For the last two weeks, everything we know of BioWare's Mass Effect 3 came from an exclusive Game Informer 12-page preview of the game. We learned a lot about the setting, characters and gameplay changes, as well as how it compares to Mass Effect 2, but there's a lot more to learn from now until the fall when it hits retail.

Scans from Spanish magazine Marca Player surfaced on the web today, presenting another 7-page look into Mass Effect 3 and offering quite a lot of new details and we have them here for you.

I won't post the scans because they're 1) not ours and 2) crappy quality, but we do have the key points translated in English and I'll highlight the new stuff, breaking it down into categories. They're touting big improvements to combat and inventory systems.

Story

  • Reason Cerberus is against Shepard explained at beginning.
  • You won't know story until you play through it. Revealed piece by piece as you progress, unlike in Mass Effect 2 where you knew what was happening from the start.

Enemies

  • Cerberus forces consist of mechs and new "ninja-style" shock troops.
  • Reaper ships range in size from a 2km mothership to 500-600 meter other units (likely the ones from the Mass Effect 3 reveal trailer.)
  • Dynamic combat: Mechs for example, require targeting weak points to bring them down.
  • Improved AI: Participants in enemy groups play specific roles and can run "coordinated assaults" against you.
  • Certain enemies let you cut off their arms, take their head off or break off pieces of armor.
  • Much larger variety of enemies.

Combat Skills

  • Player can now roll, jump, dive into cover and engage in a variety of faster melee attacks.
  • Engineers can build turrets.
  • There's a new "Heavy Melee" class.
  • Combat is 10-15% faster and you'll be forced to move a lot.

Role Playing Elements

  • As we knew before, weapons are customizable with five variants offered for each part of the gun.
  • More items available to "loot" and more of an inventory system.
  • Much "richer" skill tree.

Vehicles

  • No driving vehicles like in Mass Effect 1.
  • Doesn't mean there are no vehicles at all - they're not revealing yet.
  • Rumor of possible space battles.
  • Normandy SR-2 remains the same.

Environments

  • Environments are larger and more dynamic.
  • You'll see people walking, ships fighting, more interactive.
  • Architecture and lightning much improved - aiming for photorealism.
  • On Earth, you'll visit New York and London.
  • You'll also visit Mars, a Quarian world and a Salarian world.
  • There's a new planet scanning system.

It appears as if Mass Effect is becoming even more of an action game along the lines of Gears of War, especially with the increased speed and added melee combat. I'm more interested in the added RPG elements that they abandoned with ME2 so it looks like we're getting the best of both worlds.

Mass Effect 3 releases this November on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

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Source: Marca Player (via BioWare Forums)

Header image edited from art by goku252525.