Report: All the Mass Effect 3 details in one place

By Alex Johnson
Additional Information Article Featured PC Playstation 3 Xbox 360 Xtreme
90 days ago
1813902012-02-21+13%3A21%3A14Alex+Johnson

Mass Effect 3 is going to be one of the biggest releases, if not the biggest, this year - if I was a betting man, I'd put money on it being game of the year. The Mass Effect series is huge and has a colossal fanbase to draw from. A fanbase that have sunk days of their lives into the beautifully crafted story and have had their heartstrings wrenched by losing crew members.

With Mass Effect 3's release just on the horizon (9th March for us Brits) I bet you want to read everything you can about Mass Effect 3 to know what you're in for. But you don't want to spend hours wading through the rumour-filled waters of the Internet, do you? No you don't. You want to sit there, with your beverage of choice and read one page with everything there is to know. Here it is.

This is the XG247 guide to Mass Effect 3 - all we got, all in one place.

It'll be updated as details slip out - so bookmark this page.

The easiest way to do this would be bullet points, who wants to read whopping great blocks of text when you’re looking for something in particular? I’m just going to put together a few headers and list what there is to know. If there's any spoilers, I'll tell you before you read that bullet point.

You’re welcome.

Story:

Here's a spoiler free plot synopsis of Mass Effect 3. Earth has been taken by the Reapers and the galaxy is pretty much screwed. Shepard and the other races of the galaxy have to team up and fight back the Reaper invasion. There's a fair few factions in among this rabble, including Cerberus who are now very anti-Shepard.
Newcomers to the series won't be left in the dark, BioWare want to make sure that everyone enjoys Mass Effect 3 so will be including a resource to get newbies up to speed. They haven't said what it is yet, keep coming back, this'll be updated with what it'll be.
The writing team has doubled since ME2, and Mass Effect 3's lead writer says that Mass Effect 3's writing will be deeper and more emotional.
Decisions from both previous ME titles will affect your world in mass Effect 3.
Squadmates who didn't survive the finale of ME2 won't be in Mass Effect 3 if you import your save.
Something called "Galactic Readiness" will determine what happens in the final battle.
SPOILER ALERT These are the characters that return in Mass Effect 3 (if they survived both previous titles): Ambassador Udina, Ashley, Captain Anderson, Captain Kirrahe, Conrad Verner, EDI, Garrus, Grunt, Jacob, Jack, James Sanders, Joker, Kaidan, Kelly, Legion, Liara, Miranda, Mordin, Tali, Thane, The Illusive Man, Wrex, Zaeed
There's a single player DLC that slots into the Mass Effect 3 timeline in the works.
Mass Effect 3 will include a mission originally cut from Mass Effect 2.
DLC titled From Ashes has been confirmed. The level of spoilers that have leaked from it would ruin your experience so I'm refusing to publish the details here.

Gameplay:

Multiplayer will be included in Mass Effect 3. It's an online four-player co-op mode called Galaxy at War.
SPOILER ALERT - Here's the Achievement list for Mass Effect 3.

Driven 5 - Return to active duty.
Bringer of War 10 - Chase down an assassin.
Mobilizer 15 - Bring a veteran officer aboard.
World Shaker 15 - Destroy an Atlas dropped from orbit.
Pathfinder 15 - Explore a lost city.
Tunnel Rat 15 - Survive the swarm.
Party Crasher 15 - Sabotage a dreadnought.
Hard Target 15 - Call down an orbital strike.
Saboteur 15 - Disable a group of fighter squadrons.
Arbiter 25 - Win a political stand-off.
Last Witness 25 - Extract ancient technology.
Executioner 25 - Defeat an old adversary.
Well Connected 15 - Send a warning across the galaxy.
Fact Finder 15 - Discover an enemy's monstrous origin.
Liberator 15 - Stop a Cerberus kidnapping.
Problem Solver 15 - Evacuate a scientific facility.
Patriot 25 - Make the final assault.
Legend 50 - Mission accomplished.
Shopaholic 10 - Visit a store in the single-player campaign.
Master and Commander 50 - Deliver most of the Galaxy at War assets to the final conflict.
Lost and Found 25 - Dispatch 10 probes to retrieve people or resources in Reaper territory.
Long Service Medal 50 - Complete Mass Effect 3 twice, or once with a Mass Effect 2 import.
Insanity 75 - Finish the game on Insanity without changing difficulty after leaving Earth.
A Personal Touch 10 - Modify a weapon.
Paramour 25 - Establish or rekindle a romantic relationship.
Combined Arms 25 - Perform any combination of 50 biotic combos or tech bursts.
Focused 25 - Evolve any of your powers to rank 6.
Recruit 10 - Kill 250 enemies.
Soldier 15 - Kill 1,000 enemies.
Veteran 25 - Kill 5,000 enemies.
Bruiser 10 - Kill 100 enemies with melee attacks.
Untouchable 10 - Escape a Reaper in the galaxy map.
Defender 25 - Attain the highest level of readiness in each theatre of war.
Overload Specialist 15 - Overload the shields of 100 enemies.
Sky High 15 - Lift 100 enemies off the ground with powers.
Pyromaniac 15 - Set 100 enemies on fire with powers.
Eye of the Hurricane 10 - Kill a brute while it's charging you.
Mail Slot 10 - Kill 10 guardians with headshots from the front while their shields are raised.
Hijacker 10 - Hijack an Atlas mech.
Giant Killer 10 - Defeat a harvester.
Enlisted 5 - Start a character in multiplayer or customize a character in single-player.
Tour of Duty 20 - Finish all multiplayer maps or all N7 missions in single-player.
Always Prepared 10 - Obtain two non-customizable suits of armour.
Tourist 5 - Complete one multiplayer match or two N7 missions.
Explorer 15 - Complete three multiplayer matches or five N7 missions.
Gunsmith 25 - Upgrade any weapon to level 10.
Almost There 15 - Reach level 15 in multiplayer or level 50 in single-player.
Peak Condition 25 - Reach level 20 in multiplayer or level 60 in single-player.
Battle Scarred 25 - Promote a multiplayer character to the Galaxy at War or import an ME3 character.
Unwavering 50 - Finish all multiplayer maps on Gold or all single-player missions on Insanity.

There are rumours that your level in Mass Effect 2 will carry over if you import your save.
You'll be able to give vocal orders via Kinect.
You can jump over obstacles without taking cover first.
Weapons aren't restricted by class - they're customisable too.
Every weapon you got in ME2 will be usable in Mass Effect 3.
Shepard can pick up weapons dropped by enemies.
BioWare have stepped up the AI and enemy design. Don't expect Mass Effect 3 to be easy.
This one's a tenuous link to Gameplay, but stay with me. If you want to play Mass Effect 3 on your PC, you better want to play on mouse and keyboard - it won't support controllers. I'd put money on it being modded in by the community, but nothing official will make your controllers work.

Multiplayer:

Mass Effect 3 features a four player online co-op mode called Galaxy at War, here's what we know so far:

You'll be fighting off waves of enemies and capturing areas.
There's a variety of races to play as, more will be available in DLC.
It'll require an online pass.
You can have as many characters as you want.
There's an XP tree to work through and you can customize your armour.
Whilst multiplayer isn't essential to complete singleplayer, it will improve your Galactic Readiness.

Miscellaneous:

There's a DLC plan in place to keep adding to content to Mass Effect 3. Casey Hudson has said:

"We are going to be supporting Mass Effect 3 for quite some time, because I think people are going to have a lot of fun with multiplayer, and we'll be supporting that with new content as we go forward"

EA have gone literally mental fired some copies of Mass Effect into (basically) space. Well, they've used balloons to get a few copies of the game into the stratosphere - eventually they'll come back down. You can track their locations via the Mass Effect 3 site and if you get there first, it's yours. Hopefully they won't break on landing...
There's a few tie in iOS apps (at the time of writing they haven't been released yet.) incoming. Mass Effect: Infiltrator is a third person shooter and will affect your Galactic Readiness in Mass Effect 3. The other's called Datapad, will let you check your Galaxy Map's status and you'll be able to receive messages from your crew.
Keep your Mass Effect 3 saves handy. Whatever happens to your Shepard, you'll want to keep your saves for future games in the Mass Effect universe.
Mass Effect Figurines will come with DLC:

"These products contain codes that can be redeemed for a downloadable content pack for Mass Effect 3 multi-player. They are slightly randomized during the registration and could include powerful new weapons and new characters. The pack could also include character boosters, weapon modifications, and weapon upgrades to make your multi-player squad stronger. (Only supported on XBox360 and PC.)"