BioWare has admitted that they were developing a FPS multiplayer only version of the game for gamers to download, titled ‘Mass Effect Team Assault’.
Mass Effect 3 was released recently and received praise as being the best game in the series as it revisited its RPG roots while at the same time balancing it out with the action-oriented approach of the second chapter of the trilogy.
At the same time the game has come under immense criticism from fans who were left disappointed with the endings of the game (the game has three endings). Without giving too much away, all the endings leave the player devastated, no matter what he chooses
and is something fans have not been able to come to terms with.
However, BioWare has defended itself and said they wanted to leave the ending open to interpretation and debate. It seems that many gamers do not like being given that freedom to apply their own imagination.
All that aside, it turns out that BioWare had one of its studios working on a first-person multiplayer spin-off of the series.
BioWare Montreal was apparently in-charge of developing the game that would be available only through download.
Geoff Keighley, a journalist hailing from the United States, revealed, “The goal (of the Montreal studio) was simple: to create a standalone multiplayer experience in the Mass Effect universe that would mix the play styles of Unreal Tournament and Battlefield
1943 – and likely be released as a downloadable game.”
The prospect sounds promising and although Team Assault did not materialise as a full-fledged title on its own, it was used as the foundation to Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer component.
According to Keighley, the game was in development for only four months before it was shelved.
The move seemed a smart one on BioWare’s part, especially if one was to take a look at the highly saturated first-person shooter market with titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 holding a majority of the market.
Yet who knows, maybe BioWare may just decide to release a few Mass Effect games apart from the core series in the future.
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