International Business Times - Clint Demeritt ; October 12 2011

 

It's been confirmed. Mass Effect 3 is getting a multiplayer mode.

Speculation has been running rampant over the summer, with multiplayer being confirmed, then denied by developers.The mode will let gamers team up in 4-player co-op missions. Though the feature is seperate from the single-player game, it will have an impact on the campaign.

Mass Effect is a popular space-theme Role Playing Game. The story follows Commander Shepard as he or she (depending on how players make their protagonist) defends humanity against the Reapers, a mysterious machine race bent on destroying the humanity. The Mass Effect series has been produced by Bioware, a company that garnered much praise for "Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic."

The first two Mass Effects sold a combine total of 6 million units worldwide. They focused on interstellar diplomacy where players' actions affected the fates of entire planets. Mass Effect 3 will focus more on the Reapers as they mount a full scale assault on Earth.

Some have wondered how the multiplayer will even work, since the first two installments were single-player RPG. The RPG is a genre not prone to multiplayer.

Executive Producer for the game, Casey Hudson, shed some light on that question:
"Yes, co-op MP missions for #ME3: they're real, and they're spectacular. Rest assured it's nothing of what you've feared. More soon..." Hudson wrote on his Twitter feed.

Since the news hit, Bioware's Chris Priestly posted a FAQ on the company's forums. It seems like the co-op missions will have to do with a new feature call the "Galaxy at War" system. Players have various ways to raise their "Galactic Readiness" level, which indicates how well the galaxy can fend off the threat posed by the Reapers. So a successful mission will increase the chances of the galaxy's survival. There are other ways to raise the galactic readiness in the single player as well. So if players don't want to participate in the multiplayer, they won't have to.

"Mass Effect 3 is a complete, standalone game that will deliver a satisfying story experience, even if you choose not to try multiplayer," Priestly said. "The Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War system and all of the individual components are meant to complement that amazing game and can be enjoyed on their own or as part of the Galaxy at War experience."

Also, Shepard will not be a part of the muliplayer game. Instead players will make new characters, or play as some secondary characters already introduced in past games. It seems like the characters players make will be able to progress in some fashion such as collecting loot and leveling up. But Bioware is keeping mum on that for now.

The feature was confirmed with an online preview of Australian gaming magazine, PC PowerPlay. The cover features Mass Effect characters and touts: "Multiplayer comes to Mass Effect 3."

But fencing multiplayer into a few missions may be a bit of a letdown. In all of the previous Mass Effect games, Shepard travels with an entourage of support characters. It's conceivable to let players' friends jump in on the single-player game and control one of Shepard's companions. But the multiplayer might not be all that limiting. Bioware is sure to release some more multiplayer missions as downloadable content after the games release.

We'll expect to find out more as the game's March 6, 2012 release date nears.