0
17 February 2012
The demo for the multiplayer opened up yesterday. I'm shockingly pleased with it.
I mean it basically gives you what you want: team-based Mass Effect 3 co-op. It'd be hard to say it's not like Horde mode from Gears of War (being a wave/survival based third person shooter co-op mode), but it's still Mass Effect at its core.
The demo was basically the entire multiplayer suite from what I could tell, minus some maps and options (probably the most notable one being Cerberus locked in as the only enemy type). Leveling and stuff seemed intact. Basically you choose one of the classes in Mass Effect (Soldier, Sentinel, Adept, Vanguard, Infiltrator, Engineer) and get dropped into a map where you have to survive waves until extract. You can choose the Bronze, Silver, or Gold challenge mode, each of them varying in difficulty. I've stuck with Bronze mostly since my characters are still rather low level.
Each wave has a variety of objectives. Most of the time it's simply "kill all the enemies", but now and then you'll have to do something else to complete the wave. Usually it involves activating beacons around the map in a time limit, guarding an area until time runs out, or killing key targets on the enemy team in a time limit. The variety is nice and makes you run around instead of hunkering down for 10 waves.
Classes are a bit unique but not in a "TF2" type of way. You can all choose the same weapons with the same mods and have the same proficiency, each class just gets unique powers. For example, Adepts have access to Warp (a rather generic damage biotic), Singularity (which sends enemies into a zero gravity ragdoll state), and Shockwave (which sends a shock wave across a distance and knocks enemies out of the way). It creates pros and cons for each class but overall they're all playable.
I haven't unlocked any races yet so I unfortunately don't know if there's any benefits past aesthetics. By the way, unlocking works by earning credits from matches. You can then use credits to buy different degrees of "reinforcement packs", which contain one-time use power ups, weapons, weapon mods, and sometimes characters.
Gameplay though is rather intact from the main game, exception being everything's real time. I couldn't pull up the power wheel either, probably since you only have three powers at a time and they're all mapped to different keys.
Overall though it's a lot of fun. It's simple but addictive. Definitely give it a try. I think your stuff carries over to the main game as well. I'm not sure how long the multiplayer will be available though, hopefully until launch.
I mean it basically gives you what you want: team-based Mass Effect 3 co-op. It'd be hard to say it's not like Horde mode from Gears of War (being a wave/survival based third person shooter co-op mode), but it's still Mass Effect at its core.
The demo was basically the entire multiplayer suite from what I could tell, minus some maps and options (probably the most notable one being Cerberus locked in as the only enemy type). Leveling and stuff seemed intact. Basically you choose one of the classes in Mass Effect (Soldier, Sentinel, Adept, Vanguard, Infiltrator, Engineer) and get dropped into a map where you have to survive waves until extract. You can choose the Bronze, Silver, or Gold challenge mode, each of them varying in difficulty. I've stuck with Bronze mostly since my characters are still rather low level.
Each wave has a variety of objectives. Most of the time it's simply "kill all the enemies", but now and then you'll have to do something else to complete the wave. Usually it involves activating beacons around the map in a time limit, guarding an area until time runs out, or killing key targets on the enemy team in a time limit. The variety is nice and makes you run around instead of hunkering down for 10 waves.
Classes are a bit unique but not in a "TF2" type of way. You can all choose the same weapons with the same mods and have the same proficiency, each class just gets unique powers. For example, Adepts have access to Warp (a rather generic damage biotic), Singularity (which sends enemies into a zero gravity ragdoll state), and Shockwave (which sends a shock wave across a distance and knocks enemies out of the way). It creates pros and cons for each class but overall they're all playable.
I haven't unlocked any races yet so I unfortunately don't know if there's any benefits past aesthetics. By the way, unlocking works by earning credits from matches. You can then use credits to buy different degrees of "reinforcement packs", which contain one-time use power ups, weapons, weapon mods, and sometimes characters.
Gameplay though is rather intact from the main game, exception being everything's real time. I couldn't pull up the power wheel either, probably since you only have three powers at a time and they're all mapped to different keys.
Overall though it's a lot of fun. It's simple but addictive. Definitely give it a try. I think your stuff carries over to the main game as well. I'm not sure how long the multiplayer will be available though, hopefully until launch.
Skelletonike
Feb 19 2012 04:45 AM