BioWare detailed Mass Effect 3‘s newly-revealed multiplayer component tonight. The team unveiled four-player co-op multiplayer missions and a Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War system for the upcoming EA-published threequel.
4-Player Co-op
Playable over PlayStation Network, Xbox LIVE, and PC internet, these are additional co-op missions where up to four players can choose from a “variety of classes and races, form an elite Special Forces squad, and combine their weapons, powers and abilities to devastating effect as they fight together to liberate key territories in enemy control.” These missions are separate from the single-player campaign, though their result will have a “direct impact” on the single-player’s outcome. BioWare says it “gives players an alternative method of achieving ultimate victory against hte greatest threat mankind–and the entire galaxy–has ever faced.”
BioWare included this option because they felt that “being able to explore and fight alongside your friends in the Mass Effect universe has always been something we thought would be fun and compelling, and many players have asked for it for a long time as well. Mass Effect 3 is the best place for us to introduce multiplayer through co-op because of the premise of the game – all out galactic war.”
BioWare Montreal created the co-op missions, and it will not impact the scope or quality of the single-player experience, said BioWare.
Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War
This is a “new way for players to manage and experience the galactic war from multiple fronts,” according to BioWare, and directly effects the galaxy’s “Galactic Readiness” level, which is measured by Commander Shepard’s ability to “apply every possible asset–people, weapons, resources, armies, fleets–in the final battle against the Reapers.” There are “multiple ways” players can impact their Galactic readiness level, including multiplayer. BioWare promises to announce “other platforms and interfaces” in the coming months. Though, they note the system is “entirely optional” and “just another way players can have control over [their] game experience,” adding “it is still possible to achieve the optimal, complete ending of the game in Mass Effect 3 through single-player alone.”
For more information, including a FAQ, read here.