BE FOREWARNED: Minor spoilers ahead.

So after about a week or so of play (in terms of total hours spent…), I come away with some hopeful impressions of Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer segment. A little background recap: the new multiplayer segment in Mass Effect 3 finds four players of  varying race and class battling against unfavorable enemy odds in waves. These small-scale actions take place parallel to Commander Shepard’s main campaign against the Reapers and can be safely ignored in the final game. For those of you who do partake in the multiplayer segment, it adds to a Galactic Readiness level present in the Campaign mode. How that Readiness level plays into the campaign is not yet clear, but you can imagine it presents a pretty sweet incentive to keep playing.