When multiplayer first landed in Mass Effect 3 it was a surprise hit. Whilst adding multiplayer to a single-player RPG was a little unconventional at the time, it was pretty good fun. The wave based co-op mode, similar to Gears of Wars horde mode, was something a lot of people spent a long time playing. Being able to face the hardest enemies in the Mass Effect world, whilst playing as various alien races from the game was really a really good time with friends and strangers alike. Countless hours have been surprisingly spent battling through the challenging waves.
With Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the remake of the original trilogy, just around the corner, the question of whether the Mass Effect Legendary edition multiplayer will return has already been answered.
No Mass Effect Multiplayer
In an interview with gameinformer back in February earlier this year, BioWare explained why the Mass Effect Legendary edition will have no multiplayer bundled in with it. It was confirmed that implementing multiplayer during the development of the Legendary edition was too complicated. There were also questions around what to do once the game was released with Mac Walters asking “Do we support it post launch?” and whether they would have to find a way to do cross-play between PS3 and PS4 with people still playing the original multiplayer to this day.
Rest assured fans have been encouraged that BioWare have “chosen the things that are what the majority of our fans were most passionate about”. So whilst we may not be getting to beloved multiplayer, we can look forward to the trilogy being recreated with full dedication.
Ultimately the decision has come down to the time that would be needed to rebuild the multiplayer experience as well as the complexities involved with it. Coupled with remaking three games it would have been too much of a task to take on. Walters used a fairly strange Porsche analogy to help explain the situation “It’s one thing to take a 1982 Porsche that needs to be fully restored, but now I want you to imagine that it was actually buried in concrete.”. The work involved in chipping away the concrete begs the question of whether it’s even worth doing it.
ME3 Multiplayer still alive and kicking
If you are however finding yourself disappointed by the lack of Mass Effect Legendary editions no multiplayer, you can still jump into the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer as it is seemingly still being played by a hardcore and passionate group of fans. Plus, you only need three other players to create a full group. The horde-like game mode where you fight off waves of enemies and complete objectives still has the draw for players nine years later.
The Mass Effect Legendary edition which includes all of Shepards galactic adventures from all three games is releasing on 12th May 2021 on Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.