Mass Effect 3 is in a unique position for a game sequel

Mass Effect 3 is in a “unique position” in that the third game provides a great point at which new fans can jump into the series, BioWare Edmonton producer Michael Gamble has told CVG.

Quizzed about the difficulty in attracting new players with the third game in a heavily story-driven franchise, Gamble said: “That is completely dependant on the story arc that you’re telling. Some game series continually build a narrative throughout the games. For Mass Effect, we’re in a unique position where we’ve continually been talking about this Reaper war for two games now, and finally they’ve arrived. Mass Effect 3 immediately turns into a war story: that impending threat turns up, attacks, and you have to deal with it all within the course of a single game.

“If, in some alternate universe, we’d done the trilogy differently and the Reapers had attacked Earth at the very beginning, that would have been really different. For us, giant sentient robots attacking Earth, Commander Shepard has to rally the truth: that’s a good place to jump in.”

Gamble also believes the third game does a better job at balancing action and RPG elements than previous titles.

“We just want to tell the best story within the context of an amazing shooter,” said Gamble. “I think in ME3 we’ve actually brought back a lot of the customisation elements that were missing in ME2: weapons, armour, powers, each power now has nine possible ways of evolution. We brought back all that customisation. Like any transition between games, we want to polish everything. I wouldn’t say one genre is winning out over another.”

Mass Effect 3 will be released March 9 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The demo hits February 14 for those eligible or three days later for everyone else.