Mass Effect 3 - Demo Impressions
I generally don't think demos are worth commenting on greatly themselves, but ME3's got me thinking. Oh, technically it looks pretty good. It seems to behave about like ME2. What bugs me is the story setup in the intro.
Details of the Mass Effect games' beginnings, so I don't really consider these thoughts to be very spoilery.
ME2 drew me in immediately. Watching the Normandy go down was emotional. Watching Shepard die and be brought back gave the feeling this was a big thing. Admittedly, I really wish the game had given more time to the repercussions of his/her being rebuilt, but the story had me right from there. Reconnecting with my favorite characters from the first game was icing on the cake.
ME3 starts with Earth being invaded by the Reapers. Okay, story-wise we knew that was coming. It sets the tension and threat. It gives an immediate fight for survival sort of like the Normandy's destruction. So why does this bother me?
This bothers me a lot because it establishes Earth as under assault and losing (which is not a surprise with the Reapers) as the main character is sent out to get help. Maybe something changes along the way, but it looks like every step you take in the game, Earth is being ravaged. Until you return at the end to try to free it. That sort of tension and threat really only works well if used at selected points. Starting a game with it seems to me it'll evoke one of two reactions in the player:
1) The player buys in and thus feels every little side quest equates to people dying in game back on Earth. This really doesn't encourage exploration, it encourages the bare minimum of play through.
2) The tension is lost at some point because it clicks that the game probably isn't going to become unwinnable if you take the time to level again or hunt down another weapon mod to help you. This breaks immersion, leasing no real purpose to setting up the dire "right now" situation anyway.
I suppose I could be wrong. Maybe Earth is saved in Act 1 and the rest is pressing the assault back against the Reapers in a more general sense. But the immediate appearance is that of setting up a sense of threat that even Bioware may not be able to pull off well. I guess we'll see for sure in a few weeks.
Details of the Mass Effect games' beginnings, so I don't really consider these thoughts to be very spoilery.
ME2 drew me in immediately. Watching the Normandy go down was emotional. Watching Shepard die and be brought back gave the feeling this was a big thing. Admittedly, I really wish the game had given more time to the repercussions of his/her being rebuilt, but the story had me right from there. Reconnecting with my favorite characters from the first game was icing on the cake.
ME3 starts with Earth being invaded by the Reapers. Okay, story-wise we knew that was coming. It sets the tension and threat. It gives an immediate fight for survival sort of like the Normandy's destruction. So why does this bother me?
This bothers me a lot because it establishes Earth as under assault and losing (which is not a surprise with the Reapers) as the main character is sent out to get help. Maybe something changes along the way, but it looks like every step you take in the game, Earth is being ravaged. Until you return at the end to try to free it. That sort of tension and threat really only works well if used at selected points. Starting a game with it seems to me it'll evoke one of two reactions in the player:
1) The player buys in and thus feels every little side quest equates to people dying in game back on Earth. This really doesn't encourage exploration, it encourages the bare minimum of play through.
2) The tension is lost at some point because it clicks that the game probably isn't going to become unwinnable if you take the time to level again or hunt down another weapon mod to help you. This breaks immersion, leasing no real purpose to setting up the dire "right now" situation anyway.
I suppose I could be wrong. Maybe Earth is saved in Act 1 and the rest is pressing the assault back against the Reapers in a more general sense. But the immediate appearance is that of setting up a sense of threat that even Bioware may not be able to pull off well. I guess we'll see for sure in a few weeks.
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