Mass Effect 3 Preview
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Once the storytelling was out of the way, we were exposed to the biggest upgrade in the series finale: a revamped leveling system. We were given some spare leveling points to play with and found that there were many more ways to spend them than in Mass Effect 2, with the number of options closer to the original Mass Effect. It wasn't a straight reversion though, as each of your powers can take multiple different paths now. For example, once you have two upgrades on your Overload power, you can decide to either have it target a second person or deal more damage. Whichever option you select excludes the other though, so be sure to choose carefully. The fact that the leveling system in the third game is the deepest the series has seen yet is something which will assuredly delight new and old fans alike.
Continuing on the trend of increased customization, Bioware has instituted a weapons bench to allow for a full custom arsenal. Using various upgrades found throughout the game, you'll be able to modify five different stats on your gun à la Call of Duty. The change won't alter the way you see the series, but it is a nice little touch to add depth to the gunplay.
Luckily for fans, gunplay is essentially unchanged from Mass Effect 2. The cover mechanic is still tightly executed, and cover transitions have now been made more obvious thanks to arrows which tell you exactly where you're moving to. Most everything else (e.g. the power wheel, squad commands, and weapon selection) remain identical, which is a good thing because it is all still incredibly intuitive. The excellence in the system was especially important, because almost all of the encounters pitted us against a varied set of very intelligent enemies, and forced us to make full use of our squad, powers, and weapons to survive.
