Mass Effect 3 Preview

The final installment to BioWare’s core Mass Effect trilogy is the subject of a brief preview on Ten Ton Hammer, and I can only assume its contents are based on the demo given during last month’s E3.  A snip:

Much like the second installment of the trilogy, combat has also undergone another upgrade. Still keeping the tactical flow from the previous games, the shooter gameplay will thankfully make it less of a necessity to constantly rely on the cover mechanic. In fact, one of the biggest crowd pleasers during the gameplay demo last month during E3 was Shepard’s liberal use of the new omni-blade in close combat.

With a more viable form of melee combat maneuvers finally in the mix, stealth will also be an option depending on which class you choose to play. Hopefully this means some of the badass stealth attacks that Kasumi Goto (a crew member introduced in the ME2 addon pack Kasumi Stolen Memory) uses will become available for Shepard as well.

Another interesting new twist to combat is the inclusion of heavy combat mechs that Shepard will be able to hijack. That is, assuming you’re able to take out the enemy unit piloting one without blowing the thing up in the process. It’s hard to say how frequently we’ll be given the opportunity it may be only seeded in a few individual missions, or mechs may be seen extensively throughout the game but considering the immense scale of the Reapers we can only assume that Shepard will be given the firepower to match when needed. And with any luck, that will also save us from having Reaper encounters devlove into frustratingly annoying God of War style combat scenarios like the unfortunately anti-climactic final boss in ME2.