Foreword: This review is the culmination of five days of observation from the games launch to the moment I began typing this out. I plan to make a follow up thread/post after a months time assuming we are blessed with the same level of updates/tweaks we were with ME3:MP.
Opening Thoughts: I'm sure there are many of us here who came to Inquisition excited for the multiplayer, thinking we would be offered a similar treatment that we received in the phenomenal Mass Effect 3: Multiplayer; which I vehemently argue is the best part of the third part of the trilogy (And no, I'm not saying Single Player sucked.). In this post I will be comparing the two multiplayer games through the follow categories, then summarizing the strengths/weaknesses of both and deciding which of the games is better in that regard and why. Thus expect this post to be fairly large, so I'll try and keep it as organized as possible.
For the purposes of this review, ME3:MP and DAI:MP, will just be referred to as Mass Effect: Multiplayer and Dragon Age: Multiplayer respectively.
Yay, lists!
- Overview
- Combat and Characters
- Progression
- Graphics and Maps
- Technical / Glitches/ ETC
- Score and Final Thoughts
Overview: In Dragon Age: Multiplayer, up to four players are to progress from the beginning of a level to the end in a checkpoint based map, A through E if you will. Along the way, players will fight groups of enemies, collect loot, open special class-based passageways (more on this later), and accomplish a few sub-objectives along the way which include escorting an NPC, killing a specific mini-boss type enemy, and collecting an artifact before the enemy can destroy it. Failure to complete these objectives causes players to lose out on some money, but can still progress through the mission At the end, players will have to defeat a wave of enemies accompanied by a powerful boss-grade opponent.
In Mass Effect: Multiplayer, up to four players are situated on a map in which they must defeat ten waves of enemies, along with an extraction wave. Along the way (Waves Three, Six, and Ten), players will have to complete objectives in order to continue the mission. Failing to complete these missions results in failure.
Summary and 'Victor': Dragon Age: Multiplayer features a more complex goal in comparison to Mass Effect: Multiplayer. However, neither one 'wins' this section of the review as they both accomplish their overview in equal parts.
Combat and Characters: Dragon Age: Multiplayer utilized a hybrid combat style between Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. It has been liked by others to games such as Neverwinter Online, or simply as a 'scaled down Action-MMO'. Players equip up to four abilities and four potions which they can choose freely from amongst the abilities they have leveled up. There are, at present twelve characters total, four for each archetype: Warrior, Rogue, and Mage. Each character has a unique personality, and talk to each other during missions. These characters each have specific weaponry and armor that they alone can carry (EX. Legionnaire can only use heavy armor and specifically for him and a sword-and-shield combination). The character cards portraying these characters tend to be slightly inaccurate from what the actual character model is, but this is likely due to the stylistic differences of the two rather than an oversight on the part of the developers. Each character has two ability trees, which stretch down greatly, with various passive and active skills to choose from amongst your twenty someodd ability points. The game features three enemy factions (you can't choose which you fight) that each have differing abilities but all of them have the same general 'enemy archtypes' of cannon fodder melee and cannon fodder ranged, and then heavier mini-boss type units which vary greatly between the three factions. Their boss characters at the end of each map are also greatly different (Some of them more annoying than others...). The three difficulty levels are each difficult for the level it recommends, if not a little higher. Soloing is increasingly more difficult as the difficulties progress.
Mass Effect: Multiplayer utilized a third person shooter style that evolved from the combat re-design of Mass Effect 2 to become significantly more fluid and action-packed. At launch, there were four characters per six classes (Adept, Soldier, Engineer, Sentinel, Infiltrator, Vanguard) resulting in eighteen or twenty-four classes, depending on if you count the separate genders of the original human soldier. Players select between five abilities, three active and two passive, to upgrade as they level, which each additional upgrade of an ability requiring more points (up to six). The abilities feature branching options from level three up to six, which is the maximum. Each character can equip up to two weapons from five different categories, though the combined weight of these weapons has an impact on the rate your abilities recharge. You can then equip four different modifier consumables that affect your weapon's munition type, headshot damage, shield capacity, Et Cetera. You also have four in-combat consumables that you can use to heal/revive yourself, refill your ammo, or use to fire a missile launcher. The Characters shown in their cards are shown exactly as they are when you use them, though you can color their armor and select from three patterns to put on it. The game featured three enemy factions (you could choose which you fought), which featured similar AI and unit types, but the individual abilities of each unit are what made them notable (Fear the Banshees! 
). There are three difficulties at launch (I'm comparing at launch, remember), where Bronze and Silver are good for leveling up your characters somewhat, but Gold is where the real gameplay is (according to some...admittedly myself included).
Summary and 'Victor': Dragon Age: Multiplayer is undoubtedly more complex than Mass Effect: Multiplayer and requires more strategy when tackling a situation, but the latter's gameplay is more streamlined and fit for the term of an 'action' game, which Dragon Age: Multiplayer strives to be. The fact that it doesn't require 'class diversity' is an added boon, meaning players are more able to play who they wish and still succeed and a cohesive unit. It's streamlined characters also can be personalized more and while more silent than Dragon Age: Multiplayers, they can take on a personality more like the player using them.
This makes Mass Effect: Mutliplayer the victor, in this regard. But I will take this moment to say that I enjoy both, just that one accomplishes it's goals better than the other and is in general the 'more fun' of the two. The need for 'class diversity' in DA:MP is a double-edged sword, allowing for more tactics (and more loot) but at the same time makes it difficult for the whole group to play what they want (Uuugh! We already have two archers/Legionnaires! Go be a mage I was here first!), whereas in ME:MP you can have four Krogan Soldiers running around headbutting things, and still have diversity amongst the character's total tactics (pure melee, fire explosions, gun-tank) not to mention MRAAAH HEADBUTT THE TEAMMATES! HEADBUTT THE PHANTOMS! HEAD BUT THAT WALL IT WAS LOOKING AT ME FUNNY! 
Once when I was in the Deep Roads, I held off a group of Darkspawn for two days.
Progression: Dragon Age: Multiplayer has you level your characters to twenty, outfit your weapons with new grips and runes, your armor with new attributes. Promoting a character resets the to level one, and gives all your characters a bonus to a stat based on the character's archetype who was promoted. You also have challenges that affect your online-leaderboar score.
Mass Effect: Multiplayer has you level your characters to twenty and your weapons to ten. From there you can promote your characters (which affects your single-player) and boosts your online-leaderboard score, but otherwise does nothing.
Summary and 'Victor': They both do the same thing, but Dragon Age: Multiplayer keeps the promotion function within itself...I can only imagine how the war with the Reapers could be won with just a bunch of angry krogan headbutting things...Not that there's anything wrong with that!
However, the victor here is Dragon Age: Multiplayer.
Graphics and Maps: Dragon Age's graphics are of impressive quality and feature a variety of blooms and other terms that I don't understand. There are, at launch, three map-campaigns, two of which are ruins and one of which has a Krogan head mounted on a wall which breaks my two hearts. (But does it mean we'll get a playable Krogan, Bioware? Please say yes, and that he's accompanied by a Mabari... 
). These maps change between a morning, sunset, and night time version. They also varying layouts, so going into the Elven Ruins one time may not be entirely the same the second time.
Mass Effect Mutiplayer also looks great, but not as great as Dragon Age...but it's also easier for my laptop to run. It featured at launch six maps that each looked vastly different, from the ground of Tuchanka to a frostbitten base in Noveria, an oupost on Ontarom, and the slums of Benning.
Summary and 'Victor': Despite the additional features of Dragon Age's Maps (and the variance within the underground sections, treasure rooms, ETC), the small condensed areas of Mass Effect: Multiplayer have more personality in this reporter's opinion, which makes this outcome difficult. I've decided to give Mass Effect: Multiplayer this victory, but it's by a close margin.
Technical/Glitches/ETC: Connecting to a game of Multiplayer in Dragon Age; Multiplayer is tricky business. Sometimes you'll enter and be unable to move and have no hud, as if you're stuck in the introductory cutscene. Sometimes you'll be able to move, but can only basic attack as skill and potion tray is empty. Sometimes the game will kill you but not consider you dead (and even ignore you), so you're left running around killings things and being unable to progress...and sometimes the game breaks your arms, forcing you to fight with your knees. In short, it needs patchwork and improvements.
And seriously: why doesn't the game have a push-to-talk option built-in?
Mass Effect: Multiplayer doesn't get off scott-free either, as I'm sure many of us know: Biotic Charge/Vanguard Glitch, Magnet Hands, Connection issues, Missile Glitching, Nova Cancelling, Getting Drell'd...
At least it had a push-to-talk option.
Summary and Victory: The two games had issues at launch, there's no doubting this. Of the two, however, Mass Effect Multiplayer had less issues at launch, and so it is the 'victor' of this...not to mention that the glitches of ME:MP are less frustrating and often times community jokes and just amusing in general....barring that missile glitch. 
Score and Final Thoughts: Of the five categories, Mass Effect: Multiplayer won three of them, with Dragon Age winning the aspect of progression. So far, my opinion of Dragon Age: Multiplayer is that it is a fun dungeon-crawler that stays true to the evolved-formula of the series, but this impacts the 'fun factor' as the concept of class diversity becomes more integral as the difficulty ramps up. The technical issues are the part of the game that need improving the most, as it feels so far that DA:MP is standing on only one good leg, while the other wobbles and is horribly contorted from glitches and connection issues. I enjoy the game, however, and I find it be arguably more fun at times than Mass Effect: Multiplayer...even if my group of newfound friends (met four new people yesterday alone) always make me be 'the mage/ third needed archetype' of the group... 
As more classes are added over time, I'm sure the diversity problem will go down somewhat...or at least I'm hopeful for that (and Mabari).
I'll PROBABLY make another review at the end of a month's time, or at the next DLC or something. We'll see. If you survived reading this I thank you...and question your sanity, but thank you none the less. Have a good day and a good discussion.
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