Mass Effect 3: The Beginning of the End
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Shepard orders Vega to guard the entrance, and we move forward with Liara taking his party slot. The ruins provide a great example of the new focus on more varied level design in Mass Effect 3. Shepard can climb up small barriers and ladders, jump across gaps, and generally explore the environment more thoroughly, and these tools allow BioWare to mix up the gameplay in interesting ways.
"Once we added all those tools to the toolbox, we challenged the designers to figure out ways to make the missions and the story unpredictable," Hudson says. "In Mass Effect 2, often you would see where you're going down at the end of the hallway and know, 'That's settled, that's where I'm going.' In Mass Effect 3, we constantly try to change your perception of what you need to do."
In one hallway, I race after a group of Cerberus opponents at the other end, but rather than stick around and fight like their brethren, they slam the door shut in my face and lock it, forcing me to search for a new path. I notice several rooms that aren't as obviously built for combat as areas in Mass Effect 2. I find myself taking cover behind overturned desks or couches more often than conveniently placed chest-high barriers.
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We reach the center of the facility and encounter the Illusive Man, the Cerberus leader, in his notorious hologram form. He threatens Shepard, telling her to stay out of his way. When she asks what he's after, he responds, "What I've always wanted." He explains that where Shepard and her allies seek to destroy the Reapers, Cerberus wants to discover a way to control them and use their power to raise humanity's profile in the galaxy.
The Illusive Man also makes a mysterious mention that he "doesn't need Shepard anymore."An off-center shot shows someone standing in the room with the Illusive Man. It's unclear who this figure is, but I wonder if it might be a more focused villain to answer one of the few common criticisms of Mass Effect 2. Hudson won't tell me but admits, "We're introducing a clearer target for Shepard, a clearer foil."
After the Illusive Man vanishes, I get another taste of Mass Effect 3's newfound mission variety. We discover the ruins were infiltrated by a Cerberus spy named Eva who has begun transmitting the Prothean data off-world. A chase sequence ensues, with the undercover scientist revealing a robotic form and superhuman speed. After minutes of leaping across gaps and bounding over obstacles, we corner Eva at her shuttle. Before she can escape, Vega crashes into her ship, preventing the rest of the data from being transferred.
