Mass Effect 3 Preview
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Mass Effect 3 will not be easy in terms of gameplay or story: players will be forced to make extremely difficult choices as the game progresses. Shepard may end up having to sacrifice entire civilizations for the greater good. There is a secret to destroying the Reapers, and a good portion of the plot will involve trying to figure out exactly what that secret is. However, once revealed, the price of that sort of power may higher than expected.
The game will have numerous endings: some good, some bad, but most will fall into some various shade of gray. There will most likely not be one "best possible outcome" you can achieve. The endings will be based on who you have in your squad, which allies you've recruited, and which choices you've made throughout all three Mass Effect games. Supposedly, you can achieve the "worst case scenario" ending even while trying your best, so the decisions in the game won't be static black-and-white/good-and-evil scenarios. In fact, it's possible that certain decisions made in previous Mass Effect games will lock you out of a "good" ending from the get go. After you get your (most likely bad) ending, the game can continue in a Mass Effect 2-style New Game Plus mode.
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There will be some major changes to gameplay as well. The game will feature far more RPG elements than Mass Effect 2, yet not quite as many as Mass Effect 1. Skill trees will be larger and will give the player more freedom in character customization. Powers will evolve several times rather than just once. Weapons will be able to be modified FPS-style, allowing you to swap out different barrels, scopes, magazines, attachments, and much more. Mass Effect 3 is all about giving you options without bogging you down in stats.
All classes can now wield every weapon type, but each class will have a limited amount of slots to carry those weapons in. As a result, fans have been theorizing that Soldiers will have four slots (enough to carry every weapon), Vanguard and Infiltrator (the Soldier dual classes) will have three, and every other class will have two.
Environmental interaction will be expanded as well. The cover system has been refined: you no longer have to be in cover in order to hop over objects. Battlefields will lend themselves to a more freeform type of mobility, allowing Shepard and his/her squad mates to seamlessly jump over or hide behind anything that looks like cover. Moveable and climbable ladders have also been implemented, allowing you to gain the high ground in ways you couldn't have before. You have to hand it to the guys at BioWare: they can even make climbing a ladder sound like a groundbreaking game alteration.
