I love Mass Effect. I love it to buggery. I’ve always argued that the universe that Bioware have created rivals anything that the multiple-chinned trilogy fucker George Lucas has spouted out of his brain. So initially I was worried that Mass Effect 3 would include multiplayer. Does this game, which has been a pure single-player epic so far, need multiplayer? What does the multiplayer consist of?
I’m sure you have read all about it. In a nutshell, Mass Effect 3 will include a 4-player co-op mode, which sees you and some friends (if you have any) pick a race and take in various missions seperate from the main game. You can choose human, Asari, Krogan…..even a Drell (YES), kit them out and join up to take on the menace that’s rampant throughout the galaxy. Now it hasn’t been mentioned what forms these missions will take. Will they be similar to single player missions? Will they be based in a kind of Gears 3-style horde mode, where you just fight on one map until you have blown away all opponents? We don’t know.
Now look. Initially, I was completely against multiplayer. This was before I knew what form it would take. If it was built up of TDM, king of the hill etc I was going to take my Shepard hoodie and ritually burn it in protest. Mass Effect 3 with fucking Krogan camping everywhere would turn me off faster than watching Elcor mate! But, I guess, the good news was that the MP modes are going to be co-op.
Now I have some initial reservations about this. Apparently the MP modes are going to be played out in some sort of Star Wars battlefield 2 “galactic conquest” style. You can fight over various star systems, and completing them will see various resources open to your group, and may see various alien races joining you in your fight against the Reaper threat. All sounds pretty cool. Planning which system to take next and having it actually effect the game sounds great. But there are some problems with it. Problems that I hope are cleared up by Bioware pretty soon.
So playing in co-op will maybe add additional aliens into the fight in single player mode. Sounds good. But how is this going to work? Will multiplayer sections only open up when I have reached a certain milestone in the single player game? If so that’s going to completely bring me out of the single player mode. I don’t want to reach a section in the game, only to have to come out, gather some friends, fight a mission in MP and complete that mission so I can continue in the single player campaign. If the multiplayer is “completely seperate” from the single player modes, how is it that doing the multiplayer sections successfully will give me a “better ending” to the single player game? I’m not a complete fucking cretin, I can see how it will work. Rescue every system in the game, all the aliens will join you in fighting the Reapers…..the end! I get it. They are complimenting the single player and multiplayer modes…I GET IT! But what if I don’t touch the multiplayer? I know it’s hard to fathom, but there are gamers out there that don’t play online (my friend has an Xbox 360 and has no intention of EVER going onlien with it). So are they getting less of an experience because the two modes, SP and MP, are tied together? If you can only get the best ending from playing and completing MP then it sucks donkey balls.
Look. All I want to know is this. Can I play through the multiplayer modes FIRST, unlock all of the systems, get the various races on my side and THEN jump into the single player game? When does the fight for the star systems take place? At the start of the campaign? In the middle? I would rather have the option of doing what I’ve just said first…..jump in, complete ALL multiplayer fights in the game, and then, and only then, jump in and get on with the campaign with all systems unlocked.
I’m not opposed to the new modes as I was when they were first announced. My initial feeling was that the MP modes have just been shoehorned in there so EA can slap an online pass onto the game (old cynic that I am). Now that I’ve heard a bit more i’m feeling relieved, but I still have some nagging doubts. Hopefully, Bioware will remove my fears and announce full details of how the modes will work.
Looking forward to multiplayer in Mass Effect 3? Or do you think it’s completely unnecessary? Watch this video from Bioware to see more.
Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for release on 6th March, 2012. On Xbox 360, PS3 and PC
