So, now that the Mass Effect 3 Demo is out...
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I wasn't holding my breath, but I gotta say, I was taken aback and pleasantly surprised. The combat seems to have found the best of both games, the reduced health and new enemy types make things more tactical, but it hasn't lost any flare either. The new melee attacks are fun to watch, and the increased level of violence did well to up the intensity. Now, when you pull off a headshot, you can FEEL it. I'm also happy to report that I found the writing in part 2 of the demo to be quite good. The banter between party members works well(Especially with THE RETURN OW WREX!*Applause*), and, unlike Mass Effect 2, the plot point you played through felt important and carried weight. Instead of trying to put you into a new situation, Bioware made use of the hefty back catalog of lore to not only expand on the galactic story, but reference characters you've already met, so the fast pace wouldn't make the game come off as cold and simplistic(A problem ME2 had on occasion, and Dragon Age II wallowed in)
It did start off a little rocky, the opening was clearly trying to catch up newer players(Wherever they are), and felt too linear. That part with the kid was pretty good though, even if it was kind of a cheap shot(Though it does feel a bit obligatory that they choose now to show a kid die, because, you know, there are no kids outside of earth. I'm really nitpicking here, but it makes me feel a little like the developers thought I would only respond to a human child dying, which frankly I would find a little insulting).
Overall, I was very impressed, now if the story can step up then Bioware can atone for the atrocity that was Dragon Age II at last!
It did start off a little rocky, the opening was clearly trying to catch up newer players(Wherever they are), and felt too linear. That part with the kid was pretty good though, even if it was kind of a cheap shot(Though it does feel a bit obligatory that they choose now to show a kid die, because, you know, there are no kids outside of earth. I'm really nitpicking here, but it makes me feel a little like the developers thought I would only respond to a human child dying, which frankly I would find a little insulting).
Overall, I was very impressed, now if the story can step up then Bioware can atone for the atrocity that was Dragon Age II at last!
Looking good besides a few graphical and animation issues. What I really don't understand is people making huge leaps about the story and dialogue you don't get much of either your looking at a 30 minute peace of whats probably a 40 hour game and your judging things beyond basic mechanics, people are crazy.
Yeah a little loose. I just finished a ME2 run through to get ready for this game and my shepard was all over the place when the demo started. By the end things were better but it still felt a bit off and overly sensitive. I'll get used it the more I play but, as others have said, I think part of the "off-ness" of it is the one button/key being used for so many actions. I side rolled here and there unintentionally through out the demo just from trying to turn and run. If the movement controls are going to be sensitive I think they should lean toward running first, rolling second. Right now it feels like its the other way around.Arontala said:
I enjoyed the demo. Some things were jarring but I think on the whole most of that was due to me playing alot of ME2 lately and I'm just used to certain things.
Some of the things that stood out to me echo what others have already mentioned:
1) The leveling system looks like a nice compromise b/w ME1 and 2
2) Party banter = good
3) Some of the animations really did seem whacked - male shepards run in particular looked kind of robotic
4) Really like that weapon mods are in
5) As stated above, now controlling the roll as well seems a bit much...
6) The art style of the game remains ME1 and 2 sharp.
7) As someone else pointed out, some of the textures looked crisp and sharp while others looked low rez and splotchy. Shepard's armor for instance looks great while his clothes look kinda washed out and blurry. My first thought was that it might be a graphics card problem or something. Hoping it's just a demo thing as others have mentioned.
8) Some areas did look "over-shadowed" as did the way some light fell on various characters. ME2 was like this as well with some places being very dark. A fan posted a shader fix pretty early for that game so with ME3 using the same engine maybe that's what this one will need as well.
9) The demo represents my first Origin experience. It definitely feels like a relatively new system. It's missing a number of small QoL features that helps Steam stay hidden and out of my way.
10) I found Ashley's new look to be really, really jarring... She doesn't look bad per se but in ME1 I thought she looked more soldier-ish, in this game she seems more pin up-ish. I'll reserve judgement on the look until I get to spend some time with the full game.
11) Though I've seen them in plenty of the screenshots the cereberus soldiers look super slick
12) The enemy moving around really stood out to me post ME2 play through. I went into the fights as I would a fight in ME2 and was surprised when soldiers moved so fast to get beside and behind me. I found I had to think a bit more about the room layout and party member orders and that, to me, is a good thing.
To be honest for a while between the DA shift and some of the comments coming out of Bioware about ME3 and TOR I wasn't sure what was coming down the pipe for this one. It seemed like it had the potential to be a hit or miss in equal proportions. Guess we'll know soon enough but overall I'm now looking forward to the game more post-demo than before.
I thought it kind of sucked how they leave weapon upgrades lying around for you to pick up but give you no way to equip them. I guess you have to do that in the Normandy. Okay, fine, but then why put the items in the demo? Take them out, stop teasing us. 
Anyway, it's Mass Effect. I liked 1 and 2 just fine, so I'm not worried about 3.
Anyway, it's Mass Effect. I liked 1 and 2 just fine, so I'm not worried about 3.
Yeah, that was weird. It was like he was trying not to shit himself.Loop Stricken said:
I said that later in the thread, also Anderson didn't seem to notice him either.Ethan Isaacs said:
Aside from the combat, which has been greatly improved (aside from the over-burdened spacebar), I've got to say that I'm extremely disapointed. The intro just feels very weak.
Who is James Vega, and why is he chummy with Shepard when we've never met him before?
Why aren't I allowed to choose Shepard's dialogue?
Why is Anderson on Earth?
What happened in Shepard's trial? Why has Shepard's trial been skipped for that matter? That would have been such an engaging scene, not to mention an excellent opportunity for some needed exposition.
Anderson claims Shepard hasn't been court martialled, so why has he been relieved of his rank, duty and ship?
What is Ashley doing on Earth? What's with the make-up and hair? That style is frankly impractical and hazardous for someone on combat duty, and it seems utterly out of character for someone with the no-nonsense attitude she had in Mass Effect 1.
Why is the Defence Council full of useless idiots? The dialogue in this scene is awfully cheesy as well. "We fight or we die" indeed...
The Reapers shouldn't be invading Earth so early in the game. We've had no opportunity to develop an emotional investment in the location and population beyond what we already possess innately as humans. Because of this and because the invasion has been so heavily hyped in the marketing, the actual moment is frightfully dull. There's just no impact to it, no sense of surprise.
Oh look, they've killed everyone attending the Defence Council session, making the previous scene pretty much pointless except to showcase the invasion. I don't even care that everyone died because, once again, we have no attachment to them. I also don't buy that the only survivors were Shepard and Anderson. It's just too convenient that the two named characters escaped with a few scratches and some bruising while everyone else got pulped. We should see people pulling themselves to their feet, screaming for help, trying to clear the doorway.
Why is all the cool stuff happening in the background? Sure we get a few stray blasts headed in our direction but for the most part all the major action is seperate from the player. We should be on the streets, not wandering about atop a skyscraper. We ought to be in the thick of things, fighting through waves of husks, leading survivors to safety, fleeing and hiding, dodgeing the concrete shattering steps of a Reaper. The sort of thing that might actually generate some excitement. In it's current state the opening manages to feel very rushed, whilst paradoxically lacking any real urgency. The lack of emotional investment I mentioned earlier? Being removed from the action like this doesn't help.
So heat sinks are being reffered to as ammo now? It was annoying enough when they were introduced in a pointless attempt to make the gunplay feel more like a traditional shooter. Now it's as if the writers don't even care enough to keep up the pretense.
The scene with the kid is a weak and obvious attempt at tugging on our heart strings. It fails because his dialogue and behaviour doesn't really gel with the image of a terrified child.
"Everyone's dying" the kid whines, and yet we've barely seen anyone since before the invasion. Look off the edge of the skyscraper and aside from the collossal Reapers (which I'll admit are really cool) and a handful of painfully low resolution 2d humans, the streets look deserted. Where are all the vehicles, the mobilising soldiers, the crowds of fleeing civillians, the wreckage, or the corpses?
Why is Shepard acting so Earth-centric? Paragon Shepard has always recognised that the Reapers represented a threat to the entire galaxy, not just to Humans, and that we couldn't stand by ourselves and expect to survive. I really hate that I'm not allowed to pick what Shepard is saying. Apparently a lot of dialogue options were cut from the demo to save space, but the result doesn't represent what I expect from a Mass Effect game. Couldn't they have cut Character Creation instead? I certainly wouldn't have minded.
This whole gameplay sequence feels too quiet. Aside from the distant explosions, occasional set-pieces and the infrequent action sequences, there are long stretches where not a lot is happening in the audio department. Couldn't we have had some pulse-pounding background music, maybe some panicked radio chatter from the beleaguered defenders? At the very least that might have helped with the urgency problems.
Ashley says over the radio that the Reapers are about to take down a dreadnought. We then see a Reaper blow up what looks to be a relatively small Alliance ship. Certainly it doesn't look much larger than the Normandy. In previous games dreadnoughts were described as being a kilometer long and incapable of generating a mass effect field strong enough allow entry into a planet's atmosphere.
Why does Anderson want to stay ground side? He's too old to be worth much fighting on the front lines, while his high level of military and political experience makes him more valuable in an administration position. He should be taken to the Citadel in order to organise the other races, or otherwise taken to an Alliance millitary installation where he can rally and direct Earth's defenders. Is he still on the Citadel Council? I've heard some sources claim he resigned, but the demo never mentions his position.
And that kid shows up again, and shortly thereafter gets vaporised by a Reaper. Again, an attempt at creating emotional impact, but again it fails because we have no reason to care about him. We barely know him. He had maybe three lines of bad dialogue. We don't even know his name for pity's sake.
Why didn't the child-killing Reaper or any of the others in the area even try to shoot down the Normandy during that overly soppy sequence? It got the shuttles easily enough, and the Normandy was virtually stationary in front of it the whole time. Surely Harbinger has labelled Shepard and the Normandy as high priority targets after the events of the previous games. And why prioritise the civillian targets over the Normandy anyway? I thought the Reapers goal was to harvest organic life, especially humanity if Mass Effect 2 was any indication. I suspect that organics become significantly harder to harvest when they're reduced to so many vaporised particles drifting in the wind. The Reapers should be performing surgical strikes on millitary targets while limiting collateral damage. Instead it almost looks like they're doing the opposite.
Okay well that grew into something rather more...thorough...than I'd intended, but I hope I got my feeling's across. I know some of those point's look rather nitpicky, but as they say, the devil is in the details. While I did enjoy the combat, I can't really say that I've got high hopes for the story quality after this.
Who is James Vega, and why is he chummy with Shepard when we've never met him before?
Why aren't I allowed to choose Shepard's dialogue?
Why is Anderson on Earth?
What happened in Shepard's trial? Why has Shepard's trial been skipped for that matter? That would have been such an engaging scene, not to mention an excellent opportunity for some needed exposition.
Anderson claims Shepard hasn't been court martialled, so why has he been relieved of his rank, duty and ship?
What is Ashley doing on Earth? What's with the make-up and hair? That style is frankly impractical and hazardous for someone on combat duty, and it seems utterly out of character for someone with the no-nonsense attitude she had in Mass Effect 1.
Why is the Defence Council full of useless idiots? The dialogue in this scene is awfully cheesy as well. "We fight or we die" indeed...
The Reapers shouldn't be invading Earth so early in the game. We've had no opportunity to develop an emotional investment in the location and population beyond what we already possess innately as humans. Because of this and because the invasion has been so heavily hyped in the marketing, the actual moment is frightfully dull. There's just no impact to it, no sense of surprise.
Oh look, they've killed everyone attending the Defence Council session, making the previous scene pretty much pointless except to showcase the invasion. I don't even care that everyone died because, once again, we have no attachment to them. I also don't buy that the only survivors were Shepard and Anderson. It's just too convenient that the two named characters escaped with a few scratches and some bruising while everyone else got pulped. We should see people pulling themselves to their feet, screaming for help, trying to clear the doorway.
Why is all the cool stuff happening in the background? Sure we get a few stray blasts headed in our direction but for the most part all the major action is seperate from the player. We should be on the streets, not wandering about atop a skyscraper. We ought to be in the thick of things, fighting through waves of husks, leading survivors to safety, fleeing and hiding, dodgeing the concrete shattering steps of a Reaper. The sort of thing that might actually generate some excitement. In it's current state the opening manages to feel very rushed, whilst paradoxically lacking any real urgency. The lack of emotional investment I mentioned earlier? Being removed from the action like this doesn't help.
So heat sinks are being reffered to as ammo now? It was annoying enough when they were introduced in a pointless attempt to make the gunplay feel more like a traditional shooter. Now it's as if the writers don't even care enough to keep up the pretense.
The scene with the kid is a weak and obvious attempt at tugging on our heart strings. It fails because his dialogue and behaviour doesn't really gel with the image of a terrified child.
"Everyone's dying" the kid whines, and yet we've barely seen anyone since before the invasion. Look off the edge of the skyscraper and aside from the collossal Reapers (which I'll admit are really cool) and a handful of painfully low resolution 2d humans, the streets look deserted. Where are all the vehicles, the mobilising soldiers, the crowds of fleeing civillians, the wreckage, or the corpses?
Why is Shepard acting so Earth-centric? Paragon Shepard has always recognised that the Reapers represented a threat to the entire galaxy, not just to Humans, and that we couldn't stand by ourselves and expect to survive. I really hate that I'm not allowed to pick what Shepard is saying. Apparently a lot of dialogue options were cut from the demo to save space, but the result doesn't represent what I expect from a Mass Effect game. Couldn't they have cut Character Creation instead? I certainly wouldn't have minded.
This whole gameplay sequence feels too quiet. Aside from the distant explosions, occasional set-pieces and the infrequent action sequences, there are long stretches where not a lot is happening in the audio department. Couldn't we have had some pulse-pounding background music, maybe some panicked radio chatter from the beleaguered defenders? At the very least that might have helped with the urgency problems.
Ashley says over the radio that the Reapers are about to take down a dreadnought. We then see a Reaper blow up what looks to be a relatively small Alliance ship. Certainly it doesn't look much larger than the Normandy. In previous games dreadnoughts were described as being a kilometer long and incapable of generating a mass effect field strong enough allow entry into a planet's atmosphere.
Why does Anderson want to stay ground side? He's too old to be worth much fighting on the front lines, while his high level of military and political experience makes him more valuable in an administration position. He should be taken to the Citadel in order to organise the other races, or otherwise taken to an Alliance millitary installation where he can rally and direct Earth's defenders. Is he still on the Citadel Council? I've heard some sources claim he resigned, but the demo never mentions his position.
And that kid shows up again, and shortly thereafter gets vaporised by a Reaper. Again, an attempt at creating emotional impact, but again it fails because we have no reason to care about him. We barely know him. He had maybe three lines of bad dialogue. We don't even know his name for pity's sake.
Why didn't the child-killing Reaper or any of the others in the area even try to shoot down the Normandy during that overly soppy sequence? It got the shuttles easily enough, and the Normandy was virtually stationary in front of it the whole time. Surely Harbinger has labelled Shepard and the Normandy as high priority targets after the events of the previous games. And why prioritise the civillian targets over the Normandy anyway? I thought the Reapers goal was to harvest organic life, especially humanity if Mass Effect 2 was any indication. I suspect that organics become significantly harder to harvest when they're reduced to so many vaporised particles drifting in the wind. The Reapers should be performing surgical strikes on millitary targets while limiting collateral damage. Instead it almost looks like they're doing the opposite.
Okay well that grew into something rather more...thorough...than I'd intended, but I hope I got my feeling's across. I know some of those point's look rather nitpicky, but as they say, the devil is in the details. While I did enjoy the combat, I can't really say that I've got high hopes for the story quality after this.
And so on and so on...DrWilhelm said:
Your post is WAAAAAAAAAAY too big for a forum of this manner so I'm just going to address some of your earlier issues. It's a fucking demo, you're not going to get all the intro sequences that will be present in the actual game. Use your noggin please.
Come on, look at the length of your post compared to previous ones. You honestly don't think you went a bit over the top?DrWilhelm said:
Toughen up a bit, my criticism of your criticisms are founded. You can't find fault with a demo because it didn't include the entire game.
Looked like the entire game is going to be focused on Earth. I.e. even though you may explore the galaxy, it is all with the aim of saving Earth. This is the dumbest thing they could have done. Earth is the least interesting location in the game by a country mile but I get the feeling even though there are millions of reapers attacking across the universe the main battle will only happen around Earth. Visits to other races may well only be single token missions.
Everything did look a little... oily. Not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but just kinda scummy.
The intro felt a little unimpactfull, at least it did in the demo. In the full game this is obviously meant to set the stage and slowly get into flow of things, but seeing as this was a demo it cuts away right afterwards making the whole thing seem a bit superfluous.
Ashley looks really glammed up though. Almost too much. I don't mind that Bioware tried to give her some flair, but she almost looks like she should be a some futuristic Bollywood movie. It just feels a bit overzelous.
The combat and powers have a great punch to them, and I found the enemy forces to be much tougher. They had a nice sense to them, not just being opponents, but truly being out for my blood.
I do however hope that the lack of conversation options were representative of the demo and not the full game.
The intro felt a little unimpactfull, at least it did in the demo. In the full game this is obviously meant to set the stage and slowly get into flow of things, but seeing as this was a demo it cuts away right afterwards making the whole thing seem a bit superfluous.
Ashley looks really glammed up though. Almost too much. I don't mind that Bioware tried to give her some flair, but she almost looks like she should be a some futuristic Bollywood movie. It just feels a bit overzelous.
The combat and powers have a great punch to them, and I found the enemy forces to be much tougher. They had a nice sense to them, not just being opponents, but truly being out for my blood.
I do however hope that the lack of conversation options were representative of the demo and not the full game.
I'd also like to add that there seems to be almost no wieght to anything.
I mean you see a reaper pretty much crashing into the river in front of you, and theres no shockwaves what so ever. all the explosions felt rather meh aswell, which kinda ruins the cinimatic feel there are going for
I mean you see a reaper pretty much crashing into the river in front of you, and theres no shockwaves what so ever. all the explosions felt rather meh aswell, which kinda ruins the cinimatic feel there are going for
If you'd bothered to read my post you'd have seen that I do think I went over the top. After I'd written it though I decided it was a waste not to post it. Why should I toughen up? I entered the thread's discussion expecting civility and you respond to me by swearing and calling me an idiot. Now I'm angry and feel like crap. There was absolutely no need for that.Gerishnakov said:
I find fault with the issues you picked from my post because according to Bioware the demo contains the entire opening to the game, bar apparently some dialogue choices. It uses an in medias res opening in order to create urgency and impact, but it ultimately creates neither. If the game had instead begun more slowly they would have been better able to create the intended urgency and impact once the reapers invaded, whilst also answering the questions I'm left asking. These aren't mysterious questions that are vital to the plot and tension whose answers will be revalatory, they're little niggly questions that leave me wondering what the hell is going on, unable to fully engage. The player, who for all intents and purposes is Shepard, should already have the answers to at least some of these questions.
Frankly I suspect that you only picked out my first few issues because they were the easiest to criticise.
It honestly feels as though you've taken the words out of my mouth with about half of your complaints. Although hearing that the dialogue options may have simply been taken out due to size restraints puts me a little more at easeDrWilhelm said:
And what exactly is wrong with making a thought out, well written post? Considering that the purpose of this thread was to explain what your thoughts on the new Mass Effect demo were, be them good or bad, not simply give praise and write off whatever concerns one may have as "Simply due to it being a demo". Also given that he bothered to actually space out his paragraphs as to avoid the "Wall of text" look, berating him for the size of his post seems a rather ridiculous complaint, given that users are encouraged to write thought out posts such as his on this forum.Gerishnakov said:
I did say that in a weird order.boag said:
James isn't very interesting, despite being new... I'm not sure why, but he's really aggravating me already. When I say new characters, I think I meant those with at least a ounce of personality to delve into.
That's why I don't like him, and now, why I hate him.
Everyone in that scene, including Shepard, is wearing a uniform, James is not. James has a different body type which no human in Mass Effect has had before, as far as I can remember.
Both of these highlight areas of control over my character that I would not have even thought about if he weren't there, like in previous Mass Effects. James becomes a symbol of that lack of control. So when I can't decide wether or not my Shepard gives a crap about some annoying brat dying, it's James' fault. When I can't select my dialogue and I'm forced to say random, cheesy action movie crap, it's James' fault. That's what's happened here.
Again, I am aware that this is a demo, but he makes a terrible first impression. I hope it turns out he's just Andersons personal trainer and never escaped earth.
The Single Player part was what most people here said.
I have to say that i really like the character. It's pretty hard to get a full team right now, but i think that's because the multiplayer is exclusive right now.
There are some misstakes in it, but i overall really liked it and will play it allot when me3 comes out. The only think that keeps me from playing it now, is that i will most likely have to unlock all the characters and weapons again after the full game comes out.
What's kind of interressting is that you can see how the upgrade system will most likely work in the singleplayer.
It's really like the first one. When you suceed at special mission between fighting of the waves of enemys then you get credits as a reward. with these credits you can buy equipment packs. It's pretty random what you get, but you can get upgrades that you can put in your weapons just like in ME 1, 2 upgrade slots per weapon. You can also get upgraded versions of weapons like the avenger II, which then overrides the avenger I that you have.
But i don't really know if you get upgraded versions of the weapont in singleplayer too.
I have to say that i really like the character. It's pretty hard to get a full team right now, but i think that's because the multiplayer is exclusive right now.
There are some misstakes in it, but i overall really liked it and will play it allot when me3 comes out. The only think that keeps me from playing it now, is that i will most likely have to unlock all the characters and weapons again after the full game comes out.
What's kind of interressting is that you can see how the upgrade system will most likely work in the singleplayer.
It's really like the first one. When you suceed at special mission between fighting of the waves of enemys then you get credits as a reward. with these credits you can buy equipment packs. It's pretty random what you get, but you can get upgrades that you can put in your weapons just like in ME 1, 2 upgrade slots per weapon. You can also get upgraded versions of weapons like the avenger II, which then overrides the avenger I that you have.
But i don't really know if you get upgraded versions of the weapont in singleplayer too.