History YMMV / Masseffect3

** EnsembleDarkhorse [[spoiler: Kal'Reegar]] only appears in a single email stating they were KilledOffscreen.
** The Virmire Survivor interestingly enough. They spend the early parts of the game PutOnABus recovering from their injuries from an early game mission, and are then saddled with taking a more antagonistic role. Even after officially joining the team, they take a more passive role in the story [[spoiler: due to their ability to be killed or rejected from rejoining]]. This is especially noteworthy since back in the first game, you can actually challenge their views [[TookALevelInKindness making Ashley more open-minded and accepting of aliens]] or [[TookALevelInCynic making Kaidan more cynical and distrusting of the council races]] and neither aspect gets acknowledged in their characterization going forward.

** The multiplayer aspect of the game was considered a strange move by fans, and it was criticized heavily for the impact it had on the story through War Assets, and the use of LootBoxes as part of progression. Some especially felt that it detracted from the game, and felt incredibly tacted on for no reason other then to follow current trends. Though the Loot Box element has remained rightfully criticized, as the years went on and the game's content cycle ended, the multiplayer aspect began to be more warmly received as players found it to be a fun use of the games mechanics. Nowadays, many praise the multiplayer as being a well thought out part of the game due to the many unique characters, as while the loot box aspect is bad, it isn't as bad as many newer games, and the player can progress without needing to spend a single dollar. When the ''Legendary Edition'' revealed it was going to be removed entirely, some were actually upset that it wasn't being brought back with updated visuals or mechanics like the base game. In a telling move, the multiplayer servers remain quite active and populated even ten years later, even on the console versions of the game.

** Kaidan has been better recieved by many fans due to outgrowing his former MasterOfNone status and character development being fleshed out after the attempted Cerberus coup.

** Was the game's story flawless up to the endings or was it questionable from the start?
** Liara T'Soni. Some love her character, her development, and relationship with Shepard, while others find her wishy-washy and poorly defined. Still, others may be indifferent, but despise [[CharacterFocus the amount of attention she gets]] compared to everyone else.

* DisappointingLastLevel: The final mission in London. Scenerywise, London looks like most other wrecked cities from any other game at the time of release, being very grey and dusty, dominated by a dull blue lighting scheme, and many assets and scenery pieces sees quite a bit of conspicuous repeated reuse throughout the level. The vast majority of gameplay sees the player advancing down very linear corridors while fighting hordes of enemies, which is sporadically broken up by the occasional turret section or HoldTheLine battle, and at no point are there any significant twists to this formula. Few of the War Assets appear onscreen, and the game lacks a final boss. Instead, the final combat sequence is yet another lengthy hold the line battle, against powerful enemies while the player has to dodge a OneHitKO Reaper beam. It feels more like a frustrating and difficult slog, than a challenging and satisfying experience.

** [[spoiler: The Synthesis ending, which is presented (at least according to the Catalyst) as a GoldenEnding, arguably ends the war by handing the Reapers total and permanent victory. Living things and machines, sentient or not (even leaves have glowing wires now) are permanently altered - regardless of their willingness.]]

* FanDislikedExplanation: The origin and motives of the Reapers are disliked by a significant portion of fans. Especially considering [[TheManBehindTheMan the source]] of said explanations has a bias.

** The ''Citadel'' DLC adds a few fun ones. First, there's the boss battle against [[spoiler:Clone!Shep and Maya Brooks]] which can be a pain depending on which class you and [[spoiler:your clone are. Vanguards get spammed with Nova]]. Then there are the Combat Simulator fights, especially the Mirror Match [[spoiler:against Shepard Clones]] and the Fatal Error match, all waves of which have to be won without checkpoints or a chance to save.

* UnfortunateImplications: Jacob's subplot, should he have survived the second game. Where every other surviving squardmates from the second game accomplishes something against the reapers, all Jacob, the only black squadmate, really does is get a woman pregnant. While this part would be Downplayed in that he was genuinely in love with her, the contrast with him not actually accomplishing anything else is enough to undo that. But even worse, he still gets this subplot, even if Shepard romanced him in the second game, and as such he is the only romance option in the series who has the potential to actually outright cheat on Shepard, and seeing how he is also the only black love interest, this taps into some very harmful old stereotypes about black men having a perceived lack of commitment in monogamous relationships and being outright horndogs. While Bioware probably weren't doing this to be racist, you'd think they would at least catch this in the editing process. This led to a ''huge'' debate over the [[https://www.thegamer.com/games-that-tried-to-be-inclusive-but-ended-up-racist/ negative]] [[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/995452-mass-effect-3/63730456 connotations]] related to his unfaithfulness and his race.

** Jacob Taylor. Even if you romanced him as female Shepard, he still hooks up with Dr. Cole during your incarceration. Given that he ''also'' hooked up with Miranda Lawson at one point, are we still sure she was the one to end things? And if she did, was it because she realized that Jacob might be obsessed with screwing the boss to get the "The priiize". It certainly puts his hatred of the Illusive Man into a [[FoeYay strange new light.]]

** Those who only played ''Mass Effect 3'' as part of the ''Legendary Edition'' re-release reported a more enjoyable narrative experience, since the heavily LootBoxes-based multiplayer no longer factored disproportionately towards war assets, resulting in players' narrative choices made throughout the trilogy having a meaningful impact on late-game events.

* VindicatedByHistory: To some degree, the Control ending. While still not well liked as much as Destroy, over the years support for the Control ending grew enough for a not insignificant amount of people to cease negatively comparing it to the Synthesis ending. Part of this is the fact that the only reason most people initially hated it was its association with Cerberus and The Illusive Man's evil motive, naturally disinclining many fans from liking it. Others grew to realize that much of the nay-saying from other fans about Shepard becoming a Reaper Overlord eventually due to a "Power Corrupts" belief was unsubstantiated by the actual plot of 3 or ending of Control. In fact, Control being the only ending that doesn't have the potential to make any player choices irrelevant[[note]]The Geth and EDI die in Destroy, making any choice related to their happiness or survival pointless. Synthesis cures the Genophage even if you made sure it couldn't be throughout the trilogy[[/note]] is noted as the best thing about it.

* EndingAversion: The endings caused a lot of people who were on the fence for picking up this game or even trying out the series in the first place to leave it be due to the lack of variety, abruptness, and numerous plotholes lambasted by many players. However, while the Extended Cut DLC made things better, there is still a 50/50 BrokenBase.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: [[spoiler:Remember how Ereba (the Blue Rose of Illium) stated that she wasn't sure if she should marry a krogan because they're a long-term commitment while with humans you only have to stick out for a hundred years before they die? Well, how does six months sound instead, Ereba?[[note]]Her boyfriend, Charr, is dead by the time you discover him in ''Mass Effect 3''.[[/note]]]]

* HarsherInHindsight: After the mission to the Ardat-Yakshi monastery, Traynor speaks to Allers about her doing a story about it, which she isn't planning, given her big asari viewership. Allers says "do you know how fast an e-democracy can turn on its allies?" Given the backlash against Creator/BioWare after the endings, it almost sounds prophetic.

* FanPreferredCutContent: A [[https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125213-Mass-Effect-Writer-Reveals-Discarded-Ending-Ideas considered]] ending was revealing the dark energy caused by Mass Effect technology was hastening the end of the universe and the Reaper's harvesting civilizations was to delay this until a solution could be found. This was presumably meant to be {{foreshadowed}} by the Haestrom subplot in ''[[VideoGame/MassEffect2 2]]'', where the planets star was prematurely aging due to dark energy, [[AbortedArc which was ultimately ignored]]. While the author cautions there's no way to know if the idea would have worked out well, given [[FanDislikedExplanation how unpopular the Reaper's in-game motives were]] and the resulting infamous ending many fans saw this as preferable if for nothing else having better buildup and cohesion with the rest of the trilogy.

* PortingDisaster: The UsefulNotes/WiiU port, despite having some interesting gamepad features, is easily the worst incarnation of the game due to lousy performance, which is inferior to the other versions at best of times, and can tank to near-unplayable levels during heavy firefights. On top of that, the port missed out on all the DLC except for From Ashes and the Extended Cut endings. The UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 port was also pretty bad on release with the game almost always hard-freezing during two specific cutscenes and the framerate tanking on some visual-intensive events, but patches eventually bought it up to being about almost as fast as the UsefulNotes/Xbox360 version.

* HellIsThatNoise: The beep. beep. beepbeepbeepbeepbeepBOOM of grenades. Especially on higher difficulties.

** Aria arguably crosses it in the Omega DLC. For context: her and Nyreen are trapped in a forcefield (a situation she got them into) and are being assaulted by Rampart Mechs. She orders you to shut down the power for the generator to turn off the forcefield:
--->'''Petrovksy:''' You can't do this Commander, there's more at stake than you know. That reactor controls life support systems for one of the wards on the station, press that button and thousands of people perish.\\
'''Shepard:''' ''(to Aria over his/her earpiece)'' Are you hearing this Aria?\\
'''Aria:''' Yes, and I don't care, shut it down now!
*** If you TakeAThirdOption and find a way to shut down the forcefields without killing thousands of people, she'll scold you for even ''trying'' to find another way rather than obeying her order immediately.
*** Unless you're an Engineer, which gives you the "shut down the forcefields" option immediately, impressing Aria.

** The Vanguard![[spoiler:Clone Shepard]] from the ''Citadel'' DLC is like Tela Vasir from the previous game, only worse. Imagine everything that made fighting Vasir a nightmare -- tons of health, powerful biotic attacks, being able to biotically charge around the battlefield -- and then add in the ability to stun-lock Shepard and then bombard them non-stop with Nova until they die. The other [[spoiler:Clone Shepard]] classes are pretty difficult as well,[[note]](The Adept and Sentinel versions spam you with Warp, which causes serious damage and slows your shield/barrier recharge; the Infiltrator version can, and usually ''will'' spend the entire fight cloaked, making it hard to draw a bead on them; and the Soldier version loves to spam grenades in order to flush you out of cover before blasting you with Carnage. The Engineer version is the major exception -- at most, it's a GoddamnedBoss on higher difficulties, and an outright AnticlimaxBoss on lower difficulties -- as all you have to worry about is Incinerate, which is both less damaging and much more easily dodged than Warp, and its Defense Drone, which can be somewhat annoying but is easily destroyed with Overload)[[/note]] but the Vanguard version is just ridiculous, especially on Hardcore or Insanity.

** Nyreen Kandros from the Omega DLC. In addition to being the first female Turian seen on-screen in the series and a very useful squadmate in her own right, she makes for an interesting contrast to Aria T'Loak, with the story seemingly building up to the choice of whether to [[spoiler:leave control of Omega in the hands of Aria, who is a BadBoss with a WeHaveReserves attitude but also prepared to do whatever it takes to help fight the Reapers, or hand the station over to Nyreen, who has a far more benevolent attitude, but is less conditioned to the horrors of war than Aria]]. Instead, Nyreen gets taken out of your squad for the final quarter of the mission, and is then [[spoiler:anticlimatically killed off just before the final boss battle, with the actual final choice of the mission revolving around General Petrovsky's fate]].

** Bioware received some criticism over the first two games for only including {{Gay Option}}s [[DoubleStandard for women]], and their claim that "[[DiscountLesbians asari don't count]]" only angered their lesbian fans. This game introduced human love interests for gay players of both genders and, foreseeing the criticism they would get if male {{Gay Option}}s were restricted to new characters and [=NPCs=], gave gay male players the option of a RelationshipUpgrade with a returning male squadmate.

** The Vanguard![[spoiler:Clone Shepard]] from the ''Citadel'' DLC is like Tela Vasir from the previous game, only worse. Imagine everything that made fighting Vasir a nightmare -- tons of health, powerful biotic attacks, being able to biotically charge around the battlefield -- and then add in the ability to stun-lock Shepard and then bombard them non-stop with Nova until they die. The other [[spoiler:Clone Shepard]] classes are pretty difficult as well, but the Vanguard version is just ridiculous, especially on Hardcore or Insanity.

** Bioware received heavy criticism over the first two games for only including {{Gay Option}}s [[DoubleStandard for women]], and their claim that "[[DiscountLesbians asari don't count]]" only angered their lesbian fans. This game introduced human love interests for gay players of both genders and, foreseeing the criticism they would get if male {{Gay Option}}s were restricted to new characters and [=NPCs=], gave gay male players the option of a RelationshipUpgrade with a returning male squadmate.

** Liara's reactions on Thessia rub some players the wrong way. Reasonable players understand that Liara is young, traumatized, and witnessing a full-bore Reaper invasion up close for the first time; even if she was present for the Primarch's extraction, the devastation of ''civilian population centers'' on Thessia is a completely different level of horror. However, hearing her angrily comment about the lack of ''Alliance air support'' while Earth burns is unreasonable and disrespectful to a degree that can be difficult to forgive. The fact that there's no option to [[WhatTheHellHero call her on her lingering asari supriority complex]] doesn't help. To top it off, she never expressed any investment in Thessia in the 75 hours before that point, so her being upset over it comes out of nowhere.
*** This isn't helped by her reacting with shock at every homeworld they visit when the Reapers invade, as if she couldn't have ''ever'' have foreseen the Reapers (who, it must be emphasized, are physical gods who have wiped out countless civilizations for millions of years with ease) from reaching them. She's also the world's most powerful information broker with connections literally ''everywhere'', yet she seemingly discovers that the Reapers are invading Palaven and Thessia ''on the ride over'', which makes her seem incredibly mopey at best and utterly incompetent at her side-job at worst.

** Liara's reactions on Thessia rub some players the wrong way. Reasonable players understand that Liara is young, traumatized, and witnessing a full-bore Reaper invasion up close for the first time; even if she was present for the Primarch's extraction, the devastation of ''civilian population centers'' on Thessia is a completely different level of horror. However, hearing her angrily comment about the lack of ''Alliance air support'' while Earth burns is unreasonable and disrespectful to a degree that can be difficult to forgive. The fact that there's no option to [[WhatTheHellHero call her on her lingering asari supriority complex]] doesn't help.
** Provided that she survived the events of the first game, Tevos becomes this in the third game. While presented as the "good" councilor, her actions here make her look like a colossal hypocrite. While refusing to send help to Earth to fight the Reapers could be seen as cold pragmatism to defend her own people, the fact that she ignored Shepard's warnings about the Reaper threat throughout the two previous games has left all species unprepared for the current Reaper attack. On top of that, it was revealed that she and the asari government have a prothean beacon on Thessia, which contained information about the Reapers but was hidden from the galactic community to ensure asari superiority, in violation of their own laws. All together, this means that Tevos actually had the means to find out about the Reaper invasion and prepare, yet she did nothing. Yet, no matter what, Shepard is forced to feel sorry for her when the Reapers cause the fall of Thessia, even though that, as well as the all the deaths caused by the Reapers in this cycle, was only possible through her inaction.

** [[ProfessionalKiller Kai Leng]] [[labelnote:Other appearances]]''[[Literature/MassEffectRetribution Retribution]]'' & ''[[Literature/MassEffectDeception Deception]]'' novels; ''[[ComicBook/MassEffectFoundation Foundation]]'' comic series[[/labelnote]] is Cerberus's final agent, a {{smug|Snake}}, [[FantasticRacism racist]] killer who murdered a Krogan in a fight before joining the organization. Leng carries out countless murders for Cerberus, including the daughter of Asari crime lord Aria, willing to kill a damaged teenager to ensure his own safety in the end. Becoming a nemesis to Commander Shepard, Leng leads an assault on the Citadel with massive casualties to cause a coup for Cerberus's puppet Udina and later attempts to stop Shepard so that the Asari world of Thessia dies in the process.

** [[ProfessionalKiller Kai Leng]] [[labelnote:Other appearances]]''[[Literature/MassEffectRetribution Retribution]]'' & ''[[Literature/MassEffectDeception Deception]]'' novels; ''[[ComicBook/MassEffectFoundation Foundation]]'' comic series[[/labelnote]] is Cerberus's final agent, a {{smug|Snake}}, [[FantasticRacism racist]] killer who murdered a Krogan in a fight before joining the organization. Leng carries out countless murders for Cerberus, including the daughter of Asari crimelord Aria, willing to kill a damaged teenager to ensure his own safety in the end. Becoming a nemesis to Commander Shepard, Leng leads an assault on the Citadel with massive casualties to cause a coup for Cerberus's puppet Udina and later attempts to stop Shepard so that the Asari world of Thessia dies in the process.

* CompleteMonster: Henry Lawson is an egomaniacal CorruptCorporateExecutive and MadScientist obsessed with having a dynasty. To that end he creates DesignerBabies based off of his DNA. Viewing them only as tools, he controls them their entire lives, molding them to meet his expectations, such as he did with Miranda. Should any of them be subpar, he kills them. When he appears, he's working with the Illusive Man in using the refugee camp, Sanctuary, as a front for gathering test subjects to study Reaper Indoctrination. Thousands of civilians are experimented on, including children, resulting in either their deaths or their being turned into husks. Unlike the rest of Cerberus, who are trying to help humanity, Lawson is only committing atrocities to save his own life and to have future generations idolize him. He's not even [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Indoctrinated]] like the rest, having found a way to overcome and control its effects. When he's cornered by Shepard, Henry uses his younger daughter, Oriana, as a HumanShield, and, depending upon the player's actions, he can end up [[spoiler:killing either Oriana or Miranda]].