14 DAY TRIAL // Mass Effect 3 is the last game in the trilogy that stars Commander Shepard and seems an unlikely game to focus on major changes, but BioWare believes that one area that has seen major improvement is the morality system.
Previous games from the company tended to make choices a little too clear cut, and a lot of gamers were able to rig the morality system and use them to improve their character rather than simply to react to situations based on the available information.
For Mass Effect 3 the team plans to make morals more fluid while also giving the player incentives to choose either Paragon or Renegade options, based on the situations they face rather than on long-term character development.
Patrick Weekes, who is the senior writer working on Mass Effect 3 at BioWare, makes it clear that, “You’re also never going to be the villain of Mass Effect 3.
“If you take every Renegade option in the game, you may be brusque with your friends and brutal to your enemies; you may make hard choices that cost you friendships; you may have to go to your grave carrying the weight of crimes that would have you reviled as a monster if they ever came to light. But you are always fighting to save the galaxy, no matter what tactics you take.”
The biggest chance from Mass Effect 2 is that players are no longer forced to choose either a Paragon or a Renegade option at the end of major missions.
There’s now a neutral, general Reputation element to the role-playing game that shows how Shepard, even though he is not liked by everyone, is recognized for his actions to save the Earth from the Reapers.
Regardless of the moral choices made in the previous titles, the characters are left at the middle of the moral spectrum at the beginning of Mass Effect 3.
The game launches on March 6 in North America and three days later in Europe.