Skip ME3 sidequests, get "minimal" ending

By Fred Dutton Published 17 May, 2011

BioWare details Mass Effect 3 endgame.

Dodge Mass Effect 3's myriad sidequests and you'll be punished with an unsatisfying endgame, developer BioWare has revealed.

Executive producer Casey Hudson told PC Gamer that players who take the time to explore the game will be rewarded with an "amazing" conclusion.

"If you do a little side quest, or you go off and do a major plot, these things contribute to the war effort," he explained.

"If you just rip straight down the critical path and try and finish the game as soon as you can, and do very little optional or side stuff, then you can finish the game. You can have some kind of ending and victory, but it'll be a lot more brutal and minimal relative to if you do a lot of stuff.

"If you really build a lot of stuff and bring people to your side and rally the entire galaxy around you, and you come into the end game with that, then you'll get an amazing, very definitive ending."

The keenly-anticipated follow up to 2010's game of the year is due out in early 2012.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (39) Latest comment 5 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Claudiov1.0 #1 1 year ago

    Cool!! this is a really good feature for the game, relying more emphasis on side-quests and rewarding you for being a serious gamer....

    Besides that, i'm the first one to comment on this article... :)

  • metalangel #2 1 year ago

    In other words: You're the galaxy's bitch and delivery boy/girl now. Use your multi-billion credit starship for fetch quests.

  • butler` #3 1 year ago

    that be some controversial games design right there

  • Inmediasress #4 1 year ago

    Well then they better make those side quest interesting.
    Tough I would bet that the whole war effort will be like the recruitment in ME2 only this time its for armies not companions or both.

  • DarthMartious #5 1 year ago

    So it's "yay, you won [slow hand clap]." vs. "YAY! YOU WON! [rapturous applause]"

    I suppose it will be worth it for the replay value if, and only if, doing the side quests have perceivable consequences during the main story (and I ain't just talking xp here).

  • lucky_jim #6 1 year ago

    It's Mass Effect 3. Obviously I'm going to do every single side quest obsessively.

  • insincere_dave #7 1 year ago

    I'd better be rewarded with a meaty 200 GamerPoints for taking my character through the entire trilogy.

  • Nevflinn #8 1 year ago

    I really hope they balance the plot smartly, then. Depending on how they pace it, doing the side-missions may seem completely insane if the main missions look to be particularly pressing.
    When waging a war, time is critical - something which Bioware RPGs don't always pay heed to, I've found.

  • Shikasama #9 1 year ago

    So if you do sidequests you get Movie Ending A

    If not you get Move Ending B

    NO GAME HAS EVER DONE THIS BEFORE

  • metallicorphan #10 1 year ago

    Bioware must of been really serious when they said they weren't going to let out a bunch of details about the game before release this time round(!) ...the sods haven't shut up since,LOL

  • hiddenranbir #11 1 year ago

    So basically they aren't -really- side quests...they've become main quests which impact the main story...



  • Hindle #12 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 23:04:43 04-04-2012

  • Jay-ITFC #13 1 year ago

    "You can have some kind of ending and victory..."

    Thanks for that MASSIVE spoiler. Should I still bother playing? Jeez...

    Surely good ending = Shepard victory

    Bad ending = Reapers victory

    !?!?
    Edited by Jay-ITFC at 17/05/11 @ 23:27

  • kinth #14 1 year ago

    so basically they just made side quests, main quests for anyone who wants to see the best ending.
    not really side quests then are they.

  • Genji #15 1 year ago

    The bad ending is when the head Reaper takes off his mask and is revealed to be Martin Sheen.

  • SvennoJ #16 1 year ago

    That's fine as long as they're interesting like the loyalty missions in ME2. Not if it's do the planet mining over and over again or we'll kill your characters off on approach to the final mission.
    It's not good design to punish players for not finding it fun to do every thing. Not a game for people who only have limited time available.

  • Gastrian #17 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • digitalash #18 1 year ago

    Please, Bioware, resist the temptation to just do ME2 all over again. As Take 2 found with Bioshock, the conjuring trick doesn't have the wow factor the second time round.

  • stryker1121 #19 1 year ago

    What's the point of even playing a game like this if you're just gonna be blow thru to the endgame?

  • JorgeLuisBorges #20 1 year ago

    Glad to hear it, the end of ME2 was a massive anticlimax. Less focus on gathering too many people in your party, more focus on ongoing plot development, like ME1 please.

  • JorgeLuisBorges #21 1 year ago

    Glad to hear it, the end of ME2 was a massive anticlimax. Less focus on gathering too many people in your party, more focus on ongoing plot development, like ME1 please.

  • Demiath #22 1 year ago

    Obligatory mining confirmed.

  • slickster #23 1 year ago

    Do you think this will be a 3-4 disc game for the 360. LOL

  • GozuTennai #24 1 year ago

    If I do the side quests can I unlock character animations that dont look like they're out of morrowind?

  • alimokrane #25 1 year ago

    That's great fantastic! Punish people for the way they want to play their games - Way to go Bioware!

  • ocmerius #26 1 year ago

    @slickster

    I sure as hell hope so!! That would mean a massive game!

  • Janurai #27 1 year ago

    Dear Bioware,

    welcome to the 'Can't-say-or-do-anything-without-people-bitching-about-it-zone". Say Hello to Activision-Blizzard, they can show you around. We advise you to stop talking about your games entirely, it won't help. Really. Just give a tiny little press release two days before the release of game: "ME3 out. thx bye.", so that people who are forced to read and comment every single news item, even if they don't care, can concentrate on more important topics.

    Sincerely, Gamers

    PS: Dragon Age 2 was great! Send free Stuff

  • Rack #28 1 year ago

    I can't help but predict a ton of awful filler content to see the real ending, just so Bioware can claim a playtime of 50+ hours.

  • Sodding_Gamer #29 1 year ago

    @Genji

    Or he could take off his mask and in fact be Charlie Sheen. reapers are WINNING!! WIN here WIN there :D

  • AllenSpawn #30 1 year ago

    I always sidequest till I can sidequests no more! But that's every game I play..

  • RealityCheque #31 1 year ago

    S_G: Actually Shepard is really Charlie Sheen (even Fem-Shep) and you have a big father-son showdown at the end.

  • Sodding_Gamer #32 1 year ago

    @RealityCheque

    LOL!! Makes perfect sense considering the Illusive man is in fact on the Reapers side and is not on good terms with drugged up Charlie!!

    Would be a very interesting turn of events indeed!

  • Vortex808 #33 1 year ago

    Why would you rush through anyway? ME is to be savoured by scabbing about and checking all the missions out. It's an RPG(ish) game, i thought the whole point was to do as many side-quests as possible before the end!

  • Whitster #34 1 year ago

    @Slickster

    Would it really matter if it was. The only people I've ever heard moan about disc swapping on 360 are the PS3 owners who don't even have to do it!

  • Bigmac1910 #35 1 year ago

    Im sorry, but these kind of things turn me off, I want to play the game the way I like it, not the way I am forced to. Unless those side stories are fantastic it'll become one huge grind, and I HATE grinding.

  • The_Bloody_Kettle #36 1 year ago

    I just hope it's really side quests.
    As stated above I hope it's not mining. I got burned for that in ME2 because I could see no reason to upgrade my ship..

    Really confused me as I done all of the companion and side quests whereas my mate hadn't and no one had died on the way in. He just spent all his stuff on upgrading the ship..

    God. How am I still so annoyed about this?

    Still.. ME1 and ME2 (and hopefully ME3) are fantastic!

  • Sniper_007 #37 1 year ago

    Does anyone know if there is a cut off point in ME2 where it copies the save which can be used for ME3 (like the 'ending') or whether we can keep playing side missions after finishing the story safe in the knowledge that it could all count moving into ME3?

    I fancy trying to finish this again on Hardcore or Insanity (if I can), and would rather get the story out of the way once I've dealt with the loyalty missions rather than have to explore the galaxy before I *spoiler alert* find legion and have to finish the main story quickly to save my crew.

  • TeeHee #38 1 year ago

    Going by how BioWares dealt with your choices in ME being transfered to the sequel i expect to be underwhelmed.
    Edited by TeeHee at 18/05/11 @ 12:37

  • Nalenthi #39 5 months ago

    Post deleted at 20:28:55 18-12-2011