So, now that the Mass Effect 3 Demo is out...

[Stavros Dimou]

Controls need to be fixed immediately.
The "One button does all" logic doesn't work for the multiplayer where spaces are even narrower and the enemies even more in numbers,and you have to move like a frenzied asari on steroids and viagra to survive.

You press SPACE to run,SPACE to revive squadmate,SPACE to get cover,SPACE to climb stairs...

Now imagine if one of your squadmates dies next to a crate that is stick on to a wall that has some stairs on it,and you have to move fast to avoid enemy fire...
You will of course die!

Because your character will do anything else than what you wanted.



It's a true story,happened about 15 minutes ago to me.

 

[Gerishnakov]

I'm currently replaying Mass Effect 1, and it may be just because I've got the difficult ramped up to 'Insanity' but the demo made me realise just how terrible everything about the original, except the non combat and non Mako bits were. The continuity of my Shep, the story, and the achievements are the only reasons I'm continuing with that replay now, it's just become a chore.

On a brighter note I really enjoyed both the single and multiplayer aspects of the demo. Trying to think of a few highlights... most of the 'spoilers' I already knew about from various promos... To those of you who say there wasn't enough story or conversations in the demo, and that worries you about the final game, they were obviously omitted intentionally. Seriously, there's like a whole chunk of the second part of the single player demo missing, because it probably contains a lot of spoilers and non-demo friendly gameplay.

The music from the end of the first part of the single player component stuck out for me, just beautiful. You can really hear Clint Mansell's influence.

 

[Zydrate]

Wasn't the game supposed to be harder on normal difficulty? Honestly, I thought it was easier than ME2, especially the Cerberus Atlas. It's been hyped as this recurring mini-boss, and it was substantially easier than a crowded room of normal mooks.

You talking about the big mech? He was pretty rough. Especially since the bastard actually stepped over the cover I was using.

I read on it's TVTropes page that ME3 will be "Harder", like Normal is the new Veteran but I'll be playing on the easiest setting anyway. I definitely notice that it was a tad more difficult, but old time players shouldn't have an issue since we know how things work a little.

Only real concern is the overdone brownish yellow color filter, which I REALLY hope I can turn off. Just 'cause it's the end of the universe doesn't mean it has to be a big ugly mush of blegh, BioWare.

ME1 was pretty gritty in most places though.

I'm by no means a fan of the Mass Effect series, I disliked Mass Effect 2 on a video game level, hated it on a cultural level and the original Mass Effect was the pinnacle of mediocrity to me, but I actually liked the Mass Effect 3 demo. I liked that there wasn't a lot of emphasis on bungling around the stupid dialog wheel hoping that saying "I disagree" doesn't turn into a feet-stomping "renegade" tantrum just because it's the choice on the bottom of the menu. I liked how it didn't try to be a dreadfully superficial RPG and a mediocre action game, it was just a pretty decent action game (for a cover-shooter with regenerating health anyway). Lastly, I liked how the UI didn't make me want to throw up. Sure, the writing is still cliché and bland, the level design too linear for the combat and most of the characters are completely juvenile, that isn't going to change at this point (because apparently people [REALLY REALLY] like it). It's still a fast paced and nicely polished third-person shooter, only now that it has more of a focus on one specific area it's more satisfying and less awkward, (though hopefully there won't be such a jarring shift between combat and story areas). In closing, I might actually get through this Mass Effect game on my first play-through instead of it taking me four attempts to finish the first Mass Effect and never finishing Mass Effect 2.

You're probably not going to like M3. It's going to be more of the same, with some refined bits. Same characters, same story. I'd move along, to be honest.

 

[Omnific One]

Trashy framerates on a well above spec system. I was hitting the mid 20's at points during gameplay. Cutscenes were fine, but gameplay FPS was terrible.

 

[thespyisdead]

my gloves came off when the kid died, and i vowed to kill the reaper that killed the kid!!!


on a side note, i found it hilarious, how Wrex treated the female Krogan as helpless, and she just took his gun and blasted a Cerberus guy's face off

 

[tendaji]

Actually forgot to mention this and didn't see if anyone did. How does everyone feel about the new "hacking system"? I enjoyed the little hacking mini-games in Mass Effect 2 or at least they made me feel like I was actually hacking or bypassing something, now you just hover your hand over a loading bar which just seems bland. I wish they went full out and did a Deus Ex: Human Revolution style hacking system and have your tech skills add to your proficiency with it. However, in the demo you do have to do bypassing or hacking under fire so implement a system like that would have to pause the rest of the game which would break the flow and sense of being under pressure, taking fire while you try to bust through a door so I don't know they're goods and bads to both systems.

I actually don't mind it, I know halfway through ME2 I was tired of constantly having to try and hack through or bypass objects ever few minutes. So I welcome the change due to the fact I don't have to try and connect the dots anymore, or find the missing page of the journal.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

Demo was good but the game was dark...not the story i mean i had to jack the brightness all the way up and i still failed the see this almost see this test thing

Yeh I noticed that, everything looked very dark then went to brightness and it says you should see 'N7' and I thought 'there's an N?' and it only goes up to 5.

 

[Zydrate]

im really disappointed...

What i know of the story from this demo makes no sense given the events of Mass Effect 2.
Why would reapers attack Earth instead of just attacking the relays again, with the same scale fleet that attacked Earth? Theyd easily succeed.
Why are Cerberus token bad-guys with no faces or emotions? We know plenty about Cerberus, such as the fact that they helped you save the galaxy like, a month ago... but now were back to "kidnapping children and attaching them to rape robots for fun, because were Cerberus!" Cerberus...
Why would my nasty, sociopath of a Shepard, who, on his best day, would only do bad things if it was for a greater good, and downhill from there... why would he, get all weepy about some random, idiot child (who frankly, commits suicide) dying?

I hate the 'floaty' walking animations and Andersons weird running animation.
Whos this "James" guy and why can i already imagine tearing out his internal organs for fun?
Why are we back to the Mass Effect 1 team again? They were boring the first time and the only people missing are whoever-died and Tali. Cant they be bothered to make some new characters, who would at least be interesting for a little while because they are new? :/
And why does Ashley look like Zero Suit Samus with Miranda's face?

No real dialogue options in the demo... no investigation, everyone responds with the same sentence no matter which option out the Blue/Red-Black/White-whatever you want to call it spectrum.

And still... its a boring, cover based shooter.
On no level did it impress. :|

Edit: i forgot about the A button.

i want to activate something, it takes cover...
i want to take cover, it rolls...
i want to roll, oh no wait... i dont.
Why is it even there!?

1) They're attacking Earth because Shephard is there and Shephard has proved to be an issue for them.
2) On Cerberus, according to the wiki;
"The organization has apparently allied itself with the Reapers, with at least some of its members being indoctrinated. Their ultimate goal, however, is to discover a way to control the Reapers and use their power to gain humanity's dominance in the galaxy."
They're basically... the same, actually.
3) The child was trying to escape.
4) Why would you oppose to new characters? The same ones over and over will get boring after a while. Kind of why this is the last chapter in Shep's story.
5) I kind of agree with the Ashley bit. She's sexy, but if it wasn't for the voice I thought it was Miranda for a second there. I did like the "I used to know her..." line, though.

I pretty much agree with the last bit, though. I didn't die in the demo like many have, but I think it's got too much functions. And rolling has limited tactical use, I'd rather just sprint to cover. They're going to shoot and hit me anyway, and rolling takes more effort to do.

 

[Hosker]

I very much enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to the full game.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

Generally, I loved it.

The banter between characters was great, the general dialog was damn good, the faces look better than ME2 and the combat is now more than just hiding behind one piece of cover playing whack-a-mole.

In addition to these, I LOVE the tone. It manages to have a lot of the old "Space Opera" tone from ME1, but at the same time is very dark and effecting.

And this:

Spoiler: small spoiler for the demo

Is by far one of my favorite moments of the year already.
DO YOU SEE THIS CALL OF DUTY???? THIS is how you make a death scene EFFECTIVE!

Only a couple of things I didn't like.

1) The character animations seemed a bit unfinished at times. Not the faces, the walking. Don't know if that was just me.

2) The character creation, while better, still pisses me off. A face can look GREAT in the creation screen and then as soon as they start talking and having expressions, it looks horrific.

3) Hacking? The Bypass seems to have been turned into a progress bar. I mean yes, the mini-games DID get annoying later in ME1 and 2, but I really hope you have to DO something in the full game.

 

[garjian]

1) They're attacking Earth because Shephard is there and Shephard has proved to be an issue for them.
2) On Cerberus, according to the wiki;
"The organization has apparently allied itself with the Reapers, with at least some of its members being indoctrinated. Their ultimate goal, however, is to discover a way to control the Reapers and use their power to gain humanity's dominance in the galaxy."
They're basically... the same, actually.
3) The child was trying to escape.
4) Why would you oppose to new characters? The same ones over and over will get boring after a while. Kind of why this is the last chapter in Shep's story.
5) I kind of agree with the Ashley bit. She's sexy, but if it wasn't for the voice I thought it was Miranda for a second there. I did like the "I used to know her..." line, though.

I pretty much agree with the last bit, though. I didn't die in the demo like many have, but I think it's got too much functions. And rolling has limited tactical use, I'd rather just sprint to cover. They're going to shoot and hit me anyway, and rolling takes more effort to do.

Thanks for the info for what its worth.
On 1 and 2, thats doesnt seem a good enough reason to me... Earth means nothing to the Reapers and Shepard has had barely any contact with Earth the whole series... at the very least, Earth has had nothing to do with Shepard's success... and why would the Reapers feel the need for any kind of vengeance when theyll be taking over the galaxy anyway? >.>
The Cerberus complaint is demo specific tbh, im sure therell be some kind of explanation, but it needs to come from somebody like Miranda, just... somebody that can explain, using human emotions, how a human organisation plans to side with them.

...anyway... How does th---oh, do you mea--no... no i dont understand...
The child is escaping from me? what?
How does any form of 'escaping' status, alien invasion or not, effect my emotions towards the cretin? I asked why my Shepard would care, and that is not an answer.

Finally, i dont oppose new characters. I oppose the old characters.
...its just this "James" guy. Hes said like 2 lines of dialogue and he already seems a boring, unlikable prat... I hear you get an opportunity to kill each member of the cast, and when my rental from LoveFilm comes through you can bet any money hell be gone as soon as possible.

 

[Quellist]

Personally I wasnt impressed. The mechanics are an improvement but the whole ammo thing is still jarring, especially at the start when you are running out of ammo...

Hey guys, now we've solved the problem of running out of ammo lets have disposable heat sinks instead so we can run out of those instead of having guns that never run out. I mean out in the colonies where resources are scarce we still want to have limited ammo (ugh, /rant off, sorry)

Back on topic, it still looks way too action-oriented and as a veteran of Biowares old stuff i'm still feeling marginalized in favor of the FPS crowd.

All in all I think i'll be passing on this one

 

[Zhukov]

On 1 and 2, thats doesnt seem a good enough reason to me... Earth means nothing to the Reapers and Shepard has had barely any contact with Earth the whole series... at the very least, Earth has had nothing to do with Shepard's success... and why would the Reapers feel the need for any kind of vengeance when theyll be taking over the galaxy anyway? >.>

They aren't attacking Earth specifically. They're just rolling across the galaxy from south to north. (Yes, I know galaxies don't have a north and south, you know what I mean.)

They hit the Batarians first, hence the prevalence of Batarian husks ("cannibals") you see in the demo.

Throughout the game they start showing up everywhere else, not just Earth.

 

[Zydrate]

1) They're attacking Earth because Shephard is there and Shephard has proved to be an issue for them.
2) On Cerberus, according to the wiki;
"The organization has apparently allied itself with the Reapers, with at least some of its members being indoctrinated. Their ultimate goal, however, is to discover a way to control the Reapers and use their power to gain humanity's dominance in the galaxy."
They're basically... the same, actually.
3) The child was trying to escape.
4) Why would you oppose to new characters? The same ones over and over will get boring after a while. Kind of why this is the last chapter in Shep's story.
5) I kind of agree with the Ashley bit. She's sexy, but if it wasn't for the voice I thought it was Miranda for a second there. I did like the "I used to know her..." line, though.

I pretty much agree with the last bit, though. I didn't die in the demo like many have, but I think it's got too much functions. And rolling has limited tactical use, I'd rather just sprint to cover. They're going to shoot and hit me anyway, and rolling takes more effort to do.

Thanks for the info for what its worth.
On 1 and 2, thats doesnt seem a good enough reason to me... Earth means nothing to the Reapers and Shepard has had barely any contact with Earth the whole series... at the very least, Earth has had nothing to do with Shepard's success... and why would the Reapers feel the need for any kind of vengeance when theyll be taking over the galaxy anyway? >.>
The Cerberus complaint is demo specific tbh, im sure therell be some kind of explanation, but it needs to come from somebody like Miranda, just... somebody that can explain, using human emotions, how a human organisation plans to side with them.

...anyway... How does th---oh, do you mea--no... no i dont understand...
The child is escaping from me? what?
How does any form of 'escaping' status, alien invasion or not, effect my emotions towards the cretin? I asked why my Shepard would care, and that is not an answer.

Finally, i dont oppose new characters. I oppose the old characters.
...its just this "James" guy. Hes said like 2 lines of dialogue and he already seems a boring, unlikable prat... I hear you get an opportunity to kill each member of the cast, and when my rental from LoveFilm comes through you can bet any money hell be gone as soon as possible.

As for the first bit, someone already said;

They aren't attacking Earth specifically. They're just rolling across the galaxy from south to north. (Yes, I know galaxies don't have a north and south, you know what I mean.)

They hit the Batarians first, hence the prevalence of Batarian husks ("cannibals") you see in the demo.

Throughout the game they start showing up everywhere else, not just Earth.

Earth itself is irrelevant. They're hitting it as ONE of the first because Shephard is there. That is the ONLY reason. They've proven to be dangerously savvy, and this is just another part of their plan.
Yes, they're going for galactic extinction but Shephard has taken out some of their previously used options, so S/he is still a dangerous enemy they need to take out right the fuck now. They DID kill Shep in ME2, after all. And they tried their damndest to get a hold of the body, and almost succeeded in that, too.

If your Shep doesn't care about the kid, then there's not much to say? Whether it invokes an emotional response is entirely up to you. It didn't get much out of me, but it was nice to see them using a kid model in the game finally. The games have been strangely devoid of them.

As always, the game itself will probably explain things better. I'm not sure why you're so adamant of writing it off on a 45 minute demo.

 

[Yarkaz]

I completely hated the first half of the demo... It looked awful, played awful, I felt like I was in an episode of Jersey Shore between James and the redesigned Ashley... And what's up with the new sprinting animations? I'm really hoping that gets worked out. Looked terrible.

The second half made me all happy gain though. Fighting alongside Garrus, Wrex, and Liara? brilliant. Getting to play with some class powers and new guns? Fun. Testing out the new, smarter enemy AI? Challenging enough that I actually died once! I found the mission fun and exhilarating, It was the first combat scenario in a game that made me seriously think strategically in a while. Of course my last two games been Skyrim and Fable 3, soooo...

 

[endtherapture]

Anyone else feeling the little boy in the demo seemed more than it seemed? Like he was an inner part of Shephard's psyche. I mean, Anderson didn't notice him, neither did any of the soldiers on the flying car thing, they didn't help him to get in the car, it feels odd, like he is a manifestation of a young Shepard or something as opposed to an actual boy. Such an innocent creature in all of the chaos and war and stuff, when everyone else around was military, seemed weird.

I dunno, seems too advanced for Bioware, could be plausible if it was an Obsidian game.

 

[Zydrate]

I think there was more to the boy.

Side note; I chose Infiltrator. Why didn't they give me a damn sniper rifle?

 

[garjian]

I'm not sure why you're so adamant of writing it off on a 45 minute demo.

but I enjoy writing stuff off.