Warning: This Thread will have spoilers. Lots of them. Tons of them. All of Them. Also praise, accolades, complaints, speculation, and salivating over the mere concept of Mass Effect 3.
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Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 share the top spot in my personal favorite games of all time. That is not up for debate. The fictional universe of Mass Effect(much like Dragon Age) borrows from traditional SciFi. The tales, tropes, races, and technology are nothing wholly new but because you exist and live so fully in the fiction, it comes to mean much more. Again like Dragon Age, the tiny turns and complexities of the politics and cultures are what take seemingly stereotypical aliens and make them interesting. Dwarves are dwarves, but in Dragon Age they complex class based sociaety and political in-fighting make them interesting. Sure the Krogan are like Klingons, but they have to deal with the social ramifications of their untimely uplifting by the Salarians and, of course, the Genophage. Those little details and voluminous back-story make these Bioware worlds something special.
The ending of this game was fantastic. I love the story, the Prothean/Collector twist, the truth about the Reapers, the exploration and complication of the Geth. All of those elements were spot on. Likewise, the cast of characters elevates the medium of video games when compared to the one dimensional protagonists in most action games. They are meaningful and complicated (in addition to having really cool powers). When your team finally takes on the suicide mission, it feels epic. The pace in frenzied and the stakes are high. At that moment, you are the Commander. Not just leading 2 other people, but leading a whole crew. When you have to decide who leads what part of the assault on the Collector superstructure, you are putting the lives of these characters on the line. The pressure to choose wisely is palpable. It is a masterful weight.
But is the weight really there? Is there any risk of loosing your squad if they are Loyal. I suppose there is if you choose foolishly, like sending Grunt to hack the Collector security protocol or something. But beyond that, if each character entered that battle loyal to Shepard, aren't they all going to make it. It leads to my biggest complaint: the loyalty missions. In Dragon Age if I had to do something amoral to earn more respect out of a character, I wouldn't do it. In Mass Effect the Loyalty missions don't present Shepard with a real moral dilemma. Sure these mission skirt into "grey areas," but there was only one loyalty mission I "failed" and that was from the less-than-fully-integrated DLC character Zaeed. Miranda kidnapped her little cloned twin sisters when she was a baby. I have no problem with that, her reasons were sound. Garrus wants to bust the heads of some Citadel crooks to get some revenge. Okay, fuck those guys. Samara wants to kill her daughter who mercilessly gets off on screwing people to death. Rough life, Samara, but I will help you kill her. Don't tell the Migrant Fleet Admiralty about Tali's Dad doing wrong. Okay, I need Tali anyway, why wouldn't I? There was no real conflict. I knew having those characters loyal was important but I would not game the system. I would not have betrayed my character's morality to get them on my team. When Zaeed wanted Shepard to let a bunch of innocent workers die to get his revenge, I said no. I wanted more choices like that within the narrative.
One of the major mechanical changes that offset that was the new Paragon Renegade system. With my class buffs maxed out, I easily filled up the Paragon meter to 100% and the Renegade meter to around 45%. Most dialog options were open to me. Even if I occasionally chose a path that pissed off one of my other crew members, I could always charm my way out of it. I was hoping Jack's mission would push me to the edge with Miranda. It didn't. My silver tongue convinced everyone to co-operate. An alteration in this mechanic might have backed me into more corners and force me to make tough choices.
Another possible solution would have been the tyranny of time. If ME2 had forced you to pick and choose the loyalty mission you could complete before you were forced to go through the Omega Relay, then you'd have to decide between a balanced team/powers or helping the characters you really liked. I realize that some artificial counter would ruin the pacing of Mass Effect. You'd have to skip the exploration that remains central to the experience. What if there was a trade off instead? The more time you took to recruit and earn the trust of your team, the more ships the Collectors would have to attack the
Bioware probably considered these tactics or something similar but decided not to go that route. Their reasoning is likely sound. Maybe their reasoning addresses some problem that I don't fully appreciate, not the least of which being accessibility and approachability. Mass Effect 3 could also see these loyalty mission choices play out in some major unforeseen way. All told I feel like Mass Effects 1 & 2 go for continuity over consequence. Your action are shaping the universe that you continue to exist in from one game to the next, but they somewhat fail to deliver the immediate hard choices as I had hoped.
Some of these issues might be moot on subsequent playthroughs. Perhaps different decisions or play styles will lead to drastically different results. This was just my experience. I'm curious to hear other voices come in on this.