Mass Effect 3 Updates and Demo

I promised myself that I would not download the demo for Mass Effect 3. I am anticipating a great ending to the series and did not want to spoil the story. I lasted about 8 hours.

This post will give you some information about the demo and updates about Mass Effect 3. No spoilers will be in this post, but links to information off of this blog may contain spoilers. I will warn you in the link so you can decide if you want that information.

Firstly, the demo: it contains two levels of the game.The first level is very basic, teaching you some of the controls (but by no means all of them). If you watched the Fall of Earth trailer, the first level of the demo will not provide significant spoilers. There are a few character revels, but this info has been previously released through the Voice Cast Revel video. If you are really jonesing for a fix of Mass Effect, playing this level will not ruin the game.

The demo also includes a level from further on in the game. I just started this level, but did not play it. The level starts with having to spend your skill points to take you to level 12, so judge accordingly if you want to play this one. Starting the level is enough to give the overview of the mission, so don't start it if you to maintain the surprise.

As for the multiplayer, I don't think there are any spoilers in this portion, so unless you think even knowing about multiplayer is a spoiler, give the demo a try. Be sure you don't succumb to temptation and play the single player.

As for the multiplayer portion of the demo, there has been some discussion about including this in what is essentially a single player RPG game. I have heard some concerns expressed that inclusion of multiplayer might affect the quality of the single player. Perhaps the developers spend too much time including what some call an unnecessary feature to placate the publisher. Criticism seems to revolve around the some executive reads that “multiplayer equals big seller” so every game must include multiplayer. I don't know why ti was included but I am willing to wait and see the full game before judging the quality of the single player content. Bioware is a quality game developer and I think they have earned our trust (no comments about Dragon Age 2). As for the quality of the multiplayer portion of the demo, it meets the requirement. It is a ten level Horde type mode where you have to kill all the enemies to complete the wave, as seen in Gears 3. About 3 waves of the ten will have some other objective you will also have to complete, such as killing selected targets, hacking a program (staying in one spot for a certain length of time), or activating 4 locations. The quality is what you would expect of Bioware, it's fun and it has some unlocks that provide replay value. I can see myself enjoying multiplayer online with some friends. However, Mass Effect's strength has been in its RPG elements. If anyone is buying this game for the multiplayer, I would suggest you get MW3 or Battlefield. I don't think anyone with any knowledge of Mass Effect will buy this game because of the inclusion of the multiplayer elements.

As for updates, the first DLC, called From Ashes, was "mistakenly" put up on the Xbox last week. This DLC will be available to owners of the Collector's Edition upon release and details can be found here. One of the characters was reveled, so don't follow the link if you don't want to spoil it.

Bioware has announced a new promotion, Mass Effect in Space. They are going to fly some copies up into the atmosphere, and fans in certain cities who follow the GPS tracker and race to the location will win a copy of the game.

Update on where some of the Space copies were found.

Mass Effect 3 will be released on March 6th.