Mass Effect 3 is by far one of the most anticipated games for me this year, hosting the conclusion of Shepard’s tale in the Mass Effect universe, and I recently had the chance to play the game’s upcoming demo before its release on February 14th.

I knew the demo would be good. I knew the graphics would look better than before. I knew the action would be stellar. I also kind of assumed that none of the story would be given away. What I didn’t expect, however, was how much I underestimated the level of quality that would be present in the Mass Effect 3 demo - it blew me away and did nothing to help calm my expectations.

The Mass Effect 3 demo starts off with the Reapers arriving on Earth - don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler, as we all knew this was going to happen. If you don’t know who or what the Reapers are, however, then you need to play Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 now - time is running out before the third instalment arrives! For now, however, it’s enough to know that the Reapers are (very basically) extremely powerful beings.

You play as the Shepard of your choice, male or female. I have to say I feel the female Shepard I designed looks much better than the new default female. I had high hopes for her when I saw the drawing of ‘FemShep,’ but the actual model doesn’t look as good as I’d like.

The introduction level in the Mass Effect 3 demo really tugs at your heart with intimate moments of humanity on the brink of extinction. Explosions detonate all around you, utter chaos ensues and, before you know it, you’re already shouting at people, either to get moving or to take cover. The second part of the demo sees Shepard, Garrus and Liara take on some of Cerberus’ goons as they try and protect a female Krogan on a Solarian planet. This part of the demo illustrates the effectiveness of squad control and teaches you basic flanking and assaulting manoeuvres. Depending on your gameplay mode you also learn about upgrading your character’s skills and abilities.

The demo doesn’t allow you to use your previously saved characters but instead asks you a few short questions before (depending on your gaming mode) you get to design your own Shepard.

Mass Effect 3 allows you to play the game in one of three ways, the first being in ‘Action’ mode which turns the game into an action shooter. Your character levels up automatically and the conversations all play out as cut-scenes requiring no interaction from you. Enemies tend to be tougher, but you can still adjust the difficulty. On the other end of the scale you can play the game in ‘Story’ mode, which gives you full access to all the conversation trees. It also makes the combat easier and allows you to breeze through it to see how the story will unfold.

The middle-ground between these two modes is the ‘Role Playing’ mode. This is classic Mass Effect and you can customize your character, level them up and choose all options during conversations. This is the mode I will be playing the full game in. In my eyes there is no other way, although I tried both of the other methods for the demo.

Mass Effect 3’s sampler demonstrates a lot of the features that the full game has been advertising and the graphics feel remarkably fresh for a third game on the same platform. The male Shepard is starting to show some crow’s feet around his eyes and the stubble on his chin is more clearly visible. Even my non-gaming wife noted how much sharper the graphics look. Add to those visuals some great sound and the very familiar soundtrack and you know you’re onto something special.

Combat in the demo is short and staggered, yet does a great job of letting you know what you will expect. It features the usual task wheels to help you choose abilities and weapons and even features a melee attack, which I found to be very inaccurate and I often found myself stabbing air.

One feature that really made the demo, and the game, stand out for me was the great Kinect integration. Luckily you’re not forced to use the Kinect at all, and even more importantly you won’t stand in front of your TV looking like a fool. The only feature used is the microphone and you’ll be issuing voice commands to choose your own weapons and abilities.

These commands have a slight delay and when things get hot you will appreciate the chance to take a breath by using the controller to choose them. The game flows a lot better, however, if you’re using voice commands. Barking orders at your team-mates also becomes second nature very quickly, with Garrus actually going where I tell him to and also using his powers when I command him to.

The characters are all back, the Reapers are arriving and Shepard is out to kick some butt. With massive action set-pieces and brilliant storytelling, this demo wasn’t required to convince me that I want - no need - Mass Effect 3. It merely proved that I can’t wait any longer. The 9th of March simply cannot arrive soon enough!

Purchase: