Mass Effect 3 Single Player demo feedback. What did you think?
#601
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:43
What I hated:
Movement (mostly running) animations looked like garbage. You also just feel like your sliding on the ground.
Complete lack of dialogue wheel and to people saying "its only the demo" why wouldn't BioWare say something about it only being a demo issue since the whole forum is lighting up with this.
Camera is way too tight on Shep and I can't tell what is going on in combat half the time
Shockwave power looks absolutely stupid as hell
Intro was not good at all. How did I go from Spectre brought back by Cerberus to Alliance soldier grounded on Earth? Judging from the demo, this game was written by amateurs, not the fine team that wrote Mass Effect 1 and 2.
I will reserve final judgement until I play the full game. But so far its as much of a letdown as I had come to think it would be. It's just too bad BioWare is becoming a dime a dozen developer like the rest trying to slice into "casual" (aka Call of Duty) markets...
#602
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:43
I have been tyring to get 'perfect playthroughs' of ME1 and 2 fnished before Mass Effect 3 and I felt much the same about the demo.8one6 wrote...
Either I'm out of practice or the ME3
engine is seriously different than the ME2 engine, because playing
the demo felt like pushing a dumpster around. Seriously, Shep in the
demo handled like I was trying to steer a post office.
When I first played ME2 when it was released, one of the first things I noticed was how much smoother movement was, but this demo did feel very awkward. Particularly sprinting, as I felt like I had to get the thumbstick in the exact right position to trigger the action, and even the slightest variation withing the first few seconds would cancel the sprint.
I found myself stuttering along most of the time.
#603
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:49
#604
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:50
#605
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:50
Sleepdribble wrote...
KillamriX88 wrote...
*snip*
Also it's late and I'm tired so I apologize if I don't make any sense.
Final Word: I was not impressed by the demo. I was happy to get some new Mass Effect action, but in the end it didn't live up to my, admittedly very high, expectations. I can only hope it was simply the effect of a watered down demo and this isn't an omen of a bad final game.
Yeah, I agree. It really didn't make sense. But that's O.K. Maybe you'll feel less entitiled after a nice long nap.
Less entitled?
I just said what A LOT of other people are saying, just in more, perhaps slightly jumbled, words.
Besides, we're buying something from them, we're ALL a little entitled to a decent product I say.
They made a feedback thread, I'm giving my feedback.
I liked the demo, but I was hoping to love it.
I'm sure some of it was me hyping myself up for the main game and expecting a demo to live up to that. But I and clearly many others have noticed that there ARE some concerns. Maybe not all of mine are valid, but maybe they are.
Now if you have something nicer and more productive to type, I'm all (bleary) eyes.
#606
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:51
Anyway, it was mentioned on here by someone else; but the dialog choices didn't affect any part of the demo. While I realize this probably isn't indicative of the rest of the game; it worries me that in a game predominately about choice and consequence, that not one of the options has an affect on story. Especially with all of the hype I saw the past few days on facebook, where Bioware employees would ask if we would be playing Paragon or Renegade in the demo. There's no difference between them, though, it seems. Again, I'm sure the full game will be chock full of those choices that change how the game plays, and what happens in the story. I've just been hesitant ever since Dragon Age 2, and the lack of consequence in that game.
Also, on the subject of choice: everything I've seen so far, in the promotional videos, and now in the demo, the conversation wheel only has Paragon and Renegade choices.... What about the neutral (what I have come to call "survivalist") choices? ME1 and 2 both had the neutral option, alongside the Paragon and Renegade ones... I have yet to see a neutral choice for ME3, yet though. 0o
As for gameplay - I had soooo much fun playing vanguard. So much more than I had in ME2, if that's possible.
As for visuals - I have an older television. It's not small, but it's not a big screen televison; and not a hi-def one at all. I've played a lot of games on this TV, and the only one that has given me any sort of issues, before this, has been ME2 (the text has always been so small I can not read it) As it stands, I was playing the demo as close to the television as I could get, without hurting my eyes. I still could *not* make out what the little picture icons that popped up were trying to tell me to do. I remember after I started the second part of the demo, and I was prompted by a little red dot to do something - I knew from watching the developers playing the demo that I was supposed to start a small cinematic where Shepard watches a ship fly by, but I couldn't figure out what button I was supposed to push. I assumed that because the icon was red, I was supposed to hit the "B" button, but that didn't do anything, and I had to just listen to the ship fly overhead, while Shepard stared at his feet. Any way at all, we can get a setting where we can choose the size of the text on the screen, and the size of the icons??? Otherwise, I'm going to have to start wearing glasses if the font's as small as ME2 :\\
This didn't really bother me, but I noticed in the video settings, that I wasn't set to the optimal brightness. I tried setting it up so I could see both the "N" and the "7", but no matter where I placed the slider, I couldn't get both of them to show up. Anyway to make the game brighter? Like I said, it didn't bother me, but I'm sure there are people who it will, especially since I'm sure these won't be the darkest levels in the game.
Finally, and this is purely an aesthetic one. But the Cerberus agent you interrogate at the end of the demo is bleeding heavier than anyone ever did in Dragon Age... Not a squeamish person, but I was feeling really uneasy by how much blood was coming out of the guy - especially since it sounded like he was chocking on gallons of blood, as well. How much blood do these Cerberus agents have, exactly?
#607
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:51
*applause*
#608
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:51
Mass Effect team have done a great job on the demo and I'm psyched to see what the whole game offers. Thanks for an awesome demo!
Modifié par sangy, 15 février 2012 - 04:52 .
#609
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:54
Animositisomina wrote...
Loved the demo! I had my doubts for a long time, but the demo has restored my faith in Bioware and where this series is going. I have a few gripes here and there, sure, but there's nothing significant enough for me to not completely enjoy what we've seen so far. I've got the N7 Collector's Edition on pre-order and I await its arrival eagerly. March can't get here quick enough.
This is a feedback thread. The idea is to post the issues you had, so that Bioware can fix problem areas. Otherwise they might not catch certain mistakes, in time for release. So post the issues you had.
#610
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:54
Gameplay felt perfect.
Story feels like there are gaps... hopefully this intro was NOT the full beginning. (i keep hearing about shep's trial but that was not here)
Character animations seemed pretty good but a little awkward when running uphill/down. Where is the female rig for femshep. she still runs/walks exactly like the men in the game (which is not physically possible due to female bone structure.
Where was sniper rifle? made my infiltrator test not so great... (due to sniping abilities being cut off)
Also my only mp comment is that the camera is too close. like it was already zoomed in from the sp portion.
Played perfectly no visual glitches or slowdowns on my machine.
#611
Posté 15 février 2012 - 04:58
- Aside from some low res textures up close, graphics are pretty good.
- Combat feels responsive and sharp.
- Shepard moves well when in crouching/cover stance
- Heavy melee's are well done
- Just like ME2, team tactics will clearly play a big role
Cons:
- I hope the writing gets better. This is the worst beginning of the trilogy. By far.
- I really don't like multiple functions mapped to one key. Iv'e got many keys on my keyboard. Let me use them.
-Combat seems to need a duck function at times.
-Not a huge issue, but shockwave looked 100 times cooler in ME2. Now it looks like a weak electrical spark.
-Shepard's default movement is very slow, and I'm wondering why they did this. If areas have any breadth at all, it'll take forever to traverse them...damn, maybe this means we're in for more corridor levels ala ME2.
Modifié par slimgrin, 15 février 2012 - 05:05 .
#612
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:01
Sound team deserves a round of beer / other favorite drink, for sure.
Introduction was underwhelming. I think it is hard to point to any one thing as the culprit. To me, it lacked emotion. I think letting the bulk of the reaper invasion occur off-camera was a bad idea. But, there's more than that. The council seemed inept, the child seemed fated to die. I feel emotional attachment comes when you have an opportunity to cheer and hope a character on in their struggle for survival. None of that in the intro (you /know/ Shepard and Anderson will pull through). Plus, it was a little jarring for everyone to suddenly trust Shepard. I think we all wanted that 'told you so' moment after being called nuts for two games.
In the grand scheme, no big deal. ME1 & 2 had their failings, as well. I will admit Hackett's disappearance has my interest piqued. I hope that is a bit of foreshadowing that pans out to something interesting.
The second mission left me with the feeling that the rest of the game is going to be amazing, however. Just the banter between the squad mates reminded me of the storytelling I miss from the first two installments.
#613
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:03
#614
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:04
GREAT! It ran smoothly at 1920x1080 on my iMac, running with bootcamp +
Win7. I'm looking forward to importing my ME2 Shepard into ME3. Can't
wait for the ME3 epic adventure across the universe!
In more detail,
here are the negative comments about ME3 demo:
- Shepard looks funny when sprinting, as if there's something between
his legs. And he doesn't run out of breath, which is perhaps trivial
anyway but was nice to have in previous ME as it adds to realism.
- Sometimes, in the heat of the fight, I want to uncover to run...
hitting spacebar wouldn't uncover, I remain stuck... bit buggy.
- Adding to the last comment, sometimes I try to run, pressing
spacebar... it would instead put me in an unwanted cover position to
some nearby wall or desk (especially in tight rooms)...
So maybe Cover and Sprint should be two different keys? or player be given option to either use same key or separate ones.
- Why is Ashley wearing makeup and has a pristine haircut? It's looking too much like final fantasy?! The Ashley
from ME1 and ME2 looked more real and suited her character IMHO.
Now the positive comments:
- Having played ME2, ME3 demo seems very familiar and improved where
appropriate. Touches like being able to choose 'helmets off during
conversation' are great! Make total sense!
- The squad power point UI is enhanced. I like the 'expand' feature,
giving more options and abilities to customize, and go beyond level 4.
- Great voice acting and cut-scenes. However, animation of characters
(especially facial) looks a bit weak in certain spots in the in-game
cut-scenes, but I'm guessing it's a demo issue.
- Always enjoy the emotional and philosophical content of the game, esp. in ME2. So although we didn't get to see/hear much of that since it's a mere demo, hopefully ME3 dialogue - content and choices - will be as great as its predecessors, if not even better.
- Needless to say, great artistic direction, graphics, design...
- Enemies are smarter and tougher. Playing on Insanity actually feels hard now.
The combat speed is greatly increased, compared to the previous ME. I
took me some time to get used to it, having adjusted to ME2 - in the
demo it's as if Shepard has constant adrenaline rushes - but it's
alright, creates great combat/action gamplay at best, however becomes
confusing at worst. I guess ME3 is more of an action game than RPG?
What I've liked about the ME games thus far has been the perfect blend
of RPG, action and adventure; great storyline, interactive storytelling, interesting characters,
clever dialogue, emotional content, and imaginative world. Being able to navitage a ship and travel
across galaxies. The influences from and combo of Star Trek and Dune,
done well; a dream come true for many true scifi movie/novel fans.
So I hope ME3 will live up to ME2 and ME1.
Modifié par Dr_Hello, 15 février 2012 - 05:21 .
#615
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:04
KillamriX88 wrote...
*snip*
I was not impressed by the demo.
KillamriX88 wrote...
*snip*
I liked the demo
Go get some sleep, my friend.
#616
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:07
The second part of the game, the turrets were interesting, but quickly discarded. The guys with tower shields have 0 defense to warp, which you do have because of Liara. So there's no real experience seeing what they bring new. The centurions never seemed any different than the rest. Yeah, they have shields but they didn't last long enough to notice even on hardcore. It made my two plays feel very monotonous. The turrets and boss are the only thing that changed the way the encounters played in any notable way.
Having the Mattock made the other weapons feel redundant. The shotgun had a place, it does high damage, but the pistol and SMG did nothing unique or worthwhile. SMG found a use in the boss fight against shields, but that's not really a lot of mixing it up with weaponry.
So yeah, the action segment was very monotone. The combat didn't have any mixing up. I like to look at many levels of ME2 where there were lots of little enemies and a high priority enemy in the middle of them. Like the husks paired with scions. Really helped mix up combat and forced target prioritization. There was nothing like that outside of the two turrets and a boss fight.
The demo itself did not impress. If the action sequence had been a little longer, maybe it would have more interesting pacing and variety. If I were to take the demo as representative of an entire level, I would think there to be no pacing at all. Which is not what a demo should leave people feeling like.
Ooh and a bug. On my second playthrough, I played on hardcore. Beat the regular enemies in the boss room and ran around before activating the terminal. Got another wave of enemies. Defeated them, activated, got the boss fight. Finished off remaining Cerberus. Cutscene refused to fire.
Modifié par Taleroth, 15 février 2012 - 05:12 .
#617
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:07
Sleepdribble wrote...
KillamriX88 wrote...
*snip*
I was not impressed by the demo.KillamriX88 wrote...
*snip*
I liked the demo
Go get some sleep, my friend.
they're not mutually exclusive mr biodrone.
#618
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:09
Combat: Combat feels much more fluid, smooth, and reactive. Shepard moves around the field much less awkwardly than in ME2, and enemies react to shots much more noticably. This makes the guns feel more powerful, and the combat more intense. Overall I enjoyed it, although I had mixed feelings about being able to be shot while in cover. On one hand, it is realistic and forces the player to actively try to avoid being shot, rather than just dilly dallying behind a wall until his shields restore. On the other hand, it's frustrating that cover is supposed to protect me from damage and it doesn't always, especially since a single connecting shot prevents my shields from regenerating. Melee attacks are nice, glad to see that the omniblade thing is optional and the good old riflebutt is still an option.
Graphics: Overall, nice presentation. Environments, even from the demo, seem much more varied, beautiful, and flexible than previous games. Some things that stood out to me were the reflections on the armor. This effect looked quite nice. Light beams were also a welcome addition. Some transitions could be better; for example, in the first level there is a very glaring line between "high quality" waves and "low quality" waves in the distance. While the low quality waves look fine at their distance, the abrupt line where they change is disruptive. Additionally, some periodical anomolies occured on occation. Anderson's face in the earlier parts of the demo have strange discolorations that seem to be due to shadowing errors. Another saddening omition is the film grain. I was pretty surprised that this didn't make it in the game, and I hope it's at least an option for the full game. It was one of those effects that helped set it apart. Also, I couldn't tell if motion blur had been incorperated, but if it was that would be a splendid addition.
Animation: Shepard seems to be the paragon of facial animations in this demo. While many of the other characters seem to have fairly generic, blatant animations, Shepard's face is often full of subtle details and embellishments that really sell his feelings. I really hope the rest of the characters share this kind of detail, as it would really help sell some scenes. Ashley's expressions seem fairly generic and difficult to read, and the little boy seems rather mechanical, particularly in the "everyone's dying" scene. I think this scene needs a lot of work to garner the reaction it's going for. The boy's expressions, movements, and dialog just seem very forced, which hinders an emotional connection. On a more minor note, most of the characters seem to float over the surface of the floor a bit, which is a bit unsettling if a person were to ever stop and look.
Overall: A good demo, but I hope it doesn't reflect the quality of the finally polished game. It definitely seems like the core elements of the game are present, however, and with some work in the aforementioned areas, I think this game is going to be sweet!
Modifié par Ninjanovio117, 15 février 2012 - 05:12 .
#619
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:09
I find the walking speed to be just fine in ME3 demo.
I'm seeing that many people are commenting on how slow Shepard moves (when not sprinting). My guess is it's still like ME2. In ME2, when weapon is drawn, Shepard would actually walk and not jog. When weapon is holstered, Shepard will jog then.
I guess that's how it'll still be in ME3, except in the demo, since his weapon is drawn at all times, he needs to walk, can't jog and aim at the same time.
Makes sense?
Modifié par Dr_Hello, 15 février 2012 - 05:15 .
#620
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:09
WolfForce99 wrote...
2. How does Shepard know James?
Watch the femshep trailer and pay attention.
#621
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:10
Pros:
- Music is great. Reminds me a lot of Mass Effect 1. Clint Mansell and others did a great job.
Cons:
Now the hard part.
Treatment of paying customers:
- I paid $80 and pre-ordered the game, the digital collector's edition. The demo was released earlier to people on the X-Box 360 with a certain code? And multi-player is available to people who have BF3? What about people who paid and pre-ordered Mass Effect 3!?
Graphics:
- A lot of low resolution textures below the face, and in close ups. Been the same in the previous Mass Effects, but after two games and many people commenting on this, I would think this would have been improved. Or an option to turn on a hi resolution mode.
- Clipping throught various objects. Clothes clipping through an arm or shoulder. Characters clipping through walls or floors.
Writing:
- Poor dialogue.
- Characters written out of character.
- Introduction poorly written. Refer to Eain's post. Among other things remove the final sequence where the Reaper blows up the two shuttle crafts, and not the Normandy (the actual threat, which the Reaper should know. The Reaper should have said "What it's the Normandy and Commander Shepard? Blow them up with extreme
prejudice").
Shepard feels down graded in general both in and out of combat:
- In previous Mass Effects when it came time for Shepard to speak, the player was able to choose his dialogue, practically all his dialogue. Now it's only here and there, very minimal. This takes the emotion, character, feeling, and choice out of Shepard. Previously it felt like the player was Shepard, now not so much.
Game play and Controls are clunky:
- In combat the recharge time for the abilities are way too long, and confusing. For example at level 1 Singularity recharges in a couple of seconds. At level 12 Singularity takes more than 15 seconds to recharge. What happened? (Edit: ok, weight affects recharge times, this was not stated within the demo) Why would the recharge time increase as the level goes up, wouldn't it go down. Seems counterproductive. Liara and I are both the same level, but her powers recharge faster. Shouldn't that be the opposite, maybe I'm just used to playing Mass Effect 2.
- The controls in and out of combat seems clunky due to every thing being linked to one button. By linking storm and cover to the same button causes Shepard to roll when I just wanted him to run (or roll through mid-run), this happened practically every other time. Or causes Shepard to bounce from cover to cover when again I just wanted him to run.
1st mission problems:
- When encountering the husks that are attacking the wall, there is a trigger to run out of ammo. Even if no bullets were fired, as a Vanguard I charged to take out a husk. After that charge I was out of ammo, does using charge consume ammo now? Oh and husks were takin out with a single karate chop.
- When holding position for pickup by Normandy, the trigger isn't time dependent. Or on how many enemies that were killed. It's triggered by minimal or no ammo. So without taking damage or hitting a single enemy, I turned to the wall and emptied both guns, the Normandy shows up a second later (If you empty both guns before using the radio, after the radio
cut scene you will magically have ammo)
.
- I've been encountering bugs with the enemy AI. Enemies just pause and stand still.
2nd mission problems:
- Automatic weapon loadout. So I can't choose my weapons. Which leaves my Vanguard or Adept with ridiculous
recharge times(which again wasn't specified in the demo).
- The weapons bench removed. Throughout the mission we collect parts for weapons but since the bench has been taken out we can't use them. Why are they in there if we can't use them.
- Cover issues. Not being able to get into cover even after pressing the cover button several times behind something that I can cover behind. Shepard starts rolling.
- Have the door hacks been removed? Why even have locked doors then?
Overall: Demo feels really rushed and unpolished. I agree with Eain about the points that they made. I hope they clean up the writing and game play, and I really hope this does not reflect the final product. I just hope by March 6th (if it's released by March 6th) we get a game that is worthy of the Mass Effect title. Because this demo is not worthy of it.
Modifié par Kabl0wzasan, 15 février 2012 - 10:07 .
#622
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:11
Well, there's just so much to cover I don't know where to start.
Anyway, starting with what I liked, there's the really effective cinematic approach. I mean, at least in my book, this last installment is getting to the point of being an hybrid between a TPS and a CGI movie, and that's good for me.
One of the visual aspects that didn't work for me, however, was Shepard's third person camera. It is probably is a matter of taste, but I found it was waaay too close to my Shep. Xbox players most likely won't even notice it, but it was pretty annoying on my PC rig. I would appreciate a FOV slider option on later patches.
Then there's the dialogue. I know it's just a demo, but I found the dialogue just way too automatic (and even a little cheesy on a few lines), specially when compared to ME1. I just hope BioWare's doing it as a hook for new players or whatever, and that it won't reflect the majority of the game.
As for the combat, it's definitely more fun than the previous installments, but I think BioWare did a poor job on porting the key bindings to the PC. I hadn't played ME nor ME2 for well over 3 months, and having every action just so crammed up as if our keyboards had 20 keys made it quite frustrating for me, as it happened at least three times that my Shep was doing god knows what, instead of actually getting out of cover, etc. Of course, the major fault is on my behalf, and I'll eventually get used to it halfway through the game, but a specific key for each action would have been much better, in my opinion.
Still, what impressed me the most was the intensity of the game itself, and how it "flowed" seamlessly (just like a movie). I really can't wait to see the things singleplayer has in store for us -assuming everything's going to be as high-octane as the demo (specially Earth) was-. Of course, there's bound to be some trade-offs, and I'm willing to take a few, but the almost ridiculous linearity on the Earth section is just a little too much. Once again, I hope the devs are doing it for the sake of the tutorial (Lazarus station was pretty linear too).
Sadly, the starting point isn't the best, I find the saga loses A LOT of continuity, and the players who've played ME and ME2 have already noticed this is a pretty poor intro for the game. On their defense, it should be really dificult to make the transition between both games good without losing appeal for new players who want right-into-pewpew gameplay, but whatever. I hope it all goes up from there, both in intemsity and script/story quality.
I found the audio and graphics to be outstanding. I'd think this is the best Unreal Engine 3 has to offer, and the sound on some cutscenes was simply amazing. The guns felt a whole lot more punchy and powerful. The menus, (however good) just didn't feel as great as ME2's interface, though I wouldn't know why.
Lastly, the soundtrack's marvelous. I think this game will convince anyone -along with Deus Ex: HR- just how powerful can a good envisioned OST be for videogames. My hat's off for the whole composer's supergroup.
All in all, you could say I'm worried for some (albeit small) things, but that hasn't turned down my excitement for the game at the very least, and from ending my Shep's story. From what I could gather, the ME team did a really big effort on making this the best game of the whole trilogy, and I think they'll actually pull that one off. Obviously, the game isn't perfect, but it's shaping up to be incredible and a hell of a ride.
Congrats to the dev team!
Modifié par patocerda, 15 février 2012 - 05:15 .
#623
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:11
Hello Man wrote...
Or a patch;)
Pretty sure Bioware isn't going to shell out 40k to put a patch up for a demo, that's why it's a demo.
#624
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:12
RiflemanUK wrote...
Sleepdribble wrote...
KillamriX88 wrote...
*snip*
I was not impressed by the demo.KillamriX88 wrote...
*snip*
I liked the demo
Go get some sleep, my friend.
they're not mutually exclusive mr biodrone.
Yes they are.
But this is silly. I'm just gonna let it go.
#625
Posté 15 février 2012 - 05:14





Retour en haut





