If you do not yet have Mass Effect 3 on your wish list I highly suggest you consider putting it there. Today, the demo arrives for the public to get its first taste of the upcoming epic title from Bioware and EA. I have had the opportunity to play it over the last 24 hours prior to its release to the public and all I can say is, "Is it March 6th yet?". I am not going to go into to much detail about the storylines and there is not too much revealed in the demo in the way of spoilers so those afraid of tarnishing their experience in March can worry no longer. The demo rings in at just over 2 GB so you can imagine how graphically intensive it is especially since you only get 2 fairly short levels from the campaign and a small multiplayer taste as well.

From the onset of the demo, the game looks fantastic as it has in 2 previous 2 installments. The environments are very familiar to those that have played Mass Effect 1 and 2 and you will quickly recognize many of the returning characters. You play the role of Sheppard in the demo and whether you play the role as a paragon or a renegade is completely up to you. You’ll also have to choose style you want to play the game whether its Action, RPG or Story and just for the record you will not be importing your previous Sheppard character into the demo. Without diving too far into the story, you’ll begin the demo as Sheppard is called on for assistance in a threat by the Reapers. The story plays out a little from there with some amazing cut scene footage and some great action sequences. The first level is you controls tutorial if you will but it is still pretty fun to run through.

The second level you takes place a little further into the game which you can tell right off the bat. You have to travel to the home planet of the Solarians and retrieve a Krogan female for your task at hand. The level starts out with a little bit of cinematic storytelling and then quickly dives into action as you have to assist the Solarians in fending off a Cerberus attack. You’ll have the opportunity to add some attributes to your demo character due to the fact that you have 23 attribute points to start the level. Feel free to play around with the combinations in various play sessions.

The multiplayer portion of the game is a ”horde” style game mode where you and 3 other buddies will take on waves of enemies that increase in strength and numbers as you progress. Teamwork is essential to success and the chances of playing as a Lone Wolf and being successful are slim to none. As you level up each player on the team will have the opportunity to customize their character attributes to their own style as well as the team. I am sure the full retail version will be a lot more in depth of course. Leveling up is the key of course to being successful as well so make sure you take every advantage to upgrade when you can.

I really enjoyed playing through the demo and the control scheme seemed very fluid and solid. I dabbled in the Kinect functionality a little as well and it seemed to be spot on with all my voice commands. Using the Kinect feature rather than pushing an action button or pressing “A” during sequences really involves you in the game and lets you live the moment through Sheppard. I was not totally sold on the Kinect functionality even seeing it at E3 and unfortunately I missed an opportunity to see it and play it at CES. But after playing with the demo, the Kinect integration is very promising and will add a whole new dimension of gameplay for those willing to give it a chance. The standard controller gameplay falls right in line with Mass Effect 2 so users should quickly adapt to the game and find themselves engrossed immediately in the action at hand.

Overall, I was impressed with the demo from start to finish. The storyline looks to be typical Bioware greatness and ingenuity and the gameplay is spot on smooth and fun. With the integration of Kinect, the ways you can play this game are expanded even more and I can see players truly keeping this game in their consoles for many months to come. Even though we expect great things from the folks at Bioware they continue to amaze new and exciting features and I have a feeling they still have a few things up their sleeves. Mass Effect 3 hits store shelves in North America on March 6th and should be in your console as soon as you can get your hands on it. Give the demo a try and see what you think, but I think you’ll be extremely satisfied and excited for the final retail version.

Stay tuned to XXLGaming in March for a full review of the final build. We promise to keep spoilers out of the review as usual. If you are excited as we are about playing Mass Effect 3 then you know it’s going to be a long couple of weeks to wait and playing this demo doesn’t help that anticipation and excitement at all. Now go download the demo and play it for yourself. You will not regret it.