I've seen the Microsoft Demo with Kinect. There wasn't much gameplay, but the Kinect stuff looks interesting especially with the voice recognition. I'm not sure how well something like that will actually work and I doubt that I personally would want to use it, but it may be an interesting feature for some. (I've seen a lot of Kinect/Motion Gaming hate. Which I don't quite understand, much like I don't understand the apprehension to Multiplayer. It's just another feature and I stress optional feature of the game. If you don't like it, you don't have to use it. So what's the problem? The allocation of Development resources is minimal at best for such things.)
I've also seen the "Fall of Earth" trailer as well. It's alright.The first 30 seconds were pretty cool. But after that it's just a blur of random action sequences. Also the rock music in the background doesn't help. It just doesn't do much to stand out from any other "big action" game trailer I've seen.
Now that's all fine and dandy, but what about some real gameplay?
Well there's the two Demo Gameplays from Gametrailers:
Walkthrough Part 1
Walkthrough Part 2
Now these aren't very long, being about only 5 minutes each. So naturally I don't expect to see a whole lot. But nevertheless I will comment on what I've seen so far.
Walkthrough Part 1
Pros
-Enhanced mobility looks good (rolls, leaps, etc.)
-Good to see old squadmates return
-Level design looks good
-Tracer rounds look better
-I like me Grenades (Glad they sort-of look like ME1's)
Cons
-Mordin's voice (Placeholder?)
-Enemies seem really weak
-Combat pace seems rushed
I like that the cover options have been improved and that you can now leap small gaps. It's also nice to see that characters from the past games are going to be making appearences and that the original ME team hasn't been forgotten about. The Salarian Homeworld also looks pretty good, the level looks pretty natural.
The one thing bothering me is that the gameplay really seems to mimic Gears of War now. I just about facepalm'd when I saw that there's also now Observation Events. I know it's something of standard game convention, but it's not one I'm real fond of. I don't need the game to "hold-my-hand" for me (I also severely dislike aim-assist). I don't like it when the game goes:"Hey dummy and look at this!". If you want the player to see something just use a cinematic. Eh I hope you guys don't run into any sort of copyright problems, cause you're kind of pushing it.
My personal tastes aside the enemies seem really weak. For guys wearing what looks like heavy armor they seem pretty easy to gun down. They don't look all that challenging either as a result. How is the game more challenging or tactical if all it takes is a few shots to down an enemy? Unless of course Shepard is even more frail now. What are Shields for exactly when Shepard's rock hard body can just take bullets anyways?
I think you went a little overboard speeding stuff up. It almost looks comical how fast some things are happening. The gun reloads are way too fast if anything. I thought ME2 had pretty good combat pacing, not super fast, but not super slow. ME3 looks like Shepard is tweaking out on Red Bull or something. I don't see much thought going on here. Just Shepard racing through the level as quickly possible while pew pew pew'ing enemies.
Walkthrough Part 2
Pros
-Anderson joining the fight
-Level looks pretty sweet (Reapers doing stuff is awesome)
-Good emotional moment there with the kid
-James Vega at the end there?
Cons
-Characters look a bit stiff (Anderson holds his gun perfectly still running)
-Still some tacky use of cover (Shepard still putting his back against invisible surfaces)
-Combat seems a bit "tweaky"
-Still using ME2's HUD
I basically said what I needed to in the first part, but I really got stress that it looks way too easy to kill enemies now. I mean 3-4 pistol shots to kill an overgrown Batarian Husk? Is this being played on easy mode or something? Also while some of the animations look good, others seem a bit too fast and squadmates still move around like robots. I'm also a tad disappointed to see the same HUD from ME2. While it's not a bad HUD, it's not exactly my favorite either.
Well the game looks decent at this point. The graphics look about the same as ME2, which is fine, but I was hoping there'd be a little more improvement. The levels look pretty cool, but I'm having a real hard time liking the new and "improved" gameplay as it were. I don't mind fast-paced games (I certainly play plenty of them), but at the same time I can also still appreciate slower-paced games. And to me Mass Effect doesn't really lend itself to being the sort of super fast action game. I just don't see the fights in ME3 being very memorable if they're all over in 10 seconds.
I have to say I haven't exactly been swept away by anything I've seen yet. And personally I found the E3 2009 Demo for ME2 to be a lot more interesting. Of course I'm very critical of well... everything, so I suspect I may be something of minority here. (Sorry I don't come here to "worship" Bioware and all that they do. I'll stick to constructive criticism thanks.)
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