Gamers who have been waiting for developer BioWare to add multiplayer features in its Mass Effect series won"t have to wait for much longer. The developer has confirmed there will be online multiplayer modes in Mass Effect 3, the next game in the sci-fi RPG series. In a post on the game"s official message board, BioWare"s Chris Priestly goes into more detail on its plans to add multiplayer to Mass Effect 3 which will be released by publisher Electronic Arts for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in the first quarter of 2012.
The game will give players a chance to team up with three of their buddies for a number of four-player co-op missions that will be separate from the game"s single player campaign. Priestly says, "Players can choose from a variety of classes and races, form an elite Special Forces squad, and combine their weapons, powers and abilities to devastating effect as they fight together to liberate key territories from enemy control." Playing the co-op missions will have some kind of impact on the end of the single player campaign with Priestly saying it will give gamers " ... an alternative method of achieving ultimate victory against the greatest threat mankind – and the entire galaxy – has ever faced."
Mass Effect 3 will also have what BioWare is calling the Mass Effect 3: Galaxy at War system which Priestly says offers a " ... new way for players to manage and experience the galactic war from multiple fronts, including a new 4-player co-op mode." Details about this new system will be revealed in the coming months but Priestly did say that this is strictly an optional mode. The single player campaign can be completed in full in its normal mode.