There will be spoilers, but I'll try to keep them as minimal as possible.
Gameplay Note: I beat the game as an Infiltrator on Insanity. So this will reflect that.
Gameplay is great, a noticeable improvement from ME2. Moving from cover to cover is fast and easy with combat rolls. Enemies will actively try to flank you and you can't stay bunkerd in an entire encounter. Your teams skills for combat support is very important, probably more so than previously. Crowd Control is also important, at times an enemy will undoubtably flank you, so having someone immobolize him somehow is a must since your shield and health bar go down fairly quick.
Speaking of your health bar, the new revamped thing where it doesnt regenerate all the way is pretty cool. Being able to manually revive your teammates instead of using a medigel is nice. There is a lot of medigel out there, but not healing up means you get more XP instead of medigel.
Despite having to run around a lot the game is easier than ME2. The hardest parts in ME2 are about as hard as the hardest in ME3, but overall the shear mass of enemies you have to fight in ME2 make it a lot harder. Granted, the AI in 3 is better and you can't distance kill things. So ME3 combat moves a lot faster.
It's a little odd there are no real bosses either, aside from 1, who was not even that challenging. It would have been nice to have some epic fights like there was in ME2.
Customization for weapons and your character is great. It takes the best from ME1s customization and makes it easy to use. Skill trees are a little more detailed too.
Characters Overall your crew is solid. Everyone aside from James and your DLC pal was with you in previous games. The rest of your team pops up too in various missions (even DLC characters) which is a nice touch. There is some interaction, but you already know most of the characters and you learn very little about James (who is really the only new face). There are no real standouts either. Your crew is smaller too this time around, which is fine, but you also lack a krogan. Wahh.
Story To start with this, the ending... is not good. I'm not saying it's terrible like a lot of people are crying out on, but it just makes you feel really upset.
You get 3 choices, all of them seem like a viable option, but all of them have massive drawbacks that invalidate choices you made up to that point. You need certain paragon/renegade points etc. I'm not sure what the requirements for each one is. The story UP to the ending is amazing, you get a real sense of closure on all the things you worked up to since that point, which is really why the ending makes people upset because it takes that closure and ruins it.
The origin of the reapers is explained too, but Im not sure how much sense it really makes, it just seems kinda shallow. I mean them being like civilization resetters makes sense, but the reason they do it is terrible. Anyways it just seems like there was this epic build up to something amazing, and you dont get any thing good. Your last encounter is a f***ing conversation.
Other stuff There is considerablly less to do in this game. ME2 was a lot bigger, had more missions, more side stuff, ate up more time. I feel like I did around everything possible in this game in around 30 hours, and really have no reason to play it again.
I can't speak for the other classes, but infiltrator seems as powerful as it was in ME2, if not more so. The cooldown on your cloak is laughable if you're carrying light weaponry, and you can pick up energy drain fairly easily as a bonus power half way through the game or so (this eats shields/barriers) Incinerate seems a little weaker as it doesn't tear through armor the way it did in 2. Sniping is easier to pull off (less movement) but your room for error seems lower.
I actually really liked the ending, especially EDI and Joker having kids in the Synthesis ending, but all of the endings being the same is pretty stupid. Also couldn't figure out how to get the different endings at first <_<
The only problem I have with the ending (aside from the fact that it's awful, doesn't fit into the game thematically, and is deus ex machina to the extreme) is that if you think about it for more than five minutes, everything about it falls apart. It doesn't make sense in the slightest and it's proof that Bioware didn't put any thought into the ending at all, and that upsets me more than the actual quality of the ending.
The rest of the game is absolutely fantastic, and that's why the lame ending is such a slap to the face.
Know what pissed me off this time around? I accidentally romanced Liara and couldn't go back to Tali because they introduced Tali too goddamn late in the game.
And I would have wanted to fight Harbinger. I wanted to pretend he was the Reaper that I stared down on Rannoch. After that fight I was hoping I would be killing Harbinger with the Crucible at the end :(
Would have loved an ending where I was reunited with my crew, maybe right after the Reapers were destroyed and my two team members helping me stand up, me with my smashed helmet exposing my face, staring down on the Earth as the Reapers plunge down on the planet as great fireballs.
Yeah no boss fight against Harbinger is absolute bulls***. They name dropped him SO MUCH that I expected him to do more than shoot at you a few times then go "WELP, LOOKS LIKE I'M DONE HERE" and fly up into the sky like a f***ing piece of garbage.
From: GranzonEx | #008 But we get giant explosion and the Normandy trying to escape the solar system? WHY?
Hey, it was worse for me. I romanced Liara and she was part of my final squad. In the ending, suddenly she's on the Normandy with Joker and EDI, and also a robot???
so dumb
-- You have no time to ponder such questions, as Link has just grabbed a Smash Ball. http://backloggery.com/herodeltiempo/sig.gif
From: HeroDelTiempo17 | #010 Hey, it was worse for me. I romanced Liara and she was part of my final squad. In the ending, suddenly she's on the Normandy with Joker and EDI, and also a robot???
Yeah, the ending was pretty unsatisfying. I don't hate it like a lot of people seem to, but it was pretty disappointing because after all the greatness of ME3 up to that point, I shouldn't be left feeling so indifferent when the game ends.
--
"But you have been given freedom. Freedom to be...outside." "I am lightning...the rain transformed."
Sorry that I got you killed that one time, commander, but now I'll make up for it by abandoning you and running away from the final battle with all of your friends in tow. We're cool now, right? Good.
I just don't see the necessity of destroying the relay network. Doesn't blowing up relays really mess up the system they're in? So in addition to kicking galactic civilization in the balls by wrecking its transit system, it also plasters every population center in the galaxy? It's just this needless unfortunate side effect of firing off your space magic superweapon.
And doesn't the Citadel serve as the control hub for the relay network? I think Vigil mention something like this. Didn't the Reapers lock the protheans out when they came for them? Why didn't they do the same here? The protheans sabotaged the keepers but the Reapers had no trouble flying the thing to Earth.