was all balanced out, and sure you can tell me that BioWare knew that most people played as Soldier, but how many of those people played the game casually and didn't really care much for the other classes simply because they wanted to shoot stuff? Hardly an accurate representation due to the variance of the gaming demographic.

The dodge/roll mechanic is my pet peev. Everything, and i mean everything, about it makes me want to smash something. The problem here is that the industry seems to have this perception that fast, hectic and chaotic gameplay equals GOOD and anything that requires even the least amount of thought equals BAD. Now for CoD and Gears, that may indeed work, however that kind of gameplay should STAY with those games. What the dodge/roll mechanic does is forgives total shit for brains for acting like shit for brains. In ME2 you couldn't just jump like a frightened deer away from the bad guy. you get yourself into a bad situation in that game and it will punish you, in particular on Insanity. The roadie run, replacing the storm mechanic, also adds to this leniency. Need to get away? Hold A and just run. Don't worry about tiring out, just go, no thinking required. The follow on effect from this is that rather than enemies being difficult because YOU weren't thinking correctly or weren't conserving ammo on your two firearms, enemies are difficult for the sake of being difficult.

Enemies no longer move in an intelligent manner you'd expect from any fighting force. They're quick, erratic, some have ridiculously small hit boxes and run around like headless chicken (Nemesis). The Phantom, possibly the WORST character in Mass Effect history, was introduced to combat the players increased mobility and it suck, it really really sucks. I've been drawn at least over 4 meters sometimes back to an instant kill because of their stupid one shot kill mechanic. The game no longer becomes fun, it simply becomes frustrating. I'm no longer looking forward to the next area, but painfully slugging away at these witless Cerberus troopers just to get to the next cutscene in the hope something interesting will happen. I no longer feel elated after a good firefight because there was absolutely no squad cohesion, I had no use for them other than the odd Overload from Garrus here and there. In ME2 on my Insanity run I remember having to place him in an overwatch position so that my squad's effectiveness increased to combat the challenge presented to me. I was forced to think about what I was doing to succeed. What did I do in ME3? I ran around with a Black Widow X and my cloak, and the only part that was actually difficult was the three Geth Primes on Rannoch. Not because of the level design or the gameplay, but simply because they were three Geth Primes with three shot win cannons as standard. The last "boss" mission (as it has been, laughable, described to me on more than one occasion)? I just sent Javik and Garrus to the other side of the map, ran around cloaked for a bit and waited for EDI to tell me the Thanix missiles were ready. This was the final sequence of the game, and I walked through it like I was on vacation.

This is the biggest problem with the game. Its not challenging in the least, it just gives you one or two broken enemies to go toe to toe with once in a while, only to force you through a crappy horde mode at the end of it. BioWare specifically emulated a winning formula in another game in the hope that Gears's success would translate in Mass Effect. The sad part is they didn't need to do this, what they had was fine as it was and merely needed to be fleshed out a bit more. The game still would've sold as many copies if it hadn't resorted to becoming like the competition in order to remain relevant.


-UPDATE-

Something that slipped my mind on the subject of the weapon selection, ME3 also removed each weapons specialty trait. In ME2;

• Heavy Pistols: Very effective against Armour/Health, poor against shields with limited ammo.
• SMG: Very effective against shields, poor against armour and health but with a large amount of ammo.
• Assault Rifle: Effective against everything with a decent amount of ammo. The Mattock is the odd one out, having more in common with the Heavy Pistol, offset with a low amount of ammo.
• Sniper Rifle: Effective against everything when shot in the head, though limited ammo and low ROF easily balanced that out.
• Shotguns: Honestly, dunno, never really used them.
• Heavy Weapons: For use in those "OH SHI-" moments where your standard selection of weapons simply won't cut it.

Everything had their strengths and weaknesses, coupled with the classing system, it made the combat diverse forcing you to exploit your weapons to their highest efficiency. This was simply missing from ME3, as stated before, my entire Insanity playthrough consisted wholly of shooting things with the Black Widow X. Ammo was simply far too easy to get as well, and the need to change up my weapons due to different enemies or lack of ammo never, ever arose. Just pick the best weapon and go.

A Foreword

The time has come. The time has come for me to finally sit down and lay everything out on the table in a logical manner that tries to process just exactly what happens when I think about Mass Effect and the games industry at large. What about it that I feel strongly about and why I believe the violent fan reaction is not only indicative of the power the series has had over people for the past 5 years, but why Mass Effect 3 and its subsequent sequels of various media will forever more be looked upon with disdain in the same way Star Wars fans frown upon The Phantom Menace.

This is personal, I will not deny it. Much to my disdain I am indeed human, I cannot see what others see in the series as it is now, I cannot see how people can play Mass Effect and not come away enthralled by the universe BioWare has created. I will also say this now I am not a BioWare fan specifically, I have not played any other game by the developer, and I judge Mass Effect based on its own merits. Not by what successes or failures that has come before, but by what they created in creating Mass Effect, and how after playing the first two games I came to expect a certain amount of finesse, quality and attention to detail to appear in the third and final installment. This will not be pretty, this is not an apologetic piece. This is the culmination of turmoil, discussion, outright hate and more turmoil that I have been experiencing since I picked up Mass Effect.

The other, more practical, reason I feel I have to do this is that I’m tired of repeatedly typing out my opinions over and over and over and over again in a high intensity environment where I cannot simply look over what I’ve written.That’s an inherent problem with forums, you’re too busy trying to respond quickly to give your post structure and ensure a cohesive argument, lest the thread be closed. I will also be expanding to the industry at large once I have exhausted Mass Effect...or until Halo 4 consumes my life, whichever comes first.