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San Diego Comic Con 2011 – Mass Effect 3 Booth Demo
http://www.rarityguide.com/articles/articles/764/1/San-Diego-Comic-Con-2011--Mass-Effect-3-Booth-Demo/Page1.html
By Douglas Shepard (Editor in Chief, RarityGuide.com)
Published on 07/23/2011
 
A series of articles covering San Diego Comic Con 2011. This part covers the Mass Effect 3 demo offered at the convention and some insight from a Q&A session.

San Diego Comic Con2011 – Mass Effect 3 Booth Demo

If there was one surprise waiting for us at San Diego Comic Con, this is one of the things that was a pleasant surprise. After a lot of waiting, we managed to get into the Demo room and play through a segment of the game. There would be photos, however we had to agree to take no photos or video while inside the Bioware Lounge. Inside there was a Q&A session going on, giving us information to share about the game and the experience of having played the demo itself. It looks to be a very epic game in scope and to be as ambitious as the first Mass Effect game was.

So far, we have seen that many of the features from Mass Effect 2 carried over. The story is to come to an end. In a way, Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 were only prequels for this one event. They described this as the best game to start the series from. They told us the game looks to a similar length as that of Mass Effect 2 and it will be offering some downloadable content.

The big difference encountered within the inventory system, so far, is the ability to customize your weapons again. Thankfully this offers a global application like it did in Mass Effect 2. Everything is presented as orderly as we have seen things in Mass Effect 2. They wanted to expand the options here and create a deeper experience. You can modify your weapons from the Normandy SR2 as well as at any of the Benches that you can find throughout the mission, and they are fairly plentiful.

The other change they offered was changing up the relationships that you could have with both NPCs and your party members. These will make it so you can have a close friendship as well as a deeper relationship with someone. This also makes it so that if you make the right choices you can either bring you closer to them or push them away from you sometimes to mortal conflict. The next one was how they were changing the level design. They talked of adding vertical elements to it. This allows for a greater diversity.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things they talked about was Liara. They were asked if there would be differences in the game if you played Lair of the Shadow Broker. The answer was that there would be. The choices made here would carry over just as would the choice not to play Lair of the Shadow Broker.

The final feature they talked about was the progression you would find uniting the races to secure the future of the universe. It will have many features similar to the loyalty subplot. Still, civilizations will rise and fall based on your choices here.

The demo itself showed a simpler mission than the game it capable of. You could play through as a Soldier, Sentinel or Adept. While the mission won't change, the rest can be very dynamic based on the class that you choose to play. You are accompanied by Liara and Garrus on a mission to help out Mordin who has found a Korgan female who seems resistant to the genophage that was implanted to regulate the Krogan birth rate. The mission is to assist Mordin in bringing this female Krogan to a place where she can be studied some more. The problem here is Cerberus, a ruthless pro-human organization, does not want the genophage to be overcome nor for the humans to forge a strong bond with the Krogan. It does not help any that the Reapers can indoctrinate, mentally rewrite people to their ends, and send them into battle like fodder. The mission is protecting Mordin and the female they ride an elevator upwards. At the end of it you look to be facing down a massive armored mech with just your squad mates and a very vulnerable target. As the demo ended there it was hard to see just where it will all go from there.

In the end, Mass Effect 3 looks to offer yet another amazing experience. You will once again roam the galaxy as Commander Shepard in the Normandy recruiting people to your cause. This takes things to a whole new scale than what has previously been seen. The Reapers are coming for everyone in the Galaxy and Commander Shepard must make a final stand against them.