Got to play some of Mass Effect 3 - Impressions (No spoilers, I promise.)

[neonsword13-ops]

Multiplayer is mediocre?

Back on track, every thing sounds good to me (even the survival mode). Looks like I will pick this up, after all.

But first, I need to go out and get M.E. 2 again so I can import my Shepard.

 

[LongAndShort]

I have the sudden urge to begin spouting haphazard Lord of the Rings quotes, mostly concerning 'Precious', but I'll try and avoid that.

Sound pretty awesome and I'm glad I've pre-ordered this game. It also sounds like "Falcon Punch!" will be a common sound in my house. I'm glad they're giving us more options and variety with the powers and brought back weapon slots.
God, I am looking forward to taking Tali and Jack and fucking some shit up.

I'll end here by saying thanks for the details OP, you lucky bastard.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

That is what I meant. I thought that ME's had less metagaming because you could just fill up one of the skill bars for the choices. And it sounds better than ME2 where I felt pressured to choose Paragon options to get points to fill up the meter.

But in ME1 you still had to make para/ren decisions to unlock the skill bar. The only difference is that you had to spend points before you could actually use it in dialogue.

Now for my question: weapons. I heard that you actually get to keep all your weapons from ME 2. Is this true? Will my Shepard still be rockin' the almighty Black Hole Gun? And the super anti-tank sniper rifle?

I've heard that too, but I'm afraid I can't confirm it personally. I didn't get the chance to import a Shepard.

Really? Chalk that up as ignorance on my part. Well, any way to reduce the metagaming is good.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

Hearing this from someone who has actually played the demo is surprisingly exciting. I for one am definitely looking forward to getting Mass Effect 3 myself and playing it, especially since I found out that Quarians may be a playable race for multiplayer. I'm fully expecting it to be just as mediocre as you mentioned, but it might be a nice escape from playing the same single player missions over and over again while still wanting to play Mass Effect 3.

As for the points you outlined on the gameplay, I am severely hoping for plenty of variety when it comes to the modifications you can add to your weapons, particularly laser-sights or scopes for the assault rifles. If I can, I would definitely modify a Mattock into even more of a cross-breed between a sniper and assault rifle, with a scope, longer barrel and more shots-per-clip.

The variety of enemies is also very intriguing, seeing as, unfortunately, Mass Effect 2 was rather poor when it came to different enemies to fight. That didn't mean it wasn't a fun game, but it sounds like the third installment is taking the potential the second game had, and is greatly expanding the universe, not just for gameplay, but hopefully even lore.

EDIT: Saw the latest Mass Effect 3 trailer. Quarians are CONFIRMED for Co-op!

 

[octafish]

Weapon upgrades being back is good.

But what of the cooldown timer? Specific to abilities or universal? Weapon limits, are they Ammo or Overheat? These are the things that ruined the gameplay for me in ME2.

 

[Beryl77]

Thanks for this.
Sounds promising and mostly what I've expected from what I've heard.
I really like it that the RPG element of the game has increased again. It sounds like it's a great combination from both ME1 and 2.
It's good to hear that there is a bigger diversity of enemies. I was tired of fighting always the same enemies and Husk Krogan sounds awesome and annoying.
As for the multiplayer, well I can just hope that they didn't invest too many resources in it. It doesn't really matter to me, maybe I'll play it if some friends want to do it maybe not. I just don't really care about it. Never really had any expectations about it.

How do we get upgrades, weapons etc? Do we just find them, do we have to buy everything, do we have to gather resources or is it a combination?

 

[Zen Toombs]

-snip-

*Shakes hand vigorously, then palms you 20 credits*

Thanks for keeping your promise of no spoilers! I didn't want to play the game yet because I want to wait for the finished product. I'm very glad that everything is looking great for ME3!

 

[Korten12]

Weapon upgrades being back is good.

But what of the cooldown timer? Specific to abilities or universal? Weapon limits, are they Ammo or Overheat? These are the things that ruined the gameplay for me in ME2.

Probably ammo, which imo was soo much better then having to wait a while for a weapon to cool down. Enemies dropped ammo a lot, and you could quickly reload.

 

[Lightning Delight]

Awesome. Based on what you said, this sounds like pretty much everything I was hoping for. And thank you for refraining from spoilers.

Here is your $20.

*Shakes hand a bit too enthusiastically*

 

[BlastedTheWorm]

Was it good? That's all I want to know. The little I played of it wasn't very informative, you sound as though you've had much more hands-on.

 

[GartarkMusik]

Many thanks for a reasonable analysis of gameplay, good sir. It definitely sounds like an improvement all around, and I can't wait to play it. If the story's good, and it plays well, I'll be happy.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

*gently strokes hair

Umm... good. I guess. Combat in Mass Effect 2 was straight up bad, and I really missed the looting system from the first game, which gave it a little flavor, so I'm glad to hear that they are changing it up again.

And I never thought hitmarkers were a bad thing. if done right, they can be the thing that makes gunplay more satisfying, something Mass Effect desperately needs.

 

[War Penguin]

Well, it's good to hear that the gameplay will be pretty awesome. I had no doubt in my mind that it was going to be great, but it was good to get a confirmation and get deeper info. My biggest concern is the story and the lack of choice from what I read from the leaks, but that's for another thread.

Thanks for keeping us informed!

 

[Conza]

So yeah, got to play a few hours, spread over both campaign and co-op multiplayer. I'm aware that there's quite a few people here who are looking forward to (or dreading) the game's release so I figured I'd share my impressions.

Thanks for the info, this was on 360 I'm guessing?

Weapon selection is a combination of ME1 and ME2. You choose your loadout like in ME2, but each weapon has upgrade slots like in ME1. I ended up using a shotgun with increased magazine capacity and fire rate complemented by a pistol with a scope and increased damage. Sadly I didn't get the chance to play around with armour customization.

Did you get to look at snipers at all? Is there ammo *cringes* are there ammo mods that you can do on the fly?

 

[BreakfastMan]

Damnit, why does this game have to come out the week before finals... I won't get to play it until a week after it is released! D:

OT: Sounding awesome to me. I loved ME2 (especially the improvements it made to the awful, awful combat from ME1), so hearing that this game plays pretty much the same as ME2, but has deeper customization and even more improvements, is heavenly. Really looking forward to this one, and thanks for the info.

 

[ResonanceSD]

My boycott of EA will sadly be inclusive of this game. Bioware aren't getting any love for the hilarious stuff they tried to pull with ToR "No, you can't unsubscribe, and stop asking, gamers".

Not surprised about the multiplayer, I wonder why they included it. And I can predict now that it will feature heavily in the ZP review of this game. =D

 

[RN7]

Now let me ask you a question, Mr. Zhukov. Does the new inclusion of hit markers effect the satisfaction one would draw from putting a bullet between someone's eyes from the next town over and watching their body unnaturally crumple out of the scope of a sniper?

 

[johnnnny guitar]

Well that?s good to hear that the gameplay is good now all Bioware has to do is fix up some of the story and choice problems and it will be a great way to finish the Mass effect trilogy.
Luckily I?ve forgotten most of the story leak now except for 3 of the major stupid plot points

 

[Zhukov]

Alrighty, answers for all!

Edit: Wait...what is a hitmarker?

Those little dots that appear around your crosshairs whenever you land a shot. They're a common feature of shooters, notably the Battlefield and Call of Duty games.

Also please tell me they got rid of the heatsink/clip system? I really felt it was totally against the setting and technology and was only shoehorned in for the sake of making gameplay a little more FPS-ish. Why not combine the overheat system from ME1 with the heatsinks from ME2 as an emergency limited availability resource? It would make more sense.

Weapons still use ME2-style heatsink ammo. (Doesn't bother me, but I agree that a hybrid would make more sense.)

But what of the cooldown timer? Specific to abilities or universal? Weapon limits, are they Ammo or Overheat?

Abilities use ME2-style universal cooldown. See previous answer regarding ammo.

Did you get to look at snipers at all? Is there ammo *cringes* are there ammo mods that you can do on the fly?

Didn't use any snipers. (Vanguard, baby! Shotguns and melee all the way!) Ammo types are done through abilities as in ME2. See previous answer regarding ammo.

Now let me ask you a question, Mr. Zhukov. Does the new inclusion of hit markers effect the satisfaction one would draw from putting a bullet between someone's eyes from the next town over and watching their body unnaturally crumple out of the scope of a sniper?

Don't know, didn't use snipers. I only really noticed the hitmarkers when firing through smokescreens.

How do we get upgrades, weapons etc? Do we just find them, do we have to buy everything, do we have to gather resources or is it a combination?

The ones I got were just found during missions. However, the game was giving me money every now and again, so I assume there is stuff you can purchase as well. I don't know about resource gathering.