Posts
The widely anticipated "Mass Effect 3" will be the culmination of a story spanning a galaxy and eight years of development and drawing millions of fans around the world.
In the third and final installment of the series, set for release Tuesday, protagonist Commander Shepard returns for a battle to retake Earth from an advanced race of synthetics, known as Reapers, who want to cleanse the Milky Way of all intelligent organic life.
Developers from BioWare had always planned the series as a trilogy, so everything from the first two games has been leading up to this climax.
"On one hand, we knew where things were going so we could build these huge story arcs in the first one, and even in the second one, that would get resolved in the third game," said Casey Hudson, executive producer of the "Mass Effect" series. "At the same time, we were able to be pretty flexible in developing it mechanically so that as we started to really like certain story arcs and characters, we could build those in more and let players get more enjoyment out of playing."
But the question now becomes -- how to satisfy a fan base already engaged with the story's lore while remaining accessible to players who may just be meeting Shepard in the "Mass Effect" universe?
Fans of the science fiction/fantasy genre are familiar with how trilogies end. Whether it is Darth Vader tossing the emperor off a balcony or Gollum falling into the lava and destroying the One Ring, you can be sure of two things: Really big things are going to happen, and there will be a dramatic twist at the end.
Hudson said the way the "Mass Effect" series is built allows experienced players to continue with the stories they've already worked on but also provides entry points for new players to get quickly acclimated to the tale and begin their own adventure. As with "Mass Effect 2," players who have saved characters will be able to import them into "Mass Effect 3," changing some dialogue (the game will have a hefty 40,000 lines) and missions to reflect actions taken in previous games.
No comments:
Post a Comment