HG101's review of Mass Effect 3

[Jacob]

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/mass-effect-3/

I used to frequent their site until their move to the new platform, which annoys me due to the inconvenience it cause and lots of missing articles. Now that their new website seems more stable, I stumbled upon this piece of gem.

Mass Effect 3 was a milestone,

In fact, it may be the best of the series.

On the whole, Mass Effect 3 creates a fantastic, fulfilling ending for the story of Commander Shepard,

the story really brings a sense of finality that wouldn’t have been possible in the old set-up.

For all Mass Effect 3 gets wrong, it gets so much more right.

Spoiler

Yes, I did quote some of those out of context, but in general they seem more accepting of ME3 compared to Codex, which is in line with their attitudes towards other WRPGs Codex hate. And they're bros, so you should click the link and read them, even if you disagree with it.

 

[karoliner]

Modern HG101 writers are a bunch of millennials wit shit taste in videogames.

 

[lightbane]

^This. Some like the obvious hipster 'tard Brian C. produce shit-tastic reviews with lots of purple prose but very little information, if any. Check for yourself this "review":
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/localhost/

Also, don't forget the owner of the web closed down after Trump won because "MUH FEELS! WE WILL BE PERSECUTED!!"

 

[Grauken]

Was there a change of guard, I liked their old articles, but the ones published since the switch seem completely superficial

 

[Yosharian]

I still have trouble accepting how bad ME3 was. I look back and think 'nah, it can't have been that bad'. Then I see a clip of the game and I feel like ending myself all over again.

The hundreds of hours I spent on that game series.. makes me fucking sick to think how it ended. (And by that I refer to the entire third game, not simply its ending)

I wish I'd just never played ME3.

 

[Zer0wing]

Modern HG101 writers are a bunch of millennials wit shit taste in videogames.

The old HG101 writers are a bunch of wannabe japfags with fact check problems and obnoxious puritanism. Is this any better?

 

[GrainWetski]

^This. Some like the obvious hipster 'tard Brian C. produce shit-tastic reviews with lots of purple prose but very little information, if any. Check for yourself this "review":
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/localhost/

Also, don't forget the owner of the web closed down after Trump won because "MUH FEELS! WE WILL BE PERSECUTED!!"

Reads like PolyRockPaperEuroWaypointaku. It's even about a game nobody has heard of made by one of their friends that nobody has heard of.

In 2017, game designer Sophia Park made waves with Arc Symphony

"She"(no doubt) sure did.

Such warnings become all the more relevant when one realizes how strongly its future world of 2037 resembles the present world of 2017.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

I still have trouble accepting how bad ME3 was

ME2 was where the wheels came off. By ME3 I'd reconciled myself that the plot would make no sense and the ending was going to be a total fiasco and I might as well enjoy the pew-pew on the way. If anything ME3 was an improvement plotwise on ME2 because at least it's consistently poor instead of fighting the player at every turn.

 

[Yosharian]

I still have trouble accepting how bad ME3 was

ME2 was where the wheels came off. By ME3 I'd reconciled myself that the plot would make no sense and the ending was going to be a total fiasco and I might as well enjoy the pew-pew on the way. If anything ME3 was an improvement plotwise on ME2 because at least it's consistently poor instead of fighting the player at every turn.

ME2 had some real bad issues but it was still a decent game in my opinion.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

ME2 had some real bad issues but it was still a decent game in my opinion.

It's a good game to play, but, and some of the character missions are fun and interesting, but if you were in any way invested in it being a sequel to ME1 it's impossible to take the plot seriously, and consequently that of ME3 as well. It's the AAA equivalent of one of those CDs full of miscellaneous unrelated fan-made Doom wads. Playing it as a sequel rather than a standalone game makes me unreasonably angry.

 

[Sykar]

I still have trouble accepting how bad ME3 was

ME2 was where the wheels came off. By ME3 I'd reconciled myself that the plot would make no sense and the ending was going to be a total fiasco and I might as well enjoy the pew-pew on the way. If anything ME3 was an improvement plotwise on ME2 because at least it's consistently poor instead of fighting the player at every turn.

ME2 had some real bad issues but it was still a decent game in my opinion.

Real bad issues? Like the batshit retarded plot which had no real tie ins to ME 1 or ME 3? Space Jesus Shepard being revived despite being disintegrated at atmospheric entry? Like the blatant and nonsensical retconning of almost everything? Like turning Mako missions into literal pop a mole scan a planet game instead of properly improving the missions? Idiotic characters and composition of the team? TIM being an utter retard? Cerberus turning from a fringe terrorist organization to a major power player?

Damn I could go on all day just how much ME 2 was the epitome of decline. Worse than DA 2 even.

 

[Falksi]

This bit......

Trying to top Mass Effect 2 is an absurd idea

 

[SpaceWizardz]

Worse than DA 2 even.

Let's not say anything we can't take back.

 

[Bumvelcrow]

Worse than DA 2 even.

Let's not say anything we can't take back.

I actually enjoyed DA2 in a low level, good-for-what-it-is sort of way. It was an inoffensively bland way to spend time rather than being actively infuriating. Of course, like ME2 it was a sequel to a considerably better game, but because DA2 feels like a spinoff and doesn't directly continue the plot it's easier to regard it as standalone.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

The only good thing on that site are the final fantasy reviews, and those weren't actually written by a site regular.

 

[Vorark]

Was there a change of guard, I liked their old articles, but the ones published since the switch seem completely superficial

Their forums declined hard too, always had interesting discussions going on about obscure gems. Around 2012-2014 the older members gradually stopped posting and the quality went down, was a shame. I don't even bother to visit hg101 these days.

 

[Werdna's Revenge]

Trying to defend ME3 on any level is more like tryhard codex shitposting than anything. Modern HG101 still looks generally better than the average game writing site.

 

[Jacob]

The only good thing on that site are the final fantasy reviews, and those weren't actually written by a site regular.

I wish the writer actually made the ff6 review, but instead we got the april fools crap.

 

[Frozen]

thread

 

[TemplarGR]

How you view Mass Effect 3 has everything to do with what you are looking to get out of a toy video game. As a video game, Mass Effect 3 was an improvement mechanically, the graphics were better, it had good content. It was a very good cover based 3rd person shooter with RPG elements, like the rest of the series. It was action packed. I was never bored until i finished it. It also felt awesome gathering your allies for a final confrontation against impossible odds.

Now, if you are using video games as a substitute for your pathetic life and non-existent social circle, obviously Mass Effect 3's ending would have been a huge disappointment, even if written by codex favorite Avellone. I mean, when you are living your own life through a video game, when you substitute your feelings for characters in a video game, any time said video game ended would have felt like DEATH. Like you dying... It is not about the writing quality, what really disappointed most fans was that the sudden realization that all those hours were not real life but a video game... And they incorrectly thought it was the "bad ending" that was the culprit for feeling like shit...

I mean, seriously, 2 questions:

1) How can you justify that a game you thoroughly enjoyed up until the ending cutscene, was bad? You spent lots and lots of hours getting there, and you think the game is trash based on a 5 minute cutscene? BTW look up the explanation as to why in the second paragraph...

2) What could have been made differently? I mean, the Reapers were made since the first game to be impossible foes to defeat, even for the whole united galaxy. They were made to be the ultimate apocalyptic enemy, the one who has periodically (50k years) destroyed every civilization that ever existed. No one was ever able to withstand them, not even the far more advanced Protheans. How do you end a story like this? The only way Shepard and co could win would be through acquiring a "secret weapon" of some sort to tip the scales, or an act of God!

And that's what Mass Effect 3 writers did: They created an ultimate weapon that was supposedly developed through the reaper cycles and passed on by extinct biotic civs, finished by the alliance of current circle civs, and removed the Reaper threat... A sensible ending given the build up of the story up to that point.

Now, the nature of the weapon was a hard thing to do. I mean, if it was just a thicker laser that penetrated reaper armor better it would have been lame. Same if it would have been an EMP or something...

So they made it so Shepard actually meets the AI behind the reapers and gets the decision on what to do with them. Kill them, merge with them, become the next AI and control them, do nothing and let the cycle continue.

Nice ending all things considered. Bandwaggoners who hate it just for the shake of hating it are MORONS.

 

[DayofBlow]

What could have been made differently? I mean, the Reapers were made since the first game to be impossible foes to defeat, even for the whole united galaxy. They were made to be the ultimate apocalyptic enemy, the one who has periodically (50k years) destroyed every civilization that ever existed. No one was ever able to withstand them, not even the far more advanced Protheans. How do you end a story like this? The only way Shepard and co could win would be through acquiring a "secret weapon" of some sort to tip the scales, or an act of God!

And that's what Mass Effect 3 writers did: They created an ultimate weapon that was supposedly developed through the reaper cycles and passed on by extinct biotic civs, finished by the alliance of current circle civs, and removed the Reaper threat... A sensible ending given the build up of the story up to that point.

Now, the nature of the weapon was a hard thing to do. I mean, if it was just a thicker laser that penetrated reaper armor better it would have been lame. Same if it would have been an EMP or something...

So they made it so Shepard actually meets the AI behind the reapers and gets the decision on what to do with them. Kill them, merge with them, become the next AI and control them, do nothing and let the cycle continue.

Nice ending all things considered. Bandwaggoners who hate it just for the shake of hating it are MORONS.

Not being able to discern why the ending is shit means you are stuck at a retarded 14yo's level of critical thinking. Don't worry, the rest of the game was almost equally as shit, the ending just happened to be so awkward due to being thrown together in the last 2 months of development that even half the that loved 2&3 up to that point noticed the shit pouring out of the seams. You're not one them.

"Reapers are impossible to defeat." is fanboy shit spouted by cretins devoid of any amount of thought. Yeah, the dead space squid at the end of 1 was really impossible to kill, wasn't it? The thing that needed a sneak attack blitzkrieg with a slave robot fleet and internal sabotage to even get a chance at winning? Any writer with an ounce of creativity would've went, "Hey, this robo-Cthulhu race uses a honeypot to defeat their enemies? Maybe they do that 'cause they're not as strong as they lead you to believe. Maybe they do that 'cause a prolonged war against an organised galactic opponent would lead to heavy losses, especially now that they still have their capital and squidcucks can't control the relays and isolate the individual star systems. And they'd have huge jumps in techonology in an incredibly short time period, ala [insert WW analogue here] in such scenarios."

Will you look at that, suddenly it sounds like a story that doesn't need a shitty macguffin. But nope. A game makes a half decent attempt at building up a threat, and it all goes to shit once dumbfuck takes it as gospel because he can't think around it. Bring on the gigantic magic space dildo made in 6 months.

 

[TemplarGR]

Not being able to discern why the ending is shit means you are stuck at a retarded 14yo's level of critical thinking. Don't worry, the rest of the game was almost equally as shit, the ending just happened to be so awkward due to being thrown together in the last 2 months of development that even half the that loved 2&3 up to that point noticed the shit pouring out of the seams. You're not one them.

"Reapers are impossible to defeat." is fanboy shit spouted by cretins devoid of any amount of thought. Yeah, the dead space squid at the end of 1 was really impossible to kill, wasn't it? The thing that needed a sneak attack blitzkrieg with a slave robot fleet and internal sabotage to even get a chance at winning? Any writer with an ounce of creativity would've went, "Hey, this robo-Cthulhu race uses a honeypot to defeat their enemies? Maybe they do that 'cause they're not as strong as they lead you to believe. Maybe they do that 'cause a prolonged war against an organised galactic opponent would lead to heavy losses, especially now that they still have their capital and squidcucks can't control the relays and isolate the individual star systems. And they'd have huge jumps in techonology in an incredibly short time period, ala [insert WW analogue here] in such scenarios."

Will you look at that, suddenly it sounds like a story that doesn't need a shitty macguffin. But nope. A game makes a half decent attempt at building up a threat, and it all goes to shit once dumbfuck takes it as gospel because he can't think around it. Bring on the gigantic magic space dildo made in 6 months.

How about instead of beinga fucking retard desperately trying to insult someone, actually read his text before replying?

1) The reaper at the end of Mass Effect 1 was a single reaper and it took the whole alliance fleet + Citadel forces to defeat, and it almost managed to destroy the Citadel. But reapers were a lot, thousands invaded Earth alone. So yes they were impossible to defeat because if it took the army of a whole civilizatoin + citadel to defeat 1, then there was no possibility to defeat thousands all over the place. You are just a retard if you don't understand this.

2) They could not downplay the strength of the reapers, because then they would have to explain why so many past civilizations got destroyed by them with no chance of defending themselves. I mean, if the Reapers weren't that strong and needed tricks to defeat the Citadel, how did they beat the Protheans which the game lore made up to be far more advanced than humans/turians/asari etc?

I understand it, you are a no-life loser who wanted Mass Effect 3 ending to be larger than life. Maybe you expected it to find you a girlfriend, who knows. But the reality is it was a really good game with a servicable ending, all things considered. Cry me a river now.

 

[bylam]

Except the first game had a plot about stopping them controlling the citadel and thus stifling their efforts to enter citadel space.

It's clearly explained that the Protheans were overcome because the Reapers used the citadel to overthrow their center of power before they could react. It was over before it began. That is literally the plot of the first game - preventing the blitzkreig thanks to the efforts of the Protheans.

And then they threw it away for character drama in no.2. They kill Shepard for no good reason, skip 2 years, have everyone forget about the reaper who attacked the citadel (they no longer had any reason to doubt Shepard).

Yes, Reapers were seemingly all-powerful and godlike. That's why the second game would have been much better served in being a story about Shepard figuring out the key to beating the Reapers. Maybe recruiting a crack crew to figure that out, the best of the best. You could still have 90% of the missions of ME2 if the main story was re-framed around that objective - and it was actually about Shepard following leads on the Reapers.

And then the third game should have been about a hopeless war at home for the first half (yes because there are godlike reapers the citadel races are still losing) and a desperate final plunge into reaper space to find the final piece of the puzzle for what the reapers are (and their actual purpose) and destroy them/appease them etc.

Instead we got Cerberus, Collectors and the Citadel.

It has nothing to do with ME3 - the plot went off the rails with ME2 and just spiralled to the inevitable conclusion.

 

[Sykar]

Not being able to discern why the ending is shit means you are stuck at a retarded 14yo's level of critical thinking. Don't worry, the rest of the game was almost equally as shit, the ending just happened to be so awkward due to being thrown together in the last 2 months of development that even half the that loved 2&3 up to that point noticed the shit pouring out of the seams. You're not one them.

"Reapers are impossible to defeat." is fanboy shit spouted by cretins devoid of any amount of thought. Yeah, the dead space squid at the end of 1 was really impossible to kill, wasn't it? The thing that needed a sneak attack blitzkrieg with a slave robot fleet and internal sabotage to even get a chance at winning? Any writer with an ounce of creativity would've went, "Hey, this robo-Cthulhu race uses a honeypot to defeat their enemies? Maybe they do that 'cause they're not as strong as they lead you to believe. Maybe they do that 'cause a prolonged war against an organised galactic opponent would lead to heavy losses, especially now that they still have their capital and squidcucks can't control the relays and isolate the individual star systems. And they'd have huge jumps in techonology in an incredibly short time period, ala [insert WW analogue here] in such scenarios."

Will you look at that, suddenly it sounds like a story that doesn't need a shitty macguffin. But nope. A game makes a half decent attempt at building up a threat, and it all goes to shit once dumbfuck takes it as gospel because he can't think around it. Bring on the gigantic magic space dildo made in 6 months.

How about instead of beinga fucking retard desperately trying to insult someone, actually read his text before replying?

1) The reaper at the end of Mass Effect 1 was a single reaper and it took the whole alliance fleet + Citadel forces to defeat, and it almost managed to destroy the Citadel. But reapers were a lot, thousands invaded Earth alone. So yes they were impossible to defeat because if it took the army of a whole civilizatoin + citadel to defeat 1, then there was no possibility to defeat thousands all over the place. You are just a retard if you don't understand this.

2) They could not downplay the strength of the reapers, because then they would have to explain why so many past civilizations got destroyed by them with no chance of defending themselves. I mean, if the Reapers weren't that strong and needed tricks to defeat the Citadel, how did they beat the Protheans which the game lore made up to be far more advanced than humans/turians/asari etc?

I understand it, you are a no-life loser who wanted Mass Effect 3 ending to be larger than life. Maybe you expected it to find you a girlfriend, who knows. But the reality is it was a really good game with a servicable ending, all things considered. Cry me a river now.

The game was utter garbage and the ending was insulting. The ending in a nutshell:


Only blithering retards would defend the shitshow that is ME 2 and ME 3.

 

[DayofBlow]

How about instead of beinga fucking retard desperately trying to insult someone, actually read his text before replying?

1) The reaper at the end of Mass Effect 1 was a single reaper and it took the whole alliance fleet + Citadel forces to defeat, and it almost managed to destroy the Citadel. But reapers were a lot, thousands invaded Earth alone. So yes they were impossible to defeat because if it took the army of a whole civilizatoin + citadel to defeat 1, then there was no possibility to defeat thousands all over the place. You are just a retard if you don't understand this.

2) They could not downplay the strength of the reapers, because then they would have to explain why so many past civilizations got destroyed by them with no chance of defending themselves. I mean, if the Reapers weren't that strong and needed tricks to defeat the Citadel, how did they beat the Protheans which the game lore made up to be far more advanced than humans/turians/asari etc?

I understand it, you are a no-life loser who wanted Mass Effect 3 ending to be larger than life. Maybe you expected it to find you a girlfriend, who knows. But the reality is it was a really good game with a servicable ending, all things considered. Cry me a river now.

See, you just displayed complete inadequacy again. You are incapable of arguing against responses you don't have a canned answer to, so you default back to your "u jus mad at ending bro" cretinism like a bot, even though it's contradictory to the response you are quoting. You're so far into dumbfuck territory you think you're the smart one.

But appreciate you responding to the stupid plot shit I brought into this. Atleast we are having a conversation about something.

Here, let me break down something I wrote in my last post, specifically about reaper bro that got his shit pushed in in ME1:
- it had a huge fleet of geth ships
- it launched a surprise invasion on an unsuspecting opponent
- it had a large amount of foot soldiers sabotaging the Citadel from within

The idea of "a single reaper almost beat 2 fleets" exists solely because drooling retards are too stupid to internalise those 3 things I have now told you a second time. Pretty sure 2 had dialogue along the lines of "single reaper rekt us" aswell, which just proves that a number of the writers were in the retarded camp too.

The reason they've won every time is literally explained in a giant exposition dump in 1. Mass relays are programmed to zap any race that finds them to the Citadel -> ultra advanced pre-made megastructure with auto-maintanance invariably becomes capital of the universe -> secretly a super mass relay that both controls all the other mass relays and leads to reaper fleet outside of galaxy -> 1 reaper is left in charge of checking on shit and sends signal when its time, relay activates, reapers zap in and capture space capital, deactivate all other relays, cleanup leaderless, disorganised, isolated solar systems one by one. This cycle gets fucked up because leftover protheans managed to negate the reaper signal, leading to the plot of the first game. Fin. Ergo, the basis of my comment about how it'd be a fairly reasonable extrapolation for a writer to say the reapers wouldn't be anywhere near "undefeatable" and goodguys(tm) wouldn't need a space macguffin in the shape of a PS Move to beat them.

No wonder you defend 3, it's like you never played 1 or forgot all the basic synopsys level plot shit it contradicts within 10 minutes of starting a new game.

By the time the invasion happens the plot is so far into retardo land, you can't argue without retracing back on the sequence of events that lead to it. The fact that they're even there, with no special explanation for how is stupid. The point of 1 is that they used the Citadel megarelay to invade, but since that plan fell apart they are stuck outside of the galaxy. Yet according to 3, they can just manually travel back in 6 months since the end of 2, or at most since the end of 1 which is 2.5 years. Basically no time at all.

Why in the name of sweet Jehova did anything in 1 and 2 happen then? Sovereign tells his bros, shit's fucked, they enter the milky way in a few years, jump through the relays meet up with watchdog reaper bro and his slave collective and take the fucking Citadel that way. Bish bash bosh. Oh wait, the writer forgot that the Citadel can deactivate all the other relays. Oops.