Features// Mass Effect 3 Demo Impressions

Two years is a very long time in the world of video games. Worlds have been conquered, wars have been won and lost, Duke Nukem Forever was sadly released and people have donated $1.8 million for a game that doesn’t even exist. Shepard is back, and he's shooting and punching people in the face a lot. Yes you read correctly, punching (a lot). More on that later.

The demo for Mass Effect 3 (ME3) opens with a remarkably familiar splash screen displaying the words ‘Mass Effect 3’ hovering over a planet, which in this instance happens to be Earth. The lilting tunes of ME3 drift along as this screen appears and the player is invited to press the ‘Start’ button. As they do so a chime is emitted that sits well with the music, just like it did in the original Mass Effect. It is at this point that the similarities between ME3 and its much older sibling begin to make themselves known.

Decisions, decisions
The demo opens up with an option selection screen that proffers three choices: Action, Role Playing and Story. The first option neglects the character generation and stat-building element of ME3 and throws the player into the proverbial action.

The second option is the same game mode that Mass Effect players have been playing over the past five years, i.e. full character advancement.

Story mode is the same as Role Playing only with reduced combat difficulty.

Once an option is chosen, the character selection process that allows the player to create their very own commander Shepard opens up. It’s full-featured and does much to advertise the graphical engine that ME3 boasts. A final flourish before the demo starts is another option menu that asks if Shepard had suffered losses in his team during his previous exploits or if Kaiden Alenko/Ashley Williams had sacrificed themselves for the greater good.

If it ain’t broke, go back to a previous, previous version
The demo starts off at the opening of ME3. No specifics here of course, as we have no desire to spoil anything. We can say that the Earth is under attack as this has been well publicised by BioWare/EA as the backstory of ME3. This section attempts to teach the player how to control Commander Shepard. The familiar use of cover remains from the previous game and the command dial also reappears. What’s notable is an apparent throwback to the original game - the gun play does not appear to be as reactive or destructive as it was in Mass Effect 2. Granted this observation was discovered at the opening section of the demo, so it could only get better with bigger weapons right? Well, you’d think that...

Size doesn’t matter apparently
Halfway through the demo the player is presented with a scenario that occurs much later in the full version of the game. The player is elevated to level 12 and the enemies become that much tougher. Seeing this, there was some hope that the weapons the level 12 Shepard was armed with would actually pack a punch. Yes they appeared to be larger, but sadly they were just as ineffectual. As was Shepard’s ability to run away from the grenades that are liberally thrown about thanks to the Commander’s desire to stick to walls.