Combat was better than ME2, sure. But everything that made the series great was sacrificed for it. The roleplaying aspects were awful (largely due to being near non-existent), the EMS/War Assets were one of the laziest and worst elements I’ve ever seen in a game, the autodialogue rampant, the fetch quests reprehensible, the re-purposed MP maps as sidequests cringe-worthy, and the linear presentation horrid. It wasn’t worth better gunplay to have every other aspect of the game so dumbed down, half-assed and sloppily handled. ME3 was an insult to what the series once was on almost every level. I’d even argue that the gunplay, while solid, was not the best choice of direction to take the series in (though that was ME2’s fault first actually, ME3 just took it further. I never thought that standard TPS combat was the right approach for ME).

Lol… wat? Say what you will about the story, but the gameplay in ME3 was an upgrade pretty much across the board. Combat in ME3 was light years ahead of ME2.

I agree. It wasn’t that gritty in the first place (somewhere between Dragon Age’s oil painting aesthetic and fallout’s gloomy visuals).
And I, personally, wouldn’t want RTS elements in ME.

It also makes sense with the setting to keep it gritty. Exploring a brand new galaxy-you want things a bit frontier and gritty, you’re out on the margins. Not in the centre of things.