Mass Effect 3 Dev Defends Inclusion Of Multiplayer
Mass Effect 3′s Casey Hudson gives us a behind the scenes glimpse at 2012′s biggest RPG…
360 Magazine: There seems to be a real sense that BioWare is ending Shepard’s trilogy in the most explosive and ambitious way possible, is there a sense that series should go out with all guns blazing?
Casey Hudson: Our main goal is to ensure that everyone – long-time Mass Effect fans and players new to the series – are able to experience the absolute pinnacle of the Mass Effect experience as we bring Commander Shepard’s journey to a close.
For new players that means the beginning, and the end, of a full-scale galactic war.
And for players who have been with us since ME1, it will be the satisfying conclusion of the plots and character arcs that they’ve been following for years.
360: It’s clear now that the universe is in the midst of an all-out war, how has that effected the way you approach the design from everything from the missions, characters and locations?
CH: It is initially daunting, but we always look for historical reference to ground the story. With many difference regions fighting their own wars and experiencing their own struggles, we realized that on some level it’s a World War II story.
We needed to find a way to make sense of how people can still go to a bar for a drink in an occupied town, or how one region might fall to the enemy while another remains well-controlled.
Many of these answers are found in WWII, and having a historical reference point for war on that scale helps create storylines and situations that are realistic even though they exist in a futuristic setting.
360: Was there ever a danger that this third game would have to repeat the basic story template of the second game (roaming the galaxy and building a kick-ass team)? How did you ensure what you created was new?
CH: No, each story is really a different act in the trilogy, and has a different function. Now that we know that the Reapers are real, and they have arrived to capture our world (and many others) with overwhelming force, it creates a different kind of story structure.
There is more time pressure, but at the same time the scale is much greater and Shepard’s allies have access to a whole new level of war assets. So ME3 is much more about how an entire civilization wins a war, versus collecting a team for a covert mission.
360: Mass Effect 3 has already been described as the end of Shepard’s trilogy, but how much of a conclusion can players expect? Is there a definitive ending and how much of the individual choices players have made over the three games impact the conclusion?
CH: Yes, everything we’ve been working towards is geared towards giving players a spectacular, satisfying, and definitive ending to their story as Commander Shepard.
360: Each Mass Effect game has promised hugely divergent choices for player’s that has always been represented through the characters Shepard interacts with. Has there been a technical or writing limitation on how far this idea can be taken in the third game?
CH: With Mass Effect 3 we are in a unique position of being able to let the player’s decisions have greater consequences than ever before. In previous games we had to be careful to leave certain story threads intact so that they could be continued in the next game.
But knowing that we are approaching the end of this storyline, we’re able to let players make decisions on a scale that we’ve never been able to before.
360: Why attempt multiplayer? How exactly does it tie into the singleplayer and what was it about co-op, specifically, (and not deathmatch) that attracted you?
CH: There are obvious benefits to having a multiplayer aspect to a game – it extends the playability, adds value to the offering, and lets you share something you enjoy with your friends.
Even when we started working on ME1 it was clear that games were moving towards various forms of integrated multiplayer but we just weren’t able to find a way to implement it that made sense with the storyline and properly complemented the single-player experience.
But with Mass Effect 3, we realized that it finally made sense. With the entire galaxy in a war for survival, it’s not just Shepard’s exploits that are interesting – there are battles all over the galaxy that would be cool to experience.
Letting players take part in that larger war effort was the concept that finally made sense in the Mass Effect universe.
360: Were you surprised by the reaction of fans to the multiplayer announcement?
CH: We knew it would be controversial, and we also knew that when people actually tried it they would understand why it’s a great addition to the experience. But what really surprised us was how quickly concern turned into support once we started describing how it would work.
360: Why do you think gamers are precious over singleplayer, narrative heavy games attempting multiplayer and what should they be expecting from Mass Effect 3’s?
CH: I think people have been burned in a few different ways by games in the past. Sometimes a game will add a player-versus-player deathmatch thing that doesn’t make any sense in the game’s fiction. Other times a developer might take a good single-player experience and shoehorn a co-op feature into it which compromises the quality of the single-player story.
We absolutely refused to do multiplayer in a way that compromised quality, the continuity of the IP, or the single-player experience. That’s why we hadn’t done multiplayer until now, and it’s what we think will be really unique about our design for multiplayer for Mass Effect 3.
360: If the multiplayer is tied into the singleplayer, will that limit players returning to it after finishing the story?
CH: No, it’s not tied to single-player in that way. It takes place in the war timeframe of Mass Effect 3, but there is no story interaction except for one: the more you succeed in multiplayer, the more successful the overall war effort will be for you as a player in the Mass Effect universe. This means that if you then attempt the ending of the single-player experience, you’ll experience a greater level of success in the ending than you would if you had never played multiplayer.
But it is ultimately about choice. By doing other things, such as doing a very complete single-player play-through, you can achieve the greatest levels of success in the Mass Effect 3 storyline even without playing multiplayer. This is all part of Mass Effect 3’s Galaxy at War system, where you can fight the galactic war not just through singleplayer, but multiplayer as well, in addition to games on social networks, mobile, and iOS.
If you’re interested in finding out BioWare’s exciting climax to its popular series, you can watch Nowgamer’s video interview with the studio or read one of our exclusive previews.
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Mass Effect franchise ended with the first masterpiece.
Bioware has lost its way looong ago.
No hope for Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect 1 was awesome. Mass Effect 2 was better. It was not better storywise, but it had greater flexibility and the biotic and gunplay aspects were much improved. I expect Mass Effect 3 to top them both, and as with both ME1 and ME2, my collectors edition pre-order was completed long ago. Should be tremendous.
Mass Effect will never dull my heart personally, I count it a blessing that the series is still running. I love the idea of multiplayer. Without trying new things, we can never hope to advance, without advancing, boredom is surely to be around the corner. And besides, making games is hard. So hats off to them.
Mass effect ended with the first game? That’s stupid. Yes I love rpg’s just as much as anyone else my favorite genre infact. But each mass effect game has been amazing and unlike the upset fanboy I believe ME3 will be amazing. Can’t expect everyone to have decent taste I suppose.
ME1 was great, but the mining and searching were a bit tedious. I was really bummed when I couldn’t talk to Kaiden in ME2, I mean, he was the love of my life! haha, but the fighting and weapon choices were fricking awesome. I did soooo much damage…. I. can. not. wait. for. ME3! People are sick of hearing me talk about it! :)~
Great. More time pressure…since time pressure was only the worst part of ME2.
Well there is some originality to mass effect 1 over the second part and I need to say that mass effect 2 suffered on poor rpg elements and poor wepons/armor customization which was super high plus for me1, not mentioning freelance adventure elements from me1 which were greatly reduced in me2. I hope there will be improvement in the subquests area so the game can gather good practices from me1 like freelancing and improved rpg character development, with customizable weaponry/armor.
Multiplayer is a fantastic idea because I have friends who also love to play that game especially by socializing, so playing it together will be fantastic.
I thought ME2 was pretty good, and I liked being able to carry my character with the choices I made over from the first one. There is the question of if EA has become too influential in the development of their games, considering that they are trying to push DLC with their products. I thought Dragon Age: Origins was alright, but I never bought Dragon Age 2, and would have waiting until it got cheap on Steam but that doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now.
Need a DLC Of Kaidan and Shepard making up,mass effect 2 it was not good him yelling and she was in shock not saying much.
This multiplayer success having effects on singleplayer ending is a bit bumming. Does it mean that if i lose most of the times in multiplayer i have to restart another single player game and retry to get best ending? That would be crap tbh… But he also said that a 100% thorough single player playthrough (guess he means making all subplots, subquests etc.etc.) makes up for that and gets you the best ending possible… let’s hope it’s like that, hunting for best ending is most of the times the greatest fun that you get in a game and failing at getting it the greatest frustration… Regarding the time pressure thing, hope it’s not that annoying… me2 was a amsterpiece but the only really annoying thing there was was having to go to ending asap to avoid bad consequences… it was annoying to have to leave a shitload of subquests for after the ending, made most of them look like pointless…
Mark,
you can play the entire game, all the missions, and all downloadable content and still get the best ending in mass effect 2. the key is to do the missions in a certain way, saving the iff reaper/legion one for last so that the only mission left is his loyalty mission (which you can do before saving the crew, that is the only one you can do in order to save everyone). the second key is to wait to get all the loyalty missions done. after the horizon mission you can do every single mission then get eveyones loyalty then go to the iff reaper. then do legion’s loyalty and then the last suicide mission works for me and lots of others, youtube is filled with them if you want help.
After ME1, I couldn’t wait for ME2. Then I finally got ME2, reached the citadel, and realized ‘this is not Mass Effect’., You don’t even know how disappointed I was. I was crushed!!! So sad…
So I kind of agree with the first post by Gennias. ME1 is an RPG Masterpiece. ME2 is a great action game, but it’s a huge let down coming from ME1. I will still get ME3, even though I’m really not expecting much.
I wish he would’ve just said, “hey our bosses at EA wanted MP so they could charge more money for DLC, so we put it in”. If i want a good multi-player i’ll stick with COD or Halo, I don’t know why they put it in, they’re taking away from the SP experience
@ Gennias, You’re an idiot.
I was nervous about multiplayer at first but I think I’m on board with it, it might be a fun addition to my single player experience. CH said it doesn’t take away from the single player team and I have faith in him, Bioware’s products are pretty top notch and I think ME3 will be no different.
CANT WAIT FOR MASS EFFECT 3 I got the first one when i was 12 and since then Im in love with RPG… Mass Effect 2 came into my life when i got kicked out of my fathers house… now ME3 is coming into a greater part of my life… Cant WAIT for March 6th… the day before i get my liscene thank you Bioware for this Great Series of Games
I think the multiplayer is setting the stage for kickazzz mass effect MMO, which will slaughter every MMO that has been released so far.
I mean they have to finish shepard’s story off with me3, so it makes sense.
stop this whining! “oh the franchise is already dead, oh ME2 sucked, ME3′s gonna suck blah blah blah” idiots. ME3 will be awesome. period.
Mass Effect 1 was good, but it felt like a shadow of what Mass Effect 2 was.
Mass Effect 2 improved on just about everything the original was based on.
Combat, squad-relationships, lore, story-telling, player-driven gameplay.
The only set-backs were the lack of free-roam, weapon mods and customisation etc..
Mass Effect 3 is combining the best of both, but also improving on it.
I just hope Bioware don’t fall under the burden of pressure and the expectations of loyal Mass Effect fans.
Also, the Multiplayer is optionable. Don’t like it, don’t play it.
It was added as a means of adding more hours and enjoyment into the games, to play with mates and share the experience.
Just be greatful it isn’t some shity Call of Duty TDM.
Such ignorance and close-minded opinions…
8+ playthroughs of Mass Effect 2, 30-40 hours in each.
3 or 4 playthroughs of Mass Effect 1, can’t remember the amount of hours.
I played the 2nd first, and after a few days it became my favourite game and games series, which hadn’t changed since I was 11.
Mass Effect 1 was rather a let down when I played it… I enjoyed the deeper RPG elements, but found the free-roam boring after a few hours. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t leave an area in a game unless I’ve examine and complete everything, that got very tiring quickly on ME1. Character didn’t feel as “alive” as the ones in ME2, the dialogue and story didn’t affect me as strongly as ME2′s, it lacked an emotional presence.
The combat was one of its greatest disappointments. Felt like a mindless TPS than the cover-based strategic TPS of the 2nd.
do mine eyes decieve me or is that Thane in the second screen shot?? omg im freaking out!! xP
The Mass effect games have been brilliant thus far no need to expect them to get worse. Mass effect 1 was brilliant and had great deep rpg elements, too deep perhaps, remember all that pointless loot, oh my days the time i spent making omni gel so that it any lock was no longer an obstacle haha. But Mass Effect 2 almost reached a brilliant middle ground, but perhaps ventured a little bit too far from the loot/rpg elements of the first game, but more than made up for it in terms of gameplay and conversation options better than ever.
The main thing we need to take from this whole MP business is, as other people have said, that it is OPTIONAL. Looks to me ME3 is combining the best elements of both games and creating a fuller more immersive game.
@ninjarook i don’t think it is thane, you can be Drell in the multiplayer game, it looks to be a screenshot from that :P
Mass Effect 2 was far superior. Yes, mining was a pain (albeit relieved a bit after a patch that made it all much faster) but it was the only poor change. Do people really miss the outdated inventory system where you had to delete the weapons armor and mods every thirty minutes? Driving around empty planets for hours on end looking for bones in a borky-controlled rover? So many skillpoints that each point invested feels almost negligible? Going on missions across the galaxy only to end up in the same 4 bunkers and caves? Squad members with almost no character development and squad missions so tiny and forgettable that most don’t even notice them?
Bioware made brave choices to lose the things that didn’t work, even if they were systems that they were particularly attached to.
I enjoy the ME games alot, so I am really excited for the third one. I was bummed though that I played ME 1 on my old xbox and didn’t want to play it through again to carry my character over to ME 2
I loved the first game of the series since it wasn’t anything I’ve played before. It was the first game where you got to shoot at enemies AND also lift them into the air. The story was top notch and I couldn’t wait to get myself some Spectre Master Gear and own some geth. However, ME2 completely blew that out of the water. I find myself dismissing the first game because I believe ME2 is much, much better.
Sure the second game has a much smaller variety of weapons but honestly, didn’t everyone just wait until they got Spectre Master Gear and Colossus armour before owning everything? I’m probably one of the few people who miss the Mako but the missions in ME2 often make up for it. LotSB was also the best DLC I’ve ever bought. Not just for the content but also the price.
I am very excited for ME3. I seriously hope they bring back heavy weapons because I want to dish out the pain with my Arc Projector. Perhaps we can get a mission where we go back to the Normandy crash site to haul the Mako out of retirement? I know Garrus will have much fun calibrating it.
I expect ME 3 to be the best of the series. So far the series has improved as it’s gone on.
well I want to say me1 was a fantastic game. I cry when cadian died. I freed the rachni and feel
good.
me2 was a good game but not good as me1 but i love it. finally tali is with me.
so plese casey make yourself proud and make us proud.
we wait and bless for you
keep up the good work