Mass Effect 3 – Demo First Look

I’ve been waiting for what seemed like forever, but the demo for Mass Effect 3 has arrived. It would be intensely cruel of me not to share my thoughts and impressions. Read on and dream of once again bending the known universe to your will through Commander Sheperd’s biotic aptitude and penchant for shooting aliens without prejudice.

The menu screen
Really, I’m reviewing the menu screen? Yes, that’s how excited I am for this game, I want to talk about everything in it. Bioware improved the interface since last time around, although that’s a subjective feeling and you may disagree. The wheel is still here, like it or not, but Bioware revamped the leveling system again. Powers and abilities now look more like icons and there are usually two different paths you can choose from within an ability tree.

I loved the new controls. They put more focus on action and shooting through use of mapped buttons for your biotics or abilities. This not only sped up the gameplay significantly, but it also makes the story feel even more cinematic and engaging. Speaking of story, I played the two included single player missions and here’s what I think.

Ah, Sheperd. You still as dumb as I remember?

Single player
We are all in for a treat. I’ve played few games in my lifetime that truly allowed me to forget I was in a game and just have fun. In the game world, we call that immersion, and I was practically drowning the whole time I explored the new Mass Effect.

I played on PS3, for which the graphics looked as spectacular as they probably can. Cut scenes seemed edgy, but that’s nothing the PC version won’t be able to fix with some anti-aliasing. The true beauty of this game is in the futuristic art style, something Bioware can be proud of.

Here are a few juicy spoilers for you: you get to watch Earth being annihilated, Ashley Williams doesn’t wear pink armor anymore and Admiral Anderson is calling the shots for humans. At least now that the Reapers wiped out the Defense Council, I assume he is calling the shots.

Multi player
Let’s take a quick look at the multi player, because once you beat the game five or six times, you’ll want to play cooperatively with your friends for a change of pace right? The demo foolishly allowed me to play the full multiplayer component with two different maps and three difficulty levels. Four players must cooperate to survive ten waves of Cerberus enemies and activate objectives.

If you could combine Halo: Reach and Gears of War multiplayer modes, but use the Mass Effect universe, the end result would look like Mass Effect 3. This is bad news for me. Having only played a few matches of survival mode I’m already hooked on leveling my character(s) and executing good teamwork. How does Bioware expect me to make social connections with people outside of Mass Effect and maintain some semblance of a normal life? I’m screwed.

Minor awesomeness
A couple of things I haven’t mentioned yet that are worth it, when you build your character for the story mode, you get to choose his or her psych profile. This time they added the effect that either Kaiden or Ashley dying, or numerous squad members dying, would have on Sheperd. Obviously your selection affects who makes an appearance in story mode.

Second, I had the choice of selecting from three play style options: action, role-playing and story. I don’t know how this would affect your play style, but I chose role-playing which is the classic and only way of playing Mass Effect. Supposedly, the other two options will either eliminate cutscene dialog choices for a more cinematic experience, or automatically level your character for a more combat centric play through. But if you choose either of them I will look down on you.

2 Atlases? Cerberus spares no expense in ME3.

Conclusion
This is my favorite game franchise of all time. I am a very critical and picky person, thus my expectations were higher than is necessary. One could say I expect a Salarian level of detailed technical prowess and an Asari-like aesthetic feel or I would be disappointed.

I’m happy to report I’m blown away by everything Bioware came up with. March 6th is ME3 day, so pre-order now and get ready to rip apart some Reapers.

(all images courtesy: bioware.com)