Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Previews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on October 27th, 2011

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Enemies ranged from simple Cerberus troops to nimble undead husks and horrible, blister-skinned cannibals. At the top range, you can expect towering Atlas Mechs, complete with grabbing, squishing claws, and punch-happy Brutes, both of which ar big enough to require a full group of four players to take them on, Monster Hunter style.

Elsewhere, although the various mission objectives are pretty basic, they offer just enough challenge to keep you at cross-purposes and enforce teamwork. Levelling between rounds, meanwhile, sees you pouring talent points into a pretty standard upgrade list - there's a cap of level 20, incidentally - and it will be fascinating to see whether BioWare can keep the game balanced with so many variables in play across class, race, and build.

If there's a problem, it's that, by taking on Hoard, BioWare's not just getting a great template for satisfying co-op. It's also inviting comparisons to some fairly illustrious competition. Sure, Mass Effect has steadily become a much more convincing shooter over the series' lifespan, but when it comes to movement, aiming, and ease of dropping in and out of cover, it's rarely going to be able to measure up against Gears of War, which doesn't have a whole RPG thing to worry about elsewhere. Can the development team shake some of the stiffness out by next February, while also picking up the terrifyingly nuanced art of great multiplayer map design at the same time?

You won't be playing as any of your favorite Mass Effect characters, but instead will be forging your own legend. In creating your co-op warrior, you can choose from six different races (Human, Asari, Drell, Krogan, Salarian, and Turian) -- each of which has a unique ability, such as a Krogan charge -- and the same six classes that are available in the campaign. Progression is capped at level 20, and you can upgrade your character's weapons, armor, and powers along the way. Maxed-out co-op characters provide a buff to Shepard's forces in the form of a "squad leader."

If most of this sounds rather rote to you, then we're on the same page. Based on my very limited co-op playtime -- I was only able to play for about ten minutes -- I think I can best describe the mode as... pedestrian. Admittedly, I might have enjoyed it more if I were familiar with the Mass Effect universe, but except for the aliens' various special abilities spicing up combat encounters, I didn't see anything particularly interesting, let alone remarkable. Ignoring some noticeable AI bugs (this was a pre-alpha demo), the mode just felt generic to me: I was shooting aliens in a futuristic sci-fi setting, and I didn't think that was engaging enough on its own.

(There was absolutely no shoehorning of the multiplayer mode into Mass Effect 3; it wasn't something that EA was telling us to do) insists Bioware general manager Aaryn Flynn. (We've been dabbling with the idea of multiplayer since the start of the Mass Effect franchise, but the big thing that we'd been missing was a really great setting and environment to put all this in to be able to say '˜this is why it exists'.

(Now that we have this notion of the Galaxy at War it's very easy to imagine that, even as Commander Shepard is marching his way to defeat the Reapers, there are so many other things going on. It kind of just made sense as a platform for us to build on with a multiplayer mode.)

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(We do intend to have DLC for multiplayer, but we really want to get the game out there and get feedback from consumers before we decide what the right thing to do is concerning that DLC,) he says. (It could be anything: more modes, mores characters, more classes, more races, more weapons it's totally wide open.)

The action itself feels almost identical to Mass Effect 2, with its familiar slow movement and emphasis on cover and tactical re-positioning. The biggest single change is to the class powers, which are now permanently bound to set buttons; the usual selection wheels for weapons and powers appear to be M.I.A. More significantly, the cooldown for your abilities has been reduced considerably, allowing them to take an even more prominent role in combat. In the case of the Vanguard, this allows you use your Charge far more regularly than in ME2 - zipping in and blasting away at a few enemies (or knocking them down), then Charging at a more remote foe to get yourself out of trouble.

That aside, the action feels very much like Mass Effect 2. I only got to sample a handful of rounds, but on the basis of that limited taster I'd say that the multiplayer feels competent, but fairly unremarkable. As a single-player experience, the slower pace of Mass Effect's combat is perfectly palatable, allowing you time to assess the situation and make strategic decisions on the fly; as a co-op venture, it simply feels a bit sluggish. There's less to concentrate on, and in the wake of Gears 3's revamped Horde I suspect that some gamers will find it a bit too slow.

Think, Left 4 Dead, but you don't go anywhere, and you can't pick up weapons, and, er, it's got four players. The level we played was set on a fairly generic, grey-and-white multi-level platforms, interior and exterior. It was certainly unremarkable. But quickly the four of us three games hacks and a BioWare employee were being attacked by waves of Reapers and Geth.

Waves is the key here. It's about surviving as many waves as you can, before your inevitable death. The more of them you survive, and the more you get done, the more points you get to carry over to your SP story. Which lends it the arcade-feel that ensures it knows its place.

Those things to get done they're not that complicated, really. The examples we had were to (hack) a computer, and (hold) an area. Which was really to have the four of us try to stay in a glowing circle within a time limit. It forces a more exciting time of fighting, putting us in the open and requiring more imaginative combat to get through, with bonuses for completion.

And it's the possibility for that more imaginative combat that makes the co-op more worthwhile. As you'll remember from Mass Effect 2, fighting with your gang became a lot more fun for being able to fling someone in the air, then empty a barrage of blasts into their spinning body. Here you get to do that as a team, and effective use of skills and weapons becomes very rewarding. I might grab someone with biotics and helpfully float them up so someone with a bloody great shotgun can blow their belly out. This becomes even more crucial when you're fighting some of the game's larger enemies, who can prove a real obstacle to completing a wave.

For the first time in the series, we can choose from a selection of seven races, each of which can be specialised into two classes that deliver a range of different combat options and abilities. Asari, for example, tend to focus on Biotic powers while Krogan are all about getting involved in as brutal and straightforward a manner as possible. Skills are effortlessly mapped to the bumpers and Y button - and since loadouts are locked when each round begins, the radial wheel has been replaced by standard shooter controls. Scoring assists and dealing damage rewards you with as many points and experience as the kill itself, meaning that you can focus on supporting your allies depending on your play style. Lone wolf heroism certainly has its place, but will tend to get everybody killed.

Each arena subscribes to the standard Horde formula: waves of themed enemies enter the fray and need to be taken down, only to be replaced by ever-increasing numbers after a short period of breathing space. We happened to be fighting against the Geth in the preview build, and as the battle progressed, weak standard troopers were augmented by shielded gunners, stealthy shock troops, flamethrower-wielding pyros (pictured below) and menacing Geth Prime minibosses. Some waves also task you with completing a specific objective such as holding an area for a certain amount of time or hacking into terminals dotted around the combat zone. It's basic stuff, but the fluidly-changing focus will ensure that the action doesn't stagnate.

I remember certain points during the original Mass Effect where the A.I. felt almost merciless. Well, that same vicious A.I. makes an appearance here, and while I can't say for certain if the build we played was (softened up) for journalists that day, what I can say is that not a single group (except for mine, we rocked it) was able to make it through to the end. In order to win you need to survive 11 waves of enemies (which can get ridiculous at certain points) and then secure an extraction zone for about two solid minutes. Thankfully, when a player is downed, he or she will bleed out for a bit giving teammates just enough time to come in for a heroic revival. And get used to it because reviving your downed teammates is something you'll probably be doing a lot.

In terms of gameplay, if you were a fan of the way the series was headed in ME2, you'll be happy to know that the combat feels even more natural. Having played all types of games since the last time I tooled around with Shepherd, picking up controller I was a bit hesitant at first, but within moments I immediately felt right at home. A welcome and necessary change was having class abilities mapped to the D-Pad (for quick access). Having to pause for a radial menu would completely take away from the fast paced experience. The best way to describe the combat is that it's seamless and effortless in a way that anyone can pick up and play it and within moments really feel like their contributing. It never gets in the way; and that's the most important ingredient for a successful multiplayer recipe, one that developers too often overlook.

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