Here it is. This review is going to be split into 2 parts - The single Player Section and the Multi-player Section.

ME3 Single Player

WOW!!! is the the first thing I said. Once you get through the customisation screens to your hearts content and you could easily spend a couple of hours here creating the perfect Shepard to play with you you have the 3 options to look at, which is a cool idea. You can play the full rpg experience, jump straight into the action, or just enjoy the story. I tried the full experience and was I glad I did. The first part is simply amazing and sets the story up for the game in a matter of minutes.

The single player demo is split into 2 sections, same as the ME2 demo - a short setup/tutorial level and then a level later in the game.

Gameplay

If you've played any of the other games in the series, then the game play hasn't changed, powers and weapons are all mapped to the same buttons, though now Shepard has a better melee attack and if you hold circle down you will do a power attack. It's pretty cool knocking and enemy to the ground then stabbing them with a sword that appears out of your omnitool.

The AI seems a little more complex this time around. In one section Combat Engineers turned up, dropped a kick ass turret, then while I was busy dealing that, the bloody devils flanked me from the side, and once under fire, retreated to cover and dropped another turret to cover their escape. It was satisfying to finally kill the damn enemy.

The sound was cool. Each gun had it's own unique sound and I couldn't get enough of hearing the Assault Rifle firing - a deep thud.

Graphics
ME3 is running the same graphics engine as ME2 which was always intended to be the case. Bioware released ME2 with the new engine for PS3 as a treat for having to wait so long. A gorgeous game to watch nonetheless.

I found the camera movements in the cutscenes really jarring - bad jump cuts and so forth, but this will likely be due to the older code of the demo and I expect things to be tightened up for release.

ME3 Multi-Player

I was a bit wary of this when I heard that ME3 was shipping with a Multi-player mode. But after playing this, it is one of the most addictive co-op games I have played. If you like customising, there is an insane amount of customising you can do.

For starters there are 6 classes (exactly the same classes as the Single Player) and each has their own skill trees. Each class also has 4 playable slots representing the different races, such as Krogan, Quarian, Drell, human, etc and each has their own racial traits as well. Couple that with what you can do to your armour, your guns, modding, special abilities, it is endless.

Basically, it is four player co-op and if you work well as a team, you should get through it okay, once you start lone wolfing, everything goes to hell in a hand basket very quickly.

There are 2 levels with the game and the mode is a horde mode with objectives ranging from survival, to hacking computers, to assassinating targets and claiming data packets. At the end of the round, players are awarded the total of all players earned XP. My highest total has been around 85K, which only put me up a couple of levels.

Speaking of leveling up, there are 3 ways - your level, your class levels, and cash. By playing it, I think the total of your class levels = your total level. For instance i have a level 6 Soldier, a level 5 Engineer, a level 3 Adept, etc. Cash, however is used to purchase packs which have random items in from from new weapons, weapon mods, ammo refills, shield refills and so on. This is one of the most addictive bits for me is seeing what you get once you purchase a new pack. They come in different levels and thus more expensive packs will give you rarer and more powerful items.

So if you like co-op modes and want to sink your teeth into a satisfying 3rd person shooter, I serious recommend you DL this and give it a look. You won't be disappointed.

Damn, you sell the game pretty well! I may try the demo but I don't want to play ME3 and then try ME1 and 2, 'cause usually playing earlier games in a series after playing their latest makes you aware of the lack of certain features and such. I may have to get 1 and 2 just to compensate! XD

Cheers mate. After reading it there are some terrible grammatical errors in there though. One thing that just occurred to me this morning, is that 2012 appears to be a year of co-op game play. There are several games that I will be getting which all appear to have strong co-op elements as opposed to competitive gameplay - ME3, Syndicate, Borderlands 2 are the 3 that I can think of off the top of my head.

My recommendation is to play ME1 & 2 first, before you try the singe player for ME3 (though for us PS3 players, we only have ME2 to play through) as your actions and choices you make will have major repercussions in the final game. This is one bit I'm interested in seeing.

I'm also interested in how the mp bit influences the single player, because the more you play the co-op the better your 'readiness' in the war against the Reapers. My one complaint about this if true, is that it will penalise people without and internet connection.

Casamyr wrote:Cheers mate. After reading it there are some terrible grammatical errors in there though. One thing that just occurred to me this morning, is that 2012 appears to be a year of co-op game play. There are several games that I will be getting which all appear to have strong co-op elements as opposed to competitive gameplay - ME3, Syndicate, Borderlands 2 are the 3 that I can think of off the top of my head.

My recommendation is to play ME1 & 2 first, before you try the singe player for ME3 (though for us PS3 players, we only have ME2 to play through) as your actions and choices you make will have major repercussions in the final game. This is one bit I'm interested in seeing.

I'm also interested in how the mp bit influences the single player, because the more you play the co-op the better your 'readiness' in the war against the Reapers. My one complaint about this if true, is that it will penalise people without and internet connection.

I have no idea what the 'Reapers' are, so don't even bother using that as a promotional tool! =P But I definitely will have to try ME2, was ME exclusive to XBox? If so, then won't it mean that you won't fully affect ME3? Or is it just ME2's choices that affect it?

Yeah, ME was Xbox exclusive, until EA brought Bioware. So we don't get the full choices as we can't play the full series. However, on the ME2 disc, there is a digital comic that explains the events of the first game and you have a few choices to make, which will have effect in the third game, but the majority of choices will come from ME2 once you import your game save.

Casamyr wrote:Yeah, ME was Xbox exclusive, until EA brought Bioware. So we don't get the full choices as we can't play the full series. However, on the ME2 disc, there is a digital comic that explains the events of the first game and you have a few choices to make, which will have effect in the third game, but the majority of choices will come from ME2 once you import your game save.

I may just skip ME! Sounds like they had it rather cleverly thought out, but cheers for the information! XD