14 DAY TRIAL // Mass Effect 3, the upcoming sci-fi title from developer BioWare, will have quite a lot of role-playing game aspects, despite last week's statements from its publisher, Electronic Arts, which said that the title is going to be streamlined in terms of gameplay as opposed to the first two ones.
Mass Effect 3, after having received quite a lot of details in recent months, was delayed last week, with BioWare and EA pushing it back until next year from its initial release date of holiday 2011.
The game was also talked about by the EA's CEO, John Riccitiello, who revealed that in order to attract an ever larger market, BioWare would be streamlining the gameplay and simplifying many other elements.
Now, Mass Effect 3 senior designer Christina Norman told the Official Xbox Magazine, via CVG, that while some of its elements may be streamlined, the game still has plenty of role-playing aspects.
"We want to enrich the role-playing aspects of the game, while making sure that they're always meaningful in combat," she said when asked about how the faster, fluider combat gelled with the game's RPG systems.
"We don't want to have any meaningless behind-the-scenes stat games, where the output is very minor in combat. Every single thing you do has a real impact in the battle."
While Mass Effect 2 took things in a more third-person shooter direction as opposed to the first title, ME3 is set to bring back some RPG elements from the original, including weapon upgrades and more diversified skill trees, that allow for a deeper customization of the main character, Commander Shepard, and his (or her) companions.
Besides the elements above, BioWare also claims that combat has been spiced up, with more melee combat options and different powers that can wielded by Shepard and his or her team.
Mass Effect 3 is currently scheduled to appear sometime during the first three months of 2012.