3. Mass Effect 3
Both of the first two instalments in the Mass Effect franchise happily went about their business without any sort of multiplayer. After all, when you are aiming to create a vast space opera RPG, full of interesting characters and beautiful environments to explore, then it is painstakingly clear that you will be creating a single player game. The series was always meant to be about the journey. Your individual story through a galaxy full of adventure, where every choice affected the world around you and your companions became like family to you. In many respects, the franchise achieved this; with the first two games BioWare had created a deep single player experience that simply didnt require any sort of multiplayer component. Most people agreed too. Both titles released to huge success, in the form of exceptional acclaim from critics and staggering sales. Yet for the final part of the trilogy the developers added on a new co-operative mode. Galaxy at War saw up to four players combining forces to battle against a continuing wave of enemies. It largely followed the same gameplay mechanics popular in Horde Mode from Gears of War and Firefight from Halo, nothing revolutionary or particularly striking. While some enjoyed the mode it was a complete waste of time in many respects. Those playing Mass Effect 3 were those who had invested heavily in the series, gamers who would buy the game in order to complete their story. Very few would be tempted to purchase it just for an unwanted co-op mode. Time and effort spent creating Galaxy at War could have gone to much better use, new planets could have been made to explore or extra quests to complete integrated into the plot. But no, what you got was mode that the vast majority of Mass Effect fans felt was completely unneeded. Even worse was the fact that you couldnt even completely ignore it thanks to a shameful attempt to force you to play it. In most cases, to get the best possible ending you had to play it or else achieving the highest war score was incredibly difficult.