Mass Effect FPS was planned then canned

18 March 2012

Gaming journalist Geoff Keighley has created some buzz with an interesting iPad app called “The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3”, that offers a behind-the-scenes look at Commander Shepard’s final adventure.

According to Keighley, back in 2010 BioWare Montreal had a Mass Effect FPS game in development called “Mass Effect Team Assault”. It was later canned and became the third-person multiplayer mode in Mass Effect 3.

“The goal was simple,” Keighley reported, “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 game was in development for four months before being presented as a prototype in March 2010. BioWare big cheese liked the idea, and it developed into a co-op mode to be built into Mass Effect 3. The engine prohibited this from being incorporated into the campaign, and it was instead included in a separate skirmish mode.

This co-op skirmish mode made it into the final game, and as a result, Mass Effect Team Assault became somewhat redundant, and was put aside.

This story and a ton more are included in the iPad app, along with developer interviews, photos of the studio and even deleted scenes. Currently the app is only available for the iPad, but it’s been promised for a PC release soon. If you want to check it out, you can download it for 3 US dollars here.

It’s quite sad we may never see this game, as the screenshots look pretty saucy. Keep in mind they’re captured from the app, so the quality isn’t great. Check them out:

mass effect team assault screenshot 1

 

mass effect team assault screenshot 2

 

mass effect team assault screenshot 3
Source: Kotaku

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