i started playing ME3 this past weekend and i’ve put about 5 hours in. i don’t think i’ve put enough time in to get a good feel of the gameplay yet, but i will try to notate my first impressions. the combat appears to be a refined version of ME2’s system. you’re meant to fight from cover still, but it doesn’t seem like a must unless overwhelmed. so far i’d rate the combat systems like so ME1 > ME3 > ME2. it’s still pretty early in the game though so i might end up changing my mind.

i was trying to keep an open mind about the james vega character…when shepard has his first talk with vega in the shuttle bay it was so dumb though. so dumb and out of place. the great commander shepard has to deal with some grunt with no apparent respect for authority all during a fight for the galaxy? a character like vega belongs in ME1 not ME3. i’m glad that ashley is back, but she seems out of place as well. vega and ashley just seem so small and stupid compared to the likes of liara. i was confused to see that none of the cerberus ship staff were still aboard the normandy because i thought i had won over the crew’s loyalty. the diana allers stuff is just plain terrible. the game graphics seem incrementally improved in ME3. i’ve noticed there’s a lot less side conversations to be had when exploring areas now. all of the conversations seem to be with main characters. i’ve also noticed a few weird glitches early in the game. once the game froze for about 30 seconds after a certain conversation. another time during a conversation, shepard was looking in the wrong direction the entire time. i almost wonder if they had to rush ME3 out the door to meet a deadline.

the samantha traynor character seems fairly lame so far. she makes me miss kelly.

update 9/25/2013:
i’ve played a few more missions. this probably goes without saying yet here it is…SPOILERS are about to happen. i’m enjoying where the overall story is going in ME3, but i’ve noticed a decline in the quality of dialog. the humor is off a bit and most of shepard’s responses are short (sometimes one word). i imagine this is either due to rushing the game out or the departure of drew karpyshyn from the writing team (or both). an example of sloppiness is in the eden prime segment where there’s dialog that “these colonists weren’t on a battlefield…they were sitting at home relaxing when they were killed” (something to this effect), yet all the corpses are in full combat suit w/ helmets and all. i don’t recall goofs like that happening in ME1 or ME2.

i’ve played the first DLC pack “from ashes” and there is no way that it is worth $10. the DLC pricing is insanely out of control in ME3. EA is really milking every penny they can from the fanbase because they know fans will buy it. a youtube review of ME3 stated that from ashes was actually release day DLC. that’s such garbage to have to buy DLC immediately after purchasing the game. on top of that, the introduction of the prothean squad member should have never been in DLC. javik reveals a considerable amount of info about the protheans.

i’m confused by some of the reaper lore. for instance, i thought the reapers took the form of the species they were harvesting. such as in ME2 when there was a human shaped reaper that was infused with human DNA goop. and i understood that the majority of reapers are fashioned after the protheans. but in javik’s flashback you see reapers invading that already look like protheans…shouldn’t they look like another species? like whatever race came 50,000 years before the protheans. also since the reapers are practically invincible shouldn’t there be reapers that looks like all sorts of races from each 50k year cycle?

update 10/5/2013:
i’d gauge that i’m a little more than half way done with the game at this point. despite my previous complaints and the general online criticism of the game (mostly concerning the original ending) i’m really liking this game. i feel like the development team listened to the criticism of the previous 2 games and took out a lot of the unfun elements. for instance, no vehicles this time around (unless you count the atlas which is actually fun). no tedious resource gathering. there’s still scanning with probes but it’s greatly reduced in scale and they’ve tried to make a mini-game out of it. since i’m burnt out from scanning stuff in the 2nd game…this time around i’m just looking at star system maps online to finish out the scanning quickly. they brought back weapon mods which is awesome. and thank god they got rid of the bypass/hack mini-games. the combat is a definite improvement over the 2nd game. i mentioned this a bit previously, but can now confirm it’s way better than ME2’s combat. you aren’t forced into cover this time around and can choose to use it as needed. there’s still limited ammo in ME3 but i do not mind it as much as i did in ME2. in ME3 it’s so abundant that i never to need worry about it. using the sniper rifle and shotgun are a lot of fun. i didn’t have the ability to use the sniper rifle in ME2 so i can’t compare, however, it’s certainly an improvement over sniping in ME1. the weapon i seem to use least is the SMG in ME3. i also like how they streamlined item purchasing beyond just the kiosks. now you can purchase items remotely from the normandy.

i’m not sure i like that side-quests are given solely by eavesdropping conversations. for one, some of the conversations go on forever and you have to keep leaving/returning to hear the whole story. i imagine the development team felt they were making this easier instead of slogging through lots of dialog, but i actually enjoyed all the extra dialog. the new method does make sense for the support person #1 support person #2 decisions. the side quests outside of artifact fetches are so much better than in previous ME games. magnitudes better. i complained thoroughly about how boring and repetitious the side quests were in ME1. in ME2 they weren’t as repetitious, but they were just as boring and pointless. in ME3 the side quests are all different and of a much higher quality…and they actually have a point. i’m really glad that the development team got out of the habit of creating filler stuff just to make the game longer.

i haven’t found a way to disable the kinect audio yet, that has almost burned me 3 times where my voice activated a decision. twice it was the decision that i did not want.

most recently i finished the omega DLC. omega is actually a really good DLC pack, not necessarily worthy of $15 but i’d say $10 would have been fair. i ended up sparing petrovsky’s life because i figured he’d be some huge war asset. he didn’t turn out as valuable as i expected. i should have just let aria have her revenge. also on the omega DLC i messed up by not finishing two minor side quests. basically once you finish the DLC you can’t go back to omega. so you need to finish quests while you’re still there.

i’m not sure which characters “have to die” in ME3, so far i’ve lost mordin and thane. i didn’t think much of mordin as a squad member, but i really liked his character and was sad when he died. thane was all around awesome and it was likewise sad when he passed away. there were teases of kasumi and grunt dying, but thus far they have survived. i would rather zaeed, vega, or samara died instead of mordin or thane.

on tuchanka, at first i thought the thresher maw god stuff was kind of ridiculous, but it eventually grew on me. during the final segment where there were like 3+ brutes right in front of me i totally freaked out. i barely survived that segment.

i told liara that i just wanted to be friends and immediately felt terrible and guilty afterwards. i simply didn’t want to lock out other potential romances. i believe i’m going to try to keep things going with miranda and if that doesn’t work out then maybe ashley. although i don’t really find ashley to be a likable person.

4/29/2015:
after messing around in the citadel DLC arena for some time farming credits i ended up not finishing ME3 back in 2013. i just recently revisited it and completed the game. i have a lot of things to sum up and not all of it is fresh in my mind. i think the humor throughout the game is decent to pretty good. i absolutely love the citadel DLC and highly recommend it. some parts actually even had me laughing. i really like the comradery with garrus in ME3…shepard and garrus really seem like old friends or brothers. james vega who i initially disliked quite a bit ended up growing on me. he’s not that bad after all. udina and legion ended up dying.

the game prevents you from having access to the final mission early on which is great (at least i remember it like this). the leviathan DLC was okay, but i think the lore in it should have been part of the main game. also regarding javik, i’m almost certain that he was meant to be included in whole game and not just as a limited DLC character. javik has a massive amount dialogue throughout the entire game. he doesn’t have short one line responses like zaeed or kasumi. so essentially when you purchase the DLC that includes javik you are simply “unlocking” access to a character that should have always been available.

regarding the ending, i have only seen the extended cut endings so far. i have had suspicions that the illusive man was indoctrinated for a while and ME3 confirms it. i died twice during the launch the missile sequence. i foolishly thought i could kill all of the enemies and then realized it was a futile effort. the goal here is just to run to the missile launch console. there’s essentially 4 choices to the ending…they are 1. destroy the reapers (and destroy all synthetic life), 2. control the reapers, 3. synthesis (organic and synthetic beings are “merged”), 4. do nothing and allow the reaper cycle to continue. i received ending #4 on my first try by joking shooting the catalyst child. this ending is by far the worst and doesn’t even really count as a proper ending. shepard dies in endings 2-4. i chose ending #1 since it’s the only one where you can get shepard to live in (although EDI died in this ending for me). i’m going to retry finishing the game with ending #1 once i get my galactic readiness to 100%. the cutscenes for endings 1-3 have very minimal differences.