UPDATE: Mass Effect 3's Multiplayer is incredible. (Added my refletions and a quick guide)

[Meight08]

Yeah, I know I was impressed. Go through all the trouble of entering my EA account details for a fucking demo and then got told that there's no access to multiplayer yet. Hey, EA. Go eat a bag of dicks. It's a demo, everything should work without people having to play BF3 or check every day to see if it fucking works yet (and without logging in to your utterly stupid origin accounts). And now I no longer give a shit about your gameplay denying demo, because I have Twisted Metal.

Besides, if I want horde mode, I'll go play Gears 3, a game with a combat system that works for this sort of thing. If Pinnacle Station in ME1 and Arrival in ME2 taught us anything, it's that Mass Effect with only the combat to hold up the game SUCKS ASS.

ENTITLEMENT WOOOT!
You just have to wait 2 days What is wrong with that?
You are so freaking entitled you already got a demo you just have to wait 2 days for UNLIMITED MULTIPLAYER till the game launches.
Yeeesh be happy you even got a demo.
You are what's wrong with gamer's today never happy,always whining,and complaining when you don't get everything handed to you on a golden plate.

 

[dragonswarrior]

I had a blast zipping around as a vanguard into hot spots and helping (stealing kills from) my teammates. Granted, I'm not usually much of a mutiplayer kinda guy, so I don't have much to compare it too, but I had a blast.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I'm not a big fan of Mass Effect, thought the first game was too wordy and conveluted, I prefer my games to shut up and let me get on with it. But honestly, a good multiplayer mode can make a world of difference to how enjoyable these games are for everyone (not just ME fans), it might just make me a Mass Effect convert.

You're in luck! If you don't like having to sift through tones of dialogue options and prefer to just play the game, you can choose at the beginning to play the game either:
RPG: The normal way which has all of the gunplay and all of the dialogue options open for you to choose.
Story: The main focus is the dialogue and you can rofl stomp any enemy with great ease because they are so easy.
Action (probably what you would play): The game makes all of the dialogue choices for you and you get to jump right back into the gunplay.

I will be playing on RPG mode.

 

[josemlopes]

The cover system REALLY needed an upgrade, getting in and out of cover is a complete mess and since the enemies love to spam grenades it gets annoying.

Also why doesnt it scale? If there are only 2 players dont give me objectives that are still challenging for 4 players. When we have to assassinate the guys with the shields its usually game over

EDIT: I really dont like how "A" does everything, if a teammate is down near a beacon it is a mess to revive him.

 

[Xathos]

I thought I read somewhere that multiplayer opens up single player content? is this true?

Yes and no. Due to how the system in ME3 works, playing the Multiplayer can help you achieve the best ending in the game. However, this is completely optional, as you can still get the ending without even touching the Multiplayer. In Multiplayer, one mode is specifically to help the Singleplayer, and the other is just normal, fun play. Least that is how I believe it works.

On Topic: I too was surprised at how good the Multiplayer actually was. I mean, I knew I was going to play it/at least try it out, but its actually good! I think it requires quite a lot of teamwork, as you can't really go off gallivanting by yourself too often. I feel the Sentinel and Engineer classes are going to be the more go to classes, but that's just because they have Warp/Incinerate/Overload/etc filled out for most of their skills. I also like how specific alien races are better at overall jobs. The Quarian Infiltrator for example, is the only one that has Sabotage, which I imagine would be VERY useful against the Atlas and enemy Turrets. I really like that not choosing the map gives you bonus XP; hopefully that works the same when choosing enemy types. I find the Multiplayer to find the right balance of challenge too. I complained at first about how hard it was, but I was having a blast. Also, its best to NEVER forget about Heavy Melee attacks, they are a Godsend in many situations.

Though if I had to list some bad points...

-Credits. I feel like I don't earn enough of them. In the demo we have Recruit and Veteran packs, but in the real game we'll have two other ones I believe. So unless the Credits are a bit tweaked, something tells me I'm going to be in the silver category a lot. Personally, I think it would work out to get like 20 Credits for every kill or something, but that probably throws off the balance of things, lol.

-To me, it feels like you can have a pretty rough time in the beginning. While not "bad" exactly, its just you don't have anything put into your skills.

-Bonus objectives are mandatory. I mean, yeah its the only way to make credits, but when that "Kill enemy Target" comes up and I only have a minute, we're all going to be rushing and making mistakes.

-Enemy Turrets. Jesus are those things powerful. And maybe its just me, but I think they blend a bit too much in the background, lol.

Think that's really it. At least those are my impressions from someone who has mostly been in Bronze and a couple of Silver.

Oh, and I must apologize for many people as I play a Vanguard. I try to be careful when charging, I really do! Its just that sometimes when I see a lone guy and I charge I don't notice the 3 other guys and the Atlas mech/enemy Turret around the corner. You can't blame me! I need 100% regen to shields really fast/I wanted to help take out the Enemy Target! I didn't mean to go down and cause the whole team to fail trying to get to me because I didn't have any medigel. Please forgive me...

 

[boag]

The cover system REALLY needed an upgrade, getting in and out of cover is a complete mess and since the enemies love to spam grenades it gets annoying.

Also why doesnt it scale? If there are only 2 players dont give me objectives that are still challenging for 4 players. When we have to assassinate the guys with the shields its usually game over

Well I found that once you level up enough you can pretty much solo the maps. unless you get one of those Cerberus Cyber ninjas that one shots everything but Krogan Soldiers.

 

[boag]

I thought I read somewhere that multiplayer opens up single player content? is this true?

Yes and no. Due to how the system in ME3 works, playing the Multiplayer can help you achieve the best ending in the game. However, this is completely optional, as you can still get the ending without even touching the Multiplayer. In Multiplayer, one mode is specifically to help the Singleplayer, and the other is just normal, fun play. Least that is how I believe it works.

On Topic: I too was surprised at how good the Multiplayer actually was. I mean, I knew I was going to play it/at least try it out, but its actually good! I think it requires quite a lot of teamwork, as you can't really go off gallivanting by yourself too often. I feel the Sentinel and Engineer classes are going to be the more go to classes, but that's just because they have Warp/Incinerate/Overload/etc filled out for most of their skills. I also like how specific alien races are better at overall jobs. The Quarian Infiltrator for example, is the only one that has Sabotage, which I imagine would be VERY useful against the Atlas and enemy Turrets. I really like that not choosing the map gives you bonus XP; hopefully that works the same when choosing enemy types. I find the Multiplayer to find the right balance of challenge too. I complained at first about how hard it was, but I was having a blast. Also, its best to NEVER forget about Heavy Melee attacks, they are a Godsend in many situations.

Though if I had to list some bad points...

-Credits. I feel like I don't earn enough of them. In the demo we have Recruit and Veteran packs, but in the real game we'll have two other ones I believe. So unless the Credits are a bit tweaked, something tells me I'm going to be in the silver category a lot. Personally, I think it would work out to get like 20 Credits for every kill or something, but that probably throws off the balance of things, lol.

-To me, it feels like you can have a pretty rough time in the beginning. While not "bad" exactly, its just you don't have anything put into your skills.

-Bonus objectives are mandatory. I mean, yeah its the only way to make credits, but when that "Kill enemy Target" comes up and I only have a minute, we're all going to be rushing and making mistakes.

-Enemy Turrets. Jesus are those things powerful. And maybe its just me, but I think they blend a bit too much in the background, lol.

Think that's really it. At least those are my impressions from someone who has mostly been in Bronze and a couple of Silver.

Oh, and I must apologize for many people as I play a Vanguard. I try to be careful when charging, I really do! Its just that sometimes when I see a lone guy and I charge I don't notice the 3 other guys and the Atlas mech/enemy Turret around the corner. You can't blame me! I need 100% regen to shields really fast/I wanted to help take out the Enemy Target! I didn't mean to go down and cause the whole team to fail trying to get to me because I didn't have any medigel. Please forgive me...

Dont worry about charging, thats what sentinels are for, pulling peoples asses out of the fire.

 

[boag]

I think a lot of this is an Easy-to-learn-hard-to-master issue.

I see a lot of the problems you have would be solved by changing your play style to fit the scenario. I didn't have a problem and I am assuming that when the lvls kick in you will be in gold difficulty no time.

Yeah, the only problem with gold is that the enemy gets even more intelligent and harder to kill.

my god I had never been outsmarted by an AI before this day, It took me a while to learn team tactics just so I wouldnt get one shotted by flanking enemy troopers.

 

[Zhukov]

The cover system REALLY needed an upgrade, getting in and out of cover is a complete mess and since the enemies love to spam grenades it gets annoying.

Also why doesnt it scale? If there are only 2 players dont give me objectives that are still challenging for 4 players. When we have to assassinate the guys with the shields its usually game over

Well I found that once you level up enough you can pretty much solo the maps. unless you get one of those Cerberus Cyber ninjas that one shots everything but Krogan Soldiers.

I hate those things.

Whenever they got close, even my vanguard had to run like a little girl.

It was immensely satisfying when I ran into one while playing a berserk, fortified Krogan. Head-butt frenzy ensued.

 

[boag]

The cover system REALLY needed an upgrade, getting in and out of cover is a complete mess and since the enemies love to spam grenades it gets annoying.

Also why doesnt it scale? If there are only 2 players dont give me objectives that are still challenging for 4 players. When we have to assassinate the guys with the shields its usually game over

Well I found that once you level up enough you can pretty much solo the maps. unless you get one of those Cerberus Cyber ninjas that one shots everything but Krogan Soldiers.

I hate those things.

Whenever they got close, even my vanguard had to run like a little girl.

It was immensely satisfying when I ran into one while playing a berserk, fortified Krogan. Head-butt frenzy ensued.

A krogan on the Team really does make a difference, I had the opportunity to play with one on the team, the only thing I needed to worry about was killing of the stragglers and giving cover fire when he was running to recharge shields.

 

[hermes]

I thought it was good. Nothing spectacular but good.

I liked that you level up by class, which makes having different characters less of a chore.
But I didn't like that all classes start as humans, and you have to use credits to unlock other races... my plans to have a Turian soldier will have to wait some hours.

 

[godofallu]

I played it for 6 hours yesterday, and I found it to be a lot of fun trying out all the classes and unlocking different guns/abilities.

Even managed to beat both levels with all 4 surviving multiple times.

I wouldn't say it's astonishing as the character growth is fairly minimal, and the levels don't have a story or a set path. Just a square like area to defend.

 

[Link XL1]

really? you guys all love it? cause i just cant help but feel its tacked on. like its jumping on gears of war 2's horde mode bandwagon. it is kinda interesting to be able to play as the other races, but they're not really any different

You mean how Gears of War jumped on Unreal Tournament 2004's Invasion mode bandwagon?

im not saying gears 2 did it first, they just made it popular. every other developer threw it in their game after gears 2 came out (ODST's firefight, nazi zombies, L4D's survival mode, uncharted's Siege mode, etc). besides both gears and unreal are made by Epic

 

[Coreless]

I really love the multiplayer, have been playing it almost nonstop since the demo was released. Sitting at lvl 55 I really feel they nailed the customization on the abilities and weapons. It creates lots of room for different play styles that can give you exactly the damage or utility that your looking for.

The weapon system is varied in terms of letting you use just about every weapon available no matter your class (and the mods and attachments) with the trade off that the more weight you carry the more time it takes to recharge abilites. The weight system starts you out low on most classes, so you choose to put points into options like fitness or tech mastery to carry more weapons (and still keep your cool downs at a good level) or increase your health and damage. and I've seen tons of different setups that all have worked great for their individual play styles and it didn't limit them in any way from still being effective and getting good scores. I ran with an Asari Adept the other day who only used a pistol so that they could dump all focus into biotics and they had almost instant cool downs when fully leveled and completely decimated entire squads.

I originally played as a melee/shotgun sentinel, and pretty much ran in with tech armor on and just focused on breaking shields and using charge melee attacks for kills but I've slowly gravitated toward the Engineer class and I've already seen lots of different play styles with just the Engineer. Engineers that focus on using only sniper/incinerate and overload, Engineers that go pistol/rifle and focus on dropping sentry turrets. Engineers that go full melee/shotgun and focus on combat drones and energy drains for kills. There are tons of different ways to go about the classes once you start leveling up and unlocking things.

To sum it up, if you think its all pretty simplistic...you really haven't put that much time into it. The classes work so well together and when organized for certain enemies and situations can really mean the difference between winning and losing, especially once you start hitting silver and gold.

 

[Coreless]

Nope. played it. Didn't find it entertaining at all. It was kind of easy and boring. Maybe my squadmates were just good, but it was terribly too easy. And terribly generic.
No surprises.

Did you try turning up the difficulty?

Is it possible to turn up the difficulty in multiplayer? Because my setting is already on Insanity but thats for Single Player. If it is possible, please tell me how.

Yes. there are three settings, Bronze, Silver, and Gold you can choose them on the multiplayer menu when your looking for a match. I would suggest staying with Bronze until you have unlocked your characters powers completely and gotten like level IV or V weapons.

 

[boag]

Can someone explain how the Multiplyaer missions affect the Final outcome of the Game?

I know you can reach it by playing solo, but I just want to know what doing what in multi equates to what single player.

 

[Berenzen]

Nope. played it. Didn't find it entertaining at all. It was kind of easy and boring. Maybe my squadmates were just good, but it was terribly too easy. And terribly generic.
No surprises.

Did you try turning up the difficulty?

Is it possible to turn up the difficulty in multiplayer? Because my setting is already on Insanity but thats for Single Player. If it is possible, please tell me how.

Bronze/Silver/Gold are difficutly settings. Bronze is obviously the easiest. Playing Gold is like- Ohgodohgodhelpuswe'redyingonthesecondwave.

 

[Legendairy314]

Being a Krogan Soldier with Damage Reduction and Melee Damage Specializations is by far the most fun thing I've done this year. Me and 3 other people were basically crying with laughter for an hour.

 

[Zhukov]

Nope. played it. Didn't find it entertaining at all. It was kind of easy and boring. Maybe my squadmates were just good, but it was terribly too easy. And terribly generic.
No surprises.

Did you try turning up the difficulty?

Is it possible to turn up the difficulty in multiplayer? Because my setting is already on Insanity but thats for Single Player. If it is possible, please tell me how.

After you hit "quick match", there is a list of setting on the left side of the screen. Server type (locked on public for the demo) Map, enemy type (locked on cerberus for the demo), and "challenge".

Challenge can be set to bronze, silver or gold.

It sounds like gold is the one you want.

 

[boag]

Nope. played it. Didn't find it entertaining at all. It was kind of easy and boring. Maybe my squadmates were just good, but it was terribly too easy. And terribly generic.
No surprises.

Did you try turning up the difficulty?

Is it possible to turn up the difficulty in multiplayer? Because my setting is already on Insanity but thats for Single Player. If it is possible, please tell me how.

Bronze/Silver/Gold are difficutly settings. Bronze is obviously the easiest. Playing Gold is like- Ohgodohgodhelpuswe'redyingonthesecondwave.

Dude you got to the second wave?