Being a big fan of the first 3 games in the series, I was really looking forward to this game. I pre-ordered it despite the fact that I shy away from "day one" purchases these days where games are released in "unfinished" states, requiring patches and DLC to make them whole. Let's get the negatives out of the way first. The character animations, even after 2 patches to "fix" them are still not that great. Every time you talk to someone, it gives a close up of both your character and the NPC. The facial movements of the human characters are just off. The alien characters don't seem to have the same issues, but all of the humans just look a bit weird. Something I usually scoff at when people complain about it is frame rate. 9 times out of 10, if someone mentions that a game's frame rate is "choppy," I don't notice it. You really can't miss it here, and it happens in weird places. Instead of happening when you would expect it, say an intense fire fight with multiple enemies on screen, it happens when you're driving your land vehicle and nothing is around you. Or after you've closed out your crafting menu. With that said, there is still a very good game here. Combat is fun and satisfying and you can approach the fights a number of different ways. Want to be a bullet sponge and wade in with shotguns and melee weapons, they have a character build for that. Want to be a sniper and hang back while your squad mates do the heavy lifting, you can do that too. It's fun and fast paced. Mission variety is all over the place. Most of it is fun - particularly the loyalty missions for your squad and the vault sequences. there are some tasks that are just boring/annoying. But that's the case with any game of this size and type. I'm only about 75% through the game, but I'm having fun, and am invested in the story, so I'll definitely play through to the end. I haven't played the multiplayer portion as it's not my thing, but friends of mine have told me it's like the in game combat, only better since your opponents are real people and therefore actually a challenge. It is not the best game in the series - that honor still goes to Mass Effect 2 in my opinion. I think it's a nice jumping off point for a new series in this universe. It's the start of a new story, so if you've never played the first 3 games, you won't be lost. The references to the original trilogy are minimal thus far. Apparently the game isn't selling up to expectations, as EA just put the series "on hiatus," so that means we probably won't see a sequel for a while. If you're still undecided, maybe wait for a sale.