Mass Effect 3 was voted as the most anticipated game of 2012 at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards. The game has been hyped up to astronomical levels by fans of the sci-fi RPG series and by developer BioWare and publisher EA. The game is the conclusion of the Mass Effect trilogy and will see Commander Shepard taking the helm for one final stand against the Reapers. Let’s find out what we can expect from this game in our Mass Effect 3 preview.
The Story So Far
The Mass Effect trilogy is a trilogy in the true sense of the word. It isn’t just three different games in the same universe, it is three games that weave together one coherent story. That story will be significantly different depending on how gamers chose to play the previous two games, and how they choose to play Mass Effect 3. But most of the main story elements remain, regardless of what players have done and these are the elements that will be discussed for some background.
In the Mass Effect universe, humanity has finally found a way to traverse the cosmos at faster than light speeds and it has led to contact with many different alien species in our own galaxy. The Citadel Council is the organized government of much of our galaxy and is based out of the Citadel, a giant space station supposedly created by the long-extinct Prothean race.
Commander Shepard, a human officer serving on the spaceship Normandy, is given the chance to be the first human to join the council’s elite group of operatives known as the Spectres. Shepard is tasked with hunting down a rogue Spectre named Saren, who is using Prothean beacons to try and bring back the “Reapers.”
Shepard chases Saren through the cosmos and eventually finds out that the Reapers are the real threat and that Saren is working for a reaper named Sovereign. The Reapers created the Citadel and were behind the extinction of the Protheans. Sovereign aims to bring the rest of the Reaper fleet out of dark space to once again annihilate all life in the galaxy but Shepard foils the plan and the galaxy remains safe for the time being.
In Mass Effect 2, Shepard’s ship is attacked and destroyed by an unknown vessel and Shepard winds up dead. Cerberus, a pro-human organization, retrieves Shepard’s body and over the course of two years brings him back to life. While Shepard was out, whole human colonies began to disappear and Cerberus’ leader, the Illusive Man, hopes that Shepard can help figure out why. They provide a new Normandy and a crew for Shepard to use in his search.
Shepard’s ties to Cerberus make the Council weary of his motivations so most of Shepard’s dealings in the second game take place outside of Council space. Shepard investigates the colony disappearances and finds out that an advanced race of aliens called the Collectors is abducting humans.
Shepard compiles a team of the best of the best from different species to take the fight to the Collectors. The Collectors are found out to be working for the Reapers and Shepard takes his team on a “suicide” mission to the Collector home world to stop the abductions. It is revealed that the Reapers are creating a new member of their species based off of humanity, and the humans that are captured are being killed and used as some kind of tool for the completion of the Reaper. Shepard destroys the half-complete human Reaper and is given the chance of destroying the Collector facility (defying Cerberus) or trying to find out more about the Reapers by keeping the station intact.
The Galactic War
That is the story so far, in a nutshell, so what will happen in Mass Effect 3? The game will begin with Commander Shepard on trial for an action that he took during the “Arrival” DLC mission from Mass Effect 2. The Reapers attack Earth and Shepard is forced to retreat to gather allies.
Earth may be lost at the beginning of the game but that doesn’t mean that Shepard is going to give up on getting Earth back. Shepard will once again use the Normandy and her crew to gather a team to help take Earth back but this time it won’t be as simple as convincing a single person to join on. Shepard will be recruiting whole species to help with the re-taking of Earth and some might be easier to sway than others.
The Reapers will be the main threat that Shepard (and humanity) is facing however, Cerberus has also decided that it wants to stop Shepard from succeeding. The mutually reluctant allies of Mass Effect 2 will now be hard to beat enemies.
Many familiar faces will return in Mass Effect 3, provided that the characters survived the player’s choices in the previous games. Here is a list of all of the characters that have been confirmed to be returning for Mass Effect 3:
Captain Anderson
Joker
EDI
Captain Kirrahe
Kelly Chambers
Jack
Thane
Legion
Miranda
Ashley
Kaidan
The Illusive Man
Zaeed
Jacob
Mordin
Udina
Wrex
Conrad Verner (the fan)
Tali
Liara
Garrus
Garrus, Tali, Liara, Ashley and Kaidan are known to be possible squad members at this point in time and a new character by the name of James Vega will be a part of Shepard’s squad as well. The characters of Mass Effect are just as interesting and colorful as the universe itself so it is nice to see that most of the characters will be returning in some capacity.
One thing that the Mass Effect series has done very well up to this point and promises to continue doing is the continuity of player’s decisions. When a player makes a choice in one Mass Effect game, that decision will have consequences in following games in the series. A choice a player made in Mass Effect might have a significant effect on the story of Mass Effect 3. This will add an extra weight to all of the decisions that a player makes and will encourage multiple playthroughs of all three games. It will be interesting to see the consequences of a gamer’s actions in one game play out in right in front of them in the next game.
Mass Effect 3 will be the conclusion of the Reaper story arc and will mark the last game where Commander Shepard will be the main character. BioWare has confirmed that any future installments in the Mass Effect franchise will have new main character and a new plotline.
Gameplay
Mass Effect 3 will play like a true hybrid of third-person shooter and RPG. The game will allow for a good amount of weapon and armor customization via workbenches in the game, but it will also allow gamers to simply pick up weapons and shoot their way through the game without needing to utilize the RPG elements.
Character skills will also be much more involved than in Mass Effect 2, with each skill branching out into different specializations as the character moves up in level. These choices will allow the gamer to pick the play style that works best for them and level up according to their personal styles.
Melee combat is going to be a big part of Mass Effect 3 and that is a dynamic that was not seen much in the previous Mass Effect games. Shepard will be able to utilize a new weapon called the omni blade which is a long blade that extends from Shepard’s omni tool and can have devastating effects. Each class will have a special heavy melee move and some will even feature dual omni blades.
BioWare has also stated that the AI will be able to use more advanced strategies to make the game even harder to complete. Cerberus operatives will deploy smoke screens, use shields and flank Shepard’s team to make each objective even harder to reach.
The combat system in Mass Effect 3 has been significantly revamped from Mass Effect 2 and a slew of new biotic and tech abilities will allow Shepard to more easily take down increasingly difficult opponents. Each character class will be given special abilities that can help them dispense of hard to kill enemies. For example, the Vanguard class has been given a new ability called Nova that is a close range shockwave. Engineers can deploy sentry turrets and even hack enemy turrets to make them friendly. Check out this video below which explains and demonstrates some of the new combat features of Mass Effect 3.
(Insert BioWare Pulse Combat Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Or0fly8vA0&list=PLD080B8B1611D5573&index=9&feature=plcp)
Squad commands are another crucial part of the Mass Effect 3 combat dynamic and will be even more in-depth than Mass Effect 2. Shepard will be able to tell his squad what to do, who to attack and where to go with ease and efficiency. This will help players move through legions of difficult enemies that would be hard to beat if the squad wasn’t working as a team.
Multiplayer
BioWare officially announced that Mass Effect 3 would include an online multiplayer component and specifics on the multiplayer have been coming through in abundance. The multiplayer element of the game will allow players to take control of a “rag tag” team of mercenaries fighting off the Reapers in small skirmishes throughout the galaxy. Shepard will not be the leader of these groups but completing multiplayer objectives will aid Shepard by upping the “Galactic Readiness Scale.”
The multiplayer has been confirmed to be competitive co-op, with gamers working together to complete missions. Alien races like the Drell, Krogan and Asari will be playable as well as some races “you wouldn’t expect to play as.” Players will be able to level up their characters in the multiplayer the same as in the regular game and the experience points for leveling up will be based on objectives gained, not class choices.
These missions will be independent of the main story of the game but their affect may allow gamers to get more endings for their single player experience. There will also be matchmaking for the multiplayer but getting a group of friends together is preferable.
Mass Effect 3 will be the first game in the series to feature a multiplayer element and the response to the news was mixed at first. Many people seemed to not like the idea of the multiplayer possibly taking away from the single player or worse, needing to complete the multiplayer to complete the single player. BioWare has confirmed that the multiplayer in the game is not required to complete the game and will only enhance the single player experience but the full ending will be available to players that choose to not participate in multiplayer at all.
Kinect Functionality
Mass Effect 3 will be a part of a group of “hardcore” games that are getting the Kinect treatment. The Kinect will not be required to play the game on the Xbox 360; however there will be some features that the Kinect will be able to help with.
One of the biggest uses of the Kinect in Mass Effect 3 will be for voice commands and for dialogue. Gamers will be able to tell their squad what to do or talk to NPC’s in the game with the Kinect’s voice recognition software. There may be other Kinect functionality for the game, but BioWare has yet to officially announce or show off any other functionality.
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