The Decision to Play the ME3 Demo Was A Good One
Mass Effect is my favourite gaming franchise of all time. I’ve never been so enthralled by anything like it before. Its rich sci-fi universe, tactical third-person shooting, and the decisions that I am allowed to make thrust Mass Effect into a tight, story-based experience that I can call my own. This is the very reason why I was opposed to the prospect of having co-op multiplayer in Mass Effect 3; Mass Effect was my experience. Mass Effect is ME and I don’t want the experience shared. I put my prejudices aside to eventually play the multiplayer portion of Mass Effect 3’s demo and I am glad I did. Much like how Bioware flaunts how the Mass Effect franchise is full of player choice, I too will bring to light the multiplayer choices of the third instalment, at least with my experiences with the demo.
/*Good thing too, I spent almost the entirety of the past few days playing it so at least I will extract some academic value out of it XD */
As with the core Mass Effect mechanics, one can choose a class/character type from a list of six in the multiplayer portion of the Mass Effect 3 demo. There are the weapon/DPS-based Soldier class, the support/debuff Engineer class, the physics-based/impairment Adept class, and any combination of two of the above. All classes consist of male and female humans that the player can choose, males being exclusive to one set of classes while females being exclusive to the remaining set, at least at the start of playing the multiplayer. Each character generally has a different armour set and profile posture. There is even the potential for playing as an alien, a first in the Mass Effect franchise. Once the player has chosen what class they want to play they can choose some aesthetics of the character such as armour color and pattern. On top of this they are also allowed to have whatever two weapons they want to carry, whether it be a sniper and a shotgun or an assault rifle and an SMG. Your weapons can have various upgrades and attachments, too. More importantly, the player is allowed to name their character.
All these customization will initially be determined by emotional decision making. The player has little experience with the online systems of Mass Effect’s multiplayer, so the decisions made at the start of the game in terms of class selection and visual customization will be primarily based off of the player’s preferences. This has become their avatar for Mass Effect’s multiplayer realm.
The neat thing that the multiplayer did due to the limitations of playing online, relative to the original pause-plan-execute type of mentality of the first two games, was decrease what was once a plethora of abilities into only three. In the first two games the player was allowed to pause the game to display their powers, and their squadmates’ powers, and choose what powers they wanted to execute on which enemies. Because of the nature of online play, it would be destructive for the pace of the game if each player were to pause the game to select one of many abilities to use. What makes this so neat is that the plethora of abilities present in previous games was split among the four possible characters in each class, along with some additional new skills, giving each character something unique to offer to the player.
No two characters are the same, and because of this, it gives the player a unique set of skills. Here the player has to decide on the best character for their play style in addition to the aesthetic awesomeness that some of the skills may provide, especially when considering the differentiation between the skills in early level versus later levels.
Mass Effect, like many other RPGs or games with RPG elements (choose what you will to consider Mass Effect as a franchise as you will) has a number of abilities that can be upgraded. This is no different in the multiplayer of Mass Effect 3. All the characters’ abilities can be upgraded, and there are a couple of options when upgrading. Past the first three levels of the ability the player will be faced with a binary choice as to what kind of specifics of that ability they want. Both choices tend to be rather enticing, making it very difficult for the player to choose. With whatever option the player takes, they will feel a desire to possess the benefits of the other. A dilemma such as this is a classic example in games and RPGs, and the best choice is one that will benefit the player most on the battlefield.
Although Mass Effect may be an RPG, it is an action game as well. In action games there tends to be a lot of instantaneous decision making that occurs whilst playing online or offline. This is very true for Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer. At first it takes some time to get used to the abilities that a player has at their disposal, but as soon as they get a hang of it, one’s actions become almost instinctive. Additionally, the smoothness of the gameplay further adds to the flow of the game. Among third person shooters, Mass Effect 3 shows a lot of strength where it shines, but that makes its flaws that much more apparent. The pace of the game running in everyone’s minds while playing the game demands for a high level of fluidity that the game more often than not provides.
It is very easy to start shooting immediately after a roll or some power usage and to jump from cover to cover. There is a specific occasion where I felt like a diety for performing some set of actions. An example of this was when I was playing the aforementioned Adept class and I was the last one on the team alive. In front of me there was a Guardian, an enemy holding an impenetrable shield, with a small posy of enemies following him. Behind me there were some stairs where at the base of them, it would provide an elevation difference where I would not be hit by their bullets. Shooting at the shielded enemy won’t do much damage so what needs to be done here is move the shield out of the way. Luckily my Adept character has an ability called Shockwave that produces an energy wave that disorients the enemy for a moment. In the Guardian’s case, he would move his shield to his side, leaving his entire being exposed. I would roll up the stairs, use Shockwave, shoot the Guardian a few times, and roll back once the shield returned to its original position and so I could get some cover while my ability’s cooldown timer reduced to zero. I would repeat the same process a couple of time to finally finish him. In this case I was just playing instinctively, combining the knowledge of my skills and the enemy’s weakness. I took down the last remaining enemies with relative ease.
Other times I felt like I was fighting the systems at play. This was particularly the case with some of the melee systems. The melee system is rather automated with the player only having to hold the B button to perform a powerful melee attack. On a large number of occasions I experienced my melee’s missing when I was right next to the enemy. I’ve learned over time that it may be a result of being too close to the enemy or having the angle slightly off. When the melee system is as automated as the one in Mass Effect 3 then one expects ease and results and sometimes that isn’t the case. Also, when I tried to perform nearly over the top movements by trying to traverse the field in a very controlled manner, the game would not reply as expected. Although this gripe isn’t necessarily for Mass Effect exclusively, it always hurts when I see it in third person shooters. It is very often the case that a player would stick to a wall when I’m trying to run or vault over something.
Another instance of wall sticking is when a player tries to revive a downed squadmate while being close to a wall: they always stick to it. The interesting thing in this case is whether the living player should choose to revive their friend when it may be such a hassle. From my experiences in the demo, it is very important to maintain a group dynamic and keep communications going to succeed in missions. This tends to be hard when some players may have a tendency to be downed. Also, it likely that the player was downed in a group of enemies, further increasing the hassle. Though, for a skilled group of people who have some emotional investment with their teammates, it shouldn’t be hard to make the decision.
But players don’t have to wait for their teammates to revive them because they can revive themselves. Each player is given a number of single use resources. These include a med kit that can revive them from their downed but not out state, stock up their ammo, replenish their health and shields instantaneously and the capability to use extremely powerful rockets. Only two of each can be used during the entire 15 to 30 minute session, which is up to 10 waves of increasingly difficult enemies and a final survival wave.
In terms of the med kit the player can wait, like mentioned before, and be revived by their squadmate or they can revive themselves. The problem with just waiting is that an enemy can walk up to the player and finish them off when they’re in a downed state. With this fact in mind one would be inclined to use a med kit, but they’re in limited supply.
What players are rarely inclined to use are the ammo packs because there are ammo supplies, which replenishes one’s ammo an unlimited number of times, everywhere throughout the map. Play the map once and one will memorize the ammo supply locations, though I did find the ammo resupply option useful for the last survival wave where we had to remain at an extraction point. Because I shouldn’t leave the extraction point it would become difficult to resupply ammo at a resupply location, so the ammo pack became useful only then.
What I found most useful was the health and shield regeneration item. Things can become very hairy during the demo and one can find themselves is very harsh situations very quickly. It’s very likely to lose one’s shields and health in a matter of seconds, almost unfairly at times. The shields and health replenishment quells that injustice, at least momentarily. Also, the player must be careful not to get themselves into those situations without some teammates because they have a limited number of this item, like all others.
Sadly players are also limited to only two rockets, but it seems to be for good reason. These rockets are powerful and can take pretty much any enemy out in one hit (and most of the time multiple enemies in one hit). These rockets are primarily used on these large mechs called Atlas’. These guys are equipped with a machine gun and a rocket. In addition to their hefty amount of shields and armour, they are a very difficult enemy to tackle without heavy fire power. Yes, it is possible to take out an Atlas with one’s guns and abilities but they are very dangerous and will require quite a bit of time to take down.
Another neat trade-off to consider is how weapons affect a player’s abilities. Each weapon has a weight assigned to it. The more the weapon weighs, the longer the player will have to wait for their skills to recharge, but the heavier weapons tend to be stronger. This is an interesting choice that the player is faced with and I think it can be boiled down to what class their playing. Characters that rely on power use should not go for weapons that are heavy. Although the weapon has more damage, they will have to wait longer for them to use something more effective. In other instances with characters that have more passive skills, it would not hinder them much to use a heavy, high damage weapon. Specifically the Krogan character under the Soldier class would be most effective with the high damage, heavier weapons.
One of the most important skills the Krogan has is to go into a rage state after they’ve pounded a couple of enemies with their head. Here the Krogan gains additional health, shields or damage, depending on how the player chose to tackle that skill’s tree. Because of the close-quarters nature of the Krogan Soldier it would beneficial for it to be carrying a shot gun. The best shotgun is very heavy, hindering skill regeneration. Because of the Krogan’s lack of reliance on skills and more on brute force, it would be beneficial to go with the heavy shotgun as the best possible choice to make.
On the other hand there are a number of characters that require their skills so they may be most effective. One of the classes in this paradigm is the Adept. They can be viewed as the magic users in the world of Mass Effect, and when they’re incapable of using their powers they are not necessarily useful. This is why for the case of my Adept, I chose to give it only one weapon. With only one weapon, the cooldown timer to use a character’s ability reduces down much faster than if they were carrying two. Of course the player is less capable as a fighter but more capable in the role that they have chosen.
Heading back to the topic of skills and abilities, there are a bunch of decisions and tactics a player can make during their online session. A number of character and classes in general play it pretty safe where they are most valuable from mid to long range. Other characters require the player to be on the enemy’s toes to be most effective. An example of this is the Sentinel class with their Tech Armour ability. This skill provides the player with additional shields but that is not what makes the skill worth investing points into; any player can keep their head down for a few moments to recover their regular shields. No, what’s interesting with this skill is the fact that when you discharge it a small, damaging blast is sent from the player outwards within some radius. This means the Sentinel is most effective in crowds of enemies that are surrounding it. Obviously being surrounded by enemies is almost futile but it is required to unlock the full potential of the Sentinel. It is up the player playing their Sentinel to attempt to reap the rewards from their risky assaults.
At the end of a match the player is awarded for their successes. The player is given experience and credits to spend on skills and randomized packs useful to the player, respectively. What I want to focus on is the packs. There is the less expensive pack called the Recruit pack and there is the more expensive pack called the Veteran pack. One can buy four Recruit packs for the price of one Veteran pack, though it is more likely to obtain something better in the Veteran pack.
But what do these packs give? Well, a whole range of things. They resupply you on med kits, rockets, etc., unlock weapons and weapon upgrades/attachments, and unlock characters and character customization options. This is a very unique system in the online multiplayer realm and I have developed a love-hate relationship with it. It’s always exciting and nerve racking buying a new pack because one does not know what they will get from it. It’s almost like gambling or buying a pack of cards for one’s favourite card game; you never know what you’re going to get but you have to try. In packs that I failed to obtain anything of worth in I always thought to myself “what if I had bought the Veteran pack instead of these Recruit ones?” Although it is primarily based on luck, the player still has a choice to trade the resources (or credits) they’ve obtained from completing the objectives during the match towards a high risk-low investment Recruit pack or the lower risk-high investment Veteran pack.
In the end the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer demo is rather deep and provides a lot of options to the player to make decisions upon. From the inception of one’s character or plethora of characters, to the gamble at the end of the match with the exciting battles in between, the demo is always presenting the player with choice. I lost myself in its exciting pace; failing to consider time and my own needs as a human and as a student, not realizing that I should complete a blog post sometime in the near future and grab a bite to eat. I’ve gotten to a point where I feel comfortable with my skills and my characters have been levelled a bit and equipped with good weapons that I can begin to take on higher levels and not be utterly annihilated, and comfortable enough that I can leave the game while having my gamer needs satiated.
On a side note, this post has inspired me to actually write a full review for the game when it is released. I’ve always played with the idea of writing a review but I never really got around to it. Looking forward to the game and the time following it with writing the review.
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