As fun as Mass Effect 3’s single player campaign is (minus the ending), you can really only play through it so many times before you wonder why am I doing this again? Enter the multiplayer game mode as a way to continue to play and enjoy a little more of the insanity. Having played through the campaign and putting almost as many hours into the multiplayer; well it’s addictive and fun, but let’s take a closer look.
The first thing you should know is that the multiplayer mode can effect your single player campaign. As you play online with other people you build up your galactic readiness and Galaxy at War Assets to help with the final battle. You can also promote a multiplayer character into the campaign once he/she reaches level 20. Your choice, as it resets that character class and you have to start all over.
When starting out, you’ll need to choose one of the six classes and then a race or character. You then can give it a personalized name and change some of the color options. Some options must be unlocked through purchasing equipment packs. Each character has different abilities so take a good look before choosing your character.
Once you have your character ready to go you may start the battle with up to three other people. It’s all co-op in the same fashion as Horde from Gears Of War. You’ll be able to upgrade and change weapons once you earn some credits in game and purchase a pack. More on the packs in a moment. When starting a game you have the choice of difficulty from bronze, silver, or gold, gold being the hardest. I suggest starting at bronze to get used to your character, weapons, and abilities. Once comfortable and you’ve beaten all 11 levels of bronze, feel free to tackle silver and so on to gold. Your enemies will be either, Geth, Reapers, or Cerberus.
Now when searching for a game, in the lobby the game will let users kick some one out through a voting system. This system is heavily abused by gamers with poor sportsmanship. What happens far too often when trying to play with a lower level character, some users will kick you out as they seem to fear failure. People need to relax and enjoy the game and I should point out that I have even completed (with good players) silver with a level 4 character. I actually enjoy the challenge of the difficulty and it’s more rewarding than playing bronze with the experience points and credits earned.
Speaking of credits, you can earn the them by completing side missions within some rounds. You get three missions within the 11 rounds. This include eliminating high value targets, hacking systems to retrieve data packets, and deactivating consoles. The credits can then be used in the store to purchase equipment packs. These packs contain five random items. The more expensive packs have a higher odd of rewarding you with an uncommon or rare item. Items include weapons, weapon upgrades, character classes/training, equipment upgrades such as ammo or armor bonuses, health, and cobra rockets.
That gives you a basic understanding of what the game entails on the multiplayer side, but to really enjoy and fully understand it- you just got to play. Which brings me to the gameplay. It’s very much the same as Gears Of War’s Horde with better and faster movement. Cover is used effectively. Different races move differently. For example a Human can roll away while a Turian cannot. Weapons perform well with best ones found in equipment packs. The game is designed to force you to work as a team. Having your microphone turned on and communicating makes a difference, but is not a necessity. Get out there and play, use cover wisely and don’t get boxed in, and stay with your team. Most of all, have some fun.