The Reapers have arrived. Earth is under siege and millions are dying by the hour. A massive galaxy-wide war has broken out and the only hope is to unite the races or die. That is what greets you at the opening of Mass Effect 3. As you may or may not know, I have been invested in this game for quite a while (see my story on completing Mass Effect 2) so I was eager to see the decisions I've made in the past come to a head. I have played single player for about ten hours and played a few rounds of multiplayer and here's my thoughts to this point.
The gameplay has had some changes made to it, some subtle, others, not so much. The skill system has been fleshed out a bit offering six levels of upgrades instead of four. However, at level four you are given two options for how to progress your powers. This goes for Shepard and all squad mates. Controls are tight and responsive, and Bioware has helped to make a few changes to the cover system that put it more in line with a Gears of War type game which is great. You can now do combat rolls in any direction, sprinting is faster, and you can roll around cover and to either side of doors or setups similar to doorways. There are also some areas to do running jumps and ladders to help vary the combat situations a little bit. Some more changes are to the enemy AI. Enemies are smarter and I have found myself having to have a strategy in battle instead of going in and just letting my team take care of what I'm not paying attention to. Enemies will use verticality, flanking, and lob grenades to get you out of cover now. They provide covering fire for each other and continuously keep pressure on you. I have found the gameplay changes to help the series out quite a bit.
Going on with some more gameplay changes, Planetary Scanning from Mass Effect 2 is still around, but it's drastically different. Now you roam your sector and press a button to scan nearby and the game will tell you if there are "war assets" nearby. You go to the planet and start your scanner and follow the line to where the thing is, launch a probe, and you're done. If you scan too many times in a Reaper controlled area, the Reapers will come after you and if you don't escape in time, you die. The weapon system is mostly carried over from Mass Effect 2, except there are more options and you now have access to weapon mods to customize your weapons. There are also weapon upgrades you can purchase and you are allowed to customize your armor if you choose to.
Bioware was also nice enough to include a multiplayer mode this time. The wonderful thing about the multiplayer is that it is 100% optional. There is no NEED to play it at all if you don't want to. The mode is similar to Gears of War's Horde mode. You face waves of enemies until you either die or complete the mission. There are six levels to play on and this mode does offer you the ability to play as different races which is kind of neat, but other than that, there is nothing really groundbreaking. It's a fun diversion, but that's it. I haven't played too much to know a lot about it.
The graphics have been improved to a fantastic quality. Characters are still kind of stiff during cut scenes and they don't quite touch each other when they have moments of touching each other. Environments are fantastic and seem nearly realistic at times, though the water in the opening sequence is pretty terrible. Another small note is that occasionally in the opening sequence I would encounter background characters randomly popping into the background of the scene as if they were teleported there. There are also several points where you get a before the war and a during the war picture and the contrast is hauntingly beautiful. The mood is set and this game is quite a bit darker than I was expecting it to be, even though I knew it was about a war for survival. I feel like I have actually been hit at a small emotional level and that is impressive.
The games sound design up to this point is as we can expect. The returning characters sound like they always have and the new ones have some great actors behind them. The music is fitting and helps to bolster the tone that this could be the end of everything. There are some lip syncing issues but they don't detract too much from the rest of what is going on.
That's all for now. This is a huge game, and I will write more about the choices I've made in the past affecting my game now at a later time. Until then, please get this game and enjoy it. Till next time, See You Online.
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