Speeding through Mass Effect 3 isn't likely to win you any medals for efficiency. In fact, quite the opposite. In his latest chat on how player choices will decide the ultimate fate of the Mass Effect universe, BioWare's development leadCasey Hudson said skipping the side quests and sticking solely to the main path is the best way to achieve the worst ending.
"If you just rip straight down the critical path and try and finish the game as soon as you can, and do very little optional or side stuff, then you can finish the game. You can have some kind of ending and victory, but it%26rsquo;ll be a lot more brutal and minimal relative to if you do a lot of stuff," revealed Hudson in aninterview with PC Gamer, suggesting, "If you really build a lot of stuff and bring people to your side and rally the entire galaxy around you, and you come into the end game with that, then you%26rsquo;ll get an amazing, very definitive ending."
Hudson also noted many of the events in Mass Effect 3 will be governed by decisions made throughout the first two games. Players won't necessarily be limited by their past choices, he later clarified, however they might find it a tad difficult to change their minds this late in the game, explaining:
"I think a way to think about it is if you made decisions early on, you%26rsquo;ll see them affecting this. And the decisions you might want to make that go against those prior things are gonna be harder. Killing the Rachni might present opportunities in Mass Effect 3 that you wouldn%26rsquo;t otherwise have, but if you don%26rsquo;t take those opportunities and you try and do something in opposition to that, then it would be harder for you than if you work with it."
Unless BioWare opts for the Fallout 3 vignette-style ending, it's hard to see how Mass Effect 3's final scenes will adequately reflect the sum all choices made over three whole games. As anyone who completed multiple run-throughs on Dragon Age IIcan attest,a bulk ofchoices in these 'choose-your-own-morality' gameswind up being rewarded with acatch-allendings peppered withinterchangeable dialogue(i.e "Congratulations Hawke, you helped[insert faction]... now this happens!" or "Congratulations Hawke, you screwed over [insert faction]... but this still happens!"). Not to say BioWare can't pull it off, just thataccounting for absolutely every variableis almost asuicide mission in and of itself. We're excited to see how it plays out.
[Source:PC Gamer]
May 18, 2011
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