Mass Effect 3 Demo Review (Single Player)

This is a demo review of Mass Effect 3′s SINGLE PLAYER mode.

*Edit Update: Check out evilenger’s review of Mass Effect 3 for a second opinion.  Our co-op review is up too!

Go to the kitchen and make some food because it’s a 1.76 gb download!  You probably already know about the Mass Effect universe.  You are Shepard, the typical save-the-day hero.  The game is action heavy, but has tons of dialogue to skew outcomes, plus has RPG elements.

Here’s two videos to show the opening parts of the game.  Part one is more story heavy (but has some action), part two shows some clips of me tackling some soldiers.

I skipped through as many cut-scenes I could (most can be skipped) because A) I don’t want to spoil the game, but most importantly B) there is so much talking it would probably need 10 Youtube clips to hear them all!

Two Key Surprises

• Someone gets killed.  Kind of surprising
• ME games aren’t typically that hard.  I played the middle skill difficulty and you’ll see by the end of video two, I got owned!  WTF?

Graphics

• Player models look much more realistic.  The facial textures are as close to real life you will get this generation.  They still have the shiny look to them, but a big jump in quality
• Lip syncing is not as good.  Nowhere close to a game like Red Dead Redemption
• Menu screens and interface have a similar feel to ME2
• Cut-scenes have a jump in texture quality, but frame rate wise is a typical 20-25 fps.  Meh
• Animations are decent, but the running animation looks like they have pickles up their ass while flailing their arms
• Environments have a much more epic feeling, especially outside.  You may not interact with all the stuff flying around (background noise), but it does give a sense of a fight
• Overall frame rate hovers around 30 fps in-game
• When combining all the enemies and NPC characters during the big fight at the end of video two, it seemed like more than ME2, but not sure
• Enemy soldier models seem more gritty looking

Sound

• Like all ME games, top notch voice acting.  You’ll hear familiar Shepard, Anderson etc…
  
• Characters can sometimes have that Star Trek kind of emotionless chitchat, but that’s the point.  Serious, calm and emotion when needed.  ME isn’t Star Wars with characters yelling and getting boisterous (ie: Hans Solo & Chewy)

Gameplay

• Familiar ground.  Walk, run, take cover.  I forget what ME2 had, but you can dodge roll in the game too
• Lots of dialogue and branching storylines
• The game uses bullets and ammo clips.  There is no recharging ammo like ME2.  When you run out of ammo, that’s it.  Switch to a secondary weapon, use special powers or charge them and melee
• Melee can be both a standard quick butt end or a powerful stab (hold down button)
• My gaming skills must be getting rusty because I died 2-3 times trying to take out the enemies and turret at the end of vid 2
• NPC teammates can kill enemies, so they aren’t totally useless
• Enemies seemed to move, roll and dodge more than older ME games.  Seemed tougher to take down than old games
  
• Enemies (at least in this demo) can deploy mini-turrets.  Hard to take down, but doable… unlike Syndicate’s silly invincible turrets until someone activates a switch to turn them off
• Sorry, I didn’t bother checking out special powers.  I always use boring Soldier class
• You can create a player model and give a background
• Seemed like much of the character creation screens are rehashes from previous games:  Choose Your Experience – Action, RPG, Story; Background – War-torn hero etc….  It does give an added filter.  Something about who from previous games died.  I think the choices are – Ashley, Lots of them and maybe Wrex.  I forget, but there were 3 choices
  

The Old Guy in Me Says

Like previous ME games, ME3 feels like a solid title.  It’s definitely not perfect, but few games out there have a combo of solid visuals, sound and gameplay.  My demo experience is short, but if you like the ME franchise, you’ll like ME3.  I hate cuts-scenes in general, but ME is among a few games I’ll watch most of them (when I play the game for real).

For you wallet watchers, is it worth buying at launch for $60?  That depends.  ME games drop in value fast, so for me I’m going to wait it out for the bargain bin.  For some reason EA and UBI drop their game prices so fast.  I remember seeing ME2 on deal for $19.99 just 4-5 months after release, and even saw it at $9.99 near X-mas (Staples Canada).  I’ll wait for $20 because I’m scrooge when it comes to most games.

However, I do see this game being justified at full price if you really like ME games.  It continues its AAA quality.

And remember, this quickie demo review is for SINGLE PLAYER.  We haven’t even touched CO-OP yet, which is suppose to add another dimension to gameplay.  According to EA, what you do in CO-OP influences your SP game.

About Hockey Glory

aka "Hockey Glory"

I play NHL video games with a high focus on positioning. I play CoD games campy with claymores and long range ARs. I played Diablo 1 and 2 using the archer. I hate playing run and gun style. But in Bethesda RPGs I grab a sword, sprint at enemies and mash away at the buttons... so I might be bi-po ...read more

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