Mass Effect 3 DLC: What we want to see
18th Mar 2012 | 17:00
Regardless of how you felt about Mass Effect 3's ending, I think it's safe to say that we all want more.
We'd happily give up on trying to sleep entirely if Casey Hudson himself started banging on our windows, waking us up in the dead of night and handing us the keys to a new space-adventure.
In the unlikely event that this fails to happen, here's five things we'd like to see in the inevitable selection of Mass Effect 3 DLC.
More Multiplayer Unlocks
We weren't expecting to enjoy Mass Effect 3's Multiplayer all that much, but Bioware have whipped up quite the surprise. When launch weekend finally arrived we found ourselves hopping out of the campaign to play co-op quite quickly - a testament to just how impressive it is. The basic unlocks and upgrades will keep us busy for a little while, but we're going to need something new soon.
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Thankfully, it seems like new stuff is due to be on the way soon. Leaks have teased brand new playable classes and races, and new guns to unlock feels like a no-brainer. We also have a feeling that a future update will also add armour, a customisation that somehow didn't make it over to the co-op chunk of the game. Without any focus though, all this is pointless - we want new maps, rankings, and specific leaderboard challenges.
While we're wearing the Captain Obvious hat, we'd also like to request some brand new game-modes. Infinite survival is an easy no-brainer, and we'd also love to see a Mass Effect 3 version of Gears of War's horde mode: Combining traps and turrets with Biotic powers is a mental image that makes us feel fuzzy, even if it does feel like a raging cliche.
Return to Omega
We've got a feeling that this one might be on the cards, simply because it shouldn't be too cost-intensive. Acting as the half-baked Citadel replacement for the second game, Omega was a delightful hive of scum and villainy.
Or at least it was, right up until Cerberus turned up and kicked everyone out. Aria T'Loak still has beef with the boys who've taken her stomping grounds, and we wouldn't be surprised to see DLC that offers us a chance to help her get it back. In Mass Effect 3's canon, this makes perfect sense; you're taking down another Cerberus base. Think about what could be layered on top, and things suddenly start to get much more interesting.
While it's claimed that everyone on Omega got kicked off, we think there's a chance that some people might have remained. Black market dealers could offer dangerous new guns, and unhappy residents still in hiding could form the basis of a Cerberus resistance. It also still wasn't clear why Cerberus took Omega: What dark experiments might they be running in the galaxy's least reputable space station?
Proper Co-op Missions
The multiplayer was plenty of fun, but we still think that Bioware has missed a trick. We'd love to see DLC offer a brand new mini co-op campaign. We appreciate that Mass Effect's narrative style might make this tricky, but we still reckon it's a challenge that Bioware could manage. Take Commander Shepard out of the equation, and suddenly you've got plenty of options. Perhaps the squad could make all of their choices by voting, or even act as specialists for different situations: If the decision you're making relies on tweaking electronics, the group's Engineer would get the final say.
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It wouldn't be fair to expect epic branching storylines, but contained missions with a variety of outcomes could be fun to play through multiple times. Creating contained missions like this would also open up a huge range of new options: Why stick to one story, when you can hop around?
Let us fight for the Turians in the Contact Wars, or get to see Krogan tactics first hand. The Salarian Special Tasks Group would be another great target, letting us team up with friends to carry out high-security undercover missions. The manpower required to create DLC like this might make it seem totally out of the question, but we reckon it would double up as great market research: Give consumers a flavour of what's on offer, and you might just discover a full spin-off worth making.
N7 Training
We've heard so much about the N7 training that we think it's about time we finally saw it. If Bioware are planning character-led DLC, then it's likely to focus on James Vega. After the potential events of Mass Effect 2, he's one of the few characters in the game who's guaranteed to be alive - and one who seems to be considering taking part in the N7 training program.
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Training might not sound like much of a party, but the roster of lessons includes Zero-G combat, military free-fall parachuting, jetpack flight, and combat diving. We don't know about you, but they had us at Zero-G. Straight-up training might be a bit dull, but there's no reason that things couldn't get spiced up a bit. Perhaps a group of trainees has somehow gone missing, or the alliance suspect Cerberus has a mole in the program? Whatever the reason, the location looks sweet: N7 training traditionally takes place in Rio de Janeiro. The current state of earth might make things tricky, but we're packing our sunglasses and swimshorts on the off-chance.
Racial equality
Mass Effect 3 covered plenty of bases, but we still felt that too many aliens got ignored. We'd love to see more of the Asari and Salarians in the next wave of DLC, and that's without touching the huge selection of barely-touched races. The Hanar and Elcor barely make a cameo in Mass Effect 3, aside from the excellent BLASTO! audio episodes.
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Maybe we're all just being too nice, but we think too many races have been given a rough deal - the Vorcha seem incapable of doing anything that doesn't revolve around crime, but the history of the Batarians is far more interesting. After centuries of building up their reputation on the Citadel, their plans were scuppered by humanity's sudden technological leaps. The Batarian and human races are based relatively close to each other in the galaxy, forcing them to compete for nearby areas and resources.
After the discovery of Mass Effect technology on Mars, humanity quickly zoomed ahead, shafting the future of the Batarians in the process. So far we've only seen their race painted as terrorist scum, but we think there's a more interesting story to tell. Regardless of which races get focussed on next, we'd like to see life outside of the Citadel: Take us to your leader.