GB Feature: Mass Effect 3 Preview

Now that the Mass Effect 3 demo is finally upon us, we’ve wrangled up some hands-on impressions of BioWare’s epic conclusion to the sci-fi TPS/RPG trilogy. Here’s a little something from our two-page preview:

While it’s impossible to judge Mass Effect 3’s overall focus, it’s certainly possible to examine the ways the game has changed mechanically. For fans of Mass Effect 2, the good news is, all for the better. The game’s combat, which follows the same cover-shooting model, is a good deal more intense and interesting than Mass Effect 2’s, while still feeling familiar. All the same features are there, from the pause-and-play functionality for ordering your squad members, to the breadth of powers to unleash on enemies, to ammo types and armor types, but it’s been expanded in some key ways.

BioWare elected to build upon a good thing with Mass Effect 3’s gunplay. Things are a touch faster-paced, aiming weapons feels tighter and more responsive (probably due to less spread when firing), and there are more options for moving around the environment, including rolling, diving and vaulting over ledges. The game’s enemies are also much more aggressive, willing to rush you in melee, circle around behind you, use suppressive fire to pin you down, or grenades to flush you out. In one situation, enemy engineers dropped down turrets during the firefight, making enemy prioritization an important factor. Again, many of these things are standard in cover-based shooters, but Mass Effect 3 spotlights just how far behind the curve the previous game really was in the action department.