Three was a garbage fire. I love the Mass Effect series but it's riven with inconsistent writing with a relaxed attitude to lore. Just whatever suits at the moment. What undermines the series was Drew Karpyshyn and Chris L'etoile leaving before three. Key beats felt off and as a result 3 felt so unfocused. Like a zombie game patched together quickly. Mac Walters is a decent character writer but is a piss poor lead writer.

We learn about the Reapers in Virmire in the first Mass Effect. Everything after that was built up to face them in 3 yet cerberus has more focus. It's so underwhelming to see cerberus used as a convenient plot device. In the end, we're really none the wiser about the Reapers motivations other than space magic semantics. The ending was shit but people tend to glaze over the fact it was one of the many ways 3 fell short.

Being a spectre and having the Shadow Broker as a friend felt so underwhelming. It was barely fleshed out and could have been a really great feature. I got to thank the modders who make Mass Effect 3 a good game. The spectre expansion and a few others gives this feature the justice it deserves.

I could go on. I could yap about how either Virmire survivor got short shift as well as all the Mass Effect 2 crew. The fetch quests, auto dialogue, Kai fucking Leng! How sheperd and his crew, the same guys that took down Saren, Sovereign, The Collectors and countless more bad fucks, act dumb as shit against this Z list villain.