BioWare details Mass Effect 3's multiplayer and "meta" features

Yesterday we reported that an Australian gaming magazine basically outed the announcement of multiplayer for Mass Effect 3 – today, BioWare gives us the delicious details.

In a post on BioWare’s forums, Chris Priestly donned his PR pants and gave a few details about what they have in store for Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer mode, which is part of the aptly-named Galaxy At War system.

Let me fly among the stars – with friends

The 4 player co-op will let you and 3 of your friends form your own squad made up of various classes and races, as you engage in battles in various key areas and territories.

While the multiplayer will have a direct effect on the main campaign of Mass Effect 3, it remains entirely optional.

“We have always maintained that we would only add multiplayer into the Mass Effect series if it made sense and did not compromise the power of the single player campaign,” said Priestly.

Everything you do will help with the main game’s “Galactic Readiness” – obviously the measurement for survival in ME3 (akin to ME2’s team loyalty and Normandy readiness.) – but won’t impact on the main game’s story.

Multiplayer characters will level up and gain weapon upgrades as they go along – but Priestly was otherwise mum on the topic.

Essentially, the multiplayer isn’t a simple side-feature, but rather makes up a campaign (or mini-campaigns) in itself, presumably running in the background of the main story.

So if you were hoping to play as Shepard, you’ll be disappointed.

A galaxy at war

The multiplayer is a part of the Galaxy at War system, which is the umbrella term for Mass Effect 3’s “meta” gameplay features.

This is BioWare’s plan for diversifying the ways in which gamers can influence the single player campaign by using other “unannounced” platforms and interfaces.

I’m just going to take a guess here and say it will probably involve Facebook and mobile/iPad apps in some way.

Priestly insists that all of this is completely optional and “it is still possible to achieve the optimal, complete ending of the game in Mass Effect 3 through single-player alone.”

With a whole lot more effort, I bet.

Mass Effect 3 is facing the end of the universe on 9 March 2012.