Ending aside, this game fails to deliver on many gameplay promises made about the impact of our actions. Heartbreaking.
But the problem is that this is the third game in a series emphasizing choice. The aspect of choice was what allowed people to overlook negatives such as poor combat gameplay, glitches, bad graphics, and even occasional story problems. Choices from the first game like saving the Rachni or the Council or destroying them were the reason we loved those games; there would be payoff in the third of the trilogy. Or so we were told.
Many of those choices go in one direction, regardless of the decision you make about them. What I mean is that you could choose to save or let someone die, or appoint someone to a position, or destroy something, and Mass Effect 3 gives you the exact same game regardless. It makes all the decisions end up being the same.
(SPOILERS)
For example, if you destroy the collector base in ME2, then the game responds the same way as if you saved it; The Illusive Man just has his people pick up the remains of the explosion.
(SPOILER END)
And this type of thing happens for nearly every decision, even ones that were teased as being important. The only thing you feel is if a squadmate dies, they are absent from the game. Even then, the only thing that happens is they remove content and don't replace it. It's not a lot of work to provide small amounts of content for possibility one, and just remove it for the second possibility. Now that choice is out the window, I simply can't overlook the game's other problems anymore.
The plot of the game itself is also incredibly disappointing. At first, it seems okay, but there are many questions that anyone paying close attention will have. If you don't pay too close attention, then you don't notice plot inconsistencies (which is fine), but since the game wants you to delve deep, many of these issues are noticed (which is not fine).
There are so many satisfying individual sequences, specifically involving the characters Wrex, Legion, Tali, and Mordin. It's unfortunate that these amazing sequences are overshadowed by major plot issues. Characters from ME2 are brought back but in limited capacity, many are kicked aside unfairly (like Miranda, who is too important to the plot be left out of the squad). Still it was nice to see them all.
The plot, loosely, is you unite the armies of the galaxy to save Earth (and soon the galaxy) from the Reaper threat. Anderson leads the resistance on Earth to buy you time, and Admiral Hackett helps both of you. You broker treaties, do favors, and gather forces for the final battle. All of this leadup builds tension and really does feel epic in the moment. And some of the things you do are fantastic.
(SPOILERS)
The Crucible itself doesn't make sense. If the Reapers start out every cycle by taking the Citadel, why would the first cycle that started building the Crucible require the Citadel to power it? If none of the races ever knew exactly what they were building or what it would amount to (since none ever activated it) how could they work together to build it? If the Crucible were the only thing that could save us, how come the Prothean VI on Ilos never mentioned, "so by the way..."? There's a lot more, it's discussed at length on the BioWare Social Network for those interested.
(SPOILER END)
But all your choices made are boiled into numbers, and there are many different choices but they all lead to the same numbers. So even the choices the game doesn't erase are just shown as a number, which the opposite choice would be represented by as well.
Combat is not a reason to play this game, but it's better. Multiplayer is somewhat fun for a small while and is a joke if you've played Gears. There's some bugs, the quest log is uninformative and doesn't tell you what you're up to in a particular quest, the cover system is annoying, and the customization they announced is not a lot. Still, none of these would be a problem normally, it's due to the lack of impact on the story line.
Witcher 2 has literally ten hours of different content for choices made in that same game. Not in a trilogy. I expected at least one different main quest if you made different decisions, but that's not what happens.
Then there's the end. The ending is bad. There are people who say we don't like it because it's too sad, but that's not at all the truth. The truth is that we don't like the ending because it goes against the themes of the trilogy, and has massive plot holes and inconsistencies. If the ending obeyed the lore and was just bad, then it wouldn't be so heavily scrutinized as it is.
It'd be like if there were a Smokey the Bear TV show where every episode ended with Smokey telling kids not to cause forest fires. Then, in the last episode of the series, Smokey causes a forest fire. It's confusing, upsetting, enraging, and eventually numbing. It's written in such a way that I have no interest in ever playing Mass Effect 1 or 2 (or especially 3) again. I've put over 150 hours between these three games and invested myself heavily. I don't want a new ending but I understand why people do.
Overall, I have a tough time recommending this game to anyone. Fans of the first two will be heartbroken, and newcomers won't care enough to be drawn in or care at all.