It currently sits at an 84 on metacritic. The mainstream review sites have predictably sold out, and the ranks of the “professional reviewers” have been wildly inflated with a large number of extremely small and niche progressive websites giving insanely over-the-top praise.
But the real tell is how many fairly big YouTube reviewers didn’t receive review keys at all. Fextralife and ACG were both denied. And some of the ones who did get keys, like SkillUp and Matty, have absolutely shit all over the game. It’s not even close.
Watching SU’s painstakingly well-sourced video review after glancing through metacritic really shows the insane gaslighting that is still possible in the written media space. Also, the number of recognized pro reviewers who obsess over leftist politics on gaming has only grown.
Edit: the IGN reviewer who gave it a 9/10 is a tranny.
Edit again: I paged through a few more critic reviews, and I can honestly say I’ve never even heard of at least half these websites. I think big publishers are directly funding overly positive fly-by-night game review websites in order to manipulate metacritic. These are tiny ass websites with next to no readership, and yet they’ve received review codes ahead of massive YouTubers with millions of subs? It’s obvious bullshit.
Bioware died long ago, the last time they came to good writing was ironically the last DLC for ME3, since then it's just been leaning more into pandering to cover for their lack of talent.
Mass effect writing, good?
Not even the first one. Aggressively overrated generic schlock, people only liked 2 so much because of the waifu bait shit and smoothened combat.
Story wise was hit and miss as everyone can say ME3 went bad storywise which is why everyone either wanted the indoctrination theory to be true or wanted the Dark Matter storyline to be the true story when alluded to in ME2.
But they actually had very good character story in the trilogy. There's a reason everyone considers Garrus their bro for life and Tali has a dedicated fan club. Despite not being human they had so much character you couldn't help get invested with them.
Now take that appreciation for the character and tell me if anyone cares for the ones in Andromeda or DA inquisition?
They can, but they're all wrong on when and why.
Everyone whinges about the ending but says it was otherwise good till then. As though it was just the final 5% which ruined it all.
They are wrong.
ME3 was shit from the start, you're introduced to a weird new mcguffin which requires a quest across the galaxy to... It's star wars 9. It's utter shit with no set-up from the very get go, but with a few good smaller character moments and the wrap up of stories, like mordin. Thats what carries it, but the broader story was crap from the very start of 3.
The Ending did really grind people up but yeah there was signs it was bad just from that reoccurring kid in the beginning (which is what began the indoctrination theory)
The character stories carried it hard as every character at least got the respectful development they deserved.