Mass Effect 3

Genre:

Shooter, Role-Playing, Action

Status:

Released

Release date:

3/6/2012

Developer:

BioWare

Publisher:

Electronic Arts

Overview

Mass Effect 3 is the concluding game of the Mass Effect trilogy involving Commander Shepard, developed by Bioware and published by Electronic Arts. BioWare has implied that the Mass Effect franchise will not end with Mass Effect 3, and more games set in this universe could be developed in the future.

Functions from previous games that will be included have been confirmed to be Mass Effect 3 being able to import save files from Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 in order to import major decisions made in previous games and game saves within those games. Players will be able to import their version of Shepard from previous games, unless the character died in the final act of Mass Effect 2. BioWare representatives have confirmed that players will not be able to import their Mass Effect 2 save with a dead Shepard.

The games Creative Director Casey Hudson has been retained as project director for the final episode of Mass Effect. Hudson has been quoted as stating that the third game would be easier to make than the second due to the fact that the developers would not be required to write certain plot points with open-ended possibilities of continuation into a following title. BioWare sources have suggested when they may finish development and that the game could be released as early as 2011, rather than the full two-year plus development cycle that Mass Effect 2 saw.

In April 2011, various details have been revealed through the Game Informer issue on Mass Effect 3. It is said that the game will start with Commander Shepard under trial directly continued from the events seen in the DLC "Arrival".

Within this time frame, the invasion begins. Cerberus is also said to be hunting down Shepard for reasons unknown until the events of Mass Effect 3 take place. Even though it is unconfirmed who the final squad roster will comprise of, various squad members are to return based upon your decisions contained in save-game data imported from previous games. Each of the following will be able to be recruited, respectively Ashley or Kaiden, depending on which you chose not to sacrifice and providing Garrus and/or Tali survived the "suicide mission":

• Ashley Williams
• Kaidan Alenko
• Garrus Vakarian
• Liara T'Soni
• Tali'Zorah nar Rayya

A further member was revealed when Casey Hudson reached 10,000 followers on Twitter. The character James Vega was announced and described as being an experienced Alliance Soldier with little knowledge of the galaxy's seedy underbelly and political structure. He is also said to reflect the perspective of a player that is new to the Mass Effect Universe. Upon the characters reveal several Mass Effect fans were discouraged by the characters appearance, though Hudson assured fans that a well written character doesn't have to be physically pleasing and hinted that his appearance may be a substantial part of the character.Characters confirmed to be appearing but not to be recruited: (It is entirely possible that the following may be absent from the immediate team in order to rally their respective people's forces e.g. Wrex unifying the clans of Tuchunka)

• Wrex
• Mordin
• Legion

BioWare has also been confirmed to have said that there will be an increased emphasis on the roleplaying elements, that they wished to aim for "middle ground" and strike a medium between the functions of Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2. Changes introduced in order to achieve this which are confirmed, include:

• Powers and Skills that may be evolved more than once with greater benefits and a larger "skill tree".
• Weapons now have interchangeable parts, such as barrel extensions, scopes, materials and other modifiers which affect weapon performance and attack role in combat. This allows for weapons to adjust for situation and environment such as counter sniping and likely rate of fire as well as weapon weight. It is not confirmed whether this is switching on the go or whether it is to be done prior to mission with weapon cache vendors such as those in Mass Effect 2, providing weapon switches and modification.
• Players may now choose any weapon type and will not be hindered by lack of training as Shepard may now use any weapon of choice, but is limited to how many can be carried at any one time. It is already thought that the soldier will carry at least one of every weapon, and the less focused on firearms the other class of choice becomes or the more specialized in a certain type or alternative weapon a class gets, the less slots they have. The interchangeable weapon parts function will allow for players to be more adaptable despite having a potentially low number of weapon types carried. Because sometimes nothing beats a clean and clear shot.
• Further details and other changes are documented in GameInformer #217 from May 2011.
• Each Class will have unique melee attacks that only that class will be able to perform. BioWare has stated that they wish to make Melee attacks a bigger part of combat than before.
• Shooting certain armour sections on an enemy will have unique effects to that region on the body and affect the enemy.
• Enemy weapons ARE able to be used by Shepard and can be picked up.
• Combat will be on much larger scale in more open environments with AI that will attempt different tactics to defeat you.
• There are also mentions of a "peeking" feature which may or may not be similar to that seen in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. More details of this function are likely to be showcased along with classes and the combat system later on.
• A roll ability is also mentioned in which you may be able to roll to avoid attacks or from cover to cover. This works hand in hand with the new system of vaulting and movement in which it is more fluid, and players need not take cover in order to vault over an object as in previous games.
• Ladders are confirmed to be a method of traversing different floors and objects.

As well as this there will be other, smaller changes in many things yet to be seen as no footage of the game has been released as of yet.

The game will also feature an interactive comic that will allow players to start from scratch as seen in the Playstation 3 version of Mass Effect 2. Allowing players to enjoy the game without having played the previous ones. In the Xbox 360 version of Mass Effect 2 players were left with "default options" chosen for them every playthrough, often making the game slightly less enjoyable for many.