So I just finished this shit today and am completely blown away by every facet of it. The plot is easily one of the best videogame plots I've ever experienced. I feel emotionally attached to the characters. It was so epic and grande in scale. Maybe that's because I prefer epic plots like this (trying to save the galaxy / world) over smaller ones but even so, it was so expertly crafted... like a Hollywood movie. The dialog was incredible. They've gotta have tens of thousands of lines in the game... the ability to be a male or female meaning they had to record the entire game in both vocals, plus all the different characters and dialog choices. This is unprecedented stuff.
The gameplay itself was a lot better than expected. The combat felt really satisfying, both the gunplay and biotics. I made a Vanguard who specialized in pistols, shotguns and had very high biotic skills (lift, warp, throw) and also totally maxed charm (Paragon).
The last few hours were insane. The ending was awesome and I can't wait for the sequel. Yes, the game has a lot of technical issues but unless you're really anal about that stuff it's not a big deal. I didn't even care because I was enveloped in the atmosphere of the game. Overall, though, the visuals look awesome. The textures are some of the best we've seen this gen... amazing texture work. The art and environments look great as well. The Citadel and many other areas are stunning. Character models are awesome.
FYI, according to an interview with one of the lead devs, you should keep your save file because it's going to carry over to the sequel and have lots of ramifications to the plot.
Ending spoilers, don't read:spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm keeping two files, one where I save the council and one where I don't.
Here's Betsy Shepard:
