Mass Effect 3 To Be Shaped By 1,000 Story Variations

04 Aug 2010 at 14:38:25 by James Chalmers

The story of Mass Effect 3 will be shaped by over 1,000 variations from the first two titles.

Mass Effect 2 project lead Casey Hudson confirmed the end title in the huge Sci-Fi action-RPG series will be shaped by events from both titles much like ME2 did with ME1.

However tying the storyline in with the decisions from the other two titles is proving quite problematic for BioWare.

"We plan out the larger plot points of the story from one game to the next, but it would be impossible to plan it all in advance," he told PC Zone issue 224 via CVG.

"More importantly, we'd never be able to plan as many creative opportunities if we'd do it all up front. Instead, we record what a player has done in a play-through, and then we have all of those choices available that writers can refer to as they build storylines...

"Numerically, it's over 1,000 variables that we'll have access to for shaping the Mass Effect 3 experience for people who've played the previous games."

He then went onto say the main gameplay elements from Mass Effect 2 that were so good we decided to give the game a 9.6 in our review, would be revamped for Mass Effect 3.

"If you define an RPG as a game where you equip your hero by sifting through an inventory of hundreds of miscellaneous items and spend hours fiddling with numerical statistics, then Mass Effect 2 isn't one," he added.

"In Mass Effect 2 we focused on what we love about RPGs: An awesome sense of exploration, intense combat, a deep and non-linear story that's affected by your actions, and rich customisation of your armour, weapons and appearance...

Hudson finally added, "We had an overwhelmingly positive response to this approach, and while we'll make further adjustments to it for Mass Effect 3, we're really happy with how it's been received so far."

We love Mass Effect 2 after BioWare tweaked all of the niggling issues that we had with the original and created a much more engaging polished title. The new Firepower weapons pack went live yesterday while the latest DLC “Lair of the Shadow Broker” will launch soon, more Mass Effect 2 goodness? Sounds good to us.

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