And now, because I loved Mass Effect 2, my Mass Effect 3 demo impressions:
Mass Effect 3 Single Player Demo Impressions:
Platforms: Xbox 360(Played), Playstation 3, PC
Game’s Release Date: 6/3/12
The
demo features a mission in the main game, and the introductory mission
that takes place shortly after the final piece of DLC for Mass Effect 2,
Arrival. After which, Commander Shepard is grounded and forced to
explain their actions, but before that can happen, the Reapers pop in to
destroy Earth. Yes, this game has a plot that can only really be
understood by people who played the first two, but I’m willing to let it
slide, because numerous people I’ve talked to are intrigued by this
demo and wish to play the prior ones due to the interesting characters,
but Bioware has a reputation for good plots, and reviewing a demo’s plot
seems moronic, so I’ll move on to the visuals.
At first I was somewhat disappointed by the visuals, they looked far more scrappy than the clean visual style in Mass Effect 2,
but I gradually got used to it, and it is just one of those games that
look better in motion, but Captain Anderson’s still looks like an old
potato. I think the changes are an attempt to make the game look
grittier, and the set pieces have received far more attention, so this
may be more of an environmental improvement, rather than a graphical
one.
The
gameplay on the other hand has received a bit of a makeover. The
combat feels much faster, and it’s easier to indicate an enemy’s health
due to the multiple little bars that are used for one big health bar.
The primary shooting is now far more aim focused, since without aiming,
your redicle is incredibly tiny. From what I’ve heard, this has been
done to make the game harder, and it does that while still feeling
realistic. It feels more like blind fire, but I never felt any need for
blind fire in a Mass Effect game, especially now since you have
multiple health bars, and I never lost one on normal difficulty.
My
only major complain with the game is the use of the A button, it’s your
run button, interaction button, your roll button, your enter in and out
of cover button, and your revive button for multiplayer. I’m not
really mad, since I never got screwed over in my single player session,
but it’s not a good idea for your dodge and defend moves to share a
button. It would easily be fixed if they just made X, the reload
button, double as the cover button, since you’d be vulnerable while
reloading, and might as well be behind cover. I often plan out game
ideas and I always start with the concept and the controls, so I know
how difficult it can be to incorporate everything into the 4 face
buttons and 4 shoulder buttons, but this just seems very sloppy. But it
only seems, with an 30-40 hour game like Mass Effect, it’s difficult to
judge whether or not mechanics will get old. The main game remains
solid and fun, along with wonderful writing and solid area designs. I
am highly excited for this game, yet the demo removed me from my cloud
and brought me back to earth to play a a sequel to one of my favorite
games ever, where my only concern is who will be in my final party.
And
for those who are wondering about multiplayer, I share Yahtzee’s belief
that a $60 retail title must stand up on single player alone. I will
share my thoughts in a separate piece, but I expect main of my complains
to be regarding the fundamentals of multiplayer shooters. But cut me
some slack, I only ever played the Xbox 360 version of Team Fortress 2,
and that was only for 10 hours of confused possible fun by someone who
was incredibly bad at the game.
I’ll be back with a brief review of Portal, and my Beyond Good and Evil HD Review. I will try to clear Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
ASAP, but the game is huge, and I’m not even 40% done yet. After that,
then there will be another week of impressions, or maybe I’ll abandon
the idea of having a Saints Row month, and just have the reviews of them
interspersed throughout the next few months.
Aside: I was originally going to give my impressions regarding Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater 3D,
but the controls for the game were to crap for me to beat the demo.
And if a game has rubbish controls, then the game itself is instantly
rubbish as well. I can hear the argument regarding the lack of dual
analog, but I might just hate stealth when I do not have a radar. I am
saying this since the only stealth game that I ever beat was Deus Ex: Human Revolution,
where I attempted and all knock out, no kill, no alarm run. I did not
succeed, since the game automatically raises alarms due to the plot, the
intro basically forced em to kill a few guys, and I can’t knock out 12
guys at once and live. But I have lost the point, and will stop before I
try to review Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which I hope to do eventually, but the game is 30 hours long, and has DLC I have yet to touch.
