Mass Effect 3 Interview

IncGamers has an interview with BioWare’s associate producer Mike Gamble on the upcoming Mass Effect 3, which includes questions about the balance between gameplay and story, how action heavy the final product will be, accessibility, the presence of “major changes” in combat and more. Here’s a snip:

IG: How difficult is it to balance gameplay and story? Many RPGs suffer from an abundance of one and a lack of the other.

MG: It’s not too difficult really, so long as you stick to your core values. We want to be able to tell an emotionally engaging story. Sometimes the gameplay and shooting mechanics can add to that, and in Mass 3 I think they definitely do.

It’s not so such a balancing act, it’s more about making sure the two elements don’t step on each other’s toes.

IG: The first 90 minutes of the game is incredibly action heavy, is that a theme that runs throughout the game?

MG: It all depends on the mission. Some missions are very action heavy because it makes sense narratively and thematically.

Then there are the side missions which also have an effect on the overall story arc particularly regarding how effective you are against the Reapers. I can’t compare directly to the previous two games, but there are certainly a lot of them.

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IG: Are there any differences between the console and PC editions?

MG: We try to develop all three platform editions (PS3, 360, PC) to be as similar as possible. We don’t take favourites they’re all developed in-house and at the same time as one another. That allows us to make sure each platform is getting a game of equal quality.

Besides the standard high-resolution settings possible on a PC the game is the same. Rest assured that we support the PC as much as we support everything else we realise DLC at the same time, any updates etc.