Announced in September—but unknown to me until today—is that Mass Effect 3 will contain a multiplayer mode. Upon hearing this news, two thoughts instantly occurred to me:
- Will this cause the single-player game to suffer?
- Did Electronic Arts insist this feature be included?
After having read the article, I’m not too concerned about #1 — the multiplayer component sounds like your basic Gears “Horde” mode, and it seems to me that it may well be simple enough to not have sapped single-player of necessary resources. As for #2, well, ME3 is to my knowledge the first BioWare game to have both a single and multiplayer mode. Combine this fact with the Horde-mode inspired gameplay, and it’s easy to picture ME3 multiplayer being ordered from on high by EA.
Despite my belief that multiplayer won’t cause single-player to suffer, I find myself disappointed by its inclusion. It feels forced, and not in keeping with the spirit of the series (nor, for that matter, the spirit of the studio’s prior body of work). Despite this, I’ll still buy the game. How could I not?
(Via Neuromancer)
