Mass Effect 3 Preview and Interview

Metro is next in line with some coverage for BioWare’s Mass Effect 3, offering both a preview and an interview with associate producer Mike Gamble in one package. Here’s a snippet from the preview:

Long-time fans of the series will know that the violent (but not necessarily evil) Krogan were made infertile in order to stop them overrunning the galaxy. With the Reapers looking to wipe out all life it seems as if that process is being reversed if you can get the female to safety.

This involves shooting an awful lot of Cerberus troops, who even though they were your allies in the second game are now being mind-controlled (or at least influenced) by the Reapers. The Combat demo demonstrates all of Shepard’s new moves, as he flips between cover and performs SWAT turns to look cool while hiding behind door frames.

Grenades are back too, you’ve now got stealth attacks, and we were able to make good use of the new ominblade melee weapon (an inflatable plastic version of which we’ll post to the reader who sends us the best haiku illustrating their love for the Mass Effect franchise).

And one one from the interview:

GC: Many of the missions in Mass Effect 2 involved you trying to get someone on your side or doing someone a favour. But it’s hard to imagine doing anything like that now, when there’s such an important war going on. Where is the space now for the more trivial quests in the new game? Do you even have those styles of mission in the new game?

MG: We don’t! Mass Effect 3 is all about the Reaper war. So you no longer, for example, have to gain the loyalty of Garrus. Garrus sides with you because basically Reapers are attack his homeworld and.

GC: So he’s finished his calibrations?

MG: (laughs) Exactly. You’ve got your teams, right. What you have to do is basically work to resolve a lot of those outstanding large scale conflicts. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the rachni and the geth and the quarians. Those are huge large scale conflicts that actually, without resolution, can definitely hurt the overall galaxy at war. So those are the things we’re focusing on. So the scope and scale has definitely increased in Mass Effect 3.

GC: Okay, so simply those kind of missions just won’t be there?

MG: I can’t say conclusively that they won’t be there, but the focus is all around that. So, people are asking what the critical path is through the story. But all the side quests, all the optional content, feeds back into the whole galaxy at war theme. There’s not like separate satellite pieces.