User blog:Rac Ward/Mass Effect 3 Demo Review

With the release of the demo for Mass Effect 3 and given that people have had time to digest the new features of the game I figured I would give my review on what I felt were some of the strongest features of the demo and some of the weakest.

The Bad

I originally watched the leaked beta demo on youtube, and from what I can tell there were major dialogue changes that were created between the leak of the beta demo and the actual demo. This is noticeable when Admiral Anderson is talking to Shepard in the hallway about the things he has pulled off. Originally Shepard complains about why they took away the Normandy and Andersons response was that with the destruction of an entire Batarian system Shepard gave the Batarians an excuse to go to war. Shepards response was that if he hadn't done it the Reapers would have shown up much earlier. Now Bioware did say they were going to change some things around because of the beta leak and it appears they have with the demo. Now I am not sure they excluded the mention of the destruction of the Alpha Relay from the Mass Effect 2 Arrival DLC because of the fact that new players wouldnt have a clue as to what was being said or not. I felt that removing this dialogue makes the seen in the demo appear awkward because it looks like Shepard has something to say to Anderson but doesnt. Also the entire sequence involving the rescue of the female krogan on the Salarian homeworld was much longer in the beta than in the actual demo. You meet Captain now Major Kirrahe far earlier in the beta demo and you have more chances for good quality dialogue. Given that in the actual demo you are jumped ahead to the halfway point of rescuing the female krogan I felt that they missed an opportunity for good character relationships and even with the inclusion of the storytelling feature the gameplay doesn't change all that much between the traditional Mass Effect selection to the Action option. Given how long players have been waiting for this demo they could have offered us more than what was present in the actual demo even adding missions besides the rescue of the female krogan. On a personal level I would have loved a mission that involved James Vega, just to get the character more and see what he can do in combat situations.

The Beta Demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ZYlAtlnGY

The actual demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFAavvpvwZM

The Good

Well now that we finally have a demo for Mass Effect 3 we can at least sate our desire to finally get to see what the new Mass Effect is all about. I love the fact that we have the option of selecting what gameplay experience we want before playing the game shows that the developers at Bioware put alot of thought into what they would make the gameplay of Mass Effect 3 so much more than what was in the previous two. Also the multiplayer experience was beyond words as I shot my way across multiple maps to help Shepard defeat the Reapers.

Outcome:

I give the demo a 4/5 because while the multiplayer and gameplay was beyond awesome and the addition of how we decide to play the game as an added bonus I felt that the demo was rushed and that it lacked the soulful dialogue found in the beta version. I feel that if Bioware had left the dialogue as it was and not changed it and included a different type of second mission or at least let you play the second mission fully without jumping you ahead that it would have made the experience all the sweeter. What do you think?