I picked up Mass
Effect 3 (ME3) the same week it came out.
I immediately dove into the single player campaign as this is the third
game in the series and I really enjoyed the previous games. I recall how amazed I was at the total
overhaul Bioware did on ME2 coming after ME1.
The game and its principles have not changed, but the aesthetics and
game mechanics and features were upgraded and were such a welcome joy. I tore into ME3 with the same expectations,
and I can say, off the bat, this game is
worth every penny.
I've had the game
for just over a week now and honestly I've spent 80% of my playing time in the
multiplayer. The story is as good an
engrossing as it ever was continuing where ME2 left off and the Reapers coming
to destroy not only Earth, but every inhabited planet or life force possible in
the universe. You, playing as captain
Shepard, escape in the Normandy to recruit forces around the Galaxies and
beyond to fight and hopefully stop the Reapers. Here is where I found out more about the
multiplayer portion of this game and what got me intrigued
This is the first
game I can recall where my online playtime and progress can actually help and
integrate into my single player story. I
do not think this blog will release any story spoilers, but then again I'm hardly
half way done w/ the story so I don’t know a whole lot myself. In any case, you will notice if you've
jumped into the single player campaign, that you have a war readiness rating
and you can look at the resources available while onboard the Normandy. You can
also check this through the Mass Effect 3 page online and I believe you can
view some of it through your multiplayer menu.
In the campaign you work to recruit help for the cause through dialogue
w/ individuals, scanning planets for artifacts, or by completing some
missions. The multiplayer portion of
this, to me, is very neat, and yet also so simple. When you play online, you progress your
character up to a level 20. At that
point you have the option of a 'prestige' type action where you will take that
maxed player and incorporate them into your war assets for the campaign. By doing this though, you will reset that
character progress for online play back to zero. As far as I can tell you can prestige any
class over and over into your campaign game.
Diving more into the
online portion of this game, there is only 1 game mode when you play
multiplayer. I'm not sure it was even
given a name, but I'll go ahead and call it like it is. The online mode is coop only with 4 players
and is essentially "Horde" mode from Gears of War. 4 players of any class must stand off against
10 waves of increasingly difficult enemies and then must survive the 11th wave
which is a countdown to extraction. The
game mode is a simulation of a Reaper or other enemy invasion going on in the
campaign but now you get to play in these side story type matches.
I'll be honest, my
first game in was not very impressive.
You start off w/ level 1 and basically have no powers to use until you
level up. You get your guns and some
basic power ups. I played 2 matches and
just wasn't feeling it. My first class
of choice was something I'd NEVER used in past Mass Effect games, the Sentinal. However, after ranking this character up and
unlocking his biotic powers of Throw and Warp, HOLY COW, did the game change
drastically for me. My reference point
for these next few thoughts are that I've played hundreds of hours of games and
many of them focused on being first person shooters. I've had my lot of those games and at this
point you REALLY gotta be impressive in how you make the game or else build
features that are new and entertaining enough to pull me in. ME3 hits that on the nose with the new
features. Once you embrace a character,
w/ biotic or tech powers, this game mode becomes unbelievably addicting, or at
least it did for me. I now configure my
characters to run w/ the smallest guns possible to keep my power recharge
ability at full so I can just blast every enemy near me w/ powers beyond the
basic shooting gun. After a binge
weekend of playing this game online I still feel endless joy in the ability to
manipulate enemy characters w/ powers and then polish them off w/a combo biotic to see and hear the concussion
as they explode, get tossed, burn or freeze to death. You may have to experience this yourself to
really understand it, but this game is now the new precedent for me in terms of
the FPS online gaming genres.
The online mode
overall mechanically feels like a rough start version of Gears of War. If you've played Gears of War 3 you should
know how amazingly smooth EPIC games configured the control mechanics for
players to move into objects, then shift up over and around them on the
fly. ME3 has all this, but it's just
not as smooth. This does not take away
from the gameplay at all, but can be frustrating when you want a quick escape
and sometimes get stuck on whoknowswhat in your way. The enemy characters are a lot of fun. Bioware really did a great job creating a diverse
challenge in each enemy team set and then building their weaknesses
specifically against certain human character player powers or skills. With that in mind, they made this game mode
VERY challenging. You'll be hard to find
a group of players who can full complete a match without 4 players in the game
on the lowest difficulty "Bronze".
Possibly if you have a group of 3 or 4 people w/ maxed out skills and
powers can you survive Silver or Gold difficulty. I've played silver 3x and lost them all. The one time we did beat it, I did not
survive and only 2 players were able to extract. It was nuts!
I'm the kind of guy
who hardly buys games at full price these days, but this one is easily worth
the price. You'll get hours and hours of
replay through the campaign. There are
various endings built into the game, and you get some achievements for
completing multiple playthroughs. The
online is very fulfilling and will keep you busy as well. Bioware seems to be supporting the online
community quite well as they release a community challenge with some nice
rewards already. I look forward to more
content updates and challenges, and hopefully they may put in some DLC to keep
players interested months down the road.
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