Mass Effect 3 Demo Review



Bioware released the Mass Effect 3 demo on 2-14-12. The demo was only composed of the single player at this time. The multiplayer was supposed to release on 2-17-12 but fortunately was available a day early. There was only two playable levels for the single player and two stages for the multiplayer. The Kinect features were very interesting and unique. As far as demos go this was more than adequate.

The main menu is set up as top to bottom Single-Player, Multiplayer, Kinect Tuner, and Extras. Selecting single-player gives you 3 options: Action, Role Playing, Story. The Action experience plays like Uncharted in essence. A lot of the choice is taken away such as leveling and conversation. Story mode is an in between of Role Playing and Action. Role Playing is the deepest experience with the most control. It allows you to customize your character and choose dialog choices. I enjoyed all three experiences but being a control freak and hardcore RPG player I preferred the Role Playing experience the most.

The first half of the demo is what I'm going to call Arrival. It is exactly as it sounds, the arrival of the Reapers. It was such intense, emotional, heart-wrenching, gut-punching awesomeness that I almost cried. The second part of the demo takes place further into the story. This was very different from the first part as you have a crew to work with, use, and control. It was fun to use new different powers, abilities, and weapons.
Multiplayer is actually really fleshed out and just as deep as any other game with a strong multiplayer following such as Gears of War and Call of Duty. First you pick a class and character. The coolest part of this is that you can be other species. The only drawback is that only certain species are certain classes just as in the single-player story. You can host your own public or private match. There's also challenge mode with 3 levels of difficulty being Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The only unfortunate thing is that there is only two maps. Also you can only have three powers total and two different weapons in multiplayer.
The Kinect features were integrated in a fairly good way for the most part. Some commands are more useful than others such as switching weapons and using certain powers. Using Kinect for the dialogue feels funny at first but felt more immersive for me as time went on. Certain actions like picking up items and opening doors feel cooler but are essentially slower.

The graphics were not as impressive as I thought it would be but then again it is just the demo. The running looks different and odd. This may be to due to an added jump feature. The cover system seems to flow almost as well as Gears of War. They also added the look feature that Gears has been using for years.

Overall the Mass Effect 3 demo was a great preview of what's to come and more. Both segments of the single-player were perfect examples of what this franchise has in store and do best. I believe that with different experiences offered different gamers will enjoy Mass Effect 3 each in their own way. All new features were enjoyable for the most part. The Kinect was integrated in a unique, useful way. The multiplayer was very addictive and I can't wait to see more. Not only will I say that this is a MUST DOWNLOAD but if it cost money I would also say it's a BUY.

Comments

  1. I would disagree, in the first part the emotion and dialogue was very forced. It felt like a bad Michael Bay movie. The character animations were also very wonky, and I hope FemShep's are corrected in the actual release. :(

    The roll and cover dynamic was very weak and felt poorly implemented. I DO like that the difficulty level is ramped up.

    I DID have fun with the Kinect. I'm on the fence about the new characters (Vega's design, and Ash's redesign, still bug me immensely) but I'm giving it a chance.

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  2. I think most of the problems will be fixed since it was just the demo.

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