5. More Fluid Combat Movement
ME3 clearly took a few pages out of Gears of War's book of third person stop n' pop cover system shooting, as aside from the obvious visual difference, the two titles played near-identically. This wasn't anything new as ME2 also embraced this style of play, and it's no bad thing when done well. The tipping point was when you embarked on a mission to retrieve some Reaper artefacts, only to find it was a boxed-in arena-style level, where you'd be darting from checkpoint to checkpoint, blasting everything in sight. It couldn't have felt more 'un-Mass Effect' if it tried, and only served to show how limiting this very basic third-person combat feels when the pressure is cranked up. The elements are in place for an experience that'll let you dominate the battlefield - you're free to dive out from corner-cover or pull guys over something you're hiding behind - it's just a case of making the player feel confident when deploying them, without the cumbersome unresponsive feeling of moving, shooting and evading that's evolved from the first game.