Mass Effect 3 Trailer Breakdown: “Ruthless and Intelligent Enemies”

BioWare has released a new batch of Mass Effect 3 trailers, and we're breaking them down one at a time, hoping to glean every last bit of information we can about the game before its release next month. Next on the dissection table is a look at the game's enemies. What new baddies can you expect to perforate in Commander Shepard's next (and final) outing?

To kick things off, we get a glimpse of a few new Cerberus units. Right at the start of the trailer, we see one of the Phantoms, ninja-like enemies that utilize sword-based stealth combat. They pop up throughout the rest of the trailer in both male and female varieties. Next up, we've got the Combat Engineer, who can deploy sentry guns on the battlefield to pin you in cover. If you've got the skills for it, though, you can hack those turrets to remove the threat. After that, there's a quick shot of the lumbering Atlas Mech, which you can actually hijack if you can take out the driver without destroying the suit. Finally, we see some run of the mill grunts equipped with riot shields, another new addition to the franchise.

After that, we move onto the synthetic enemies, crafted by the Reapers to aid in the invasion of Earth. For starters, we get a look at the Brute, which has been assembled from Krogan and Turian parts. Then, in quick succession, we see the Banshees (mutated Asaris with strong Biotic abilities), the Cannibals (derived from Batarians), and the Ravagers (sythetic Rachni). There's also a mysterious flying enemy that looks to be synthetic as well.

All in all, the trailer showcases quite a few new enemy types, all of which should help to keep combat fresh and exciting.

Mass Effect 3 releases for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on March 6 in North America and March 9 in Europe. Can't wait that long? BioWare will be releasing a demo next week, on February 14.