First of all, being a big fan of the Mass Effect games, it would be understatement to say that I was looking forward to this demo.
Now that I've spent about two hours with it I can safely say that what i've seen so far is certainly promising and bodes well for a third installment in the franchise - that is, if you liked Mass Effect 2.
The game is solid, basically nothing has changed since Mass Effect 2 (which can be a good or a bad thing for you), however it has some major shortcomings, namely the multiplayer.
I knew what is was going to get with the singleplayer campaign and i knew I would like it, but the multiplayer had me worried since it was announced.
For everyone who hasn't played it yet: It is basically a 4 player Horde mode with a few twists. There are certain extra objectives every odd waves, like for example taking out a high value behind the main enemy line or hacking a few computers while your mates defend you.
I played on Silver difficulty, the second highest there is, mainly with a Vanguard, my favourite ME2 class.
The enemies are rather well balanced they do about as much damage as a human enemy would in Battlefield 3. Needless to say, you die pretty fast if you're not in cover. However, getting into cover is not as easy as it should be. Your would-be Shepard has the annoying habit to roll into enemies when he's supposed to hug a wall, getting stuck on walls when he's supposed to sprint and roll when he's supposed to run.
The reason for all this is, that taking cover, sprint, roll as well as the use and revive key is all bound to the same key/button. I understand this decision in the SP since it doesn't really require a lot of movement, however in MP where you need some precision if you don't want to get steamrolled it's just frustratingly annoying.
I died several times trying to rez a mate, because my Character either decided to roll into a group of enemies, or because he couldn't let loose of his seemingly sexual attraction to the hip-high wall besides his corpse.
I can't understand why we're not given the option to at least rebind the use key.
I also don't understand why guns aren't bindable to, say, the number keys. If I play a class that carries more than one gun, I have to press Shift, hover my mouse to a menu on the bottom of the screen, click and release shift if I want to use a specific gun. I haven't tested if the quickswitch button (x by default for some weird reason) cycles through all guns or just the standard 2, but even that would be to slow in the middle of the battle, leading to a quick death because you battle the UI more than the enemy.
There are just 4 mission it seems. I don't know if that's because of the demo or simply because there aren't more, but I've got the feeling that, after my ~1,5 hours with the MP, I've seen everything that is to see, except for all the unlocks. The missions are always the same, only the random objectives at the odd numbered waves change. I don't know if that's enough to hold my interest after the 20th time.
Though I have to say that not everything is bad:
The guns, especially the shotgun and sniper feel extremely satisfying. So do the abilities.Teleporting into an enemy standing over a dead buddy, blasting him over a railing with a shotgun while he's in the air and then reviving the dead mate just in time feels AWESOME.
The unlocks also come reasonably fast, compelling you to play just another round.
I can't see me playing the MP for more than a few hours. Don't get me wrong it can be very fun, playing with the right people but it certainly feels very tacked on.
Does anyone know if the MP will influence the SP somehow? If so, I might be a bit more motivated to play it.