BioWare recently announced that Mass Effect 3 will include a co-operative multiplayer mode alongside the main storyline. The new mode will allow fans to play together through a set of missions designed to affect the storyline of the main game. This news has been met with strong resistance from both the gaming community and even some games press. That being the case, I figured we should take a look at what we know and what people are thinking. Is fan and journalism apprehension justified?
BioWare has said that the co-op missions will have an effect on your game’s story. The main concern with this is a matchmaking service that groups you with randoms who could, in theory, spoil your storyline, possibly intentionally. With such a significant potential problem, hopefully the affected plot points will either be minor or depend on YOUR choices more than those made by the rest of the group in a similar way that The Old Republic seems to be going.
Game-play wise, I don’t entirely know what will really change other than you’ll (hopefully) have competent players alongside you rather than the AI that hasn’t been great so far in the series. With two or three people moving through a mission, levels will have to be designed with more variety than previous Mass Effect settings which tend to funnel you down a single linear path.
There has been a lot of noise made by people worried that the multiplayer section of the game will take development time away from the single player mode. I’d like to put this concern to rest, mainly because that is not how development works in major studios with a project of this caliber and BioWare is no exception. The original single player team is working on the core storyline, while Bioware Montreal has been tasked with multiplayer development. Even if this weren’t how BioWare was handling this, the change in launch date from November 2011 to early next year was likely a push to get more time to work on the Multiplayer sections as well as to get the game out of the way of Battlefield and Modern Warfare 3.
Just in case you don’t believe me about this, BioWare has released this statement on their their forums.
“BioWare is dedicated and focused on delivering an engaging, fun, and action-packed experience for Mass Effect 3, one that lives up the BioWare standard. To reach that level of quality, last year BioWare opened a studio in Montreal that is home to designers, programmers, engineers, and other developers. Both studios work together as partners, lead by the core Mass Effect team, unified in a single vision. Under the direction of Casey Hudson and other team veterans, both studios make contributions to both the single-player and multiplayer modes in Mass Effect 3. Rest assured that no compromises were made to either of these modes in the development of Mass Effect 3.”"
My own feelings on the idea of Multiplayer are simple; if it gives me more to do with a game likely to be one of the best of next year, then I look forward to playing it with friends and seeing the effect it has on Shepard’s story. Anyone who’s decided they aren’t going to buy this game because BioWare is adding more to it, should re-think what they’re doing. The Online Pass that is coming with the game may put a few people off, but it will likely work like the Cerberus card did in the last game as well as being a pass for the multiplayer, so that doesn’t bother me.
By including multiplayer, the Mass Effect universe is likely getting a huge boost to it’s replay value and audience, while also giving current fans a new experience without taking development focus away from the Single Player game. What’s not to like?
Mass Effect 3 should be launching early next year and I will be buying it day one.
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