After an invitation from my friend Mike, and a brief threat from another friend, Tanner, I decided to fall into peer pressure and download the demo for ME3. When I loaded the demo and got into the menu system, I was immediately impressed; the menu system is a huge improvement over the first game;. the music is more enticing, and the character models are extremely crisp and clean. After choosing from a list of classes and races, I picked a Human Soldier, and hopped into a game with my friends. Within the first few minutes of gameplay I was impressed with the controls. BioWare finally improved the controls, making them more user friendly. I play a lot of “Gears of War”, so it was a breeze picking up on the cover system, aiming and shooting, switching weapons, and melee attacks.
The sound effects in the demo are outstanding. Everything in the Mass Effect universe is very futuristic, and alien, but the sounds of the weapons, explosions, melee attacks, footsteps, special abilities, and background noise are all very believable. I didn’t put the controller down for three and a half hours. By the time I finished, I was left wanting more. Within the first couple minutes of gameplay, I wanted the game. I can’t wait until March 6, 2012.
As I stated before, the gameplay is a lot like “Gears of War’s” Horde gametype. For those of you who play Halo, it’s like “Firefight”. You and three other friends fight through eleven waves of enemies. One round is sort of like “King of the Hill”, in that at least one of you has to hold down an area while some data is uploaded. Once the data is uploaded, the objective is to eliminate the remainder of the enemies. Each class the player can choose from has a set of unique abilities. My soldier could shoot a heat seeking grenade. As long as it is “locked on”, the grenade will usually make it to the enemy and stun them long enough to finish them off another way. Each character is also able to carry two weapons. While this can be beneficial, it can also slow your character down; the less equipment you are carrying, the faster your character moves and performs. Even though I spent the entire night playing as a Soldier, I was aching to play the Vanguard class. This character class has the ability to teleport to an enemy’s location in the blink of an eye. As long as you are locked on to an enemy, you are able to teleport to them, and stun them upon your arrival. The Vanguard can also slam the ground with its fist, and create a blast that stuns and damages the enemy. If you are able to use the teleport first, followed by the ground shock, it can be very deadly combo!
In the eleventh wave you and your teammates have to hold down a landing zone for someone to come pick all of you up. This can be very difficult because you are usually fighting with very little cover, and are fighting many enemies at once because they are all rushing that particular area. However, with enough teamwork and skill, you can accomplish this with no trouble at all. Any time I was shot to the point of death, I would lay on the ground helpless until a teammate came to revive me; or if I had a medical gel, I could heal myself and get right back into the action. I discovered quickly that once you run out of “medigels”, you are relying heavily on your teammates to stop what they are doing, and help you. If I died while waiting for a teammate, I was able to spectate while my friends finished the round. Once the round was over, my character got up from the same location he fell, and was back in the action for the next round.
BioWare has come up with a set of medals you can earn during your fight like “25 Kills”, or “25 assists”. While this can be rewarding at the end of the game, giving you credits to buy upgrades for your weapons and abilities, there is no way of seeing how many kills or deaths you had in each game. Another complaint I have is that reloading the sniper rifle in between each shot was really slow. It took about three seconds, and, in my opinion, it should only take about one. One thing that is really frustrating about that is I found my self shooting an enemy, then having to quickly fire my heat seeking grenade to finish him off. Although it was extremely effective in early waves of the game, my character stopped reloading altogether after shooting a grenade; when I tried to zoom in to shoot another enemy I had to wait I understand there are semi-automatic sniper rifles that are unlockable, but I wasn’t able to get to that point in the demo.
Here is what my friend Tanner had to say about the demo, and the series as a whole: "Mass Effect 2 is one of my favorite games of all time, and from what I've seen, Mass Effect 3 is going to be a huge improvement. The demo doesn't show off much of the story mode, but the multiplayer coop gives you a good feel of how gameplay mechanics work. One thing that I love that is new in this game is combining abilities. Here's an example: When you use a warp ability on someone, it charges them in a sense, then if you use the throw ability on that same person it detonates that charge and causes an explosion that can kill multiple enemies. The multiplayer is extremely enjoyable but I'm looking forward to completing the epic story of Commander Shephard! ITS SO EPIC!"
-Tanner "HornSupremacy" Horn
I admit I wasn’t excited for ME3, but then I played this absolutely brilliant demo and it changed my mind! I am giving this demo a 4.75 out of 5 stars for it’s replayability, graphics, sound, controls, and music. March 6, 2012 is just around the corner, and “Mass Effect 3” will be available for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. You can bet that I’ll be at the midnight launch for this incredible game. If you haven’t played this demo, you should. Don’t be a skeptic like I was!
Until next time, keep on gamin’ on!
No comments:
Post a Comment