This game needs two reviews.
- Interesting story
- Guiding Commander Shepard through had a lot of fantastic emotional ups and downs
- A good, balanced combat system that catered to whatever style suited the player
- Fitting graphics, sound, and music that made this universe feel alive
- Very good voice acting, especially for the female Commander Shepard, Jennifer Hale, though Martin Sheen did just as good of a job with The Illusive Man
There were certainly flaws, like the cover system in combat not totally working, the mission journal not being organized, and camera issues in certain cut scenes. Those imperfections were noticable, but not once did they ever pull me out of the fantastic story. The emotions a gamer feels of who lives and dies, what cultures and planets get decimated is unbelievably well done.
At the end of the game, the story takes a strange turn in the writing style. Everything before was decisions a player made, and the consequences were seen in the game. The one big decision made, what is the fate of Earth, humans, and all life in the galaxy was turned into an interpretive conclusion.
When all the frustration is removed from people venting about the change in the successful formula that made the Mass Effect games great, the ending will mean something different to every person. Though I personally got something out of the conclusion, I don't think it was good writing to end a spectacular saga.
I cannot give this game a lower score since I got a lot out of it, and will play through it again. I also can't say the game has a good conclusion. I definatly see the bigger picture of how the team wanted to finish off the last Mass Effect game, but something happened between the idea and implementation that missed the mark.