Features// Mass Effect 3 Demo Impressions

With guns nerfed to the point of being little more than BB guns, ammunition becomes terribly important. It’s not uncommon to empty an entire clip into an enemy’s face and then resort to either running around looking for more ammo or just resort to pistol whipping people instead. This does allow players to execute an instant kill move, but it takes a while to do and you’re constantly under fire as you carry it out. Neither option is really advisable however, especially when enemies have the ability to place down mobile turret platforms that are far more lethal than the space BB gun the player is armed with.

But I don’t want to cast spells!
During every engagement in the latter half of the demo, a pattern emerges that demonstrates rather well how the creators of ME3 are guiding players to experience the game. The use of Biotic Powers has been elevated in importance and rather than a mere embellishment to an engagement, they can now make a seemingly unstoppable foe very vulnerable. I found that enemies were frequently flung around an area via the use of these powers as the space-BB-gun wielding Shepard riddled them with largely ineffectual rounds.

What is aggravating about this apparent reliance on Biotic Powers is how it forces players to work through the game in a pre-determined manner: i.e. you have to use these powers in order to succeed. The strength of the previous Mass Effect games was that they enabled the player to mix and match their combat strategies as they saw fit. If they wanted to go in guns-a-blazing then they could. If they wanted to take enemies out from a distance in a stealth-like manner, they could. ME3 requires the player to not only punch creatures in the face but also fling others about the room via the use of a blue glowing ball of light. At least that’s what I gleaned from the demo! We can only hope this isn’t the case when the final game arrives in March.

Aaaand I’m dead...[mash ‘A’ button]
The demo does have the much talked about multiplayer element of ME3. Its appearance has surprised many, as the previous games didn’t naturally lend themselves to having a multiplayer component. Despite this, BioWare has created a co-op horde mode, similar to those found in Gears of War 2 and 3. This has four players facing down a series of waves of enemies, and they must survive for as long as possible. It requires each player to work very closely with one another to ensure they use the full force of their ineffectual BB guns (that are in space) against the AI-controlled enemies.

You’ll be pleased to hear that this multiplayer mode does not feature four Shepards running around shooting space BB guns. Instead, they are generic soldiers who are fighting different engagements to the single-player campaign. I say ‘fighting’ - it’s more like dying from the hail of AI fire and bleeding out as their fellow combatants fail to revive them. The only thing keeping the player alive is mashing on the ‘A’ button to avoid bleeding to death. This failure to revive is normally because the other players are also very dead.

In space, BB guns are just as rubbish as they are on Earth
Despite the poor gun-play that's shown in the demo of ME3, I can’t help but be drawn back into the world Commander Shepard inhabits (complete with towering aliens named after dogs muttering the main protagonist’s name whenever he walks by, the opportunity to have intimate relations with one of the crew and the relentless scanning of planets). I'm still looking forward to the arrival of the last Mass Effect game in the trilogy; even if it does have rubbish space BB guns.

Mass Effect 3 is due out on 9th March 2012 for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.