The game starts out very well, but starts falling over about halfway in.. and the "endings" just don't cut it.
Now I think it should become a general rule, that when you make a game, you start up by making a "great" start and ending and everything between that, if its just mediocre, or bad - tends to fade away, cause the good start kicks you in, you somehow manage to get over the middle and then if you get blown by the ending, you come to forums and say "this game is the right Sh8t!".
What ME3 does good - is the start of the game and roughtly the first third/half is really good, because it sticks to what made the previous game enjoyable. I got bit surprised that new characters just appeared out of nowhere and Shepard is acting like he/she knew them ever since, while they never appeared in the previous games, but that got sorted out when I heard some developer saying "oh you need to buy a book, comic..posibly some other stuff, that I did not even know, that existed, before I read about it in that article. Its kinda interesting, maybe from now on there should be a note to summarize all the stuff that I "may have missed" in between and quickly shell out more bucks to keep up the speed. While its not the first time such thing happened and I personally don't love this market tactic.. It does not harm the game itself though, because it is very easy to catch up. Beside a couple new characters a lot of guys from the old gang is in the game to accompany you either on the missions, or get nice cameos, during the storyline, which were all really nicely done and while I don't want to spoil anything, these do a great job, if you don't see your favorite character on your squad you get to see them, talk to them, see what they have been doing since the end of the previous game and know how they now fit in in the galaxy wide fight against the reapers.
Your crew stories, personalities and their developing relation with Shepard, getting you tied in with them, moved the story forward and it affected you as well as the game itself and the enclosure. These were always the best part of previous ME games, ME3 sticks to this formula and does the supporting role of the guys that are not on your team well, but it kinda falls down at the end.
The gameplay is your standard Mass Effect - i.e. you get your galactic map, where you chase your small version of Normandy around to visit different sectors, to get to different planets to do objectives or do fetch quests. Mixed with some chest-high walls combat and dialog options where ever possible, when not in combat.
While there are some changes like the scanning mechanic in the galactic map, instead of probing individual planets, running away form reapers, if you scan too much - and the ability to jump in to "casual" conversations between two people at the citadel, it remains basically the same, what you know and probably like - if you played the two previous games.
There are some minor things, that I noticed, that got my attention like that the cover/run mechanic sometimes acted strangely for me, when I needed Shepard to run away from certain death, only to see her glue-stick herself (yes, my Shepard was a she :p) to the wall.. Or that I thought that there were not as many paragon/renegade toggles as I would like. Or the dream sequences, where you can only walk at snail-paste and aren't all "that" important... kind the think of it, the snail-paste jogging Shepard does whenever he/she is not in combat was kinda getting on my nerves, but these are all really minor complains.
And that goes for the first third/half of the game, the start is awesome and you can jump in, with your Shepard which you can carry over from Me1-Me2 and do stuff you like...
But then I got kinda strange feeling that the game just started and I swear it felt like I didn't do all that much and all the missions were done and i could do was the final fetch quests.. only few main story missions - and then its up to the finale. To expand - I had a feeling like the game was shorter.. or the good bits were too short. Few trips to random Cerberus being either hijacking/stealing/killing somebody.. then some main quests and your good to go to end the game. Its not like there would be anything wrong with the main story quests, the story up to that point is good, but you don't visit many different locations and most the side quest are you basically scanning the emptiness of space for another artifact, that someone forgot to pack, while he was running form reapers (which should help your war effort against the reapers).
So.. thats the middle ground and judge by the review I can write sh8t load about the begging, but the middle ground is starting to feel bit.. weak. And remember how I said that in the previous games - what you did during the story, how you acted to your companions actually made a difference in the end and how you could expect what would happen to them in the end? Well, not here it doesn't. It has the Human Revolutions ending, where you step in front of something, Yathzee would call the Endingtrom1000 or something, while walking the snail-paste, but then again your injured, after a climax of the not so satisfying shootout in London, so you walk even slooower snail-paste. And now I want to avoid spoilers, so let me put it that way - I liked the previous ME games and I kinda like this one too, but it was suposed to be the last one - you know, "The End".
And in a Role-Playing game- which best part is, as I said before, the interaction between other characters. So regardless if you go for the paragon/renegade endings, or good/neutral/bad options you should have concluded the story based on your actions you did during the game - and - most importantly you would know how your mates ended up. A lot of us played the game since ME1, some might carried over their characters from the previous games.. most likely got to know the other characters and either like them or not, but to conclude this story, while since the second half of the this game you hear "well, we have walked a long way till this far.." and all the "goodbyes" and such.. you would expect a completely different ending(s).. different ending, hell- specially from BioWare which were always bloody known for the best story telling. And thats it.. it starts out like a 9/10 game, then goes to 7-8/10 and the ending puts you in such a state of "wtf just happened" that it drops to 6/10.
So combine and divide and you get a number, if you need a score for a game.
Personally I don't regret playing the game.. hell, if it puts so many thoughts in your head, to type this wot - it has to have something, but the ending is just.. sad.