Volus Mercenary - Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Character Discussion and Review

Volus Mercenary

It's typical isn't it, the one week when I couldn't careless whether Bioware release their weekly update and new character on time or not (because I'm busy with Black Ops 2), that they decide to finally get their act together *rolls eyes*. Anyways, this weeks character was the Volus Mercenary (see last weeks article for my review of the Vorcha Hunter), he's classified as a Sentinel and comes stocked with Decoy and Combat Drone, as well as the Volus standard of Shield Boost. There was mixed feelings when Bioware first announced the Volus race as new playable characters in multiplayer but i think that most people warmed to the new characters once they actually unlocked them. I was personally indifferent about the situation but will admit that i was pleasantly surprised at how much i enjoyed playing as the Volus characters, once i got lucky enough to unlock them. When i first heard that the new character was going to be a Volus, my interest peaked slightly but my biggest question was, would it fill a role that already exists or bring an entirely different playstyle via a new power?

I think that generally Volus characters are considered as "support" characters, while i don't disagree with this idea, i don't think it's entirely accurate all the time. How you choose to spec the powers and then how you actually play the character is what i believe, determines the role you take in a match. I for one, could not spend an entire match just shadowing teammates and spamming Shield Boost (though i do if i'm not using my other powers), true it can be a pretty effective tactic but it's not the only thing the Volus characters can do. I play very offensively (my prefered gameplay style) with my Volus Engineer, using the Recon Mine to provide enemy locations and then hitting them with a Proximity Mine for debuffing, before putting them down with a storm of bullets from my Hurricane. The Volus Adept on the other hand, i tend to play a bit more reservedly because i can't seem to kill as fast; my usual tactic is to use Stasis Bubble to take care of crowds of basic troops and then weakening bosses with the Biotic Orbs.

Vorcha Hunter (vs. Batarian Sentinel) - Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Character Discussion and Review

Vorcha Hunter

After a fourth consecutive week in delays to the balance changes coming into effect, Bioware finally released the Vorcha Engineer. Anyway, I didn't think I'd get around to unlocking this new character until at least the weekend because as you may be aware, there was a much bigger release happening this week, in the form of Black Ops 2. Ironically however, my copy of Blops 2 has as of this moment, still to arrive (which I'm not happy about) thus I had time to play ME3 after all but as you'll soon discover, I didn't find this new character much of a consolation prize. So let's get started, first off, if it wasn't brutally obvious already this weeks new character is classed as an Engineer (XD) and his powers are Incinerate and Submission Net, along with the Vorcha staple of Blood Lust.

If you read my review of the Geth Soldier from last week you'll know that I'm a big fan of the two existing Vorcha characters, mainly because of their Flamer but also because they can regenerate health via Blood Lust. So would this new Vorcha join those two or will i be disappointed with yet another of the new characters? Well let's begin with Submission Net, while i don't love the power I don't think it's bad, it's pretty similar to the Asaris Stasis but it can only ever snare one enemy at a time and has to travel to it's target. In contrast the Asari Stasis appears more or less instantly on the targeted enemy and can be evolved to the 'bubble' form, which can trap multiple enemies. This is my biggest issue with the SN, it's travel time is pretty long and when you're playing off host in a laggy-ish game, the chances are enemies will dodge the SN more often than they are caught by it and that's assuming the SN travels correctly towards the enemy you targeted in the first place.

Black Ops 2 Cheapest Launch Day Prices, Special Offers & Promotions [UK Summary]

UK Launch is Tuesday 13th Nov 2012

People of the UK, it's that time of the year again, when gamers up and down the country make like a daytime television program and go bargain hunting! But it's not antiques we're searching for, nor will the item we want be found at car boot sales, at least not this week anyway :P That's right fellow first person shooter fans, it's the launch week of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2 and if you haven't pre-ordered a copy, it probably cus you're hoping to snag a bargain come Tuesday (13th Nov).

Geth Trooper (vs. Vorcha Soldier) - Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Character Discussion and Review

Geth Trooper

This week Bioware released the Geth Trooper (see last week for my review of the Batarian Brawler), classified as a Soldier this character comes with Fortification, Flamer and like the other two Geth characters, Hunter Mode. I wasn't always a fan of using either of the existing Geth characters but once i discovered specific roles for each of them, they definitely became a lot more fun to use. Like most people i use my Geth Infiltrator as a killing machine, getting close and personal with enemies, then putting them down hard and fast. The Geth Engineer i use as a support/mid-range fighter, deploying my turret to restore shields and to keep enemies occupied at a distance where i can engage safely. So when i found out the Geth Trooper was going to be one of the new characters, i was pretty curious as to what sort of role he would fill?

First off i should say, I'm a big fan of Flamer and it's because of this that the two current Vorcha characters are a couple of my favourites to play as. I also like the bonuses that come with using Hunter Mode, though again like most people i hate the visuals (talk about headache inducing!), so needless to say i was quite looking forward to trying out this new character in game. On paper it looks as though you could spec the GT to do some serious damage with Flamer, seeing as both Fortification and HM provide bonus damage to powers. The reality is that yes, you can produce a really damaging Flamer but in order to do so, you're probably going to have to sacrifice some Fitness, which means you're pretty fragile. Neither of my other Geth characters have full Fitness but the GI has Tactical Cloak and the GE has his turret, both of which helps to keep me alive, even when using HM. The GT however, doesn't have anything to offset the disadvantages of having low health/shields, especially while in HM and in my first couple game, i found this really frustrating.

Batarian Brawler (vs. Krogan Battlemaster) - Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Character Discussion and Review

Batarian Brawler

Another week, another update and another new character released for Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. Once again, just in case you hadn't heard, Bioware are planning to release one new character every week for the next couple months, last week we got the Asari Valkyrie (my review) and this week was the turn of the Batarian Brawler Vanguard. How befitting that the day he was released, just happened to be the night of Halloween; cus let's face it, he's one person you probably wouldn't want to bump into down a dark ally, haha. Anyway, moving onto to his abilities, as with all Vanguards he has the Biotic Charge and to compliment this he also has Lash and the Batarian staple of Blade Armour. The question is, was he a trick or a treat? (See what i did there ;D)

I quite like the other Batarian characters; the Sentinel with his Submission net is like a sturdier version of my beloved Asari Adept (though less agile) and the Soldier can destroy crowds with his Ballistic Blades/Inferno grenades. So when i heard the new character was going to be the Batarian Vanguard, i was intrigued as to what his powers were going to be and then i found out it was Blade Amour and Lash. I guessed Blade Armour and that's fine but Lash, really? Anyway, i decided to reserve judgement until I'd played a couple games (on Gold) with him but unfortunately my sceptical views on Lash being the third, was merely confirmed. I don't need to say anything about the Biotic charge because it's basically the same as for any other Vanguard character and likewise for Blade Armour, there are no new evolutions here either.