Commander Shepard is encouraging you to stop lazing around and ‘Take Earth Back’ in the Mass Effect 3 demo.

EA has released the Mass Effect demo for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC (on Origin), aiming to get newcomers to the franchise interested as well as Mass Effect veterans.

In the demo, players can choose to experience the game in either ‘Action’, ‘Story’ or ‘Role Playing’. ‘Action’ allows players to focus mainly on combat ‘giving them the opportunity to pre-set the tone of decisions made during the interactive cinematic scenes’. ‘Story’ focuses more on the conversations of the cut-scenes, reducing the dificulty of the combat and making storytelling a larger proportion of the game. ‘Role Playing’ is a mix of the two, blending complex storytelling with action and being closer to the traditional feel of Mass Effect games.

These settings can be adjusted throughout the game giving you freedom to experiment with what you find enjoyable.

Mass Effect 3 is also to be one of the first games to use Kinect’s voice recognition functionality allowing you to ‘tell’ characters your different conversation choices in the cut-scenes. (For those for are unfamilier, in cut-scenes you have the choice to respond how you wish to other characters comments, for example responding with either ‘No! We stick together!’ or ‘I understand you have to stay.’

The Mass Effect 3 demo also brings multiplayer. The Galaxy at War System allows players to link progress in multiplayer to the campaign in order to help save the galaxy. A co-op section of the demo will be available to all on February 17th, but players who have activated their Battlefield 3 online pass can play co-op straight away.

Below is a teaser trailer for a full CG trailer that will be shown on Sunday’s episode of ‘The Walking Dead’ continuing the lead up until release on March 6th in the US and March 9th in Europe.