Mass Effect 3 Demo Overview

It’s been over 4 years since the release of Mass Effect and now the conclusion of Commander Shepard’s story is almost here. Recently released was the Demo of Mass Effect 3 that includes a small dose of what to expect from the single-player adventure and multiplayer. Each provides enough gameplay to ensure that player understands what to expect and the desire to want more.

 

The single-player demo isn’t anything new from what has been shown from Bioware’s previews. You’ll be able to choose your origin, between male or female Shepard, class, and whether Kaidan Alenko or Ashley Williams has died. The demo also introduces the three modes of Mass Effect 3 that include action, role-playing, and story. Each modes provides a different experience to tailor to veterans, story enthusiast, and action junkies. One you start you’ll notice that the game has been improved moderately from Mass Effect 2, but it isn’t till you start playing that you’ll notice the larger changes.

 

The first portion of the game starts with Shepard awaiting trial for blowing up a Mass Relay and destroying an entire Batarian system. At the beginning you’ll meet James Vega and your old friend Steven Hackett telling you about the large unidentified objects heading towards earth. At the end of your little walk you’ll encounter either Ashley or Kaidan, whom has been promoted to Lt. Commander. During the trial the Reapers appear and Earth is attacked. As you flee with Anderson you are immediately expose to the sense of scale within the game. As I traveled through the destroyed buildings, the Reapers towering over Shepard, I felt like Wander in Shadow of the Colossus. It’s not long before you encounter a small boy, the same boy you see playing with a space-ship in the opening cutscene, hiding and unable to process the horrific tragedy that is happening. As you continue you encounter two types of enemies, the Husk and Cannibals. Cannibals are new to Mass Effect and look like Batarian Scion’s with blasters on their left hand. At the end of this section Earth will become ground zero for the Reaper invasion and Shepard must return with an army or face extinction. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF7VjOJpbmo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLRBarm0hqg

 

The second part of the demo puts Shepard on the Salarian home world. You are accompanied by Wrex, Liara, and Garrus in an attempt to recover a fertile Krogen female in an attempt to establish a truce between the Krogen and the Salarians. However Cerberus attacks Shepard and attempts to secure or kill the Krogen female and now Shepard must fend off the attackers to protect Mordin Solus and the Krogen. This section of the demo showcases the action of Mass Effect 3 allowing players to play around with the new abilities, refinements to the combat system, and my personal favorite the Omni-tool blade. I was surprise to encounter Captain Kirrahe, now a major, showing the decisions from Mass Effect 1 reemerging in the current title. You’ll encounter traditional enemies and new ones such as the Guardian, which is an enemy with a riot shield, combat engineers that deploy and repair turrets, and an Atlas mech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88LXdu5t--I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pObver_6j4

 

The multiplayer section of demo was the most skeptical addition of the series; however after playing it for a few hours I can honestly say that it is a surprisingly fun addition. Right at the beginning you are giving a starter kit that includes basic weapons, perks, and one character model. At first you’re limited to only human characters but you can unlock more characters as you purchase more kits. In the demo you aren’t limited to classes and can choose and change freely to see what you like, even customize colors. Each character and class has specific abilities that can be leveled as you complete missions. As you complete missions you gain experience and credits to improve your character. You are limited to two kits, a veteran and recruit kit, which both provides bonus. There are also onetime bonuses that allow you to revive yourselves, instantly regenerate shields, or even provide increase weapon damage for harder missions. You are limited to two weapons and two modifications for each weapon so choose wisely, you lose ammo more quickly then you’ll realize. It is expected that the final product will be deeper then this but it is amazing how customizable the demo alone was.

 

The gameplay of the multiplayer is difficult, rewarding, and requires teamwork. In the demo you are limited to two levels, public matches only, Cerberus enemies only but can change the difficulty accordingly. Each mission is separated into waves of enemies that attempt to eliminate your team, similar to horde mode in Gears of War with a twist. During certain waves your team will be task with a random objective such as collecting data points or killing specific targets. Completing these fast nets your team more credits. The multiplayer isn’t easy and specifically targets team-based combat, going solo will end your life quickly since you can’t take as much damage and deal less than the single-player. It is nice that your characters call out enemy types, similar to Battlefield, but I found it annoying that I was unable to tag enemy locations or have access to a radar.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGeYSysUwaw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnOblZEE3I0

 

Ultimately I was pleased with the demo. It included a sizeable amount of content of what I should expect of the game. The game plays like Mass Effect with notable changes to running, health, and combat in general. Although it was nice to see how decisions impact the story, such as Major Kirrahe, but I would have enjoyed making a much large choice or having something outside of what was already shown. Mass Effect comes out March 6, 2012 for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.