Having managed to redeem the Mass Effect 3 demo early, I thought I’d just share my views on the single player demo since multiplayer isn’t really my strong suit, I’ll try not to spoil the story itself if I can but there isn’t exactly alot to say about the story since it almost jumps right into the action with the tutorial bit of the game but first the demo itself….
If you are one of the lucky ones to redeem the demo early, I dunno if it’s just me but apparently connecting to EA servers is not online yet which could be the reason why I couldn’t access multiplayer feature but this is about the single player mode so lets move on shall we!
Now at the main menu, you pretty much have limited choice anyway, it’s just single player and options menus you can pick, once you choose to get started, you have a choice to become the male or female Shepard so after you picked your sex of the character, you will be taken to a menu with 3 ways to play Mass Effect 3….
THE ACTION EXPERIENCE
Option 1 is the Action Experience in which conversation options are thrown out of the window and become part of the cut-scene rather than you making a choice which I think is the best way to play this demo, get thrown right into it without having to worry about the choices you make.
Although, this means that the story is only a “One-Way Road”, with the game making all the choices for you, you might not end up doing what you may think is necessary, switching between good and evil choices, at least thats what I may think to believe, the difficulty and such are all auto-set to default standards (Even if you set the difficulty before playing this option!) but it can be adjusted from the options menu
THE ROLE-PLAYING EXPERIENCE
The role-player experience is, basically, for the average Mass Effect player who is more used to how the game normally plays, this is the best option for new players or veterans of the series due to it’s originality and keeping to how Mass Effect should be played, the difficulty and options are set to what they were before you started this choice so if you had this on casual for example, this option of play won’t change it
The RP option gives the best of both worlds without being too aggressive with the fighting and you choose which path you wish to take, passive or aggressive type, like I said, this is probably the best option overall if you want a bit of everything…. Which I am sure most ME fans are these days!
THE STORY EXPERIENCE
The story experience is mainly for those who love a good story telling, if the action option is for “Less brain and more brawn”, then story option is the reverse, more focused on the choices you make during cut-scenes rather than the fighting, although you will still fight the majority of the battles regardless, the difficulty and such in this choice from what I played in the demo seemed to be set to an easy difficulty so you won’t have to worry much about being in a tight squeeze
This experience option is mainly for beginners if I’m honest, if your a soldier type or similar in this option, you are pretty much a tank, you can charge senseless and it will take alot for the enemy to take down your shields so you can focus and what choices you should make next during the next cut-scene, etc.
The gameplay itself has changed a bit since the second game, graphically, it’s the best looking of all 3 games but this demo isn’t without a few bugs and glitches, such as enemies getting jammed into walls and ornaments when killed or blown into a rag doll. The health part of the gameplay has changed a bit also, you have five health bars, as you take damage beyond the shield strength, if your health goes beyond a bar, that bar won’t be able to recover unless you use a first aid kit so if you take too much damage, your health won’t regenerate much at all which can make the game a little tricky in harder difficulties.
The controls in this demo are a little chunky and hopefully should be resolved in the full game about a month from now, aiming is a little clunky too but again hopefully resolved in the full game of Mass Effect 3. They have added some new powers, the ability to use grenades, new weapons to use and a new type of melee, you have you bog-standard quick melee strike but there is now a new, harder hitting, close combat attack, holding on to the melee button releases this heavy hitting attack.
If your a soldier type or similar, you will unleash this awesome plasma hand blade like weapon which springs up and impales the enemy, it’s surprisingly satisfying to finally see it in action from all those trailers about it, if your a so called “Mage” or magic type or similar, your character just releases a powerful close range shockwave which is pretty deadly I must say, useful for when you need some breathing space.
The action of the single player demo consists of two areas of play, first one is pretty much the tutorial and beginning of the game, doesn’t take long until you are jumped right into the thick of it, but most of you will learn this part pretty quickly. The second part is in a slarian home planet where you have to help good old Wrex obtain something, this is the “Action” part of the demo, you will experience most of the fighting here and fight a mini boss but I won’t say anymore as I don’t want to spoil it all now!
Overall, the demo’s main goal is to offer you a bit of everything without spoiling too much and if you can see past some of the clunky controls and a few bugs in it, the demo does show how amazing Mass Effect 3 can be and it’s barely a taste of what’s to come, I’m very VERY looking forward to this game, sadly it might be the last of the series which is a shame indeed but it will be going with a very load BANG!
The demo is officially released on Tuesday the 14th February on Xbox 360 with it possibly out the next day for Playstation owners on PSN (Or SEN as it’s going to be called from now on) with the full game of Mass Effect 3 being released on March 6th in the US and 9th of March in Europe so there is still chance to pre-order the Collector’s Edition (Which I have pre-ordered!)
Oh! On a side note, if you have downloaded or thinking of downloading the demo to Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning, having a quick play on it will unlock a special armour to use in the full game of Mass Effect 3, free armour is always good armour!
