Mass Effect 3 Preview

“Smarter, brutal, and fluid combat” is what CVG is promising in their new hands-on preview of Mass Effect 3. If the threequel truly has more RPG elements and significantly improved AI over the first two games, it will be a huge leap forward:

It’s important to emphasise that the enemies in the game are far from pushovers. It seems they’ve been given an intelligence boost to compensate for Shepard’s advanced mobility. They’re not content with sitting back and waiting to be disposed of, now their strategy is to overwhelm and capitalise on faults.

During the tussle we take a few bullets from a well-hidden, opportunistic enemy, in our damaged state the change in enemy tactics are noticeable, they quickly rush us down in reckless effort to deliver the final blow. Lucky for us Garrus is about and saves our skin.

The AI also seems to strategise around the types of enemies on the battlefield, the presence of a beefy Cerberus soldier carrying a shield gives them added incentive to press since he’s able to take punishment and so usually demands the player’s attention. This means it becomes vital to use team mates and their biotic abilities to maintain a level playing field and also enable your flanking manoeuvres to get around the shield.