Mass Effect 3 Sci-Fi RPG? BioWare Learns From Its Mistakes

BioWare is taking a hard look at what’s gone right and wrong with its recent role-playing games.

2010’s Mass Effect 2 improved upon its predecessor to the point where the sci-fi game, centered upon the continuing adventures of alien-battling space soldier Commander Shepard, garnered countless Game of the Year awards and rave reviews.

It did this by removing many of the original game’s deeper RPG elements, like the ability to customize weapons and armor, making for a more streamlined, accessible experience. But for Mass Effect 3, available March 6, 2012, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC, Canadian developer BioWare is bringing back some of the complexity.

“We got a lot of feedback from fans that [the customization options] were too cumbersome, so we totally removed them for Mass Effect 2,” producer Jesse Houston told Wired.com at the E3 Expo earlier this month. “We might have cut a little too deep with that.”

Houston says that rather than remove the customization feature entirely, BioWare will make it more intuitive. Instead of juggling a screen full of numbers, players will be able to alter specific, functional aspects of a weapon like the size of its ammo clip or the frequency of its firing rate.

Some fans have expressed concerns about Mass Effect 3 feeling too much like a shooter — or too much like an RPG, depending on which type of gamer you ask. BioWare’s goal is simply to balance both genres, says Houston.

“One of the big things that we’re trying to do is give players more choices,” Houston said. “A lot of players wanted to get up close and personal, but didn’t have the tools to do that.”

Now they do, thanks to the Omniblade, Mass Effect’s version of a lightsaber. Every class has its own version of the powerful melee weapon, which can be used not only to take out enemies in one-on-one combat but also to sneak around and back-stab them from behind.
Learning From the Past

Houston said the Mass Effect 3 development team is also taking a critical look at the failings of Dragon Age 2, which reviewers (including Wired.com) called disjointed and uninspired.

“We learned a lot about the way story flow should work” from Dragon Age 2, Houston said. “I don’t want to go into too many details, but ultimately, we’ve listened to the fans in a big way: We’re taking it very, very seriously and we’re committed to making sure we don’t repeat mistakes.”

Even decisions that seemed inconsequential in the first two games will matter in this one.

The Mass Effect series is traditionally heavy on story, and Mass Effect 3 looks to take that even further, serving as the culmination of everything that’s happened in the series’ universe up to now. Houston says even decisions that seemed inconsequential in the first two games will matter in this one. For instance, your relationship with party member Tali will change drastically based on your actions.

Mass Effect 3 starts off on Earth, where protagonist Shepard is standing trial following the events of the last two games. When a fleet of deadly alien Reapers suddenly attack, Shepard must go out into the universe and convince alien races to lend Earth their power, solving quests for them along the way.

You’ll have to accomplish seemingly insurmountable tasks — bridging the gap between the monstrous Krogan and the Turians who almost exterminated them, for example — all in the name of taking out the Reapers.

One thing that disappoint me about Mass Effect 2 is the flaw of buying goods and not being able to sell them or the store would never restock after you've purchased them. It showed how much easier they wanted to make the game for a wider audience and it killed my overall enjoyability.

Spoiler:

People keep calling Mass Effect 2 an RPG when Bioware removed all of any chance of it being an RPG at all. I guess it was all about marketing.

Let's hope the ME3 has brought those things back now that they have the publicity and fan base.

Source: WIRED