It was good but I had a few criticisms. You're kind of thrown into everything at the beginning and I felt like I was missing a cinematic or something before everything kicked off with the Reapers; Shepard's locked up on Earth, the Normandy's been kitted out by the Alliance, he knows this bloke called Vega and the Reapers are on their way even though the last I heard from them I'd blown up a relay delaying their Arrival; there's a significant lack of pay-off there, and it's a rather dull way for the Reapers to arrive after the whole Citadel affair. It doesn't feel like a natural continuance from Arrival; the game should begin with the Alliance boarding the Normandy and arresting Shepard, followed by us seeing flashes of what happens in the months between or something similar so we know what's going on.
We don't see what happens in the Normandy after the introduction, though. It might all get explained there. Anyway, the opening is very short and perhaps too short; you fight a few husks and then you're whisking away from Earth. There are some great moments though -- when the Reapers first attack, there's a brilliant explosion which sounds absolutely wonderful and Mark Meer delivers a fantastic 'Move!' just before it which reinforced the fact that he's a veteran soldier and a man with experience of the Reapers, who knew what was happening when all the rest didn't.
Then you're running through Vancouver. A slight criticism here; movement feels a bit off; when trudging along with a pistol it feel almost like you're gliding along, and the sprint is a bit glitchy with it cutting out randomly at times and some issues jumping gaps. I have a feeling this is an early build, so I won't let that put me off.
You fight some husks now; regular ones at first, easily dispatched -- the weapons in this game sound brilliant; the conferring Bioware did with DICE must have really helped them in this regard of the game.
The skyline at this point is gorgeous in a horrific way; the city is awash with Reapers of all varieties, and you see their true power. An Alliance dreadnought hangs in the sky, the biggest ship humanity has but it's still tiny compared to a Reaper; it fires some rounds and explosions play about the Reapers' shell, but do nothing. The Reaper fires its own weapon and the huge dreadnought explodes, causing a massive after-shock which is terrifyingly pretty and punctuated with a ringing of popped ears.
You fall down, re-orientate and fight some more Husks. It's all very nicely choreographed and feels a lot more dynamic than ME2, where you had a corridor to move down and nothing really varied from that.
There's a moving scene where Shepard finds a child hiding inside a vent; he tells the kid to come out, that he'll be safe with him, but the child replies 'you can't help me.' Shepard looks away as Anderson calls out, and when he looks back the child is gone and a bit of eerie music plays -- this is definitely foreshadowing that something's not quite right with Shepard.
Then there's a nice little bit where Anderson and Shepard talk and another cool little bit comes up when the former catches the later; Shepard says 'I owe you one,' and Anderson watches him darkly for a few moments and mutters to himself 'More than one.' It didn't feel like he was referring to anything we've seen so that'll be interesting to see pan out.
Anyway, the Normandy arrives and Shepard leaves to see the Earth burn. The music at this point is some of the best I've heard the entire series; Chris Mansell is a genius, juxtaposing the soft notes of a piano with harsh machine-like horns which ring out and drive home the feeling of loss and cold destruction. A chilling moment when the aforementioned child is racing for a shuttle; a Reaper spots the fleeing people and mercilessly turns its weapon on them -- the shuttle blows up, child and all. It really makes you realise perhaps truly for the first time how utterly ruthless the Reapers are -- they're not trying to subjugate or pacify, they're going to wipe every last single one of us out.
All in all, the opening at Earth was a great way to start the game but could have been longer and with more explanation. Sur'Kesh was very fun too but I won't get into it all now, maybe later once I've done a second run with a female Shepard. Graphics were of a very high quality but facial animations were sometimes lacking, as if they haven't caught up with the advanced graphics. There were a few issues for me with the flow of gameplay -- getting in and out of cover felt harder than before, and navigated the battlefield was difficult when Shepard kept rolling when I wanted him to strafe or take cover when I wanted him to leap over a barricade. The omni-blade's a neat addition but there's a lack of satisfaction -- it hits the enemy but there's no feedback to it.
Still, like I said I'm fairly sure this is an earlier build. I have confidence polish will have been added to the game later on and we'll hopefully see it and more exposition on what's going on in the full game.
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that's what I'm itching to play!
