15 Things PC Gamer Wants to See in Mass Effect 3

PC Gamer list “15 things we want to see in Mass Effect 3”, from more convincing romances to a broader choice of weapons and a better combat system.

12. Old friends
I have to admit I can’t imagine how Mass Effect is going to deal with returning characters. Wrex, Kaiden and Ashley were left as side characters in ME2 presumably because they could die in the first game no sense putting in the huge amount of voice work to make them a team member if they might not even be alive to recruit.

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Anyone stand out? Yep, Liara is the only squadmate who’s guaranteed to survive both games. If BioWare don’t want to waste voice acting budget on people the player might not have access to, their only option is one of the least interesting characters in the series. (Don’t tell her I said that, though, technically we’re still dating.)

BioWare should just bite the bullet and do the work of adding returning squad members even if they might not be alive in everyone’s game. And I think the top of that list has to be Wrex. We love the toad-faced psycho so much that him just saying (Shepard.) has become one of the series’ most quoted lines. Grunt’s directionless teenage angst in Mass Effect 2 didn’t scratch the lovable Krogan itch, we need Wrex back. He’s only dead if you shot him yourself in Mass Effect 1, and if you did that, you can’t be too upset about not getting him back in ME3.

ME2’s characters are trickier Mordin is clearly the best, but he’s also a tragic-death magnet: he’s the character most likely to die even if you did his loyalty mission. He’s the only character I never get tired of listening to, though, so he’s my second pick for a returning squad mate.

Garrus and Tali are the obvious fan favourites to keep, and I’m fine with the rest not being recruitable so long as they show up in some role. Thane is the most interesting, but he’s terminally ill. That has to come into play, or it risks feeling like a cheap sympathy ploy.

13. An Elcor team mate
[EARNEST] These lumbering aliens are the most likeable and interesting guys in Mass Effect’s galaxy. [ENTHUSIASTIC] The fact that they can’t emulate inflections in human language and have to prefix every statement with the intended tone is an endlessly entertaining twist, just different enough from HK-47’s declaratives in Knights of the Old Republic not to retread the same jokes. [HOPEFUL] Having one as a permanent member of your team would be great both for comic relief, and as a starting point to discover more about their race. [REFLECTIVE] And their elephantine shape would just be fun to see loping about the Normandy.

14. Female Shepard on the box
Unless you want to have lips thicker than your wrists and talk like a sportscaster, you play as a female Commander Shepard in Mass Effect. It’s not just aesthetic. Jennifer Hale’s voice gives Shepard a different character: battle hardened, world weary and hard edged. And honestly, there’s a desperate shortage of female sci-fi characters who can be decisive and aggressive without lapsing into some ridiculous Bitch Archetype.