BioWare Details Mass Effect Multiplayer

[Andy Chalk]

The multiplayer will clearly speed up this process but- because it won't cause you to miss any contact- you will have a choice of when you start the final act. Like in the first game, but unlike the second.

That's your takeaway, and I hope you're right. But I'm not sure what kind of inside track you have on the game, or how you can state definitively what will and will not happen. And I'm not particularly worried about it one way or the other - I'm going to get ME3 at launch and I'm not going to touch the multi, so whatever happens, happens - but when Houston says "multiplayer will definitely have an effect on your single-player experience," I'm inclined to take that to mean that the SP experience will be different based on whether or not you play MP. And that means (or at the very least could mean) that somewhere along the line, SP-only players are going to miss out.

 

[Zen Toombs]

Personally, I'm cautiously optimistic about the Multiplayer. It seems that it will ONLY be an alternate way to victory, like if you could do something else to gain the loyalty of your crew members in Mass Effect 2 than complete the loyalty missions (as funtastic as they were).

Besides, if you aren't sure you like where Bioware is taking the series, just wait and see. Let a fanboy friend of yours buy it first, and see for yourself if you like it. If Bioware pulls it off, buy it. If not, life goes on.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Now I'm definitely not buying it.

 

[UltimatheChosen]

...The more I hear about Mass Effect 3, the less I like it.

"Guys, let's staple a mandatory multiplayer to a single-player campaign in a single-player franchise. The fans will love that!"

Did you read the article at all?

At the same time, Houston emphasized that gamers who stick to single-player will still be able to get the "absolute best ending" and that multiplayer is intended strictly to offer up new ways to get there. "We don't want to create situations where MP players have something that SP players couldn't otherwise see," he said.

As I understand it, they're adding side missions that are exclusive to multiplayer. Presumably, those missions will have plot elements attached to them.

Mass Effect's plot is, for a lot of players, the driving reason to play it.

If you can't access these parts of the game in single player, which is what they seem to be implying, then that's a bad thing.

 

[Metalrocks]

the more i read about the MP, the less interest i have for this game. not only origin was a problem for me, this damn MP is really a disaster. i want this game to be a SP only, just like the first 2, but no, for the final third part, they suddenly have to use MP.

 

[unindexedsearchengine]

multiplayer really is a positive addition to this game, the first 2, though having okay-ish replay value, just get boring and tiring after a while, and with the third one, only singleplayer would be a horrible decision, because with the big epic ending, replay just won't fell right, this franchise has been in need of a multiplayer element.
as opposed to quite a few comments here and on bioware social network, the more i know about this game the more hyped i am

 

[shadowmagus]

The more I read about MP, the more I am sick and tired of people bitching about it. I'm as ardent a ME fan as the next guy, but there is to little information to make an assumption about MP. They more or less keep regurgitating the same lines over and over, this article only laying to rest fears that you HAVE to play MP to get the best ending.

In other words, "Seriously, chill the kark out"

 

[VulakAerr]

If I hadn't spent so much time on the internet previously, I would literally not believe the fuss people are making over this. Quit your bitching, for the following reasons:

1) A different studio handled multiplayer. No development time was taken away from SP in order to add MP.

2) You can get everything from the story they had ever intended on putting in it without ever touching MP. Everything!

3) If you have fucked up your single-player game and you WANT the best ending, you can do it by increasing your SP campaign's galactic readiness by making some progress in the multiplayer. This is ALL it's for. Other than... you know... fun?

So, overall, chill the fuck out.