Level System in Mass Effect 3: unclenching at Eurogamer

This weekend I had the privilege of attending the Eurogamer Expo 2011. Among the many highlights of the show was the chance to play Bioware’s Mass Effect 3 long in advance of the game’s March 2012 release date. Here are my thoughts after my hands-on preview of Mass Effect 3.

BioWare have made some interesting choices in gameplay features over the course of the Mass Effect franchise. From the love-it-or-hate-it Mako driving sections in Mass Effect 1, to the mainly just hate-it planet mining in Mass Effect 2. One of the things that BioWare seemed to alter radically for the second game was character levelling. In Mass Effect 1, you had a wealth of options to tweak your team's abilities, with each 'power' having easily more than a dozen potential upgrades. In ME2, this was simplified down to less than five options per ability. Until last week, many gamer's buttocks (including my own) were firmly clenched in fear of ME3 simplifying the system down yet again, potentially causing the beloved game to lose some of the depth that made it so great. 

Well, the good news is that we can unclench! The EuroGamer preview section of the game was approximately 15 minutes long, and began by giving the player the opportunity to customise their team of Garrus and Liara, before heading off to do battle with Cerberus.

On first glance, Mass Effect 3 appears to have retained the system from the second game (albeit with more progression levels). On closer inspection, however, Mass Effect 3 gives us way more options to play with.  First, the player selects an ability from a screen resembling the one from Mass Effect 2.

This screen is actually a summary of the more complex options available for each ability

The game then allows the player to select upgrades specific to that ability, and even choose the particular path that he would prefer the skill to follow. For example, you can actively develop a skill to have more range than force, or vice-versa. In some ways this provides even more depth than was seen in ME1; you'll remember that despite there being a large number of options for progression, in the first game they were all linear.

Mass Effect 3 allows the player to customise abilities on branching paths, a first for the series

Despite this added depth, however, BioWare have been able to give the system an intuitive user interface; more so than Mass Effect 1. So put all of this together, and the end result is a rewarding, deep levelling system with a simple user interface. Outstanding work, BioWare!

Playing through the combat section at the Mass Effect 3 EuroGamer booth  gave me an opportunity to test the abilities against Cerberus’ Finest. Playing through the level with these abilities seemed  just as strategic as it has in the games predecessors- each enemy required a pre-meditated approach.

The cut scenes had been modified for EuroGamer so that the dialogue options were automated but the writing seemed equally as well paced as it was throughout the rest of the franchise.

I should also mention melee; the omni-blade shown off at E3 is just as freakin’ cool to use as it looks! Several Cerberus agents found themselves with a large chasm where their rib-cage should have been.

So, buttocks are now (almost) completely unclenched. Mass Effect 3 looks like it’s shaping up to be another triumph for the hard workers at BioWare.