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Posted by: Michael Shipe at Nov. 22, 2010 10:57 am

Since Mass Effect 3 is one of the few games we are stupid excited about, we wanted to get an early start on substantial coverage. Now is the perfect time to look back to where Mass Effect came from, what it has accomplished thus far, and what we know about the final installment. There is a lot here and more than enough surprises. If you don’t want to devour all the information (and still consider yourself a fan), skip around and find the gems.

***Update***
Bioware has officially confirmed that Mass Effect 3 is scheduled for a Holiday 2011 release date. They have also confirmed that Commander Shepard will be returning to fight the invasion on Earth. You can view the game's teaser video at this link.

The History

Medical PhDs are not your typical career path to making awesome games, but the co-founders of Bioware thought their
smarts could be better spent outside the hospitals. So, doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, the two most educated game developers, set out to make their impact on gaming. They found early success implementing games built loosely on the medieval Dungeons and Dragons RPG system. Their games relied heavily on engaging stories, and gamers responded by opening their arms and wallets.

The untrained eye might see the Mass Effect franchise as a lucky break for the Canadian Doctors. That same untrained fool might think BioWare was getting bored with the medieval RPGs, and that Mass Effect was their “creative way to diversify their offerings.” Both assumptions are, of course, wrong.

It is true that BioWare found early success with the Baldur’s Gate Franchise around the turn of the century. Neverwinter Nights then carried the medieval RPG genre?? a little further. However, these games were just sharpening the tools in BioWare’s utility belt. They were stabilizing the story-telling, refining the romantic flings, and crafting the concept of having NPC characters within a player’s party.

BioWare, however, did not start with medieval RPGs; they started in space with Shattered Steel in 1996. They flirted with space in 2000 when they made MDK2. They got fresh with space in 2003 with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. And in 2007, they rounded third base and slid home with space in Mass Effect. BioWare has a disease, and the only cure is getting more action in space.

Mass Effect was the culmination of BioWare’s past successes. Gaming history will always point back to Mass Effect as the perfect implementation of a new universe. It was a trilogy from the beginning that was supported by paperback novels and executed with surgical accuracy. The action RPG takes a third-person perspective, giving the gamer a closer connection to the protagonist. Cut scenes transition seamlessly like a movie and the whole game enjoys solid cohesion.

Mass Effect: Revelation

BioWare released Mass Effect Revelation, a paperback novel and prequel to the first game, giving gamers their first taste of the universe. The story goes like this: in 2148, humans discovered alien technology buried beneath the surface of Mars. Soon after that discovery, mankind harnessed faster-than-light (FTL) travel capabilities within the alien technology. The aliens, known as the Protheans, left thousands of mass relays throughout the galaxy, enabling virtually instant travel from one solar system to another. The Protheans mysteriously disappeared 50,000 years ago and very little is know about their existence, except that their climate-changing ways ruined any chance of humanity turning Mars into the greatest pleasure planet ever... the bastards.

Inside the game’s universe, mass effect refers to a physics phenomenon with properties similar to gravity and electromagnetism. In real life, physicists refer to it as dark energy. Mass effect not only allows for FTL travel, but it also allows for some localized, environmental manipulations. With the help of certain implanted devices, characters in the Mass Effect universe can have Biotic skills (lift, throw, pull or create barriers) or Tech skills (Hacking technology, creating shield systems or reprogramming synthetic life).

Rear Admiral Jon Grissom led the first team of humans through the mass relay. This team represented the global coalition of mankind, which became known as the Alliance. Mankind quickly found conflict with the Turian Empire, who were unfortunately one of the most powerful alien races in the galaxy. Known as the First Contact War, the Alliance got off to a rocky start with the rest of the galaxy.

The Citadel Council, a multi-species government, intervened in the conflict and eight years later recognized the Alliance by granting them an embassy on the Citadel. The plot thickened when David Anderson, a recent graduate of Alliance’s N7 specialist training program, answered an S.O.S. at an Alliance research facility. He found everyone at the facility dead. It is later revealed that one survivor, 1st Lieutenant Kahlee Sanders had escaped. Now on the run as the primary suspect, Kahlee went into hiding with Anderson in pursuit of answers.

The Citadel Council sent Saren, a Turian Spectre, to investigate the attack at the research facility. Spectres are the Citadel Council’s highest form of enforcement. They are above the law and are charged to accomplish the Council’s missions by any means necessary. Saren and Anderson eventually locate Kahlee. The information she provided about the attack pointed to Had’dah, a wealthy Batarian researching Prothean technology for personal profit.

The Citadel Council decided to send Saren and Anderson after Had’dah; Saren reluctantly agreed to his new partner. Though Had’dah had a small army of mercenaries protecting his complex, Saren refused to work together with Anderson. Anderson went in with stealth and precision while Saren, on the other hand, sabotaged everything with huge explosions and hundreds of innocent casualties. The end result was accomplished with Saren executing Had’dah.

Though this mission was to prove Anderson’s ability to be the first Human Spectre, in Saren’s report to the Citadel Council, he blamed the explosions and the loss of so many lives on Anderson.

The book ends with the revelation that Saren sold data from Had’dah before executing him. This data led him to a gigantic alien ship called Sovereign. It was the most technologically advanced ship ever discovered. Saren planned to use the ship to get revenge on mankind for the Turian losses in the First Contact War.

Mass Effect

The game launched on November 20th, 2007. That season of gaming was a particularly bountiful one as Assassin’s Creed (Ubisoft, Nov 14), Crysis (Crytek Frankfurt, Nov 13), Halo 3 (Bungie, Sept 25), BioShock (Irrational Games, Aug 21) and a number of other noteworthy games were released around the same time. Despite the competition, Mass Effect was well received. Sales were good and reviews were excellent - the series was off to an outstanding start.

In Mass Effect, players could customize the main character, Commander Shepard. They could choose Shepard’s gender, background, biotic or tech class, and appearance. The game began thirty-five years after mankind discovered the alien technology on Mars. Captain Anderson and his executive officer, Commander Shepard, were sent to the human colony world of Eden Prime to recover a recently unearthed Prothean beacon. While on Eden Prime, Shepard encountered Saren, who is also after the beacon and has virtually annihilated the colony with his army of synthetic life-forms known as the Geth. The Council revoked Saren’s status as Spectre and appointed Commander Shepard as the first Human Spectre. Shepard was then tasked with hunting down and stopping Saren.

In pursuit of Saren, Shepard explored the galaxy and completed many side missions. Shepard had the chance to investigate the backgrounds of each teammate and pursue one of several romantic interests. Along the way, he learned that Saren’s massive ship Sovereign was more than just an advanced space ship. It was a Reaper. As the story unfolded, the player learned that Reapers were machines that lay dormant in deep space for thousands of years. They were patient hunters that allowed organic life to develop, find the mass relay technology and spread throughout the galaxy. The Reapers then destroyed all life before going dormant again. This cycle happened numerous times and the Protheans were just the last life form to be annihilated. (Now we feel bad for calling them bastards *Editors Note).

Sovereign lulled Saren into believing that they would spare him if he helped the Reapers’ rapacious return. The climactic ending finished with Shepard saving the Citadel and mankind destroying Sovereign. Shepard’s heroic actions gave the human Alliance prominence in the galactic political stage.

Mass Effect: Ascension

Mass Effect Ascension picked the story up shortly after Sovereign’s attack on the Citadel space station. The focus shifted to the Ascension Project, which aimed to develop human biotic abilities. They had one very promising student, Gillian, who was also very important to the Cerberus Corporation. Cerberus was a massive corporation out to advance human dominance in the galaxy, and they ran on a xenophobic repugnance of all alien races.

Cerberus sent a mole inside the Ascension Project to administer a drug to Gillian to enhance her biotic capabilities. The drug nearly killed her. So, Kahlee Sanders, who was working with her at the Ascension Projecther, took Gillian and her adopted father Paul Grayson into hiding. Paul Grayson knew his betrayal of Cerberus would eventually catch up with him, but he wanted the best for his adopted daughter. In their attempt to leave the Ascension Project, another Cerberus operative named Pel decided to take the fugitives as prisoners and sell them to the mysterious alien race known as The Collectors.

The three manage to escape before Pel’s hostage transfer with the help of a Quarian named Lemm. The Quarians were a nomadic people traveling in a migrant fleet of space ships. They are nomadic not by choice but because their home was overrun years earlier by the Geth. Lemm believed Kahlee’s experience with the Geth could help his people recapture their home world.

Grayson managed to escape prior to Lemm’s rescue only to fall into the hands of Cerberus. Wanting to bring Gillian back for more experiments, Cerberus sent commandos to intercept Lemm, Kahlee and Gillian. The three narrowly escaped and returned to the Ascension Project, and Cerberus conceded defeat. However, they did not soon forget about Grayson’s betrayal.

Mass Effect 2

Like the first movie in a trilogy, the first Mass Effect game set the stage for everything. It established the galaxy, the various races and humanity’s role in the universe. Though Commander Shepard saved the galaxy from the pending peril, the main threat still lurked in the shadows. Mass Effect 2 began in 2183 with Commander Shepard and his crew aboard the SSV Normandy, the most advanced ship in the Alliance. An unknown starship ambushed the Normandy, inflicting massive damage. The crew was forced to evacuate, however, Commander Shepard made a daring rescue of Joker, the ships pilot. Joker was saved, but the mysterious starship shatters Normandy’s hull and Shepard was sent into space. Explosions from the ship sent shrapnel through Shepard’s space suit. Shepard died as his body entered the atmosphere of a near by planet.

Meanwhile, isolated yet devastating attacks on distant human colonies were becoming more and more common. The story was the same each time. Communication with the colony would suddenly cease, a scout team would investigate, and the whole colony’s population would be missing. All signs pointed to a re-emergence of the Reapers. It was later found that the Reapers had genetically enhanced an alien race now know as the Collectors. These massive creatures were mindless pawns used by the Reapers to collect organic life.

Cerberus believed Shepard’s experience defeating Sovereign was the only key to putting a stop to these attacks. The Illusive Man, Cerberus’ sole director, spared no expense on a two-year project called Lazarus to bring Shepard back to life. Miranda Lawson headed the Lazarus project and was the first person Shepard saw upon regaining consciousness. The Illusive man informed Shepard of the attacks, but failed to gain any trust. Miranda Lawson, a beautiful and smart character, joined Shepard’s team from the very beginning. Her disarming charm went a long way to disarm Shepard’s skepticism of Cerberus.

The Illusive Man reconstructed the Normandy and assembled a crew for Shepard to begin his mission. The Illusive man had also put together a long dossier on several people he thought would be useful in stopping the Collectors. The player then chose which characters to add to the team and in which order.

It was revealed that the Collector base could be reached by passing through the Omega-4 mass relay. No ship had passed through this particular relay in recent history because a certain Prothean technology was needed in order to pass through it. Shepard must board a derelict Reaper for the needed IFF transponder. Once the IFF Transponder was activated, it emitted a tracking signal. Within moments, Collectors located the signal and boarded the Normandy. The Normandy’s onboard A.I. was able to save the ship, Joker, Shepard and the team from the Collectors, however the entire ship’s crew were taken into the collector’s ship and through the Omega-4 relay.

At this point Shepard was faced with a choice: follow the Collectors through the Omega-4 relay, or continue preparing for the journey through the relay. Going through the relay was the start of the Suicide mission. At this point in the game, several different things could happen depending on how you played the game thus far.

On the other side of the Omega-4 relay, the Normandy found itself in a debris field with hostile sentient defense cruisers. Depending on how many ship upgrades purchased, Shepard could loose much of the team, or everyone could survive. The Normandy was able to destroy the cruisers, however the explosions disabled the Normandy and it was forced to crash land on the Collector’s base station. Shepard led the team into the station where they found the abducted Normandy crew. They were either saved or found dead depending on whether the player goes through the relay immediately or delays.

While Joker worked to revive the Normandy, Shepard fought deeper and deeper into the Collector’s base station. Eventually Shepard discovered at the heart of the base that the Collectors were constructing a new Reaper. The mammoth Reaper looked like a metallic human robot and was in the mid-to-late stages of development. The speculation was that the Reaper looked like a human because it was made from the genetic materials of abducted humans fused with advanced technology.

The Reaper larva gained consciousness and the final epic battle began. Shepard was able to destroy the baby Reaper; he then faced a choice between destroying the Collector’s base or detonating a radiation pulse killing the remaining Collectors and thus leaving the base station to Cerberus for research.

Shepard commanded everyone back to the Normandy after the bomb was set. Before Shepard could climb onto the Normandy, the Collectors opened fire. Shepard must make a daring leap for the exiting Normandy. Depending on how many team members survived the mission, Shepard was either pulled into the Normandy, or slipped through their hands and perished.

The final scene showed a Reaper awakening from deep space. Then slowly, one by one, thousands of Reapers awoke and began descending upon the Milky Way galaxy. With the stage set for Mass Effect 3, one thing was crystal clear; Humanity and the rest of galactic space have only delayed the inevitable.

Mass Effect Retribution

Retribution is the third paperback sci-fi novel in the Mass Effect series. It was released July 27th, 2010. Out of respect for those who plan to read it, we’ll keep things brief and limit the spoilers. The book picks up after the events of Mass Effect 2 with the Illusive Man conducting research on the reapers.

Cerberus acquires some Reaper technology and decides the best way to study the Reapers is to create one. Thus, the Illusive Man finds his old friend Paul Grayson a convenient test subject. It was time for Paul to pay for his betrayal of Cerberus at the Ascension Project. The Reaper tech is fused into Paul’s body and transforms him into a killing machine. David Anderson and Kahlee Sanders are pulled into the story yet again.

Karpyshyn sets up Mass Effect 2 with another sci-fi paperback and two sets of downloadable content for the first Mass Effect. True to middle movie syndrome, Mass Effect 2 is a trilogy bridge. It has its own story arc, character development, climax and resolution, however, like all middle movies, after watching them for hours and hours, you’re left with as many questions at the end as you had at the beginning.

Mass Effect 3

While BioWare has so far been very quite about specific features in Mass Effect 3, they have been very vocal on their attempts to ensure that fan opinions influence their development process. Case in point is a presentation Christina Norman (Lead Game Designer) posted on Prezi (http://prezi.com/6xe1ucvy8egf/where-did-my-inventory-go/). In it, she explains how the development team took the good and bad from Mass Effect to make the second game that much better. They have a philosophy that there are no sacred cows. Everything is questioned.

So how do they question things? They poured over forums, they conducted focus groups, they monitored fan community comments, but most importantly they watched how people played the game. BioWare literally recorded tons of non-personal data about how gamers played through Mass Effect 2. When you connected to their servers, they learned how many times you played through the game, what quests you accomplished, whether or not you customized Shepard’s clothing and what achievements you received. This allowed them to build out areas of the game where most people spent a lot of time. Unfortunately for some, this also means, they’re likely to axe areas of the game you might have enjoyed but other gamers didn’t.

We have all heard in disbelief that Mass Effect 3 will have over 1,000 variations depending on the choices made in the first two Mass Effects. Now, the skeptic would say, “I didn’t see any of my choices from Mass Effect change anything major in Mass Effect 2.” The skeptic would probably point to the Horizon encounter in the original Mass Effect with Kaiden/Ahsley and say, “It doesn’t matter which I save, they are the same character and replace each other.”

Yet consider this, dear skeptic: BioWare had to keep Mass Effect 2 somewhat tight to have any realistic chance of starting Mass Effect 3 cohesively. For the upcoming Mass Effect game, BioWare doesn’t have to worry about setting up a cohesive start to Mass Effect 4. They truly can explore story variations to their conclusion. And one quick side note, don’t expect Mass Effect 4. At least not until the gaming industry hits the same creative roadblock that movies have hit and the only thing left to do is resurrect old brands. I’d guess we’ll have 3 more Alien movies, a couple more Indiana Jones adventures and at least a dozen Bring It On movies before we start hearing rumors of Mass Effect 4.

Before we get to our five predictions, lets talk about the one feature everybody wants and nobody gets. We hate to break it to you, but there will not be space combat in Mass Effect 3. BioWare has not come out and said this officially, but it’s not going to happen. We’d all like to see it, but that’s not the horse BioWare is going to ride. Space battles require an engine that could handle it. Maybe there will be a small in-game nod to fans pleading for space battles, (an arcade in the Citadel with a space blaster game) but it’s not going to happen on the scale we all want.

The Predictions

So now for our official, informed, expert and completely speculative predictions!

1. Mass Effect 3 is destined for a January 2012 release

The Dev Team has told us that Mass Effect 3 will be released either late 2011 or early 2012. Ray Muzyka stated that they want to “maximize the quality [of ME3] for our fans and maximize the commercial success for the company”. By maximize commercial success they mean, “Our fans will have lots of Christmas gift cards.” So our safest prediction is a January 2012 release date.

2. Team Division

Face it, the team conflict train has left the station and it ain’t coming back. And since we expect Mass Effect 3 will increase the size of your team, the juicy opportunities for back stabbing will be far to tempting for the developers. Did we say the team size will expand? Sure did, so expect at least half of the cast from Mass Effect 2 to return (if they survived the Suicide Mission, that is), some of the folks from the original, and a handful of new ones.

Now about that conflict..you’d better start preparing your apologies now because your love interest from the original Mass Effect is going to call you out for cheating in Mass Effect 2. Emotions will be flying so high, you’ll have to tip toe past some rooms. There are enough conflicting interests in the game to start a nuclear war inside the new Normandy (more on that later).

Relationally speaking, the most drama will come from Ashley Williams and Miranda Lawson [or your ME1/ME2 love interests of choice]. They don’t call ’em bombshells for nothing. Williams and Lawson in particular, are both beautiful, both are competitive, and both have enough insecurity to need Shepard to prop them up. Three’s a crowd in that triangle, and Shepard will more than likely choose which one to embrace and which one will die a Heroine’s death. Of course if you’re playing a female Shepard, the three of you might be best friends and have some killer intergalactic slumber parties (hello, zero gravity pillow fights!).

So what does this all mean? Don’t expect all members to stay on the team from start to finish. In Mass Effect 2, the team barely held together. So, after throwing in the characters from the original game, you’ll have too much for one commander to control.

3. Grunt and Urdnot Wrex fix their baby makers

On a more uplifting note, we anticipate a quest that will trigger a touching, right-of-passage relationship between Grunt and Urdnot Wrex as they find a cure for their sterile race. This will more than likely be a side mission that forces Shepard to decide between curing the Krogan reproduction problem or some other galactically important option.

4. BioWare plays the ‘Judas’ card

And you can count on one major, major betrayal. Let that sink in...Think about it, every epic story has betrayal. William Wallace was betrayed by Robert the Bruce, Obi-Wan was betrayed by Anakin, Frodo was betrayed by Boromir, Jesus was betrayed by Judas and Kenny is betrayed every day by the writers of South Park. The difficult thing about predicting who will be the Judas is that all the characters could betray Shepard depending on how a player plays. They each have their own passionate issues.

Here are a few scenarios to consider:
* Miranda might betray Shepard if he endangers her sister, or sense of family.
* Ashley and Garrus might betray Shepard if he sides with Cerberus.
* Grunt and Urdnot might betray Shepard if he seals the fate of the sterile Krogan race.
* Tali'Zorah could be the Judas if Shepard ruins the Quarian's chances to return to their homeland.
* Jacob could betray the team if he feels Shepard is putting the Human race in danger.
* It might be Mordin Solus if logically betrayal will lead to the greater good for the galaxy.
* It could be Legion, but I'm guessing not. That would be too obvious.

5. The old Normandy was so 2010...it gets a make-over

What’s that? A new Normandy? That’s right, we’re doubling down with all our chips to bet there’ll be a new Normandy. We’re guessing about 20% bigger to make room for the 12- to 14-member team. They also have to make some room for the new MAKO (wink, wink) – more than likely a hover-tank. Here’s a freebie prediction, they won’t go back to the straight land-exploration of Mass Effect, but it wouldn’t surprise us if they used a new MAKO to break up the action some with some mission-related functionality.

6. The Cerberus are smug lying bastards and the Illusive Man is an android.

We expect Cerberus to take off their “greater good” pretenses and Shepard must make a choice between Miranda and Jacob with Cerberus or Ashley and Garrus against Cerberus. Or perhaps that spark in the Illusive Man’s eye turns out to be synthetic and he’s using Shepard to defeat the Reapers making way for a Geth uprising. Of course the beauty of Mass Effect is that all options are possible.

7. The playthrough score will include all three games

Lastly, lets try a technical prediction for a change. We know that BioWare is working hard to cement the ties between all three games. And what better way to do this than at the end of Mass Effect 3 have the player's achievements rank based on how well you finished the ENTIRE trilogy. Players who take their time, do the exploration and complete all character quests will proudly know they’ve got nothing left to prove. Slackers will beat the game and see just how much more replay they’ve got.

Conclusion

So there you have it, if you aren't ready for Mass Effect 3...you never will be. You've re-upped on the entire history behind the series, you now know everything we know about the upcoming title (which isn't much, we admit), and lastly you've read our predictions. Think about those predictions, chew on them, let them settle in and then give us your own predictions in the comments below!

Filters: PC, PS3, X360, 3D, Action, RPG

Tags: Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3, BioWare

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