E3 Impressions | Mass Effect 3
Bioware’s final chapter of their sci-fi RPG opus comes to a close with Mass Effect 3. Executive producer Casey Hudson led the gameplay demo, showcasing the new changes to combat mechanics and the expanded scope of the story. The demo showed three sections of gameplay instances, each of them were very much driven by action and combat.
The first part of the demo focused on a scared and unshaven Captain Shepard trying to destroy a dormant Reaper. After shooting his way past a few Cerberus soldiers, Shepard looks down on a valley with a concavity similar to a very large radio dish. Shepard paints the center piece of the pit with a laser. Moments later, Shepard’s ship, the Normandy, swoops in and drops a bomb on the target. The explosion sends Shepard on his back, shielding his face from the debris. As he stands, the bass of the theater started to rumble and boom. Out of the dark plumes of smoke, a large limb creeps out and lands nearby. Within moments, the now awakened Reaper crawls out of its pit. Shepard, now running away from the emerging Reaper, quickly dispatches several Cerberus soldiers in his way. One soldier, after being shot in the leg, grabbed his thigh out of pain.
Just as the Reaper had completely resurrected, Shepard and his team take control of an all terrain vehicle the size of a garbage truck. Shepard mans the rear turret and started to open on the Reaper as it gave chase. Shepard, while firing, coordinates with the Normandy for an orbital attack. After a few more moments of futile shooting, the Reaper is rocked from an artillery round. The Reaper violently crashed into the ground.
Just as the plumes of dust began to settle, Shepard called for the vehicle to come to a stop. After being still for only a moment, a leg of the Reaper began to move. The team’s vehicle hit the throttle as Shepard started to yell, “go, go’ go!” –visually, the sequence was gorgeous. With the sun setting on the planet’s vista, the beams of light from the setting sun would pierce through the moving tendrils of the Reaper.
The second gameplay demo was essentially the demo given at the Microsoft press conference, minus the Kinect voice commands. In an effort to display the game’s new and refined combat mechanics, this portion of the demo was combat heavy. What was most notable about the sequence was that it showed off some minor, but meaningful, adjustments to the cover system. Similar to the Gears of War series, the player is now able to roll out of corners when taking cover. While a seemingly small change to the system, it changes how combat scenarios can unfold. With a roll, the player is now enabled with the option to quietly approach unsuspecting patrols and guards. In the demo, Shepard made his way behind a Cerberus soldier standing guard.
With a small wall separating the two, Shepard rose from behind, grabbed the soldier and pulled him back towards Shepard’s side. Once on the ground, Shepard rose his arm as to punch him, but at the apex of the windup, Shepard’s omni-blade materializes onto his fist. The soldier was silenced once the blade was driven into his face. So allow me reconfirm that: Shepard can now stab fools in the face!
Another addition were grenades. A small squad of Cerberus soldiers huddled up behind cover. Shepard, without having to go through menu systems, threw a grenade in their direction. The grenade bounced off the ceiling and dropped right on the laps. The sudden and violent explosion threw them askew. Grenade use is not the only gameplay tweak that indicates that Mass Effect 3 has become a more competent shooter, one that places value in mobility just as much as lethality. In an instance where Shepard was in trouble and on the brink of death, he was able to roll away from incoming fire. Again, a seemingly small addition to the combat engine, but it was sorely needed in the previous titles. The demo segment ended just as it did in the Microsoft press conference: with a large bipedal mech landing near Shepard and his team. In explaining the role of the weaponized walker, Casey Hudson indicated that the game will feature sequences where the player will have to commandeer similar war-machines.
Reader Beware! The following contains spoilers:
The final portion of the demonstration picks up right after Shepard was being tried in court on Earth. Being accompanied by Shepard’s long-time mentor, David Anderson, the two tried to escape what seemed to be a military court house. The scene opened up with the two standing on a rooftop overlooking a futuristic cityscape in mid-daylight. The camera panned upward and revealed dozens of enormous Reapers descending down onto the city. When they opened fire, entire skyscrapers toppled and fell. Shepard turned around starts to rub for an exit. Just as the two were leaving the facility, Shepard saw a child hiding in an air vent. He approached the child, bringing dialogue options. Rather than yelling at the small boy to run for his life, Shepard gently asked for the boy to come with him to safety. “You can’t help me’” the boy replied. Anderson called for Shepard to keep up, and in the instance that Shepard looked away, the boy was gone.
Once outside, a Reaper walks parallel along the river. The towering size of the Reaper was jaw dropping. The sound filled the demo room with reverberating bass as the nearby Reaper let out a horn-like call, much like the horn from Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. As Shepard and Anderson sprinted down a damaged walkway overhanging one of the many river harbors, off into the far horizon, a large capital ship lifted into the air. The nearby Reaper aimed and fired it’s laser-like weapon. Once the beam hit the craft, the ship exploded in a fireball and began to fall from the sky. The sonic boom of the explosion knocked Shepard and Anderson to their feet, and sent the already damaged bridge falling down toward the harbor.
Once the two recovered from their fall, a nearby transport was spotted alongside a transmitter. In trying to send a message to the Normandy for evacuation, the two had to fight groups of mutated inhabitants. Once the two reached the transmitter, their signal failed half-way through their S.O.S. By this time, swarms of enemies were threatening to overtake their position. After a few desperate seconds of keeping the horde at bay, Anderson yelled across the way, “I am running low on ammo.” Just as all hope was lost, the Normandy came and saved their bacon. The ship dropped a bomb on the enemies, bringing the encounter to a close.
Shepard climbed on board his ship and stood alongside Mass Effect alumni, Ashley Williams. After being requested to do so, Anderson refused to go on board, claiming his place was with his men on Earth. He then gives you a directive to find help. Shepard vows to bring all the universe’s races to their aid, if they are willing or not. As the Normandy began to ascend, the camera panned out and showed the scope of the Reaper invasion. The camera cut to the a few evacuation shuttles landing by the river with a Reaper in the background. Among the evacuees was the child that Shepard had talked to in the air vent. The boy looked up at the Normandy, giving the insinuation that the child knew that the ship above was Shepard. Just as the escape vehicles began to ascend, they were shot out of the sky by the Reaper. After the crafts began to fall, the Raper began to lay waste on the harbor filled with evacuees. Shepard looked down on the carnage and gave his best sad face he could muster. The final scene shows the iconic curvature of the Earth as the sun sets on it’s horizon, with the Normandy flying by. Then late title-card appeared reading ‘Mass Effect 3′.
What interests me is that this scene, for all intents and purposes, may be the beginning of the game – or at least the last scene of the first act. Narratively, Mass Effect 2 did the same set up, only on a much smaller scale. In Mass Effect 2, the bulk of the narrative focused on Shepard winning his team’s loyalty. I suspect Mass Effect 3 will follow the same core structure. Instead of gaining the aid of a single individual, Shepard presumably will have to gain the aid of entire races, some of which have seen humanity as inferior and unworthy. All in all, I am very excited to see how Bioware finishes their saga. Their story has always been the strong suit, but Mass Effect 3 seems to make the right changes to combat that elevates it the studio’s high quality standard.
