In Mass Effect, the decisions you make matter. Do you sign an autograph or do you ignore a fan? Do you kill off the last of a species or risk them overrunning the galaxy? Do you stick your doodle in Jack (tattoos totally do it for me) or Miranda (I bet it feels cold)? On the gender flip, do you ride Thane until he turns a new shade of green or do you take pity on Garrus (Herpes labialis)? Regardless of your characters gender, you can even try for the Samara/Morinth double-whammy, which rewards you with high fives and free drinks for life.
Mass Effect 3 is going to take things even further. Way, way further…
With ME3 still more than half a year away, the game will undoubtedly go through a number of changes and revisions before it launches. That said, the latest details leaking out seem to indicate that ME3 will include more character side quests, interactive moments and consequences than ever before. Don’t worry though, everything that made ME2 so great (mining) will return as well.
Here are some of the highlights from the recent detail leakage:
Pregnancy:
Seriously.
Apparently three playable characters in Mass Effect 3 have the capacity to become pregnant. Whether or not they actually give birth in ME3, or in a later DLC pack (baby DLC!), is unclear. So too is the wording regarding the gender and race of the three characters in question. “Both male and female main characters will have the ability to become a parent; with humans or a non-human (unisex option).” Hmmmm… do I want Miranda to give birth to little ice cube babies or do I want to see how good Jack will look when her tattoos stretch out like silly putty? Can two ladies get pregnant? There’s a cutscene for you! Of course, it could end up being Garrus and Grunt for all we know, and to be fair, it would probably be pretty intense. Though you can always just use a space condom…
Go ahead... touch it.
Disease:
This one raises all sorts of questions given how vague the details are. One playable character has an illness that can either be cured or spread through certain interactions with the rest of the crew. The nature of the disease is unknown as are the consequences (i.e. can you die from the disease?). Given the backgrounds of the crew, Space Herpes is not out of the question (looking at you Garrus). It could be Elephantiasis or Mudd-Butt for all we know. I think I’ll keep my helmet on and my visor down!
Murder:
Oh hell yes! Word is two crew members can be killed by one of several different secondary characters during special game sequences. Kasumi vs. Thane? Zaeed vs. Grunt? EDI vs. Joker? Epic!
Tali’Zorah vas Neema:
Last, but not least, we have Tali. Will they ever show her face? What does she look like? Unfortunately BioWare is still tight lipped about what’s going on with Tali. To be honest, I almost don’t want to know what she looks like. Because I’m looking at her body, which does look pretty good, but then I get that mask off and… I got a tragedy.
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As the months pass we’ll no doubt be inundated with more ME3 info. Until then, the mind positively whirls at the possibilities. I hear ME3 will have some shooting and silly hologram tools too, if you’re into that kind of thing. Weirdos.