When Mass Effect 3 was first announced and the rumor of there being multiplayer in the game brought a lot of question and speculation, as well as hype, of the possibility of there being a classic multiplayer types in the game: Death match, Team Death match, Capture the Flag, etc, in a game with a new style combat and a new feel to the game. But when it was announced that it would be co-op multiplayer, I actually thought that it would be a nice addition to the game. And at first, it did not disappoint. Connecting your progress from multiplayer to single player, being able to promote your classes for assets, and the challenging aspect of working together on maps was a huge plus for a game that was more focused on single player and a great storyline.
But the most definite move for Bioware was to add content for multiplayer and have it for free. Having new maps, weapons, characters and powers, gear and equipment, it made the game and the style of play change for those who have a preference on how they play. The most ultimate change was adding a 4th difficulty to the first three difficulties: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and now Platinum. I think that with adding Platinum, it is a welcome challenge for those who wanted a bit more of a challenge. The other difficulties are great for the occasional recreational play, and even Gold can be a bit at times depending on who is playing and the type of map and enemy even.
But with the positive, there is negatives to the multiplayer. And the first negative I should say is the Galaxy Awareness decline. This to me made sense but is absolutely frustrating. Lets say you get to 100% awareness and your playing through single player. With in 1 - 2 hours, your rating will go down by roughly 3 - 5 percent. Which means you constantly need to play multiplayer to keep it up. This is a bad move. Not everyone is going to play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer every single day to keep their awareness up. In my opinion I think that the decline rate should be this: 7 days = 7 percent loss. That way causal gamers can get their awareness up and the rate of decline is the same for everyone.
Another of the negatives for multiplayer for this game is buff/nerf system that Bioware does almost every single week. It is pointless in my mind that, instead of fixing the various glitches that are in the game, they are more focused on making matches more challenging and frustrating. I get that they want to “balance” things for players so that they get a bit of a challenge, but some of the nerfs and buffs just make you scratch your head and say “What the fuck Bioware?” If they want to keep multiplayer fun and have people still play it, I think that Bioware needs to focus more on the glitches part of game and less on buffing and nerfing. I say this because the famous glitch of the game, aka Vanguard glitch, has yet, even after three patches now, to be fixed. Same with the missile glitch and the ladder glitch. True game will have there own glitches here and there, it seems to me and many of us out there that the glitches aren’t getting fixed or attended to.
Since Bioware seems to now be focused on adding and announcing new downloadable content roughly every month or so now, the main question other there is, will there be new game types and will there be bigger maps. I myself would like to have some sort of team death match or get to drive a vehicle in multiplayer, or even have an actual horde mode, without the extraction. If Bioware can somehow think bigger than just 4 player co-op, think bigger than just adding characters and weapons and such, they could get better at getting players that at first didn’t like the game to be more attracted to it.
Overall, I like the multiplayer. It’s a nice add for a game that has really evolved in the game play style over the course of two games. But there has to be a lot of changes, especially the Galaxy Awareness. If Bioware were to change it to 7days = 7% loss, I think that would be a good start and great move for casual players like myself. I don’t play Mass Effect 3 every single day, and it is such a pain to get the awareness back up.
So overall I give Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer 5/10. Great for casual gaming/hardcore gaming, but a lot of things need to added and changed before it gets better.
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