There will be spoilers, but I'll try to keep them as minimal as possible.
Gameplay
Note: I beat the game as an Infiltrator on Insanity. So this will reflect that.
Gameplay is great, a noticeable improvement from ME2. Moving from cover to cover is fast and easy with combat rolls. Enemies will actively try to flank you and you can't stay bunkerd in an entire encounter. Your teams skills for combat support is very important, probably more so than previously. Crowd Control is also important, at times an enemy will undoubtably flank you, so having someone immobolize him somehow is a must since your shield and health bar go down fairly quick.
Speaking of your health bar, the new revamped thing where it doesnt regenerate all the way is pretty cool. Being able to manually revive your teammates instead of using a medigel is nice. There is a lot of medigel out there, but not healing up means you get more XP instead of medigel.
Despite having to run around a lot the game is easier than ME2. The hardest parts in ME2 are about as hard as the hardest in ME3, but overall the shear mass of enemies you have to fight in ME2 make it a lot harder. Granted, the AI in 3 is better and you can't distance kill things. So ME3 combat moves a lot faster.
It's a little odd there are no real bosses either, aside from 1, who was not even that challenging. It would have been nice to have some epic fights like there was in ME2.
Customization for weapons and your character is great. It takes the best from ME1s customization and makes it easy to use. Skill trees are a little more detailed too.
Characters
Overall your crew is solid. Everyone aside from James and your DLC pal was with you in previous games. The rest of your team pops up too in various missions (even DLC characters) which is a nice touch. There is some interaction, but you already know most of the characters and you learn very little about James (who is really the only new face). There are no real standouts either. Your crew is smaller too this time around, which is fine, but you also lack a krogan. Wahh.
Story
To start with this, the ending... is not good. I'm not saying it's terrible like a lot of people are crying out on, but it just makes you feel really upset.
You get 3 choices, all of them seem like a viable option, but all of them have massive drawbacks that invalidate choices you made up to that point. You need certain paragon/renegade points etc. I'm not sure what the requirements for each one is. The story UP to the ending is amazing, you get a real sense of closure on all the things you worked up to since that point, which is really why the ending makes people upset because it takes that closure and ruins it.
The origin of the reapers is explained too, but Im not sure how much sense it really makes, it just seems kinda shallow. I mean them being like civilization resetters makes sense, but the reason they do it is terrible. Anyways it just seems like there was this epic build up to something amazing, and you dont get any thing good. Your last encounter is a f***ing conversation.
Other stuff
There is considerablly less to do in this game. ME2 was a lot bigger, had more missions, more side stuff, ate up more time. I feel like I did around everything possible in this game in around 30 hours, and really have no reason to play it again.
I can't speak for the other classes, but infiltrator seems as powerful as it was in ME2, if not more so. The cooldown on your cloak is laughable if you're carrying light weaponry, and you can pick up energy drain fairly easily as a bonus power half way through the game or so (this eats shields/barriers) Incinerate seems a little weaker as it doesn't tear through armor the way it did in 2. Sniping is easier to pull off (less movement) but your room for error seems lower.
8.5/10
--
Chrono1219