Review Mass Effect 3: A Narratological Review

Gee,... talk about extra stamina...

Lets read, if only because the poor fellow went through such a horrible ordeal to bring this review to us.
Gas masks on! Vaseline buckets at the ready!

Dive! Dive! Diiive!

Just finished reading it. It's a great breakdown of the game. The only thing I'd disagree on is that his explanation of the Tuchanka C&C doesn't sound that intricate or a particularly difficult moral choice. Amd Renegade still sounds like being an utter dickbag for no good reason rather than making ruthless but necessary choices for the greater good. It sounds like plenty of RPGs have better C&C than the Tuchanka storyline rather than just Alpha Protocol- but maybe if I actually saw it in effect I'd think otherwise.

But that said, it was a really good review that seems to have covered the story quite well so TNO has my brofist if he posts here. The last two paragraphs in particular are quite glorious

Good analysis. I expected to cringe during the inevitable "but here's what Bioware did well" part, but I didn't.

Doing my duty and posting it on the BSN.



Popcorn, anyone?

Whoooaaaa....

dang...
:wipes slime and bad looking gunk from gas mask visor:

Ah,... few... Im out.


Good review, mang, of course.
:splatters bioware gunk over everyone while saluting:




I need to wash off... well, i need to desterilize really.
If youll excuse me gentlemen...


Going to the car wash...!
Going to the car Wash , WASH, WASH!
yeaaaahhh....

Good review, although it could have used more lulz.

Great Review! ME3 was horrible right from the get-go when they started having stupid shit like having the defense committee acting like clueless morons in order to metaphorically jack off the player and when they introduced the deus ex machina crucible.

An outstanding review!

Majestic review.
Well balanced and level-headed.
I will enjoy linking to some people who are still playing ME3 to enjoy their rage sweet butt-hurt.

enjoyed reading that more than i enjoyed playing ME

I think I played the first ME for about 30 minutes before I couldn't stomach any more. Why would anyone invest this much time on such a stupid game from such a stupid series? Come on, that kind of masochism could be put to better use.

Might as well write a fucking doctrine for Lionheart or Mistmare while you're at it.

could have been longer that "you should avoid ME3/the series" remark was too much, why so prejudiced against mole poppers? Why do you assume people won't just enjoy popping the moles and have a laugh at the writing?

anyway,

sounds like this is the only review of the sort on the internet, you successfully fought the good fight with your words

"LA LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOO"

paging Volourn

Didn't take long.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/11622803#11624157

Looks like your review has it's fans, TNO.



edit: Dammit Sul.

someone invite Amioran over here, for assimilation

hope no one ninja's me this time

edit: yes

So I actually read the whole thing and I gotta say TNO sums it up very well. ME2 was the least poor game in the series, and the series overall felt like a missed opportunity.
Brahfist, brah.

In the entire series I've played about 60% of the first and watched a roommate play quite a bit of the second. Being vaguely aware of the rage surrounding ME3's ending, I have been somewhat surprised by it. None of the characters seemed to have any depth, not even on the level of the standouts in KOTORs, and the story line was obviously one built for a 3 part video game. It demonstrated no comfort or awareness within its constraints and didn't seem to aspire to the grand themes that are the typical wheelhouse of these types of stories. I'm not sure what is philosophical about "order vs chaos," as one is a recognizable value and the other isn't. I'm unaware of any philosopher who held chaos to be a force for good in society. Even Serenity, a movie I found ham-fisted in its handling of theme, aspired to tell us something about what it is to be human.

Having read the description and watched the youtube video linked here of the ending of ME3, I'm still not sure what exactly happened or why people are angry (A fault I'll attribute to the ending rather than the reviewer), but I can't help feeling that the series got the ending it deserved. The game was an average cover shooter held together by simple character improvement systems and an admirable technical attempt at improving facial expressions in console games. The ending seems to be series of simple choices, good looking explosions, and a nice shot of a pilot attempting to escape the mayhem of it all. Where exactly is the disconnect?

I suppose the hope here should be that developers in the future reconsider using "a force which threatens all of existence" as an easy device with which to make a game compelling, but people around here having been using failed games to generate that hope for years and I don't think any Codexer will be holding his breath.

The first one is the only one that was able to get me to the end. If that means anything. The second one was mostly banal.

What a cunt. Too bad it's in the game owners' circle jerk section. It would be fun to hear him explain exactly how he thinks Mass Effect treats 'the philosophical theme "order vs. chaos"' meaningfully.

I've never bought (or even played) Mass Effect 3.



It's in the general section where anyone with an account can post.